1067 – Spicy Cooking | Spice Friends 9

Notable Language:

• Hiccup-Based Belief (HBB)
• Folly-Based Characters (FBCs)
• Lackadaisical

Notable Culture:

• Star Wars
• Super Bowl
• Emmet Otter

Notable Talking Points:

• I guess I’m judging metaphors now
• Our need to be in control was making all not well
• On location cooking with Spice Friends and Big Ones

Episode 1067 – Spicy Cooking | Spice Friends 9

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time for the podcaster…I’m not a Starboy and I guess I…you could say I’m a starry-eyed boy, but I’m a boy…whether there’s stars…whether I can see the stars and I’m looking for them in the sky or on the ground, I have that…if that’s what a starry-eyed look is, I probably should watch where I’m going, because it’s time for Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  Thanks for making it possible, patrons.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing?  Trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts you’re thinking about, things on your mind from the past, the present, or the future, feelings that are coming up, emotions related to those thoughts or that are just there…you know, feelings, feelings that are there…anything physically…sensations coming up for you, if it’s a change in your temperature, your time, your routine, life stuff; road bumps, hiccups.

 

Holy cow, I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about hiccups before.  Well, I mean, I…maybe…say Scoots, that was a episode…three episodes ago.  But I’ll definitely talk about that tonight, maybe.  But let’s talk about it now; hiccups…’cause you could say once again, we’re in…we could do metaphor…you could do real hiccups.  That definitely could get in the way, whether it’s you or somebody else.  So, hiccups, real, actual hiccups could be keeping you awake.  Metaphorical hiccups…I don’t know…I really don’t know the difference.  I’m not kidding; I’ll just be perfectly honest.  A little bit of a hiccup, here; I don’t know the difference between a figurative hiccup and a metaphorical hiccup.  I mean, I guess in a similean hiccup…would be like a hiccup, which you’d say okay, what’s the difference between those three?

 

Like or as a hiccup.  As annoying as a hiccup.  So, I guess if you were annoyed about hiccups or you found something else…your sleeping partner…so, we got the similean one…the simile one down, because you could say your snoring partner or a partner just sleeping so soundly, or the idea that someone’s sleeping soundly when you’re not…understandably for us…that are listening to the show or making the show now.  That could be as annoying as a day full of hiccups, which I think is a simile.  So, we’ve prop…at least one down.  I’ve properly used…I’ll…I…I’m…now we’re getting into literally versus not literally, but I may have to look up figuratively, so…and my misuse of words could be as ‘noying…as…snoying as a hiccup, or a hour-long session of hiccups.  So, we’ll…hopefully we’ll get back to that, though I could forget, because my mind is constantly hiccuping.

 

Maybe…I don’t know.  That’s actually not a metaphor.  Say, I don’t think that’s a actual metaphor; that’s…or a metaphor; that’s a actual portrayal of how your mind works.  I’d say well, no.  I’d say, hiccups have a consistency to them that my mind does not, or a regularity.  My mind is more like the lulls in between the hiccup lull.  There you go; another…there’s another…I said a metaphor, but another imaginary autobiography.  The Hiccup Lull: The…A Lull in the Hiccups.  Hold on, I gotta write this down.  Okay, so…but…oh, what I meant was my mind is like, are they done?  Are they gonna start again?  My mind is more the person wait…the person trying to help the person with the hiccups or the person with the hiccups, but that’s how my mind is all the time.  Do those thoughts go away?  Nope; there they are again.

 

There are those strong feelings.  So, whatever’s keeping you awake, believe it or not, I’m here to take your mind off of it eventually or slowly, and keep you company so that you could fall asleep.  The way I propose to do it is I’m gonna try to create a safe place here, a place that kinda feels relatively safe that you could look at, you could enter into, or it could be sent to you, or you could just barely partake in it.  I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, which means my voice is somewhat soothing, but not traditionally soothing…and pointless meanders and superfluous tangents, which we already went on a few of those.  That’s a hiccup.  Pointless meanders…well, just a hiccup.  Who has a hiccup, though?

 

That sounds like something judgemental my internal nana would say.  Who has one hiccup?  I’d say well, that would be a…I think that’s more of a…may I bless you with single hiccups for the rest of your days.  That could be part of the book, A Lull in my…A Lull…I Bless You With…May All of Your Hiccups Be…well, it wouldn’t be a lull.  Lulls are annoying ‘cause that means your hiccups are coming back.  They say, when did Scooter…well, yeah, he tried to form his own belief system, but it was based around hiccups.  Yeah, he had that thing…instead of the road rising to meet you at your back or whatever, and carrying your footsteps across the sandy beach, he said may all your days barely ever be punctuated by just…may all your hiccups be single, except on Valentine…except sometimes maybe if the hiccup gets lonely, maybe two, and that’s it.

 

I don’t know, how do we get in…I’m confounded by hiccups.  Oh, ‘cause they say it’s a hiccup that’s…a pointless meander’s kinda like a hiccup and then I redirect and I go somewhere else.  But I’m not kidding; I say, what…how did…talk…I’m…I guess I’m in judgemental…I’m judging metaphors now because you say, who came up with that metaphor?  Well, it’s just a hiccup, just a hiccup.  I never heard of that, but…other than metaphorically.  Never seen anybody with just a hiccup, because you wouldn’t even…you wouldn’t notice.  You’d say, what was that, some weird noise you just made?  I don’t know.  Yeah, it kinda felt like a hiccup, but obviously…I guess this is a pointless meander, but it’s…kinda feels like it has a point, ‘cause it’s…is anybody nodding their heads while they drift off slowly and get so comfortable?

