SSAB - March 2, 2026

0:00Let's try this from the office live and at 5.30 p.m. Sick again, re-listing to last year's podcast around this time. When did I change jobs again? New week? What's new? Reading the art of Swedish death cleaning? How is it? And a note about the lunch with my niece. Will they even remember? Folks, Monday, March 2nd, 2026, I'm Steven Syrosky, long time Canadian expat, often living it up outside of Canada but currently inside of Canada and recording at the office in one of the little sound booths that they have. I thought I'd give it a shot and I've now recorded this intro three times because about

1:05five minutes ago when I started recording or when I chose a different location, I'm in one of the booths and there's two of them back to back and there's another guy in the other one. I'm going to be talking for like 30 to 40 minutes. I don't want to interfere with his business call so I moved somewhere else. But then as I record it and start recording, he comes out and he's on his phone, he's talking in the public area and like, all right, that's not going to work for me. This actually reminds me of in Australia when I did it in the common room of the hostel of the YHA and I'm like, yeah, it's kind of distracting. There's and why I'm doing it here not at home is because I want to, there's two reasons actually. I want to see if this is a better time to get things going to record it and that way I don't have to sort of think about it in the evening. I think I've talked about this before sort of how this podcast has not become a burden, although saying that you might be a Stevie, Stevie, Stevie, how dare you or faith, we, your

2:08faithful listeners, how dare you say it as a burden, it is not. I want to make it a little bit more easier to get it done sooner. So I'm not thinking about it and I also say, I don't want to interfere with my mom's bed time routine. So she goes to bed at a certain time and if I, if I push back to recording too late, then it just becomes a bit of a, it doesn't always work. So the other thing, I was thinking like, oh, how this office, I may as well use it. And I was actually listening back to some of my old podcasts and I can't believe it. Now I will say that quite likely the Australian trip was probably the worst recorded series of podcasts I have done since I have started this poll cast. And I say that because I was listening back to when we first touched down like the second or third day we were in Sydney. And for whatever reason, it was, I guess the way I had

3:15done the post production number one, if you recall at that time, I used, I'm using the DJI mic. I was using the DJI mic, which I'm also using right now. So if it sounds different, it's because I'm using a different microphone. Now in doing that, that user requires a different finagling with the post production just a little bit. It's not as clean as not as deep as the sure MV7 plus that I have most of the time. The other thing, however, is that it for whatever reason, I have the breath control. And I guess I have it on, how do I do this? I think it was recorded in stereo, but the plugin was mono. And so it only took the breaths out of the left channel, but left everything in on the right channel. So you can actually listen back to it. And it'll be like, I'm talking over here. And then, and then talking over here. And then

4:17another one. So I'm actually thinking about I might have to go back through them and, you know, probably fix them up a little bit or go through. It might be that I can use the backup recordings for those episodes, because I was listening to going, I hope no one started listening at that time. Oh, they're so brutal. For all of the learning that I've done with this this here podcast, yeah, those are not very not very good. So here we are beginning of March, 2026. It's been a year since I've changed jobs, like officially changed jobs. And I was listening back to some of the old episodes, trying to figure out when did I actually quit my job? And I think it was actually January 27, 2025, that I actually sent in the letter, the notification of my resignation. And like I think my the manager at the time, I think he was a little bit surprised that to have that email on just before spring, first of all, I think it was January 27, 2025.

5:23But I didn't talk about it until the February 7th episode. So and the reason for that was because first of all, when I when I actually sent them the email, I don't think I sent it in until like 5 30 p.m. It was right at the end of the day, it was I spent, I don't even know how long I spent, I pre-written the the letter. I had chat GPT rewrite it for me because the first few were not very professional. They would have let me resign, but not in the way that they did afterwards. So not again, I wasn't fired. I was I there's no major misdemeanor that I couldn't sort of rectify with time. I mean, basically it was it was just I wanted I wanted out and the university semester was starting. So I had to get going. I had to put in my my resignation. Either that or and so the the lineup here in case you're wondering like,

