LIVESTREAM FRIDAY DECEMBER 19, 2025
Published · 1:26:24 · 313 views
About This Video
A December 2025 session to close out the year. Van takes patron questions and wraps up the channel's year. Another one in the books.
Transcript
Test test. Okay. All right, unmute. Somebody let me know in the chat if it's uh there's no sound and I will freak out and have a nervous breakdown and maybe fix the problem.
Okay, all good. All right. Thank you, Hunter Hermsson.
Okay, keeping with uh tradition and to honor the great American artist David
Lynch, the weather report. So, on my way home from Home Depot this morning, I thought to myself, this is a perfect day.
And that Los Angeles has three seasons, spring, fall, and summer. And today is a perfect like New England spring day.
Okay, so let's get to the questions. Okay. So, John, can you guys see me? You can see me, right? Yeah.
Okay. So, John asks me, "How are the limmer boots holding up?
Did you get the custom pair yet?" I got the custom pair. They're great. I need to put they have this boot grease that
you put on it and it kind of preserves them because they're getting a little dusty. Um, but they're great and they
broke in much faster than the offtheshelf ones. And I got the thicker I think it's called the last or the
midsole, the thing between your foot and the sole. I got like a thicker, heavier duty one and I put the old offtheshelf
ones on a few days ago. And the that had the thinner midsole, I guess is what
it's called. And that felt like I was wearing um moccasins compared to these. These are like almost
like wearing ski boots. They're so stiff, but I I love that about them.
Okay, [clears throat] let's go. Can you So, no way. Jose asks, "Can you talk about Rob Reiner?" Man, I cried when I I
heard like right before bed, I was having a really great day and Isabelle was like, "Oh my god, Rob Reiner was,
you know, murdered by his son." And his his Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered by his son. And I just h it
bummed me out because one of the first movies that my son and I bonded together watching was Stand by
Me and we watch it all the time. And if you remember the main character, the hero of that story, Chris Chambers, who
was played by um River Phoenix, he's spoiler alert, you've had 40 years to watch this movie.
um he's murdered. He's stabbed to death in a in a bar and it just it really
bummed me out because he was just one of the he was one of the greats that nobody really talked about Riner. Um so that's
my it's just tragic and you know it's his son. I have a son and I couldn't imagine like how do you deal with that situation?
How do you even fight back? Like it's just it's just horrible. But I listened to Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew their take
on it and they said when you have a child that has that much of a problem with with drugs or alcohol, you have to
let them get imprisoned. You have to allow that to happen. And one of the they didn't go into specifics, but they
said the state of California doesn't really is is too is kind of too merciful or too lenient on drug
um related crimes and so it might have been a situation.
He's probably been in trouble before, but I don't really know much about it, but that was their takeaway is like if you have a kid that's in that that
getting them if they go to prison, it will probably straighten them out. It'll scare the hell out of them. So, but man, what a what a horrible It's just horrible.
Um, be forever grateful if you could provide the Amazon link for the wall hooks you
buy on there. Oh my gosh. Okay, where do I put that?
Okay, I got to remember to do that. I'll try to do it. Uh, the link, the Amazon link to the wall hooks. Okay. How long did it take for you to land on the
Pentel.7 millimeter mechanical pencil as your scribe of choice? Oh, man. TW more than 20 years. I think it was more than
20 years. And I was rocking the seven millimeter for a little while, which is the like blue one. And then the black one is the 0.5 millimeter. I keep the
black ones in on hand, a couple of them, because that really tiny lead is really just wonderful.
But yeah, it took me a long time of wandering around the bush to come up with this one. And another spoiler alert, if you haven't watched
Pluribabus, one of the characters uses the uh the Pentel P209.
And um so far, I don't know if this character is a good guy or a bad guy. Um suspect he's a good guy. By the way, I'm
not a big TV fan. I've never like didn't get into Sopranos. Tried, but just too boring. Didn't get into The Wire. Tried,
just too boring. Didn't get into um Breaking Bad. I maybe got a season two through it and it just got too boring.
But this uh Plurabus is the best television show I have ever seen and the best premise and that's all I'll say. I won't give anything else away. Okay.
What are your recom Okay, so Ivan asked, "What are your recommendations?
Top three gifts to give my brother 38 years old this Christmas. I have a Swiss Army knife and Iron Man Timex currently at top of my my wi my list. Wishing you
and your family a very well, very merry, happy Christmas. Okay, so I got to give three and you have two or I got to give
one. So I always say so there's these gloves that um you can get from uh my friend Allen's company.
It's called Revival Cycles. And you just order from their um website, Revival Austin, Texas. And they're called Roper
Gloves. And they come in all different colors. I like the just like natural color. They're like kind of off-white.
And those are I use them for my motorcycle. They're they're wonderful.
They're so luxurious. I don't know 50 bucks or something. So those are great.
um [clears throat] things that they're like expensive things that aren't a lot of money like a
not a great present unless you customize it, but a Pentel is expensive. One of these it's $5. It's not a lot of money, but it's expensive for a pencil because
you can get a pencil for free from the DMV. Uh what are some other uh I was thinking of good kid presents and
I don't know. I think try to keep it the size of your hand. Swiss Army knife is excellent. Uh
uh I don't know. I'm like Hanukkah out. I like have a spreadsheet because I have to, you know, it's eight presents and
for three people. So, uh my my gift my gift brain is um is a little exhausted.
Uh, but the roper gloves are great. Um, Kell Spencer, we did this camera strap. I'm not sure if it's out yet. It's like I don't know what he's calling it, but it's this camera strap that's like super adjustable, very fast.
Um, so that like if you're sitting down and you need to suck your camera up or if you need it lower or whatever, it's super cool. I don't know if those are
available yet. That's good. Um uh you know like one of those little
that takes like one double A battery like milspec flashlights. Those are
great. I don't know. Just everybody I know has everything. So I just custom
make or hand make little things. I'm leaving out something very obvious that you can give
like indulgences, things that they wouldn't like caviar or something, things they wouldn't normally buy for themselves.
Uh, sorry. I wish I had a better answer. I wish I had a better answer. I just My mind is all kids now, so I don't know.
Um, so Shane asked, "Three questions to reflect on your year 2025. What was the best part? What was the worst part? What
did you learn? Well, the worst part was uh when my friend uh Dr. Rich died and
combined it was the same day as the like or the same week as the as the fires in in Los Angeles. That's what Mon or Tuesday's video on YouTube was about.
I think the best part was like, you know, when I discovered that making
doing fixes for other people. The best part professionally was when I discovered like doing fixes for other people was like a viable thing and I
could like turn the channel and just start doing that and then kind of keep with my keep with uh this paradigm of
like reflecting on what that repair sort of like the kind of bigger picture like
uh connection I have to that repair. You have to see I have very hard time articulating this [ __ ] because it's all in it's all in the video. you have to
see Tuesday's video. But like that breakthrough was huge. And that's just a professional one. And then like a
personal one was my kids um they just I they got these modeling jobs
and they were making like a lot of like more money than I make and I was thinking, "Oh, that they're going to be fine. They're like they'll be fine.