 

Is this the only…this…I’ve lived my whole life and I never realized once again, another…I don’t know if…the great machine probably came up with that.  They said, that’ll fool them.  That’ll keep them productive, a metaphor about hiccups that really makes no sense.  I mean, almost by definition, this is a man who doesn’t know the meaning of figurative or how to properly use it, but it can’t…it’s not a hiccup unless there’s a second hiccup, right?  I mean, I know they say hiccups.  So, the first one is a hiccup, but only if there’s a second hiccup, right?  Get the SATs on the line, because if they want to stay relevant, they probably should get ahold of me.  You could laugh at that because that…I’m laughing inside and saying well, that’s ridiculous an idea.  But here’s another idea; SAT and ACT, why don’t you get your acts together?

 

I don’t know what you’ve been…I don’t know if you’re competing companies or not.  They say oh, we’re totally non-profits.  Hardy-har-har.  That Scooter stuff, that was just a hiccup.  But…right?  I guess I’m fixated on this ‘cause I say wait a second, who are you trying to fool with your hiccup metaphor?  Again, not to point it out, but we all know who the fool is here today, clearly.  No fooling; I’m here to help you fall asleep with my pointless meanders and superfluous tangents, but when you first get here and listen, the show is very different.  So, you could feel very strongly about this, especially if you’re some sort of wordsmith.  But I don’t know.  I mean, why the heck…?  I’m not…I guess I’m just wondering; it can’t be a hiccup.  I mean, technically, I’m sure you’re saying well, excuse me, by the way, it’s…the process of your hiccup is your diaphramic…blah.

 

I say okay, great.  Thanks anyway.  But if you don’t have a second one, it’s just some weird noise.  A single hiccup might actually be pleasurable, but it isn’t…it’s…by def…I guess you got me.  By definition, it’s a hiccup.  Thanks.  But actually in practical usage, if there’s not a second one, it’s just…no one’s gonna notice.  Seriously; you might say, was that a hiccup?  But then if you don’t have a second one, you say I don’t know.  Maybe I was trying to hold in a sneeze or something out of my back end, and that’s what happened.  I don’t know.  Okay, speaking of back ends…speaking of rear ends, foolish rear ends…so, if you’re new, a couple things to know.  If you don’t…if you’re feeling tentative or doubtful or slightly irritable, those are normal reactions to me and the podcast because one, you’ve probably…you’re having trouble sleeping.

 

That’s a tough place to be.  Two, you’ve probably tried a bunch of other stuff.  Three, maybe you heard a recommendation about this show from somebody and you had a expectation this was gonna be a normal, reasonable show.  None of that happened, right?  So, totally…that’s a natural reaction.  In fact, at least a million people have said it took two or three tries to get used to this show before I became a regular listener.  Only…not all those people are regular listeners their whole lives.  People come and go depending on what’s going on in their life.  So, give it a couple tries and see if it works.  The reasons are, one, this is a podcast you don’t really listen to.  Clearly, I’m not dealing…I’m dealing in half-sensible ideas.  You say, he almost has a point, but he doesn’t realize something he’ll realize eight months from now.

 

So, this podcast, you just kinda listen to it barely, but you can listen.  So, if you can’t fall asleep or you need a break during the day or you just have a lot going on, I’m here to keep you company like a friend in the deep, dark night, and not to put you to sleep.  You kinda just fall asleep on your own while I’m here keeping you company, taking your mind off of stuff.  So, my job is less to entertain you or to put you to sleep, but to barely do both.  I barely entertain you and I kinda put you to sleep, ‘cause I’m…my job’s to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-bestie, your bore-bor, your neigh-bore, your bore-bud, your bore-friend, and keep you company.  I’ll be here to the very end, so like I said, if you can’t sleep, I’m here, but you can also not listen and I’ll be here and tell you a story.

 

So, those are a couple things that can throw new people off.  The reason I make the show; I know what it feels like in the deep, dark night.  I know what it feels like having trouble getting to sleep and trouble staying asleep, so I’m here to help with that.  The other side of it is you’re important and your sleep is important.  You deserve a good night’s sleep and you deserve a bedtime you don’t dread.  If I can provide that for you, that would be my honor, because your world will be a better place.  Your life will be more manageable if you start getting the rest you need and you deserve.  I also have a list of other sleep podcasts at sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou.

 

So, if you’ve already discovered you don’t like me or the show and…or you’ve given it a few tries, you could check that list out, because this show just doesn’t work for everybody.  But it does work for a lot of people that are looking for something a little bit different, a little bit more friendly, so do give it a few tries if you can, but you don’t have to.  Sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou.  What else?  Sleepwithmepodcast.com/no…oh, the structure of the show can throw people off, so let me tell you about that.  There’s a very specific way we structure the show for specific reasons, but you can kind of adjust how you listen from there.  So, the podcast starts out with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, then I say something silly or goofy so that you feel seen, you feel welcome, and you get the tone of the show.

 

It’s a little bit light-hearted.  Then there’s support; sponsor support, listener support.  That’s what ables us to keep the show out…coming out twice a week for free, ‘cause that’s just what makes that possible.  Then there’s support for listeners if you’re having extra needs right now, and there’s support for the communities around the show.  So, kind of like a couple different ways so you’re supported, the communities we’re in are supported, and the show’s free whenever you want to listen.  Then there’s the intro, which is not part of the support, and the intro goes from, I don’t know, minute six, minute eight, to like, minute twenty.  It’s where I attempt to explain what the podcast is, and I go off-topic.  Then I try to get back on topic.  It takes me like, twelve to twenty minutes to do that, and I try to…I get mixed up.

 

I don’t know my figurative from my asinine.  I guess if I could be…you know.  You know what I’m saying.  That’s part of the intro, is to introduce the show to new listeners, but the reason I make a new intro every single episode and it follows the same basic structure, is because the intro is a show within a show that not only explains what the podcast is, but gives you time to wind down or get ready for bed or to get comfortable.  While there is a percentage of people that fall asleep during the intro and then there’s a small percentage of people that skip the intro, for most listeners, it’s either purposefully a part of their wind-down routine or inadvertently part of their wind-down routine.

