rat king of coax

It’s a big day for Collin. Brandon is on a wellness break. We offer you our “No Nazi Guarantee”

• Collin has new headphones…

• Brandon is on a wellness break

• TB in Kansas

• Collin turned it off

• More WWI Death Metal

• Kanonenfieber: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanonenfieber

• No Nazi Guarantee

• A Farewell to Arms Chapters 19 - 24

• Collin’s Haiku

• Climbing mountain peaks,

• casting nets for hidden clues,

• treasures shine below.

Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

headphone cushions, wellness break, stomach flu, podcast recording, audio equipment, Sennheiser headphones, tuberculosis outbreak, World War One, death metal, Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, jaundice, self-medication, relationship dynamics, military service, hotel room, illusion, mirrors, decoy, make believe, war machine, coping strategies, temporary life, reality, fantasy, oppressive surroundings, transition, esthetic opulence, crowded train, emotional turmoil

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, Rat King of coax,

Brandon  00:18

ahoy. Oh boy. Oh is

Collin  00:21

it going

Brandon  00:23

Oh, all right, I guess. How are you Oh? I

Collin  00:26

Yes, it is. It is. What is it? Thursday? Yes, yeah, it's big, big, big day. Big Thursday, big Thursday, monumental Thursday. Today is a day of of new beginnings and laying aside the past and embracing the future.

Brandon  00:53

What sounds very ominous. I

Collin  00:57

i i changed out my headphone cushions today and have a new set on right now that I'm wearing

Brandon  01:04

gas. However shall you cope with such a development?

Collin  01:16

I was if I felt weighty, I was like, Oh, wow. These are, these are the headphone cushions that came with my I'm still wearing the headphones themselves. The cushions are just completely blitzed after five years of all the recordings of my head. And so I like they had, they were, like, kind of like a faux leather and they were always really hot and but they were great over, like, over ears, not on ears, but like, over, like, studio monitors. Great. I love them, but they the past six months have been like, flaking off. And so as soon as I'm done recording, I have like, black flecks of this stuff in my hair, and then then they start to separate. And the, like, the foam was actually visible when I was when I was wearing these. And so finally, I was like, okay, like, it is time for me to do something different. So I online, did some Googling, and not only did I replace these, but upgrade maybe I found who knew. Who knew that you could get these. They are they are perforated, so they are not supposed to be quite as hot. And I am very much looking forward to this. So this is the first recording in these and I will try and keep you abreast of personal situation. Your temperature is going so my head. I'm gonna eat

Brandon  02:53

in the ear. Well, I don't really know. I guess, like after I sitting here long enough, the room just starts getting warm, but I figured that's just because I'm here with the light. I'm here with the light on right, because, like, so I don't really know. I don't know because I wear mine all the time. No, I don't really pay attention to this kind of thing. But I also do the, like, I'm a very chronic like, I do the pull it back so I just have it on, like, one ear thing a lot of times, sure, not when I'm recording this usually, because I like to have it both on but like when I'm just, like listening and using it for other things, I'm a very just, like one ear like that, so that maybe I don't know, I don't know. Well, I'm excited for you on this new journey of perforated ear coverings. So

Collin  03:42

if I seem off, it's the

Brandon  03:44

head cushion, okay? It's the adjustment, the adjustment period, right? I'm

Collin  03:48

still getting used to it. It's a new equilibrium in my life. I'm not, I'm unsure. Oh, fair. My head feels, feels light and airy and feels so, yeah, those came in. And what really kicked all this off was I was having a little bit of congestion the other day, and Megan and I were recording a podcast together, and her headphones that she were was using were like they were our very, very, very first pair. And then I quickly converted over to ones I use now, and we kept those on for a second one. And I was basically like, yelling in the microphone, and those other headphones were like, are really sensitive, and they are just, they are they boost everything, and you can't turn it down, okay, to make it manageable. And finally, she was, I was like, because I was like, turning Alder down, I can't even hear myself. And she's like, Are you kidding me? So we switched headphones, and I put these on that I have literally not have on my head in four and a half years, maybe. And I was like, Oh my gosh. This is unbearable. This is so sorry I didn't Okay. Well now I feel bad. And so I was like, well, I need to buy a replacement. I'm just gonna get you the same ones that I have. Because she was like, Oh, well, these are really nice. And I was like, I know, I know. And so I was on there, and I was like, you know, if I'm getting another headphone set, I just need to get just need to go for the go for the head cushion, the cushions. And I did those. So I didn't know that you could replace them until I saw those. So thought that was pretty, pretty.

Brandon  05:31

Yeah, I don't. I'm not going to take mine off currently to look at them. But like, I don't know if these even come off. I mean, I guess they might. But like, these aren't like, the, I don't know. They don't like the fanciest ones ever. They're just like, kind of, okay, so, like, I don't know if, I don't know. I don't even know if mine are removable. I didn't. I've never actually thought about this problem before. Yeah, Mike, and I don't know. I mean, I get, I don't.

Collin  05:58

I just sent you a picture of the of what, of what I was using, and then what I what I changed to, you can see just how, how horrible the old ones were.

Brandon  06:11

Yeah, that's basically gone. This looks like this looks like the foam that, all that you can see is foam, and it looks like foam that should be on, like a Sony Walkman on ear headphone, right? That's what it looks like. Like those weird things that came with the Walkman. That's what looks like. That's, I don't know,

Collin  06:31

uh huh. Interestingly, these are Sony headphones. So

Brandon  06:33

there you go. Not

Collin  06:36

Walkman headphones, but okay, then you could see like they had completely busted out from the middle, and it was just just the foam and nothing around them. So they actually felt really nice, because they were very light on my head, like there was space galore. But they don't look nice, and I was tired of getting black flex on my face, so I changed them. And you can see the ones on the right. They got little, like, little holes in them. Yeah, see, I don't know, I don't know about these, but co plan, I did. I did take a few minutes to see if I could get different colors, because I was, like, always looking to add more color to the life here. And recording and audio equipment is pretty much just like, it's black, it's black. That's true. It's silver, silver, silver. Yeah, could get some silver in there. But, like, no, nobody has come out and made, like, fuchsia. I was like, I would have, I would have paid.

Brandon  07:33

I feel like this is a missed opportunity. That's like, why is that not a thing? Honest? On a completely unrelated note, stay tuned for the oh brother colored headphone option coming

Collin  07:53

up now, truthfully, did I do like a super deep dive in this note? But it was on Amazon, and I figured, like this should be somewhat accessible anyway, now, so, yeah, I No, no, I did not find color upgrade options for headphone cushions. Okay,

Brandon  08:09

yeah, that's our that's our product. Here we found it. We found it opening in the market column. We have to pounce on this, we

Collin  08:18

and I don't. And the thing is, is that you can get, like, crazy headphones, like the gamer headphones and like, headphones and that stuff. I just want to take the black headphone cushions and I just want to make them green. Like, can I just make them like, that's all I want. I want the Oh, yeah, right, that's why. Why would you not do that? Why would you not have like, they're the same, like, high quality studio. These are, these are ridiculous. I don't know why. Like, I don't need these, but these are, like, these are sony MDR, 7506, even say professional on them.

Brandon  08:53

It's like, and that's what I want. But I just want to, like, purple. Come on. Why is that bad? It's not not to, not decide, or fighter here, or anything, but I do love my Sennheiser headphones. All awful hashtag, non sponsored, but hey, Sennheiser.

Collin  09:11

No, those the Sennheiser we I, I look, I think I know which ones you have, because

Brandon  09:18

I believe we talked about this because I broke my other ones, yes, yes, it was a sad day. I had a pair of scents hiders forever, like the old like they were, like, weird kind of, but they were like, on air kind of, and they were fantastic. And I wore I had them for a billion years, and when they broke, I was so sad. And then I used my replacement audio technicas that I had had, I think you bought them for me, like when I was in high school. And so they lasted like, a bazillion years, yeah, and then they disintegrated. And so I was like, Okay, well, yeah, this is they just like, stop working. They're just like, Nope, we're just done now, after like, 15 years. We cannot continued. We fought the good fight, but we cannot, wow.

Collin  10:14

Yeah, I think, because I've seen the Sennheisers that you have, and I did look into those, they are good. I think they're very comfortable. Yeah, super comfortable. I know Sennheisers are also, they're really well known for the open back.

Brandon  10:27

Oh, yeah, I don't have any of that stuff.

Collin  10:31

No, I have no need for that either. And also that it's that's like, one of the last things you want to do when recording a podcast is awful. It's like, Oh, I've brought the head. I bought the I brought the speakers even closer to the microphone than they were before.