They'll be they can survive. They can survive." So that was huge. That was like a huge I mean they're not going to be models their whole lives or whatever,
but the point is like there's an economy out there. They're in a certain situation. They're very well-connected
people and um I think they're doing I think that'll be fine. And then what did
I learn? Oh man, come on. What did I learn? Um what did I learn in 2025? [sighs and gasps] I learned just go it's okay to go slow and it's okay to be unproductive and it's a and wasting if you waste time
appropriately it's a good idea I think okay how do I be a good dad first kid
girl coming in May you have to spend as much time as you can with the kid I think don't be a dead
beat [laughter] Don't don't sacrifice your standard of living to poverty level
so that you can spend but even maybe that would maybe even work if you're just spending like quality time with your kid. But you got to have quality
time and you got to have what Jerry Seinfeld calls garbage time which is when you're just like watching movies,
you know, watching movies on the couch, eating chocolate chips. uh quality time and garbage time. And I just think that
there's not much you I think you maybe have 10% of an influence if that on the way the children turn out. And I think
the best thing we can do is protect them from trauma and expose them to the as many possibilities
as possible. Like just kind of expose them to the world and all the things and just kind of see what they pick. they kind of just come out formed. There's no
you think you're gonna shape them, but you're not. And uh like my parents, they just let us go and like they they
didn't really do anything at all. They didn't even facilitate things. They minor. They would buy us bicycles and stuff, but we never really needed
anything. We never we didn't ha we weren't lacking anything we needed. Um, and they just and we all all of us were
very successful people. All of my brothers and sister and me. Uh, and they just I don't know. It was just
I don't even know how it happened, but we were just kind of born ambitious. We did have a grandmother who's an excellent example though. She had this
dancing school in uh in New London, Connecticut. And I was watching the P.
Diddy documentary. And that lady Cassie, who I guess was his wife or is his wife, she's from New London, Connecticut. No
one is from New London, Connecticut. And I I would bet $5 that she took tap dancing lessons from my grandmother when
she was little because um the whole town she taught the whole town to dance. And uh if you were a performer theater kid,
which she was, then you would be in Louise Neistat's show every year. So she
was a great example, my grandmother on that on that uh on that side because she worked really hard. She was super
focused. She had a project she did every year. She managed all these people. She never lost her key. Cool. She was super
um she had great dignity. She didn't make excuses.
So, uh yeah, examples and uh exposure and time. Uh any plans for 2026?
Going to Utah with the family, little ski trip for the first week, and then uh I might go to New Orleans in March. I'm not sure.
And then um maybe Texas. Not really sure. Not really. I don't have any really strong uh plans for 2026.
Uh my little guy is also out growing his eBay bike. Outgrowing. Okay. His email
his ebike this coming year. I've been looking at one you mentioned a few live streams ago. The Tutio. Is that the one you showed? Will it be a follow-up to
the motorcycle for a three-year-old? I went I picked one that's like a like a thousand bucks more expensive or 500
bucks more expensive than the 2T. And the thing that I I think the Tuttio is just like a
little too tall for my boy. And so I got this, it's called an Ebox 2 version two or version two. Two, no,
two version two. Ebox. And then I modified it because I put a new shock on it to lower it like in couple inches in
the back. It was too in it was too high for his inseam. Like I measured his inseam. I didn't tell him what I was doing. And then I got a I got um it
comes with a 14inch front wheel. I got a 12 inch for front wheel which only lowers it doesn't lower it two inches because it only lowers it one inch
because that's the the diameter. So, the radius is, you know, five versus six.
Um, and then I lowered the front forks, but you only get 3/4 of an inch. Uh, so
I think I might have overall lowered it about 2 in or so. Um, and the shock was only like 40 bucks to replace it. Um, to
get the to get a shock from the But he's, you know, he's seven. You're supposed to be 13 for these things.
That's what it says. There's like a warning sticker. Not for riders under 13 years old, but it's built for tiny people. And this thing goes like 31
miles an hour. Got two dials. One for like torque so that they don't do wheelie right away. And then one for top
speed. And then there's this guy uh Sonster. He has a he has a YouTube channel and he reviews all the ebikes.
And he reviewed this one. He loved it. And he put this speed controller box thing that you I guess you order from Amazon. He put that thing in the he
swapped it out like a a souped up one that he swapped out for the stock one and he took it it went from 31 miles an
hour to 41 miles an hour and he's like a grown man. He's like probably 170 pounds or something. So God knows how long this how fast it's going to go with a little
kid. But I haven't done that yet. This first phase is it's lowered and then
[clears throat] you know, it's got the smaller wheel and all that. And then when he grows up into it with skill and size, his body size,
then put the big wheel back on and uh put the it put the big shock back on and
then maybe swap it out for a new speed controller thing. Uh
maybe there will be a followup. Maybe there will be a follow. It's going to be a big learning curve because the first the the first bike I gave him that my
friend Allan gave me from uh the aforementioned revival cycles. That one was like a kind of a bike like a
heavyish bicycle. It had the properties of a bicycle.
Um but this is has the properties of a motorcycle. This weighs more than he does. It weighs 85 lbs. He probably weighs like 55 lbs or something. So,
he's going to have to learn to like hold it upright, not to drop it. He's going to learn that if he tilts it past a certain angle, it's going to fall. He's
going to learn that he can't just muscle it around. He's going to have to use the motor to to maneuver this thing. So, I imagine he's going to have a very
frustrating learning curve, but it's so fast that that will erase the that will
erase the the aggravation of learning and falling and having to pick this thing up that you can barely pick up and
blah blah blah blah blah blah. So, maybe I will do that. I don't know. Maybe I'll do it for you for for Patreon.
Um, what makes a great for a great host or a great guest? Oh my gosh, we were making
Tom Sachs BC Slice and I and myself, we were make going to make this video called something like how to be a host
or how to be a guest, something like that. And um the great host is the is to accommodate everything humanly
possible that the guest could uh need. Also, I'm going to say this and this is highly controversial. Don't make your guests take their shoes off to enter
your home. Why don't you just make a mop while they're at it and refinish the No.
No. That is that sorry that's trashy to make people take off their shoes. I did it last night. Someone I love someone
who's a superior human being to me but I took off their their my shoe. You have to take off your shoes to go to their
house. Um I'm against that. But uh great guest. You kind of want to be invisible like overnight guest.
I don't know. I don't know how you do that. You kind of have to be invisible and uh allow Here's the thing. Here's
the mistake that people that people make. Oh, this drives me so crazy. This drives me to like
fantasizing about felonies, [laughter] if you know what I mean. People want to treat you as a guest.
Don't do the No, no, no. I got it. No, no, no. I I No, I need it. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's very, very, very selfish. No, no, no. I'll do it.