 

Because everything I’ve tried, everything I’ve heard from listeners and from actual sleep science is that having a wind-down routine, having a twilight period between when you’re awake and asleep, a landing strip, is what works.  So, this intro kinda serves that purpose, but it’s new every time so that whatever mechanism in our brain or our body or our feelings kinda keeps us up, it’s…I’m still doing a dance to distract that part of you.  So, you could fall asleep during any point, but for the most part, it’s lowering, slowly calming things down.  So, that’s the intro, then there’s more sponsor and listener support between the intro and the story, again so the show can come out twice a week for free.  We have over 450 free episodes available for anybody to listen to anytime.  Anytime, any place, any podcast app.

 

Then there’s a story.  Tonight will be our episodically modular serialized series, Spice Friends.  If it’s your first episode, I’m gonna fill you in on all the details so you could be caught right up.  Then there will be some thank-yous at the end of the show.  So, that’s the structure of the show, that’s why I make the show, and whether you’re just having a hiccup in your sleep, just a short-term thing like you’re expecting something or you’re prepping for something, you’re a student or something came up, or you’re trying to get better sleep habits, or you just need something to listen to at bedtime, I’m here to help.  I’m really glad you came by.  I work really hard on the show.  So do a lot of other people.  A lot of people work really hard on this podcast.  I couldn’t do it without them and the people that support their work.  But I also yearn and I strive to help you fall asleep, so thanks again for coming by, and here’s a couple ways we’re able to do this for you for free twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, this is our episodically modular series, Spice Friends, with a touch of seriality.  A little bit more than a touch, but I counteract the seriality by explaining and catching you up on the story here.  So, this is Episode 9, but it could be…perfect, I mean, those space operas, you could say 1 through 8 were the prequels and if Episode 9 is your first episode…and then you could go back and listen to those ones in any order too, ‘cause I’m gonna catch you up, even if you’re a completist.  But the episodes are all still in the free feed, so if you did want to go back and listen to Episode 1, you could do that.  But I think I’m gonna give you enough information so that you can listen to it in an episodically modular way, which means whenever you want to in whatever order.  So, Spice Friends is the tale of a world just like ours.

 

At one point it was just like ours, then very similar…and you’ve seen this portrayed in popular media; at some time when…someone once said uranium, and they said half-lifes, and they said oh, we could use this for energy and stuff like that.  Then they said oh, we could also use it on will-based systems about our wills and our egos.  At the same time all that started happening, there was these large, dinosaur-like beings that started walking around the Earth, particularly the cities.  But they also had bad breath and they would yell a lot.  They’d get…kinda seemed very chaotic and they would step on stuff and stuff like that.  Not sleepy stuff; it just was going on.  Obviously, if you live in a world like that, you want to sleep.  You say, elected officials, could you do something about these giant things walking around?

 

Back in the day, they tried stuff like lasers and helicopters and all that kinda stuff; didn’t work.  Never worked.  Eventually what happened…they tried a bunch of different stuff, including our…the president of the United States at the time, President Smith, and President Smith’s daughter was the vice president; Vice President Smith.  President Smith tried removing part of our continent to get rid of one of the big dino…forgot what it was called.  I don’t know.  I had a name in the first episode, but that didn’t work.  Then President Smith tried becoming a Big One, and that didn’t work.  But it did work to get all of the Big Ones at that time to a big atoll.  Somehow during all this, there was another planet named Planet Zipper who said hey, we got a plan.

 

I don’t know if President Smith becoming a Big One was part of that plan or not.  I still haven’t gotten that info.  But they said…they…it was revealed; they said, get them to that atoll.  Send a team of astronauts to our planet.  We’ll train them, but we’ll also put your planet on hibernation.  Because of…similar to half-lifes, when you’re in hibernation, everybody’s gonna wake up at a different time based on size and metabolism, so the Big Ones will be asleep the longest.  That worked over history of time, and at that time, some global economic stuff happened, so President Smith…well, president…the original President Smith dealt with stuff and then went to another realm.  But Vice President Smith, she left politics but returned to leadership during this new post-hibernation world.

 

She was president of the Collective Nations for a time.  She was President of the World, more or less, and…or the world that was…considered itself the Collective Nations.  Not everybody…I know.  We’re just seeing it from that perspective.  Then the President Smith was waiting for the astronauts to return.  Only one astronaut returned, and the astronaut said yeah, I was trained on Planet Zipper to teach healthy expression of feelings through song and dance…will help deal with the Big Ones.  She said I’m sorry, what?  He said oh yeah, that’s what’s gonna help.  It’s gotta be genuine, though.  They had already started a series of programming from Planet Zipper’s instructions.

 

They had a studio, they had a team set aside, but she had thought that was a supplemental thing to comfort children or something…there was actually a better plan like lasers or serums or something.  The astronaut said, no.  Said, we gotta trust that it’s gonna work.  What they found out was that yeah, it did work; it would create these other beings, Spice Friends, giant spice-based beings, like a giant cinnamon stick or garlic, whatever.  They were helping counteract the Big Ones, big furry one or Beak Brain or Moth Breath.  I don’t know if there was…there wasn’t one called Beak Brain.  There should have been one, but there wasn’t.  I think there’s Beak Fur Face, or something.  Beak Fur Fish or something.

 

But so, the…but the Spice Friends and the Big Ones, they kinda would do dance-offs and they were dealing with one another, but meanwhile, humans were still being humans, as only we can be.  So, not every nation was collected as a Collective Nation, and some had stronger personalities leading them, or groups of personalities, not just only single, strong personalities.  They were trying to find ways to maintain their own…from…things from their own viewpoint, let’s just say that.  They didn’t share the idea of the Collective Nations or that this was the best solution.  Some of that disagreement spilled over to the Big Ones, and it was hard to get a solution that kept consistently working, even though they had all the pieces of the puzzle.