Brandon  10:44

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Collin  10:48

Wait a minute. Oh no, I think I'm doing this. I think I'm doing this all

Brandon  10:52

wrong. Yeah. So maybe,

Collin  10:59

but so, yeah, we made that's so upgrades all around here, you know, stuff and things, cushions, pretty

Brandon  11:11

good. Well, I was, I may have misrepresented my situation slightly when I said it's going because actually it's kind of stopped. So, yeah, we're we it's everything is stopped here. So we are officially on a wellness break at school, because so many people have stomach flu and other flu type situations that we are. We've canceled school for tomorrow and canceled the professional development day on Monday. Oh my gosh, surprise, a four day weekend baby like a lot of the schools around us are like, everybody has flu and it's like, gnarly flu. Like, this flu is like, gross flu. Like, it's not pleasant, and, like, a lot of it's like the stomach bug, right? But instead of the, the way that the school nurse sort of described it is that, you know, the, like, traditional kind of, like 24 hour stomach, blue bug thing like that. Yeah, no, it's like 48 to 72 hours. So I've had people gone. We've had, like, the other day we had, uh, like a fourth of the sixth grade was gone. Granted, we don't have just like, tons of children, because it's a very small school, but like, statistically, that fourth of my class, like the sixth grade, was not at school. This happened, like, several days in a row, and it was like, it was like different. It was like switching kids, right? But it was like, still the same. Basic percentage was quite low. And so that, coupled with we also have a lot, I think today, we had a lot of teachers absent as well. So it's like double whammy. You know, got the, got the big double whammy of students and the teachers not at school. So that a fun time. So yeah, we are. We've actually sort of stopped currently. So and these are for me tomorrow.

Collin  13:42

And these, and I'm guessing these are also not like home learning days. No,

Brandon  13:47

no, this is not, this is not going to be classified as a home learning day. Nope, just outski. And we are definitely not the first school in the area that's done this. This in the last couple weeks, right? There was several other schools in the vicinity have, like, in the past few weeks, been like, yeah, no, we're just yeah, no school, no school. Friday, see you later. Like, wow. Like, oh no. That's, that's great.

Collin  14:22

We, wow, I, okay, yeah, yeah, that's terrifying. Okay,

Brandon  14:30

yeah, so that's a fun and exciting. So, so what is where we are do with your sudden like, yeah, I don't know, four day weekend, yeah, little surprised, like, Oh, what am I gonna do tomorrow? Not a lot, probably, but yeah, because, you know, I didn't have anything planned. Because, like, sure, I was planning on going to work and talking about weather. So, like, we right? I. It depends what we puts a big kink in our I told the kids, it's like, Alright, we're gonna have to restructure next week. Because I told them all, because we were supposed to be out, like, it's they were supposed to be out of school Monday anyway. So, like, we had kind of gone over the plan and taught, we have a presentation coming up, right? And we're talking about when their quiz was going to be and all that stuff. And I was like, all that stuff. And I was like, All right, time out. We need to talk. Gotta move some things around here. So yeah, we're gonna,

Collin  15:41

I can't we've heard people who have been talk oh so, like, So and so is sick, or people in your church were like, okay, yeah, there's they're sick, or they're not gonna be here this week, and that kind of stuff. But I didn't

Brandon  15:56

know, sitting well, okay, load up on that. Vitamins, vitamin C there and like, and some of our kids, right? We they had this thing where they, like, the fever went away, you know, they maybe had, like, a fever, whatever, and they that went away, but, like, the fever was down, or maybe broke up. But their stomach was not, like, prepared, right? It was just like, Oh no, because we had a couple kids who, like, they came back for a day and they're like, no, just kidding. I actually still feel terrible, so I'm gonna be oh and had, you know one kid they came back and then, like, after lunch, they're like, actually, no, this. Yeah, because I was kind of, I kind of figured, like, hey, maybe if you have a stomach illness and you come to school on pizza day, um, maybe that's not a good combo, right? Like, feel like something's gone wrong there, right? When your lunch choices are pizza or chicken strips feel like the stomach that's been sick is not really ready to rock that. No, not good choice there. Neither of those greasy food options is really just what you need in your life. So not helping people get over their stomach illness,

Collin  17:19

right? That's just gonna be a real good stomach coding, yeah, in there and everything,

Brandon  17:26

wow, yeah. So it's, uh, it's pretty rough, which, yeah, has been rough because we're doing like, big projects this week, and so it's been kind of stressful. But like, okay, who's gone today? Oh, dang it. Okay. Who's gone here? Oh, god, yeah, okay, this, where is this person at? Like, so there's gonna be definitely, like, a couple people for when we're doing our presentations, right? Like, because we're gonna do that next Wednesday now, right? So, like, it's gonna be kind of like, Um, okay, well, just join a group, just to see if your friends will take you and just like, I'll help them. And you can just like, You know what I mean? Like, yeah, because you're going to come back and we're going to present. So it's like, well, I don't want to make you do this whole thing yourself, because it's like a whole do an experiment in front of the class thing and blah blah. So, like, oh, sure, help them just get over, yeah,

Speaker 1  18:26

yeah. That's, it's quite a lot to just say, Okay, you do this, and hopefully you'll have some help maybe. Like, yeah, yeah. So it's like, but I, you know, I also want to, I'm not. I'm not really, I don't feel just great about like,

Brandon  18:42

because, like, sometimes, if they're still gone, I may, I'll give them, like, an alternate assignment, right? I'll give something different to do, obviously, like, I don't really like sending them home stuff when they're sick, right? Because sometimes they'll be like, Oh, if you if they have work, you could send it home with their sibling, like, your brother's sick, like, I don't, like, don't worry about it. They can do it later. Like, it's fine. They can take it home later on. I'm not gonna sit at home when they're like, ill, like, trying to make them do stuff when they're not feeling good. That's

Collin  19:14

no,

Brandon  19:18

no. They can. Plus all these you talk to talk to him about what it is anyway, and, like, help explain stuff. So, like, just, we'll get you later. Don't worry. But I've had, I have had several people like, Hey, you can send it home with the their sibling. Like, Nah, it's fine. No, nope, no offense, but I'd rather not like do that and get so that's the, that's the big goings on here, actually, yeah, we've actually stopped and yeah, Santa big. Thing, right? They're like, hey, yeah, stay home. Get well, don't go do stuff. Uh, all, like, everything is canceled. Like, Homecoming is canceled. Like, that's where we're at, because that was supposed to be tomorrow. Like so many, like, high schoolers and like, half the basketball team is sick anyway. So, like,

Collin  20:21

Yeah, not really gonna be much for that, right? And,

Brandon  20:25

yeah, yeah. So I've heard that they've been like, mega ill so, and of course, because they're teenage boys, they're like, still trying to come to practice, like, Guys, guys, this is not what are you doing? Stop it. No, I so, yeah, that's a that's a big bummer, probably for some people, but yeah, so homecoming Tuesday, Homecoming surprise. Yeah, okay, hey, you

Collin  20:57

know. You know better, better late than never, and also, hopefully everyone's feeling, well,

Brandon  21:03

true, but yeah, they've been, they've been canceling, like, game, like, I get we, they just send out, because we're just such a small school, right? They just send out emails to, like, to everybody, right, you know? And so like, this week and some of last week, I just will randomly get an email through the day, like, hey, the basketball game this evening is canceled because the other team is all sick. And like, you know, like, this other, this other school had to cancel. Like, we've canceled, like, several ballgame like, four, five, maybe, like, because either our team or their team are sick, so it's like, good, yay. This is,

Collin  21:52

yeah, well, not much for it, so we'll just enjoy

Brandon  21:57

this time. Yeah, we got the two healthy basketball players. So yes, no games, okay, just

Collin  22:04

to be a one on one game today, everyone's putting, oh yeah, we could play like three on three balls that

Brandon  22:10

would see, that's what you need. That would be fun, right? This one doesn't count. We're just gonna play for funsies. You guys can i Yeah. Can you imagine how mad parents would be if that happened, like, because parents already take basketball, like, way too seriously, so that would they would be super grumpy about

Speaker 2  22:39

that. Surely. Yeah, it's been wild, like, Oh my gosh. So I'm glad that hopefully, hopefully we can get this out of here and stay away. Stay away from Kansas. Also, I don't know if you heard about this, don't go to Kansas. Well. I mean, I do that on a normal but why? What did? What did they do? Oh, have you not heard about the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas? Okay, yeah, don't go to Karen. Okay. Doc Holliday once is in your Yeah, right. What the heck you would like a word.

Brandon  23:22

Oh, man, yeah, it's, uh, there's a wacky one for you not expecting that to happen. So one expects

Collin  23:28

the

Speaker 2  23:37

man, what a you know, man, what just what an awesome, awesome time that we we live in, you know? Yeah, that's what it is. Awesome could be hooray.