I'll do the dishes. I'll No, I'll No, that's not your job as a guest. If you're being treated as a guest, pretend you're in a hotel. They want to I mean,
if you're staying with someone, that gets Okay. Oh, here's the thing. Don't stay with someone for more than three days. I think I think that's the And
then don't spend more than five hours a day with the person because they're going to need their privacy. I mean it depends if they have a whole separate
building on their property uh then would like whatever [laughter]
then like you can just KO move in there but people need their priv privacy.
um guesting. Um yeah, I mean the obvious things, clean
up after yourself, leave no trace that you know they're the boss.
Um and then hosting. Gosh, you know, I know some great hosts. Tom Saxs is a great host. His wife Sarah Hoover is a great host. Her mother is a great host.
Um, Eric Good, who you know, he made Tiger King and um, Chimp Crazy, but he
also owns hotels. He's an incredible host. Uh, he also owns the cons turtle conser he's like a whatever the maybe
the chairman of the turtle conservancy and um, that's a place where you can go and stay and it's just so perfect and
he's a great host. Uh yeah. And then if they're coming from
out of town, just leave them a little list on p on piece of paper of like cool things to do. How far away they are, the
address, you know, how long they take, how much money they take, how much money it costs to do them. That's a cool thing. I don't
host much and I'm not a guest much. Um, and I'm so unbelievably like um
obnoxiously spoiled that my point of view on a lot of this stuff is like a
spoiled brat kid. So, um I don't know. I I know it's like when
you go to a really nice hotel, they just have it nailed. They are so good.
Um, anyway, that's it. I don't know. Not Not helpful. Sorry. [laughter] Uh, okay. Lucas, following the Tom Sack
Studio guide for working with plywood, you're supposed to stand, paint, then cut. Sand, paint, then cut. Uh, but what
about the exposed edges? No, it's paint, cut, then sand. Paint, cut, then sand.
It's that. That's it. you paint the he does it. You know, that's with starting from an entire sheet of plywood if you're painting an entire sheet of
plywood. But sometimes you just have a little piece and then I would say, "Yeah, it's paint, cut, sand." Yeah,
same thing. Uh, do you stain after painting with linseed oil? What
about the exposed edges? Yeah, the linseed oil is off code. Sax doesn't even use that stuff. So, I do cut,
sand, linseed oil, then assemble. So, if I'm building shelves, the linseed oil, the
board is linseed oil before I put the shelf, the corner braces on it. Um, I
made this. Oh, it was on Patreon, I think, on Monday. Uh this the camera mount, the iPhone mount little stand.
And that one like I made two of them. I made one for Isabelle and that one I Oh
god. I cut sanded what's it? Linseed oiled then assembled.
But the one for the movie I think I just didn't have enough time to do the movie.
So I just I assembled it then linseed oiled it. Oh well. Um but yeah that's
that's it. I don't stain after painting with linseed oil. Linseed oil is like the is the is like the seal.
Um how are your wall-mounted desks constructed? everyone. Every This is the
fourth I think this is the fourth live stream in a row that this has been asked.
Uh, and I'm pretty sure I made a video about how these things are constructed.
Um, can you go into that or point me to a video you have about them? It's the video where I'm It might be called
uh Lifeboat, but you basically go and you get these.
There's heavy duty at Home Depot. They might not be in the shelving section.
There's these like heavy heavy duty shelf brackets and they come in like black or white and they're like there's like whatever the biggest one is.
They're like 18 in by 11 in or something like that and they're like thick.
They're like 8 inch steel and you just mount those on studs as many as you can. As many studs as you can and then you put the plywood on top.
You you you level them between As you put the corner brace or the bracket into
the stud in the wall, you level the next one. And then you keep doing
that. And then that's your from underneath with 3/4 inch, you know, number eight or 10 sheet metal screws.
You screw the plywood in two of them. But that's how you do that. Ah, it's interesting that people want to know that. Any concerns with weight limits?
No. Like I don't think I could put my BMW motorcycle on there, but I could put me and like three people on Well, that's the same weight.
I can definitely stand on it no problem without worry. But I think too many and you just like could probably pull the
whole wall down because it's 2x4s. But you know, the house is all framed up and so no concern about weight limits within
reason. But if you're like you're not working on motorcycles on that thing and don't go deeper than I don't go deeper than like 18 or 24 in.
Um because you know you'll give too much leverage if they're super deep. You'll give too much leverage and then you
might have a problem. Okay. So that's it. Uh I'm considering building something similar. Any concerns with
weight limits? That's it. Yeah. But as far as like books and stuff, nah, you can put dozens of books. Long time since
I This is from color photography. I'm thriving with my almost two-year-old now and didn't kill anyone. Yes. Still
haven't pulled the trigger on that Leica, but want have rented a Q2 uh a couple times. Just going on a shoot
day with Mr. reward for Icon. I got to ask, oh, um, if you could make a dream build with Icon, what would it be? I say
mine would be the exact copy of the C20 you drove drove. Yeah, that thing is so cool. Fully. It was a C20. Maybe you
guys saw it. It was an old Chevy. Like I think it's called a square body, but like an old cool ass Chevy. and then
just a brand new 2025 or whatever Chevy guts. And then even the interior was all
integrated appropriately. So it had the old buttons and knobs and so forth.
Still had like the backup screen, but it looked like a rusted old beat up Chevy, but was just perfectly brand new. And
you just bring it to the Chevy dealer or whoever to if you need it fixed. and has like anti-lock brakes and doesn't have
airbags, I don't think. But that thing was super cool. But no, I would get I know what mine is. Mine was uh mine is that like that blue.
I think I would want the There's There's the square headlight Land Cruiser FJ60.
I mean FJ62. Then there's the round headlight Land Cruiser FJ60. I think I'd want one of those diesel, which he
doesn't really do diesel. Um, but if I'm buying off the shelf or I'm buying like one that he's already done,
just that one that I went and saw that was like that beautiful shade of blue and it was a 62. So, it had the square headlights and then it had something
like a 500 horsepower LS Chevy engine, like a Corvette engine. I think it's
called a Coyote. Oh, no. That's the Ford is the Coyote. The Chevy, I think they just call it an LS. It's like a Corvette
engine and has like the huge Willwood brakes and um everything's just dialed
perfectly. They're like 300 and something thousand bucks. That's what I would want. That thing would last forever. And it's just it's a [ __ ]
Chevy. You just take it in. It's got this heavyduty Chevy transmission. I would want manual transmission though. I think that the
one I saw might have been stick. I don't really remember. And it's like quiet on the inside cuz they um dynamatted the
whole thing and put extra thick interior. That's it. Far and away. Don't have to think about it. I would just get that one. Yeah, I just compromise even.
Just get that the square one with the, you know, not exactly the one, but I kind of want to keep mine, too. I don't know. But yeah, that's that's the one I
love the most. That's the one that sings to me. Uh, okay. Van, how are you dealing with the problem of screen time
with your kids? Jonathan Heights 2024 book uh argues that childhood is now phone based instead of play-based. My firstborn is on the way any day now.
Congratulations, Stephen. Uh and while I don't have to worry about this for a while, I'd like to have a solid plan next few years on issue on this issue.
