So... Alright - Rise and Grind and Snooze

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Geoff recalls his recent vacation and shares a few stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does possible sound like for your business? It's more cash on hand to grow with up to 55 interest-free days. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit mx.ca slash business platinum. So I just got back from my final trip. I can't remember how I talked about it previously, but you know, I've had this whole summer of trips and I was finally home and excited to be home. But I had another secret trip ahead of me that I couldn't really talk about

because it was for a friend's wedding. And I was trying to respect their privacy, obviously. And it was a destination wedding. So it was in London. So I I had to batch record a bunch of soil rights ahead of time. And I'll be damned if I can remember exactly what I talked about or how I talked about other than hot dogs. I know hot dogs were heavy hitters in.

It feels like the last like 20 fucking episodes of content. I have Recorded I don't know. I didn't I didn't understand When I posed the question to the guys in regulation What's a food you can't say no to and my answer was hot dogs and I was just thinking about it because I was at A baseball game and I saw a hot dog and I was like, I can never fucking say no to a hot dog. I had no idea the title wave of hot dog hot takes and enthusiasm that would be generated

from such an, just a throw away question and very innocuous and man is it created a fervor around hot dogs both positive and negative as the community rallies around and also gets extremely tired of people talking about hot dogs fascinating to behold i had no idea it just goes to show you never know. You never fucking know what's going to be that thing that just connects with people in a way. Clearly, hot dogs connect with me in a way, in a flavor way. And so, you know, they're near and dear to my heart, but I had no idea that it would create such a like I said, a fucking wave of opinions, both positive and negative, as we all surf the hot dog seas. Anyway, I'm home.

I just spent eight-ish days in England, which you would think would be like a vacation. But the first, I was hit with a fucking jet lag. One of the worst I've had, Emily and I both, it just kicked our dicks in. I don't know what it was. I guess it's maybe one of those like, it's at the end of the day, so you're already kind of worn out, and then as soon as you get on the plane,

they dim the lights and they're like, everybody go to sleep, and you're hoping to sleep through the night and then wake up in its morning somewhere else, and we just couldn't get, I just couldn't get comfortable, you're like tossing and turning, and it just stretched into like the longest night of my life. I watched a couple of movies,

and I don't really watch movies anymore, so it felt fun to me to just fucking, to say I'm a captive audience here screw it instead of listening to podcasts or whatever I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on watching some knocking out some movies that I've never seen that I've always wanted to see and so Or always wanted to see some Knocking out some movies that I've wanted to see that I just haven't had the opportunity or the patience to sit down and watch yet Anyway, so the first like two I was there, beset with terrible, terrible jet lag. And then we flew into London and then had to go to another destination.

So there was a little bit of travel involved, kind of ended up in a small town where there wasn't there wasn't a ton to do. But I will say I got to go to Windsor Castle twice. My wife and I went to Windsor Castle and explored it and did the whole tour. And it was awesome. And I had a great day. And then the next day, some of our friends came in and they wanted to go to Windsor Castle. So Emily and I said. Yeah, we'll go to Windsor Castle again.

So I did two full days of Windsor Castle. However, the whole time, I was so stressed out. It took me two days to get over the jet lag, and then I was so fucking stressed out because I had to write this speech. And well, I had to write and give a speech, and I was very excited to do it. I mean, I consider any time you get to give a speech

at such an important event about people that you care so deeply about, you take, I don't know about you, but I take it extremely seriously. And I was excited to write it. I'd actually written a version of it probably, oh, I don't know, four or five months prior. And so I wasn't just like working off scratch. I kind of knew what I wanted to say,

but I really wanted to get it right. And I really wanted to get it perfect. And I really wanted to get it perfect. And you have, you're talking about people you care so deeply about. You really want to do them justice with your words, and you want to do your feelings justice. Like this is an opportunity to express to people that are important to you, what they mean to you,

and to share that with other people that are important to you, right? It's a big deal to me. And so even though I consider myself a pretty solid writer, I'm usually happy with what I write and I do love to write. Something happens when you have to write something important, even if you've been writing your whole life, and writing is pretty common to you, and you feel well-versed in it, and you feel good at it, really good at it, maybe even.