 

People had other ideas of how to deal with it, so it wasn’t straightforward as like okay, we’ll teach these kids song and dance and healthy expression of feelings.  The Spice Friends will deal with the Big Ones.  In another world with…I don’t know, some other beings, that might have worked.  But we’re just human; we can’t…going from A to B, no thank you.  That’d be way…it’s just not my style, the…said a human once.  So, over…that’s how there’s been eight episodes, because you say okay, it would have been one or two episodes, right?  You say, Cinnamon Stick did some dancing, got rid of Moth Breath; problem solved.  Let’s move onto Fur Face or whatever you said…Beak Breath or Beak Brain.  So, there was a lot of different competing solutions.

 

Most recently, this idea that if we gave everyone…or we had these toys that were based on the Spice Friends and we played with the toys, that that would help.  It kinda did seem to work to bring the Spice Friends and the Big Ones into some sort of hypnotic parallel play.  When parallel play is good, it’s always hypnotic, or meditative might be a better word for it.  But meanwhile, people were still trying to say well, we’re gonna take over the Collective Nations.  This kinda took place over a little bit of time.  So, basically, where we are now, President Smith’s no longer…there’s no more Collective Nations.  Some of the nations, they…alliances shifted.  Also, President Smith and their…her idea, along with the astronaut, it just lost its gloss.  They lost control of the narrative, in some sense.

 

The toy production kinda created…where everybody wanted the toys.  It also changed…toys became currency, just these Spice Friend toys.  But they were also working at keeping the Spice Friends in parallel play.  Now, also what we hadn’t heard until the last episode was how…what happened on Planet Zipper with the astronaut.  A lot was revealed there, which I can summarize.  The astronaut went to Planet Zipper.  Astronaut was superhuman.  I mean, not a superhuman; like, a…I guess they’re not super…they were super at making human choices that…they did a super job at making mistakes, like we all do.  That’s something everybody should start saying; super job spilling that milk.  Way to be human.  Let’s clean it up.  How come that doesn’t happen?  It should.  Hey, super job tripping.

 

Let me help you up and let’s tie those shoes.  So, that’s what I meant when I say super job at being human, because…right?  If you say well, we’re super-friends; we’re great at getting into disagreements and then working them out.  That’s a tangent.  So…oh, so, the astronaut got to Planet Zipper, realized that Planet Zipper’s kind of like a collective being that’s dealing with individual…that’s struggling…was once just a collective being in a series of collect planets of other collective beings, but also experiencing some budding off, and then feelings about that.  But also, that this particular collective being had lived on other planets, but the Big Ones had slowly made their planets move to another realm, to a big farm planet or whatever you want to call it.

 

They were the last being of their kind, even though they were dealing with this individualism, and saying how can we manage that?  They said well, we have to kind of…this is…we’re the last planet of this particular specie.  What are we gonna do?  They also really loved Earth; they loved watching Earth, like, not even in a…in a way you could interpret as not comfortable, but they didn’t really…they’re different than us, so they just liked…they really loved Earth, but in a way…the only uncomfortable way was like, they also realized they could project their feelings to Earth, because as a collective being, their feelings are different than individuals, and they could be really intense.  I think what we figured out is the Big Ones maybe…the Big Ones have something to do with the feelings on Planet Zipper.

 

So, I think the way the last episode came back is that the astronaut just bolted out of there, ‘cause he said well, but you still have this plan to save Earth ‘cause you love Earth, but you also have ulterior motives ‘cause you’re obsessed with Earth, and you need to project your feelings onto Earth so the Big Ones…so that they think…I don’t know.  They were trying to figure out how to deal with their feelings, preserve their way of life.  They just see things from their perspective; understandable.  So, the astronaut just left while there was a big debate going on on Planet Zipper, got back to Earth, didn’t tell the president this until the last episode.  But President Smith, she’s a leader.  I mean, I’m not gonna mince my words; she’s the heroine we need, maybe with the astronaut’s help.  So, I’m sure they’ll work through it.

 

Maybe they even did towards the last episode, of the current situation.  Still gotta plan it.  Full of Spice Friends and Big Ones.  Most of the people…oh, Planet Zipper also contacted Earth, said the president and the astronaut aren’t to be listened to, but that they have a solution that’s gonna work.  But also it’s like, what’s up with your ulterior motives?  They said don’t worry, we’ll figure it all out, but don’t listen to the president and the astronaut.  The president and the astronaut, I mean, of course they’re human, so they have mixed motives, but most of their motives are…let’s just…let’s work this out for everybody the best we can.  Let’s make the best choice we can based on fairly pure motives of love of doing what they feel is right.  But not everybody sees it from their perspective, either.

 

This is a human story, as human as it gets, even though there’s collective space beings and giant friends and non-friends, maybe.  So, that’s it, that’s where we are, and now our Hollywood announcer will set up the show.  He drove here from Los Angeles.  It’s the day of the Superbowl, so I actually didn’t even think about that.  There’s no way he could get home for the Superbowl ‘cause it starts in three hours and if he…that’s like, 335 miles to Antonio’s home, I think.  So, I guess I’ll be watching the Superbowl with Antonio if he can manage not to make any noise while I record the episode.  ‘Cause he’s…he tries and…but I try…I say, can you not…I don’t understand what it is about you.

 

I don’t ask for much; I just ask you to drive here from Los Angeles for free, to be uncredited, but you know, have your…to use your charismatic presence to set up a series, preferably not to use my bathroom unless after we record or have any water, food, not win at any board games that we play after we record, during recording, stay as still…have total stillness and then drive back to Los Angeles.  Not that I have any problem with him using my restroom.  Well, I do; I don’t think I talked about this.  It’s just, when someone that…it’s just hard for me to use a mirror where someone with…whose middle name is Gravitas.  Then how am I gonna look myself in the mirror?  It is my issue, I know, but I say, I don’t know if I can use that mirror anymore after you’ve looked in it, because the mirror’s gonna see right through me.