So, I am in a I have a sort of an advantage um in this regard because I'm a I'm a I'm a like a I'm a Gen X guy.
So, we didn't have the screen temptations growing up because they didn't exist. So, I have all of this
childhood stuff that I had to give up as a grown-up, you [laughter] know, and now
uh I can afford because it's not expensive because it's kids stuff. I mean, it's not it's it's cheaper than
it's ever been. Like the electric dirt bikes and stuff and the um you know, the trail crew thing that we do. I can
afford to buy like um clippers and the and the steel chainsaw mask so that when you're you know when
you're hauling the big dead sticks with the pointy things you don't poke your eyes out. Um yeah those
are 30 bucks. Um, but I yeah, I think fundamentally you go back to the kids stuff that you really
love to do as a kid and then the way we do it in my family, we do trail crew as often as possible. Like I try to come
home early and then we go up and like maintain the trails. Um, but on Sundays
we do adventures and if it's raining, I don't I don't really even know what we do if it's raining. I don't remember
because it rains very infrequently here, but it's normally bicycle based or not bicycle like dirt, you know, electric
dirt bike based. So, we would go for a while it was the bike pads from Santa Monica and then we'd go as far as like
Hermosa Beach and then we would go further and start further south than Santa Monica and go further south the other way. And then the furthest south I
think we ever went was uh um uh Rancho Palace Veres and like explored all the trails and stuff up there. And I just
had like a pedal electric assist pedal bike. But then when he got his bigger bike and it was faster, I had to get an electric bike because he was faster than me. His bike had more torque and it was
faster than my van move. But so that's one of the thing we do that stuff. We
have like I mean LA is just so generous as far as like kid activities. There's offhighway vehicle stuff. If you have a
4x4 you can drive your truck or if you have a dirt bike. It's like all like hundreds of miles of trails is in in LA County. Um there's swimming holes kind
of everywhere. We go to these swimming holes. We did this big It was too cold last weekend, but we did this big adventure. We started in Ohigh. rode the bike path. It was far. It was like 10
over 10 miles I think. and with my daughter on the front of my electric dirt bike just holding on dangling her legs. We did the bike path. There's a
bike path between Ohigh and Ventura and then like down towards Ventura. There's a swimming hole and we had never gone
from Ohio down to the swimming pool. We only ever come up from Ventura. So, we went and did that and threw rocks in the water and so forth and came back and got
ice cream. Uh just yet like wherever you are there's got to be some dialed adventure stuff.
So that's my one day a week. And then um you know we do cinema. My kids are
pretty busy. You know they're pretty much occupied till 5 and then they get back from dinner. They get back for
dinner and then bath time and then it's like maybe 6:37
and then um we'll do we'll do we try to do Masterpiece Cinema. So yesterday they watched
Spirited Away. We watched uh this anime movie which is my favorite anime movie.
It's called um Up on I think it's called Up on Poppy Hill and it's about these kids postwar Japan and they're trying to save this old like frat house. It's so great
and so boring. [laughter] So we do that like we watched the Phoenician scheme like 10 times. Me and
the boy. Um and then the little girl I've got that little cart. We've got a little yard, you know, we've got little
stream across the street. Oh, we've got state parks in our neighborhood, so that's a thing.
And then little kids love all the little They love little adventures to the store to buy stuff. Um, and I just don't like
screens really. I like podcasts, but that doesn't really involve the screen part. That's just the headphones part.
So, um, yeah, that's, you know, there's like a pot pottery place where you can make ceramics in our neighborhood. We go there and that's extremely relaxing.
There's no mandate. You can just make whatever garbage you want and it's just like, it's not for work. Um, the cooking
stuff, kids love chores. They love to be allowed to do adult stuff. Like, our kids get hurt all the time. um they
don't get injured, but they get hurt all the time because we let them we give them access to all this like quasi
dangerous [ __ ] like scissors and um the fireplace, you know, feeding wood into the fire, building the little pile of
sticks. It's a it's a wood stove and then we let them light it with like a blowtorrch or a big long match or
something. Um but the bikes thing is huge for us. I mean, for me, I mean, that's
that's my thing. And yeah, there's just I don't know, bunch of activities, but we're very lucky where we live. Um, but
yeah, just schedule stuff, I'd say. And the bikes is huge. Just bite the bullet and get the bike stuff. put them on the little seat
uh on the front of you from between 18 months and like three years old, the end of three when they're almost four. Then
you can put them on their own little electric bike. You can keep up to it with them on your electric bike and then like just research and find where all the cool bike ride and path stuff is.
Okay. Uh, local question, but I live in the valley in LA and wanted to know if there are any tradesmen you would highly
recommend for inhome contractor work. I know you do most of the stuff yourself.
I don't I don't do any of that stuff myself. Uh, but I feel like anyone I certified needs to be on my list. You know, Isabelle handles all that. She
handles all the house stuff. We're like building new stair like our stairways are collapsing because they out of wood and we're worried like the stairs that
go from the cars up to the house. We're just worried that like somebody's going to fall, god forbid. So, um we're like building them out of stone. Oh, Durgga
if he wants things burn built out of stone. I don't even know his last name, but he's like I think he's sherpa. I
think he's from like he's from Nepal and he grew up as a m stonemason. His father was a stonemason. and somehow he got to
America. Um, but he's built like basically all the stonework that you see in Tanga Canyon, Durgga's built it. So
if you want stone work done, just go to the just go to Living Color.
Um, Endless Color. Endless color. See, there's In Living Color, that was a TV
show. And then there's Endless Summer, which was a movie. So these people named the restaurant Endless Color. So I'm
always getting it. I'm always trying to say Endless Summer or In Living Color.
And their other restaurant is called Tanga Living. So it's Tanga Living Living Color. Like I don't know. It's
called Tang. No, it's called Endless Color is the restaurant. Just go. It's Durgga here. Go at like six o'clock at night.
Is Dur here? No. Or whatever. You can just find him. I don't have his information, but okay. That's that's
Masonry. And then um who did we I don't know. Isabelle knows all those people, but I don't I guess
send me a direct message and I can get you their information.
Um okay. I I recently discovered rediscover my love for Brian Dealma's
style. Dutch angles, force perspective, split diaper things at at all kind of
call attention to themselves. Do you have an opinion of this technique or overly stylized videos on YouTube? I
think just play with as much of that stuff as possible. I think I love that stuff, too. I have a sty split diopter and I have like two lenses for it.
Split field diopter. I never use it, but I used to use it a little bit. Yeah, that stuff's just fun to play with and
it's an excuse. Uh just learning technique, just do it everything. Just
play, I think. Yeah. Uh but try to bury it. Try to like not try to make it so that people don't notice.
Like don't call attention to it, I guess. Uh yeah, I should get back into that stuff.
Um, I'm an aspiring spirited man. I'd love to know what your best tips are for becoming being sober. I'm 22 and I'm struggling with alcohol and nicotine.