I don't know about you, but when I sit down to write, it's like I've never done it before, for the first 30% of it. You just are looking at it like, how do these puzzle pieces go together? I've never put a puzzle together I'm not even sure how puzzles go together. What is the deal? Why are these words so jumbled? How do I form this out and you just like you just work it and you fucking need it need it kind of like you need

And dough and you just like it slowly starts to take form and then about I don't know Maybe 40% of the way through you realize you've got an outline that contains like, you know, a good portion of what you want to say in the not even what you want to say, but this is the really the important part, like how you want to say it and how you want to present it. Right. And then it starts to just like the pieces fall into place and then it's fucking fast and furious. And you're like, oh yeah, I remember how to write writings, fucking easy. Why was this so scary to me 30 minutes ago? This is fucking, or three days ago even,

this is fucking nothing. And you're like, brrrr, and you put it all down on paper and you feel so fucking good, and then you get about 90% of the way through, and then you look at it and you go, oh, this is all dog shit. And then the last 10% is trying to polish a turd into something that doesn't look like a turd.

You know what I mean? Kind of like when you see a fossilized turd from like, I don't know, 100,000 years ago, it doesn't really look like a turd, it looks like some sort of shiny brown rock, you know? I was trying to turn my words, my turd words, into a shiny brown rock, and that's easier said than done.

So writing sucks for the first 30% for me and it sucks for the last 10%, but the middle 60% is awesome. So to that end, leading up to the wedding, I was a distracted mental mess, focused pretty solely on not embarrassing myself and my friends or letting, more than anything, letting them down, you know?

and my friends or letting more than anything, letting them down, you know? You really don't wanna, you get, you really don't wanna let the people that matter to you down when it matters. And anyway, I'm not gonna talk about the wedding and all that stuff. I'm sure it'll get covered in regulation. It was an amazing event and it was wonderful

to see everybody that was wonderful to see everybody that I got to see and catch up with and spend some time with people that I hadn't seen in so long that I genuinely just love to spend time with. There was a moment when I walked into a room and every single person in the room was from Achievement Hunter and it was a weird, surreal

moment and I was like, nope, I turned around and walked right out. We all laughed at that. But it was an insanely beautiful and important and wonderful event and I had the time of my life at it and I was ready with my speech and I felt really good about it and I was so happy to give it. And then the second it was over, I felt like you, you know, you feel like, oh, I can finally relax now. And then it feels kind of like you enter into the next day, enter into vacation mode. After that, we had two days in London before we came home.

And so that's kind of what I want to talk about is those two days in London or those two days anywhere. Vacations. What is it about a vacation, going to a different place, getting outside of your comfort zone, although you may not be in an uncomfortable zone, going to stay at a fucking boutique hotel in London for two days isn't exactly outside of a comfort zone. It's just a different place, a different space. You're looking at different walls,

you're looking at different streets, you're looking at different streets, you're looking at different trees, different people, different buildings. And without fail, every time I go on a vacation, even if it's just for a day, or in this case, two days, not quite two days, but almost like 40 hours, mostly two days, I go through this transformative experience where suddenly everything in my life becomes clear.

Not in a, I need to change the way I'm doing things. These are, you know, I can now understand how to resolve the problems in my life, or, you know, like granted some prescience with which how I need to move forward in my career, whatever, not granted some, some impressions with, with which how I need to, to, to move forward in my career or whatever. Not, not like that, but just like, you just get outside of your normal routine

and you kind of follow impulse, right? What do I want to do? And you find out, I find out every time without fail, I want to go on walks, I want to explore, I want to see art. I never go and see art in Austin. Might be because Austin has is pretty dogshit for art galleries. We are we're definitely not a we're a town full of artists. Really, really wonderfully talented artists. And unfortunately, not a lot of great places to show that art.