Brandon  23:58

Good gravy. Oh my

Collin  24:00

gosh, yeah. Well, then there's, there's that, yeah,

Brandon  24:10

moving somewhere. John Green is very upset. Okay, he's very mad about this. Very not okay. And he should be, should be mad. I'm with you, John, I'm grumpy. In 2025 we have to hear the words tuberculosis, outbreak. Tuberculosis, yeah, man, I would fully accept this in 1825 okay, like, I'd be like, Okay, it's a thing that happened. Not 2025 Come on. Not there. Oh, yeah, yeah. Other than that, no. Uh, week was going okay, right? Just doing some weather talk. You know, it's very nice doing weather science this time of year, because you can be like, uh, like, whatever you're talking like, how? The things you're talking about, you can be like, Oh, look, there it is, right outside right now, exactly, you'd be like, Oh, today we go. We're talking about weather fronts. Like, hey guys, you know what happens when there's an occluded front moving through an area? Oh, look out the window.

Collin  25:22

Look over here,

Brandon  25:25

the surface, the surface weather map for this morning. I was like, Look all the things we just talked about right here. Oh, in your neck of the woods, a lamb, like, literally everything we discussed, like, have a fake weather map that I showed them, and they had to identify the parts of I was like, Hey, you're never going to believe this. Here's a real weather map from this morning complex with all of the parts that we just discussed. Right here. Isn't that a doozy, right? It was very handy, right? Incredibly handy, right? Yay. So that's,

Collin  26:05

well, having it, yeah, having it right on hand is able to that's nice. I like that, yeah, well, at least they get some first hand acknowledge experience too. So they it's not just all theory, not just a theory, theoretical weather stuff. You know that real, real weather that you can look at, you know, that's what you need.

Brandon  26:22

I mean, it was raining, so we, like, couldn't go outside to look at it, but it was there.

Collin  26:27

Fine, fine.

Brandon  26:30

Look here. It is amazing. I found

Collin  26:33

it, yeah, and stuffs. Oh, you know, I Yeah, the weather, it's been warming up, but I've still been, we've still been hanging inside quite a bit. I undertook a an interesting I decided I wanted to rearrange all of our like Wi Fi equipment and stuff. It was down in the basement, but I was having some connectivity issues. Are I have been really trying to push, put off getting, upgrading and getting new, a new Wi Fi thing. It's like, it's coming up on seven years old. And I'm like, I don't, I just need any I don't just please. So I rearranged our entire system, and I of course, it is one of those projects where it's like, Okay, I just need to move these things from here into this little space. Oh, that's not how

Brandon  27:36

this works, though, right? We know. We know. Because

Collin  27:38

first, like, you have to prepare the way. It's like, okay, well, I know wherever they're going, so I have to make that area proper for this. So sure, it's like, the TV stand, TV stand. So I've got to, like, take everything off. I'm dusting, and then I'm, like, moving it, and then I go, Oh, man. Okay, now I gotta clean underneath the TV stand, because that's not a place that I cleaned on a, you know, ever like under, under the stand, like against the floor, as I'm like, Oh, I gotta clean that, moving that. And then I realized that the place that I wanted to move it back when we first moved in, and we had the cable guy come in. And not that we have cable, but the internet guy come in, yeah, this house was wired to within an inch of its life to have coax cable into every room. So super

Brandon  28:33

handy cable that you need all the weight.

Collin  28:37

Now this is great, if, like, again, literally every room had a cable going to it, because everybody obviously wanted 20 years ago when they did this big renovation for this home. But, but what happens then is that actually degrades the signal, and it means that no one, no one of those is a strong signal, because there's so many connections, so many wires. Yeah, well. And just, like, fasteners and extensions and like, it would run into this pegboard, and then, like, there was 17 connections coming off of that, oh. And like, yeah, oh yeah, no, it's a rat's nest in the basement. And it makes, it does make me cringe every literally, every time I look at it, I'm like, I just, I want to rip all of these down, and I would anyway.

Brandon  29:26

And I came one step closer today, I really

Collin  29:30

did. But then I realized that, oh, the cable that goes like i At first, I was just going to my plan was okay, because I had a drop where I could take I was going to stick an Ethernet cable, and I was going to have the modem in the basement, because it can just be in the basement. But then I was going to run an Ethernet cable through the floor joists, up a wall, and, like, to a drop that I could, I could get to. Okay? I was like. I was like, Well, why don't why would I the only long Ethernet cable that I actually have is actually not a. Speedy is the one that's there now, because it's short and I just bought that one. I don't have to buy, you know, 20 feet of Ethernet cable. No, why don't they know if there's a coax cable here. Let me just use the coax. Well, then I realized that I had it disconnected all of these things from this rat, rat's nest of coax, because the guy had said that it degrades the thing. So I had actually gotten rid of everything, and I just had it coming. It came from the outside, directly into my modem, and then from there it did Wi Fi, right? And there was no other connections. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. But I had to lean up to my rat's nest, and I had to undo so then I had to find the one cable that went up to the room that I needed, trace it through my 100 year old floor joists and find it. And it's like getting this little splitter and all this stuff.

Brandon  30:57

This does not sound very fun and exciting. I'm not gonna lie to you, this is not just like,

Collin  31:02

No, no. This was this, of course, like, you know, I texted Megan before I was like, Hey, I'm just gonna do this.

Brandon  31:13

Last words, yeah, an hour

Collin  31:14

and a half later. And then, of course, of course, I'm like, because now I've got a new arrangement. All the items are like, well, the lengths of Ethernet cord that I used before are now not really appropriate for this new situation, so I need to re evaluate all the Ethernet cable legs to make sure, just like, What am I doing with my love I got them all set up and everything taken care of, and then, because I touched it right, this thing had sat un, unbothered for four years, like not even messed with. It just was down there, chugging away because I messed it messed now, it's all wonky, right? Well, I use a thing called Plex to distribute digital copies of things that I have, and it acts as a little media server, okay? And it runs on a little, tiny server box. Well, all of a sudden it just completely stopped operating and would not stay on. And it would say, like, manually, shut off, manually. I'm going all down these. I mean, I ran in, I was in Reddit threads, but no, I was in, was in Reddit threads. And that's never a place that you want to find yourself and people, if you find yourself in a Reddit in a Reddit thread and you're going to a second Reddit thread, you're in trouble.

Brandon  32:48

Yeah, what I

Collin  32:50

did summarize was basically that it because at some point there was an update, but because the IP and everything was completely stable. It didn't it didn't trip anything. But other people several weeks ago had been reporting a problem, but I didn't know that, because I didn't have a problem. So I didn't go there, but now that I was there, this was a problem that was brewing and percolating. And what did they say? They said, Whatever you do, don't turn it off until you've done this patch. Oh, so after having turned it off, obviously, yeah, obviously, because I had to move it, I'm left. And the only thing that I could do, the only remedy was I had to burn I could keep the media files, but I had to burn down the plaques and oh no, start from ground to 00.

Brandon  33:55

No.

Collin  33:58

All of the watch history, all of my stars, all of the like categories that I had put on, things gone, God, Oh,

Brandon  34:11

wow.

Collin  34:12

And I have, there are some, there are some things in there, there, it's like, well, that Plex doesn't know how to handle. And so I had gone in and had very, like, carefully done the title. You can do this matching thing of like, you just manually tell it. You say, this file is this thing. I know you don't believe me, but it is yeah, because sometimes Yeah, like, like, so we have, we had a Megan loves lost, and we actually had DVDs of lost and so I had made copies of those for a digital backup, right? That's what you do. So we have those, and Plex came back online. It was like, it was like, You mean the four seasons of the blood lost, anti it was like, it thought this was something like, totally weird. And I was like, nope, nope. It's, it's. Lost, and we lots of things like that. So that's also now like, oh, oh, that was a, that's a project now that I've given myself for the rest of my rest of the year, oh,

Brandon  35:11

yeah, because you'll find one thing and be like, I'll

Collin  35:14

find the one, yeah. And I, it wasn't like I had done all of that immediately in the first place, right? That took me a year or two to, like, flush it all out. And sometimes we'll do a random like, I know you said this, but I think it's really it's like, no, stop it.

Brandon  35:31

Get back in the box. That's not what we're talking about. And

Collin  35:35

also, for some movies, it's like, oh, well, I actually need to convert this to a different format, because it plays better. All that's gone. All the optimized versions are gone. It's gone, gone. And that was just like I had. I had to futz with it. That's what I had. I just had to let me just see if I can make this a little bit better. And now I'm staring at it, and I've got a tab pulled over here, and I'm

Brandon  35:59

looking at this.

