Hey, and welcome to What Future. I'm your host, Joshua to Pulsky, and today very special, very special day for everyone involved in this podcast, including you the listener, because I'm doing my brand new, annual very important top ten list of things that brought me joy in So, I feel like I've done a lot of episodes in the short life ban of the podcast where I've been somewhat I don't think I'm like negative, but I think there's a there's just a lot of things going on in the world that don't rule, that they don't rock, and so I feel like I've spent some time, certainly like the last few episodes where we're talking about Twitter and social media and being online. The last few it's like literally like six out of ted have been me talk about how being online is cursed. So I thought for the final episode of the year, we would get up close and personal with the things that bring me joy and that I love and saying that out loud in front of other people and thinking about what's on my list. It's really hugely like a weird disconnect. What I just said sounds like I should be listening things like my family, but that's not what's on my list? Like it's a lot of dumb stuff actually, and frankly, making the list made me realize that I don't know. I mean, I think I'm just morphing into like Tim Allen from like his show where he was like the tool guy. Like I feel like I'm just home improvement. I feel like I'm just becoming like a regular American man, Like as I get older. Is that a thing that happens? I don't know if it is, But in my heart I still feel interesting and not basic or mid as the kids are saying these days. But then that I've looked at the list and I'm like, it's just very mid. Does this whole thing extremely mid? I can't tell. Anyhow. Read a great essay today on Blackbird's by Plane. It's like a newsletter about style written by Jonah Wiener, who's a award winning journalist who's really into up clothes. I guess I like him a lot. He's an interesting guy. But anyhow, they had an article that I read today which was about how everything is mid, like we live in in a world of mid, which is basically a new term for same basic right, like not horrible but not really great. Just kind of like fine average, like a six or whatever. I guess five, I mean fairly A five is bad, you know, like if you're rating, if you're ranking people by numbers, six is six is like better than average? Slightly better than average? Wants that's a great question. Who wants to be a six? And when we say six or ten or whatever, what are we really saying? What are we even talking about? You know, are we talking just about purely about aesthetics? Because I wouldn't be you know, so we could be a ten aesthetically like visually in a and a two from a vibe perspective. No, I know there's two different types of people. There's a person who you see a picture of them and you think that person is attractive, and then there's another person that you have to see in person to know if they're attractive or not. That's an interesting theory. I think that, um, what is considered attractive, whether it's in person or in a picture, when I hear people talk about it, I know for sure is not based on like physical attributes. It is something else that people are talking about when they talk about it. Like I firmly believe that very ugly people are considered very attractive all the time, And in fact, people who are considered very beautiful to me sometimes look kind of hideously ugly in a way. Maybe that's my own body dysmorphia coming out. I'm gonna need an example of a person who's so beautiful they're hideous. Um Yeah, like like Channing Tatum. Channing Tatum is sort of hideous looking if you really study his face, Like he's considered to be very attractive, he's just monstrous looking, just like a monster, you know. Like, um, Like, there's a whole bunch of guys like that that are like squares. They're like minecraft characters, you know, Like Liam Hemsworth is the same way, like kind of Arnold Schwarzinger, who's like kind of hideous look he right, But also I think a lot of people think, at least its heyd they thought that he was very attractive. But those people are good looking, right like, but they're also horrible in a way, you know. I think what you're saying is true about like the guys on Love Island or the Bachelor. Oh, you're doing it. You're actually perfectly articulating. No. My other, my other point, which is which is this people think that Adam Driver is hot, right, Yeah, I don't think he is hot. I think he looks like every third Jewish guy that I know, who most of them in a lineup people be like, yeah, is fine whatever, he's like pretty jewish you looking. Adam Driver is not actually Jewish. But my point is I think Adam Driver is hot because Adam Driver is cool. Like people like out of Driver, We've all learned to agree that, like he's so cool that like he's attractive. Now, God, I'm getting canceled for this one. Maybe we'll add this maybe what I just think like, there's like, like what you just said, the guys on Love Island look just like fucking Liam Hemsworth. It's just they're not Liam Hemsworth. There guys on Love Island, and so you're like, they're kind of gross, but they wouldn't be gross if they were in a Marvel movie. You'd be like, hm hmm. Anyhow, God, I don't even know