6:24why did you have to do it then? Why could you not fulfill the contract? If I could have fulfilled the contract, but my contract would have ended at the end of November, which would have put me in the middle of the university semester, which would have meant that I would have had to start looking for jobs at the like in that time. And then I'd also have to have another place to rent because my apartment contract ended what it's supposed to end at the end of August. So rather than dealing with all that, I figured I just resigned from the job right away. There was a job opening that I knew about and I went ahead for it. Now in retrospect, am I do I regret quitting the job? No. At the time I did it, I remember saying sad, but not wrong. And that 110% still the case. I was sad because it more meant that I wasn't going to be making the same amount of money. I knew it. That was the problem is that I knew it was a massive pay cut

7:29in my earnings. And not only that, I was going to a job that I knew for a fact I'm going, this is not the dream job either. And it's not the dream pay. It's nothing. But also at that time, I was just beginning to get a little bit more serious about YouTube. And also like looking at my finances and thinking, you know, it's possible. I can do this. It's probably the last time ever, at least for now, that I will be able to pull this type of movement up. So if that's the case, then go for it. Even though, I mean, as I've already said, the job that the job I took up, and if you listen to any of last year's podcasts, you will hear me talk about going back to teaching you just how useless I felt. Not so much useless because there was, I did play a role, I understand it, but just how fruitless it was in the sense of maybe I can't just say that. No, no, no, no,

8:35I got to back that up. Maybe not fruitless. It was because I did learn not only that, first of all, I didn't really enjoy teaching ESL anymore. Second of all, how much the technology had changed, and that although the students were using it, I'm looking at it going, both my old job and the university job could and should be automated, but won't be automated, possibly because of cost. So it's not so much that it can't be done. It's that the cost to do it is simply too high. All right. So if that's the case, then what if it can't be done at scale, can it be done on an individual basis? Basically, so can I replicate in my own little manner, the like my old job or teaching or whatever? And in theory, yes, it's possible because there are a lot of people who teach online. There are a lot of people who sell courses and books and services and

9:35everything. And this is nothing new. It's just that I've never done it. And so I had to kind of look at and go, all right, let's what if what if I tried it? Now, as I've since learned, and I think I've talked about a few times since quitting the job. And also, I think just before I quit the job, if you are upset with your employer or your manager or the type of work that you're doing, understand that yes, you could quit. Yes, not only could you find another job, yes, you could work for yourself, but understand that it's not as easy as just showing up nine to five, putting in the hours and then not thinking about it. And the reason for that is because after nine to five, basically, you take on the role not of not just of the employee, providing the service that your company does, but you take on the marketing, the taxes, the lead generation or finding customers,

10:37you take on the cost of the tools, you take on all of that and then hiring freelancers or hiring other people to help you out with your business. So when you're a one man business, or when you're an employee, you work eight hours and that's it. Then you go home and you can plan about your work or you get drunk and that's the end of it. But when you're the employer, the employer, it's when you run the company as the employee and the employer, the only person you can complain about, if you complain about management, you're going to have a rude awakening because that means you're just complaining about how you're actually getting these things done. So yeah, a bit of a challenge and something that I would say that if you are looking to quit your job, if you're in the reason why maybe some people are looking at this is like, well, if AI is going to take your job, can AI take your job? Would you let AI take your job? What are you doing to prepare yourself should AI make you redundant? Or do you think that you could use AI as I did to automate your job,

11:42to replace yourself at your job and do it on your own? Now again, in the last year, I have learned a lot about what AI can do and what it can't do and how much it costs to do certain things. And I'll tell you, AI video replication that talks like a human, not, it's not cheap, but it's not impossible. It is possible, but it's like, why would you do that when it's just cheaper to hire someone to do the job? Now, could that change in the next couple of years? Yes, will teaching be replaced by AI bots? No, there will be a reason for that. Number one, the human teacher provides a specialized service, that is, they're human. They are available, they are there for on-demand sort of responses, it gives them the real, gives students or the clients real life experience as well. AI teachers would take over, I should also, and in that,

