plotting
Brandon is saving the town. Collin wants free breakfast. We travel back to the present.
Plotting!!
SAVE THE TOWN!!
Quiz on thursday
Furry visitor!! BARNEY!
7th inning stretch
Free breakfast
Chocolate chip, the taste of disappointment
Whew..what a ride!
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/86/pg86-images.html#c42
Quote of the week: good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life.
Brandon’s Haiku:
New environment
Belly rubs bring belonging
Home away from home
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
good, people, hank, weird, bit, talking, clarence, put, twain, book, chapters, man, week, walked, knights, feel, random, bad, game, dog
SPEAKERS
Collin
Collin 00:00
Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your host, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, plotting ahoy
00:16
ahoy. Up. Ah,
Collin 00:23
it is well as well right now.
00:27
It's feeling like fall
Collin 00:28
weird. Just eat soup. So let's go when it's your time.
00:34
We had we had soup yesterday as well. So, how, you know, like,
Collin 00:41
I know, well, yeah, it's we had this. It was so weird. There was like, what was that a couple days ago, like, 9597 and then all heck broke loose with storms. We had so much rain over two to three days,
00:59
yeah, see, we had a lot of like, Oh, looks like rain.
Collin 01:04
Anyway, we're gonna have had like, um, but not very much at all. It's been like, oh, a little sprinkle here, and a little bit of overcastness there. But like, not like, actual rain, I don't think like, like, maybe one night there was some but other than that, there's been no like, it's been looking like rain, tut, tut. But like, yeah, no, ours, we it got it was super hot and muggy and just gross. And then it just poured for like, two days, just poured and we needed it, and we still didn't like ponds in the area, still didn't overflow because we were that low, but we it was good, and now it's like, ah, 60. How about 67 degrees? Would anyone like some of that today? You're like, nice, okay. Or next week may be like, Oh, just kidding, it's pretty hot again, but yeah, you know, it's
02:05
all right for now. I
Collin 02:06
got my bread, crusty bread and soup out of the way tonight. So that's good. That's nice, guys, the floodgates are open. Now it's all over. Like, it's all all beds are off now, man, go for it. Yeah, yeah. Once you, once you rip off that band aid. Now you can't go back. No, you really can't, right? It's, it's open. Now, flood gates are open. Chili will be next, right? Just be whole thing. So French onion soup again, right? It's gonna get some that going. So bad, very nice. Other than that, uh, it's been pretty good plotting at school, right? So I've been doing some plotting, yeah and skating, yeah, like scheming or literal plotting for grass. Well, we did do that. We did do some of that, but because I, you know, I took a random survey in class, and so I just plotted the results and little bar graph because I thought, you know, we're going to be doing graphing soon, and then later on in the year, they have a graphing project they have to do independently. So if I can just show them some random graphs here and there, maybe that would be good, right? But I plotting their next, adventure, right? I read, I did, re tooling some of the side quests right? My science side quest action. So have a new one we're rolling out next month, which is like next week, but have a new so I've been plotting and scheming and trying to figure out how to make it work, and rating my science cabinets, and realizing I have about 86% of what I need already to do this anyway. She's like,
03:51
All right, well, we're just gonna go
Collin 03:52
for it. Oh, it's always good where you can just rub cabinets and be like, I do have this look when I have people, yeah, it's a very, very satisfying feeling when you rummage around and all of a sudden you become victorious with the thing that you're looking, hoping to find, and looking to find. That's just one of the great feelings in life, right? Really can't, uh, can't, you know, just really put into words currently, just how, like, satisfying that is. Like, yes, well, yeah, especially if you go, yeah, I know I have sometimes, you know, you have the thing, and you have to find that, like, exact thing. Other times you have the, do I have something that could be used for this? And then you go about, like the rummage, rummage, and you go, Aha, look. Because I do have these, like science. I have these, like bin things, right? And I think at some point in the past, they were part of, like a science unit where, like, all the things in the bin were supposed to be used for, like a thing, oh, like. Together for something, yeah, okay, yeah, like some kind of unit, but they're, like, real old, and I don't really know what the units were supposed to be, because any paperwork or anything that was like, went with them is, is long gone, sure, right? So I don't know. So I just have these bins of stuff, and every once in a while I just go, like, Huh, I wonder. And I'll just rip them down, and I'll start, like, looking through them and seeing what's in there. Because they're like, clear, they're like, big, huge, clear plastic totes. But like, I don't NBN, because there is, like, a label on the side of some of them, but like, they're old enough that that label is not really an accurate representation of what is currently in there, right? It it reflects what was in there at one time. But there could be more or less things in there than Labor says. I don't really know, but I did find some stuff that could be used in there. So my plan. My plan is to last year because it was my first time doing this. I was experimenting, right? I was sort of, I sort of flip flopped between some more, like research based things, and more like building based challenges. So this year, for a couple of them, I'm gonna just strip down the research ones, and I'm just because I like them, but, like, they're not quite good enough for a month long activity, right? So we're going to strip them down, and a couple of them are going to turn into just like, normal assignments, right? That we can still do in class because they're still useful. And I'm just going to, like, stick them in a couple places, but, and so then we need to replace something. So I figured, uh, since it is volcano time, right, obviously we have to do something with volcano, right? And so we are doing a little twist on the old volcano eruption experiment with yield baking soda and vinegar. You know, first of all, I discovered through the internet that if you just put some dish soap in there, Hot dang is that really hot up, that reaction, it kind of, it really is, like, gives a little bit of extra umph and spice to it. It really does add some of to the whole thing, right? Like, just goes for it. And I did watch a thing where they recommended, like, making a bit of a slurry mixture with the baking soda so it pours in very nicely. That worked good. Doing some testing this week during plant time, right? I'm just maniacally mixing beakers around. I'm
07:50
sure if anybody walked by, totally didn't look weird at all. But it's like, it's
Collin 07:54
the laughing. I think that would do it. That might have been it, yeah, but our twist is, right? Don't tell don't tell them anyway. Don't tell them yet. They know my current students listen to this yet, so it's fine. That's good. They we are. So the twist is, I'm going to create the volcano and set it off and erupt it. But I'm also going to take a bunch of wooden building blocks and put them on the other end of, like a baking tray, and be like, Oh no, the city, it needs saving. Oh yes. And then I have, well, I have, uh, sourced, just a bunch of random stuff, and I'm going to put it in a bag say you need to save the city from the volcano with the contents of this bag. Here you go. And so they Oh, there's only one thing to do, look in the bag. Look in the bag spoilers. You can't use
08:56
the bag. Oh,
Collin 08:58
it's just to hold the things. Yeah, because it's like a big old Ziploc bag. Nah, I feel is too easy, right? You need to use the straws and the little, tiny dessert paper plate and the random piece of aluminum foil, and that's what you get to use, yeah, not put the bag away, the bag, right? So, oh, and we're going to very closely monitor tape consumption, right? Like, you get x inches of tape and that's it. Yeah, you can't, you can't just be dumping tons of tape go Unlimited, right? The first one, I kind of let them go a little bit free. The pumpkin laundry one, right? It'll put super hard constraints on that one. It's our first one and stuff. But I do go through a lot of asking tape. It's insane. So this one, no more. But I thought, I thought the plan is, because they have limited materials, they must submit. Some sort of design proposal. First, right? They must show that they have created a plan with their group or partner in writing and or drawing that counts. What count that? Right? You that You know what you're going to do before I give you the materials and the tray right. Also, no poke holes in my tray. Don't do that. Keep trays intact. Yes, noted, not noted, harm the tray, because we're trying to keep the mess in the tray, not have it leak out everywhere. So we're gonna have, we're gonna have a potentially, maybe more, but at least one day per week for the running of the challenge will be designated testing days. So any day during the week, you can build and work and do what you think, but we'll only test because it's going to be messy, right? We're going to allow one day for testing per week at least, maybe towards the end, potentially two, but we'll see how it goes. You must at least one day a week for testing. So if you're ready to test, then we'll do it. But if you're not, let's wait for later, right? Because we can just mix up the stuff real quick and just do it, but we don't want to, like, go too nuts, because I don't want to do it like every single day, and like to have to clean up like all the time, it's a little too much. So that's the plan as it stands for right now. This is the new design challenge. Slash engineering question that we must ask, can we save this town, aka random building blocks that Susan had didn't need to down from the lava, aka soapy water, dairy, cool, soapy vinegar, mostly, but you're gonna make it red, at least I, you know, I thought about it, but I don't know if it would stain my wooden blocks, and that would just be kind of annoying. So we if I had some, like, plastic stuff, I maybe would. But like, this time, also, I don't know if I have any more red food coloring. I think I've used almost all of it. I think I have, like, a whole lot of other, the other colors of food coloring. So I have a whole lot of, like, green, but I don't think, I think I have a lot of red left over that can be green. I've had several boxes of food coloring for years. And I just, I only use it, I only need it, like, here and there, and I don't ever think about buying it. And I just, I think there's a lot of, like, green and yellow. I think all the red and blue is pretty much gone. I don't what. We didn't use yellow food colored for nothing in science, that's nothing. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, huh. Oh, so that is the image scheming this week. So it's very well, and my person came, right? I met them, so that's been going on. I've only been there like two days, but sorry, did scare them away? No, not yet. They haven't really been too riveting days, because it's like, the first day she showed up was like, hey, guess did giving out study guide day? Yeah,
13:32
dang it, sure.