what I was saying about the article. It was. It's interesting though. It was basically sort of like, you know, we live in an era of of everything being like sort of mediocre. I think that in order to care about the concept of things being mid. You're submitting to like a societal and cultural structure that like makes you immediately mid to do so like if you if you admit things can be mid, like from a fashion perspective or whatever, You're basically submitting to a structure that turns you into like the most mediocre person right in a way, It's like it's not really cool to think about what other people think is cool, and the coolest people don't do that. The people who do really cool things aren't sitting around going like do other people think this is mid or not? They're just doing stuff anyhow. This is not what I want to talk about. Okay, So I've prepared a list of So I've made a list of ted things that in two have brought me joy, and they're very nerdy and boring and extremely mid, probably to people who care about that sort of thing. The point of the list was sort of I was trying to sit down and think about things that I've actually really enjoyed doing in two because I would say that as a year. I don't know, I feel like we're constantly now saying like this is the worst year ever, Like, don't you feel like we've been doing the worst year ever since yes, right, Like it doesn't seem like we've gotten a good year since about right maybe even before that, but it feels pretty strongly like that was about it for us in terms of having like a good time, Like can you even remember anything good that happened from until right now? Like besides like preventing bad things, it's like stuff like, oh, well, like Trump got defeated in the election, like, which is not even a good thing. It's like, you know, like they didn't drop a nuclear bomb on like New York City. Basically, it's like they didn't decide to kill everybody. Like I can't remember anything that's happened really in the world where I could say, well, that was extremely good. I guess this fusion development is good. Maybe nuclear fusion seems like it's gonna end badly, that doesn't it, Like, you know, everything in the world is like this, right, It's like they create a nuclear fusion and you're like, oh, that's probably gonna destroy the world, right, like they're gonna it's gonna get out of the lab just like covid O. So sorry, we've devolved again. I want to hear the list. Okay, So I made a list of things that I feel like brought me joy in. Do you know steam Deck is No, this is probably my number one thing that I've spent like it's just like completely recreational time with in and it's like the most bang for my buck that I've ever gone. It's extremely nerdy. The steam Deck is like a you know what a switch is, obviously Nintendo switch. It's like a Nintendo switch. It's larger for playing video games that you could previously only play on a computer. It's like a portable game system that plays all of the games that I play on my PC because I'm a nerd, and and they're like really good games, like the best games, like this game elden Ring for instance, which is like the next thing on my list. But the steam Deck has like completely changed my like video game mean situation. Wait, does this mean any game that I have on Steam I could play pretty much? Yes, So this is the way around no SIMS for matt uh. If that's a problem you're having, which like is a not a problem that I have, but it's a problem I've been has. I think you can buy a steam Deck and play the SIMS on it, and also you can talk it and like hook it up to a TV and then play it with like a controller and stuff so you can play in the wrong person. Um. But yeah, it's the best. It's the greatest. I mean, it is so amazing because the SIMS is a good example that's like really best on a PC of some sort, and um no, it's fucking incredible. And so every night as I'm like winding down, I'll like, I have this like, you know, black like lounge chair that i'd like to sit in as like a black leather you know, eames whatever, just completely mid chair, which I love, and you know, I'll sit down and I'll just like play whatever game I want that I would normally be playing on a like a TV or in front of a computer or whatever. And it's just like incredible. I mean it's sort of like, uh again, it's extremely you know, nerdy, but also unbelievably satisfying to just have this like huge catalog of games that I could never play like this suddenly available. So that's like to me, it's like the top thing I think about. I don't think like pure joy. I mean, besides, like obviously Zelda and I have some entries about her way I'm not like completely a monster, So I do care about my family and family time anyhow. Okay, so number two is I mean, let's see to a lot of music. I learned some things about myself musically this year. I think you have an idea about who you are and what you like and what is like within the bounds of things that you enjoy, and you know, if something kind of enters that spectrum that is unusual or it seems like at first glance like not something that falls into the set or whatever, you have like an allergic reaction to it. I have most of my life really disliking Billy Joel, like truly disliking his most of his music and his vibe. Do you know, Like