September 2022 Q&A

Transcript

Happy September, Moonbeams. Look, before we start this Q&A, I want to start by apologizing for the slowness of things in September, the paucity of content. It's been a very, very, very crazy month for me.

I am still going to get you out, you know, between now and the next couple days before the month ends, the content that you've been waiting for. And in October, I am going to make it up to you. We're going to have some fun with Halloween-themed stuff, have a few ideas.

We're going to be back up and rolling. And so thank you for being patient with me. Please stick around with me in October, and you're not going to be disappointed.

Now, that said, I'm sitting here in my recording area. This is one of the last times I'm ever going to record in this space. For those of you who are new to this, I have a space in, I have a walk-in closet in my home, and I have acoustic paneling up on the walls and my clothing hanging up as well as acoustic barriers.

And this is where I record. And it's, so to give you a little bit of a view around this room, it's, oh, maybe six feet by eight feet. Um, I have a, a, a, a chair in here, a roller chair.

Uh, so I have to squeeze around that anytime I come into the closet to get a shirt or anything. There is no electrical outlet in here. So I have to run an extension cord out under the door into the, uh, the bathroom.

This closet opens into the bathroom. And then I, um, and it doesn't have a vent in it. So heating, air conditioning, not so much.

That's fine in the winter because I can pull a space heater in here, warm it up and turn it off, record, warm it back up, et cetera. But in the summertime, it can get a little bit toasty in here. So I've been really enjoying the onset of some cooler weather.

It's made it more pleasant to record in here. I am sitting here now. Uh, oh, and sorry, I said, this is one of the last times, probably tomorrow will be the last time that I record in this space because on Saturday I am moving, uh, just about five minutes away from where I am now.

Just, you know, the, the, uh, I I'm moving to a bigger place. That's actually at a better price. And, um, I was able to finagle that with the owner.

Uh, so yeah, this is, um, this is the end of an era recording in this space. I'm going to take all the acoustic paneling with me, obviously, and put it up in the new, uh, in the new closet. And, uh, hopefully you're not going to notice any real change in the quality of the recording or the sound of my voice.

Uh, things are going to stay about the way they are, I hope. Um, but yes, that, that is a little bit of insight into the life of Matt. And, uh, so I'm sitting here now with my laptop hooked up to the microphone.

I've got my tablet and I've got my mug of buttermint tea, which is still a little bit hot. So we'll let that cool down a little bit before I sit more on it. And we're going to get right into the questions now that we're, you know, three minutes into the Q and A.

Violet Iris asks, can it be a riddle? So that's question one. Uh, I suppose is the answer.

If so, here it is. I'm a five letter word. Take away my first letter.

I sounded the same, put it back and take away my last letter. I sounded the same, then take the first and third letter away along with the last letter. I still sound the same.

What five letter word am I? I mean, this kind of sucks. So the first letter is probably either a P or a K.

Um, and gosh, because we're talking about a silent letter and the last letter I would imagine is an E or a B. Um, but it sounds the same as a two letter word. Uh, gosh, because if we take away the first and third letter along with the last, it still sounds the same.

So, oh my gosh, I can't believe you did this to me. I'm so bad at this. Um, last letter could also be a W.

I, I really don't know. I'm going to have to plead the fifth on that one, unfortunately. And, uh, yeah, I might have to cheat or you might just have to give me the answer.

So sorry about that. You've reached the limits of maybe if I, if I could sit here with a pad, a pad of paper or something, or my tablet and just write and take as long as I want to, to figure that out. Um, gosh.

Hmm. Well, um, yeah, I'll, I'll come back to it if I'm able. Um, but let's move on to Amanda's questions here.

I'll be good and limit myself. Amanda says, if you were to watch sports or e-sports, which one would you watch and which game or event? I am a big fan of football at both the college and the professional levels.

So I really like watching football. Um, not going to tell you who my teams are because they can be a little bit revealing about who I am and my past and all that. But I will tell you this, the professional team from the area where I grew up and the college team from where I went to school are my two favorites that I follow.

And, um, yeah. Uh, what is one class you absolutely enjoyed in college and would recommend other college students take? I took a Greek and Roman mythology class, uh, my senior year of, of college.

I had, I needed another civilization credit, uh, to graduate. Um, I'd already completed like all my major, um, stuff and you know, the, the upper level, upper division stuff for my major. Uh, and so my last semester of college was a bit more relaxing.

Um, as I, yeah, I had a couple upper, upper division courses, but I also had some lower division stuff that I just had not, you know, general education requirements that I, I had not completed yet. So I took this Greek and Roman civilization or, um, mythology course, and it was really, really interesting. I had a good time and, um, I didn't like a couple of things they did on the exams.