Collin 13:35
They always show up when it's like time for that, like we're gonna review for a quiz. Yeah. Oh, man, is it gonna be the admin does that too.
13:45
She's always like, Oh, I'm gonna come
Collin 13:47
this day. I'm like, Oh, well,
13:51
that's the least exciting day you could have picked. But whatever works. I mean, I don't like,
Collin 13:56
oh, well, that's less than desirable. Yeah, it's really not fantastic, but, uh, you'll get to see me talking about study guide. I guess it's still important. People have to know good they do need to study the guide, right? So we talked about that today. Uh, last time they studied the guide poorly and they didn't take advantage of the opportunities I gave him and showed so like, maybe this time, maybe this time, you should try a new plan. Yeah, perhaps with these steps that I will list next for you. Number one, yeah, remember how you tried that thing and it didn't work. Don't do that again. Don't repeat this. Yeah, right, yeah. Some of us are, some of them are struggling with the transition to sixth grade. They like this is, you must now be much more independent, right? You are. Responsible for keeping track of things. You are responsible for using your time wisely. You are responsible for doing these things like this has caught some of them very off guard, like they're like, oh, I don't really know what to do about this. Oh, trying to, you know, trained up here to be actual sixth graders, right? Working on that some of those things are difficult, and not getting the transitioning is a little bit weird. So, so we'll see. It went better today. So that's good. We'll see. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Quiz o'clock. Oh man, they love it. See how many people don't remember there's a quiz tomorrow. That's always fun. I love that. That's fun. Well, especially whenever you've announced it. I'm sure you've at least mentioned it half of a time, right? And, yeah, well, I told them last week that there would be a quiz this week. I gave them a study guide yesterday and told them there'd be a quiz on Thursday. Well, I told them there'd be a quiz on Thursday, on Monday and Tuesday and today, so at least two people tomorrow be like, Huh? What? So told me, You never told me about that. Why? When did you tell me it was gonna be a quiz? Why didn't you tell me? That's not fair. I didn't know. How am I supposed to know you're not prepared with a study guide and a partner, oh, and notes, and I had no idea this is completely unacceptable. Didn't give me a chance. Yeah, it's so weird. Oh, man, well, uh, good luck to all of them tomorrow.
16:38
Yeah, we'll see. It'll be
16:40
fine. You. Be fine. No teas, but yeah. The
Collin 16:50
other savvy thing we did this week is we had a visitor over the weekend. Visitor, furry. Visitor, yes, right. We had Barney. Barney. He was a super cute looking guy too. Was Yeah, he was pretty nice. It's pretty chill for kind of a big old dude too, on the larger side. So he was pretty good. He was fine. So he did, uh, he was a little distressed when she left, right, like, Oh no, what do I do? Uh huh, my person is gone, right? Yes, but, you know, after we convinced him with some belly rubs and treats, he was like, oh, okay, this is actually
17:43
that's bad, right? Like,
17:44
never mind.
Collin 17:48
He pulled, he pulled the fizz thing on me, man. He pulled a fizz he was sitting there, and now he like, laid down, and I was like, rubbing him right, and just kind of rubbing his belly right? And I went to get up, and he looked at me and was, like, started, like, barking at not barking, but like, yeah, get back over here. Where do you think you're?
18:11
Excuse me.
Collin 18:15
He's like, you're not done with that. Get back here. So that was hilarious. Oh, hung out the first night we, you know, so went on walks around the neighborhood, walked around Susan, took him out into the field a bit to sort of investigate the wood, and then got him to eat. Finally, she said he's not really been eating very much, probably due to some of the trauma that he's been going through, right? Sure, not eating his dog food, right? Which is weird. And so she's uh, going to change his like dish, right? Because she had puzzle feeders for all of them, yeah? But, like, because they would all eat, like, really, really fast and so, but like, recently they haven't been doing that. And she's wondering, like, Well, maybe he doesn't, maybe it's the bowl that's like, bothering him, you know, so she's gonna attempt that. So we gave him a little bit of food mixed with some of the other stuff that she brought for him to eat, right? And so Susan, like, sneakily mixed his dog food up with baths, right? Some of that, you know, got him to do that a little bit. And so, yeah, that was good. And then the next day, like, he spent the night, and then we went to the park here in town and walked all over the park for a long time. And he was into that, like, Oh, that's good. He was down for that. So it's pretty good. He went on a long walk. Well. Heard that he's a squirrel enthusiast, right? He was like, right. He was just, like, stiffing the tree. That picture I sent, I sent you the picture where he's like, jumping on the tree. No, you just sent me the one of him when he was curled up on on the couch. Okay, well, there's another one that I sent that I was planning on sending at least of him, like, he's just like, on a tree, like, hello, because that was squirrel. So he was, he was after it. So I was pretty good, though. He was pretty chill. So much so that when she, like, came back that day, because she would from her thing that she had to go to, uh huh, and she was like, she was like, open. She was really confused because we opened the door and he wasn't there. And she was like, Where, where's he? Yeah, she thought he was gonna be, like, real, like, running to the door because, yeah, but he was like, napping on the floor. Oh, just That's amazing. Got him Tucker down pole. So good, right? May, yeah, Aunt Susan may have spoiled him slightly, right? Did she buy him some puppy ice cream? Why? Yes, yes, of course, he asked first if that was okay. Obviously, that's amazing, yeah, because this lady's her, like, one of her best friends. And she was like, Oh yeah, he eats way worse than that. Don't worry. That's hilarious. So he was a very spoiled boy, but he he did pretty good. He did pretty good over here. So, unfortunately, you may at some point have to come back, because she said the reunion when she got home did not go blue with the other dog that's been having trouble with him. Oh, no. So yeah, I don't really know what's up, but it's really weird. Like, yeah, so, I mean, that's all right. He was no problem. He was just sure, it's not like he's a high maintenance boy, but no, he was just no but you hate to, you hate to see, especially when it's a sudden onset thing, like, yeah, yeah. That's real weird. So we'll see, she'll see, she's got a couple weeks to try to work through it before she's got to go to another work trip. So, okay, three or four, so was he? Was he may come back, he may not. To be determined, right? Okay, see, we'll see how exciting week, right? Yeah. Well, interested in starting up the remote branch of the pet sitting thing. Let me know. Onboarded here, she was all about it. She was like, okay, I can, I'm in my payroll thing right now. I can send off a letter. Do you want me to? Let's go right? I'll let her. I'll let her know for something on the weekends. Yeah, they go do it anyway, man, well, you That's quite the way to, way to end it too, yeah, with a little with a little poppers, yeah. So it's pretty good. That's good times he acclimated, okay, so was a little bit worried about him coming to the apartment because, like, he's used to, like, big yard, right? Like, sure, bigger house a little bit. But she says he sometimes stays with her mom, and so it's, you know, not too bad. And he's a little bit older. He's, like, eight or nine, so he's pretty, like, chill about most things, yeah. And I didn't know how much of a runner he was, because, if he's because her yard is big, like, real big, Vince, sure, right? Because she lives out like it's like, on an old farm, right? So, like, yeah, just like, there's no frolic whatever, like, there's some room, yeah, yeah. So I didn't know how he would feel about apartment life. But for like a day, he was fine. So like, No. And usually whenever pets are even a little, like, already a little on edge, they're not looking to run and frolic anyway. So kind of the smaller spaces can actually be more comforting, yeah, to them. So so we got to the park, and then he was ready to go. Nice, nice, yeah, so it was pretty good time. It's funny, hanging out with barn. That was a good time. Yeah, we did not have a Barney experience. We did have our first more bases involved. Yeah, we didn't have our first professional baseball game experience. Did you get peanuts and or Cracker Jack? No. Didn't, okay, no, sorry, we did sing the song though. Okay, good, good, in the seventh or eighth inning, or whatever seventh inning. And then there became a discussion of, why is it called the seventh inning stretch? Megan believes that this is because this is when you stand up and stretch the part of the game. I mean, is what it means. Now, I said that means it's one time. Well, I said that's whenever the has gotten boring and the game is going on for very long time, and you're reaching kind of the doldrums, you it's also true, like, Oh my gosh. So I still have to get all the way to inning nine. I know I So, no, it was, it was good. We I paid for parking so that we could go and be parking somewhat close to the stadium. We did good. It's hard to park down there. It is not, yeah, it is not good. I pulled in, and the guy was, like, park anywhere you want in this lot. And I said, Oh, do you have any recommendations? It's our first time here, anywhere we should or should not park, you know, because, like, no, like park close to the exit, or parks close to the entrance. Like, is there a gotcha kind of thing that I'm not considering? And he thought he went, leave in the eighth inning. And I went, huh? And he said, yeah, if you don't leave in the eighth inning, it's gonna take you an hour, and it's gonna take you an hour to get to the highway. And I was like, oh, it's 10
26:30
feet from here. That's bad. Literally,
Collin 26:32
is like, literally overhead, yeah. Well, good, good thing, because There ended up being, like, 43,000 people there. Oh yeah, big, big night. But we got there and we walked, we had dinner, then we on the other side of the arch. It was like a 20 minute walk from where we parked. Then we walked back to the field, found our seats and just walked around and explored quite a bit. I mean, we're there, like, two hours before the game started, but it was time to just sit, see stuff, see the first opening pitch, and then the second warm ups a little bit, right? Well, and then see all of the what, like, pomp and circumstance of like, yeah, here is so and so throwing an honorary first pitch, here's so and so, throwing an honorary first pitch, here's another so and so, throwing an honorary first pitch, right? There's like, 12 first pitches. That's really weird. Like, like, oh, that's, that's not what first means, guys, yeah, this is, if it's just first as in, like, it's thrown prior to the start of the game, sure, but like this is number 10, yeah, one, one, A, 1b 1c right? A little less exciting that way. Yeah, yep, yeah. I don't know how they keep fighting people to do this, right? Truly, at some point the oh brother podcast will be asked they're on a first pitch somewhere. Well, here's many of these. People pay, like won a raffle, or like paid for something that has a spawn. Like these were given away to be they were raffled off or auctioned off, and people to raise money for something could to give out as a to win a first pitch opportunity. So, okay, yeah, so that was that was interesting, just to see all of that, and then up on our the deck that we were on, they were doing an interview with the 25th anniversary of the greatest show on turf, St Louis Rams team, oh, you go so they see Marshall Faulk, no, was not there, but 19 of the other players, Warner, probably not the offensive tackle, yes. And like, well, and like, the offense coordinator was there, and other people. I mean, they all got huge, uproarious applause. They were all they were driven around the stadium in new trucks as they were in old stuff. So, yeah, so that was fun. Well, Megan thought that's exciting. Yeah. I was like, I was like, ooh. So yeah, all these people that are like, so mad that the Rams left St Louis, but, like, never went to any rams games because they also sucked really bad. So, like, I haven't really Yes, and they're, they're like, No, I can't believe they would leave when they wanted me to pay them millions of dollars to stay some sort of, like weird hostage situation, like reverse hostage. I don't really know how it's very weird. Sports teams don't
29:48
make any sense.