Billy Joel for a long time struck me as like a guy who was constantly writing songs about things he didn't know anything about. Does that make any sense? Yeah? I was very dismissive of him for a very long time. Like Billy Joel always has songs where it's like, you know, it's about being like a blue collar worker in Allantown or whatever, and it's like he doesn't know anything about Allantown, Like he's from Long Island. And like, as far as I know, like maybe he comes from a blue collar family, I don't know. He doesn't strike me as a guy who knows about what it's like to live in Allantown. And he's constantly got songs like it's like the fucking piano Man songs about all these like sad losers at the piano bar or whatever. And it's like, does he really know anything about their lives or is he just this weird like vulture, you know, picking at the remains of somebody else's sad story or making ship up so he can sound I'm like, I mean it to some extent, there's a whole genre of musicians like Bruce Springstein who like basically openly admits that his ships all like this blue collar stuff is all that kind of made up to a degree, you know. I mean it's like kind of like you know, Bob Dylan. This is a long, long history of guys who are like, you know, not the people that they say they are. Anyhow, for a long time, I've rejected Billy Joel and um sort of actively hated him. I wouldn't say just rejected him, like not just dismissed Billy Joel but also felt strongly that I disliked Billy Joel and his musical output. And then we started listening to The Stranger, which we have on vinyl and I don't remember how we acquired it. Are you familiar with This record features the song of the Stranger scenes from an Italian restaurant. There's a ton of hits on it. Yeah. Yeah. There was a day where I announced that I had never listened to Billy Joel and Nick played me like eight top ten Billy Joel hits. Oh really? He played you like Uptown Girl, and I mean it was like all of them. Then I was like, Okay, I guess I do know every single Billy Joel song and they are good, all the hits. I think the only song I knew was Moving Out because it was on a CD that came in a rolling stone thing. That's on the Stranger. That's uh the records that it's filled like top to bottom, front to back with hits. Every song is a hit. I'm like, in fact, the first time we're listening to us, is this like the greatest hits record. I don't think I'd ever listened to a full Billy Joel album. I don't know, like I haven't yet explored other albums. Maybe there's other stuff that I would like as well. But but I have to say, we listened to The Stranger a lot, and it got to the point where, like originally Laura put it on and I was like, fucking Billy Joel, like what why are we listening to this? And then it became like a running gag that I was like, let's let's listen to The Stranger, not like as a joke, but like that I legitedbly enjoyed it, and then I ended up getting the song stuck in my head. And so that's that's kind of a revelation for me anyhow. But I had a music End of twenty two recommendation check out. I'm not recommending it. I'm tell like talking about my personal lived experience. Okay, I'm not saying that you should listen to Billy Joel. You know, Billy Joel is not for everybody. If you don't love great, catchy pop songs that have a tremendous narrative and incredible orchestration, that's fine. You don't have to listen to Billy Joel anyhow. That's like my year in music. It was actually pretty pretty boring in a lot of ways, in the sense that I didn't listen to a lot of different stuff. I feel like music apps, their desire, particularly Spotify, is for you too, and in fact, there is a financial incentive for this. I was just reading about this. It's like, you know, there's there's something about like listening to an album somehow less profitable for them than listening to random like playlists of stuff. They really want you to discover new music, which is great, Like I love discovering new music, and I certainly have done it with the apps. But there's something you know, nice about I'm not listening to a lot of music, but listening to a little bit of music a lot. That's two. That was number two too, by the way, what number three? Number three is Hamilton's the audio book which I've been listening to, not the musical, but the biography of Hamilton's, which I believe is written by Ron chernow or I just made that up. Yeah, it's Rod Cher Now. It's actually the book is actually called Alexander Hamilton's is the name of the book. I don't want to Hamilton's is the musical. Alexander Hamilton's is the book, which is like well over a thousand pages. Now it's on the I lie, it's eighteen pages. And I know nothing about American history. I know nothing about history for the most part, as you may know, on my high school dropout. So I missed a lot of important stuff about the world, you know, like and I don't know anything about the American Revolution. And you know, Zelda got into Hamilton's this year pretty heavily. You may recall she went as Lafayette for Halloween, which I didn't know that she did. Yeah, she went this General Lafay at the French General or whatever. I don't even know if he was a general. Actually I should know, because I've been listened to this book. Yeah, a very strange