SPEAKER_1: Hello, and welcome to Salt Cravings, an actual Crave podcast.
SPEAKER_1: My name's Clair.
SPEAKER_2: And my name's Brianna.
SPEAKER_1: And as always, our craving principles are to keep the cravings amusing and unusual, be a fan of each other, and crave to find out what happens.
SPEAKER_3: Brianna, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_2: I can't believe you beat me to it.
SPEAKER_2: You did it first.
SPEAKER_2: I have that, I have my version of that written down as well.
SPEAKER_3: Can you just do yours?
SPEAKER_1: Just do it, just bring it up.
SPEAKER_2: I'll do mine, I'll do mine.
SPEAKER_2: All right, let me let me grab it.
SPEAKER_2: Welcome to Salt Cravings, an actual salt podcast focused on critical cravings, smart solutions, and fun interaction between two friends.
SPEAKER_3: See, we got the best of both worlds.
SPEAKER_2: I'm your host, Brianna.
SPEAKER_2: And I'm Clair.
SPEAKER_2: We did, we got the best of both worlds.
SPEAKER_3: The best of both worlds.
SPEAKER_2: The best of both worlds.
SPEAKER_1: We're so good at this.
SPEAKER_2: Both, the real, real, wait, the YouTube poop episode with last episode, we can't do this again.
SPEAKER_1: There can all be poop episodes if you believe it.
SPEAKER_2: That was a cute and fun intro, Clair.
SPEAKER_2: I'm glad that you did that.
SPEAKER_1: I'm sorry I beat you to the intro.
SPEAKER_2: No, I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_2: I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_2: I think yours is, I liked yours more than I liked mine.
SPEAKER_2: I think yours was more original.
SPEAKER_2: I think it was.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, neither of them are original.
SPEAKER_2: I suspect that some of our listeners may in fact be confused right now.
SPEAKER_1: What we've done here.
SPEAKER_1: No, they'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_1: If they've been listening to this podcast for, what is it, 46 episodes now?
SPEAKER_1: Like, if you've been listening to this podcast for 46 episodes at this point, 45 episodes, I should correct myself.
SPEAKER_1: And you're like, what was that a reference to?
SPEAKER_1: Then, I mean, figure it out.
SPEAKER_2: Like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_1: Go listen to like 44 episodes and figure it out.
SPEAKER_1: There's like clues everywhere.
SPEAKER_2: We've left clues as an ARG, and the ARG is we really like things.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, the clue is we really like things, which is definitely not just everything that comes up in this podcast.
SPEAKER_1: But Brianna, I believe you're going first.
SPEAKER_1: So what have you brought to the kitchen today?
SPEAKER_2: Well, so, Clair, let's talk about...
SPEAKER_2: Which one do I want to start with, actually?
SPEAKER_1: Let's talk about sex, baby.
SPEAKER_1: Let's talk about me and me.
SPEAKER_1: Let's talk about isolation and how it affects my sex drive.
SPEAKER_1: What?
SPEAKER_2: Sorry, what happened?
SPEAKER_2: Nothing, go on.
SPEAKER_1: What was your craving?
SPEAKER_2: I'll start.
SPEAKER_2: It's always good to get into the meat at the end.
SPEAKER_2: So let's start out with the more...
SPEAKER_1: The vegetarian take.
SPEAKER_2: Let's get into the vegetarian take, which is, hey, you know, Picru?
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, the make-your-own-avatar website, Picru, right?
SPEAKER_1: For a second, I thought you said Piccolo, and I was like, yeah, I know Piccolo.
SPEAKER_1: I'm aware of Piccolo.
SPEAKER_1: Piccolo, like, Piccolo fucks.
SPEAKER_1: Piccolo fucks.
SPEAKER_1: But tell me about Picru.
SPEAKER_2: So Picru is an online tool to allow you to kind of create primarily avatars.
SPEAKER_2: It's like a dress-up game, usually folks-on-the-face.
SPEAKER_2: It is, I believe, Japanese in origin.
SPEAKER_2: And almost all of the text on the site is Japanese, right?
SPEAKER_2: And most of the Picru creators are Japanese.
SPEAKER_2: But it has enjoyed and gained some popularity fairly quickly around here as well.
SPEAKER_2: And one of the things about it is that there's a lot of Picru's.