There's a ton of small galleries and stuff. And if you if you put the work into it, you can find some really some interesting spaces with some really cool stuff. But it's nothing, nothing quite like going to the Tate Modern or the SF MoMA, which by the way, are my two favorite museums in the world, the Tate Modern in London and the MoMA in San Francisco. I don't know what it is. But those two, I didn't go to the Tate this time, because I go to the Tate every time. But I did walk by it after it was closed, and hang out on the bridge and soak up the ambiance over there because I go to the Tate every time, but I did walk by it after it was closed and hang out on the bridge and soak up the ambiance over there because I love that part of town a lot. But anyway, you walk, you walk, you walk,

at least I do, I walk, I walk, I walk, and I stumble into every fucking bookstore I see. I don't try to, I don't set out to do it, but there's something about being in a different place away from home that makes me want to explore the streets and the lands and also the culture and the history. And I just, it like, it just like awakens this curiosity, this natural curiosity in me where suddenly I want to know everything about the place and everything that I see. You know, you just want to steep yourself in it

and absorb it and immerse yourself in it and become fluent in it, right? You want to become fluent in the place. And to do that, you have to understand the place. And for whatever reason, I end up in every bookstore I see. And what invariably happens is I buy a bunch of books that I then have to take home and then I don't read or I don't read for the next five years and someday I get back to

it. I probably at this point in my life by eight or nine books for every book I actually read. And the idea is that I will get to them someday. But this trip I endeavored not to do that. I took photos of books I want to read. and I if I find myself needing a book I'm gonna go back to the photos. Here's what I looked at though. Um These are the books that looked interesting to me that I almost bought in London Clarice Lyspector's near to the wild heart Which looks really interesting a book called till

Heart, which looks really interesting, a book called Till, which is shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020 by Daniel Kellman, then Satan Tango by Laszlo Krasna or Sky, which is a modern masterpiece that manages to speak both of its time and to transcend it altogether. Oh, that was really interesting looking. and then kiss of the spider-woman. I've always wanted to read that book and a single man by issue would And I saw a book that I I just sent it to Gavin that was about him called dear dickhead by dispense Maybe I'll try that. Oh also a Saco Yuzuki's book butter

Was the first book that caught my eye in London and I almost bought it but I remembered that I brought two books with me on the trip and I can't be reading I probably wasn't gonna read either of them let alone a third one that I picked up By the way, the book I am reading right now is Swan in Love by Marcel Proust. I had avoided Proust most of my life because I had the impression because he's so lauded and Studied that he was fairly inaccessible Couldn't be further from the truth

Couldn't be further from the truth. Absolutely delightful Very accessible fun read I get it I I really get it. People say Proust is like the greatest a writer of the 20th century. Holy shit, the prose. Phenomenal. And I'm not that far into the book.

I can't wait to get further into it. I can't wait to finish it. And I can't wait to read another Proust book because I really, I'm just scratching the surface and I'm falling in love already. It's funny, you look at yourself in this new space, you look at the things that you are attracted to and that you're doing, walking around, exploring.

It makes me wanna take photos, it makes me wanna pick up a camera again and re-embrace my long dormant love of photography and read, read like a madman, constantly. And it's just, I don't know, it's invigorating because you kind of strip away all of the normal routines and obligations and distractions from your everyday life, right, the little tricks that you've come up with

to keep you interested or not from getting bored or to trick yourself into not doing work or all the things that you have to do, just go in the course of a day-to-day life, are stripped away. Basically, all you've got to do is eat a couple times a day and explore. You kind of strip all these things away and you're left with, I guess, the essence of who you are when you're not distracted by your own life. And for me, I guess that's a curious little guy

that wants to run around and discover every back alley of a city and chronicle and feel like he knows where everything is and how it all fits together and feel like he could slip in and pass for a local and then just voraciously consume literature in some fashion or another. And then you come home and it's it's so illuminating and it's exciting and it's invigorating and you start to make these plans. Well, you start to think first off, you start to think like, oh, if I lived in if I lived in London, what would it be like?

And you start to make all these plans while I go get coffee every morning over here. By the way, by the way, I went to, Emily looked it up and there was like a Ralph Lauren coffee shop that's supposed to be pretty good like in one of their stores. So we were over in the area, we stopped in there. I had the best iced coffee of my life from the Ralph Lauren coffee store

in the Ralph Lauren clothing store. Coffee's probably the only thing you could afford in that store. But God damn that it was like an iced Americano because you know, they don't always have drip coffee there. One thing I haven't seen a lot of in London in general is just iced coffee, but they had iced Americano there and it was so goddamn good. Now I understand, you know, you get the bump of being in a new place and that's exciting and getting to drink coffee from a new coffee shop

in a new city is kind of fun and kind of set you up for a good experience. And then I hadn't had iced coffee in probably a week at that point because I'd been in London where it doesn't exist easily. But man, it was so fucking yummy So kudos Ralph Lauren you make very expensive pants and very fucking good coffee But anyway back to the point you envision I would go to a coffee shop and I would read Proust and I would

