20 Year Timeout
20 Year Timeout is a podcast about rediscovery of people, memories, and the twists life takes.
Each episode, I reconnect with someone I lost touch with sometimes 20 years ago, sometimes just last week. A childhood friend, an old bandmate, someone who quietly disappeared from your life. We pick up the thread, press unpause, and see where the story goes.
It’s unscripted, funny, reflective, and full of unexpected insight. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to that person and what reconnecting can reveal about creativity, culture, and who we’ve become, hit play.
🎙️ Real conversations. Imperfect memories. Honest reconnections.
20 Year Timeout
Reconnecting With Kindergarten Best Friend
In this episode of 20 Year Timeout, I reconnect with Billy, my very first best friend from kindergarten.
We had not seen or spoken to each other in over thirty years, yet the conversation picks up as if no time has passed at all. What begins with childhood memories quickly expands into a wide ranging and curious discussion about life, fatherhood, identity, and how our minds work.
We revisit Mortal Kombat battles, Nintendo, prank calls, and early internet mischief, then move into deeper territory including Billy’s journey from police academy to psychology, his work helping people through addiction and recovery, and how martial arts, spirituality, and personal growth shape confidence and purpose.
The conversation is thoughtful, funny, reflective, and occasionally surreal, touching on topics like artificial intelligence, memory techniques, dreams, and the way curiosity evolves as we grow older.
This episode is about friendship, time, and the strange comfort of reconnecting with someone who knew you before you knew yourself.
Topics include
- Childhood friendships and early memories
- Mortal Kombat, Nintendo, and growing up online
- Fatherhood and raising kids in the digital age
- From police academy to psychology
- Martial arts, mindset, and confidence
- AI, memory, dreams, and spirituality
Subscribe for new episodes and honest conversations.
20 Year Timeout is a podcast where I reconnect with people I have not spoken to in over twenty years to see what time has done to our stories.
Listen & Watch Here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7Aa3P0QSufFWzgbUSOtUTB
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20-year-timeout/id1862794471
https://www.youtube.com/@richmarksthespot
Now that everything's set up, I'm like, how did I want to start that? Oh, I wanted to f we wanted to fight. How do we say how do I say this? How do you maybe you know how to say it? You don't fucking up, dude.
Billy:You're not fucking up.
Rich:Basically, what I wanted to say was you're the longest. The distance from me and you talking is the greatest from my other guests. So my other guests I saw in high school and maybe after that a couple times, you're the first guest that is like pre-high school. Like the last time we hung out must have been in grammar school.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:Because uh you went to St. Mary's up until what grade? Second grade. Second grade. Yeah. Okay. So my guest today is Billy, my first best friend ever. Um, I don't even know how we became friends. Uh did you go to did we go to preschool together?
Billy:I think it was kindergarten. Kindergarten St. Mary's. Yeah.
Rich:Okay. But how does two kindergartners convince their parents to let them come over and sleep at each other's houses and go do like friend things in kindergarten? Dude, that's a good question. I don't know.
Billy:You were definitely the first house I ever slept over. I know that.
Rich:So did I get your phone number in preschool? Like, yo, Billy, give me your phone number. I'm gonna call you and like call you up, and then you're like, hey mom, I want to go to Richie's house on Vernon Hill. Like, how does that facilitate, you know? It had to have been something like that. Because my mom, you know, she wanted to say hi to your mom. She's like, oh, tell your mom, tell Billy's mom I said hi. And I was like, okay, but did you maybe they met each other picking us up? And then they were like, should our kids hang out? But I don't, I mean, I don't remember that.
Billy:I don't I remember like gravitating towards you as like a kid though, because you were like into the same things as me. That's why. I remember you like for like Mortal Kombat, you were into the video games, stuff like that. Your brother rode dirt bikes. Remember you had the iguanas? Reptile guy.
Rich:So every uh kindergartner should play a gory bloody game called Mortal Kombat. Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, my brother did ride dirt bikes, and yeah, I had the iguana named Speedy. Hell yeah. Um I remember coming to your house, and it was probably one of the first times I slept over like a kid's house from school, not just like a family member. And I remember just like Did you have internet at your house? No, not for a long time. So maybe this was later when we were in maybe third grade or fourth grade?
Billy:Because we still did hang out, yeah.
Rich:Yeah, I'm skipping way ahead, but so the first couple times I remember swimming at your pool when you lived in the brick building.
Billy:Yeah, that was way long. The brick house. Yeah, brick house.
Rich:Um, and then I remember being in your room. I kind of remember your room being in the corner and and having like Super Nintendo set up on like a dresser.
Billy:Damn, man, you remember good, yeah. Okay, so I'm not making something up. No, you're not making that up.
Rich:Um I remember having hella fun times in your basement where you had that TV on the floor.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:Um, and I'm pretty sure you had like a cable box because I remember like watching, I don't know, like uh maybe a rated R movie or or watching like a movie on cable, like something that was we should have been watching like a VHS of, but it was like you were streaming it.
Billy:Yeah. No, we had a hot box.
Rich:That's a hot box.
Billy:Everyone had a hotbox back then.
Rich:Yeah. So you did. So that really happened.
Billy:Yeah, everyone had a hotbox.
Rich:Oh, but jump ahead. I swear you had internet, and I swear we were on chat rooms in your basement on your computer. Well, yeah.
Billy:That was later. Yeah.
Rich:Okay.
Billy:We used to fuck with people going in chat rooms.
Rich:That was like my first, yeah. That was like me and you, little like double ears coming out and being like, yo, let's let's uh haze these people online, let's act as like a 60-year-old guy, let's try to get a date, like all stuff we shouldn't have been doing.
Billy:When we were like 10 years old.
Rich:Prank calling.
Billy:That was fun. That was fun. Because remember the jerky boys? Mm-hmm. Dude, I love the jerky boys. I still listen to the jerky boys.
Rich:Yeah, the jerky boys are c and my brother got me hooked on the jerky boys because you know he was older.
Billy:My fucking dad got me hooked on the jerky boys. What a great thing to show your nine-year-old. It was that, that caddyshack and animal house. Those were like the three like things my dad showed me.
Rich:Well, do you uh let your son watch like things like that?
Billy:Not really. No, like a little bit, like now that he's like a little older, yeah. Yeah, okay. You showed me this stuff when I was like seven, eight years old.
Rich:Yeah. Well, I've let my kids watch The Simpsons. That's a little different. And it's like, yeah, there's fresh things on it, but it's pretty calm. Like I thought it would be worse. No. Shows are really like have elevated, like, you can't let your kids watch Family Guy or anything, but The Simpsons is a family show.
Billy:Yeah, Simpsons you can watch.
Rich:Yeah. And they love it. They call it the Stimpsons.
Billy:The Stimpsons.
Rich:They're like, Can we watch The Stimpsons?
Billy:It is a great show. I mean, it's to the test of time. It's like, I think it's been around longer than we've been around.
Rich:30 seasons or something.
Billy:That's crazy. So not quite, but I remember that started like Tracy Allman show, I think, before it even got on Fox and stuff, too.
Rich:So that's cool that you're like, as your son's getting older, you get to hang out and like be bros and like probably start to watch like the more adult content of like funny movies that you grew up watching. Now you can, yeah.
Billy:We went to see Deadpool stuff like that. Like now he's like, it's about to be 13. Have a good time.
Rich:Just meeting him upstairs. I was like, he could just come chill down here. I don't think it would be, you know.
Billy:Yeah, no, he's like, he's he's like a man now.
Rich:He's a man, but we're kind of like children because we kind of have similar hobbies.
Billy:Oh yeah. As like I look at him sometimes, I'm like, he's more mature than me. He gets up early, gets himself ready, does this, does that. I'm like, I get ready like I get up 15 minutes before I gotta go wash my face, and I'm like, let's go.
Rich:Damn, do you think kids are like more mature than we were when we were that age? He definitely is more mature. Oh, they must be because they're exposed to a lot, they have information at the tip of their fingertips. We had magazines and like we couldn't ex- Well, we had the chat rooms, we were learning, we were doing it.
Billy:I mean, we were doing it, but I didn't know what the hell we were doing though. Yeah. I didn't get very far there. Like the stuff he knows, like, I'm like, I didn't even know this until I was like in my 20s. I'm like, you're 12 years old, you know this stuff. He came up to me the other day, he's like, Wait, he's 12?
