0:00

That. And so it's been stressful and trying not

0:05

to get upset about it is also hard.

0:09

I've been laying awake at night thinking about it.

0:13

Obviously I kept it out of this episode until,

0:19

until I could barely talk about anything

0:24

else. I ran out of what else to talk about.

0:27

So I have to tell you what's really going on is that my son's

0:32

driving me wild and my daughter is watching and learning.

0:37

Of course. Yeah, it's all good.

0:42

It's all good. You are tuned into the,

0:45

what's the Matter With Me podcast.

0:50

The podcast, the dad podcast.

0:56

What I meant when I said that fans of

1:01

what's the matter with me could change the course of history

1:07

in the last episode, I think I made some claims apparently and one of them

1:14

What? We'll get to that You are too needed.

1:18

The what's the matter with me podcast. My name is John.

1:23

I'm 44 years old. Husband,

1:26

father of two small business owner radio DJ

1:30

podcaster, and I have sclerosis in trigeminal

1:37

neuralgia. I made this podcast to share what I'm going through.

1:42

Okay, yo, check me out. It's the, what's the matter with me podcast?

1:48

Check it out at what's the matter with me Talk O R G.

1:53

What I meant in the last episode,

1:56

what I meant by saying that the fans of What's the matter

2:02

because you know it was my 208th episode,

2:06

it seems right that I would go through a crisis

2:12

then and I guess I was like, I should just stop.

2:17

I should delete my podcast. My wife was like, what are you doing?

2:23

And, and then I decided not to and because I'm paid through the

2:29

year and the fans of What's the Matter

2:33

With Me podcast emailed me to be like,

2:38

you shouldn't stop making your podcast. So I what I,

2:44

what I meant, I was talking about the fans and I said

2:51

the fans of What's the matter with Me podcast could change

2:56

the course of history is that there's enough of them

3:01

to form a rock band. And that's what rock bands do, right?

3:08

But there's enough of them. They could be like a big rock band like Blood,

3:13

sweat and Tears. They could belying the Family Stone,

3:19

one of those big rock bands. That's a whole genre.

3:25

We could have a special on the radio of that.

3:28

Just music made by rock bands that are like 10

3:33

people or more. The fans of,

3:37

what's the Matter With Me podcast Could change history.

3:42

That's interesting because the interesting kind of

3:47

claim, because I used to listen to this whacked out

3:53

conspiracy theorist on K F J C when I

3:58

was in high school. He was on after the reggae guy.

4:03

And he would talk about how like, you know,

4:07

Kennedy was killed by all sorts of things that weren't

4:12

Lee Harvey, Lee Harvey Oswald, and you know,

4:16

alternate information. I don't wanna talk it down too much 'cause then people will get on my

4:24

case, the conspiracy theorist, you know,

4:28

it's stuff you don't find in the history books.

4:33

At the end of his broadcast, he would say like,

4:37

you know, the listeners, it's important to listen to this anti-fascist

4:44

conspiracy theory because even the listeners

4:50

of this broadcast could change,

4:53

could be enough to defeat fascism,

4:57

even the listeners of this very broadcast.

5:02

And so I that's true for what's the matter with we,

5:06

we could form a pretty good size rock band tour.

5:11

The world have like a string section.

5:16

What they dig that, what's the matter with me podcast?

5:20

Crazy sound like Parliament Funkadelic,

5:25

the big bands, you know, and I was wondering how many almond brothers there are

5:33

on that note. We took the coffee machine in,

5:38

it's been since last year into August.

5:41

It's this weird garage in Berkeley.

5:46

Should give them a shout out. Canaan Coffee on fourth Street in

5:53

Berkeley. So you have to like book a 15 minute window and you can check your

6:00

machine in. And so I always bring mine or I, what am I talking about? Always.

6:08

One time last year in August,

6:11

not last August, not this August, but last August,

6:17

August, 2022,

6:20

took the coffee machine in to get it cleaned and

6:25

like serviced and they kind of like do all this descaling,

6:30

the boiler back flush and all this.