Speaker 1  36:10

Oh, no, leave things alone. Just leave it, leave it, leave it. But anyway, so that's what I did this week. That was my last fun bit? Yeah, it's not fun at all. Not literally, not even a little bit. Yeah, right. Well, I have a

Brandon  36:32

smaller toe into the world of World War One, black and death metal if you're interested. Oh

Collin  36:42

yes, yep, I need an update on this. I tried to explain this to Megan, and she was, well, anyway,

Brandon  36:49

yeah, not as sounds awesome, right, obviously. So I didn't get a chance to listen to as much of this pan. They have a like couple albums. Maybe if I did listen to, like the first one, I would be interested in listening to the I may listen to the newest one, because, like, just to see if it's any different. But I found this band called canon fava, right? I'll send you the spelling of that. It's German, obviously, yeah. It means, like, Canon frenzy, kind of like Shell Shock is what there is, what it means, right, interesting, right? It's like the German version. So this man is particularly interesting because it's a dude, right? Like, oh, there's like a person. It seems it's just like a guy who is, like, they his, they just, like, of the internet, I guess he goes by the name noise, like, he's just like an anonymous dude that's done this band, like, he performs with people, right? There's like, people from other bands that he performs with live, the live show, I guess, allegedly, but like, they just wear masks. So it's literally just like an anonymous band, kind of so that's kind of cool. So the fact that it's like mostly, you can definitely tell it's mostly one guy, because kind of, in the middle of the album I was listening to, it just kind of starts getting, like, there's a lot of same Enos happening, right? There's some pretty cool, like, riffs and stuff, but like, there is a lot of same Enos, right? He is also German and sings in German, so like, oh, I can't, you know, I have no real thoughts on the lyrics, because, like they're in German, they sound cool. I guess you know what

Collin  38:55

right sounding cool is half the battle. Yeah,

Brandon  38:58

allegedly, according to the Wikipedia article, not who knows if that's actually true, but he was inspired to kind of start this project after reading some diaries from his great grandfather, which who was in World War One, right? So that's kind of his like starting point, right? It is similar to 1914 and then it's like, very like, they they do the thing where they use, like, a lot of like sound clips and like other stuff to, like, bolster the thing. And it is a lot like, it's

Collin  39:34

very like, it's a lot slower, right? It's very like doomy, like slow,

Brandon  39:47

not like, just like straight ahead blast beat death metal all the time, which is like, I don't like that. So this is better, because it's like more like sludgy, almost, right? It's like a slower, refier. There is. Like, heavy blast, beauty influences in there. But like, yeah, it's like a groovier type situation, right?

Collin  40:06

So it's pretty cool. It's

Brandon  40:08

not bad, not bad. It's definitely okay. It starts to sound kind of samey in the middle, right through the middle. It's kind of like, what is didn't I hear this already? What's going on? Right? Again, this is an outsider's perspective. I'm not of this type of metal enthusiast. Okay, sure, so. But like, it wasn't too bad, right? It's not too bad. So that was the other that's what I listened to this week. I like, was this guy, right? And his his band here, let's see if I can actually spell this and get it. I'll just send you this. I'll just link this thing. Yeah, that we're actually so, yeah, this is what it was. So, yeah, I had, I did find another band, right, that I was gonna try to listen to. But then I read, I read an article about them, and it was like, yeah, no, these guys are okay with Nazis. And I was like, Nope, not gonna talk about them. So, you know, there, yeah, not them, nope, nope, nope. That's not Yeah, that's not cool. We don't like that. So this one, though, this one's better, okay, this one together, careful, right? People like getting all excited about, like,

Collin  41:25

No, not here,

Brandon  41:28

brother, no Nazi guarantee, yeah, just wanna make sure we know this, yeah, this is officially, it's officially stamped, right? No Nazis allowed, all right, is what we gotta remember. It's no good, bad, right? No, bueno, no, no, no. So yes, all right, I'm just gonna see this. I just screenshot of the page. No, it's important. It's important to know, right? It's important for listeners know that Nazis are not welcome here. I mean, is, oh, yeah, I was not gonna get that. What's Yeah, it's spelled in German, so it's like, um, what? Yep, Collin fighting, yeah. So that's what I did this week. Also listen to some of that. I like it while cooking, question mark, like, that's kind of, you know, so let's do a death metal law making pizza country. That's just what you do, right? Just so casual. Why not? That's what all the cool kids are doing. Yeah, I guess so. So there we go. There's this week's metal band here. We'll continue the Nazi screening process and get those out of there and see If we have any other ones for next week.

Collin  43:02

Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, speaking of no Nazis mentioned, that's true

Brandon  43:08

so far. Well, I mean, little early, but yes, a little early. I did the thing again where I forgot to mark where I started, because I'm a numpty, oh, and only ever remember to put the bookmark

Collin  43:24

in the end of the thing. Yes, I am reading on a e reader, and I forgot to tab all the way back to a lot of presses a good slide is true, but I don't want to, yeah, I think it

Brandon  43:39

was 13, right? Did we say that we started this professional show? Ladies and gentlemen, by the way, case you are new here.

Collin  43:49

Was it? No, no, that's wrong. That's last time it should be nice, yeah, 19, yes. 19, yes, I should say. Was like, I

Brandon  43:56

hmm, I just did. I just slipped to chapter 13. Was like, No, that's wrong. It's that's scary. Yeah, this is

Collin  44:07

these, these next chapters, if I had to, if I had to summarize these in like, I don't know, like I'm trying my best to not get caught too far up into this and just read it. But also, he weaves in so many themes here, like I'm already sensitive to that, to the hot theme, right? And kind of what

Brandon  44:32

I have some comments about that this time, just picking up here

Collin  44:37

a full like my, my one word here is drinking.

Brandon  44:43

Oh, yeah. This is a Hemingway classic, staple, Hemingway. This is classic. You read any Hemingway. This comes up a lot. Like, I don't know how people physically do this. Like, this is, yeah, I. I Yep, like, there's a lot, there's a lot. And that comes back later too, with the towards the end here, but yeah, this is just kind of like, 19. They're just kind of like, yeah, the is that the one the summer went on that way. I do not remember much about the day, except they were hot, hot. Ah, okay, yep. This one is kind of like, yeah. It's just kind of like, uh, what am I doing now? Because I'm hanging out here and he doesn't really have anything to do, because he's just sort of convalescing. So it's like, kind of this strange mix of like, waiting, right? It kind of goes back to that theme of waiting, because a lot of World War One is like, waiting right, like the trenches and the stuff is just waiting, but now he's just waiting in Milan, like he can't really go anywhere, but he also can't really do anything, and he can't go back to the army yet, because he's still broken, but he can't go anywhere else either, because he has to go back to the hospital. Like he's just kind of waiting around. Like, yeah, a lot of these chapters are just filled with, like, nothing, but it, it kind of it. It builds the like melancholy of kind of the whole story. Oh my gosh, yeah. Think that's a good word to describe most of what's happening right now. It's just like melancholy,

Collin  46:32

and really how they are in their like, truly, in their own little world of of the war. What really is that I experienced it through newspapers, because he's kind of okay, right? He's kind of on the way back in of recovery. He's going through the motions here. They're just living this life, and it really is like truly own little bubble, like escapism, almost, of continue to live in their own version of reality, that there's no real consequences at this, in these, in these couple chapters, and what we have been experiencing, it's like, you know, one might almost given some of the other themes that come up Here, like it's almost this, like, honeymoon phase, yeah, kind of like, there's just, there's no, really, we're just here, and there's just time and where everyone's happy and we love each other, and,

Brandon  47:31

right, yeah? I mean, that's why he in the in this, like, I guess it's almost like a scene, right? It's kind of what, how I think about this is like he goes and he's going back, and he stops in the thing, and he meets, just like, those singers and the captain guy or whatever, and they just, like, start talking about stuff. And there's kind of going on about their touring, and they're singing for people, and they're giving him crap because he sings in Italian really bad. And they're like, yeah, he sings so bad. They threw benches at him. Like, it's just so

Collin  47:59

Oh. And then he says, yeah, the only thing I know how to say Italian is throw inches Yeah.