SPEAKER_2: One of the other things about it is that there's not a lot of great Picru's.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: I had a question.
SPEAKER_2: So one of the, yes.
SPEAKER_1: Not to, like, go back into the, like, one of the themes of Salt Cravings to a new Cravings, but I've noticed at least the ones that get popular.
SPEAKER_1: I haven't ever seen a fat Picru.
SPEAKER_1: Like, the newest one that's blowing up is like, this new one is like, I feel like the, I don't want to be like the body style, but like, it's the same body style every single time.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_2: This is definitely one of the things.
SPEAKER_2: I've seen a couple that have, like, options where you can make the person a little bit chubbier, which I appreciate as a little bit of a chubbier person.
SPEAKER_2: There are ones that are specifically made.
SPEAKER_2: I have a couple.
SPEAKER_2: I can send them to you.
SPEAKER_2: Okay.
SPEAKER_2: But they're pretty few and far between.
SPEAKER_2: One of the other things is, this is probably something that you don't see as much because you've mostly seen the ones that get really popular here.
SPEAKER_2: But when you're trawling through the Pickroo muck, trying to find good ones, a lot of Pickroos have very, very few, if any, dark skin options.
SPEAKER_2: There's a lot of them that are really, really white.
SPEAKER_3: But there's a lot of, like, blue skin.
SPEAKER_1: Blue skin options and red skin options.
SPEAKER_2: Yes.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, there's a lot where it's like, oh, yes, light skin, slightly dark skin, blue skin, green skin, pink skin.
SPEAKER_2: Like, it's a pretty ridiculous thing in that way.
SPEAKER_1: You can be a bubblegum creature, but you can't be like a black person.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, basically.
SPEAKER_2: And so, like, both of these things raise some considerations for sure.
SPEAKER_2: The reason that I like Pickroos.
SPEAKER_4: The reason I like the Pickroos.
SPEAKER_1: Sorry for immediately shitting on your Craving.
SPEAKER_2: No, no.
SPEAKER_2: My, literally, what I've written down is better Pickroos.
SPEAKER_2: I want better Pickroos because, so the thing that I like about Pickroos a lot is that I can't draw particularly well.
SPEAKER_2: I can like doodle here and there, but I find that it limits my ability to do character design, particularly.
SPEAKER_2: I don't believe you can pick Cruz to myself, but especially recently, what I've mostly been focusing on is using it for character design for various things.
SPEAKER_2: And I like that a lot because when you design a character in like pickers of like 15 different styles or whatever, you get a really good idea of like, what are the core kind of noticeable facial features that this person has, this character has, like what does this character look like?
SPEAKER_2: What is the constant across all of these?
SPEAKER_2: The problem is, is that like, you have to find the pickers that actually have the options that allow you to design the character.
SPEAKER_2: And even when that your character is like fully human character, I've designed human and non-human characters and pickers, but even when your character is fully human, you have challenges because you're like, okay, this style seems like it would work really well for this, ah, shit, they have no options here.
SPEAKER_2: I'm not gonna use this one, right?
SPEAKER_2: And so that is the biggest thing for me is, I like pickers a whole lot.
SPEAKER_2: I wish that they had more options and were more diverse so that I could use them to design characters and also do fun pickers of myself, because I am, as always, interested in myself.
SPEAKER_1: That's fair, it's good to be interested in yourself.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, yeah, that's why I like them.
SPEAKER_1: How do we make the crews better?
SPEAKER_1: What if you could add the crews together?
SPEAKER_2: This is exactly what I was about to say.
SPEAKER_1: Like I really like-
SPEAKER_4: I'm talking, here's these two-
SPEAKER_2: Picker abomination.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, you had the entire, I was going like, cute.
SPEAKER_1: I was like, oh, so I really like this style, but I like this feature.
SPEAKER_1: Let me just like port this feature into the style.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, that's really cute.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_1: We need like a little algorithm that just is like, ah, is this a scar over the eye?
SPEAKER_1: What does a scar over the eye look like in this other artist?
SPEAKER_1: And I mean, we technically have this.
SPEAKER_1: You can technically feed an algorithm a bunch of paintings and then give it another painting and be like, paint this in the other painting style, and it will do that.
SPEAKER_1: Like, those are real.
SPEAKER_2: All of our cravings can be done in real life.
SPEAKER_1: What am I talking about?
SPEAKER_2: Well, I don't know that that's true.