 

So, this is a opportunity for growth.  Also brings me opportunity for growth on a regular basis.  So, I couldn’t do it without him.  I guess I totally could, but I enjoy making the podcast so much more with him, and I wouldn’t have these growth opportunities to realize I gotta find my own internal gravitas.  Here’s Mr. Antonio Banderas.  Thank you, Scooter.  Friends beyond the binary, the ladies, the gentlemen, the boys, the girls, it’s time for a spicy tale with Spice Friends.  Yeah, spicy.  You do have gravitas, gravelly gravitas, if you don’t mind me saying.  It’s in the heart.  All gravitas; not in the mind.  Not even actually in the heart.  So, you’re just having a hiccup in your gravitas.  What are hiccups?  I was listening.  Hiccups; yeah.  Okay, that’s Mr. Antonio Banderas, and this is Spice Friends.  Thanks, everybody.

 

Alright.  Former President Smith recording.  I guess it’s how I’ll refer to myself for the time being.  I’ve had a lot of time to process everything, and yeah, I think about…yeah, that I do trust you, if you’re listening to this, or I do trust Astro, as now I’m referring to you.  I trust you more so because of your…of everything we talked about, and trying to…those are my feelings, and the world is in a place with strong feelings about us, myself and Astro, as that’s what the popular…they call me Prez with a z, and it’s not meant as a compliment, but I’ll embrace it.  Sometimes they call me Princess Prez.  They think it’s funny, the commentators, and they comment on us.

 

But there’s been a lot of debate going on since Planet Zipper has started to contact everyone, and they’re sending out these one-way broadcasts which is interesting because they must know that you know…I don’t know, that we could communicate with them whenever we want, unless things have changed on Zipper and they’re not observing us at all times, though I guess you don’t know that…one thing I was thinking about is okay, is it some sort of delayed thing?  Which it probably is, so maybe they aren’t exactly observing us.  But they could…but it would also occur in real-time if it was delayed, right?  I don’t know.  I didn’t…I can’t think about that too much because that’s a rabbit hole we don’t need to go down.  But Zipper has made it clear that they are our hope and that Princess Prez and Astro took us off-course.

 

They even made shows about characters loosely based on us, two folly-based characters, which is fine, but that their plan is still going to work, that it just needed…that we were the ones that kinda created this currency deal and the NFTs, and that’s what took things off-track, was our behavior.  So, they are talking about a plan now to…that the toys are gonna be again redistributed under their observation, that everyone will have one toy that then they can turn in, you know, if the toy gets…if it’s not usable or they want something…that it’s one toy per…one toy per world or whatever.  I don’t know what their saying is.

 

Again, more programming, and very similar…while most of our team, our production team, has opted out or been besmirched by their association with…some of the team did elect to be a part of this new solution or returning to the main track of the solution, but yeah, they’re putting out more toys, more cereal, more shows, again based on fairness and feelings and expression.  But they’ve also left it open as questions have come.  They said this is what you need to do, and we’re in a waiting place, right?  They said to just let the…Astro and I do…see if we will respond.  We’ve sought out some privacy and…with our production team, and we were just kinda playing a waiting game.  You know, I’m having trouble having full hope in this.  Astro, I got trust in you now.

 

Now, the question of trust in me and what’s next is as I say okay, all will be well, Emma Otter said, and that’s been one of my guiding…I guess it’s funny when you talk about investing your hopes in toys or the stars, but that really has been a guiding star of mine, that all will be well.  So, I’m waiting to kinda see, because not everyone has been going along with what Zipper’s been asking, and there’s certain…the NFTs are not being distributed evenly even at this time, and Planet Zipper made it clear that…and I guess that’s where I guess the lull in communication…everything takes longer, which is probably good, ‘cause it gives us time to process stuff and say, what…there’s a lag in reaction and action, and that’s not a easy place to exist in that lag, but it also could be that pause that people talk about.

 

So, I’m waiting to see what happens with this pause and hoping to hear your thoughts, or that our thoughts are being…that I’m…this helps me and I know it helps you.  Astro here, Madam President.  You might be comfortable with what they call you, Princess President…Prez, Princess…I’m not.  You’re Madam President to me.  I don’t even know if I like madam, but…if it was just by itself, but it does to me symbolize your authority and my deference to your leadership in a way that’s…that I trust.  I spent a little while…I was listening to your recording and we were waiting, and it’s clear some of the things I saw on Zipper are still at play, and maybe they’ve even learned more because yeah, the NFTs were not…were still being collected by certain members of the BONTONs, and the BONTONs had made a few demands, certain portions of the BONTONs, certain leadership groups within the BONTONs.

 

Then Zipper said okay, are you sure?  Because this…we can’t…they said they could…they said the Big Ones aren’t gonna like that.  This is the only plan that’ll work.  Again, they just reiterated their position.  I don’t know, if I was the only one that saw what was below that in the subtext or else…but they made it more sound, and I guess in some sense, it could have been both because they said don’t…please, just listen to us.  Don’t do that, because the Big Ones are gonna react, and the Spice Friends may react, and they were right.  The Big Ones returned, left parallel play, and they went to the places the toys were collected.  Some of the BONTON leadership, that was more whose arms they considered strong.  They’re not leading anymore, and it didn’t take long, right?  Zipper kinda said, see?

 

Please, please, just see…just try our plan.  You’ve seen what happens when you don’t try or you barely try or you…’cause there was also not obvious leaders with strong arms.  There was also leaders that were a little bit more subtle, but with the same motives of being right or making the most of what they saw as a opportunity.  Zipper kinda reiterated…again, they also sent messaging to the groups working on the programming, which I don’t necessarily have a negative view of.  The programming is very good; it’s still trying to teach children joy of song and dance, but I have a unease with it since I’m not in charge of it, I guess is part of it, but it’s like, I don’t know.  I guess maybe I was operating from wrong motives, too.