Brandon  48:05

He's just like, joking, and like, they're giving him all kinds of grief. And he's like, blah, blah. And he's like, Oh yeah, the Americans are coming. He's like, Yeah, but when and why aren't you in the American army? He's like, I don't know. It's like, you want to join the American army? He's like, I don't know. You think they might be a captain. They're like, No. He's like, yes, yeah. They're talking about, like,

Collin  48:22

yeah. It's just Yeah, it is. There's just no, like, there's nothing at stake here, really, yeah,

Brandon  48:29

yeah. There's like, no stakes. It's

Collin  48:31

just kind of Oh. It's all like, oh at this point, like, specifically, even this, this conversation, they're just like, you know, how many awards have you gotten? It's all just kind of like, fantastical, like, oh, I bought it five times. Well, I got it three times, and my papers are coming in. Like, it's all, it's all kind of, there's no really purpose to this. Like, there's no reason behind this. And that word again, like that, I kind of ran through a couple times during this conversation. Of, this is just fantastical numbers, and there's no, I don't know it's, yeah, it's the only papers have only come through on one anyway, it's just very, um, yeah, the melancholy, there's no purpose, kind of this, this, this, this world that's set away, and apart from the destruction and terror that's actually going on, well, yeah,

Brandon  49:16

and that, like, later, like a couple pages later, because this is one of those chapters, is, like, quite long, but, like, not a lot's happening. But the this exchange, when he's talking to Catherine, right about this, and again, we're just kind of in this thing, and, you know, blah, blah, blah, but she's talking about, you know, how she doesn't really like all of these people, some of these certain people and whatever. And he's what they're talking about here is, you know, he was going to be a captain. And he's like, Oh, that'll be that'll make him happy, blah, blah. And he says, wouldn't you like me to have some more exalted rank? She goes, No, I only want you to. Have rank enough that we're admitted to the better restaurants. Like, he's like, Well, that's the rank I have. Like, you see, you have a splendid rank. It's fine. Yes, that's just, I love, I love this part. Like, it's, like, you said, it's just so like, low stakes and like so much random weirdness that she's just like, Yeah, I don't really care. I don't care about that. I just care about making sure that you're just high enough rank to get into good restaurants. She's like, well, I just so happen to have that rank. She's like, Yeah, see, so it's fine. What are you

Collin  50:30

worried about? She's like, see, I'm so glad you're not conceited like the others. And always after your rank, it's like, yeah, wait, wait a minute, like the other, yeah. It's just, it's all play. It's nothing but play and make believe and that, and that is just leading through this. We're leading up into that. And I think chapter 19 is, well, it's kind of the last of their bubble that they get to live in, right? Is it? Is it 19 or 20? Um, well, okay, because 19, no, 20

Brandon  51:05

is still that way too go to the races. Oh, right, right, right. So, yeah, we're almost there. We're almost there. We're almost to my point. Well,

Collin  51:12

20. So the other thing here is, is there's, I don't really have a good sense of, like,

Brandon  51:17

time, yeah, I don't think you're supposed to, and we're not supposed

Collin  51:21

to, right? Because I don't know, but like, 19 ends with her, like, it's raining, and she says, I'm afraid of the rain. And it's like, yes, okay, okay, let's get we know he's got some little night terrors here. She's, what's, what's the, the the purpose of this kind of what's the is there an allegory here of the rain? Like, yeah, what? What did you What's that to you in this? Well, I feel like

Brandon  51:50

so, based on some things that I want to talk about a little bit later. Sorry. She's, well, no, I mean, it's a good lead up. Like, she because rain means, like, change. Rain means the like, you know, because right now I feel like I'll just go ahead and was because the the horse racing things lame later, right? It gets cold, right? They start talking about the temperature changes. It gets cold. We'll get to the big change in their relationship, right? But so for me right now, like this heat, the hotness, like you've been talking about, it represents, like the good times, the fun times, the carefree times, whatever. Yeah, the heat of the moment, right? But the rain is like a serious matter. The rain is a change. The rain is colder, the rain is harsher, the rain is something else. And when she says like she doesn't want to talk about it for a long time, and you know, yes, tell me. Don't make me. Tell me, no, tell me. All right, I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it,

Collin  53:00

and sometimes I see you dead in it, that's more likely, yeah, but yeah and, and, and I think when I read this, obviously you have to read this at going, is she actually ferried of death, or is she afraid of the me and the you that they've created? Yes, and that they have here. Well, I

Brandon  53:22

think both both right, because they are in a war, right? But they are doing this play kind of weird relationship is weird so unhealthy and bad, like, that's That's why any listeners who are listening to this, I need you to take away that if your relationship is like this, find counseling to seek help, okay, Todd, this is bad. This is the type of relationship that, like, I understand in like 2025 this, like, we put reality TV shows about this kind of stuff. This is bad, okay, this is not good, very unhealthy stuff here. So, so yeah, this that we leave on this, like, very dry, like crazy,

Collin  54:11

kind of, like, well, he says I comforted her and she stopped crying in the last sentence of this. But outside, it kept raining in both the literal and figurative sense of yes, the reality is coming. Yes. That's the other thing too. Again, with the rain, this is an abrupt end to the heat, an abrupt end to everything else that he's been describing. It's hot. There's been no discussion of any kind of other weather here

Brandon  54:40

at all. It's just Emmett, yeah, and we're working up to him. He's got to leave soon. Right? His time is running out of his convalescing healing time, because they're just going to send him back to the front so, you know, they're trying to enjoy this hot summer carefree. Any time, as long as they can, because it is coming crashing down in a hurry, because he's gonna get shipped out, because he's being better, yeah,

Collin  55:09

yeah. And then yeah, I mean, and then even Yeah. Then we get into chapter 20, which is kind of this weird, like,

Brandon  55:16

horse betting, again, the horse racing,

Collin  55:20

but, like, but what's really again, he does this. There's all this, like, going, going going on, and then, like, the last page or two is really where, because here, like, when they get sucked off, and that everything's going on. And Catherine's really overwhelmed, and she's overwhelmed by these other people and all this other stuff. And she just wants to be a alone, but also b alone with him, yeah, and this, I this, this idea of when we're around other people, we're not in our bubble anymore. And there's also this, like, there's the people he knows that she has no connection to, so that's not in her world too, right? And it's this, like, what, let's just stay the two of us and and be here. That's how they finish it out, right? They finish it out, yeah, just being alone with them, trying to make the most of this, but also in, like, a serious level of denial about what's going on too, yes. Yeah. So after we had been alone, Chase, yeah, you're awfully good to me. After, there's more drinking in here too. Like, well, there's a lot, oh my gosh, all throughout here, like this, like, chapter 20. What did I write down for this one? Let me see where my notes are in this I tried, I tried to take notes. I

Brandon  56:43

was going to bring up the drinking in chapter 22 Oh, but yeah, that's the Yeah. So we can come back to it. There's fine. Here you go.

Collin  56:55

No. I just Yeah. I think it comes in more important later, because we slam into 21 Oh,

Brandon  57:01

and now here we go. In September, the first cool nights game, then the days were cool, and the leaves and the trees in the park began to turn color, and we knew the summer was gone, as we'll find out, quite literally and figuratively, both in just a couple pages here, right? Yep,

Collin  57:30

What? What? Just a fantastic symbolism here, but also framing device for what's going on this. The themes here of the changing of seasons, of of almost like a like, did you really think this would last? Like, these things come and go like, these are, these are nothing but a season and a time. Like, what are you You really thought this was going to go on forever in this perfect, weird, utopian, uh, you know thing, no, even in wondering, like, Milan, right? Like you're in Milan, you really, you really thought, no, yeah, man, what he has, I'm gonna say I've, statistically so far, some of the best one line opening and closings to his chapters, like, oh yeah, gosh,

Brandon  58:26

yeah. It's like, slam you pretty good, right? Like,

Collin  58:32

yeah, because this one I started to highlight things along the lines of still showing his dis Frederick's disconnection to the war, because he's had this starts off with him having a conversation with a British major saying 100 and a 50, 150,000 men had been lost, and another 40,000 on the car so and we had a drink, and He talked. He's so like detached, that's not real. There's just all of this more killing, killing, it's, right? It literally in front of him, and he's just drinking it away, right? This denialism that's coming in. I mean,

Brandon  59:13

even at the end of this conversation, he kind of brings it up because he says there was a great contrast between his world pessimism and personal cheeriness, like, yes, yes, yes,

Collin  59:29

fantastic. Then cheerily every sort of luck, right? Like, yeah,

Brandon  59:35

yeah, it's crazy. So then he gets a haircut, goes do stuff, blah, blah. We get back to the hospital and some letters in there, and we get that convalescence time is up, right? Convalescent leave started October 4, when my course was finished. Three weeks was 21 days. That made october 25 right? So he's two. Kind of, he's just casually dropped that in between lines of, like, I got a letter from my grandfather, you know, containing family news and patriotic encouragement and $200 like, you know, bang. But like, this is, we have a deadline now, right? We've been kind of, it's been kind of looming the whole time, right? We've known that it's coming, and we've known that this is happening, but boom, deadline time, right? There it is, yep, yep, yep, and he's Yep. There's some casual, casual mention of babe. Ruth Just dropped that in there randomly, which was kind of funny. That's a little time

Collin  1:00:45

drop here. Yeah, he's raised. He's reading through all these papers. He's the papers were dull, the news was local and stale, and the war news was all old,

Brandon  1:00:56

but I read them all anyway, yep. Like, that's basically, yep,

Collin  1:01:02

but then he's having this debate as to whether, whether they would still have baseball if America got involved. And he's like, yeah, there's racing in Milan. It could be much worse there.