12:49exclusivity, basically. So if you go to a, I'm thinking of China here, Chianghua, Renmin, even Tsaijin Datsuya or Nongda, you would have any of these big universities and they'll say, yeah, we have English classes taught by qualified, certified foreign staff who are knowledgeable in their subject field. That sounds awesome. And that's what you're paying for when you're going to university or any sort of tertiary education system or institution. Now, where could AI take over, smaller schools, smaller cities, private institutes, online, personalized classes as well? So the university and likewise the government would probably be the last one to sort of onboard the AIification of education, simply because it doesn't sound as good, it's not as reliable as having someone show up and just go through the motions of

13:49whatever's on the PowerPoint anyway. So listening back a year ago, am I sad about the job? I'm actually even thinking like right now, had I kept on with teaching, I'd be in Beijing right now, I'd be back in China. And I don't think I mentioned it last week, I don't know who's happier that I'm not there, me or them. Certainly as a student, you just kind of move on because you're probably so used to teachers being swapped out anyway, every every semester you're going to have a different series of teachers anyway. As for me, like I'm glad about it because I didn't I don't have my mom even said this. He's not swearing as much this time. I'm going, I know why, first of all, rented this office. Second of all, there isn't the same pressure of a deadline to get things done before I had to go back. If I had to be back in Beijing right now, we're talking like I would have had to, first of all, I would be in Beijing right now, which means we're wind a week to start packing and saying goodbye to people and stuff like that

14:52and shifting locations. So I wouldn't have had it. It just wouldn't have, it would not have been a very fast or smooth transition. It would be very quick. So it'd be six weeks. I guess technically two months since the semester ended, but it just wouldn't, it would have been rushed. I would have felt rushed and I think I've felt rushed just about every single time that I've come back or had that sort of two month break because it's only two months. It sounds like it's a long time, but you take a week or a week and a half to sort of decompress. You go on a trip for two or weeks or three weeks and then you come back and all of a sudden it's like, well, you're always starting to think about the job again, like what you're thinking about the work. You're probably getting work emails. You got to respond to those and start preparing and blah, blah, blah, blah. So not always a relaxed situation. So this time, I mean, I'm not going to lie. I was going to happy with my mom. So he's not swearing as much this time. Because I thought was a funny observation. I go, yeah, well, it's true. It's true. I don't feel as frustrated. I don't feel as

15:57rushed to get things done. And I guess you could also chalk it up to Ashwaganda. I'm also working working out a lot more, but also not having that deadline of having to get back to Beijing. Now, contrast that people are asking me, Steve, when are you leaving? When are you going back to China? I'm like, I don't know. I haven't booked a ticket yet. I've almost come to sort of think that what's going to happen is that I'm basically going to tell people three days before I leave. I go, okay, my flight's this. And that's just because I there's no, there's no need to have that deadline. And honestly, this actually kind of bothers me. I've talked about this before. The plight of the expat who comes back for a couple of months. So they'll, they focus on when you're leaving. They talk about when you're leaving. Can we just be here right now? So we don't have to think about that. I mean, do you want to talk about when you go back to work or something? Is it, do you want to do that? No, you don't want it. Because me going back to China isn't just going back to like the lovey-dovey expat bubble lifestyle. It's like, that's work. It's work over there.