Rich:Yeah. Oh, I could have I would have think he was 16.
Billy:I know he's gonna be 13 in a couple weeks, but yeah, he's 12. He came up to me the other day, he's like, Do you know we could live in a simulation? I'm like, what are you talking about? He's been listening to the same podcast as me and you. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, you're just I'm like, I just figured this out like 10 years ago. I'm like, you're 12? Are you telling me this?
Rich:Yeah, because when we were 12, it was like, all right, I want to write a comic book. Yeah, stuff like I'm gonna go to the library, I'm gonna get a book that teaches me how to draw comics or draw figures, you know, and then you're like, can't even print out like a comic book strip. You have to like draw it on graph paper.
Billy:Either that or I wanted to make video games. Like I remember at school they let us use like the CAD system where you could kind of like digitally make stuff. I'm like, oh, this is cool. Now that's like that's nothing compared to what they have now.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:It was like drawing in lines and stuff like that.
Rich:How do you even begin to develop a game like Grand Theft Auto or any modern game? Like they're so vast. I mean, the teams must be huge.
Billy:I think it's gonna get really easy now with AI and stuff like that. You'll just be able to like shoot out ideas like I want to see this, I want to see that.
Rich:Or it's gonna be harder because you think, yeah, you want to just prompt Jeep Chat GPT to make that, but what about the years it took to get the idea developed, you know? Like I bet if you ask these game developers, like, what's the process? Like, could you just prompt it into AI? They'd be like, Yeah, I think I could over the course of three years. I think I could develop the story along with AI, but I don't think AI is just gonna be able to spit out like a script like the GTA life, you know.
Billy:You'd be surprised. I've been messing with it and try to see, like, hey, how far you can. Could you write me a script for this and like where it was like a year ago, and like just the intricate knowledge it has of any show I throw out there, I'm like, wow, it gets the details down.
Rich:Have you seen um the new Jurassic Park movie?
Billy:I've seen there's like a brand, brand new one, right?
Rich:I swear AI wrote it because it makes no sense.
Billy:They say like I'm watching it and I'm like Well, even they said WWE, they were saying the other day, instead of having like writers write their storyline, they want to start incorporating AI into their storylines. I'm like, that's the first step.
Rich:Everyone's doing it, companies are doing it. What's scary though is like how do you use AI correctly, especially at a company. Like if you just give AI to some salesperson who's maybe not doesn't understand AI, and he prompts to create a sales copy for a series of emails, and you just copy and paste that and send it to the client. The client's gonna be like, Well, this company is uh using AI very poorly.
Billy:Yeah, they don't even check. Well, I see it even in academia. I've had uh, I've seen students, not gonna mention any names, but they'll have references on papers, and you'll look for these references, you're like, these aren't even real references. Where'd you get these references from? And you'll see like they're kind of an amalgamation of like three or four different references. It's like, oh, AI hallucinated that, and you didn't even write this fucking paper, did you? And that's happening a lot, man. That's scary.
Rich:I kind of use it as a as a um an organizational tool for my notes. Like if I have an idea, I'll prompt ChatGPT this huge long idea, and it'll help me organize it, kinda.
Billy:I'll use it as a kind of like a smart assistant. I'll be like, hey, what do you think of this, this, this, and that? And they'll critique it a little bit. And a lot of times they'll say, oh no, do this instead. And I'm like, oh, you know, that's right, you know. So that's more how I use it.
Rich:Now, are you using it like in uh for psychology or for like helping create ideas in your professional life? Or are you saying this is just for like everything, hobbies, everything?
Billy:Everything, man. Everything. Like if I have a question, like obviously you don't give out personal information on but you know, I'd be like, hey, this symptom, that symptom, that symptom. I suspect, let's say, bipolar one or bipolar two. They'll be like, well, you know, if you have a mania, a manic uh episode that is um, what do you call it, that impairs you, and then you have a depressive episode that impairs you, that's bipolar one. But if you just have a manic episode that doesn't impair you, and then a depressive uh episode, that's bipolar too. So like it'll like pick out things like that really quick and it'll be like, no, Billy, that's bipolar one, or that's bipolar two.
Rich:Like, I don't even need the based off of like what papers have been written in the past about it or what's been.
Billy:Well, it's just a manual for psychology called the DSM, um, is a DSM 5, and they kind of uh write out all these diagnoses in them. It's like the Bible for psychologists, basically.
Rich:Uh so what what do you do for work? Now like why don't you walk me through like you left high school? Um did you always have a passion to study psychology?
Billy:Not really, no. I was so I went to police academy, I actually graduated the Boylston Police Academy, and um I was a cop for a little bit. I worked at St. V's, uh, so I wasn't like a town cop or a city, but I was just stationed there at the ER. So I worked there per dam for a while, and then I floated around after that because I ended up uh with a son and I couldn't work nights no more at the time. So I had to go back to training, so I started training people in the gym because that's what I did before, and I was interested in psychology at that point, so I'm like, you know what? I already had my um bachelor's degree, so I'm like, I just need to take a couple extra classes to get the psychology, uh, the bachelor's in psychology. So I did that and I got accepted to the master's program at uh Assumption and then just finishing up just now.
Rich:What was your first degree in?
Billy:First criminal, criminal justice.
Rich:Oh.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:And you need that to become if you want to become a cop, you have to have a criminal justice?
Billy:No, you don't need it. Yeah.
Rich:It's just recommended.
Billy:It I get I figured it um I could get my master's degree, and you just get a bump in pay if you have your master's degree. So it was more like that type of thing.
Rich:Oh, if you get your master's degree uh and you want to be a police officer, you get a bump in pay?
Billy:Yeah, you'll get more pay for having more education.
Rich:And you thought, oh, I'm interested in psychology, so you went for psychology after criminal justice for your for your master's. Did you do you have to pick a like specific area of psychology, or is it a general overview?
Billy:So kind of a general overview. You can definitely specialize in certain things, or you might specialize in like certain um like disorders, like maybe you might be like a PTSD person, or like maybe you like to work more with vets or first responders, stuff like that, or like substance use disorder. Right now, I'd say I'm good with the substance use disorder, but that's just all I've really done, you know. But I do like it and I enjoy the people a lot too. And like I worked at uh community health link, so it was all like really like low-income, like down on their luck people. And I met some of the best people in the world, and like you don't make that great of money, but like you do like actually help people, I think.
Rich:How did you get into a company? How did you even get into doing that?
Billy:So I had to get an internship while I was getting my master's degree, and um, they just happened to be offering an internship, so I went in, I checked it out, and I knew substance use disorder was I I knew I kind of wanted to go into it because there's a lot of need for you know help in that area right now, and it's just near and dear to my heart because how many people do we all know that have substance abuse issues, you know, or gambling issues or whatever they're addicted to. So I just found myself gravitating towards that more.
Rich:What kind of people do you work with? Like, how would you describe someone who works in that in that field? Are they like burnt out? Burnt out people?
Billy:I mean you get burnt out easy.
Rich:Oh, well, you you how do what kind of people get into like usually people who want to help others, right?
Billy:Yeah, they're usually overly sensitive in a way, though. Yeah.
Rich:So is it like interesting when you go get coffee or drinks with your coworkers because they're a different type of like community than say like nursing or doctors or even police officers, or would you say you nest them all together because they're all people who are like in the service industry to help the community?
Billy:I'm kind of nest because you know I still look up my cot friends and they're great, you know, we hang out and have a great time. We all love each other, and then same thing with my psychology friends, same thing. And it's very to me, it's very similar, the conversations we have, the things we do. Because at the end of the day, they just want to help people, you know.
Rich:And that's where you currently are working now? You work with uh recovery?
Billy:So right now, yeah, right now, but I actually because I just got my master's degree, I just started working for a company. So I'm kind of just in the process of uh getting put on their website and um getting like clients and stuff like that and just getting a client base with them.
Rich:Do you how does it work? Do you work like one-on-one with individuals? Do you run a group setting?