They asked us to memorize these different, uh, images on pots and vases and stuff, and then be able to describe them. And it was a little bit rote for me. Uh, didn't include a lot of thinking or analysis.

It was just like, well, I can memorize stuff and spit it out. That's just not fun. Um, but for the most part, you know, there was a lot of really good, uh, work required that made you think about things and process it and then integrate it with, um, you know, some of the Judeo-Christian elements of that myth, some of the elements of that mythology that got, um, intertwined with the Judeo-Christian tradition and Western civilization.

And some of the things that we don't realize, you know, and speaking of that, I, I learned something just recently. Let me see. I think I still have it on my phone.

Um, talking about, cause we know that Sunday and, you know, is uh, the worship of the sun and, uh, you know, historically it was the pagan worship of the sun. So Sunday and then Monday is moon day. So, um, but there are, I was reading something about Norse mythology.

Um, and let me find it. Uh, the days of the week, um, actually relate to these, um, the Viking gods and bear with me. Okay.

So Tuesday means Tuesday, Wednesday, Odin's day, Thursday, Thor's day, Friday, either the wife of Odin, Frigg's day or the goddess of love, Freya's day. So the only one I don't have an answer or a, uh, an explanation for at this point is Saturday. Um, but that's probably Saturn day if I had to guess.

So pretty much all the days of the week in English are named for pagan deities or, well, yeah, the sun, the moon, Saturn, Tyr, Odin, Thor and Freya or Frigg. So yeah, we don't think about that a lot and realize the way that those, um, pagan and mythological roots have persisted now thousands of years later in words that we use. So it's just very interesting stuff to me.

I'm always interested in history and where we came from and, and, uh, what future generations are going to think when they look back at us and say, well, this is where we came from and all that. All right. And finally, what are your top three languages you haven't learned, but want to learn? Um, well, Japanese is on my list.

Uh, I'm going to count Spanish cause I speak some, I speak passable Spanish, but I really want to get good at it. And I've had to pick a third one. Oh gosh.

Honestly, I think I would probably say Chinese, um, Mandarin. Um, just very interesting to me. I'm very interested in East Asian culture and history and, um, just fascinates me.

And so that, that is something that I would like to learn someday when brain space and time are not, are, are immaterial. Yama Kun says, I tried to think of multiple questions for you this time. Smiley face.

Number one, what was your favorite show or cartoon growing up? I really liked, uh, you know, when I was little, Disney had a series of cartoons in the afternoon. Um, and I really liked watching those.

And I also really liked, uh, the super Mario brothers, um, show super Mario brothers, super show. Uh, I went and watched a rerun of that online, not terribly long ago. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I used to get so into this.

I'm so dumb. But when you're, you know, six, these things are pretty cool. So what kind of pet is your favorite cat's dog? What kind of pet is your favorite cats, dogs, birds, hamsters, et cetera.

Uh, I like dogs. I just don't like what they do to the furniture. Um, and, uh, but I like the companionship.

I like the love from dogs, how that, you know, you're their best friend and they worship you and they just want to make you happy. And, uh, unless they're pitbulls and then they want to tear your face off and, uh, have their owners apologize for them. So anyway, not going to go there.

I just did, but let's go away from that. If there was a zombie apocalypse, do you think you would try to survive? Uh, no, I think I would survive.

Thank you. I've got ammo. I've got firearms.

I've got supplies. Bring it. All right.

If anyone's going to be eating brains, it's going to be me. And if you've got the chance to be a supernatural being, which one would you choose? Um, I, you know, I would say, gosh, I mean, cause Batman's not supernatural.

So I would probably go for either Superman or Odin, but you know, not the Odin from the Marvel universe. I'm talking about like the real Odin, but he only has one eye. So I don't know.

I kind of like my eyes. Um, and that reminds me of that one, uh, scene from Superman returns where the guy shoots him point blank, right in the eye. And the bullet just crumples on his eyeball and falls down.

So maybe Superman cause his eyes are like indestructible as is the rest of him, except for kryptonite being involved sugar. She says after a short question hiatus, I hope you've gotten better at answering them correctly. You know what? Shut up.

That's what I have to say to you. Mice or rats. Why? Well, I don't know if you're asking whether I want to kill them.

Uh, if I'm asking which one is worse, or if you're asking which worse, or if you're asking which one is worse, which one is better, I would say, um, mice because they're smaller. And if you have to have rodents, why not go for the tiny ones purple or yellow onions? Why? Um, I don't really know my onions all that well.