17:01In case you didn't notice, it's not like I'm just lolly gagging around Asia or China. I did have a job there. And I meant that I had to prepare and do all this grading and stuff like that. Yeah, let's talk about work some more. Let's talk about your job. How's that? So something that's hard to explain to other people who aren't expats on two month breaks, but I understand how it's difficult. It's like, but you have two months off. Yes, yes, I know. And I'd rather not spend that two months off thinking about what I have to get back to work. How's that? New month, new week. It's March already. I guess was it February, January, February, March. Wow, I'm glad I'm recording. I was going to record this outside, but I'm not sure if you can hear that. But there, like these guys, it's 5.49 pm right now. And like the the office was empty about 15, 20 minutes ago. And then all of a sudden I started recording and all these guys are talking out loud in the common room anyway. So good thing I shifted over here to the booth. I mean,

18:06again, I mean, one of these phone booths says that I match one of the reasons I'm another reason why I'm here. So I try them out. This is something I was thinking about getting for what I'm if I continue living in the same or have I have to change apartments in Beijing. And I've talked about already, having to shift locations or possibly shutting down the current apartment in Beijing. That is like moving my stuff out, selling a lot of stuff. But should I continue residing in Beijing? I was thinking about getting one of these little phone booths so I could do some, I guess, private work that is recording and stuff like that. So, but not a decision I have to make just yet. New week, new month, fantastic. We're already into March. When is the spring solstice? Is it March? Yeah, I think every year it happens in March and we laugh because it's like, that's dumb. Doesn't happen. Well, June 21 is a summer solstice, right?

19:06I can't remember. I think so. Yes. Because December 21 would be the winter solstice, which means that we are on the spring solstice, which I'm not sure if it's a big thing. Does that really matter? Maybe it doesn't matter. First day of spring, I guess they cut it all up into three months segments, but in here in Winnipeg, spring doesn't start to like June. So, right. Now, that being said, what it's the beginning of the month, I'm surprised I've been here for two months already, but it's flown by, been very busy, and yes, I am sick again. I can't even blame my nieces or nephews. I think I mentioned this before that, oh yeah, it must be the kids who are trucking in all sorts of germs. I'm going, no, no, I don't think so. Stevie, weren't you at the library recently? Yes. Yes, I was. And if there's anything that you should wash your hands after, it's touching a library book. I mean, I mean, odd enough that I have to do that before I go to bed,

20:11because I'm reading these books and yeah, I don't want that anywhere near me when I'm sleeping, but so I did go to the library and I'm thinking, yeah, that's a very good point that basically, every time I've been, I haven't gone to library for the last couple of months. It's been fantastic. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love going to the library and being able to sit down 78, 9, 10 books, not worrying about having to reschedule them, taking out one or two of them, maybe no late finds either, no late fees. Fantastic. And simply being able to not have to worry about storing it at all, which brings me to reading the art of Swedish death cleaning. And I forgot to write down the author of this, but no doubt you have heard of this book before. It was actually, I think it was the best seller. It came out a couple of years ago. Oh no, it was longer than that. And basically this lady, she admirable, although at the same time I'm going lady, I don't know,

21:12this seems a little bit harsh to be talking the way she does. And it's a little bit too much, too sentimental for me. I've only read like the first 30 or 40 books, but this elderly lady, this grandmother, who had five kids, she's in her 80s when she wrote this book and she writes it because she's like, there are a lot of people who just seem unhappy with a lot of stuff, especially if it's disorganized around them. And she's like cleaning up the art of Swedish death cleaning is basically preparing for a time that you're not going to be there to decide to do with your stuff. Like with all the stuff that you've accumulated. So I've talked about that. I've had to start looking at cleaning out the the attic that I used to live in, like the third floor of my dad renovated it when we were teenagers. And that's where I lived for a very long time, like have drum sets there. I have books. And my sister has made it a point to make it clear that

22:16that stuff can't stay there forever. And I'm like, this is between my mum and me, isn't it? And she's like, yes, but not for long. So it's your choice if you want to deal with it now or when we have to deal with it, it's just going to go on the garbage. And you know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's to tell you truth, there's only really maybe one or two boxes of stuff. And this is actually what this lady says in this book, the art of Swedish death cleaning, get it down to a shoe box. Now, my box is a little bit bigger because I love saying that, right? Because it contains some memorabilia from my rock and roll days, from my music time, my music career here in Winnipeg. Since then, I've accumulated travel memorabilia. But I'm looking back at it. And I think and this is kind of what the book talks about. It's like, I'm going, yeah, I understand why people view it as useless, but to me, it still has meaning. And so what she's talking about in this book is

