Episode 122: Mormon, Moldy, Moist

Recorded on a Sundee, dropped on a Wednesday…Zack’s gotta do better. The boys get topical. A bartender is charged for serving a murderer. Don’t let your forbidden fruits rot. What kind of guy would you want to date your daughter?

Schoolboy Q – Floating (feat. 21 Savage)

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Simple Man

Check this out!

So there’s a portion of Your Friends Favorite Podcast that has really grown on me. It’s a section I call “Highly Recommended”. I didn’t know why I liked it so much until I heard Kevin Hart talk about his passions on The Joe Rogan Experience. I used to think that a friends recommendation, whether it be a movie, restaurant, song, vacation spot, relationship advice, etc. was an extension of them. And to write off or ignore a recommendation felt almost like I was slighting them. Everyone knows the feeling of being really excited about a movie, song or show and going to tell your friend about it, then checking on them the next day or in a week only to find out they didn’t check it out. I want to live the best and happiest life I can, and I, as only one man, can only experience so much. And as I look back, I’ve done and witnessed a lot of amazing things and wasted my time doing many things that were less than stellar. I like to look at my friends as curators to the world, and filters of experience. If you are my friend, then I value your opinion, and if you recommend something, I feel like you enjoyed it. I know that you filtered out all the BS to something that you believe others will enjoy too. In fewer words, a recommendation is like someone’s Instagram. You don’t see the bad times, you get the highlight reel of their life. They found their good side, filtered out all the bad lighting, cropped out their ex, and present to the world their best selves. So the next time someone recommends something to you, don’t take it as a chore to accomplish, but as an opportunity to skip the BS and get right to the good stuff.

The Funk

I’ve been in what my mom used to call a “funk” for the last week or so. Since I was a kid, I would get in these funks about once a month and I don’t know how to stop it. I try to push through, I try to keep myself distracted but sometimes there’s no escaping it. I’ve been trying to stay away from this kind of post. My eyes roll every time someone posts about depression or anxiety on social media because everyone has some kind of underlying symptom of one of those things. What makes my despondence significant? I have it pretty easy.

I can usually rationalize myself out of feeling down or unmotivated but not this week. This week’s been pretty dark. My diet and lack of physical activity hasn’t been helping. I keep leaving work early to get snacks, go home, smoke a bowl and eat said snacks until I pass out- only to wake up and do the same thing again the next day. It’s pathetic. I think I know why I’m self sabotaging but for some reason I don’t want to confront it yet. Confronting it might end what I have going on right now and what I have going on right now feels good…while it’s going on. I know I’m being vague but I think you get the gist.

The funk always starts in a deep, dark place and then creeps out to touch all whenever I give it fuel. I fuel it with a lack of sleep, sugar and consuming (rather than creating). I just looked down and saw that I made it to 250 words. I created that and now I’m done. Yeah, the funk is real.

Give me your best funk fix.

Tru Questions

I’ve learned that when it comes to talking to people about the the things that matter, the “hard hitting” questions, the “meat and potatoes”. Unless someone is aware of themselves or under the influence, they’re are not very forthcoming when it comes to personal information/details. It has taken me a long time to build what I think is enough self-confidence to hang my hat on. But over the years I got really good at dodging anything particularly personal and even better at getting people to open up about themselves and keeping the conversation off of me. Only recently, I’ve been having to actively try to open up more about me and be more vulnerable, to have more genuine experiences. But coming around that corner has helped me look back and have fun with catching people in the headlights of their “tru” questions. I say tru, cause I don’t really know. Who really does?! But being more comfortable in myself has helped me lean into asking people “realer” questions, because I feel like in some way I don’t have anything to hide and can wear it all on my sleeve. There’s an unspoken freedom in that. And it’s taken me a while to appreciate it and not feel like another average “black male misunderstood”. I think the point I’m really trying to make is sometimes it takes finesse to put smoke in a bottle. It’s a hard analogy to describe. But IYKYK. Sometimes you gotta take 3 rights to make a left. The bigger point. Bigger point??? Another point. Fair enough….Just continue to grow and be real with yourself and like Zack said, do some version of that “8 mile shit”. Wear it in your sleeve, own it. Take pride in your victories and know you are good enough. Also, am I a writer now?