SPEAKER_2: We definitely craved some fantasy things before.
SPEAKER_2: Did you forget the last craving of the last episode?
SPEAKER_2: The other thing that you can do with an algorithm is you could instruct it to make fake people.
SPEAKER_2: Have we talked about this on the podcast yet?
SPEAKER_1: Which thing?
SPEAKER_1: Like, there's-
SPEAKER_2: Like, thispersondoesnotexist.com.
SPEAKER_1: But you did show me, yeah, you showed me that website recently.
SPEAKER_1: My favorite is thiscatdoesnotexist.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, so there's a series of sites that are like thispersondoesnotexist.com, thiscatdoesnotexist.com, thisartdoesnotexist.com.
SPEAKER_1: I think there's a horse.
SPEAKER_2: And it generates.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, there's horses.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, that one does not work.
SPEAKER_4: That one's great.
SPEAKER_1: That one's my favorite.
SPEAKER_1: No, actually, sorry.
SPEAKER_4: Because it makes-
SPEAKER_1: This is maybe my favorite.
SPEAKER_2: Horses and combinations.
SPEAKER_1: thismoleculedoesnotexist.com.
SPEAKER_1: And it's like, it's kind of just cool.
SPEAKER_1: Cause like, I, as not a chemist or a biologist in any stretch of the imagination, would look at it and go, that looks like a molecule.
SPEAKER_1: That probably exists.
SPEAKER_2: I've also just clicked on thisarticledosnotexist.com for news.
SPEAKER_1: Oh God.
SPEAKER_2: Boy.
SPEAKER_2: Boy, these seem real.
SPEAKER_2: Boy, these sure seem real.
SPEAKER_2: I really appreciate.
SPEAKER_2: LiveThread11, global COVID-19 pandemic.
SPEAKER_2: I really appreciate.
SPEAKER_2: LiveThread11.
SPEAKER_3: LiveThread11?
SPEAKER_3: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_3: Just like...
SPEAKER_2: I don't know, but it's www.reddit.com.
SPEAKER_1: What's enough?
SPEAKER_1: Can you just give me one more article?
SPEAKER_1: Can you just generate one more article for me?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it has a whole list of them here.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, I really like, I really like largest ever hole in the ozone layer above arctic finally closes.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that one's not real.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, it's very cool.
SPEAKER_3: Have I told you about...
SPEAKER_1: Sorry, this is a complete tangent, but have I told you about how old data science methods missed a hole in the ozone layer for 20 years, I think.
SPEAKER_1: I think it was either 10 or 20 years.
SPEAKER_2: I think I've heard about this, yes.
SPEAKER_1: We had the data to tell us there was a hole in the ozone layer, and because the old method of data analysis was discard outliers, like if there are data outliers, just get rid of them.
SPEAKER_1: Don't do any analysis on the outliers.
SPEAKER_1: We did that for 10 years, and then someone came along and was like, why are there so many data points over here?
SPEAKER_1: And then they figured out that, oh, they're not outliers.
SPEAKER_1: That's just a giant hole in the ozone layer that we've been missing, even though this data is 10 years old.
SPEAKER_1: So anyways, lesson learned, don't discard your outliers without a really good reason.
SPEAKER_1: How people treat minorities.
SPEAKER_2: I think we can apply that to Pickroos as well.
SPEAKER_3: Let's apply that to Pickroos.
SPEAKER_2: I think, you know, there's a lot of Pickroos out there that have like this one really specific thing that I'm like, oh, I love that, because I can use that for this character.
SPEAKER_2: There's like a couple of Pickroos out there that have like crowns and tiaras.
SPEAKER_2: And I'm like, hell yeah, I have a princess OC, so that's perfect for her.
SPEAKER_2: So I'm saying, just take just anything that you can find in a Pickroo that doesn't suck for some reason.
SPEAKER_2: Just throw it in the mega Pickroo.
SPEAKER_1: I'm saying cat cheeks.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_1: I'm saying duck hands.
SPEAKER_2: There is, there is Fursona makers out there, so.
SPEAKER_2: I think we can just make the mega Pickroo.
SPEAKER_1: Fursona is that video game that Joker's from, right?
SPEAKER_2: No, that's Fursona 5.
SPEAKER_1: Is a better Pickroo just second life creator?