Collin 29:51
Yes, yes. It's very odd. So anyway, they were all, uh, that was kind of neat. Um. Um, to see. And then we ended up we were right, right at first base on, like the little third story thing. So got to see a lot of action, which was cool. Our section was very full. We had people on both sides pinning us in. So I was like, Oh, the girl ballpark experience. I'm touching someone else's thigh. This is great.
30:26
Take Me Out to the Ball game. Indeed.
Collin 30:29
Yeah, yes. Um,
30:32
but, oh,
Collin 30:32
they have the coolest technology. So at one point, I was like, we ate dinner at like, 330 so that we could get over here. We need a snack? Yeah. So I get went to go get drinks and, like, a pretzel thing, and they used to, I have not had experience this experience with Checkout before. It's all you grab things off of the little sliders and off of what you want, and then to go to checkout. It's, it's an, it's a, you know, like, it's like an overhead projector, so it's got a little light on top shining down onto a little tray. You place all, you place all of your items on that tray. Nice. There's a brief pause, and then your total shows up on the screen to the right, because it reads what you put on it has scanned and identified what you have on there. Because some of these were, like, there was no barcodes on these. It was just a jug of, like, of coke sitting here, but identified what it was. And then you looked at it, you know, if you had an issue, there was a lady walking back and forth that you could point and whatever, and then you just paid it was pretty cool. It made it go really fast. So I was like, Oh, that's a neat piece of technology added here. That was an interesting, an interesting thing that I learned about that is interesting Random Space Technology at the Cardinals ball city that's very, yes, very futuristic. And like, oh, at the ball game, yeah. Is it still Bush stadium? Is that still what it's called? Yes? Okay, couldn't remember yes anyway, somewhere, but the game itself was very close. We got to see a couple home runs, and I was I jumped each time because the fireworks going off. And, of course, yeah, and then it's very disorienting, because it's at it was, it's like, you know, seven o'clock at night, so they're using all the stadium lights. And when they do, when they get a home run, they blink the stadium lights, okay, oh, really, yes. This is very unnerving, because suddenly you realize how dark it is.
32:48
Like, yeah, they
Collin 32:49
don't shut them off at any like, all at once. They alternate them around. But all of a sudden you're like, Oh, wow. This is very this is kind of unsettling. I'm
32:59
in the dark. Oh no,
Collin 33:00
I don't like that with 43,000 other people, no. Thank you. No. Thank you. That's not what I want in my life, baseball fans have never rioted or become obscenely upset over really minor things before. That's never happened in the history of baseball, but I don't know what you could possibly be worried about. So I was worried. Obviously, felt like you were watching the Cubs game. Cubs fans touchy, right? Little Yeah, don't say that. I think they've
33:42
mellowed out a little bit
Collin 33:43
after they won a series, right? They think they're sure, like, they got out of their system, yeah, tension is a little bit gone, yeah, right. You know, they kind of, like, can't get off their back, right? They appeased the goat, or whatever. I don't remember what like that is, yeah. So, yeah, we cheered, we yelled, we bought some hats. Because at one point, you know, it was like, I really want Cardinals hat. So I was like, Fine, let's go get a Cardinals hat. And then stadium prices of a hat, oh no. Then lil said, I want a hat too. And I was like, Oh yeah, let's go get a hat. Let's go finance, of course, she found hers in no time, because it is the most sequined and Bejeweled hat you ever did see. Of course, of course. Oh, just like, it was just like the one like she just like I saw it from outside the shop, and was like, Oh no. And it was just like a moth to a flame, like a beacon glowing and pulsating to her. And she's like, Yeah, well, I found mine. And then, of course, Noah, it took like, 10 minutes switching between hats and trying to figure out which one he wanted and which one, which he liked the best. Well, here's the thing. Yeah, I thought he was going to go for a red hat. Yeah, didn't he went with the dark navy, navy blue with the red Cardinal symbol and the red girl classic, super classic looking hat. It's better than the weird one. At least he didn't get the one that's like baby blue. That one is that one like the third color uniform they wear sometimes, like baby blue and white. Like, what are you Oh, yeah. There were tons of people in the baby blue. Yeah, I don't like it. It threw me off. It really was like, this isn't the Royals. Get out of here. What are you doing? Get out Yeah. What's the joint Brett's going on around here? Again, wrong stadium,
35:41
other side I 70, go that way, drive
Collin 35:44
that away. So then we made it, and we were up like, what was it? I think it was six to two in the bottom of the seventh, coming up into the eighth. And Megan and I were like, We it's, it's like, 830 like, I think we need to go, like, we still have about a 15 minute drive to our hotel. We, we need to get going. So parking guy said, plus parking I said, I'm in the eighth, eight, and so I Gary if you're out there, thank you. We got in, and as we're leaving, though, of course, it takes like, 15 minutes to leave the stinking stadium because we're like, so far away from where we're so, yeah, like, there's like 7 billion stairs in there, like miles, because you have to go, like, you obviously can't go, like, across, around
36:38
the big thing, it's all that think I
Collin 36:41
go down in the switchbacks and the switchbacks and the switchbacks, you can go all the way down, and then you gotta cross the street anyway. We start hearing some loud cheers, and then some, like, booze. And I was like, Oh no. And so we get to the car, and it's six four, like, was like, Now wait a minute. That's not supposed to happen. That's not what it was a minute ago. No. And so we turned to the good old am radio, yeah, listening to the announcement as we're going. And then it's six five, and we're leaving, we're driving, and I'm like, oh, goodness, did we just like, I Oh no. And then they brought out their the closer, or whatever it's called, the closer picture. It's just, it's, it's so great. You know, I explained to Noah's like, his job is to guarantee that no hits happen, that there are no way anybody gets any hits. And Noah said, how is he going to do that? And I said, Well, he has not pitched at all tonight. His arm is really fresh, and he'll probably and before I could say, the announcer was like 99 straight down the middle, right there you go, get him with the fastball. And possibly a really gross curveball that's closers often have that it's like the most disgusting thing you've ever had. But like in when you think about video game terms, like they have really high stats, small stamina meter, yes, right? They're only throwing. They're looking to throw nine pitches, maximum. That's what they want to Yeah. They are maxed out. They could get some less. They could get less if they can get away with seven. They want that, right? Yes, pop up, right. Hit the pop up or the make them hit that. Like, janky grounder to second. Like, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, that's his dire job is just go out there, throw nine times and be done and walk or less, nine or less, just as Yeah, and and he did it. It was great. I think only one person connected with it. And so we got to the hotel and slept peacefully. The kids woke up the next morning excited about the free breakfast, and then later, when we reflected on our time at the walking around downtown St Louis, seeing the arch, seeing the river, doing a game. What was your favorite part about your time? It was the free breakfast. And I went, ah, you know that breakfast for you is always free, right? I never like for breakfast at home either, like, I don't know. Yeah, we get this every day. You don't have to pay for a single thing. Your lunch is also free. And, yeah, all of your meals are free. Matter of fact, you wouldn't have even thought of this had your mother and I not mentioned free breakfast. Yeah, it's not really free because it's just included in the price of the room, right? Yes, but it was not free. No, I did have to spend money on a hotel room to get the breakfast. And, you know, they put some charge on there for breakfast anyway, right? Yeah, it's not, like, actually free. It's just included, like, you get breakfast if you stay there. Yes, that's, it's built into the charge there. They're not, they're not, they're not, you know, hurting. They're not giving you away. They're not giving waffles away out of the goodness of their heart. No, right? They're not like, Ah, I just feel so charitable that I will distribute these sausages to the massive writer. And this was one of the rare instances where I saw waffles and I thought, Oh, I'm ready for some blueberry waffles. Thank goodness. I bit into them and they were chocolate chip I didn't want chocolate chip waffles. No, at seven in the morning, I wasn't ready for that. I'm I'm in my mid 30s. That's not a need.