Brandon  1:01:11

That's true. But we did forget to mention that, like, the racing in Milan was bad, and because it was, like, all just a bunch of other random horses from all over Europe. They can't race in France. And, like, they just come to Milan, and it's just rife with cheating, and it's lame. And like, yeah, it's so bad that

Collin  1:01:28

apparently, one of the horses, apparently, they used to dye horses different colors, so they didn't know it was a horse that had been a part of cheating or was used in some other thing. And of course, the one they

Brandon  1:01:40

tried to, like, hold him back and, like, not let him run, but they the jockey couldn't control him, and he like, beat every horse by, like, a billion miles. Yes, ridiculous.

Collin  1:01:48

And then he said, I hope his colors don't run before they can get paid. Yeah, paid. Oh, okay, anyway, he's, he's talking about horse, and Catherine was coming in, and what was her opening line?

Brandon  1:02:07

I'm late. I'm late. Yeah, yeah, there was a lot to do. How are you? Yeah, they're just talking blah, blah. And blah, blah, and then all of a sudden, what was the matter? Nothing, Nothing's the matter? Yes, there is no, nothing, really, nothing. I know there's nothing. Tell me no. This again, the same conversation. No, tell me no, yes, no, tell me no, do I have to? Yes? Uh huh, yeah. So this, after this, like whole page of that. It's, do I have to Yes, I'm going to have a baby, darling, but I'm almost three months along. You're not worried, are you? Please don't you mustn't worry. And

Collin  1:02:52

he's right. He says, all right. She's like, is it all right? Of course, yeah. But yeah, yeah. So

Brandon  1:03:01

again, honeymoon period over, officially, right? We have two date deadlines now

Collin  1:03:11

and and I think it's very telling here where Frederick is both, he doesn't like freak out about the news, but also, he's not like, oh my gosh, that's the best thing ever. I can't wait. It's just, yeah, this constant passive, you know, his passive nature is like, just like, Okay, we'll just okay. Like, that's just what it is, okay, here's where we go. Like, it's very interesting to watch this. This unfold. She's obviously, you know, freaking out, hysterical, unsure of the future. You know, again, responsibility has come crashing into this,

Brandon  1:03:47

and it's, it's just how off balance their responses are to, yeah, it's very a jarring conversation here where, like, it's not great, right? And he's trying to remain just kind of like, oh, yeah, okay, it'll be fine. Don't worry. And she's like, What do you mean? It'll be fine? No, it's fine. People do this all the time. They have a baby in a war. He's like, Okay, not that, but they still have babies, so it's fine. Like, don't worry about it. Yeah. So they're Oh yeah, and they're just, they're,

Collin  1:04:29

he's got this line in here where Catherine, after she sits on the bed, says we were apart, as when someone comes into a room and people are self conscious, because, oh yeah, my gosh, both of them are suddenly self conscious of of actions and responsibilities and duties and reality now and and their own course in that, and their own responsibility like their own deeds in getting there. But. Yeah, and and yet, quickly, like, it's like, then there's like, you know, are you angry? No, do you feel trapped? Maybe a little, but not by you, right? And they, we keep coming back. We're pulling this in here. And then, you know, it's they get this chapter ends by them getting pulled back into their same illusion, right? Like they are just, nope. Like, that's fine. It'll be the same as it always is. It's the same as always is going to be, everything's going to be okay. And when, like, when they're talking in that way, it really is, like a we just want to have this sliver of a moment without any other implications or any future really, like, we're not going to plan for the future. We're not going to worry about all that. It's just, it's just here and now, and that's, that's what every day is going to be in their delusion, right?

Brandon  1:05:47

Yeah, like, it's, it's pretty bad. They start talking about, they conversation goes all weird. They start talking about, like, bravery and all stuff. And it's like, you know, she says, You're brave. He goes, No, you're brave. And she goes, No, she said, but I would like to be I'm not. I said, I know where I stand. I've been out long enough to know. Take some weird baseball analogy, right? Yes, you quite understand that, because I keep forgetting she's like Scottish, right? So she has no one's having, yes, but you know, I'm like, a baseball player who bats 230 and she's like, isn't that good? He's like, not really mediocre at best, but still, but still hit her. So I guess we're both conceded. I said, But you are brave, no, but she repeats No, but I hope to be and then uh oh, coping mechanism time, we're both brave, I said. And I'm very brave when I've had a drink. Oh, dear. Oh, here it is. Here it is. Oh, and the armoire in the cognac, yeah, we have comes out here, yeah, so they just have, she fixes him a little drink, or two or three, maybe I reached down for four, for the bottle, and poured another drink. Oh, dear. Oh, that was very

Collin  1:07:13

big. Yep, I know Brandy is for heroes, but you shouldn't exaggerate again. This, this flattery, this, oh my gosh,

Brandon  1:07:24

yeah, and yeah, so that's kind of where we leave it. 22 right? Yeah. 22 bang. Again. It turned cold that night, and the next day it was raining. Again, again, here, yeah, this week is busted, right? Like busted, right? His gage comes in, right? They looked at his eyes and they the whites of the eyes were yellow, and it was the jaundice I would sit for two weeks with it. For that reason, we did not spend a convalescent leave together. We had planned to go to prolonzo, yep, on the late lado maggiore. It's nice during the fall when the leaf turn, but they couldn't go because he has jaundice, because he's drank too much. Drank right? Yep. Then Miss Van campen comes in right one day while I was in the bed with jaundice mid Van Camp and came in the room, opened the door the armoire, and saw the empty bottles he had already tried to get them smuggled out by the porter, because he just keeps leaving him in there, right? Yes, and just keeps adding them more, right? And this, this again, this is where we see the true level of what he's doing, like, self medicating, this depression that he's in, right? We can see the extreme nature that it's that's been happening, right? He's sitting around. He's got nothing to do. All he's doing is thinking about going back to the front, and now he's added on this, like, Baby situation, and he's just like, it's all he's self medicating, right? And it's gone. It's gone quite poorly, uh, he's given himself jaundice, which, on a side note, made me think about catch 22 again, because, because yoryn always says, because he doesn't want to fight, he goes to the thing, and he says, like, I have a little bit of jaundice, and they can't prove that he doesn't have jaundice, so they don't discharge him. He's, like, I said, I have jaundice, so I must have jaundice, but they can't prove I don't have jaundice, so I can't leave got him. So this made me laugh about that. But yeah, she thinks that he's done it on purpose. So she doesn't have to, he doesn't have to go. And he's like, Nah, I just, I didn't do it on purpose. Like, would you want to do this on purpose? This does not feel great. I don't think you oh my gosh. I've never had John does? I don't think you would. I don't believe self inflicted jaundice. What? Entitles you to con convalescent leave. He's like, You ever had John? Tis? It's not fun. Yeah,

Collin  1:10:06

yep, Miss, Miss Van Camp had left the room after he's going through this conversation. Yeah, because

Brandon  1:10:10

he's getting super hateful. But again, he's in pain, and also he's just a jerk anyway. So like,

Collin  1:10:18

again, if drinking really is a coping mechanism here, and it's it's his, it's his. It's an attempt to have to have him exert control over situations. Hit the the futility of that is being pointed out by Van Camp in here, right? She's this is it being literally the doors flung open for all the world to see what's going on. Because, sure, we've heard, we've, you know, he's, we know he's drinking a lot, but like this, I think, really puts it into context of literally just how much he's drinking and, like, how bad it is, yeah, and to have it now thrown open, and he's like, Oh, yeah. And this is after a porter already took some bottles down, yeah, after some having gone to have it just shown like, this is, is what we're dealing with here, like, so he's obviously a little sensitive about that too, of having this pointed out and having this potentially be taken away. But yeah, Miss gates comes in and, and she tries to help him out.