situation for everybody. But but she had a great time and she looked amazing. But anyhow, so she got into Hamilton's. So you know, obviously I got into Hamilton's because that's what happens when you have children. And Hamilton's obviously very controversial, but it's the songs are great, like Hamilton's as a musical is very effective. I'm not the right guy to comment on the controversy, but I'll just say, like, hell of a musical, and then I was like, well, I don't really know anything about Hamilton's and Laura had the Alexander Hamilton book and gave it and I was like, hey, Zelda, maybe you want to check this out. And we started reading it like together for like a few minutes, you know, like reading the opening of the book, and she's like, you know, tuned out because today it had an eighteen page book written by like a famous historian that's like literally like pretty encyclopedic about this guy's life. But then after reading like a page or two to her, I was like, wow, this is actually pretty interesting, and so I got the I got the audiobook version. I've been working through it, and I have to say, Hamilton's what a guy. It's interesting character. But also it's so interesting to me because I know nothing about the American Revolution and very little about the founding of America. I feel like as an American you kind of learn a bunch of things, but they're all very surface, and listening to it actually reminded me of this. Have you ever read, um, the Picture of Dorian Gray you're faring with the book. I'm not sure if I've really read it, but I do know the entire story really Okay, Well, the Picture of Dorian Gray is by Oscar Wilde. This is like a real like deep cut here. But I read it twenty years ago, maybe longer. But one of the things that stood out to me and I think about quite often, pretty much every time I ordered Chinese food, I think about it. There's a scene in the Picture of Dorian Gray where like Dorian Gray and some of his buddies or whatever go out to like a Chinese restaurant. Yeah, and it's so striking to me to think about it, because like, we live in this what our our version of the world is. So I mean, first off, it's the only world we've known, right, the only world we've ever sort of experience, and so you assume there's just all these things that exist now that did not exist previously. And what I never think about, what I had never crossed my mind before I read that passage in the book was like in Victorian London or whatever, you could go out to a Chinese restaurant like the way we do right Like that it's just like, oh, this is a completely different type of cuisine and like, you know whatever in this you know, part of London and it's just like weirdly modern detail that makes you feel strangely connected to the history or to these people. Obviously that's a work of fiction, but I feel like we tend to live in this state of feeling that this moment is so locked off from everything that's come before it and so disconnected. At least that's how I feel. I don't know if you feel the same way. It feels like this is like we're so distant from all of these things in history, and obviously hundreds of years have passed, but then there's these things that are like, oh, these are just exactly the same as they've always been, like there's really nothing different about it. And and listening to the Alexander Hamilton's biography, there's a ton of details about how people lived. And in fact, there's a um this series of books which is called a History of Private Life, and it's like a multi volume, like ridiculously long set of books, and all it is about is how people lived, starting with like the ancient Romans basically up to you know, I don't modernity or whatever. And it's like three or four volumes, and it's very hard to read straight through because it's basically like a textbook. But it's so interesting to me to think about how people lived and think about how not that different it is from how we live down and and in fact, while I've been listening to this, Laura has been going through all these old files from the historical society in the town that we live, and she has all of these like log books from people who owned businesses and like the eighteen hundreds and the seven teen hundreds, and she was reading a diary. There's a girl who wrote a diary that lived around where we live. That's you know, was in like concurrent with like the time that Hamilton's was alive. She was like sixteen or something the girl writing it, and the diary is like it might as well have been written by like a sixteen year old in like this time. I mean, the thing she talks about, she's like annoyed by people and goes to people's houses like for parties and stuff, and like it just sounds like regular, like nothing has really changed except they were on horseback and didn't have any you know, electricity. But she mentions off handedly like in this diary like oh, this politician got shot and they say he's not gonna make it. It's like fucking Hamilton's. She makes a mention of it as like this, like I heard some news today like this, like passing sort of mention of of this super significant thing in American history. Anyhow. So that's number three. I've been listening to Alexander Hamilton's by Ron Cher now and it's brought me a lot of joy and frankly put