Good morning John. I'm going to tell you a story. So when I first moved to Missoula I went to the grocery store 'cause I was hungry and I knew how to make tacos so I bought some meat and some beef and... Meat and beef? Some beans and cheese and tortillas and stuff, right? And the cashier, as she's checking me out is like "Boop. Boop" and then she's like "So, tacos tonight?" At this point I was around 23 years old and I can say pretty securely that I had had, like, zero interactions with cashiers that weren't "Hello", "Thank you" and "Do you want a receipt?"

So basically, I was completely freaked out, flabbergasted, I didn't know what to say, despite the fact that, yes, I was having tacos, so the clear answer was yes, which I think I finally came up with. Having seen that I was not the kind of person who speaks to people, she didn't push it any further, so it turns out that I'd moved from a place where that's not a normal thing to a place where it was, and also, that I kinda like it.

I mean, it used to be that I was terrified to, like, tell the person at Wendy's what kind of hamburger I wanted, but man, in this town, you gotta be ready, and some people really don't like it, but I, I quite do. I was at Pita Pit recently, and the person was like, "So, how's your day been?" and I was like, "Really weird, actually!" And they were like, "Well, that sounds interesting," and like, settling in for me to tell them about it, but I was like, "But I don't have time to tell you, I need a pita."

And then there was a time when I was at a liquor store, oh my God, the woman looks at my ID and she was like, "Oh my God, I would never have thought that you were so old" and that's a nice thing to say, I guess, and then she was like, "The other day, we had an Asian in here, and he looked so young, I did not believe his ID, and he was here with his white girlfriend" and I was just like, "I could never imagine that, I would feel so improper". Mind you, while there's a line, I'm not the only person in the liquor store, and I'm like, "Okay, miss, you clearly have issues. I don't think I'm the person to deal with them, so I would like to acquire my brown liquor of some sort that you're selling to me and take it home so that I can drink it faster than I normally would have now that I've had this interaction."

But mostly, I find that talking to strangers, whether that's on the street or when we're having some kind of commercial interaction is very pleasant, and I like strangers, I like talking to strangers when I'm at a shower, at a bar, or at a club. Is a bar and a club the same thing? Well, anyway, when I see people on the internet or on the news, they tend to be less nice than the ones that I meet in real life, and so what I'm saying is, if you wanna get an accurate picture of the kind of quality people exist, you gotta talk to strangers! Which is not normal advice. Don't get in their cars or anything. It's also good practice. I never was comfortable with it until I just started doing it all the time.

The other day at Taco Bell, the woman was like, "Good morning." It was like, four o'clock in the afternoon, and I was like, "Not quite." And then I felt a little bad about it 'cause she looked kind of embarrassed, so I was like, "Well, don't worry about it, when I'm leaving, you will say "enjoy your meal", and I will say "you, too" and then I will feel the way that you feel now." And then, when she gave me my food, she didn't say "Enjoy your meal", so I couldn't do the thing, which I thought was gonna be super funny.

Topic Change

There is a lot going on right now. NerdCon: Stories is next week, so I'm very busily prepping for that. I have to make sure that I'm ready to do all the things I gotta do, and of course, I've been totally overwhelmed by the success of the Wizard School Kickstarter, oh, so cool! We're over 1000% funded, so we're gonna get to make the game, but that doesn't mean that you can't go pledge to the Kickstarter, please do that, 'cause there are stretch goals, and we want to hit them. I'm going to be in Portland and Seattle with Welcome to Night Vale if you're around those areas, it is super fun, and I've done it before, such a good show that these people do.

And I would also like to announce, for the first time on this channel, our newest video project things. One, Engage by Uplift, a series about dealing with abuse and sex and the weird nature of those things in virtual spaces. They're taking on difficult and important topics direct to camera and in discussion formats. And also, The Financial Diet, which is a show about how to live in the world as a young person while following your dreams but not ruining your future. So if you're interested in any of those things, they're all around me, you can click on them, check them out, John, I'll see you on Tuesday.