Billy:I've done both actually. I've done groups and I've done one-on-ones. Um I like them both, honestly. Groups could be a little difficult sometimes because you know, you get different personalities that can clash sometimes, like you know, a group of people may not get along with another group of people. But as long as you can kind of like keep order and like kind of just keep uh respect between all the group members, which can be hard sometimes, you could you could steer the shot.
Rich:So maybe I'm I'm just like being super general generalized right now. I'm just picturing like a room with donuts and like an AA class. Is that what it's kind of like, or is it in a different very yeah.
Billy:I don't like the way it looks, it's very hospital-looking.
Rich:Okay, it looks like that. But it but the vibe isn't like that.
Billy:No, it can be. It definitely can be hospital vibey.
Rich:Are a lot of people like court-ordered to go to the to to get help, or are these people who are like want help?
Billy:Both.
Rich:Okay, so you mix those people up.
Billy:Yeah, it's definitely a mix.
Rich:Wouldn't you want to separate that or no? Or I mean I guess it's resource-based. How many?
Billy:Yeah, that you would yes, I think you would. I b I think you're right, but it's like the.
Rich:And I'm not a no psycho. I don't know anything about this. No, but I think you are right. I'm curious about it.
Billy:It probably would be better to separate that, because they kind of have different needs, you know? Like, people who want to be there, people don't want to be. They both need something from you, but it's just different what they need. I agree with you.
Rich:Man, that's gonna be tough to you. You would probably be great at public speaking because if you could stand in a room and like walk a class of people, you know, who might be going through issues, I feel like you could do anything.
Billy:Nah, it's just like anything. It sucks at first, you get used to it, and then it's not hard anymore. And then you do something else that's new, and then that feels like so daunting, you'll never do it, but then you do it and it doesn't feel hard anymore.
Rich:Do you see yourself staying in this field, or are you trying to branch out into other stuff?
Billy:So, yes and no. Um, because I I do, I'm really into martial arts too, as you know, too. And you know, I run YouTube channel. Well, my buddy George runs a YouTube channel, and we have like hundreds of videos of us just doing martial arts in George's basement, pretty much. So I wouldn't mind like not that I need to make money from it, but just as a hobby or something to do. I enjoy making those videos, you know, practicing like different martial arts, like teaching people stuff. Like, it's not really a money thing for me, it's more just like it's fun.
Rich:So I do remember being we can go back in in time here too. So you were at St. Mary's until third grade or second grade? Second grade. And and why did you leave school?
Billy:Um, I think we were moving, yeah. That's what we're doing.
Rich:Oh, you moved to Auburn?
Billy:Yeah, when I moved to Auburn, yeah.
Rich:Okay. Yeah. And you did karate or you did martial arts when you were little too, right? Yeah, I did. And even if you weren't, I know you had like some type of gear because I remember we used to like fight.
Billy:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a gi and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I would do like taekwondo. Yeah. Like the it's career, it's it's a great martial art, especially for kids, yeah.
Rich:So you've pretty much kept that hobby since you were little?
Billy:Pretty much, yeah. It turned from that and then to like not collegiate wrestling, because I didn't wrestle in college, but just like Greco style wrestling, and then jujitsu and then Muay Thai, and then more combative style after that, once I became a cop.
Rich:Yeah, does that like help?
Billy:It's more just um so the so I think it's more just like d defensive tactics type of stuff. I just got more into like more practical self defense stuff. Like Not so much like trying to like engage in a fight, it's more just like get distance, you know, like cut an angle, get the like more practical stuff where like you don't want to hurt anyone, you don't want them to hurt you type of stuff.
Rich:Yeah, because once you start you study martial arts, it's like the art of not fighting, right? Exactly.
Billy:Yeah. I don't want to because I realize that anyone, whether they fight or not, if they hit me in the head, I'm gonna go down. Especially if they're really big, you know? So it's like whether you can fight or not, you don't want to fight.
Rich:No.
Billy:No. You should never want to fight.
Rich:Just picturing like fights in high school kind of makes me feel uneasy.
Billy:Like you know, they always did me too. Even now, even still now, I do part practice martial arts every day. It's uneasy to see someone like getting their ass beat, you know, like especially on videos, and like I see a TikTok video or something like that. I'm not desensitized to that by any means.
Rich:I I was at a house party once, and I don't know, someone was like trying to pick a fight with me, and I'm you know a smaller guy and I'd never fight. And we were on a porch, and he was like, I don't know, he just looked like he was ready to go. And my friend, out of nowhere, just clocks him so hard in the face that he flipped over the railing into the bush, and I was like, kind of like felt bad for him. I was like, is he okay? Is he gonna be okay? And they were like, Don't worry about him. He was trying to pick a fight with you, and I was like, I was hoping I would diffuse the situation before that escalated into that, but I thank you, I guess. Yeah, no, I mean I'm like, you know.
Billy:We don't, yeah, you don't know who the kid was. Maybe your friend knew something you didn't know about him, you know.
Rich:I won't I won't mention the kid's name who punched the kid.
Billy:Yeah, no, no names, yeah.
Rich:No names.
Billy:But he's a good friend though.
Rich:So that do you remember the transition from St. Mary's to Auburn? Was that weird in second grade, or was it easy? You just moved to a new school.
Billy:Yeah, it wasn't fun. I missed you guys. I remember that for sure. I wasn't happy that I was you know away from all my friends and stuff like that. It just it wasn't a good feeling. But I, you know, I assimilated quick. It's at that age you play sports and you just meet kids. If it wasn't for sports, though, that would have been a problem. Yeah. Because that's like how we met all the kids I met.
Rich:And uh sports-wise, basketball, all sports?
Billy:Just mostly basketball and martial arts.
Rich:Are you still good at basketball?
Billy:Not not like I used to be, though.
Rich:I say basketball is my worst sport. Like I was telling you my my layup story. Yeah. So I feel like I'm the worst at basketball out of any sport.
Billy:Yeah, it was probably like my second best. Like, best at martial arts, probably, but like basketball is probably a close two, anyways. And then everything else. Baseball was probably my worst sport. I didn't know what the hell it was doing.
Rich:I don't think I was that good at any sport, to be honest, but I was particularly bad at baseball though. I was like scared of the ball. I was like, Yeah, this kid's pitching 40 miles an hour.
Billy:Dude, that 40 miles an hour like 100 miles an hour to me. Even now I go into batting cages with my son, and I'll go like I think it's like 50 or 60, and I'm like, wow, that looks fast.
Rich:I can't even remember the last time I did that. I just know it hurts my wrist every time I crack a ball.
Billy:I'm like, ow, ow. I think I did some of my fingernails on the last time was not pleasant.
Rich:So what what goes on now? Like, you you're in psychology, you're you just started a new a new job, you um wanna do some psychology-based content moving forward. You're you're saying something like that.
Billy:So, alright, so I like mixing it with the martial arts. So I really like the idea of like alter egos.
Rich:Okay.
Billy:And that fighters, a lot of great fighters, they have noticed this pattern, they seem to like develop this alter ego. And like, so Sugar Ray Leonard had an alter ego when he stepped in the ring, Connor McGregor has an alter ego when he steps in the ring. That's for sure. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of them do, you know? And it's really interesting. Tyson kind of had an alter ego, and just the psychology behind fighting, because I'll see these guys, they're great in a gym, they're beating all these people, but if you put them in a ring, you put them under lights, they're different. They don't they don't perform as well. And I'm like, what the hell is that, you know?
Rich:And I've I've noticed it just with a lot of different things, and I'm just very interested in um developing that alter ego and developing like that different identity that allows you to do the things they do really so you're saying like their fight their fighter is the alter ego of who like let's use Conor McGregor for an example. You're saying you think he became so successful because he developed this alter ego in his head that helped him train better, and like obviously he's a fighter, but at home he's a different person.
Billy:I think maybe like his personality, like when you see it, it probably is his real personality, but it's probably obviously just turned up to 100 when you see him. I see that's real that's more where the alter ego would come in. It's like you, but it's you turned up to 100.
Rich:Do you think there's a correlation in that alter ego and success?
Billy:Yeah, because I think it diminishes their fear.
Rich:Oh, so fear can be like a factor in in being a successful fighter, or you say maybe just in life in general?
Billy:I think in life in general, yeah. I think fear is healthy to have to a certain extent, but there's some point where you just have to almost transcend that fear and go beyond uh it's high.