6:34

And it makes the machine really,

6:37

really hum for a couple of months. And then you get,

6:41

you get used to it. But I think my machine is in pretty good shape because

6:48

of them. So we took it in for the Annie rule once over back flushing.

6:57

They make the water go in the out way and they

7:02

descale the boiler by putting like ci acid

7:07

in it. Coffee talk, come over,

7:10

have a have a coffee sometime all of my

7:15

walking sticks are bent right now. Or they're,

7:20

or something's like bent or the handle is broken.

7:24

So I called in the warrant, I have them all piled up in the corner of my house.

7:31

Like that's useful.

7:35

I have these bent walking sticks and so I,

7:40

I wrote in the warranty on one of them and so I'll get a new

7:44

one next week. What,

7:47

what to do with the pile of bent walking sticks.

7:52

It was cool. They were nice with the warranty.

7:55

I used the Lakey poles to get around.

7:59

Right now I'm using one with like a broken handle that's my backup,

8:05

which I'm not really too keen on that.

8:10

Last week we um,

8:12

DJ Bert was playing a free show at the Golden

8:17

Gate Park Band Shell. And so I was like, cool, I wanna,

8:22

I wanna always get my kids into that they're Asian people,

8:28

that they get some strength from that community being

8:33

part of it. So I wanted,

8:35

as soon as I heard DJ Bert playing in Golden Gate Park free

8:40

show, I was like, definitely we gotta go.

8:45

And it was pretty good. Like they had a wheelchair,

8:49

it's a accessible space. It,

8:52

it was easy to get parking and get in there and there.

8:57

It wasn't that crazy. I thought it was going to be crowded,

9:00

but that's just my fear. The Golden Gate Park ban Shell is nice.

9:07

The Golden Gate Park ban. Shell, I noticed this.

9:11

It had stuff written on it and the Wikipedia page calls it

9:17

Spreckels Temple of Music, Spreckels Temple,

9:21

temple of Music. Also called the Bandshell.

9:26

Constructed in 1900 is in the music concourse

9:31

at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

9:34

It was a gift to the city from sugar magnate

9:40

Klaus Freckles and is one of the largest band shells in North

9:45

America. It was pretty awesome.

9:48

I feel like I've been to a show there was more attended,

9:52

this was kind of a rave drumming bass scene.

9:56

We saw the opening acts, um,

10:00

we saw MF Mama and Tic-Tac and we

10:05

were there on the early side. It was like drumming bass jungle.

10:10

And I was like, man in the nineties are back one of NAMI's family

10:16

friends who we, we only really see in a classical classical music environment

10:23

was there. And it was cool to see her and her husband.

10:29

They were there and I was, I was like talking to her husband and I was like,

10:34

well there are two pieces of music and the DJ

10:40

creates a third piece of music.

10:43

And I was there like explaining turntable

10:49

DJs in a very standard way to

10:54

Brad. It was pretty great. So we're not gonna have a coffee machine for like two

11:01

weeks. I'm gonna have a walking stick on Monday and I think I'll

11:08

get rid of one of the bent walking sticks.

11:12

I'm not sure if I'll hide it in the yard or what.

11:17

So we were at the drum and base show. I went there in my wheelchair.

11:23

I was hanging out, there were aging ravers.

11:27

A guy parked in front of me wearing a dec kind vest

11:33

and he had a bike that had a Brooks B 17

11:38

black leather c and a Thompson seat

11:43

post. So it's like 200 bucks of seat posts and bike seat.

11:49

Forget the rest of the bike just to see post and bike

11:54

seat. Very expensive if you're know,

11:59

how about this, you could get cheaper ones.

12:03

I went to the drumming base show in my wheelchair. I was just hanging out.

12:08

We got fish and chips, they had those food trucks and it, it was chill.

12:15

We saw the opening acts like we were there at lunchtime.

12:20

It was pretty great just to hang out there and to see family

12:25

friends. And they were hanging out with John and Coco John got a

12:30

lobster roll and he didn't finish it.