Absorb the local culture and you know you you get this idea of who you draw this picture of who you're gonna be if you move to London. It's kind of like that TikTok meme you see where somebody, me 10 seconds in Tokyo, maybe I wanna live in Tokyo, me 10 seconds in London, maybe I wanna live in London, me 10 seconds in Barcelona, maybe I wanna live in Barcelona. It's totally true, right? But then you realize, well, I'm never gonna move to London, but I can apply this excitement,

this reawakening of passions, right? And interest, I can apply that to my home life. And when you're in a, at least for me, when I'm in a city vacation, I'm in a beach vacation, I tend to sleep in, but when I'm in a city vacation, I'm up at the crack of dawn, I just wanna hit the streets running. I love to watch a city wake up,

especially if it's a city I'm not familiar with, or at least one that I don't live in, right? And so, you get the idea, I'll just apply this when I get home. I'll take this energy, this enthusiasm that I have right now, and I'll apply it to my life at home. I'll start to get up every day at like 5 a.m. and I'll get exercise, I'll go for a bike ride, or I'll go walk somewhere, I'll go for a hike,

and then I'll go to a coffee shop and I will read a book, and before I even start writing, because I already go to coffee shops to work, to write, right? But I'll make a point of devoting time to fun reading and not just browsing Reddit and coming up with ideas for the show and looking over my notes. That's all important and I got to do that. But I'll carve out some time for me to enjoy reading a book.

And you just come up with all these ideas of things you're going to do. And then you come home and this is what happens to me every time. You come home and you say, tomorrow morning, it starts first day of the rest of my life, you set your alarm for, I don't know, five or six a.m. And then you you go to bed thinking I'm going to get up in the morning. It's going to go off. I'm going to pull my ass out of bed.

I'm going to hop on my bicycle. I'm going to go for a ride. I'm going to come home. I'm going to make some coffee. I'm going to do that. You know, I'm going to do all these things. I'm going to be super productive and I'm going to be the kind of person in Austin that I daydream I am in London and Then the alarm goes off at 5 a.m And you're some kind of jet-lagged and you turn it off and then that's it The dream dies right there you eventually wake up at 7 or 8 and then you slide back in

Immediately to your normal life and it's like it never happened Although there's some residual enthusiasm you carry story at least for me immediately to your normal life and it's like it never happened. Although there's some residual enthusiasm. You carry story, at least for me I carry stories and ideas that I come up with and I had a ton of ideas in London. You bring all that stuff home with you, you still have that, but this whole idea that you're going to change the day to day of your life to fit this idealized version of who you want to be in another place just kind of falls apart immediately.

Except for today. Today I woke up at 430 in the fucking morning. I'd set my alarm for six. Couldn't sleep. I don't wake up. I don't wake up like jet lagged or unhappy or like I hadn't gotten enough sleep. We went to bed like nine o'clock last night. It was a long day and I just woke up fully refreshed and ready to go.

So I laid in bed and played on my phone for a little while. And then about 5.15, I was like, I gotta do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna, this is the first time out of every vacation I've ever taken that I've come home and I've had this conversation with myself about how I'm gonna start the next day living the way I wanna live.

I'm gonna do it, today's the day. I'm gonna drag my ass out of bed and I'm gonna do it, and I fucking did it this morning morning and I had interesting results. I got on my bike and it was still pitch black. It was very exciting. And I hit the trail and my bike has a light on it that doesn't turn off. I have this. By the way, I have a Trek Elant 9.9 S like I like somewhere between 2019 and 2021. I bought it.