23:19that, you know, don't leave this for, don't leave it, don't be a burden to those you leave behind. Clean up the things, organize them, throw them out and make sure that you are keeping stuff with purpose rather than just keeping everything because you might use it someday or because it reminds you of somewhat something whatever. She fully advocates for taking pictures of stuff and then getting rid of it. Now, to that, I would almost say, what about digital clutter? We'll get, this is actually something that the next generation is going to have to deal with. This generation, I think, and I'm, if you're listening to this, well, it's hard to tell. If you're in your 30s and 40s, our generation, I would say, is dealing with the effect of having too much stuff, of having plentiful choices, a lot of stuff around us, around us all the time, everywhere we go, basically. But the next generation, the ones that are growing up seeing us getting rid of

24:23this stuff, I think they're going to have a problem with digital clutter. That is, if we, this generation digitizes a lot of stuff, takes pictures of old glasses or clothing or hello MP3 files or JPEGs or MP4 files, do you keep them? We'll just upload them onto YouTube until YouTube sends a notification saying if this account is in access, we're deleting it from our servers, which happens. I'm sure you've seen these before. Now, I think the next generation is also going to be, or is also thinking that, oh, that doesn't matter. I mean, data, not just the internet is cheap, it's everywhere storage is cheap. That doesn't have to be the case all the time. It can actually happen that, basically, they have to wipe hard drives because maybe power concerns, hello climate change, data centers, power hungry data centers. You don't want your rating around you. Then how are you going to run these data centers that have the hard drives,

25:26that have your precious JPEGs and MPGs on them? Something to think about, I guess. I was reading this book. I only started reading it on the library over the weekend. I was reading some other books about, actually, I asked the librarian about two things. I said, I'd like to know about grief and grieving and decluttering, thinking that it was kind of the same, that it was one of these, I guess, the feeling is the same, but what she pointed out, the grief and sort of the getting over, the grieving of people and stuff like that. I'm going, yeah, that's not really what I'm looking at. It is, but the grieving, the books that are in the grieving section or the grief section deal with people dying and the people who are left behind are writing these letters or these chapters going, this is how we felt, this is how we dealt with it. It doesn't talk about pre-death and cleaning up everything. It doesn't talk about the people who did die and how they

26:29organized their post-mortem, basically. Not that. Two very different sides of the grass. Boy, that's awkward thing to say. Goodness. Anyway, picked up this book. Our Swedish death cleaning picked up a few books on grief and then decluttering as well. The grief ones are not easy to read. It's a lot of different stories. A lot of people having a lot of different experiences about a lot of different ways that people die. It's heart wrenching, to tell you the truth, heart wrenching. Divorce, of course, is in there, but death. A lot of it is just death and dying and old people, young people, good people, bad people. Wow. Wow. Why are you reading this stuff? I thought it was along the lines of decluttering. I guess it isn't a way, but not to the decluttering that I need to do just yet. I'm not decluttering for anyone who has accumulated a lot of stuff other than myself. This is something that I do have to

27:34work on. I'm not going to be able to clear all this stuff out before I go back to Beijing. I'm planning on being in Beijing within the next couple of weeks sort of thing within the next month or so. But at the same time, I fully acknowledge and understand that I do have to start moving some of this stuff out. If it's not going to go to Beijing with me, if it's not going to go around the world with me, then where is it going to go and where are you going to put it and what's it worth to you? So the other thing that I want to start doing, I actually, over the last couple weeks, I've been picking through the books that I've talked about on this podcast a little bit, and the ones I've had more money than time, 20 years ago, 25 years ago to go to buy and store and flip through and then never look at again. Yeah, those are all getting gone really hopefully soon. I've taken pictures of them. I've organized them. I got to send some emails tonight or tomorrow asking local bookstores if they're worth anything. I'm not sure I'm going to spend much time on eBay trying to sell this stuff. Matter of fact, if you recall a couple of months ago, I put up my