41:00
Nobody's chocolate chip waffles. We
41:02
do it
Collin 41:05
blueberry It was so sad. What's it's the expectation build up, right? It's like, it's like, it's not necessarily that chocolate chip waffles are bad, but when you're expecting blueberry waffles, they're terrible, yes, right? It's the worst because you're like, your senses are primed for blueberry waffle, and you're like, Ah, it's like, such a disappointment, right? Like, no sadness. It's not what I wanted. No, no, when I got time, they like whenever McDonald's. Well, McDonald think McDonald's has different pie flavors anymore, but they used to, right, have like, different pies, you know? And sometimes you would order an apple pie, and then they would just, like, throw a pie at you, and you'd be like, yeah, apple pie. And you like, so excited, and you bite into it, and it's like, cherry. You're like, yeah. Like, wait a minute, yeah. It's not necessarily that the cherry pie was bad. It's that you wanted Apple and then you didn't get it right. So it's like, you're TA, what you're tasting is disappointment. It was, it's yes, it was definitely chocolate chip, the taste of disappointment that was that morning. That is unfortunate. I'm sorry, yeah. And then we had, of course, three hours drive back home in the boring rain. Oh, no, rain at the stadium. No, sucks. No, we had a, we, I mean, we had the the perfect window in this for, yeah, for this, it was actually great, where we had no rain at All. It was weird. So actually worked out great. But we made it back home and they enjoyed the free breakfast. So what did they eat that was so exciting? Nothing. It was, I'm like looking for I'm like running my brain through, like, what hotel breakfast are like? None of that is like, exciting. What were they? No, it was just, it was just, they just, do they like the cereal machine, yeah, and they just like that. It was also, quote, unquote, free. This made them very happy that just knowing that a free, right, it made them kind of like Tee hee hee, I'm getting free breakfast. Like marketing got them. Wow. So I So anyway, we survived, and then, man, this week has just been just blown by. I've been doing tons of new hiring interviews, just trying to stay ahead of stuff, right? Like, not in any rush or anything, but just trying to keep people coming in the door, and then yeah, it's Yeah. So that's been, I always forget when we go through that that's that going, going through those steps of how much time that takes, because it's not just like sitting down and asking people questions. It's now I have to, you know, review the person. We've got to discuss the person. We've got to advance them through the steps. We've got to talk about what we're going to talk to them about, outline the questions. Most of them are standard already, but we may have one or two extra that we need to ask them. Conduct the interview for 20 to 30 minutes, review that person make a final decision. It's like, oh my gosh. It's exhausting at the day to be like, here's 20 people who've applied go, like, I need to be sleeping. Yeah, true. Like, it's very dope. Knock. I woke up. I'm trying not to complain, very thankful, at least I have people to review. I just always forget just how tired. No, so that's been, that's been our week. We've been doing volleyball games, been doing practices and stuff so and cinnamon, the dog, all right, yeah. So we've been, I've been calling the dog little bit, just because it's a small dog, so a collared little bit, as one does, and I get yelled at. That's not her name. It is now for you, it is for me. Come here a little bit. She comes running over. It's really cute. And then we, we had to go
45:52
see it worked.
Collin 45:55
Also, she does that to whatever you say, because she's just really happy to be here. I mean, fair, but like, we decided that we were going to go, we need to go get a tag for her collar. Yeah, because we need to officialize this, because they won't do our vet does not do microchips until they do a spade, so they will only spay the dog. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So except, like, except, usually, when you get a dog from a breeder, they're already microchipped. From a reputable, reputable breeder, they're going to be microchipped. That is a good point, whatever, anyway, so it's weird, but they say it's blessed stress and whatever, whatever. So we're like, fine. So we have to wait another, like six months for this to happen. But anyway, oh, we went to go get a tag. We went to PetSmart, because that's where the tag machine is. And I did four people. Man, we had to, I had to send so many people around us because they're right there at the checkout line. I don't know why they do this. We took up so much time bantering about what we wanted. We want a thick one. Do we want a thin one? Did we want an outline? Sparkles? Did
47:07
we want no sparkles? Did
Collin 47:08
what color did? There's pink, there's Oh, somebody wants rainbow. Well, what about Blue? Here's black and silver, and which kind of pink? And this one, oh, we went on, oh no. And then we found one. We found one. It was a super, like, reflective one. So super reflective shine and light you get to see it. I was like, boom, getting this one, neon yellow reflective. Let's go. We buy it. We go over there, we answer the information, and it's only one side of information. And I was like, Oh, wait, no, we wanted two sides so we could fit more information on there with one side with just the name, and then one side with or, like, both sides, yeah, name and phone numbers. Like, oh. So we go back over, and then we're looking and siding, and we're trying to paw through this, and people are throwing out more, and we're saying, What about if we get sparkles on them? Like we already said, No sparkles. And we don't want a big one, because it's a little dog. Well, it won't be little forever, but it is little now. I mean, I mean, yeah, it kind of will, because it kind of will, like, trying to be cute. Yeah, it'd
48:10
be 80 pounds. Okay, it's like,
Collin 48:13
and then I'm looking, I notice upper right hand corner there's ones that are, like, way more expensive than everything else. And I'm like, what these and they're tracking tags. Ah, the tag with a little tracker in it that you can hook up to your phone. Then I went, what about this one? Oh, no, because if we're being perfectly honest, this was a stray dog. So that's true, it's very likely to become stray again. And secondly, our Kobe like to go on walkabouts every now and then. That is true, because he would decide that he really needed to suddenly chase something through a door that didn't exist, and then not come back for 20 or 30 minutes. That's true. And so said about Collin wandering around the streets in the dark, looking for a black meter dock. Oh my gosh. So shuffling through the leaves, so angry at him, oh, frantically searching. And then one day, he got out because they had the door open, and they had opened the door and had no other nobody else was there, and we had the door open to his son on this on the on the porch, and he came flying out and just launched himself and walked around the corner and were like, he was, he was a whole block away by the time we found him. Like, what a goofy guy. Okay, well, look, we've got a history of this stuff, so we're gonna get the tracking one. And everyone agreed that this was a fantastic idea. I. So went over, and then we were like, Oh, wait, it's also one sided. Well, which is more important? Two sides of information, or being to look at this on our phone, we can have one side of information and Sharpie, and so we'll be all right, like we just so we did that. Got home, changed the icon to be a little puppy dog. And now on all our phones, we can see it's located. We can, like, you can, like, make it now it's like some weird brand, and I think that if we would have actually bought, like, an actual from a legitimate company, because this is some weird, like, no named company manufacturing this, yeah, I don't know, probably would have been way more expensive. So whatever. But couldn't see the little icon right now my phone, oh, he's right here. It's home. Now I can play a sound, I can notify me if it leaves. This is, yeah, it's kind of neat. You can you can put a button, push a button, and basically say if it leaves this, yeah, air, Alert, alert, yeah, that's what I want. Is that the
51:07
fence, the geo fence, yes,
Collin 51:11
yeah, Barney has something like that. He has like, a it's like, separate. It's not like, built into his tag, sure. But he has a thing, because we had to charge it for him. Oh, nice. Because, yeah, she said he's, there's been a few times in his younger years where he and one of the other dogs were just like, and we're gone, right? She thinks that he was like, he has like, hunting dog tendencies, right? So she thinks that at some point somebody used him to like, hunt something, what? But like, she says that if he gets like that, he'll just be like, nose down, go on, like, oh, and just boom. Like, his brain turns off. He's in like, nose mode only, and he will just and so that he said it doesn't do it too much anymore. But like that, he does have a tracker, because he has done that in the past where he's just like, well, knows gone zoom, zoomed off. And you could, like, call him and call him and call him. He won't hear you because all the brain power is in the nose currently, and can't, can't be hearing people right when you're on the scent of whatever it was he was on the scent of, I don't know, but yeah, so he's got one of those too. So we had to charge it. We had to find a thing to charge it. But yeah, we went through the random cable drawer. Oh, and we found them. Then we found one. There we go. Came in handy. I have a I have a milk crate in my office that is cables and assorted accouterments, yes, yeah, we still wanted little drawers under our TV, like it's got random old like phone charger cables and just random stuff like that. And then one of them works. Look at that. Look at that. Always feels good when you can use a random cable. Okay, I see aforementioned discussion about random stuff that you find, yeah, science boxes, right? Same idea. Exactly. The science box for your home. Here you go. Have a cable that I haven't used in 11 years, yeah, but I needed it for Barney's little geotagger thing. So it worked. Nice, nice. Yeah. So, yeah, we were trucking along with her. We I do foresee us needing to eventually do some training with her. She, like I've mentioned, I think Previously she her instinct to herd and to get is very strong, very strong. So we're going to have to work on refocusing that. Again. I fully understand that this is bred into the dogs as part of the breed. You cannot get rid of this. This is not something you can just snap your fingers or go through a training procedure to get rid of. It's all about managing and redirecting that. Yeah, I think we're going to have to have some work with her and go through some classes, though, just to, just to help, because she's very into the you are not leaving now you need to come back and we'll come up behind you and just do that little nip right on your calf. Oh, yeah, that's not good. No, not so good. So again, she's not doing it to be aggressive or anything. No,
54:54
just like, it's just a like, must turn over there.