 

But you said we’ve talked and I guess we didn’t record our personal conversations, but you said what do we…how are we going to deal with this, right?  Now it’s clear Zipper’s in control and their plan’s rolling out, and we should have some resistance to it, and we’re trying to…you’re trying to decide, and we’ll follow your lead of how strong do we resist, right?  Because as more and more information comes in from Zipper, it’s…yeah, I don’t know.  So, I guess I’ll see what you say as this next…now that the toys are being redistributed and most…anyone in a leadership position that was going to resist, which makes me kind of think…I’ll take any risk you want, Madam President, but…’cause I know, as you say, all will be well.  But it’s also hard to just determine yeah, which way do we take all this?

 

Alright, this is Prez here, and the Big Ones have kind of made a little bit more…mostly through the programming, and maybe I am reading in-between the lines, but they’re kind of talking about this.  The Big Ones haven’t retreated, right?  The Spice Friends are kinda still inactive and I don’t quite understand that or how the…how Planet Zipper’s doing that, and what we can do to kind of awake the Spice Friends, or what should we do.  As you said, will the Big Ones just know if we’re pursuing active resistance, and what are we resisting exactly?  ‘Cause Zipper’s kind of…between the lines, if I’m interpreting what they’re saying, they say okay, now we’re gonna allow you to live in these beautiful…we love you and you’re…we want you to live in the beautiful conditions you’ve been living in, but they’ll just be…we want to help you make sure they’re tolerable.

 

You’ll live with the Big Ones in a tolerable way.  But I know there’s something below that when you see a Big One, right?  There’s awe and other feelings there, especially when we know that…and they say, we can’t let you…you have to let us help you; otherwise the Big Ones will just roam around, just like they did with these BONTON leaders, and using the recent events to prove their point.  Also, they must know…I guess but no one would listen to Astro or I; they say well, they have a ulterior motive.  No one’s questioning that other than they say they love us so much and they’ve dealt with the Big Ones, but not that they need us, that we’re helping them.  Then part of me is like well, is it so wrong for us to help them?  Is this what it was like when…times and other cultures with these gods?

 

Were these gods…did…is there some sort of part of recorded history that’s missing and this is happening again, with feelings from another world being projected into our world and giant demi-gods and titans roaming the Earth?  But the fact that they’re doing it to preserve their way of life, is that just some rebel in me that says no, no, no; we have to have our own destiny here?  Is there something I need to loosen in me?  But right now, it feels like I do need to resist, and so, we’re headed to try to see what’s going on with the Spice Friends and to get them back moving.  So, that’s our current plan, is to reawaken the Spice Friends and build some resistance through that.  So, yeah, I’ll…we’ll see how it goes.

 

Okay, Madam President is…so, well, there’s a few things since your last message that have become clear, is that most of Earth has embraced Zipper’s plan, and they like the idea of…the programming is good.  I guess programming sounds like something else, but it’s just…it is good.  It’s quality and it’s not…if I didn’t have these underlying feelings, would I accept it more?  If I didn’t…it’s like, I’m projecting.  Just like Planet Zipper is, I’m projecting what I know about Zipper and my feelings about that onto the programming.  But the idea of this fairness and the one toy, one world, and using the toy…and again, some of the ideas we had; roleplaying and all these things to express your feelings, but also, there is this undercurrent that I guess…no, it’s not a matter of me mixing it up; it’s that you’re trying to control feelings instead of express them and then let them dissipate.

 

I don’t know, it’s something different.  It’s that lowering the range of the feelings, not through expression…I don’t know.  Can you control feelings?  Can you experience them?  I don’t know, it’s never been tried on a global scale before.  Again, for what motive?  I guess it’s one thing to moderate or to modulate your own feelings for your own wellbeing or to learn those tools to help you in self-care or care in interpersonal relationships, but to do all that in a way but you’re manipulating your feelings for some other motive, or is it right?  Or does it even matter?  At this point it doesn’t matter, because most people have embraced the plan.  They say well, what’s the trade-off?

 

The Big Ones running around or the Big Ones occasionally causing some chaos that could be attributed to…and they say well, you…it’s almost reminiscent of…the Big Ones are like those…back before your father kinda…all those…what are those called?  Medias of socialing or whatever, that…you say well, you parked that way and now the Big Ones are doing that instead of the social medias.  You can’t park…and people are feeling empowered by the Big Ones when they say oh, well, that neon sign is too bright, and the Big One just made it go bye-bye.  Like, having that underlying looming…so, we do have to take action, but unfortunately, so far our actions have been unsuccessful.

 

We’ve been working from the perspective of the Big One…or the Spice Friends and the Big Ones respond to song and dance and feelings, and we’ve been trying to use our song and our dance and our feelings to get the Spice Friends going.  They started stirring a little bit, but at the same time, the Big Ones started stirring, too.  Instead of coming to where we were which is kinda what we thought and we were prepared for that; said maybe the Big Ones’ coming.  It’s worth the risk, right?  Do we have to stand up for what we think might be right?  We’re still trying to refine our plans, but the Big Ones, instead of stirring right now, the Spice Friends…they’re moving around and they’re aware of us and they’re hearing the sounds, but it’s like they’re lackadaisical or something.  Most of the feelings are going into the Big Ones, maybe?