Brandon  1:11:20

Yeah, because she's, you know, trying to be, you know, she's nice to him, tries to be his friend, right? If we think back a few chapters ago when she brought that up, she's like, I have your friend, you know? He's like, Yeah, I know. She's like, No, you don't, but you will, like, so we're kind of seeing her again, kind of exert that. And she's like, Yeah, I'll try to help you out. But Van Camp, it comes back in, and with the porter, they take the bottles down and show them to the doctor. Nothing changed, but nothing changed. Yeah, I she went down the hall. The Porter carried the sack. He knew what was in it. Nothing happened, except that I lost my leave. So it's the whole big to do about nothing, right? Like. This next one, though, wonky again. 23 right? This is like the last the night, right? The night I was to return to the front. I sent the porter down to hold a seat for me in the train, right? So there he's getting ready to leave. So him, and this is like, him and Catherine's last time together, and they just kind of go out, right? And he's like, oh, you know, again, it's this kind of weird world they live in. Because he's like, Yeah, we should go do this thing. And they're going looking and shopping, and he's like, Oh yeah, I gotta buy a gun, by the way, because mine's gone. I somebody took it, so I have to Yeah.

Collin  1:12:46

Again, this, this, this, this gradual re entry of reality here, of what, of what's about to come, what has to happen. He's got, it's like response. He has to start preparing for this inevitability. And it's interesting, because in the beginning of this um, it talked about how he and those in the town thought wearing the gun was ridiculous, and he hated it because so he never wore

Brandon  1:13:17

it around, right? Yeah, they just walked around with empty holsters, or they stuffed him with paper. You know, it won't do to carry a gun around in a town to remind everybody's wars going on. Like Nick No, but

Collin  1:13:29

like, well, and he thought himself a fool doing it too, because he thought it was all an act in this all, like, this big Pomp and Circumstance kind of thing, or whatever. And, and now he's going well that that's got to come back in, right? So I just thought it was interesting how that was a thought in his head, when previously it was like he wanted this it. He didn't want it around at all, but here we have it. Nope, we've got it. We've got to have it now, because I'm going somewhere where I'm going to need it. Yeah, so, you know,

Brandon  1:13:59

just went in there and bought it and with extra stuff and everything. And I do, like, we just threw the whole story. He's like, it's got to fit in there. What do you got give me something? I was like, I don't really care what it is. He just has to fit in there. So just give it to me. Yeah. And she keeps trying to sell him stuff. Like, Oh, what about a lanyard? And he's like, yeah, no, I don't, I don't need that. Just like you need a whistle. No, you need a sword. He's like, No, I don't need a sword. Yeah, yeah.

Collin  1:14:34

Well, specifically, he says, I'm going to the front, oh, yes, then you won't need a sword. You won't need a source.

Brandon  1:14:47

But she really wanted to sell him more stuff, and he's like, I don't feel bad, but I didn't need things, so I ran away. So. Yeah, then, like, they're not, she's not feeling good again. So they just walk around and, you know, they're trying to make the most of this last night, like they want to have, like they want this to be, like a carefree night, like back in the summer, but like, oh yes, it just, it's not, it's not it, right? They're just, they're trying to make it like light and carefree and fun and, you know, have the last night with the girl and blah blah. But nah, it's really not doing it for like, she they're like, I'm gonna go to a hotel and blah blah. And they even buy a little nightgown thing. And, yeah, no, I just, you know, no, they just go to the hotel. They know the guy, of course, he lets him in the room for a while, and they just kind of sit around and talk and drink some wine, and then he's like, Well, I gotta go, like,

Collin  1:16:06

is this where they talk? Is she talk about, hold on? Is this where she talks about, again, the insistence that they are married?

Brandon  1:16:14

Is this, yeah, yeah. She brings it up again too. Yeah.

Collin  1:16:16

Here, right, right, again. This where she is trying to have this somewhat level of permanence, again, the somewhat re exerting her reality over this of going but again, it's like you can't make make can't be much more made up and make believe than insisting you are something that you just aren't. Right. Yeah, it's like that. That her delusion in that and insistent to, like, no, that's what this is. We are married. This is a part of our honeymoon, you know, whatever it's like. But how, how flat that falls in this new context of what's actually going on. Like, Sure, three months ago sounded fine, probably right. Like, that was, was pretty cool, pretty fun, and whatever. But now it's like, Oh, you just see how, how ridiculous that actually sounds, and what's actually happening, yeah. Oh, it's really weird, too.

Brandon  1:17:12

That. I think here's the thing I was talking about. So when they're at the I couldn't find the page. When they're at the gun shop, right, right before they leave, they're like the woman said goodbye. We went out to the sidewalk. Katherine looked in the window, and the woman looked out and bowed to us. And then there's just like this little throwaway sentence here, what are those little mirrors set in the wood for? They're for attracting birds. They twirl them in the field, and the larks come and the Italians shoot them right? And then when we're in the hotel room, right? Because this is kind of, like a, not a reputable hotel, specifically, he

Collin  1:17:51

says, I don't know how a room like this would be for waking up in the morning.

Brandon  1:17:54

Yes, he does, yes. They kind of bring that up, like this was the only hotel they could get into. And they're like, Could we go there? Like they wouldn't have let us in there, you know, because, again, the context here is they're only expecting to spend a few hours together, wink, wink, convention. But like they they talk about the mirrors are a nice touch, right? And how shiny they are. And it's like this weird, like, or pulling in and attracting because it's like, shiny and whatever, but actually, it's something else, right? It's like an illusion of something, right? And so they're, they're in this hotel room, and they're trying to share this illusion of something that's just not there, right? So that's, that's the weird part here, too. They kind of it. It's weird that they're that he is, like, comparing this kind of hotel room, this like lovers hotel room, to a decoy to shoot birds, right? Both like sort of allure and like, like, a, like, a lie, right? Almost like a covering up of what it really is. Like, I can't think of my brain turned off every second, sorry about that. But like, yeah, it's like misrepresenting the truth. Like it's not a real thing. It's a decoy, a decoy, right? It's not the real thing. It's like a fake, right? It's like faking something. And so the way that he kind of juxtaposes those next to each other is very odd. And like, you're like, Man, this is,

Collin  1:19:36

yeah, well, and, and amongst that, like you do have Frederick at least trying to, like, all this make believe stuff, like you said, All this this flashiness, all this attractive stuff, like that's what they've built up around this. But right here at the end of the chapter, you also him, where he says, Papa, the waiter came back, took away things. After a while, we were very. And we could hear the rain. They were hearing it. It's actually like around them, down below on the street, a motor car honked and he says, But at my back, I always hear times winged chariot hurry near. I said, I know that poem, Catherine said it's by Marvel, but it's about a girl who wouldn't live with a man. And then my head felt very clear and cold, and I wanted to talk facts, yeah, of like, no, like there are. At least he's realizing at this like there are. There is a conversation that we do need to have before I disappear for a long time and maybe never come back like that. He just wants to know. Amongst all this make believe stuff, amongst everything that we've just kind of built around us, there are, there are facts to be had right now. And I thought that was an interesting thing where it said again, my head was not, I wasn't hot, right? Clear and cold. I wanted facts. Yeah,

Brandon  1:21:04

they talk about writing. And he's like, Well, you can't, don't like, write explicitly. Got to be a little bit weird, because they don't read English, great, but you can't just, like, come out and say it, because the sensors will read the stuff. And she's like, Okay, I'll make it confusing. He's like, just a little don't, not, don't give you. Don't mess with me. All right, don't do that. And then we have this like, again, this like, make believe time, right? I hate to leave our fine house, so do I, but we have to go, all right, but we've never, we're never settled in our home. Very long we will be, I'll have a fine home when you come back, maybe I'll be back right away. Perhaps you'll just be hurt a little in the foot, or maybe the ear lobe. No, no. Not your ears. I like them the way they are, and not my feet. You've already been hitting the feet. Well, I do have to go like, yep. Like this, this, again, this play, kind of like, this is what she was thinking about, like, her first Man's Right? Like, oh, you know, had this when she, when they first met back in at the front, when she's talking about, she had this romantic idea of, like, just, you know, he was, like, light, just lightly wounded, right? Just like, a wee little, bit of wounding right then, like, just goes in, and we'll just convalesce in the hospital, and I'll just, like, dab his cut, and everything will be fine, right? She's trying to this her is her coping mechanism, because she's already been through this before, right? And almost again with him. And so her coping is like, oh yes, everything will be fine. And if you do get hurt, it'll just be like, a wee little bit of hurting, and don't worry about it. And you know, this is her way of dealing with that

Speaker 1  1:22:48

thing. And so he's just like, yep, gotta go well. And again, that that statement of, we'll have to leave our fine little home here when we just set up. Like neither of them thought it was all that great to begin with, yeah, and that it was only, it's only temporary. And this like, Well, we've certainly built, built a fine, temporary, meaningless, you know, facade of a life, haven't we? It's time to go right? Yeah, I think sod is a good word here. Like that's kind of what they're trying to paint over. Like they're just not accepting the reality of situation, and they're just

Brandon  1:23:29

looking at what they want to see, right? There's just like set dressing, right? Like a play where the outside looks good, but the backside is just plywood and nails right like there's no structure here, it can just fall over in any second, yeah. And it's

Collin  1:23:49

really not meant for anything, but, but to look at, and yeah, and then, but it's not useful in anything. It doesn't withstand. Yeah, what's coming?