12:35

So he ate like two thirds of a lobster roll.

12:40

Like who does that? Who's like, oh this lobster roll,

12:45

it's too much for me now I'm gonna throw it away.

12:50

That's kids for you. Lobster, lobster roll.

12:55

I couldn't believe it. It was, you know, San Francisco. It's like that.

12:59

Like I asked my wife, I'm like, I'll have a hot dog.

13:03

She comes back with fish and chips. It goes,

13:07

that's what they had. I went to the back there and I went all around this

13:14

area, the music concourse,

13:17

which is kind of a big lawn with some fountains and the

13:22

de Young Museum Hall of Science,

13:26

all that kind of stuff. But I went back to where they had the food trucks and they just had

13:34

the lobster roll truck and the fish and chips truck

13:39

and the bathrooms were super clean

13:44

and there wasn't a line. It was very mellow.

13:48

We were there from like noon to one 30.

13:52

We had to get back 'cause John John had basketball practice.

13:58

So having been writing a lot of poetry,

14:01

but I've been submitting a lot of poetry.

14:04

I got it in my mind from Joe that I would do that,

14:09

that I would submit some poetry. So I just have been kind of doing it every,

14:15

like yesterday day before,

14:18

just kind of grinding away and trying not to

14:23

think it all, just to like assemble the submission cover letter,

14:29

send it in. So I mean I have submitted my poetry to 10

14:35

publications. Of course I would say if I get my po my poetry published

14:41

somewhere else, I'll tell you, I will tell you,

14:46

are you kidding me? I might get a tattoo on my face saying I am a published

14:52

poet. Put that, I'll put that in my,

14:55

my the drawer full of um,

14:58

ideas for facial tattoo quotations. Yeah, I keep that.

15:03

I keep one around. Everyone should have one.

15:07

It's better than getting an actual face tattoo

15:12

of a, some quotation is to have a a drawer full of

15:17

scraps of paper upon which you write ideas

15:23

for things to get tattooed on your face.

15:27

Here's one I submitted poetry to 10 publications.

15:33

That's like, if it doesn't work out, you could do,

15:36

I'm a published poet or you could do,

15:40

I submitted poetry to 10 publications.

15:43

Either way it's probably not a good idea to get a

15:48

tattoo on your face. Something that is good to put on your face and put in

15:55

your face really is hopping hot sauce.

15:59

You gotta play the jingle word up jingle. Jingle for life.

16:08

Hopping hot sauce. It's the best hot sauce hopping hot sauce.

16:14

It's the best sauce in the world. The world.

16:19

I'm telling you. I had to think about what to today to say they, it was jingle for life,

16:25

putting it in your face off in a hot sauce. Always eat it.

16:31

Did you know, I learned today that the number one sandwich

16:38

in America, like the we the most of is a grilled cheese

16:44

sandwich. Number one grilled cheese.

16:49

And you know what, it has got to be the number one hot sauce to put on

16:54

grilled cheese. It's hopping hot sauce.

16:58

So check it out now about hopping hot sauce.

17:02

I'm making more of it. So right now my to-do, my to-do list is

17:11

get chili powder, find out the weight of the chili powder that I need from the

17:18

food scientist. Order new labels,

17:22

new labels for the bottles.

17:25

Like it's just like this every day.

17:28

It'll be produced in November. I got a month,

17:33

I, I didn't get the day yet. I got a month.

17:37

So I'm pretty stoked 'cause we're running out of original

17:42

flavor hopping hot sauce. We're not running out but we're coming to the end of it. But we,

17:49

we very well could run out. Remember we had that supply chain thing? No,

17:55

it's not happening this time, but it could get pretty low. We'll see.

18:02

So every day I'll be on the phone with the hot sauce people,

18:07

the pepper suppliers and the cooks and the food

18:12

scientists and everything. The label makers.

18:18

I guess I'm like, my kids right now are really being non cooperative.

18:25

I they take the pencil outta my daughter's hand and

18:30

that I, that's what I'm thinking about a lot.