a lot of things first active for me. All Right, number four, number four, This is a hard pivot. So I think I might have brought this up. Maybe I don't remember if I talked about it on the show. But this is about Star Wars. I'm not a huge Star Wars. I mean, I love Star Wars obviously. It's an interesting, you know, moment in our like sort of recent history and important to me as a kid, like I was really into it when I was younger, like everybody was in the eighties. But it is the kind of thing that it permeates the culture so much. There's so much of it out there that I've wanted Zelda to see it, to watch it for a while, just because I think she would think a lot of it is cool. But also it's like there's so much of it out in the world. I kind of wanted her to know, like what is like, what is this thing that everybody's talking about. Like she's a friend who's really into it, who's watched everything, and anyhow, we've tried to watch it, but she always been kind of like too scared or like freaked out. You know, it's like pretty heavy stuff, like when Darth Vader shows up, it's like pretty upsetting. And so recently, as of like I don't know, a few weeks ago, a few months, maybe a month ago, she decided she was going to watch some of the Star Wars movies because her friend wanted to quiz her on it and she wanted to know the answers, which is a good competitive sort of reason to watch a film. Anyhow, So we watched like the first original three Star Wars movies and then The Phantom Menace, and we started watching Attack of the Clones, which is like the second George Lucas one that he made in the in the I guess nineties, early two thousands, I guess say. One thing, she fucking loved jar Jar Banks, Like her favorite character it all the Star Wars is jar Jar Banks. I talked to her friend Alistair, who is who is watched every Star Wars thing that you can watch, apparently like including and Or, which I've heard is very adult. But I'm not passing judgment. I'm just saying, like, I mean, I like his parents are they're good friends. But but anyhow, he's seen all of it, so he knows a lot more about Star Wars and Zelda does. And I asked him what his favorite character was that he said, charge our bigs, you know, And I was surprised that they weren't saying that their favorite character was my favorite character, Emperor Palpatine, who I think is just the best. So it's been like a really interesting and really interesting experience to watch it with her, like through her eyes right in, to see it like, honestly in a way totally new because I've watched those movies a million times and I have an idea of what they're like in my head, and it's a very different experience when you watch with somebody who's what we went with a kid who's never seen them, who really doesn't know anything about them. Although she did have the Darth Vader, being Luke's father, things spoiled for her, which is kind of a bummer. But I mean, like again, you can't escape it all right. Number five, I've embraced becoming an iPad dad. Do you know what that is? Happy is it in the title iPad Dad? You know, it's like Dad with an iPad, Like I used to kind of hate ipaths, and now I'm kicking back with the iPad all the time, like a like a classic dad who just doesn't need all this all the fancy computer features and just wants to like consuming some content. That is the image. It's feet up on the ottoman or the coffee table, what I'm doing, the feed are up, drink on the table next to me, I pad in hand, just jamming in some way. It just generally with technology, I have embraced like a kind of more disconnected, less in the weeds, less in the nuts and bolts sort of perspective, Like I could certainly go there and maybe it is like society. You know, we live in a society after all, as you know. But yeah, I've kind of embraced like being like a dumb apple person, like a dumb apple guy. Like I have a whole other theory, like grand unified theory of the android Dad, which is the dad who refuses to get an iPhone and is the only person in the family who is not like, can't be in the group chat properly because they insist on having an Android. And I know a ton of people like this, by the way, Like I know a ton of dad's literally, Like it seems to me largely just Okay, your dad has an Android phone. I don't even think it is an Android. It's made by Google. It's Android, but your but your dad is like an Android Dad. And for whatever reason, there is this like thread of like men they just don't want to use an iPhone for some reason. And I and I do understand it. I think it's a couple of things going on. And I hate to say it, but there is a line from android Dad to insurrection. It's like January six, Capital Rider, Like there's a there is a clear through line where it's like men just bucking. They want to buck the system somehow, they want to reject. They're rejecting like falling in line with all the sheeple or something. I'm not really sure. I think that's the thing. One is that there's this rejection of like the status quo or the expected thing to do. It's like a tiny dad rebellion that like you're gonna be an Android guy and not be part of the cult or whatever. But then it's also I think Android is great for like if you want to tinker, and I think that there's like this whole subset of men that are just and