If anybody knows how to turn the light, the headlight off on my bike, please for the love of God, email eric at jeffsboss.com and tell me. I was riding around the trail like I always do. We have this 10, approximately 10 mile, it's about 11 and a half the way I do it, trail around the city, around Town Lake. And I ride it almost every day. Most of the days I ride half the way I do it. A trail around the city, around Town Lake,

and I ride it almost every day. Most of the days I ride my bike I ride it. And so I hop on it and I'm going, and I'm listening to music and it's empty, right? The trail, it's pitch black at 5.30, 5.45 in the morning. I run across, I don't know, maybe like a runner or two every seven or eight minutes. Like it's real thinned out, you know, which is nice because the hike and bike trail in

the daytime can get really fucking crowded. And so I put my headphones in and I'm just jamming to music and thinking about this podcast, thinking about stuff I got to talk about today. And every once in a while I'll pass somebody and they have lights on, you know, too, because it's pitch black. And every once in a while, I feel like I hear yelling and I just ignore it and I keep going. And then I realized that almost after every person I pass,

I feel like I hear yelling. So I take my headphones out to see what's up. And the next person I pass is like, turn your fucking light off. And then the next person is like, you're blinding us. And somebody is like, cover it. And I realize my light on my bike is very, very bright. I never really think about it. It doesn't turn off.

I never really think about it because I usually ride in the daytime. I always ride in the daytime. And if I'm riding around at night, I'm not riding on the trail, riding on streets or roads, typically where that light is very important. But I realize I'm just blinding everybody and everybody's complaining about it. So I start trying to cover it with my with my hand. And then I almost crash a couple of times as I'm like passing somebody and it's pitch black and I'm trying to like hide the only source of light that I have.

And I'm wobbly and I feel terrible. So I get off the trail. Forty nine year old Jeff gets off the trail. A much younger Jeff would have delighted in ruining people's morning. But I'm, you know, I guess this is this is growth, right? I'm not. I'm not desirous of being a miserable prick to everybody I run into anymore.

And so I just hit the streets and kind of have a stilted weird bike ride. I'm just honestly trying to stay away from other riders and runners because I don't want to blind them and make them miserable. And it seems that without fail, I do. I look at my light, even if I had the tool to on me rather to to to angle it down, it hits a it only goes down so far. It doesn't really change the fact that this is just a crazy powerful light.

And the only option I have is to make it brighter. I have like normal or brights and it's on normal. And so I remember vaguely when I bought the bike that I downloaded an app and tried to figure out how to turn the light off and was never able to. And then I thought, yeah, fuck it. Doesn't seem to be draining the battery or anything, it seems, and it's safety, right? Like bikes have lights for a reason.

So I just ignored it. But now I'm having such a good time being out at like five, six in the morning in the dark and I realize I wanna do this every day. I wanna rise and grind, you know? I gotta figure this out. So I pull over and I re-download that app and I'm trying to get it to connect and it will connect.

Then I realized that's the new app and my bike's a little older. So I have to get the older version of the app. So I do that. And then I finally get it to work. And then I find the part where it's like, this is how you turn your light off. And I'm like, oh, great.

And I do it and it doesn't work. And then I noticed the little small printing on it that says, if your bike allows its light to be turned off. And I realize I don't think my version of this bike allows you to turn the fucking light off, which. I have mixed feelings about. I mean, I get the reasoning is that it's a safety measure and it should always be on.

But I also don't need to have a light on in the middle of the fucking day. It's not a big deal, you know, it doesn't bother anybody that the lights are on in the middle of the day, it's just light on light, but it is annoying and it does feel like a waste. And so, after about 20 minutes of like in the dark at Zilker Park trying to figure out how to get my light off, I just give up and I just, I ride down a busy road

where there's cars with the flow of traffic so I'm not bugging anybody until turns daylight and then I ride home and I start googling is there like a light cover you can buy what like well There's gotta be a device or something that I can attach to this thing and I found a couple But they require some measurements I didn't quite understand and I didn't want to buy the wrong one and waste But they require some measurements. I didn't quite understand and I didn't want to buy the wrong one and waste $14 And then I know me if I get a light shroud or a light cover and I and it doesn't quite fit I'm not gonna return it. I'm just gonna lose $14 because I didn't measure properly or whatever

So I'm not gonna do that and there also don't seem to be a lot of options out there So I just got some black duct tape and I said fuck it I have this really lovely expensive high, high performance e-bike. And I'm just going to I created a little tube out of black duct tape that angles down kind of like a shroud or kind of like a a nose pointing toward the ground. And that is it seems to work pretty well. You know, duct tape is pretty fucking useful and I made it really well.