I'd love to know the steps you took and habits you choose to become sober. Dude, I'm telling you, it's just the program is probably it's not even that
effective. The program I don't know how many people stay sober for more than like 10 years. It's But I think it's the
best thing going. I think it's the best thing going because it it's it's like it changes your thinking about it. It changes your thinking and your and you
have all these people who've like taken it too far, you know, and they have their examples and then you have these people who've
taken it too far and then they're freaking off the charts successful. Like world
champion level successful. And I mean that like literally like I've been to meetings where world champion athletes
are up there talking and like the the turning points are sobbriety and um yeah
lots of rock stars, movie stars, all that stuff. They they talk they speak. I mean I'm in LA so that's why. But like it's just you see these people who have
these rebirth careers a lot of times it's because they got sober. Um, it's also not something you really want to mess with like doing it half ass.
Sobriety, like it can kill you. You can make extremely horrible decisions if you just like cut cold turkey. I'm not doing the drugs anymore. Some people can do
that. Some people can. I think Bill Burr, the comedian, he did that. He just stopped taking drugs and then or sorry,
stopped drinking and then he just kind of like ironed his life out. Um, very very few. I think I think the program is
just the best thing. Plus, if you're in an interesting place, you're gonna have the most interesting people in town.
We're gonna be the drunks. So, uh that's uh that's my suggestion. Just go to a meeting. Look it up right. Go right now.
Do a Zoom meeting right now. All right. Uh I've been struggling with being consistent with my creative work. Any tips for discipline? Do you ever struggle with not making enough or feeling like you were lazy? No, I have
the I I have the opposite problem where I'm just too much to do and I I have to learn to stop and like five o'clock
you're home with the kids, that's the end of the thing. And then I do my little methadone program is if I'm building or fixing stuff for the kids,
that's fine. And I bring them down to the workshop. my daughter's little radiocontrolled Jeep thing. The steering
only steered to the left and wouldn't steer to the right and there was nothing wrong with the motor and there was nothing wrong with the remote. And then I found out this is this made my week.
You can just order the new receiver for the radio control.
25 bucks and it comes with a a remote so you have an extra remote and uh I just
like and it's I don't know eight minutes, two screws, five plugs pulled out of one thing, plug them back into
the other thing, screw it back in and now she's got left and right. I did that yesterday just Amazon next day I'll do
that kind of project. Oh, there's that's your good that's a good uh entree for motivation. just all the stuff you need.
That's a good way to stay creative. The stuff you need like the like organizing and building out things and that and
just don't stop until you're I mean don't move on to another project until that thing is completely done and all the tools are cleaned away and your
space is reset. That's a good way. Just little things and make sure it's like you enjoy it. I mean there's certain
things that you just grinding like the first hour of writing is kind of always grinding and then you get in a flow and
then you feel like you could do it forever and it just kind of ends and then you keep going. Writing is like you just
have to be very consistent like every day or however much you can do it.
Uh, but creative work, I don't know. Working with a gun against your head's really good. Like if you're
a professional, get yourself in a little bit of debt and make it the your work is the only thing that'll get you out of
it. Um, I Yeah, I have the other problem and I listened Rich Roll had somebody on his
podcast and it was like the counterproductivity of hyper productivity. It's like at some place
you have to realize that you're doing this to contribute to your life and to other people's lives and like but you don't have that problem. You don't have
that. You have the you have the other problem of trying to be motivated. But I would say yeah, start with the things that you need.
I mean, I think fixing is so creative and just really good for you and it leads to other things. Um, okay. I'm hoping to purchase my first home soon.
What are the first few things you would recommend to do in a new house the first few weeks or months? What to prioritize?
Uh kitchen and bathroom. Get that dialed first. Kitchen and bathroom because
you're going to need to eat and you're going to need to do your business and shower. And then um
oh my gosh, I don't even remember new house. And then just keep a list of all the stuff that needs to get fixed and then um you got to just tackle them.
But congratulations on getting a new house. But yeah, kitchen and bathroom.
And then if it's in a new location that you're not familiar with, just drive around without your GPS and try to learn all the different alternative routes
around your neighborhood and how to get, you know, between the places you need to go without GPS and all the shortcuts and
tricks and stuff. Any movie wrecks right for a night when the wife is out of town? That sounds um ominous, but
we'll go there. Uh, so yeah, watch I mean it's on Apple Plus or
whatever. I mean there's so many streamers and all this [ __ ] Uh, any movie Rex for a night when the wife's out, but Plurabus just do it. It's so good.
Um, and then uh the on Netflix the Diddy documentary is it's dark. It's dark, man. you're going into the dorks with
that. But that's a good one. Um, and then I love I don't know. I love the Phoenician scheme.
Um, [snorts] oh, uh, Marty Supreme is fantastic. It's Shalom's best movie. Might be Josh's best movie. It's so great.
Um, Marty Supreme. Uh, um, the new Ari Aster movies is pretty
good. The new, uh, Paul Thomas Anderson movie is pretty good.
Um, yeah, there we go. There's some uh I was wondering how your relationships with sports have evolved between your 30s and 40s. How how you've
managed to integrate it into your life and time management. Oh my gosh,
sports. [snorts] There are people and it seems like it's most people who just are just sportsoriented.
Like I have a friend who's like a professional athlete and that's like the thing that the families do. Everything just revolve that's what it is. The family revolves around the surfing.
That's what that's what it's all surfing and the kids sport whatever the kids sports are. Soccer and this and that and golf and everything.
My family wasn't like that. So sports like I kind of don't like doing any
sports at all if they involve a ball. I don't like any of them because I'm not good at them and I just I always lose
and I don't like them. Uh and then like the other stuff is like
running sucks. Um God, I don't know in 30s and 40s I was in New York and um I
was bike motorcycles riding my bicycle to work and back. I mean I didn't really
do any sports. I like watching sports. I just don't like playing them. I like throwing a ball. I like playing catch with a baseball or a football or something.
Um, but yeah, I'm not I'm not really your guy for that. Sorry. Uh, how do you stack a wood burning stove in your home?
Assuming you have one. How do I You mean how do I stack the wood? How do you stack a wood burning stove in your home?
Assuming you have one. I uh I'm not a [snorts] very responsible wood burner. We try to burn as much wood as we can. Like we're like pyromaniacs.
Just me and the kids just throwing wood in there all night until we fall asleep.
Just throwing it in, turning the the like valve thing all the way. So it's just a raging inferno. [laughter]
And then most of the wood we have is from trees that have like fallen in the yard. And then we have like we or just
like refu and we just chop it up with a sawzall chainsaw.
You know, if it's this big it's a if it's this big if it's it's a saw. If it's this big it's a chainsaw. I have a
bunch of trunks that I got to like I think I'm going to chainsaw like rip cut them so that I can split them with
the axe a bit more readily and I can move excuse me move them around. And then we stack them behind our house. We have a little alley.