Rich:Do you r remember having any fears in your life?
Billy:Every day. Well afraid every day. Are you high?
Rich:Like um yeah, I mean, like what is the we I guess we could talk like really high level, like, oh, I'm scared of death, or but like maybe growing up I was scared of Chucky. You know what I mean? Because I like watched Chucky and then I just had like these reoccurring nightmares of Chucky and E.T.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:Um obviously I don't have nightmares anymore.
Billy:Not of Chucky and E. T.
Rich:Not of Chucky and E.T. Not not really, uh maybe once, maybe like a couple a year. Okay. So uh what do you think of the dream like world? Oh god Do you dream a lot?
Billy:I don't.
Rich:No.
Billy:I think I was I I don't know what I think, but I question sometimes. Like, is the dream world like just another reality?
Rich:Yeah, like uh or yeah, is it another reality? That's a way to look at it too. Yeah, when we wake up from our dream, it's like, was that what was really happening? Is this are you saying like this could be a simulation?
Billy:No, like they both could be.
Rich:They both could be.
Billy:Yeah. But then like, what do they mean by simulation? Like, I don't think it's literally like a computer running the world or something like that.
Rich:Yeah, because James Webb, or no, uh Yeah, James Webb telescope. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it was that or Hubble, but they just came out with the article I was reading today. We might be in a black hole based off some new evidence. It looks like our galaxy is actually spiraling out, so like a black hole could be the point, we could be in it.
Billy:Nope. I've heard that, yeah.
Rich:So that's kind of freaks me out to think like that. Like we we're in a black hole. So what's on the other side of the black hole? Well, here's the thing.
Billy:If does it freak me out? I don't even know what that means. Yeah. Is does anything change?
Rich:It doesn't freak me out, yeah.
Billy:That's what that's why I'm like, I don't know if that freaks me out because I don't understand what a black hole is. Yeah. I pretend to sometimes, but I really don't.
Rich:Like what I saw Interstellar, so I saw the black hole, but yeah.
Billy:Gonna rock that shit, I'll tell you that right now. I cried at the end where he was like in the room and he could see his daughter. Oh yeah.
Rich:I I watch that movie every year. There's like a handful of movies I watch every year.
Billy:Interestella's one of them, right? Um what are the other ones?
Rich:I'll I'll lay uh name them off and then you name off yours. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That's fun.
Billy:The Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go.
Rich:Um, that's the second one.
Billy:That's the second one. Okay.
Rich:The first one I feel like is the rawest. The second one is a little more kid friendly, and then the third one is bonkers. Like, I don't even watch the third one. When they go like back in time.
Billy:That's when Raphael's like really like a dick to him the first one.
Rich:Right, terrible.
Billy:Yeah, the first one is like it's like it's not a kid's movie.
Rich:It's like the rawest. Um though, and then the Matrix trilogy is another one. Um, There Will Be Blood.
Billy:That movie fucks you up at the when he kills his kid at the end.
Rich:Like, the the pre the priest. He uh he kills the priest Isn't that his son? No, that's um that's the twins when he That he saved, right?
Billy:And he like adopted one of them, I thought.
Rich:No, There Will Be Blood is the the oil guy. He's an oil man and his son. Oh yeah, so his son.
Billy:Yeah, he's the priest.
Rich:No, his son uh his brother dies in the well, I think, and he takes the baby so that he can be a family to sell his oil business. He uses them as a pawn almost, and his son is deaf, and at the end, his son goes to New Mexico to be a driller, and he's like, You're my enemy now, you're my competition. And then the uh the priest who became a priest originally told him about the the oil in the town he lived in, and he comes back begging for money because he lived a sinful life, and he kills him with the bowling pin. So that's not his son, but that's his son for some okay. That's a movie I watch every year. Um, Interstellar is a movie I watch every year. Oh, Tenet. I like Tenet. I know Christopher Nolan one.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:They can like go forward and backwards in time with this with this machine. Okay. It's it's fairly new, so. Um how about you?
Billy:Alright. What do I watch? Shaw Shank Redemption. Okay. Yeah. What else do I watch?
Rich:Oh, Braveheart. I watch Braveheart every time.
Billy:So Shah Sh, yeah, Shaw Shank's one of my favorite. Godfather Part One is one of my favorite movies, though. It's just like a comfort movie for me. I still like to watch that one. Goodfellas. Goodfellas cracks me up. The end depresses me, but like the beginning I love.
Rich:He's just a schmuck at the end. A regular old schmuck. I can't even get a good sauce.
Billy:I know. It's so depressing. And then the other one. You ever watch uh 2001 of Space Odyssey?
Rich:I have seen it.
Billy:I still watch that one. It's I get that it's boring for some people, but something about it, I still enjoy it. It's beautiful. Yeah, something about the way it's shot. Like Cooper. And then like I'll watch some of the.
Rich:The sound design's wonderful too.
Billy:I'll still watch The Shining, like every Halloween time. Oh.
Rich:That one's like every three years for me. It fucks you up to watch it. And it's long too. It's like it's hard to sit and watch in a full setting. You know, we're so used to like quick things, and it's probably what, two, three hours long.
Billy:See, that one I can I can still do it. Something about those Kubrick ones, like I'll even watch Eyes Wide Shut over again. You ever watch that?
Rich:Yep.
Billy:It's pretty dry, but just something about the way it's shot, it like keeps my interest.
Rich:Yeah, the acting in Eyes Wide Shut and the dramatic, like the extension of time. Yeah, that is it keeps your attention the whole time. You're just like, oh, X Machina's one I watch every year too. Oh. Oh, X Machina. Is that what it's called? Yeah, I call it Machina.
Billy:X Machina. X Machina. That one freaks me out. Because that one I'm like, that's like a future in like 10, 20 years.
Rich:I really love Annihilation too. What's Annihilation? Uh the shimmer. Like a comet hits a lighthouse and there's like encases it in a shimmer, and the shimmer keeps glowing, growing, and they keep sending people in and no one comes out.
Billy:Nice.
Rich:And there's like an alien scene at the end where like the aliens just like becomes like a mirror image of the person that it encounters.
Billy:Oh, it's like the thing?
Rich:Is that what it's actually the same director as X Machina?
Billy:Oh, well, Ridley Scott, is that what it is?
Rich:Um Dennis Villaneux, maybe? I d I don't know. But if you like X Machina, as I call it, you're gonna like Annihilation. I'm a sci-fi guy, like I love sci-fi.
Billy:I'm gonna have to check that one out.
Rich:Yeah, it's a good one. And the music, and I I think music, when there's good like sound design in a movie, oh I forgot Dune 1 and Dune 2, and I'm waiting for Dune 3. I love the Dunes.
Billy:I really was impressed with uh Batista there in those dunes. He did really good, man. He's a good actor.
Rich:He is he an MMA fighter or a wrestler? Both. Both. Yeah. So if you're a wrestler, you're a great actor.
Billy:I know Cena's a great actor. The Rock's a great actor.
Rich:They're com they are on a different like the comedic to pull off comedic acting. Well, I guess a wrestler is half comedy, half like macho.
Billy:The rock was hilarious, I remember.
Rich:He too he elevated. Remember, uh now kids are like 6'7, and I see all the aims are like D Generation X suck it.
Billy:Oh my, I was thinking of that today. Did you ever listen? You listened to Wu-Tang clan when we were kids, right? Remember the Gravediggers? Yeah. I was like, I listen to what my son listens to. People are like, oh, this is so horrible. I'm like, I used to listen to like gravediggers when I was a kid. Like, there was some horrible shit on that CD.
Rich:Yeah, I had the 9-inch nails uh LP, the downward spiral, and I re-listened to it, and I'm like, why did I have that from the you know, pay for one get 12 CD Club or cassette club at the time? Oh yeah, yeah. So I would just pick these albums out and I was like, how would I even know to order nine-inch nails? And then like I'm listening to it, and it's like so not appropriate for a little kid. But somehow I had it in my collection and loved it.
Billy:Oh god, even like Marilyn Manson, remember the dope show uh music video? Oh yeah. He's like in the the naked, uh, the nude suit basically with the boobs.