SPEAKER_1: Like you could probably make so many things in second life.
SPEAKER_2: Probably, but here's the thing about the Pickroo.
SPEAKER_2: It's just a dress up thing.
SPEAKER_2: It's fun.
SPEAKER_2: You can just make it, you can just sit in your, can you play second life sitting in bed with one hand, having your phone with one hand and just scrolling through options and just doing it super easy?
SPEAKER_2: You do that, Clair, and can you do that for like 15 characters in a row?
SPEAKER_1: If they made a mobile second life, wait, I need to Google if there's a mobile second life.
SPEAKER_1: No, but there is Avakin or Mobile Grid Client or Little Sight.
SPEAKER_2: Having seen Avakin played in a Monster Factory episode, I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not gonna serve the same purpose as what I want.
SPEAKER_1: That's fair.
SPEAKER_2: But I think if we do have this kind of mega Pickroo, which is just a whole bunch of different styles, I think that would work pretty well.
SPEAKER_2: We just would need to make that happen.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, so we just need to hire some developers.
SPEAKER_2: Right, this is the thing, is we just need to get some developers, we need to get some artists.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, wait, I have a better idea.
SPEAKER_1: Can't we just make Pickroo accounts and then steal everyone's artwork?
SPEAKER_1: That's like super normal, right?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, that's totally allowed, and encouraged.
SPEAKER_2: And if you look at the amount of Pickroos that say, do not steal this on them.
SPEAKER_1: They're surprisingly zero of them.
SPEAKER_1: It's weird.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, surprisingly.
SPEAKER_2: It's weird how many of them in the descriptions say, actually, you should totally steal this.
SPEAKER_2: Use this for business purposes.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, are we using it for, wait, is this a business Pickroo?
SPEAKER_2: No, it's just that every Pickroo says, do not use this for business purposes, personal only.
SPEAKER_2: Which is so funny to me.
SPEAKER_2: That's the idea that someone would make a Pickroo and then use it for professional reasons.
SPEAKER_1: I did one time set up a crew as my profile photo for a company I worked at, just because I didn't wanna give them an actual photo of me.
SPEAKER_2: Ah, so you've committed a crime.
SPEAKER_1: I've committed a crime.
SPEAKER_2: You committed a Pickroo crime, the worst type of crime.
SPEAKER_1: A Pickrime.
SPEAKER_2: A Pickrime.
SPEAKER_2: I guess you don't get to develop the-
SPEAKER_1: I go to pick jail.
SPEAKER_2: Pickroo amalgam.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: So like, how does the transferring from one style to another go?
SPEAKER_2: How does that work?
SPEAKER_1: Like in real life, or are we talking about the Craving?
SPEAKER_2: Let's talk about the Craving.
SPEAKER_2: If we were to make this mega Pickroo, in which you could take things from one style and transfer them to a different style, just super easily and simply, I'm assuming we'd need artists, but is there some automated way to do it?
SPEAKER_1: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_1: I like...
SPEAKER_2: What would that look like?
SPEAKER_1: So you know how in the Animal Crossing QR code generator for like drawing your own art and then making it into like, like it could be like that, but you basically give it a bunch of links and then it like generates from those Pickroo links, your new set of options.
SPEAKER_1: I still feel like this is stealing art, but now it's stealing art with an algorithm.
SPEAKER_1: And you know robots can't do crime.
SPEAKER_2: No one has ever used a robot to do crime.
SPEAKER_1: Show me one robot that's been arrested.
SPEAKER_1: I need to Google, has a robot been arrested?
SPEAKER_1: One second.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, can you Google this?
SPEAKER_1: I almost typed, has a Google been arrested?
SPEAKER_2: Well, there goes our Google sponsorship, Clair.
SPEAKER_1: This episode is sponsored by Google Glass.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, wait, that's dead.
SPEAKER_1: Just like everything that Google makes.
SPEAKER_2: Clair, Clair, it's sponsored by Google Plus.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, shit.
SPEAKER_1: All right, so the first hit is, a robot was just arrested by Russian police.
SPEAKER_3: And then the second hit is-
SPEAKER_2: You put air quotes around arrested.
SPEAKER_1: It's in air quotes.
SPEAKER_1: The second one is, can you arrest a robot by MIT technology?
SPEAKER_2: Well, I assume MIT would know.
SPEAKER_1: Right, if anyone's gonna know that it's MIT, I guess.