And of course, and of course, I have no idea if it works or not, because I made it after I got home. So maybe I'll go for a bike ride tonight or tomorrow morning and see how how successful it is. But I'm a little bummed that I have to come up with such a stupid solution for this problem when I feel like the bike should allow me to turn my own fucking light off So if there's anybody out there familiar with Trek bikes or

Bosch motored bikes holding up on the plus button for Extended period of time does not turn the light off which according to my manual says if it doesn't and that just means your your bike Doesn't offer that option, but what's a solution here? And what's the etiquette? I always ride in the daytime, and like I said, if I ride at night, I'm riding on streets. What's the etiquette in something like this? Almost everybody had a light.

Is there just like, is it just, like I don't wanna ride around and pitch black. I feel like I deserve to have a light, but I get it was, you know, flashing on everybody's face. I don't wanna be a dick. What do you do? Is this just a dumb problem I have because I have a stupid light on a stupid bike

that doesn't turn off? What's the courtesy? I want to be a courteous exerciser. I don't want to make my other bike riders and runners and joggers and dog walkers and everybody miserable, but I also want to have a light, especially if it's, you know, fucking five in the morning and I can barely see. Hopefully, hopefully my duct tape solution will work.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning. But I'm not happy that that's the solution that I had to come up with. There's got to be a better way. Right. So if you know a better way, any better way, drop me a line at Eric at Jeff's Boss dot com, because I could really I could really use it. I don't want to piss off all the other trail goers because I use this trail every single day. I don't want to be that guy. But, you know, I feel like there's got to be a better solution than duct tape.

Anyway, my goal is now to that I actually got out of bed and did it today to do it again tomorrow and see if maybe I can apply some of the daydreaming from London into my actual life. Maybe after this, I will go to a coffee shop and read Proust instead of working on my notes or do both, right? But carve out the time to actually read. Anyway, a couple of things that delighted me the most while Emily and I were in London. Big Ben is back. The last two times I've been over there, he's been under scaffolding and he's been getting a facelift,

he's been getting fixed up. He's completely and totally fixed. He looks gorgeous. It was so cool to see him in all his glory again. I completely and totally enjoyed it. The underground now has tap to pay on your phone. Listen, I'm American, I get it. You guys have probably had tap to pay for the Underground for a long time, but I'm used to going and getting an Oyster card and then putting money on the Oyster card

and then fucking leave in London with $7 left or $11 left on an Oyster card and put it in a wall that are somewhere and being like, don't forget to bring this back. Next time you get to London, four years from now, and then it just disappears. And then you just eat that seven or eleven dollars or whatever and it's annoying.

And it makes me not want to take the Underground even though it's awesome. However, this time, iPhone tap to pay, doot doot. Tap in, doot doot. Tap out, couldn't be easier. Had the best experience riding the underground. I just I know it's probably you guys have probably had tap to pay on your phones for a while there, but goddamn, it's amazing how we reducing

even that one barrier to entry of the oyster card just makes the experience so much better. And I don't end up leaving four to twenty dollars on a fucking oyster card that I'm going to lose because I can't maintain control of it over the next four to seven years or however long it's gonna take me to go back to England. So I save money in the long run, which is awesome.

Also, you know, Emily is big into musical theater. I have been into theater for a long time. I love plays, but I've never been into musicals. Emily took me to see Phantom of the Opera last time we were there, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Had a tremendous time, would have been very happy to go back and see Phantom again,

but this time she said, let's go see Book of Mormon. I'd never seen it before. I really didn't know anything about it other than Matt Stone and Trey Parker were involved, and that it was a sendup of Mormon culture, right? But I didn't know that it was about elders on their missions or any of that. And so the whole musical was a send up of Mormon culture, right? But I didn't know that it was about elders on their missions or any of that. And so the whole musical was a complete

and total surprise to me. And oh my God, what a delight. I couldn't fucking believe how good it was. Really, really funny. And I don't know why it wouldn't have been right. Those guys are brilliant. Absolutely hilarious. And if you, like like me have been living under a rock for the last 10 years or so, go see Book of Mormon.

It is every bit as good as everybody has been telling you for all these fucking years and you've been ignoring it. Also, one last thing, I got a shoe recommendation for you. I was reading a subreddit on sneakers before I left, talking about the most comfortable shoes to walk around the city in, and I thought, oh, somebody had just posted this thread, and I thought, that's a great idea.