I think I fault somewhat into this category probably just need just need something to fucking tinker with, just need to dick around with something that the consequences are extremely low, but it can consume an enormous amount of their time, and I think Android scratches that itch. But but the iPad dad, in my opinion, is the complete rejection of the android dad. In many ways, it is you're joining the club, you're admitting defeat. You're just settling in and consuming some content and not thinking too much about it and everything is fine and worked, and you're in the group chat and and that's it. You're done. So I've embraced that in myself and for myself, and it feels pretty good. I have to say, you know, the the joy of giving in to just not giving a fuck. It sounds lovely, It is lovely, it's wonderful. You're making me want a good nightpad. You should become an iPad dad. What's stopping you? What is really preventing you? No, computers are so annoying. I'm so sick of computers, fun computers. I don't want to see any menus. I don't want see any windows. I don't want to see I don't want to see a fucking file, you know, Just get out of my face. Just like long a stream Netflix and call it today, read read it, okay? Number six Outer Range? Have you watched Outer Range? No? Is that a TV show? Outer Range is like the best TV show that's been on Ino and nobody watched it and it definitely is not getting his second season. I mean, maybe not best. I thought it was fucking terrific. It's an Amazon show. Starts Josh Brolin. He plays like a rancher in Wyoming who discovers a whole, discovers a hole in his on his like land, and I don't want to see any more than that. But imagin Boots. I love Image and Poots. Yeah, Image and Poots. Is it? Poots. She's great, She's true, She's fucking terrific. And every single person in that show is like doing their best work. Every single person in this show is like blowing the fucking doors off when it comes to performance. And it is weird as ship, and it is so interesting. It is like science fiction. It's sort of science fiction. I mean it is, but it's like very adult. It's just good. It's just fucking good. And like I feel like nobody watched it and nobody talked about it, and they're not going to do a second season, and it sucks because it's easily the best thing that I feel like I've watched this year. I will say I haven't watched everything, but I'm going to watch it. I might get an iPad, I'm getting a steam. I'll check out this man, Billy Joel. You need to get a lounge chair. You need to get an Eames lounger to sit in and kick your feet up. And uh, that's it. And then you and I will finally be fully connected. We'll finally understan and each other. I just need to tell you I've always loved Image in Poods. First because her name, great name, incredible name, her name is so funny. I just found out her middle name is gay. Really yeah, that's crazy, that's all I old man. I love a woman having a name like that and not changing it. I mean it's iconic, you know, not Olivia Cockburn over here. Wow. Wow, that's another great name. I mean, that's a no, that's wild. I did not know that was her middle name. Is very cool, she seems Listen. This show made me really have an appreciation for her and her and her talents. She's like a it's a real tort to force. Um okay, and kind of related Number seven drinking at night. Now, I've had a lot of back and forth with drinking this year, Like I love drinking, which is, you know, I think an unpopular thing to say, because drinking is very bad. Honestly, America is in many countries are plagued with horror alcoholism, which is gonna be very destructive and and I've seen it firsthand. And let me just preface this by saying, if you're in trouble, if you feel like you need help, there's a lot of resources out there and you should reach out. I have personally been really like all over the map this year with drinking, like I shouldn't drink, I'm not drinking for a while, then I started drinking. Then I'm like way over doing it. Certainly during the pandemic, drinking became much more of like the main event. It was like, wow, okay, well it's five o'clock or whatever, it's six o'clock. Like I'm gonna start drinking now because nothing else is going to happen. We're not going anywhere, we're not doing anything. The news is super depressing. We're like trying not to die. But I think this year, to some extent, or at least at this moment, I feel like I've really embraced like the ritual of having to drink at night and multiple drinks usually, but there's obviously a point where it's like, you know, you can obviously overdo it, but I think everybody needs some some of the whatever. This is like this weird release, but you know, and it's if it's not weird or alcohol that it's it's like you meditate or you know, you're I don't know, you're a rageaholic and you're screaming to people and whatever. But like, I do think there's something really satisfying, not so much about the drink, because at the end of the day, the first sip, the first drink is always the best and can never be topped and and is everything about that. Every drink after that is you just sort of desperately hoping that you can get back to the feeling of having that first drink. But the feeling of having that first drink, and this is one