Rich:And yeah, and then like your parent walks by and they're like, do a double take. They're like, what the hell are you watching? Shut that off.
Billy:And I'm like just the thing, I was like, is it gonna get worse on my kid? I don't think it could get any worse than that. And it really didn't. I'm like, we were like the peak of like the batchery.
Rich:It's like different in the sense like there's like creeps on roadblocks different. That's different, yeah. So like now you have to like prepare your kid to be like scare rooms, though. Yeah. Well, we but we were in there the ones being the uh catfishes.
Billy:Yeah, we were pretending to be adults. What's your number? Get the number and then call them and be like, hey, hey, I swear I'm not nine years old. Yeah. Dude, that was fun stuff though. That's like how I learned to like how you how you talk to adults. This is how you do it.
Rich:What do kids do for now for pranks? Can they even do oh, they do like scary pranks like catfishing, like let's make a fake account and and text this kid and uh say that we want to be your girlfriend or something, you know, or hazing or bullying.
Billy:No, you know what they could do now. I've seen videos. There's like AI Sora apps where you can take like pictures of someone and then be like, hey, is this you? And it's like a video of them like taking their shirt off in the middle of the stores, like jumping around. They're like, that is me, but I didn't do that. I'm like, oh boy, this that prank could go too far.
Rich:I saw a nice prank today, too. Uh the guy had a picture of the guy, he was paid to open a safe, and they had pictures of the guy opening the safe in the safe, so when he opened the safe, he was like, What the hell? There's like tons of pictures of him in there. Like, that's like that's a harmless prank. Like, that's funny as hell.
Billy:That is pretty funny. But some of the pranks you can make now, like, you could literally make videos of people doing things they never did.
Rich:How do you feel about the Jackass era? Were you a fan of Jackass and Wild Boys?
Billy:Oh, yeah.
Rich:On MTV?
Billy:He's Johnny Knoxville's uh host and fear factor now.
Rich:Oh, really?
Billy:I think that's perfect.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:Did you watch the last Jackass movie?
Rich:Which one was that?
Billy:The third one.
Rich:Are you sure? I thought there was like five.
Billy:Oh, is that five now?
Rich:I don't know. I I I know they did like 2.5 and stuff like that. Okay, yeah, I've seen most of them.
Billy:Dude, the last one, like, it's graphic as fuck.
Rich:Is that the last one where they like are in the room and they put the snakes or they they shut all the lights off? Okay, yeah, I did see that.
Billy:With it, it's the beginning with the Godzilla scene.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Very graphic start scene. They're still doing Steve O's like torn right now, like doing stuff.
Rich:Yeah, he I used to work for a manufacturing company that um made broadcast equipment. Yeah. And he was a client. He like uh purchased broadcast arms for his podcast in his van. Oh, he did? Yeah, so like he would call and be like, yo, this isn't working, and we'd be like, Steve O, you like tighten the shit out of it, and it's probably uh like you probably stripped it, and he's like, Yo, I fucking stripped it. I fucking stripped it. That's what I did.
Billy:I love him, man. He's great. I'm happy he's still alive, I'll tell you that right now. Because I was shocked half of those guys are still alive, man.
Rich:With the Whippet, the Whipit addiction, and yeah.
Billy:Even uh even Bam, like I'm surprised Bam's still alive.
Rich:I don't think he does well. I think he like falls off the wagon and gets back on, falls off, gets back on. He just he doesn't look, he just looks rough.
Billy:I love that show too. Did you ever watch Beaver of Bam? Don Vito was my favorite. Me too. Don Vito is the best.
Rich:He like reminds me of like relatives, Don Vito. He could be anyone's uncle.
Billy:He could be anyone's uncle. Exactly.
Rich:That's probably why it was yeah, that family could be anyone's family, and then bam. What a amazing, like to be so young and be so successful at like, you know, prank show slash, but it was just an interesting, ahead of its time type deal.
Billy:I know. It was fun to watch, just like he would like turn his house into like skating rinks and stuff like that. Well like castles and have like battles with.
Rich:No, you know who my OG favorite is though? Tom Green.
Billy:Tom Green's a good one, man.
Rich:He like he might have been the originator of all that. He was. I he kind of started the podcast thing too, you know. Yeah. He was like one of the first to have a podcast, too. It's I he's got a YouTube channel and it doesn't, I don't think it does overly well. You know what I mean? It's who's tuning into it? Like me and like that era of people who grew up on Tom Green.
Billy:I've watched it a few days, yeah, exactly. But it's I like it.
Rich:It's it's very dry and dull, but it's nice. It's like a it's it's a setback. We need that now. We need something that's like calm and where when everything is so like in your face and wild.
Billy:I know some of the podcasts I listen to are like way too in your face sometimes.
Rich:I like the Lex Friedman. I like the format of it. I just it's so informative. It's like encyclopedia talk. It reminds me of when you were little and you had the encyclopedias, and you'd be like, I'm gonna look up Guatemala today, and you go find G and you're like reading about it, and you're really just looking at the pictures, not reading.
Billy:But I like to he doesn't seem to have a bias either. He really listens to people whenever they talk, and he like tries to understand people, too. He never makes a sign. Like, I respect him a lot.
Rich:Well, he's got such a vast knowledge of different topics, and I think while he's just passionate about what he's talking about with the guests, he's really probably good at preparing, he's just super smart.
Billy:Oh god, he's got like a black belt in judo, a black belt in jujitsu, he's like an MIT grad doctorate, engineer, engineer. Yeah, he's doing well, not like one of the top podcasts in the world. Like not doing too bad for himself.
Rich:And we're just sitting here in a in a basement uh talking trash about things.
Billy:See, maybe if I dress like Lex.
Rich:No, I need to wear. The suit, but that's not my style. No, maybe I'm not a suit guy. I do have I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, and my suit, I do have like a gold suit coat. It's like suede. But underneath, I'm just wearing like it reminds me of like dancing with the stars. It's like a kind of a see-through black button-up with brown buttons. I was like, Can I wear this to a wedding? And my wife's like, You I like it. And I was like, Alright, I'm I'm rolling with it.
Billy:Do you like people like rich dance dance whenever they go to weddings? I for yeah, they rebutts get asked all the time.
Rich:Not so much anymore. No one believes that I danced.
Billy:Also, when people don't know like that. No.
Rich:Okay. Like I tell them, like, you know, at work, I'm like, oh, I used to, you know, do ballet, tap dance, jazz dance, I used to do theater, and they're like, okay. Yeah. They're like, no, nobody believes me, you know? Yeah. And then I'm like, pull up a video. They're like, oh, whoa, didn't expect that.
unknown:Wow.
Billy:Can you still like do stuff like you used to do?
Rich:Um, I put the tap shoes on once a year. Um, yeah, I feel like that doesn't leave you, but definitely like the endurance to keep it going and the memory. Like I used to be able to memorize huge sequences of tap dances and like clap on three, ball change on an eight, and then like, you know, like 48 counts, like memorize like a huge two-minute series of tap dance things and one class, you know, like we would do like combinations now. Forget about it. How would you remember that stuff? You we started basic um Joanne Warren, Grafton Street. Hi, Joanne. She would have us line up against the wall, and she would be like, All right, we're gonna do a count of eight. Um, just we're gonna walk one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And then she'd be like, all right, let's do that again, and you're gonna ball change on four. So it would be like one, two, three, and four, five, six, seven, eight. Come back, all right. You're gonna clap on eight. So one, two, three, four, ball change, one, two, three, ball change, and four, five, six, seven, clap. Go back to the wall. She'd keep adding things in, and then she'd be like, all right, we're gonna stop on five and do nothing. So you'd be like one, two, three, and four, ball change, pause five, six, seven, clap on eight. She would just keep, and that's like how we would do, and then we would like double it.
Billy:So adding on, adding on, adding wow.
Rich:And then obviously when you're in a dance studio and you're and you're learning numbers, you start to memorize. But it was like a tongue twister for your for your head for counting music.