 

I don’t know, because there’s no way to track any of this except by inference.  But the Big Ones stir more and more, but they don’t come here.  So, we’re hoping to get them to come here, but it’s…then we’re like okay, but they’re walking around.  Is that because of our behavior or some other behavior?  So, we’re gonna take a pause for a while in our action and observe the Big Ones’ actions and the Spice Friends’ actions and then see what happens.  Okay, Prez here.  Well, we took a pause and the…Planet Zipper and…Planet Zipper’s…well, not even Planet Zipper anymore.  Things have kinda…’cause Earth has embraced the plan.  I don’t think Zipper even needs to be involved anymore; they’re just watching and watching me now, but…on a delay, but it won’t be a delay when it…anyway.

 

So, we took a break from our actions with the Spice Friends to see what the Big Ones would do, and the Big Ones rested or went back to only doing things when people’s feelings got too strong or too self-based.  Says wait, are they moving us towards a collective feeling by looming Big Ones?  I don’t know if that’s necessarily true or if it’s just we’re still the outlet for their feelings.  Like, maybe this is the debate that had been going on there, like instead of…maybe they realized that they can’t inject all of their feeling into Earth, but that where we’re their outlet for their feelings.  They’re projecting their feelings a little bit to dissipate them.  Again, it’s like oh boy…and I guess the ego comes up; it’s like, do they really need to do that?  Because they’re not a human, they’re not a mammal.

 

So, who am I to say that’s…but I say well, we have a boundary; we’re Earth.  While you may need to do that, you…gonna have to find somewhere else to do it or find a way on your planet to do it.  But that ego has been…I’ve been made well aware of that failure of ours because as soon as the pause came and it was clear that our actions were stirring up the Big Ones, the entire Earth, which already had strong feelings about it, so the majority of Earth, they got honest with us, which was even harder.  But we needed to hear it, I think, to move on, that our resistance plans had a impact on other people, that our need to be in control or my need to be in control was doing the opposite of Emma Otter.  All was not well because of me, which was true no matter what my motive was.

 

I had to change…we had to change our actions and say okay, you’re right, and we…I apologized, you apologized, and we said you know, you don’t have to…we tried to make things right.  But it also we back to kinda where we are when I was trying to rebuild trust with you, is like okay, so we need to surrender and have hope that all will be well.  I was trying to make everything well instead of trusting.  If we surrender and give up resisting…for the time being; I’m not saying…if you’re listening to this, you’ve probably already seen some other action, Zipper.  But where do I find my feelings and my hope and the next thing to do?  It’s like okay, hope and surrender seem to be the…what we’re being called to do right now.  So, we’re pitching the world with the show, leaning into also their feelings about Astro and I.

 

Also, there’s something else happening as this plan has been kinda going on and time is passing, that I think something else is at play.  But we’ll see.  So, we’re gonna work on a new show that leans into all this, and we’ll see how it goes.  Our team is strong; we have a bond, we had…we’re going back to our roots, but also giving in at…not giving up, but giving some space or something.  Okay, Madam President, the show…I guess we haven’t recorded.  It’s been a while.  So, we started a cooking show — I guess this is Astro here — a cooking show for people to come on and who had strong, negative feelings about president…the Prez and I, because it’s called Prez and Astro, Prez and Astro Cooking Show, and…for spicy feelings about us, and it’s a very popular show.

 

It was hard, and luckily we have a whole team, because it quickly became a parody of itself.  But we’ve been able to evolve from there, you know, where people come on and cook spicy dishes or we cook with them or we have a chef.  I find out, the majority of the Earth had very strong, negative feelings about the president and I, and that they could express them on the show and we could accept their feelings and we could put it into the food.  Then we could eat a meal together afterwards, and with other guests that maybe didn’t make it on the show but shared those feelings, or family members and those kind of things.  But we’ve been doing it now for quite a while.  It’s been a while since I recorded this, and the show had gotten more and more popular.

 

Zipper did not seem to react because it was clear that we were…had surrendered, right?  We weren’t resisting Zipper anymore, we weren’t resisting people’s feelings about us.  We were simply acknowledging it and actually letting them express it.  But we noticed, and now it’s become beyond noticeable over time, is the feelings got less and less spicy.  Then we tried other things or other flavors or citrusy or…we tried sweet, savory, and this reflects the overall pattern on Earth, which leads us to where we are now.  The flavors got weaker and weaker and weaker, and people’s interest in strong flavors.  Again, we couldn’t resist that.  We had to surrender.  People said this is too strong.  It happened so subtly, week after week after week after week, show after show after show, where it’s like, okay, let’s just…let’s keep saying yes or huh, what is it?

 

This was reflective of a broader thing on Earth, that…it wasn’t about the weather, but I’m gonna talk about the weather.  Like a pet on a hot day is how things have gotten emotionally on the Earth.  Something about this mechanism and something about that, and keeping things…again, I don’t understand any of it, but whatever Zipper’s plan is, over time has dulled things.  Yeah, I mean, it made the people lackadaisical.  The cooking is just, again, another related expression of that, which is like, the pet is a metaphor, lying around on a hot day, or like a human being without air conditioning, right?  Or going through some strong feelings, or a lack of feeling is that it’s just…and we got to the show, but we also never winked, right?  We just went with it, right?

 

So, people wanted to make mush or mash or they just wanted to sit around and talk about water.  I don’t know why the…we’re able to keep some distance from it, but we have been…mash, mush, meal…and we even tried to book guests that were the most…that refused to come on the show before.  The other thing is the show’s never been more popular.  It’s grown in popularity and the content has been…I don’t know.  I say, what is happening with this lackadaisical…?  But it’s obvious what’s happening, right, to the president and I.  But we said well, what is it…what do we do?  So, we’re trying to process that.  We’ve said yes, we’ve surrendered, and Earth has kind of surrendered, in a sense.  In a sense, for what…people made the best decision they could at the time, and probably the correct decision.