man's opinion, obviously, is just truly magical. This sounds like the ramblants of a terrible alcoholic, I think, But I just think there's something really um satisfying about especially after long days. And maybe it's because it feels like familiar in this way that feels like this is like we're capping off like a day. So I've really embraced it. And I will say all of the other things I've listed up until now pretty much are like the end of the day drink. The evening drink is just like icing on the cake for all of the other activities that I've described. For the most part, the iPad did come with a drink. Yeah, you ready. Number eight. Lunch it's the best meal. You know, Like, convince me that that's not the case. You can't, because you know it's true. What's your lunch? Well, usually it's a sandwich of some type because I'm a huge sandwich fan, Like I could also eat the same sandwich every day and not care at all, Like I could eat a tuna sandwich everydayther tuna is a very rude sandwich to eat, in my opinion, like tuna is the rudest food you can eat. Is like like a you know what I mean, Like a tuna salad is just very like incense salad. Sandwich is the best. It's the best. I mean, it's it's incredible. Apparently we're not supposed to be eating them like more than once a month or something. Tuna, Yeah, a tuna sandwich. Sure, well, I mean I've failed that test. But over the last few months, one thing that I've been doing is that Laura and I will occasionally go to like a French place that's near us and have lunch there, uh like adults, you know, like have an adult lunch and like, you know, we're going to a place and ordering food like peat human beings. A lot of times I'll eat lunch, it's like fifteen minutes between meetings. I'm just like slamming food into my mouth, which is not quite the same thing. So I've really come to appreciate and enjoy like the idea of taking time out for lunch, which I have not spent a lot of time in my life doing, but I far and away it's my favorite meal and I really have enjoyed in two. Okay, we're almost at the end here. You ready for nine? Nine? So boring? What nine is? So fucking boring? It sucks so bad? But short jackets? Are you familiar with the Shorge jacket? You know what a Seorge jacket is. I can't even tell you the experience of Seorge jackets that I've had. My mom had the greatest shore jacket of all time, and I used to wear it when I would come home. Okay, break who made it? It was LLL Bean or something. Yeah. Ll BE makes a great short vintage very yeah, the best. And then in janu or so she moved she lost it? What And from that time I've been like searching for it again. And then I went to Paris in April and every single person was wearing a chorcoat in a different color. My biggest regret is that I did not buy a chorcoat in every color while I was in Paris in April. Well, I should tell you what color was this jacket, by the way, Well, the one that my mom had was like a tan brown. Yeah. Yeah, it's a classic, classic color. Classic. First off, the French are big into chore chorcuts or shore jackets. The pan how you talked to some famous manufacturers of chore jackets or chortcoats. I think there's like Gardner jackets or whatever. Um, I don't have any French jackets. So I do have a ton of them now, of all varieties. And I have to say so, I I used to enjoy wearing suits. Not that I did it all the time, there was a period where I wore suits on a pretty regular basis, and I think like one of the things that was most appealing to me about a suit was the fact that it had a lot of pockets. You know, Like I think men are constantly struggling with like too much stuff and enough pockets, and obviously typically, you know, at least historically, men haven't carried around bags that much. Though now you know, we tend to all do that, but it's not like having something in a pocket nearby, you know, it's like a's still a bag. As gift to get into the short jacket, which I started wearing on a pretty regular basis, probably towards the start of the pandemic. I mean, I've had a lot of like clothing shifts. I was already moving in this direction. But I wear about the same thing every day, pretty much like I have a closet of clothes that you can put them in any sort of order and they end up about the same, which is good, which is great, which I like. I don't. I can't think of too much about it. And I think I'm in a place where it's like I could like for the next fifty years. I think I can wear this stuff and it's not it's we're going to be super in fashion, but it also won't ever go out of fashion. But it's also like not like normal exactly, and it's unbelievably you know, sort of useful and comfortable. So any I've acquired a lot of short jackets and I just love them, and I love the pockets. I love having multiple pockets, and I'm constantly using the pockets. And I also one other thing, like separately is that um I have I bought a few pairs of cover rolls a few years ago, and I think those are also excellent. I really should wear them more, but it's a bit of a production to be honest, when you're wearing cover rolls, I mean it's in a way like I don't know, you're just making such a huge statement. It's like I'm not sure that I'm there yet. I'm not like the cover all guy yet. But you know, like a jumpsuit basically, but