Billy:Yeah. That reminds me, so I saw this guy, he's a memory champion, and he had this idea. They were asking him, so how do you remember all this stuff? And he had this idea, it's called memory palaces. You ever hear of this? No. Alright. So you you just picture like a place that's familiar to you, like your house, okay? And then say you have to remember something. Um, so your front door would be like uh, so you have to remember get dog food today or something. So the front door is dog food. So then you walk in the house, and you picture like a scene, like maybe dog food, like like dancing around on your on your on your front door or something, like something memorable that you can remember, but also something memorable like this is your house, you're gonna remember it. So then you gotta remember something else on your list. So you walk in, and maybe there's like your kitchen table. So your kitchen table could be like, oh, I need paper towels or something like that. Boom, you pitch your paper towels on there. You just go through that. If you do it a few times, surprisingly, you remember a lot more stuff.
Rich:Do you usually use your home because you just have so many rooms and you can build so I use different places for different things I have to remember?
Billy:So there's one palace for one thing, so maybe my home would be one. Yeah, so you have a different palace for that. So you just have different palaces and it's like a Rolodex in your head, and you kind of go through That's amazing. Yeah, well, anyone can do it. Because I just learned through that guy, and it it works surprisingly.
Rich:Yeah, like if you had to learn a menu for a restaurant, yeah, instead of just trying to go through the appetizers, the dinners, the desserts, side dishes. Yeah, if you place it in your kitchen.
Billy:Yeah, different palace for everything. Yeah.
Rich:Different palace. Yeah. And then your live your pantry could be your appetizer area. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah, the brain is pretty a wild what your brain can do, what it remembers, what it doesn't remember. Oh, they don't even know where memories are stored.
Billy:They know the correlates of like things that happen when you store memories and stuff, but they have no clue where they And really they're just kind of guessing. I guess not guessing, there's I'm sure research behind it, but they've I mean unethical, but they've done studies of animals where they've taken out like different parts of their brain and they want to see like, what do you what do you forget? What do you forget? And it doesn't seem they forget like that much when you're taking stuff out. Like it's very odd.
Rich:Is the greatest adventure in your mind uh like what this is so morbid? Is death the greatest adventure one can go to because it's the most unknown?
Billy:Well, I don't even know if it's that unknown. You ever look into near-death experiences?
Rich:Yeah, but how do you feel do you think those I guess why would they lie?
Billy:Well, here's the other thing. There's guys who have studied this, there's this one guy, Dr. Greg Shoshan. Um, and he studied near-death experiences. He studied um cross-time and cross-culture, and they correlate with each other of like, you know, people in Japan like a thousand years ago, and then people in America have the same things happening in their near-death experiences. So they're like, they didn't have contact with each other. And you know, you could say, Oh, well, yeah, you're gonna think you see uh, you know, dead people when you die, obviously. But here's another thing, they've also studied it, they've had people, a few different stories. There's one, it's documented, uh, young man died in the ER. He had become friends with this nurse, um, died, coded out, and they come in, they're like, um, he's like, Hey, where's that nurse? Where's that nurse? I saw her when I died, and she said, Tell her parents sorry about uh Mercedes. He didn't know that girl died. She died in the time like she went home that weekend. She died that weekend in a car accident. He died and he saw her. How could he have expected to see her? So there's a lot of weird stories like that, man.
Rich:Playing devil's advocate. Could our brain have ingested something throughout our life and the brain just stays alive? 100%. And maybe it's a, you know, we saw something or read something, so then our brain kind of creates that scenario. Yeah. And then we come back, and our brain like created it for us. But I would like to believe more spiritual that there's something beyond.
Billy:I'll play devil's advocate. You can induce out-of-body experiences, like um pilots, I believe, when they're flying at higher altitudes, or um when you get a certain amount of G forces, you'll have the sensation of leaving your body and like looking down at it. So, yeah, you can induce that. But what is that doing exactly? You know? Like, I don't know, like people would be like, oh, it correlates with this in the brain, it correlates with that in the brain, but it's like, you know, correlation doesn't equal causation. So unless you can show me like causal reasons why, it's tough to say what's going on.
Rich:Have you ever been hit in your like hit real hard and like got a concussion or yeah. Do I don't know, I'm just picturing this time I was running in the in the schoolyard at St. Mary's and I collided with a girl so hard and everything was white and fuzzy, and I was just thinking, like, how is she okay? Because I'm like, can't even see right now. And then I always like, did that mess me up? But how do you the body I guess just can heal itself?
Billy:Yeah. Head trauma is a tough one to heal from, though. That's the one I don't know how how well you can heal from that one.
Rich:Yeah. Well, I didn't obviously have a head trauma, but it was just like a memory that I have about. What else?
Billy:So tell me, what do you think with the whole near deck experience? What do you think happens?
Rich:That's I'm always qu I'm always questioning that when I look out into the stars.
Billy:I'm like, That means being honest.
Rich:Do we pass away? And then do we have the answers? Like, do we go somewhere? Does our soul or our mind continue on? You know what I mean? Do we get reincarnated? But I think even further, like, okay, our planet was created, and it's gonna die someday. And like there's just such vast amounts of time. What happens when everything collapses again? You know, like I'm and if I'm guessing there's multiple universes.
Billy:Seems to be, yeah.
Rich:It's just like there's no ending ever. It just keeps the I don't know. It's we can't comp I can't comprehend it. I don't think anyone will ever be able to.
Billy:No, probably not.
Rich:So what is it all? You know?
Billy:It's a game, just have fun.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:That's that's what I think. I think it's a game that's here for your entertainment. Don't take it too seriously. If you do, you're gonna have a bad time. If you could not take it too seriously, you're gonna have a good time.
Rich:Which, and it's so morbid, but like that must be the grandest adventure. But obviously, I'm super afraid of passing away.
Billy:But I'm more afraid of other people passing away.
Rich:Yeah, but it's also exciting to me. It's so messed up to think.
Billy:Well, Mito, yeah.
Rich:To like pass away and then what?
Billy:Me, no, especially after like reading near-death experiences. I'm like, oh, that sounds pretty cool. Like, I don't want to die. Flatliner? You wanna Yeah, yeah, that was a great movie. But I'm like, I don't want to, but I'm not as afraid of it after reading this stuff. And because like before all I had was religion, and I'm like, well, these are stories, are these true? Like, I don't know these people, I can't hear them telling these stories. So the near-death experience was kind of like, okay, now I now I kind of have like, so this person actually experienced this, you know? I don't know if it's real, but that's like realer to me than stories.
Rich:I want to go home and like read the all these near-death experiences. I'm sure there's like how many are there? I want to like read every single one.
Billy:Just YouTube near-death experiences is like a million of them.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:And there's a book right there about it, right by the next one.
Rich:Even the ancient ones. Shadow Chris.
Billy:Yeah, oh yeah. Gregory Shoshon. I'll I'll send you the book. Yeah. This guy's been interviewed and stuff. I've listened to his interviews. He's a cultural anthropologist.
Rich:Who's your favorite aut uh author? My favorite author. Like, what is your favorite thing to consume lately? Read, you know, is it psychology? Is it martial arts?
Billy:Yeah, probably psychology, honestly. Yeah. I like the young stuff, the Carl Jung stuff. I don't really understand it as much as I wish I did, but you gotta start somewhere.
Rich:Someone once said Carl Jung doesn't understand what Carl Jung is writing, and he's not explaining it good.
Billy:He's really not.
Rich:But, you know, I do like getting into uh sociology, psychology sometimes. It's a just a fun hobby.
Billy:You just don't want to get too deep into it, because then it can get like depressing, and that's when like you just need a girlfriend at some point.
Rich:What you make me think of like a Jordan Peterson outlook, you know.
Billy:Yeah, that's probably where I come from.
Rich:I always think of this fact like you at a funeral, you want to be the person who's strong and everyone goes to for the support. Because I don't know, he words it better. Being that per to be that strong person in your family's life and your as a father and as your friends, you know, and that is like respectable to me is like when I see someone like strong, you know, like they're just handling the inevitable really well. You're like, oh, you know, that's kind of how I want to be. But it's hard because you know, you lose someone close, and I don't know how I'm gonna act, you know. Or I I know how I want to act, but I think, all right.
Billy:I heard someone say this um about a guy after he died. He said he was the last one to die, toughest guy, but he was the first one to cry. And I think that's what the toughest people, they're the most sensitive, but at the same time, they're not gonna kill it. Like they're tough, you know? Yeah, they're tough. First one to cry, last one to die. Yeah. So I think that's that's what I aspire to be.