18:34

'cause her mom was telling her it's time to put down the pencil and

18:39

say, right now I'm getting a phone call from the labeling guy.

18:44

Hello. I need labels. Anyway,

18:48

I've been holding off, um,

18:52

on talking about how non-cooperative the kids have

18:57

been. Like from the moment they wake up to at night,

19:01

they're really investigating, being non uncooperative.

19:06

It's pretty hard and it's hard to stay cool and stay mellow.

19:12

I'm just trying to focus on the things I have to do,

19:16

like make hots off. I mean obviously nothing on my list was about how

19:24

the kids have been doing. But they have,

19:27

my son hasn't been doing his homework and his

19:32

teachers, I think they're going to give him a like standard not met on

19:38

his quarter 'cause he's not turning in his

19:43

homework and there's like a limited amount that I can force

19:48

him to do that. And so it's been stressful.

19:54

I try not to get upset about it. It is also hard.

19:58

I've been laying awake at night thinking about it and

20:03

obviously I kept it out of this episode until I could

20:08

barely talk about anything else.

20:13

I ran out of what else to talk about. So I have to tell you what's really going on is that my

20:19

son's driving me wild and my daughter is watching

20:24

and learning. Of course. So we had the parent teacher conference last week and

20:33

they were basically, they were like one,

20:37

one of his teachers had him two years ago and said,

20:42

I don't recognize this. The student that's now in front of me from the one I had two years ago

20:50

when he was doing great, now he's just not doing his homework and there

20:57

isn't time. He's like not doing it at all on Monday, Tuesday,

21:03

Wednesday. And then crying about that it's too much to do on

21:10

Thursday and or like not doing it in the afternoon

21:14

when he has hours of time.

21:17

And then it gets to be 8:00 PM and we have to take a bath.

21:23

So every night it's like this crunch and then every

21:28

week it's the same kind of crunch.

21:30

It's like back loading all the work. So it's,

21:36

I mean man, so it's something that is obviously

21:43

really testing both of us, my wife and I.

21:47

So I try and be supportive.

21:51

Try not to get upset, but it's now or never, you know,

21:56

there's not time to do the stuff we have to do now

22:02

later. That's why we have to do it now.

22:05

So I'm not that inspiring. Right.

22:08

I'm really tired sounding the way

22:13

it is is I'm like, are you ready to do homework? And then he is just like,

22:18

ah, I mean literally I'm not exaggerating. And then I'm like,

22:25

come on dude, we gotta do homework.

22:28

It's the time we're gonna have dinner in a bit.

22:32

We wanna watch the playoffs maybe, you know,

22:36

we gotta finish our work to do that. Ah,

22:42

and I mean really that's it.

22:44

It just goes on like there's no com it's so draining.

22:50

Ah. And then he's like rendering out his eyes.

22:55

That's kind of the thing he makes, he puts his hands over his eyes and he,

23:01

it's like he's branding out his eyes while he screams and

23:06

it's so draining to be around.

23:09

Maybe I should show him my impersonation. Probably not.

23:15

Probably That won't help things. Well I hope we can get some,

23:20

I don't know how we're gonna break out of this, you know,

23:24

but I hope we can tip out of this hatred and screaming

23:30

and instead be more just doing the work, you know?

23:35

But I'm not sure what's the,

23:39

the thing that makes it like it won't work at all.

23:44

But that's where we're at. It's like he's won't work at all and it's hard to know where

23:51

to go from there. Alright,

23:53

well this is the 30th episode of What's the Matter With

23:58

Me Basically, or So I guess there's that.

24:02

Hope I can get a good night's sleep.

24:05

Gonna have to check you next time.

24:08

Thanks for tuning into What's the Matter With Me.

24:12

Gimme Me an email John j o h n at hopin world

24:17

j o h n at h opp N w l

24:21

d.com. [email protected] I'll give you a shout out, possibly the best,

24:28

most likely, the best shout out you've ever had.

24:33

Next time.