Um, our house is very small, so everything's very close. Um, we have a little alley and we just stack them all there and then carry in an arm load. We
have one of those little like iron racks that's like this big that we stack like a couple days supply or days supply of
wood in there. And then like we're out of wood right now. We have one indoor rack, like one day's worth. But
we'll get some old brush and we'll cut it up with the sawzall. And then we have all this this trunks that we got to cut
down with the axe and the thinking I'm going to do it with the chainsaw, too, just to cheat. Uh, that's
it. That's how we do it. Living out in LA. Do you miss the snow this time of year? No, sir. I don't miss the snow. I never lived in a snow.
Okay, New York, like you see all this. New York is incredible for like six hours after it snows and it's very rare, but New York is mostly the worst weather
that's possible, which is 33 degrees and raining. That's worse than 75 degrees below zero. 33 degrees and raining is
the worst possible weather. Um, so I don't miss that. I I lived in
Canada for six months once and it was the winter and that was amazing because it snowed every day in Toronto and then
if you went anywhere north like skiing they had tons of snow everywhere. That's great. Vermont those places where it's just real snow all the time. That's
great. But I don't miss it because you know we can just go like you can see snow from Tanga. Like right now I can
see snow. Like sometimes if I'm driving, you just look and you can see Baldi and it has snow on it. So if we wanted, it's, you know, an hour and a half or
two hour drive. We could go to snow. And then we're going to Utah next week. So be covered in snow. Mammoth is six hours
away up north. That's tons that have sometimes the National Guard, like I think this was last year and the year before, the National Guard has to come and dig the city out because they are
inundated with so much snow. It's like hundreds of like like dozens of feet of snow. like 60 feet of snow. Like it's freaking crazy. So, no, I don't miss it.
I don't miss it. I did I did my 40 years of snow. I'm I'm done with it. Um what is your take on AI? Ah, this is great.
Do you dread do you welcome it or dread it? So I'm reading the um Paul Kings
North book Against the Machine, which is sort of about the connection between technological progress and the
decline of kind of the human experience in humanity.
And um I think AI right now AI is in like the polyester. It's 1964 and polyester has just come out. And they're like, or the microwave. And
they're like, pretty soon the microwave is going to be everything. You're not going to have a stove or an oven or anything. It's just going to be a microwave. You're going to have a microwave in your car and your microwave, microwave, microwave, microwave. And the same with polyester.
Everything's going to be the the windows are going to be out of polyester. Your house is going to be made out of polyester. Your pants. It's like, okay.
I mean, polyester has its uses. It's in some like ski clothes and stuff and we use and we have polyester for that and it's probably in the upholstery of some
of our cars and everything. It has its use and I think that that's I think AI in the best case scenario
will like they'll use it to like fix the health care administration system.
They'll use it to fix the vehicle administration system and the insurance stuff. all those industries
that get a hold of it to like integrate all the like why the hell do I have to furnish you with anything ever if you're
if you're a an authority like why do I have to give you anything?
This stuff's all just out there. Like why don't I just click a button? It's like am I authorized to you need your
birth certificate to get this you know concealed carry permit? Am I authorized to download your click? Yes. Hopefully
the uh regulation can get out of the way so that that kind of thing can happen so that things can be very efficient. You
know the airline industry uh traffic um I mean everything should all of our
attention should just be focused on curing childhood disease. That's what everyone in the world should be doing in one way or another. That should be our human mission.
so that little kids don't have to suffer through cancer. Um, but yeah,
you know, it's it's totally and completely and absurdly overhyped. I've been through so many of these. I've [laughter] been through some the
internet is going uh blockchain, mobile computing.
It's like no, nothing really. It changes very very very subtly. And you can watch a movie that
was made any time in the last 20 years and the environment, the style, the clothes, the cars, everything looks
exactly the same. So, I don't know. I think it'll be
it'll I don't know. I don't I I listened to some guy on trigonometry, some AI expert guy, and he said currently uh AI
systems are only capable of replacing about 3% of jobs because they're just so dumb and bad. There's just they are I'm
sorry. Even the the LLM's just like so stupid and they don't they don't work. I can't get them to do like I can't get
them to do the things that I need them to do. very very very straightforward things like part numbers for engine parts and just and then you know direct
like you ask it for direct like give me a scenic route you're Google you have all the information in the world give me a scenic route with no
freeways from here and the fewest number of stoplights from here to ohigh cannot
do it'll be like go through the woods ride your motorcycle you'll see some nice things and then it'll just give you
like major roads. Take Mullhalland Drive and then it'll leave out like 11 turns.
Like I tried to do it once. I printed it out and I tried to do it and it was just like so I just think it's super hyper
overhyped. Some some industries will be able to integrate it as a background technology and it'll be you know
exponential changes and all this. It's going to put a lot of people out of work, but just the kind of boring jobs that people probably didn't really want
to do in the first place. Um, I don't know. I don't know. But I don't believe in the doomer stuff. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's going
to happen. I think that those guys have their heads far up their you know whats and they like,
you know, Lake Tittikaka is at like what 14,000 ft and it's it's like impossible to get there. those people's lives are
going to be changed by AI like directly change like their lifestyles are going to change no [laughter] you know and that's most people on planet earth so I
don't know I think it'll for us we're in the you know we're in the country with the leading cutting edge you're going to
notice some subtle stuff and then uh a bunch of jobs that nobody likes are going to go away and um I don't know the
cool thing would be if we could somehow use it to implement policy based on like but keep it integrated with our
democratic republic. Somehow use it to like eliminate um
the uh eliminate uh uh what's the word that means the thing corruption. corruption, which I like I saw this thing in China and it was like 11 um I
can't remember what the industry was um whatever industry fraud, corruption
sentenced to death. It's like, yeah, I think we need that because there's no, you know, like when you get caught doing
corruption here, the I've read articles about this, your fine does not exceed the profit that you make. like we have legalized corruption here basically as
well. So if they could get that out of the political m mechani machinery but I don't know it's like who's in
whoever's in charge of it. I don't know it's a huge complicated comp thing because it comes down to a lot of times like who is training it and based on
what ideals. It's just like another human being that's electrical instead of food.
It seems like these things have the same problems that human beings like who is training it and what are they optimized for
and are we okay with that? I don't think people even want these systems. They're just being kind of crammed down our
throats like um virtual reality. I don't you know maybe gamers like it but nobody. They've been trying to push that dead horse and they same with the 3D cinema like we don't want it and
people have been for 70 years been trying to do it. Sasha, my house has no
toilet paper holders and every option to buy a new one is dumb and ugly. Do you
have any simple wall-mounted toilet paper holder design ideas? Saxs has a good one. I'm going to get I think it's
in uh it's in uh let me get the book. I can see it from here.
[clears throat] This is my favorite one. I just keep the the dang roll on the back of the toilet. That's it. On the tank. It's so trashy, but that's what we do. But Sax has this one. Where is it? [snorts] I feel like
on the first page and it has it's like a kind of a bookshelf so that like half Wait, come on. Where is it? Come on, buddy. So half of the toilet paper holder, the toilet goes on.
The toilet paper goes on like a vertical dowel and then there is and that vertical
dowel is mounted to like this mini shelf and then there's a box that perfectly fits
the McMaster car which is what this is based on that the appearance of this is based on the McMaster car catalog in it
and I think it's like cornermounted but it doesn't necess necessarily need to be corner mounted um in his bathroom.