Collin 54:57
Must, must bring you back. Do not leave. I might have mentioned it on here before, but like one of the ladies that used to work at school as an aide, she had a service dog, right? It was like a medical alert dog. Oh, but it was also like a herding dog, right? Okay, and so she would have it at school, and he would like, you know, be with her and stuff. But whenever the kids were lining up right the little kids, if they weren't in line, he wouldn't, he would, he wouldn't nip it. He never nipped he never did anything. He would just walk up to him and, like, put his shoulder on him and, like, shove him sideways. He'd be like, nope. He would like walk right down the line of where, because they're supposed to stand in a little tile, you know. And he would walk down the line. And if they were out of line, he would just stop and look at them, wow. And be like, oh. Sometimes he would nudge him it over, okay? And then he would go, and you just gotta look at us. It was so great. He's such a good dog. He's hilarious. Like, they would be, it'd be great. So and obviously the kids would do whatever she said, Because they'd be like, All right, if you follow directions and you do everything you do, you could get dog. You could bet the dog, because if recess, she would take his little service thing off, sure. And then he would just be like, Oh, run like, oh. As soon as the vest came off, he was like, God, like, running around all kinds of stuff. But it was back on. He was gonna go to work. Mode, yeah, peace mode. Alert, 10, heard the kids in line. It was so funny. Yeah, so, and that was the other thing we they took him kids and took him to took her to the nearby trail and got to hike with her. And, you know, the one thing about Corgi is, like they they love adventures, and they've got lots of energy. And I know a lot of people who do off lead hiking and things like that, not that we would do that with where we live, because it's you need to keep them on lead, but just going, Oh, do we? Did we? Did we get an adventure dog? Did we get a dog that get a backpack for my dog? Maybe
57:28
backpack. He's
Collin 57:29
kind of low for that, like,
57:33
Oh no, fine. A little low for backpack. But wow, you know, I guess, yeah.
Collin 57:42
Gosh. That's what we need. So anyway. So I was like, Oh, that's good. So she did great. So we're gonna keep doing that and take for adventures and stuff. So we're that's what we got to do this week. Very nice. Very nice indeed. Great. Yes.
58:02
Well, why you were in St Louis?
Collin 58:04
Did you perhaps gaze out at the Mississippi River and think about Mark Twain and the conclusion Yankee King Arthur scorch I felt, felt Twain with me, and I needed that presence to understand what happened at the end of this book. Yeah, this is a curveball in half, right? I'm not gonna lie I Yeah. I have many thoughts about this, right? Like, uh huh, yeah, oh boy. So let's get into it. Here. We're set for the final battle, which is kind of weird, because on one hand, it's like, built up to be this, like, big, insurmountable thing that's like impossible to overcome, and then they overcome it quite easily, without really much of doing anything. Like, they have to give a pep talk. Oh, there's lots of pep talks. And then, like, when it's over, they're just like, and click, and it's like, done like, that's really weird. So I uh, it's so bizarre, right? So again, as we have the we start off in the we're pepping up. We're in the cave with Clarence and the 52 fresh, bright, well educated, clean minded young British boys. And we have to overcome this like the odds are not in our favor, right? We get some talk about he's trying to keep some normalcy. He's writing to his dearest Sandy. And of course, hello Central. And then, oh, well, quickly, quickly, we learn why we have this book. Because it says, during the first three days, I finished turning my old diary into this narrative form. Yes, we have this. We once again, once again, we have a secret memoir. So look how accidentally on brand we were right. I was not expecting that, but, but again, the third book in a row. It's like, a secret memoir. Pretty nice. I thought that was like, I saw that, and I was like, We did it. I kind of had a feeling we were doing it, but, like, we actually did it, right? This is who knew this trope was such a thing that we accidentally read three books, my goodness, yes, except now the
1:00:52
pressure's on. I don't know what to do from here. I have no idea.
Collin 1:00:56
Just we just go with the flow. We just see, we let the books come to us, I think. So, yeah, yeah. He has made this narrative form, yeah, so it's completely ridiculous. It's like, so, yeah, he's got, he's got this plan here, and he's setting it up, and we have the bit more pontificating and thinking. Here he's talking about how foolish this all is. The the revolution went all wrong. He was like, I was wrong about things, you know, the he makes a comment about the people that were like, chanting for one thing, or actually, they actually want the other thing, right? Oh yeah to Republic stuff, yeah, yeah. About how, like, you know, you know how he's sort of comment on how there's a lot of times like people are really like, yeah, I want this thing, but you're like, but you that's not good for you. It's actually bad. Why would you Why are you so excitedly chanting about wanting this thing that's not good for you, right? Like, why? Why? Why are you doing that? So it's sort of a comment on that, like the political put into place where the political systems say, like, Yeah, this is what we want, and then they get people to agree, like, this is what we want, but it's actually not good for the people. Only the higher up points in the structure, right? But they've convinced everybody else that it's good for them, even though it isn't right. I think about tariffs with this a lot, because, like, people like, yeah, we want tariffs. You're like, you you don't. That's not you have to pay more money if there's tariffs. That's how tariffs work. Hey, I don't know if you understand that, but stop it. So, so yeah, we got all this stuff. We have all this here. And then he has to give the pep talk, right? Pep talk, because it's good thing that he planned, right? He's like, and again, he like, hits them, hits us with the like, well, this would have been quite a disaster if I had not seen this coming. But, of course, I saw it coming, so it was fine, yeah, because, and what he's talking about here is that switch from, from, yeah, they're saying things that they don't actually want because they don't really realize the extent. And he does this with this again. Mark Twain, this guy should write a book that phrase of all England is marching against us, right? That has a very different connotation than somebody realizing all all of England is marching against you, like that personalizes this and also they realize the implications for their own life. And he knows that eventually people are going to start understanding what, what this means, that this like, oh, yeah, us. Oh, that's just us as a group, yeah. Look at us standing but me like, I'm actually needing to step up and I'm going to be singled out for this. And it's there are real world implications for me being here. That's when people get scary and that's when people get cold feet, and that's what that's what he's saying here. Of like, I knew this would happen, so it's not a problem, yes. And so he sets him straight. He gets them all excited. And I like, how this the funny part about this is where he's like, yeah, there are a lot of people coming against us, right? Like all of England. And he's like, actually, it's not really all of them. It's only about 30,000 that's not so bad. Not a big deal. Only 30,000 when you think about it, because that's just like the heights and the nobility, right? All the other people. As soon as they see that there's going to be, like, a bit of a scrap, they're just gonna turn around and leave. They don't care, right? Only the Knights of nobility are gonna fight, because they're the only people that have, uh, a stake in the matter, right? The common man doesn't really, you know, they're not gonna fight for this, because they're gonna be like, whatever, and then they're gonna give up. But the nobility you're gonna fight. So all we gotta do is fight the nobility. And for some reason, 30,000 sounds relatively appealing to all of England, to these 50 dudes. So they're like, Oh yeah, no problem at all. Only 30,000 against 50. What was I worried about never, you're right. We can do this. Yeah, we can totally do it. Not, not worry. Oh, it's so goofy. But as it turns out, yeah, they totally can. So Right? They just, uh, the first, first things first. They just, like, literally blow everything up. Ka Blam, that's it, right? They just detonate the bombs they had planted, and that was it. Kaboom. All gone, right, yeah. And of course, it was a great sacrifice, but of course, we had to do it. We couldn't have our we couldn't afford to let the enemy turn our own weapons against us now, could we? So they have this great my I also like this part where it's like, there's this great build up, right? And they launched the first salvo in the open in the battle. And then he says, Now ensued one of the dullest quarter hours I'd ever endures. I love basically, basically, it took a quarter hour for the smoke to clear, and they're all just sitting there going, Well, yeah, okay, because you can imagine you've spent this whole time period. Took a week, right? They're preparing this for a week. It's just like wrapping, prepping, huge build, and then did it work? What's going on? What's happening? Like, yeah. So, like, huh, I did it do a thing? Like, how did it go? So it turns out it did quite well. The dynamite has created a moat, and, like, embankment. The explosion was so large that it ripped the ground up and made like a added to their defensive layers. Basically, he's like, ah, and we were further defended, right? Yeah. This feels like a Russian strategy, right? This feels like a thing that the Soviets would have done, like, where? Like, oh, when are we gonna do, dig this big hole, let's stick a bomb in there and do it. That feels like a very Soviet plan to me. I don't know why, but just like, it's unexpected and slightly wrong. So of course, that's what they would do. So yeah, so they did this. He they climb up and look around like, oh, well, there we go. So he prepares his little victory speech. It gets some applause, right? Ooh, hooray. And then he declares that he's going to keep fighting. They have to keep fighting until all the nobility is conquered and defeated, because that is the only way that they can win, right? Boom. So we break into part two strategy. We break the group, we break the group up into teams, and we put them in shifts to do some stuff right? We're going to divert the river, and we're going to have a watch, and we're going to have scouts, and then everyone the other half is going to be resting, they're going to switch
1:08:17
out and do stuff, right? So that's what,
Collin 1:08:22
yep. And he keeps and he wants to, he's sending these. He wants to send this, this proclamation, yeah, he wants to send it to them. He sends one to his army. Basically, like, Great job. Good, good everyone. He Said. Said, said, I read it well, and the applause I got was very gratifying to me, right? Yes. And then after all this, they this is where he wants to send or he wants to send another message, but to the knights, right? And it's basically like a surrender and you'll be forgiven.