28:37first Kajiji ad to offer my English teaching services. That was actually a test to see how the platform worked to sell stuff. And if I have to pay for an advertisement, that I don't think it's worth it. There is the logic. There is the breakdown. There is the understanding of the cost of your stuff. So not right now, the real estate is free because it's in my mom's house. But if I had to ship it to Beijing, then that it's my shipping fee and my real estate problem because it's now in my, the place that I'm renting is I don't own it. What's it worth? What's the stuff worth? And you could argue, well, some things aren't worth a dollar amount. I think my sister would argue differently. She's like, could make a dollar amount very quickly. I think my dad would say the same things like watch, watch me here. I will tell you how much that's the cost to store. So your choice and how you want to get rid of it. So it is something that I'm going to have to look at and start bundling and getting rid of. My goal this time is to get rid of like a complete book

29:42shelf worth of stuff. And there's also some drum equipment. I've never sold a drum before. Just accumulated accumulated accumulated accumulated thinking and wondering and believing that a lot of the the great ones all keep their stuff. I think of George Lucas and the Star Wars anthology and everything that you original one. He was notorious for keeping all the props and everything. You see Steve a little bit different. Don't you think? Yes. Big famous drummers and guitarists musicians. They keep all of their stuff as well because you know, whether it brings back memories or whatever. But from time to time, you will hear of auctions happening. Slashes rare 1992 tour guitar on sale or something like that. Different things like that. They will go on sale maybe because they need money, but possibly because they're also looking at it going, what the heck am I going to do with this thing for? It's a liability because especially with some

30:44of this stuff, it's like, how are you going to ensure it? Some of it, I mean, I think their stuff is harder to ensure than my drum sets, but that might be because there are more people willing to claw their way towards those items than there are towards my stuff. My stuff, I think the family, if there was an offer on the house and they said, we'll even take off $2,000. If you take all the stuff in the attic, I think actually the people did. Sure, but that means we have to go through it. Good luck. I mean, not that that's a deal. This is by no means a binding contractor binding offer at all. That's between you and the estate, not me. So that's another reason why I have to deal with this stuff is because, should the worst happen or should some things change, I do have to start looking at whether or not Winnipeg is a place that not just the metaphorical heart dwells, but all the stuff that I accumulated for so much of my life until I basically moved to China.

31:50Good question. Speaking of memories, so this is one thing I meant to talk about on Friday, about lunch with my niece and I was, I guess, along with the stuff, I always kind of figured that at some point there would be a time to tell the stories about it. I've mentioned this before in passing that some of the stuff that I've accumulated, I always kind of figured that I'd have a little museum at some place. Now, again, what is a little museum? Is a little museum like the Guggenheim Museum or is a little museum like one of these little, you know, Sigmund Freud's house sort of thing or an apartment that he lived in for like three months while he wrote a paragraph. What type of museum do you want and how much can you monetize it for and ensure it for? Because who's going to care? Who's going to care about this stuff? So this lunch with my niece, which was a very illuminating conversation about the current tastes of the pop culture and the teenage pop culture,

32:56I guess. But in the car ride home afterwards, I was saying, I like telling my niece, well, you tell your friends that instead of being at the smoke circle instead, you're out with your uncle from China and your Baba, your grandmother. And my mom's like, do you think they're going to care? Do you think they're going to ask her about this? Do you think she's going to tell them? I was a little bit offended. Thankfully, I have a podcast to talk this out because I'm sure there are other aunts and uncles out there listening to this going, you mean they won't care? Well, then why are we doing this? And I will tell you that one of the reasons why you would go for lunch with your niece or nephew, regardless of the situation, it's for you. It's not for them. Although it's great to think that you're going to give them a great memory, a good experience, good lunch, whatever, forget the food, but the time that you spend together. Of course, remember that time when all those TV came back from China, you know, and you had an 18-inch beard,