Brandon  1:24:02

Yeah? So the next chapter, they go downstairs, and it's raining, and they get her out to the thing he pays, right? Because they, they were like, Oh, they weren't going to let him pay at the beginning, but made sure the porter stayed around so he'd pay when he left, yeah, which is funny, but they get her in the carriage and get her sent back to the hospital. They just kind of goodbye, wave goodbye, goodbye, and boom, she smiled and waved. The carriage went up the street. Catherine pointed in towards the archway, and I looked, there were only two carbonyardi in the archway. I realized she meant for me to get out of the rain. I went and stood and watched the carriage turn the corner, and then I started through the station and down the runway to the train. Yeah, yeah, Rain, rain, rain. And he goes down to the train, and the people that he had waiting for him, right? He finds him and they get. On the train, he goes and sits down, and there's a dude there that's like, super mad about it, right? He's like, super grumpy. He's like, You can't do that. He's like, I did what are you gonna do? Right? You can't do that. He said you can't have a soldier, save your place. I have done it. I mean, I can't. I clearly can, because I just did loser, what do you want? And so, right, yeah, you have no right to do that. I was here two hours before you came. What do you want? The seat, so do I. And so he just kind of went like that, whatever. Sit down, Captain, and he just walks off. He's like, Fine, whatever. I don't care. I'm not dealing with you. I've got enough trouble to deal with right now. Whatever I don't so he just goes and he just goes back to the train. And they're like, Well, maybe some will get off at pressure. He's like, more will get on. So he just goes back. He's like, they both felt bad, but I, you know, said it was their fault whatever they got on the train. They were standing room only. He just kind of walks to the back in some little spot. And it was still raining, and soon the windows were wet and you could not see out. Later, I slept on the floor in the corridor, first, putting my pocketbook with my money and papers inside my shirt, like how we just throw that in there. Like I didn't just sleep. I was, you know, I know what's up. They just sleep. Just lay down, sleep on the floor. It's like I had my head on one of my musettes and my arm around the other, and I could feel the pack, and they could walk over me if they wouldn't, if they wouldn't, step on me. Men were sleeping on the floor all over the corridor. Others stood holding onto the window rods or leaning as the doors. The train was always crowded, right? It's like, yeah, this kind of like, Yeah, I know. Like, it's crowded all the time. There's no stopping this war machine. Yep, right. There's just always people coming and going all the time, all the time again, forever. It's just eating people up, and there's really nothing to do about it. It just keeps grinding on, yeah, forever, and he just goes to sleep on the floor.

Collin  1:27:27

Yeah, and, and, yeah. I mean, just this couple things for this, one of the crowdedness, a little bit more of the oppressive surrounding nature You can't get away from this. It's here also his sleeping arrangements of to have his own, you know, his own room by himself, Catherine, and they had, it was all kind of set up, and he just has to curl up and get sucked back into this now, right? He's just like, on his way to go out. And it's, uh, what it well, what, uh, what 24 hours will do for a man's life for sure? Oh, yeah, it's, I was. It's rough. It's a rough transition, too. It's interesting transition from kind of the plush

Brandon  1:28:18

esthetic opulence of the hotel, where it's not like, right, yeah, English, fake, right? It's like, it's esthetically nice, not like, substantive, you know, but it's very pleasing to look at. So we go right from there to the floor of a train, right? Like, like, 30 minutes ago, he was laying on a bed in an over plush red velveted mirrored room. Yes, very the visual this room that I have in my brain is quite hideous, and I don't, yeah, I don't know if I'm like, overdoing it, right, but it's just line of like dark wood paneling and like red crushed like velvet everywhere, with like, mirrors and Windows. It's just not pleasant, right? Not a pleasant looking place. Um, but to go from that to the floor of a train with dudes just like, literally stepping over, yeah, it really is like, like, and also the juxtaposition here of like, being alone with one person, right, and being like, you know, being like the whole world to something right, like, it's just a small moment where you're important and you're with, at least with somebody who cares about you. And to the next visual is alone on a train full of people that can't be bothered, that can barely be bothered to even step over you, right? Just like a cog in the machine of like, you're not important, right? So going like, from going to being the most important person, just. Somebody to like, literally no one cares that you're even here again in like, 30 minutes of time frame basically, is jarring for the reader and for him. I mean, supposed to be for us, but like for him, yeah?

Collin  1:30:13

And how much more of a dramatic way to be ripped out of that fantasy, right? Yeah, because of those moments of, yeah, sure, there you have to say, like, Catherine Frederick's love, like, yeah, it's, it's, it's real within the context of their fantasy, yeah,

Brandon  1:30:27

yeah, it's, they have real feelings. They have also real weird feelings. But like, there are substantive again, right? It is of

Collin  1:30:37

a kind and, and to now you're like that, like said, like to now go from that into there's no feelings, you are kind of meaningless in a very intentional way, to the war machine, to what is going on here. You are just supposed to show up and die basically. And that is what he is. He's sleeping into now. And yeah, we close out book two. Yeah, to blame. Oh, that, yeah, that was, that was a Yeah, that was true.

Brandon  1:31:19

Have a feeling it's not getting better, so like no

Collin  1:31:23

no, because now he goes now, now we have a man with horrible coping strategies, going back to a place where he is apathetic about was actively trying to keep at arm's length at all times. And it's worse now,

Brandon  1:31:44

yes, like

Collin  1:31:45

it's worse. So yeah, I'm sure again, it'll just loop around and we'll get we'll pull ourselves up out of this one.

Brandon  1:31:54

Yeah, no, well, it won't. Yeah, no, this next chapter

Collin  1:32:00

is a bit longer than the other ones when we jump into book chapter 25 but we'll talk about that next time. Yeah, well, I

Brandon  1:32:07

want to mention that briefly here that so I was, I was just doing some checking, right? So there, first of all, there are five books in total, so we're doing good here. But okay, this one book three shorter, but the chapters seem to be longer. So, like, there's eight chapters in Book Three, but some of them were, like, way longer. So you just want to do like, you want to still do like, four and four. I think we'll do four and four. I like the cadence of that, of splitting, trying to split the book, yeah, kind of in half, right? In half, yeah. But I think it, I think it's eight chapters. I think it was like 32 Okay, so I guess 25 to 32 but some of them are quite lengthy, yeah, so I think we'll, in order to, like, be able to digest them slightly, I think, I think I was gonna suggest four and

Collin  1:32:58

four, yes, and then we'll see what happens with book four, yeah, but yeah, all right, that also isn't also is another interesting device in writing to if we had these real short, brief chapters, and now these long slog so I'm interested to see how that is used in the storytelling as

Brandon  1:33:18

well. I think there's one or two shorter chapters in there, right? Because he seems to do that right in the there'll be a chapter that's like, they're not long chapters in my book, in my printed book, which, again, it's a collected volume, so it's kind of smaller print, a little bit. It's not like a big, you know, you know, it's not too bad, um, they'll be, you know, maybe three or four pages in a Chapter, and then there'll be a chapter that's like a page and a half, and then, so it's, it's already kind of like that, so, but yeah, some of these look a little bit longer. So I think, yeah, probably means we're in for something terrible, I would imagine. So

Collin  1:34:02

well, yeah, so yeah, we'll do we'll do four next time 35 to 32 Yeah, all right, sweet, okay. Well, hopefully pick us, pick us up here and end on a upswing. Up a high note I have, I have an Haiku, aha, ah, that I remembered this morning so climbing mountain peaks, casting nets for hidden clues, treasures shine below.

Brandon  1:34:33

Yes, let's go. All

Collin  1:34:40

right, I did. I had for a split second I was gonna try and download the emulator for it, and I decided that I had other things to do with my day, so I didn't. It's still on my list,

Brandon  1:34:54

but maybe next time, though, so we'll see what.

Collin  1:35:00

Nice, so we'll see Yes, oh, beautiful, okay, well, stay healthy, stay well, stay Yeah,

Brandon  1:35:09

then inside,

Collin  1:35:15

and we will do this again soon. Yeah,

Speaker 2  1:35:19

Okay, love you. Love Me too. Bye, bye. You.