Uh, I know my reds. I know my whites kind of, I guess I really like, um, you know, pico de gallo and guacamole and stuff that have purple onions in them. As long as the onion is not too strong, not overbearing.

Um, so yeah. Um, would you rather be a red eyed tree frog or banana slug? Well, probably the frog because I'm going to go with, I'm a poison dart frog.

So I have all sorts of, you know, toxic defense. Whereas a banana slug, all you got to do is pour salt on it and that guy's gone. So, um, not that I would ever do that as a child.

I'm not saying I did. I'm just saying people know this about slugs. So banana slugs are pretty bad-ass.

So those things are huge. Can you add four eights together to get 500? Oh, can I add eight fours together to get 500? How can I, I can't even read.

How can you add eight fours together to get 500? Uh, I really don't know how you can do that. I'm guessing that it's something where you're writing the number four different ways.

And when you look at it, it spells 500 or something like that. Um, but that's a little beyond the scope of what my brain can do. If, if a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs will half a dozen hens lay in half a dozen days?

Okay. So 1.5 hens times 1.5 days equals 1.5 eggs. Okay.

So, so what that means is that 1.5 hens times one day should be one egg. So half a dozen hens is four times that many. And one, so that would be four eggs per day from half a dozen of them.

So half a dozen days would be six days. So we're talking about 24 eggs. That's my answer.

24. Okay. Now I haven't actually seen the thing here.

So, you know, the AA, I, I understand the, the reference here, Jayquilin, I understand the reference to the AA Ron, but I have not actually seen the Jayquilin thing. So I'll have to watch that after we, after I finished this, uh, but forgive me if I mispronounced it, but, oh, wow. You got a bunch of comments.

If animals could talk, what animal would be the most fun to talk to? What animal would be the most annoying? Uh, the most fun to talk to, the most obnoxious would probably be a cheetah because they're going to talk so fast.

You're gonna be like, like, slow down, like cool it. Like you don't have to just explode all the time. Uh, the most fun to talk to, I'm going to go with sea turtles because crush is pretty awesome.

And I think that that's true to life the way that he acts in the movie. So I'm going with sea turtles. What are some of your favorite bad pickup lines? Do you have any good ones? Uh, I don't think there's any such thing as a good pickup line, uh, bad ones.

Um, pretty much all of them. Like, are you from Tennessee? Cause you're the only 10 I see.

And, uh, Hey, I lost my number. Can I have yours? Um, oh gosh, what else? Uh, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. Um, oh gosh, what else? Uh, God, now that I'm thinking about it, I can't even think of any, uh, something about if you hurt yourself falling down from heaven or something like that, they're all bad.

That's the thing. That's the thing. They're all bad.

And when I hear them and I laugh and then I don't retain them because I'm like, Oh my gosh, like that was so dumb. I feel bad for even laughing about it. Uh, what was something you did as a kid that you think kids now are missing out on? Uh, honestly, I think that kids are spending a lot too much time indoors.

Um, I've always been an outdoorsy kind of guy. I really liked, like, I went camping a lot as a, as a kid and as a teenager. Um, and when I was a kid, like we used to run the neighborhood, like all summer long, we just like, Hey mom, I'm going out, you know, I'm going over to Tyler's house.

And, and, and then you went, ended up going to Tyler's place, Keith's place, Bryce's place, Kevin's place, you know, and you just run in the neighborhood and, and then just make it home in time for dinner. And then you back out, you know, and Oh, we built forts in the forest and we pulled up stakes at, you know, wooden stakes at construction sites and use them as broadswords to smack each other with. And we played with broken glass and rusty nails.

I mean, that's, that's what little boys do and, uh, devices. What are those? And so, um, I think the kids these days are missing out on a lot of that.

Do you have any unusual talents? Well, unusual is an interesting way to put it. I'm, I do have a very good memory when for, for certain things, like a scary, good memory for certain things, other details just don't stick in it.

And that's just weird. Um, I do tend to be very good at, at judging where my abilities are, what I'm going to be good at. And so I get told a lot that I'm good at everything I set my hand to.

And a big part of that is because I have the ability and the skill of being able to know with pretty high degree of certainty when I'm going to be able to pick something up and do it well. That doesn't mean I'm not missing out on other things that I might be able to learn and do well, but I'm pretty good at identifying the things that I'm going to be able to do well. Um, yeah, and there, I do have another unusual talent, uh, but talking about it is going to reveal a bit too much about my personal life.

So I'm going to defer my apology.