Rich:Yeah, I you're totally switching my my thought now because I've had it in my head for you know the ever since I read that Jordan Peterson book that like, oh, you want to be the one who doesn't cry.
Billy:No, I think first one to cry, last one to die.
Rich:Yeah, but like, yeah, and I've always been a sensitive person. My I feel like my parents, my father is like that. Like, he has no problem crying when he's happy or sad.
Billy:That's a sign of strength, I think.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:I mean, times that I haven't cried and I've held it back was because I was afraid to cry, so it's not straight. Yeah. I'm fucking running away.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:I'm just good at hiding it.
Rich:It's wild. It's doesn't make you strong. You ch I change my perspective every day on something. Whatever I'm consuming, and then my perspective changes. So I guess that's good to. I love having as much um material to ingest as possible. It's like nice.
Billy:I know. I get bored with like just listening to the same thing, like for a while. It was just like, oh, I'm just watching sports every weekend, like not learning anything new. Like, I'm like, what am I doing with my life? And then I was like, I better go back to school and actually like do something now. Because I don't want to get stuck in this rut.
Rich:Do you think you'll continue education now, like as a lifelong pursuit?
Billy:Maybe. The way not like traditional education, but just no, but I think we're gonna all have to, because I think jobs are gonna change like on the fly so much that if you don't do that, you're kind of gonna get left behind. So I see it as kind of like a necessity, honestly. So yeah, I think I will.
Rich:Nice.
Billy:Because I don't think things are gonna get easier. I think they're just gonna get a little more complicated. So if you educate yourself more, you'd be better off.
Rich:Hobbies too. Like it's good to have a hobby.
Billy:You'll go nuts if you don't have a hobby.
Rich:Yeah, that's true. Do you have social media on your phone?
Billy:Yeah, I keep um Link and I keep my Instagram on. That's really it. Instagrams, and then I leave Facebook on, but I just leave it for like the martial arts pages to watch that stuff.
Rich:You don't seem like a person who like comes home and is glued onto their phone. It seems like you're more of like a throw it on the table and go do something.
Billy:So I'll always have it on, but I'll have like music on. And it'll just like like you said, throw it on. I'll be in here working out in the basement or yeah, but that's just like putting on your boom box when you get home.
Rich:You're just using it as your radio, as uh yeah, you're not like sitting on the couch like just scrolling through TikTok.
Billy:No, no, no. That's it happens though. I'm not perfect. I'll be there and I'll be scrolling, scrolling, I'll look up. I'm like, wow, that was a half hour. Holy shit. I'm guilty of that for sure.
Rich:Yeah, but you just seem like you got a lot of hobbies, so yeah.
Billy:You have if I didn't, I'd have a lot of bad hobbies, honestly. Dude, gambling's fun, so you gotta stay away from that. Like drinking's fun, you gotta always stay away from that.
Rich:Well, I was telling you, like, I feel like I I'm not addicted to anything, or like it's I'm not an addictive person. Like, I could care less about drinking, could care less about smoking.
Billy:See, that's like I'll smoke weed then. That's like my teddy bath. Like sometimes like I'll do that. Other than that, and I don't even have a I can go like weeks, months without it, too.
Rich:I gave up coffee and switched to tea for randomly for a couple weeks.
Billy:That's good, yeah.
Rich:But then I got back, you know, now I have a coffee once in a while now.
Billy:I don't know if I could give up coffee. Yeah.
Rich:Well, I was like, I feel better when I drink tea in the morning than coffee. I don't know. And then I have my coffee in the middle of the day, and then I don't get that like when I have a coffee in the morning, I don't know, it like upsets my aura. I get like jittery, and maybe my uh I don't have as much patience. Okay. Uh maybe it's dehydrating me, so my body's just telling me.
Billy:Yeah, I wonder if you maybe you just drink more water or something like that. Yeah.
Rich:Yeah. But it's I don't know. Why is it so hard to drink water when I first get up?
Billy:I just want like tea or coffee, but you'll be shocked how when you feel like shit, you just take a couple big gulps of water and like, oh, I feel better now.
Rich:For sure. It's like, oh, I was just dehydrated. I guess I'll do one more question because it's it's getting late here and we're um Is there some when I first reached out to do this and you heard the concept, was there someone that you thought of in your head that was like, oh, I want to catch up with this person? Like, do you have a friend that you lost contact with from the past? Or was it me?
Billy:I didn't know not really. Yeah, I was just excited to meet up with you, honestly.
Rich:But you do you have a friend that you think of that you wanna that you would like want to call and be like, hey, what's up? I haven't talked to you in 30 years, even though it's like weird to do that.
Billy:Yeah, yeah, no, I do. I got a few guys from the gym that I used to be friends with. There used to be Girls Gym in Shrewsbury, and there was a few guys that like I wouldn't even know how the fuck to get a hold of them, but like really good, like good influences on me. One of Dario, Dario would be the one. He was like an older dude, he was really good to me.
Rich:You seem to hang out with like a lot of an older crew.
Billy:Sometimes, yeah, sometimes, yeah.
Rich:Most of your friends are like older than you?
Billy:Not really. One of my good friends actually is like 25, actually. He's a coffee up, yeah. So it's like not all of them.
Rich:See, I'm jealous of you, you like have relationships with you got like friends, I feel like, that you like go meet up with, talk to.
Billy:It's true. Jiu-jitsu, like I got my jujitsu friends, so we go in the jujitsu place we go to is like a coffee place right there, so we'll go get coffee after or something. And then I got the combatants club I go to, and those of my cop friends will go do that stuff. It's it's good. You just gotta keep keep busy, you know.
Rich:The whole purpose of this show was to start hanging out with people more.
Billy:Yeah.
Rich:Because I'm like, you know, I love hanging out with my family, but that's all I like would do. It's like my wife's my best friend, and I could hang out with her every day, and I don't even need to hang out with anyone else, honestly. And then my kids, and I'm I'm comfortable with that. But ever since I did force myself to be more social, what a value like it's been.
Billy:It's good for your kids too to see you have the friends and stuff. They're like, oh, okay, like dad has friends, mom has friends, like I have friends, you know.
Rich:I can't get myself to go, but my wife wants to go to church.
Billy:You I heard you saying that on your last part. Why are you against it? I'm curious.
Rich:I don't know. I'm just like, so don't want to waste not waste. I so don't want to like I'm selfish. I don't want to give my time on a Sunday or a Saturday to church.
Billy:Even though you would think of it as giving your time, though. Maybe you're getting something out of it though.
Rich:I'm sure I would, but I'm just like, I don't know. I can't get myself to do it. I'm like, you You guys should go.
unknown:You guys should go.
Billy:Alright, so what if you so you don't gotta go to church? What if you went for like a walk with them or something, just appreciated nature? Like a hike, a family hike.
Rich:I was like, maybe our church could be like, should we join a social club or like uh like a shooting, like should we start going to you know, you don't even need to shoot to go be in like an outdoors club. They have other stuff going on and you have to one give your time. I think it's like 10 hours a year to be in the club, so you have to volunteer. But then, like, yeah, you're meeting people and maybe like there's kids in the, you know. But yeah, I think there's only positives about joining a church though, because then you're around other families who probably have a good moral backbone. Yeah, your kids are gonna play with those kids who are growing up in a in a nice family. I don't know. I should go. I should just pull the trigger and go, but you should do it. I'm not a religious person. I don't know.
Billy:Still, you don't have to be a religious person. I'm not a religious person either.
Rich:That's what everyone says.
Billy:I believe in I believe there's a god. I don't know what that is. Like when I say that, I don't think there's a man in the sky though, either. So I think it's worth like you know, passing that on to your kids in some way, anyways.
Rich:I know. I should, I should.
Billy:So there you go. You said it, you gotta do it.
Rich:I should try it, but but I'm like, I like our mornings as a family on Saturday and Sunday. The week is so busy with work, if you do mix in a sport, like I want our family time to be on the weekend.
Billy:Don't they have charged the weekdays though, too?
Rich:Yeah. I mean, the kids are young too. I think when they get a little bit older, I'll have a totally different outlook because they'll be more independent, you know.