34:00you know, do you remember that time? Yeah, yeah, I remember. The time, how many memories do you have of your teenage life of hanging out with your aunts and uncles? So this is actually a little bit of the conversation that we had on the car ride back was trying to remember times I actually hung out with my aunts and uncles. There is one uncle who I later worked for, but that was in my 30s, and he was actually, he's coming through the city right now and his way to, I think it's part of my yard of all things. We were supposed to meet up, but since I'm not feeling so good, had to cancel, got to make sure the elders are in good health when they're going overseas so they don't get locked down or quarantined or worse or whatever it is. So meeting your nieces and nephews, it's not, I mean, as much as it is for them, it's also for you. I would say it's actually more for you than it is for them. This is something else that these books talk about. It's a gift

35:01giving and family gifts and family memorabilia and stuff like that. How much of it do you keep? I have to talk about the penmanship another time because that actually struck me very aptly. I was like, that's a very good point. I mean, especially MP3s or hard drives. How are they ever going to access this stuff? But hanging out with my niece on Friday again for me, I will probably remember that far more and probably hold on to it more than she will. Simply because she's got 1,000 things going on. Me? I got podcasts to record in the evening, okay? It's not a not a rough life, right? I will fully admit that even currently gainfully unemployed or currently gainfully in between jobs. I think I don't even know how you professionally said, I don't care. I do not care. And I told my nieces and nephews and family, do not talk to me about this. I don't care. You don't understand. Just don't worry about it. Let's just focus on being here. And so

36:03going out the nieces and nephews, I'd rather be available to them right now because again, when I leave for Beijing, when I leave for China, I'm gone for months. I won't be back for my, I missed their growing up because of COVID. Hello, remember that one three four years out of the country? In or out, you don't get both. I mean, it's so to go out and to have lunch, even if it was out of fast food joint and I did, I did ask her, you know, why? Why is it that McDonald's and AW are fast food joints for burgers and fries? Why can't it be vegetables and fruit? She had a better response than her sister did a couple weeks ago. I can't remember what a response that it was a book. It was basically along the lines of like, because it's just it tastes better. So something along those lines. Okay, at least we understand that. But so conversations like that again, being able to have them probably something I'm going to remember a lot more than she will. Again, she has a thousand

37:07things going on. She's got all of her sort of interests and hobbies and demands of her attention and her time. So it's not something, I mean, it's something I'm going to remember because it's going to be something like, yeah, I remember when I came back in 2026, I stayed so long that it's fun to be able to, you know, be around for a couple of family events that a lot of times I'm not around for. So yeah, interesting. Hey, if you have the chance to go with your eastern nephew, go for it, get out there, hang out with them, whether it's a beer, I would actually argue like stay away from the pints and instead go towards a healthier choice. It can be fast food, it can be powder food, but you don't have to have a drink together, even though that could help in sort of easing some of the the tension of like, why are we here? Why are we going out again? Sort of thing. So I don't know. But if you have any solutions for this, let me know. I'd be interested to hear on how you get on with your your nieces or nephews or the younger people

38:09in your family. All right, folks, with that, I'm going to leave it there. Welcome to March. Enjoy it. Thank you very much for listening. I appreciate it. Show notes and tracks will be available up on my website stevesursky.com. Notion database there that tracks all of the episodes, including the ones where I quit my job one year ago. You'd have to look at the end of January, beginning of February of last year. newsletter over on substack stevesursky.substack.com. I'm going to probably be maybe change that over the next year. Language log over on YouTube at stevens language log. And finally, folks, if you want to contribute to my research and production costs for this year podcast, if you want to help me take out one of my nieces or nephews once again. So we can form a memories that they're not going to remember, but I'm going to remember. And so and by virtue of memories, reporting back to you here on this podcast, if you want to buy one of the next generation to lunch or a dinner, by all means PayPal link in the show notes for this episode. Thanks again,

39:14folks. We'll do this again. Welcome to March. Get your pull ups in there. Get your runs in. Eat your broccoli. And we'll do this again. Bye-bye.