So weird he had it at this art show. I'm pretty sure it was at the log jam show. I mean this is like 20 years ago.
Um [snorts] just like stalling. Here it is. Yeah. Okay. Here it is.
McMaster toilet paper holder circa 1996. So, this sucker is 30 years old and it's just you see it.
Let me look at the monitor here. So, look, that's a cordless phone on top, but it's just a little shelf 3/4. Oh, five ply. This is before he before he codified seven ply plywood.
And then you see there's a little slot for the McMaster calling. The idea is you read that when you're sitting on the pot because the McMaster catalog has
every little piece of hardware you need to build anything. And then this is like one of those things that the old supers
used to carry that you have on your belt that's like with all the keys on it and it's so you so you can't take the phone
too far away, but you still have the phone right there. And then inside this roll of toilet paper is a dowel that's
probably like half inch shorter than a roll of toilet paper.
So that's one. [laughter] But I just do it on the tank.
I just have the the toilet paper on the top of the tank. Um uh Okay. Can you talk about the challenges of building your tool wall?
Good stuff. So you mean uh Oh, the spinning tool wall thing. Yes.
So, the thing is you want to get it balanced. That's hard.
Um, and then you don't want it too too heavy. So, I made it out of quarterinch plywood and that warps easy. So, I put a little frame around it. And then it's
like kind of building in tucking in all the tools so that they go in and go out onehanded, but they're secure when they're traveling.
Um, and they don't like crash. You don't have to move one thing to take another thing out. So, those are those are kind of all the challenges, but it's kind of
it's a very fun puzzle and you just sort of build one after another after another and you waste space in the beginning and
then you can kind of maximize the space as you build it. But I didn't have like a drawn out perfect plan. I just had
like broad strokes planned in the beginning. Um, but that was it. And then the spinning thing is uh you got to get it right in the middle and then you got to balance all the stuff on it so it's
relatively balanced when it spins, but it doesn't have to be NASA spec.
Uh, I'm 19 from New Zealand and heading into my second gap year after school.
I'm a competitive swimmer, which takes up most of my time. God, swimming is so hard. Oh my god. Like in a pool doing
laps. Oh my god, it's so hard. I can't keep up with the 70 year olds at the pool here. And also work at the pool, but don't seem that see that as long
term. Becoming a professional swimmer doesn't really pay unless you're one of the absolute best or unless you live in a rich place like Malibu or near a rich
place like Malibu. You have a pool and you teach all the rich kids how to swim for 10 generations. Like there's one guy who's taught everyone how to swim around
here. His name is Ron. He lives in a big house in Malibu. He's a swim instructor.
Um, I think he was a lifeguard. He was a lifeguard before that. And lifeguards, I mean, they make less money than teachers. Um, but yeah, he did it. And
my I have an aunt who did it, too, in Florida. Um, anyway, sorry. Uh, doesn't really pay unless you're one of the absolute best. And even if it's nothing
like the other and even then it's nothing like the other sports, right?
Honestly, I have no idea what I want to do for a career and feel like don't have much direction right now. Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks, Heaps. I'm wondering if you're trying to optimize, you want something new to do. Gosh, New
Zealand. I have no idea what the market is like there. I have no idea. I don't know anything. I've never been there. I
don't know anything about New Zealand. I don't even like those Lord of the Rings movies. Um,
but uh, oh my gosh, aren't there rich Americans moving in?
Aren't there like rich people building bunkers and stuff in there? Just get your reputation perfect.
Um, and go do jobs for those people. Teach their kids how to swim. teach their kids
competitive swimming and charge just absurd. Be absurd with how much money you charge them. $500 a lesson or
something. Just absurd. Be crazy. And then come to their house. Be very discreet. You know, you don't tell
anybody's business and uh you know extreme privacy and all that discretion and then just build your reputation and
then they will fight over you. if you want to do that. I mean, I'm not advising you to do something that I've never done, so Lord knows how hard it
is, but I know two people who've done it very successfully. Uh, and then you're in the pool all day with the kids, blah, blah, blah.
Um, survival swimming teaching with people who move into a house with a swimming pool, teach the little little kids who
can crawl how not to drown, which is a whole thing. You got to learn that. It's not. It's counterintuitive because one of the things you have I I interned doing this one summer learning.
One of the things you have to teach the kids is you put the mom in the pool or the dad in the pool and then you throw
the kid who's like I don't know 12 months old. You throw the kid between the mom
or the instructor and the pool edge. So the mom is 68 feet away from the pool edge. And this is once they know how to
do the swimming stuff with their head underwater and they just go this. So they're on one breath. They don't know how to take a breath yet. But what you
have to train them to do is swim to the edge when they fall in the pool. Swim to the edge because their instinct is to
swim to mom. So what this instructor, it was so scary watching this. I was like 15 when I had this job. But they would
throw the kid in and the mom would be in the pool. First the instructor would do it. First the instructor would be in the pool. The mom would throw the kid in the
pool and the instructor would be in the pool and then when the kid swam towards the instructor, the instructor would turn the kid around without giving him a
breath and until he swam to the wall. So in other words, the kid would start swimming towards the instructor.
instructor would turn him around and then he would turn around again and then the instructor would turn him around again and until and then you're training
them to swim to the edge of the for instance like that's one of the things you know people's lives but what I'm saying is
there's money to be made with your swimming uh abilities. So there you go. But I'm an
American and we have unlimited possibilities here. I'm not in a little island in the middle of nowhere. I don't even know what's going on there in New
Zealand. Uh anyway, that's something. Um I don't know. I don't think we're taking
immigrants anymore. I'd say move to America if you can swing it. Um Raphael
says, "Are there any Easter eggs uh you put into your videos that you have not yet revealed? Can you tell us about any one of them?" What a great question.
Um, there must be, but people, the audiences are so smart. You can't pull on anything off. You can't pull anything off. There must be. I don't know though. I can't
think of any offh hand. But let me start put start putting some in. Okay. Mirron asks, "I was about to ask for a running
update and you handed us one in the last video. Can you go into more detail? Have you really stopped altogether? How did
the old crack of dawn running routine fit into the studio from the house and to kudos to new trail maintenance routine? It's a great person. This is a
great first-person adventure game called Firewatch that I played a long time ago and enjoyed.
Is it like a video game? Okay. More like a cinematic storytelling experience rather than a video game. Okay. Uh no, I
haven't been running. Uh I ran like twice or three times this whole year. So all my running fitness is basically gone.
Um, I kind of feel like my life overall is better without running. Um, trail crew is fantastic because it's so hard
and it's so much going vertical and carrying stuff. And then um, hauling stuff and that's takes a lot of physical
uh, endurance and strength. But uh, I don't know. I'll probably go back to running at some point, but I'm just good riddens for now. I just don't have the
time for it and I it's so boring and useless, but it's great for you. It's just not productive. You know, you don't
get anything out of it. Um, how do you fuel your creativity? Do you have any specific rituals, places, or go-to sources that keep you inspired?