1:09:02
I Yeah, Clarence talks
Collin 1:09:04
about a bit. Because Clarence like, Have you learned nothing? This does just gonna that's not gonna work. They won't listen to that. And he's like, of course, he was right. So we went ahead and with the plan, then to business. So the plan seems to be, right. We have the central area, right, that we're defending, right? So they have the central location, then they have constructed concentric rings of electric fence, right? This is diabolical, too. Is diabolical, right? Is, and so what they've done is they have their plan is to lure the Army in. So they've shut off all of the fences, except for, like, the first two, right? So all of the, I don't really know how many there are, I don't know five or six or something there's. Like a whole bunch. So, yeah, maybe six. So they've, they've shut off all the fences except for the first two, right? So they're basically drawing the knights in to come closer, right by exposing their position, and, like doing that. And so they're, they've just kind of got them there, and they're going to draw them in right, and then they're going to, well, you'll see in a minute. So that's their plan. They shut off the fences, and they're going to wait for the army to come in, right. And they, we do discover right. They he says he wants to go out and look a scouting trip. And Clarence says, Yep, let's go. They want to go to and they just want to see because it's dark, dark night time. They want to see if their plan is working. So they sneak out, and they kind of lit. They're listening for the jangling of armor, right? And slowly they see people starting to come right and then. And then we get hit with the actual plan. Here, they see a guy standing there, oh my gosh, and they can't figure out what's happening. And they go up to a and they see that he is he's grabbed hold of the fence in his suit of armor, because, remember, Knights will never take off their armor, no, not even writing articles. He's grabbed hold of an electric fence, wearing a full plate armor, and he's just standing there, smelling right, yeah, yeah. And then this is this book, up until now, has been filled with, like, a lot of lighthearted stuff. This. The rest of this book is dark. Like, this is, this is, like, this is, like, that chapter with the dungeon, right? Like, no, he goes way off. Because on one hand, you can see, oh, this is, this is kind of funny where people but it's like, but no, because later on, he describes, like, we soon realized that the voltage was killing people before they could even make a sound, yeah. Like he Oh, they make this joke about how the friend comes up and puts his sword on his friend who's standing at the wire, and because his friends electrocuted, electrocuted him and said it was he was killed by a dead man. He put his hand on his shoulder, and it was like, blap zapped him. And the other guy, there was a different guy, who touched it with the sword immediately, too. And like, yeah. And it's interesting that we have a strange juxtaposition happening, right? Because up until now, right, we keep having we've all up until like, a few chapters ago, when they went on their trip, right up until then, when they were tricked and duped into leaving England. He kept, he mentioned the bloodless revolution, like many times, right? He said many times this idea was repeated, right? We're going to revolutionize society without any bloodshed. We're going to win hearts and minds of the people, right? And in this chapter, He literally says, we're going to kill everyone, yes, and you're like, Whoa, honey. I know we've had some, know, some events that happened, but he he he mentions at least twice that all the remaining knights must die, right? He says English knights can be killed, but not conquered, so we kill them all. What? Yeah, hard. Turn, right. Just a hard it's grim. I mean, he says, so at some point they turn on the torches, the electric suns, electric suns, the flame the top of our precipice, so he can illuminate the battlefield. And, yeah, hold on. Sorry, yeah, no, that's fine, because that's what we're getting that. So we do that. He gets there. What he's done is he's drawn all of them in by all of the Knights have come up to think so they go back and they flick on all of the fences, right? They turn them all on now, so all of the Knights are trapped between the concentric rings of electric fence, right? This is where he turns on the spotlights that he, of course, has, because why would you not have spotlights? And they that little throwaway line about using the river to our services later, they basically have all of the nights trapped in this like high voltage ring of death, and they opened the literal floodgate and let the water dump down on top of there. Yeah, yep, and, and then only that, and then the last, another phrase, yeah, the last page here, go ahead, another phrase, not one, not two, not the. Three, 510, 12, but 13, yeah, Gatling guns, yep, open up. Yeah. The term the Yeah, go ahead, bombing debt into the fated 10,000 Yes, yes, within 10 short minutes after we had opened four. Opened fire, armed resistance was totally annihilated. The campaign was ended. We 54 were masters of England. 25,000 dead men lay around us. Again. This is, if this was being shot like this would be the horror part about, could you imagine, in the dark, moving in between these electric wires that are instantly vaporizing people from one to another? You flick on lights. There's 1000s of people already dead. There's all of them. You know, they've they've corralled the living into this. They can't escape, they can't go anywhere. And he's like, in it, like he's watching and moving in between everybody, and then opens fire like this is really, really dark. And I think this shows to you the the immense and utter hatred that Hank or Twain has against this, you know, love goods, Knight's errand, and against the chivalry and gets all that like this is, this is just pure, like, I will wipe you and your your stories off the Face of the Earth and obliterate all of you. Yeah. Not only that, I
1:16:44
think we can add in, like, the nobility class, oh, yeah,
Collin 1:16:46
specifically the like, yeah, because that, that was his whole thing when he was talking about the 30,000 because he was specifically pointing out, like, Yeah, but it's all the nobles that are coming our way, like, yeah. It's not everybody else. It's not because, oh, because that was the thing where the the one of the men had stood forward and said, like, it's our people that are coming against us. It's our No,
1:17:05
it's not. It's like, it's
Collin 1:17:06
your oppressors. Exactly, yes, this is yeah. So that was a way for him to basically put distance of you and the others, like, this is an othering to an extreme. Yeah, yeah. This is the, this is the bourgeoisie, right? Borrow a term here. This, this is who you're rising up against, right? Your masters and lords, you must be free of them, right? This is very, this is very heavy handed, right? Like, then, then we have a weird sentence, yeah, yeah. We get an abrupt transition here, yeah, right, very abrupt. Um, yeah, in a little while, say, an hour, happened, a thing by my own fault, which, but I have no heart to write that. Let the record in here. Boom. Now I have been looking at the table of contents for this book, and I've been staring at this last chapter, yeah, and I've gone, what could this be? Yeah, what is in here? What could possibly Well, boy, howdy, yeah. We get we get about. So since you've been staring at for a long time and let you introduce the chapter name, here we have, of course, the a post script by Clarence. And I think this is incredibly fitting, because Clarence has been, like, so pivotal to this entire story. Man, literally, yes, literally. And as the only reason we have this postscript is because he was taught by Hank to write and to report facts and duties. And we've seen his change of writing over the course of the entire book, from his first attempt to Well the one several chapters ago into his report of the battle and now this, yeah, man, Yep, yeah. And boy, howdy, do we take a turn right real quick. It's just a it's two in my book. It's just two pages of this before the next surprise section. Oh, geez.
1:19:19
Which I have many thoughts on. So
Collin 1:19:20
hold on. Yeah. So the postscript by Clarence, basically, the long and short of it is here, the boss says, you know, we want to go. We need to go out and look for any wounded people. Clarence is, of course, against this. Just let him be high. Who cares? So they go out and in this comings and goings. The boss is recognized by one of the wounded knights and is stabbed. Bam, yep, stabby. Stabby the Knight was what Sir Amelia grants, yeah, as I found out by tearing off his helmet, he will not ask for help anymore. Yeah,
1:19:58
oh yeah. Whoopsie daisy.
Collin 1:20:02
So carry the boss back to the cave, start treating his wounds. Where, who should appear? What? The Merlin? Boss guys? Right? Dun. Dun, dun. He's in the skies of an old woman. Right? I did think about the Hobbit, the movie, where the
1:20:27
town masters guys dressed up as a woman trying to flee.
