January 2023 Q&A

Transcript

Hey Moonbeams! So yeah, January came and went and I did not get the January Q&A recorded during January, but it's better late than never. I'm getting caught up on the January content.

I want to get February done before February ends and be caught up. You know, I feel like I've made a lot of apologies to you over recent months about, you know, about content being late. And a lot of it has to do with the move.

I told you all I moved in October and my new recording space faces out to a fairly busy street, so it's late. It's 1140 p.m. as I record this.

And yeah, on a day that I have to be up in the morning for work, well, I mean today is Saturday, so that's not the case right now, but days that I have to be up for work the following morning, it can get really tough to record. And that's really cut down the time that I have available. But I am working to get caught up and it has weighed on me that I've been, you know, asking for patience and forgiveness so much.

And I want to stop doing that because it's not fun. So thank you for your patience. Please forgive me.

And I hope this is the last time I have to ask for that. Without further ado, let's get into the Q&A. Well, actually with further ado, I think most if not all of you know at this point that I've been moving over from Patreon to Oakleo.

I will continue to post content on both platforms for the time being, but look forward to the time not so distant when I'm not posting on Patreon anymore. There are some things about the Oakleo platform that I like better. One of them is, I'll be honest with you, you know, I'm offering the same content at the same price that I did at Patreon.

Well, one penny more because Oakleo wants to work in whole numbers. If that penny is the difference between being able to sign up and not, then I would be shocked. But in any event, Oakleo is more friendly to me in terms of the cut that they take.

And I like a lot of their implementation stuff that they've done. So I don't intend to be on Patreon forever. I do plan to move over increasingly towards Oakleo and eventually off of Patreon altogether.

Because it is a hassle to post on two different sites like that. That said, what I'm trying to say is, look forward to my Oakleo feed having the invitation to submit questions for Q&As in the future. And you can submit them as comments.

They do limit the number of characters you can can put in a comment on Oakleo. And I'm gonna reach out to the folks over there and see if we can maybe increase that character limit substantially. But if you have to, you know, put six comments for six questions, do it.

Go right ahead. Okay? Yeah, so these questions are pulled both from Patreon and Oakleo.

And in one case, in Jen's case, she posted one question on each. So let's start with Jen's questions. What is your go-to activity outside in the winter? My go-to activity outside in the winter? When I'm able to, I love to ski.

I really, really. .. I'm a pretty decent skier.

And I really like that. Now, you know, that can be cost prohibitive. I, you know, ski resorts cost money and I have to get myself to one.

And ski rental, you know, costs money and blah blah blah. So if I'm not skiing, it depends. If it's snowy and I'm somewhere where there's hills, I like to sled down a hill.

Otherwise, gosh, I like to just walk around. I like to bundle up and go out in the cold. And I'm very much a fresh air kind of guy.

I really like to stretch my legs, like to get fresh air, be outdoors. So I don't love being rained on. I really.

.. I can do without that. So if my.

.. if it's rainy, then my outdoor activity for the winter is to not go outdoors. And then Jen also asked, are you a person who needs white noise 24-7 or do you like quiet? It depends on the mood I'm in.

A lot of times I like background music, but there's some times when I've just had too much sensory input and I just want it quiet and chill. Yeah, sometimes when I'm falling asleep, noise can distract me and keep me from falling asleep. Other times it can put me to sleep.

It just kind of depends what kind of space my head is in at the time. Luna Castro asks, did you watch The Rings of Power? What did you think? Well, I did not watch The Rings of Power.

It's on my list. I just have had way too much going on in my life to really sit down and take on a new series. There are several other series that I'm trying to finish.

And I'm gonna cop out of your next question too, Luna. Are you watching The Last of Us? If so, what do you think about it so far through four episodes? I'd like to watch it.

I haven't had a chance yet. What are some things you do to help you deal with stress and anxiety? Things I do to help me deal with stress and anxiety.

One thing that I find cathartic is to go for a drive. And I like to just get out, go for a drive, or if I can't drive, go for a walk. Just get out, get away, stretch, think, breathe some fresh air if I'm outdoors, or car air if I'm in the car, I guess.

Roll the windows down, maybe. Other stuff I like to do when I'm stressed, read a book, listen to music, play a video game, watch a show. You know, things to take my mind off it.

But one of the other things I do to deal with stress and anxiety is, if it's about things that I have hanging over my head, things that I need to get done, I like to make a to-do list and just attack them. I'm very problem-solution oriented. And so if I'm stressed out because I've got all of these things to do, what I try to do is I make a list so that I don't forget things that I have to do.

Then I prioritize the list. And then I just focus on the first thing. And I try not to think about anything else, none of the other things exist, until I finish the first thing.

And then once I finish the first thing, the second thing can exist. But that way I'm not dividing my attention, stressing about something that I'm not able to do right now as I work on the first task. And I don't see the point in stressing myself out.

I've put it on a list. I know it's there. I'm going to get to it when I can get to it.

And until then, I don't need to bother myself with it. Caroline asks, do you keep all the books you've read or only your favorites? I tend to keep them all.

Although I've increasingly moved over towards ebooks now, I tend to keep them all. And even a lot of books that I haven't read that I was gifted. Maybe I should de-junk.

But yeah, I keep them. What song always gets you on the dance floor? Ooh, okay.

So, hmm. All right. When I was in college, I took some dance classes and did pretty well in them and enjoyed them a lot.

And I really, really liked the Cha-Cha. And the Carlos Santana song, Smooth, with Rob Thomas on the vocals is one of my favorite songs to dance to. And it's been a while since I danced, but I could see myself with a willing partner who knows how to Cha-Cha.

If that song came on, I think it would be real easy to get me back onto the dance floor again. I might have to have a refresher course on some of the steps though, because it has been a couple years and not practicing. So, have you ever pretended to like someone's food so you wouldn't hurt their feelings? If so, what was it? Who hasn't done that? Yeah.

Who hasn't? I can't even remember what it was that my grandma cooked this one time, but maybe it was that I didn't want to hurt grandma's feelings. Maybe it was fear of getting in trouble with dad.

I don't know. But I pretended to like it. And I, back during college, spent a little time abroad and would eat with locals in the area from time to time.

And sometimes they made some food that just was not to my taste. And yeah, I tried to eat it and do so with a smile on my face because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Most of the food was really really good though.

And J. Quillen. Now, J.

Quillen, you've asked some head-scratcher questions here. That's usually Sugar's job, but she didn't ask any questions this time around, so I might have to lean on her. But let's get into these and we'll see what I can do with them.

First one is, where do thoughts go when they're forgotten? I, you know, I wanted to come up with something clever about how they go to politicians' minds or actors' minds so that they can say asinine things that make the rest of us scratch our heads and wonder what they're thinking. But I guess that kind of doesn't address where they go when they're forgotten.

When they're forgotten, I think they go out to the ether. I think they go out to the ether and they percolate there until they find another willing mind to jump into. If you had to give up, if you had to either give up sushi or Diet Pepsi, which would it be? This is not a hard question.

It would be sushi. And the reason is, as much as I like sushi, Diet Pepsi is something I have almost every day. Sushi, I don't.

And yeah, it would break my heart to give up sushi, but it would be even harder to give up Diet Pepsi. If you were suddenly stuck in a musical and everyone broke out into song slash dance you didn't know, what would you do? I think what I would try to do.

..