Uh, [sighs] my creativ. And it's can be a drag. gets hard. It's like um yeah, I don't know how I fuel it. Just my lifestyle, the way I've lived basically my whole adult life is just built around it. Have a setup.
No matter where you are, have some kind of a setup. Carry tools.
Wherever I am, I have tools. I have tool kits. And I have a motorcycle tool kit, bicycle tool kit, Land Cruiser tool kit, Tacoma toolkit, house toolkit, studio
toolkit, um, backpack tool kit, little with like, you know, there's a little zippered bag
in that Ariel Schulman taught me that one with like all the minimum essential tools that I need.
Um, and then read a lot, watch a lot of beautiful things. I listen to a lot of
podcasts which is I don't know if it's good or bad for me. I'm out of there.
I'm out of I don't know. But uh you just have to make stuff all the time. I think I think that's the fuel.
Just make stuff. Doesn't matter. Don't stick to with you know there's the professional side and then there's the just the personality side. If you're a
creative person and you just got to make stuff all the time, [snorts] professional and you can just go wild and be nuts and go off course
and try to finish everything that you start and don't start a new thing until you finish the old thing. Um,
but if you're a professional, the rules are all totally different because man, 30 million YouTube channels that you got
to compete with or something. Can you share your journey and your recommendations on how to be successful on Patreon and YouTube? What are the biggest trials and tribulations? What
are the challenges in growing your membership and dealing with old and new patrons? What are the Come on, this is too many questions. [laughter]
Uh, have you ever regretted sharing personal information on your podcast or when being interviewed by Pas? How did it how do you find the energy to stay focused and keep growing your brand? How
are your 10 rules for success? If you were to do this all again, what would you listen to? Do this, do that? You're [laughter] Come on, dude.
Come on. Uh, [snorts] [sighs] yeah. Have a brother who had, you know, there's 30 million Patreon channels. I can't remember the number. It's hundreds
of thousands of, I'm sorry, YouTube channels. There's I can't remember. It's hundreds of thousands of YouTube
YouTubers who have a million or more subscribers, I think. and then
700 who have more than 10 million. All right? And my brother has more than 10 million. He's one of 700 people on the planet who have that kind of influence.
And so that was just the hugest that was the hugest like unfair advantage that I had was my
brother made a video when I launched my Patreon. I'm sorry, my my Kickstarter
and my um channel and that was the huge huge boost that none of you guys have access to.
So, for me, you know, you don't see the 20 years of or let me see when did I start that? 2021 I started or 2022 I
started making movies in 2000. you didn't see the 22 years of the grind,
the absolute grind um leading up to the YouTube thing. Um,
and I think that window has closed. Um, because and I showed this in a video like on
Patreon of like the first tape I ever shot and I'm at like the Chelsea flea markets and you can see crowds of
people. This is in New York on a Saturday and there's no one with a video camera. Not one person taking a picture.
Not one person with a camera taking pictures. Now every single person is taking a picture wherever you go at all times. Everyone has a video camera
everywhere. So that was another advantage I had going coming up. It was like a different world. It's hard to
explain. It would be like um people who have pilots licenses now.
Like who do you know with planes who fly planes? How many of those people do you know? [laughter] That's what it was like back then to be
like a digital filmmaker. It was there was that many of us. So, um,
energy to stay focused and keep growing your brand. I say the same thing over and over again is like I have to feed my
family. I have to. That's where the energy comes from. It's not this romantic inspiration. I'm not [laughter]
following my passion. Oh, I'll give you a clip. Never say in your life that you're following your passion. That's a
very good way to be uh a professional creative person. Never ever say it.
Never say it. Never say you're following your passion. Never say you're following your dreams or you want to follow your
No. Don't say that. Following your passion is like murdering your, you know, whatever for some. No, that's not what you're That's not what this is.
That's not what this is. It's not following your passion. It's I don't know what it is. It's like following your blessings or something.
Some It's 50% luck. I was wondering what was the number one thing you miss from working with Tom.
If there is something, it's probably just we'd have these meals and have these long conversations or we'd be in a car or a plane or a boat or
something and we'd have these long conversations. That [ __ ] was so great.
where we'd go to like special events and hang out with people. We'd go to like rich people's houses and like fix stuff,
you know, broken sculptures and everything. Um, that was really fun. Going to Japan, going to Indonesia, going to Europe. Um, that stuff was super duper duper fun. I miss all that.
I just miss Tom mainly. Um, he gets old. He gets better the older he gets.
Can you offer us a promo of Casey's new studio app to teach us all how to be videographers?
What is this? Casey's new studio app. I don't know. I don't know about it. I got
to talk to him about it. Um, interested in knowing. Wow, this is this is the
last one. All right. Interested to know what the spirited man thinks about his past and present with the digital Casio
and G-Shock. Did your relationship end simply because they were computers as well? I think so. I think the beeping
thing, they just they beep a lot and yeah, there's a way to turn off the beeping. I get it. I get it. But
uh I don't know. I'm probably not I probably haven't written them off either, but I just like the hands.
I like the ticking. There's no electricity. I like that it lights up perfectly at night. This marathon watch, I love it. Um,
but yeah, that's uh I know I see lots of videos with my wrist coming in and I have like a G-Shock on or something or a Timex.
They're great. I mean, they're great, but I just right now I like the I like this thing and I'm like kind of over the like the digital to be outside of the
digital paradigm is this super duper luxury now. Oh, there's this great channel, Julia James Davis, War on
Beauty. And she says, "The greatest luxury and status symbol now is reading a book." [ __ ] love that. That's true.
All right, gang. Great questions this week or this month. And uh have a great weekend. Happy holidays. I'm going to do
my best to post two videos, but I might miss I might miss like the Friday after Christmas. But we'll see. We'll see
about that. And uh take care everyone and have a good weekend.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Limmer Boots essential — custom pair received, extensively discussed
- Pentel P209 essential — mechanical pencil, 0.7mm and 0.5mm discussed
- Roper Gloves recommends — from Revival Cycles
- Kill Spencer recommends — camera strap
- Ebox 2 mentions — ebike model
- Tuttio mentions — ebike model
- Icon mentions — vehicle restoration company
- Land Cruiser FJ60/FJ62 essential — Toyota trucks discussed
- Chevy LS engine mentions — engine swap discussed
- Wilwood brakes mentions — brake upgrade discussed
- Marathon watch uses — watch worn
- G-Shock/Casio mentions — watch brand discussed
- Leica Q2 essential — camera used
- McMaster-Carr recommends — parts catalog referenced
People Referenced
Tom Sachs, Rob Reiner, Josh Safdie, Paul Kingsnorth, Julia James Davis, Eric Goode, Sonster
Books Mentioned
- Against the Machine
Films & Media Referenced
- Rob Reiner film discussed
- Safdie brothers film
- Studio Ghibli film
- Studio Ghibli film
- TV show discussed
- documentary mentioned