1:20:30
Oh yes,
Collin 1:20:36
yeah. So he is like there, and he's in disguise, and he's like cooking for them and like cleaning for them, right? And the boss is coming along, well, he's kind of healing up. And then, well, specifically, he points out a thing here where they realize very, something very stark about their position, right? Yes. He goes. He says, we were in a trap. You see, a trap of our own making. If we stayed where we were, our dead would kill us, meaning the 25,000 out there would slow disease, right? If we moved out of our defenses, we should no longer be invincible, because, yeah, they have now made this is a no go zone for anybody. No one's gonna attempt Yeah, again, like this is they fortified themselves, but they locked themselves in as well. Yeah, he says we had conquered. In turn we were conquered. Oh, no, Yep, yeah, uh, boss, can't go out and make these be a liaison to try and make way with people. And yeah, he says he couldn't. He couldn't go because he was first to be made sick. Clarence couldn't go by the poisonous air bred by those dead. Yeah, 1000s, yes. So now we have this here. And he goes in to check on the boss to see right, because we're very dire. It's no good, um, and he sees this person standing over the boss, sort of waving his hands about right? And he says, What the heck are you doing? And it's Merlin. And he says, you know you shall die. Everyone shall die except him. He sleepeth now and she'll sleep 13 centuries. I am Merlin. And he starts like laughing and running, and he just like, runs over, hits the wire and die like a maniacal laughing, weird way, very weird. So the boss falls into a slumber, where sleeping like a stone, right? Rip Van Winkle, but way worse any basically, they decide that they're going to hide him in a remote cave and to be guarded with the manuscript right, so that if he does ever wake up, he will have it right. Hide the manuscript with the boss, our dear good chief, whose property is, be he alive or dead, and that's it, right. That's the end of the book into the manuscript. In the manuscript, but, but you have a final, PS, a final post script by Mark Twain. MT, right. So, again, the book started out being so again, canonically, right? If we to to believe this book, right? We have the opening, which is written by Twain. And then halfway through the opening, we get the stranger's history right, which sets off, which is all Hank right. And now, at the very end, the postscript, we hear from Twain again. And I just want to say, before we dive into the context of this, that, like, if you want to know, like, if you've ever questioned to yourself, is Mark Twain a good writer? Oh, can Mark Twain. Like, how, what's the deal anyway? Like, if you've been listening to this, you've never read any of this Twain. He's following along, hanging out, right? Like, the this postscript is written in a completely different style than the whole rest of the book, and it's, it's relevant. It like jumps out at you immediately because you've been listening to Hank's voice the whole time, even the little part by Clarence here, because Clarence is now a student of Hank, and it's, it's the writing style is the same, pretty much, right? All of a sudden you hit this post. Script page. It's only, like, three pages, two pages, maybe, oh, and the writing is completely in a different voice and style than the rest of the book. It's incredible, right? Like, just that change is like, wow, it just hit me, like, so hard, because I got so used to Hank, and the way that Hank, you know, quote, talks and delivers, right, that you read this, and it's like, Whoa, this is so different. So the fact that Twain, like, does this just like, on purpose, like, for fun, it's like, flexing on you, like, hard, right? This is, it's really good, like, just that right there tells you stylistically everything you do, though, Mark Twain is very good at this, no and, and the contents of what he's writing here too. Like he, he really does. He again, like you said, it is completely different. The setting really is quite striking. And you know the fact that, again, we've changed points of view, and now we're, we're first hand of Mark Twain, retelling what he has seen again, again, right? And and now to see Hank, but not Hank because he is in delirium. Yeah, right, like, and Mark Twain is watching a man die, yes, as he's and this is, this is hard to read, like this, yeah, it's rough to talk you talk about emotional writing, about connections. And I actually did go out and find a version to look at some of the photos that I know you've been talking about. Oh yeah, the original photos, yeah, my goodness, the photos for this, oh yeah. They have the one where it has the Angel of Death, and then they've got the sixth century and the 19th century being held apart by Angel of Death, with woman and child and Hank on the other side, reaching across, reaching back down through time. And he's standing on
1:27:10
a chasm too. Yes,
Collin 1:27:12
very cool like, yeah, it says delirium, of course, but so real as he's going through this. And this is him calling out to Sandy. Hank thinks that that Mark Twain has come in and that it's Sandy, and he's calling out to her, and he has this, this phrase where he says, Once, he says, Oh, he says, an abyss of 13th century is yawning between you and me. Is worse than death, yeah. And it's all holy moly, like, this is, yeah, he's, doesn't know, he's, like, it was so weird. You were there. And then I dreamed this thing, and there was war and search, and, you know, he, he's trying to piece all these things together, yeah? And so like, yeah, it's real crazy. And then he, then he just did, he dies. And that's, that's the book. He gets up to start saying something, and then the battlements, he dies mid sentence, right? He says, Yeah, man, the battle months turn out, the boom, that's it. That's his last word. And that's the end of the book. Oh, oh my gosh, there's this. The details here, okay, the details of this, that Twain gives, um, I just again, you go from these, these battle scenes, which, by the way, can we talk about how eerily similar that that scene would be to, like, World War One, yeah, true, right. Like, like, I that was, I was thinking about that of just like, how the wires and the trenches and trenches and the gatlings the earthworks, and how they were still in this, like, the, it was just this, this clash of gatlings versus body armor and spears. I was like, what? And then, like, very evocative there. And then he has this phrase, he says he lay muttering incoherently some little time. Then for a time, he lay silent and apparently sinking away towards death. This part made me go, Oh my gosh. Presently, His fingers began to pick busily at the coverlet, and by that sign, I knew that his end was at hand with the first suggestion of the death rattle in his throat, like he's picking out these really fine details to the extent that we haven't had that kind of thing before, like describing people's little tiny movements or like these things. And it's like, oh my gosh. Like it. Oh, this scene was, this was intense, yeah. And when he talks about he says, oh, when he's talking to quote Sandy, he says, don't let me go out of my mind again. Death is nothing. Let it come, but not with those dreams, not with the torture of those hideous dreams. I cannot endure that again, right? So now I have a lot of questions about Hank, right? Hank is clearly an unreliable narrator, right? I. Clearly, I think, at least in my mind, at this, with this revelation from our final chapter, from our final post, our postscript, right? Our postscript tells me Hank is not reliable at all. A little bit, right, so, so now, kind of what you're talking about with, like the battle and the loss and the doing things like it, like we don't know, like we never knew anything about Hank. We only knew what Hank told us, which is clearly not acceptable. Like it almost feels like Hank does have, like trauma, like, is Hank actually like a Civil War veteran, right? Has Hank? Hank has had some sort of mental break, perhaps, right, this, this post traumatic stress or something in his life, or maybe he's just old and, like, going through like, mental collapse or something, but, like, he's, he's not like functionally there. So is, is he made this up? Is this like a mental illness story? Is this a trauma survivor, like trying to deal with the things that he saw and the trauma that he's dealt with and the world that is not the same anymore, like perhaps after a civil war situation where, like, where the world is not the same, and the world cannot be the same, and he's trying to cope with that, and in so doing, has created this fantasy scenario of King Arthur, and this kind of stuff, like, is that what's happening? It's very like, ambiguous, right? And, and, and, clearly, Hank is like, like, he's, I think what it feels like that is could be partially true, because Hank is like, like you said at the end of the story. He's very mad at the ruling class and the people in charge. And the quote like, aristocracy, right? He's very mad at them. So I it feels like these people have let him down right in in real life. And I feel like if he was a person that lived in the middle to late 1800s those people would have been letting him down as well, right? They would have said, do these things? Do these things and cast them aside as soon as the war was over, and like, moved on, we're doing all these bigger, better things, but now there's a person here with all the trauma of that event that's endured, and now they're being left behind by the establishment that sent him to war in the first place. This is very echoey of like the lost generation after World War One, like you just mentioned, right, like with Tolkien, right? Same kind of situation where we had all these big things and there was all these promises, and this is what's going to happen, and as soon as it was over, anyway, moving on, right? So all the people that were actually left to deal with that situation are now just being sort of cast aside as we move on towards progress of something new, right? So, so it almost feels like Hank is lost in there, too, right? I don't really have a lot of answers for this, but I have a lot of questions and thoughts about what actually Hank went through here, because it's very intense, clearly, right? Yeah, and I feel like, I feel like a lot of this through the story, like Hank is in Mark Twain through Hank is saying, like, and I know what I from what I read about some of this stuff, like Mark Twain also thinks, like, King Arthur is stupid, right? He thinks it's lame. We talked about that before, like, during this time, those stories were, like, really popular again, and Mark Twain was basically just, like, Why? Why? Why these are lame too, because these are not, these are not good, nope, right? So I don't know. I don't know if he's saying, right, like, kind of, it's fighting back against, like, oh, this figure is not it, right? It's not, not good, right? But clearly, like, is he saying? Like, I'm trying to figure out how I'm actually performing this into my brain. This is very weird. Like, are all stories of great men and things like