but a short jacket is like half a jumpsuit and that's terrific. So okay, that's number nine. Okay, we're almost done. Okay, number ten. This is and this is very important. I have loved and and increasingly love, especially given the stuff that we're reading bedtime stories with Zelda. And one of the main reasons is because we're reading books that I've never read that apparently everybody else has. Like we just read Matilda by Roald Dahl, famous jew Hayter. But no, I didn't point that out to Zelda where when we were reading it. I'm sparing her for now the truth about him. But great book. Never read it, very strange, but everybody's read it, I guess. And then you know, Laura's like, oh, that book is so great, and I'm like, okay, I don't know anything about it. We're reading from the mix up files of Miss Basil E. Frank Weiler or whatever? Is that? Am I getting that right? I don't know. Do you know that book? Yeah? That sounds right. Yeah, it's like completely bonkers. I knew the book existed, Uh, did not know what the content of the book was. Now we're like halfway through it and I'm like, this is very interesting. So I'm getting to, like, you know, relive my my stolen childhood. I don't know why it was stolen. I don't know why I didn't read these books. I don't want to blame my parents, because they're wonderful people. Uh, and who definitely exposed us to a lot of literature. Well what books did you read when you were a kid, when you were old as age? Then? Yeah, I don't remember. I mean I don't remember the first books. I really remember reading more when I was like eleven or twelve, and like if I started reading like Neuromanswer by William Gibson, I definitely didn't know what was going on in it. But that's like my formative reading. I started reading, you know, like Kurt Vonnegut when I was like sixteen or something. Those are the books I really remember when I was a kid. Oh, I read a lot of dragon lance books, like a huge nerd. It's like books based on dungeons and dragons basically, but I meanly they're like narrative books, but they're like from the universe of dungeons and dragons. Those are the kind of books that I remember a lot from from when I was a kid. Nicula Do you remember Nicula? Do you know Nicula? Yeah, the bunny Dracula is like a bunny vampire that drank carrot juice, I guess or something. I don't know. All right, I think it's tund to wrap up. I gets it. That's my list. I don't know. I don't know if the list made any sense. These are the things that when I sat down and thought about him, like, what did I really enjoy this year? Those are the things that came to mind. Okay, so I have pulled up the scene deck. They're available now. I well, I have to reserve unless I want to get the really expensive one. You get the expensive one. You shouldn't cheap out, and I'll get the expensive one. And can I just say I think you should get Well, here's the thing though, here's what I'm going to use it for you. That's fine, and I'm not getting it. If I can't play the SIMS on it and roller Coaster t cook, I would get the expensive one. I mean, in my opinion, you should double check that you can play the SIMS on it. Yes, I have to double check which which version of the SIMS are you playing? The SIMS four. I want to play SIMS one, SIMS one. I want to play one. And that's what's been killing me is that I just want to play one. Okay, this is gonna take a little doing, but here's a reddit threat. I got the SIMS one running on the steam deck. Okay, you may have to do some things. What have what have you been playing on it? This can be done on this on my steam deck? Yeah? Well first off, okay, well I played a little bit of Eldon Ring. You know, you know Elden Ring, right, No, I don't know what that is. No, really, Oh my god. Eldon Ring is like the most important game that was released this year. Like it's just Unbelievable's like a complete world. It's like one of the most beautiful games ever made. It's like one of the weirdest games ever made. It's expansive, it's like there's weird community stuff that goes on in it, where people can leave notes for you and you can read these weird cryptic notes. It's incredible. I can't just nothing not I cannot describe it. No description will will do it justice, except to say it's the very least one of the most, if not the most incredible game I've ever played in my entire life. So I played that a little bit on the Steam Deck. Although I did play, most have been on my on my TV because it's it really is pretty requires a high, very high powered system to make it look really great. I've been playing this game dead Cells. This has been out for years and they just keep making it better. It's like a side scrolling game, you know, but it's like done in this really cool, like retro style. It's sort of like eldering in the sense that you have to get really good at it to enjoy it, but it makes it getting good at it really fun. Does that make any sense. Yeah, I've been playing this game Vampire Survivors. If you've heard of Vampire Survivors, No, Vampire Survivors is a crazy game which you should play. The only control is that you can move your character on the screen. It's like a top down game. You're this like little person on the screen, and then these like waves, these records of like monsters mat and like the