I'm about to go to London for a while. I have some new shoes that I haven't broken in yet, and I'm not sure if I wanna wear those, or some older shoes, and I started reading. I buy a lot of Nike running shoes. I used to be a big Vans guy, but finally, after I think I was about 42 or 43 I just couldn't take it anymore. They're just hurt my feet so bad and I just want comfort so I moved over to Nike and

I've been very happy However, I've been wearing a lot of Nike running shoes and I like them a lot But you'd feet get a little tired after a while and they're a little tight anyway this reddit thread I was reading was talking about the most comfortable shoes to spend all day walking around the city and people were espousing the benefits of New Balance and ASICs and essentially those big chunky dad shoes that everybody wears that are just over complicated with all kinds of I don't understand the designs. They're fucking wild and they just look like too much to me

and I've never been attracted to them because of the look. And I was like, I just I don't understand the designs, they're fucking wild. And they just look like too much to me and I've never been attracted to them because of the look. And I was like, I just, I can't. I can't put those on my feet. I'm just, I know form over fashion, right? But I have my limits. And somebody said, no, you should get the Nike Vomero 5s. They're even better than those shoes.

They're wider, they allow your feet to move around more. And then people had testimonials, they were talking about how these are just like the best fucking shoes and I thought on a whim Fuck it. I'll buy him. I wasn't crazy about the look of them. They are the Nike version of what I was talking about They're kind of over complicated and there's a lot going on but I'm at a point where I do want comfort and I didn't want fucking sore feet at the end of every day So I bought them threw them in the bag put them on Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ Easily Easily the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn in my entire life They're wider at the toe so they are a light feet to move around more. I didn't know I needed that I've got like I said, I've got a pretty narrow foot, but it is like a comfort I haven't felt. Usually the other Nike shoes I wear, they feel like they're kind of formed around my foot

and that feels good for a while, but these shoes, they allow my feet to move around and breathe, they're so soft. I was walking, I actually turned to Emily at one point, we'd been walking for, was like, you know all day I was like my feet felt good. They actually feel better than if I wasn't walking they they actually feel good Physically good and I could have walked forever So if you are like me and your feet get tired because you wear running shoes

Which by the way, everything I was reading people were saying you shouldn't wear running shoes for long periods of time, just like you shouldn't wear basketball shoes for long periods of time, you should wear them for the activity that they're for, that's what they're designed for, and that they break down over extended use. So if you walk around a lot

and you wanna have comfortable walking shoes, consider the Nike Vomero 5s. I am not a Nike spokesperson, I am not paid by Nike. I am not a Nike influencer. I'm just telling you these fucking shoes. I'm not blown away by the design aesthetically. They're inoffensive. I've grown to like them, but the comfort.

I may never wear another pair of shoes again, honestly. They really, really, really really really feel good on my feet So if you're gonna do a lot of walking or standing around I would consider if you're like me and have been turned off by those big chunky walking shoes maybe consider it because uh These these for me were a game changer Okay, I had more stuff I wanted to talk about, but it seems like we're running long,

so I should probably wrap things up. In honor of our trip to England, I will pick one of my favorite all-time songs, which I listened to a ton while I was over there. What is it also about? Like, you go to a place, and then suddenly all you wanna listen to is music from that place.

I listen to so much fucking Clash, one of my all time favorite bands. I've listened to them most of my life, but there's just something about being in London that makes you wanna listen to Janie Jones and Stay Free and Death or Glory and all these old great, my daddy was a bank robber, all the,

those are some of my favorite Clash songs by the way. But the one that I just kept listening to on a loop one of my favorite songs of all time Will be our song of the day white man and Hammersmith playas. It is a fucking awesome song About going to a reggae concert and being disillusioned by it and it's also about the politics of the time it is a fascinating insight into the politics of the time it is a fascinating insight into the world of punk rock in England in the 1970s and What they were all about what they were arguing for and against and it's just a fucking

Awesome awesome song. So listen to white man and Hammersmith Peleus. Pay attention to the lyrics. It really is a fascinating song. And I will be back next week with the rest of whatever I didn't get to today. So I'll see you then. All right.