that? Are they all bad? Or do you need something like that to be inspirational for first, for certain things, right? Or do they have their place? Or are they all just like trash, not good, right? What would mark twain think about spider man? That's really what we have to ask ourselves. Or would he also be like, bro, what are you doing? Stop it down. I I thought about this, like, that's very no it, you know, there's, there's so many questions here, because I don't think we quite know. Like, how old Hank is at this time, right? Like. Or what's going on here? Because, you know, it does say, like, as sick people do in delirium of, like, what is this illness at this point? What is he working through? And and, yeah, is he pulling because this, you know, I even go to this, not that this would be well understood at this time, but like Alzheimer's and dementia patients like thinking through past experiences, reliving them, recreating things in their minds to rationalize existing thoughts or feelings or how things are parsed through. And you're right going what this person is, this whole story them as a way of concocting the rage against the aristocracy and the leaders that failed them, and how he wanted to tear it all down, and what exactly are the hideous dreams that he's, he's speaking of here. Is it of that final battle, or is it of the, you know, whatever happened to him previously? Like, there's, there is just a lot of unknowns here, but we are basically just brought to a man yearning for a love and a child that existed or did not exist. You know, like, there's so much in here that just this, this book took a turn, these last two chapters, uh, technically three with the post script. Oh, yeah. Like, like a mini chapter itself, yeah, he's such a bombshell. Yeah, it is, it is, yeah, it's pretty crazy. So yeah, we don't know really about Hank's age. We know what he tells us at some point. But again, unreliable narrator, the picture at the end shows death over an old man, so with, like, a big beard and stuff. So, like, I don't know what that means, but, but, yeah, we don't have all the information about Hank. We only have what he gave us, which is clearly not useful, um, so, yeah, yeah. I mean, it also shows him, like, of going, of all that he did and all that he was in control over. You know, what is? What is he? What's he yearning for at this time? Right? He's Yeah, Sandy. Sandy, yeah, right, the person that he wrote off at the beginning, uh huh, yeah, yeah. So yeah, yeah. And that's that. And then it ends with this, the picture of death, having, I guess, in some ends, having been defeated, and all three have been reunited once again, yeah, yeah. It's weird because, like, yeah, I don't really the picture is weird because that the so there's an old man with the beard on the ground, uh huh, with the side sticking out of his chest. But that's the person that was on the other picture with the chasm, right? And then we have, like, actual death gear. So I don't know if that other person is, like, there's hourglass next to them. Yeah, weird, very weird guy. Could that? Okay? Yeah, I am being slain, right? Or the delirium, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, true, yeah, yeah, what? What is that? Because that says because underneath that photo, it does say delirium, of course, but so real, yeah, yeah, so, so, yeah, we don't know. We don't know. You know, maybe he actually was asleep in a cave for 1300 but I don't think so that's yes. So, yeah, oh boy, yeah. Overall, overall, what are your thoughts on the book did, like, just kind of briefly, do you actually, do you end up liking it? Or I know that they're kind of at the beginning, kind of in the first, uh, third of the book, there were some chapters where I think we were both like, all right, what the heck? What is those tangent chapters? Right? We're just like, what? Yeah, those man, this book, if you look at this book and you ask, like, is it consistent through the entire book? I don't know how to answer that. I think at a deeper analysis, you could say yes, of course, it was poking fun and mocking all these various aspects. So you have to read it through that lens of going well, he's writing all of this for a purpose. And so the tedium, the weird, tangential stuff, is all to see, basically, for you to say, see how ridiculous this is. This is stupid. Why are you listening to this? This is why this is nonsense. See, I'm doing the same thing, but because it's not all. It's some random person running about you're not interested anymore. Do you see how ridiculous it is? I understand that it was uneven in that aspect of but also I don't know what I would have done if this whole book was written by like, the last two chapters,
1:40:16
way, way too intense,
Collin 1:40:18
because at least there was a lot of
1:40:20
levity in between, right?
Collin 1:40:22
So, I love the humor. I do. Like the levity. And then when he makes this, this earth contact with, like, boom, like, he's really good at using the like, the heaviness in a very pointed way, like the jail, right? The dungeon stuff, and then, yeah, this, and even the house with the death rattle, right of the family, yeah, like, these super poignant to basically ground all of it back down to say this is what's real. Like, this is all of this stuff is ridiculous, but like, at the end of the day, human suffering, human passion and love. Like, that's what's real. These people doing this other weird stuff, gallantry around. Like, no, he's really able to land and going, this is what was missed with all these King Arthur tales. This was what was wrong. Like, we know now we can look back and see the suffering and see these things happening. But again, that's all commentary. It was hard to get through at times. Just like, Okay, let's get through this. It was completely unpredictable at every stage. It was definitely unpredictable at every stage so many just like, I mean, just like the and I started shooting and gatling guns and telephones are there and like, and
1:41:42
I'm still not quite over that, so I whipped out my Dragoon revolver.
Collin 1:41:47
What do you mean? Where'd that come from? Yes, those add such points of absurdity that they're just hilarious, like there are, so they're great. So overall, this is a book just so filled with example after example after example of fantastic writing and storytelling and completely out of nowhere, non sequiturs, things happening, but they all are kind of to an end. So I did enjoy this book, even though that there were times where I was ready to kind of flip to the next chapter, because I was like, I don't I'm not really feeling this. Yeah, I kind of agree with that part, right? I stand by my uh, earlier comparison to Melville, right? Because I think everyone agrees that Moby Dick is an amazing novel, right? And everyone agrees that Moby Dick has chapters you can just skip, yeah, right. I feel like, right. Like, it's very good. It's very interesting, like, but then he goes on talking about, like, whale anatomy for like, ever, right? And so and so. Like Twain in the beginning, there's a couple chapters in there where they're just, it's all like a tangent rant about something, right now it is on topic, right? Like whale anatomy, right? It is kind of important to the story, because you're, you're what you're getting is, like, the reasoning behind, like, what Hank is thinking about, right? You're getting his character and his personality and his thoughts and he's, he's, like, expressing his frustrations about how things are so similar in the modern world and the sixth century that it's really annoying, right? Yeah? Like, it goes on for too long, you know. And he's, like, very specific. But again, it's because of the satirical nature of the book. And again, if you were reading this in like, 1890 you would probably be like, Yep, got it. So again, you know, 130 years later, it's a little trickier to pin that down, but yeah, overall, I really like it too. Like, I think the writing, again, you just can't escape the writing. It's like, so good. And like, a lot of the stuff is humorous, and once, after kind of somewhere in that third to halfway mark where the the side ranting chapters, like went away, and the whole rest of it was like very continuous. And there was like just the continuity between all the chapters was there all the time. He would still go off on like little random brands. But it was only like a paragraph or two. But paragraph or two, so it was, like, much more contained and stuff. So after that, it really flowed a lot better. And it was just much more enjoyable and, like, readable, for sure, right? So, so I overall, I would say, Yeah, this book is pretty good. I like it a lot. Yeah. A two thumbs up, yeah. And there you go, yeah, the old brother, two thumbs up. There you go. Who would have guessed Mark Twain? We got that Wow. But still I didn't know. I never read it before. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, that leaves us with the Mark Twain code of the week, the final one. The final one. Now, I will say this may be a feature that has to show up from time to time, because there's so many good marks, but that if I can remember, and I find one that's poignant to something that we've talked Ah, yes, then I may bring one or two back here and there, but for now, but for now, the farewell chapter of the march, 24 of the week. So in fitting closing, right? Gonna brighten it up here. A little bit good as I accidentally closed the I was on looking for this. All right, March, 24 of the week for our final week, our final week of the kinetic Yankee and King Arthur SCorp, good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life.
1:46:12
Bang.
1:46:17
Nice.
1:46:20
There you go. Yeah, nice. I like it,
Collin 1:46:24
yes. And in closing, closing, haiku I did. I was somebody was asked me today, one of my kids like, what are you doing after school? I was like, I gotta finish my Haiku. And they were like, what? I was like, oh, never mind. Don't worry about
1:46:40
that. I I really caught him off guard
Collin 1:46:45
without so this one is in honor of Barney.
1:46:52
Okay, new environment,
Collin 1:46:56
belly rubs. Bring belonging
1:47:00
home, away from home.
1:47:12
Barney,
1:47:13
Yeah, glad he had a good time. Yes,
1:47:18
we'll wait for his review. Yeah, wait
1:47:19
for his review. See what's up. Yeah, good,
1:47:22
okay, well, well, I have a This, this.
Collin 1:47:29
I still have to feel like I gotta process that last bit of that book, because,
1:47:32
for sure,
1:47:33
I'm gonna be
Collin 1:47:36
so yeah, see if I can carry that through the rest of the week. But not really not doing that. Our challenge we talked about, do you wanna do it next week? Or you wanna
1:47:45
do it? Yes, we can do hold on. Let me look at Greek. I
1:47:49
think next week should be fine.
Collin 1:47:52
Okay, so surprise challenge upcoming for next week in honor of the conclusion of Connecticut here on this court. Yes, oh,
1:48:03
okay. All right,
1:48:05
we'll do that next week list.
1:48:10
Yes, all right, do I can do
1:48:15
okay. Well, we will do that and we'll see what we come up with. Okay, done. Okay. Well, Love you. Love you too. Bye,
1:48:26
bye. You.