 

But decisions aren’t forever, right?  We make…it’s like…just like this show has changed, it’s led us to this point, to near a decision point or a curiosity point, as you talk about, Madam President.  So, it’s like okay, what’s next?  Because it’s like oh, wait, even though we’ve surrendered being in control of the outcome, we haven’t surrendered part…period, end of story, right?  All will be well.  So, yeah.  I guess it’s waiting and discerning and trying to find what action do we take if we have a choice here?  I’m trusting that…like you say, together, you, I, and the entire team, even though we’re the only ones recording it, this entire team that’s helping us make these choices.  Prez here.  So, it was interesting; we made a choice and…to see what would happen, because we said okay…well, we kept coming up with lists of ideas.

 

We said okay, let’s just keep coming up with lists of ideas.  Even some of the staff, though they had been engaged, the hot summer day thing was affecting even them.  But we said let’s just keep listing ideas and ideas and ideas of…if we want to change direction in the show, where do we go and what do we do?  I and Astro, you were coming up with lists, too, separately.  That’s when you came back to me and said you trust me, right?  I told you my story and you trust me.  I said yeah, and I said yes, yes, yes.  Then you said yeah, this is what got us here.  You trusted me and I trusted you to tell you.  So, you told the staff your story and then the ideas started to flow again.  We would have you as a guest on the show instead of on a…as a host.  Our show was at peak popularity.

 

Almost everyone was watching the show at some point, which was inexplicable.  Again, we decided not to go too aggressive.  Like, you could be a guest again, but to just kinda talk about your…what happened in a general way, and on your trip to Planet Zipper and on Planet Zipper and your return.  But kinda saying yes, too, to Zipper’s plan.  It seems to have…to plant the seed, I guess.  So, you came on the show and we talked about it and we talked about your favorite foods.  But again, making it where we…where the show was, we just made…instead of making pizza, we just made a crust, which just makes me laugh ‘cause we took it seriously.  We rehearsed it and we had been through it with so many other guests, but never…let’s have…well, my favorite food was pizza.  Let’s just make a pizza crust.

 

We’ll even…I guess alls you need to do is parbake it, but that’s when you express the one thing we felt like Earth didn’t know, and that they only needed to know as a seed is that there’s one more motive for Zipper, is that they need us, and that…you even said it; I’m not even sure how to feel about helping them as a person.  We were talking about feelings and your feelings towards me.  In a honest way, you were saying well, yeah, but I’m supposed to help by just giving into this plan and letting the Big Ones exist and making a show to help moderate feelings.  We’re helping Planet Zipper ‘cause they have to have us.  We have to do this for them.  It’s different than human-to-human because it’s one thing to help another human being, where it’s kind of…you know what I mean?

 

It’s like, you know, we do need to help one another and we need to get help as people.  In some sense, even…but it’s different when it’s a planet, kind of, where it’s like…or the Big One will run around.  Also, we didn’t tell you that that’s why.  So, you talked about how complicated the feelings are ‘cause you say well, what…is it really that different than helping another person, helping a planet?  I’m confused.  This was a real discussion and I had real feelings about it, too, real feelings of confusion and about how our egos and our choices, it impacted others, and how there wasn’t a neat answer and actually, that it was just…stirred up complicated feelings, saying well, can we say yes to helping Zipper?  Maybe feeling strong feelings isn’t necessary as a human being.  Maybe Zipper’s right.

 

That was the weakest point, because you were honest.  You said, but I don’t think I can accept that.  I want my strong feelings back.  Is that so wrong?  I don’t want to be dominated by my strong feelings.  I can see where there is sense, back with the Spice Friends and the Big Ones.  But it’s like, the idea of…can’t…is…and you know, just you almost not even being able to speak…like you say.  I don’t know what the choice is.  Once that seed was planted, again, we kept having guests on and then that’s all they could talk about.  The food started to change and got more and more spicy.  But it was quickly apparent that the Big Ones…but at first, I don’t think Zipper knew.

 

Again, they couldn’t see the slow progression, the slow growth of that plan as the roots took hold and said wait a second…and more of not…again, a lot of the sentiment has been anti-Zipper at this point, and trying to say whoa, whoa, whoa, we’re trying to say okay, those are feelings though, and the feelings about the Big Ones and the…why aren’t the Spice Friends doing anything.  But what’s been interesting is this other idea that came out of it, which is what we’re doing next, is saying as the Big Ones have become more and more spicy, or as the show has become more and more spicy, the Big Ones are stirring but they’re confused too, because they’re not causing chaos; they’re just kind of…I don’t know.

 

I said well, what if we bring our show on location, just like they did back in the day and we started having the guests right there, the feelings right there in front of the Spice Friends?  What would happen?  That slowly…it seems like the Big Ones are headed…we did it out in the middle of nowhere, out in one of the great places where there’s…it’s very arid.  That’s where the…some of the Spice Friends were resting…not populated and playing or whatever they’ve been doing for a long time now.  The Spice Friends are stirring and the Big Ones are coming.  I know they’re coming, and I don’t know what’s next.  No, is there a way we could find to work together with Zipper and the Spice Friends and the Big Ones or not?

 

But I know it’s…feels good to be moving out of this funk the Earth was in and moving somewhere…again, it’s like we’re flowing with the stream.  We were fighting upstream, and that didn’t work.  But flailing about didn’t work either, but being here and deliberately going with the flow but keeping one another…we’re going somewhere, we’re not just totally in…we don’t know where we’re…it’s like…just like Emma Otter said when I was a child and I read those books and saw those films; all will be well.  She never said what would be well, so again, we’re gonna rest, we’re gonna trust, and we’re gonna keep at this, and I know soon we’ll be here filming our cooking show on location with the Spice Friends, and hopefully the Big Ones as guests.

 

Or even an idea that came up that…Astro, you came up with this; what about some sort of feelings buffet for all of them?  Like, the feelings are bringing them here; what’s next?  I don’t know, but I do know I can trust right now that we’ll do our best and that all will be well.  So, thanks for listening and I look forward to working together to help one another through that.  Thanks.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(Transcription by Leah Hervoly)