Billy:That's another, yeah, because you're like worrying, like, is the is is the four-month-old gonna cry? Is the two-year-old gonna flip out, you know, like is the four-year-old gonna need to go to the bathroom? Like, there's a million things you gotta think of.
Rich:Yeah, and it's just like I love our time too, where we're just like we wake up on Saturday and Sunday and it's like daddy time with the kids, and I don't want to be stressed out, like, oh, let's get ready to go do another activity. I'm looking at church as an activity where we're like dressed up, we get in the car, like we're not just like bored in the backyard exploring or pla or like having a relaxed, like, oh, let's have lunch together.
Billy:You know, I don't go to church, so yeah. I can't say nothing.
Rich:I just like being bored.
Billy:No, I do too.
Rich:There's there's something like by bored, I mean like, oh, let's you know, go upstairs and we'll fold some laundry and we'll mess around in the in your room, like you know. Have you guys ever thought about building a fort? Yeah. You know? And I know there's time to do that before church and after church. I'm just like making an excuse, like, since I'm not religious, I don't want to give up that time. I don't even know why, you know what I mean?
Billy:Why it's But you want to give them something. But my wife wants to go. Oh, okay. So is that more what it's driving it?
Rich:And I want my kids to go, kinda.
Billy:You want them to get a sense of spirituality, I get it.
Rich:Yeah, and just like be in a community that has moral, you know. I what are they getting at public school? You know, I'm sure there's good families, but I'm sure there's bad families too.
Billy:Bad families.
Rich:So public school kind of freaks me out too, as me and you went to Catholic school.
Billy:There's good families and bad families at church, though. Like everywhere you go. I know. You can't avoid that.
Rich:But I always hear people say, and maybe they're just biased because they are religious, that the friends their kids have at church are light years ahead of the kids that they have outside of church.
Billy:I will because psychologically speaking, people who are religious is happier. That doesn't, there's really no debate in that. That's like like statistically a fact. They've studied it, like given them assessments, and they're like, oh, it seems the more religious you are, the more happy you are. Wow. And like to a point, I'm spiritual, but there's some people they think you know God sent them everywhere they went. And I envy that because I'm like, wow, they're really like confident in everything they do, they are very faith-based, and I'm envious of that, you know. But I'm I'm happy that some people can have that. I wish I could have that.
Rich:I've had like mentors, you know, people who I've looked up to who are like, I think what you're looking for is Jesus. And I'm like, I don't think that's what I'm looking for. And it's like a debate back and forth, but they're like, I don't know, it sounds like you need that guiding light, you know, when you're like, am I on the right path? Or should I continue with this career? Or, you know. But it probably This is before kids.
Billy:But it probably matters who you ask. You ask someone from the West, they're gonna say you need Jesus. You ask someone from the east, they're gonna say, What do you need? Buddha, you need um Shiva. Like Buddha, like not at all, like the like the Wu Tang Buddha, yeah, Buddhism. Yeah, or like, you know, Hinduism or Jain. Like there's so many religions, like it all leads to the same place, man.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:I think.
Rich:My religion is like studying the history of the world, and like I love reading or listening to audiobooks about like the history of like Egypt and and even uh I think it is that I think there's a book called The History of the World, it's like 60 hours long, and that's my like calm down, I'll just put that on when I'm working out or when I'm doing a task like cleaning the art or something. And I just I've been listening to it for like four years because it's so long.
Billy:I get into those things too.
Rich:I love it, yeah.
Billy:You ever listen to Hardcore History, Dan Carlin? No, he'll go on like 12-hour rants about like the Mongolian Empire, like just Genga Kong for like 12 hours, and then they'll have like a part two for like another 12 hours, like he goes deep in the street. On YouTube or I don't know if he does them anymore, but he would do big, big deep dives into this stuff. Nice. It was like that stuff I got really into for a while. What was the history you were into like other than Egypt?
Rich:Well, uh Egypt definitely is my number one. That was your number one, but I think for me, history, it's like there's I just try to fill in the gaps. I'm like, okay, what happened after Egypt? Okay, Mesopotamia before Egypt, and then and then you're like going down past Egypt, and then you and it just keeps going and going and going, and you're like, geez, how do they even make a book about all this? You know, there's writings or stories passed down. It's like it never ends. And you try to, and I'm still trying to catch up to modern day history. The the vastness of everything recorded is just crazy.
Billy:And there's different histories depending on who you ask, too. That's the other problem.
Rich:And then, yeah, you get down that rabbit hole, it's like, I don't even think this is the real history. Yeah, this is just someone's opinion. There's like new research going on about what really was going on, and then uh Ghiblo Techy or Gobekli Tepi. Gobekli Tepi. And then they're digging that up, and you're like, wait, they only dug up five percent of it? What's in the other, you know, why are they not digging up the rest of it?
Billy:Well, they have they say they there's stuff under the Sphinx, under the pyramid. They're like, there's all this stuff, we don't know what it is.
Rich:Yeah.
Billy:They're like, it could be something, it could be nothing. It's like, I'm willing to bet it's something.
Rich:And then, like, what was lost before that, you know, stuff that just deteriorates, you know, was there another civilization?
Billy:Oh, well, even just how the hell did they build those pyramids? Like, how did they do that? It and just what did that place look like too? It looked very different than it looks like now, too.
Rich:Even like buildings from 1850. Why do our buildings look so crappy now? And those buildings are like beautiful stone, you know.
Billy:I know, yeah.
Rich:But I guess time and like people really put effort into old construction. Now we're just about like quick, you know, oh it's gonna last 10 years? That's plenty. No, it is rip it down and build it again.
Billy:Because is everything I mean, not everything's cheap, but like think of the computers now. Like, I'll buy like a Chromebook and I'm like, if I throw this out in two years, that's great. I got a hundred bucks, nothing. Whereas before it was like $2,000 for a computer, this better last me a long time.
Rich:I still have my 2009 iMac. I make music on it still.
Billy:It probably works just fine.
Rich:It works beautiful. Yeah. I upgraded the RAM a little bit, it's got the original hard drive in it. I can't burn CDs anymore because I burnt like hundreds, and then one day it was just like brrrrrrrr. So that don't work anymore. But yeah, I fire that thing on and make some beats, and it works perfect.
Billy:Dude, that's fine. Yeah, I'm trying to like break my Chromebook. I can't even break it. This thing's like too good. Good job.
Rich:Thanks, Bill. Billy. First best friend. Oh, last thing. I just keep saying last thing. Your grandparents had a log cabin. Oh, yeah. That we used to go sleep over there, too, right?
Billy:Wayne's World. That's what you want to say, right?
Rich:Yeah, Wayne's World 1, Wayne's World 2.
Billy:So how do they To Wayne's World.
Rich:Yeah, to Wayne's World, party time. Party talk. To the teepee that we would play with in the backyard at your grandparents. Yep. And I'm pretty sure we went ice skating down the road and a pond. Do they still have the log cabin?
Billy:They do not.
Rich:No. No. Where was it? Anyway. Leicester. Leicester?
Billy:It was probably near where you live. It's kind of close to the Dairy Queen, actually, in Spencer.
Rich:I feel like I drove I drove I drive by it and I always Pine Street. I always go, I think that's Billy Ritako's grandma's. I mean, how many log cabins are there? I was like, I think that's it. And then I see the pond down the road and I'm like, that's gotta be it. Is it on Pine Street? I don't know. I'll I'll have to look at the street. Because I'm like, if my memory's good, that's his grandma's house. Well good now.
Billy:I'm gonna have to come visit you now in Brookfield.
Rich:I look forward to uh talking to you more off camera so we could really dive into everything. But I think we covered a lot.
Billy:We gotta come work out now.
Rich:Yeah, and fight. Oh, we're gonna fight.
Billy:I'm gonna get my ass kicked. Skinny dude now. That was fun.
Rich:Hell yeah. Appreciate it. Thank you, brother. I guess we should pause it. Take a piss.
Billy:Yeah, I know I gotta piss it, too. I'll let you know.
Rich:Warm up a little bit. I'm a little cold.
Billy:I know.
Rich:Make sure we hit record.
Billy:That would suck.
Rich:Ben there, done that. That's off.
Billy:An hour and fifteen. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, we went over it up. That was good.
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