SPEAKER_1: But like Russia did it.
SPEAKER_1: So I guess the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_2: Hey, did you say MIT technology?
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: That is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technology.
SPEAKER_1: It's like ATM machine.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_1: Look, English isn't a good language.
SPEAKER_1: We do this all the time.
SPEAKER_1: This is a very normal thing.
SPEAKER_2: You're right.
SPEAKER_2: It is a normal thing, ATM machine, all of that.
SPEAKER_2: But I do think it's very funny to call it technology.
SPEAKER_1: Pin number?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, pin number.
SPEAKER_2: I forget that that one's sin number.
SPEAKER_2: What's the ethical way to do the mega-Picruz?
SPEAKER_1: Uh, I mean, Picruz don't make money as is.
SPEAKER_1: So I guess you just put like 10 copyright symbols on top of the Picruz where it links back to like the original Picruz.
SPEAKER_1: Actually, hey, you know, when you make a Picruz, it doesn't like put a link on the Picruz.
SPEAKER_1: Let's fix that.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, let's make some like shortened URL.
SPEAKER_1: So, you know, like Bit.ly has like, you can make a URL or any URL shortener.
SPEAKER_1: We're gonna make our own URL shortener.
SPEAKER_1: It's gonna go pi.cruz.
SPEAKER_1: And so it's just gonna be like, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: So like those are just gonna appear on our new one.
SPEAKER_1: And those are gonna link back to the original Picruz.
SPEAKER_1: And so you can't make one.
SPEAKER_1: You can't make one of these mega-Picruz or macruz that I'm now calling them without linking back to the Picruz.
SPEAKER_1: We have to distinguish it from the Picruz.
SPEAKER_1: It's a micru now.
SPEAKER_2: I also think that maybe Picruz should just have a better, like, what's it, what's the word?
SPEAKER_2: Not moderation, not filtering.
SPEAKER_2: The thing that I'm trying to say is, I think that Picruz, just the site itself, should be better at choosing what to bring to the top.
SPEAKER_2: And choosing what to kind of feature and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, wait, whoa, wait, when you say bring to the top, do you mean, like, I want the hair above the hat or something?
SPEAKER_2: No, no.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, you mean, like, on the front page, you mean, like, which Picruz are gonna be displayed?
SPEAKER_1: I know what you mean, though.
SPEAKER_2: You know the word I mean.
SPEAKER_2: It's like the word for what Steam is really bad at, and what, like, Nintendo is bad at.
SPEAKER_2: Anyway, if any of you remember the word, if anyone of you know the word that I'm talking about...
SPEAKER_1: Tweet at Brianna a billion times.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, just tweet at Price of Bri.
SPEAKER_2: Like, just do it, honestly.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, anyway, so I think it should be better at doing that.
SPEAKER_2: I think it should be better at choosing those.
SPEAKER_1: So you want, you want Picru, but Reddit.
SPEAKER_2: No.
SPEAKER_2: Where did you get that from?
SPEAKER_1: I just was thinking about...
SPEAKER_2: I don't want the culture of Reddit on Picru.
SPEAKER_1: But like, the Reddit moderation system.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I wouldn't mind a moderation system of some kind.
SPEAKER_2: I just think that displaying Picru's on like, the front page of your site that have no dark skin options sucks.
SPEAKER_2: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_2: And also the fact that you can't find one for like, fat or chubby people until you go like, ten pages in.
SPEAKER_1: Damn, when you said, you're like, they exist, I was not expecting, yeah, ten pages in.
SPEAKER_2: Listen, I'm going deep.
SPEAKER_2: I, this pickeroo has become like, my nightly habit where I try and find good pickers.
SPEAKER_2: But we fixed it with the mega pickeroo.
SPEAKER_2: Clair, do you have a craving?
SPEAKER_1: Nah, I actually left mine at home, sorry.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, damn.
SPEAKER_2: Do you want to like, grab you?
SPEAKER_2: I might have one if you want.
SPEAKER_1: Just like, borrow a craving?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, just gonna pass it through the computer screen.
SPEAKER_2: Just here, here you go.
SPEAKER_2: Just take that, and there you go.
SPEAKER_2: There's a craving for you.
SPEAKER_4: I didn't actually decide-
SPEAKER_2: Is my craving not good enough for you?
SPEAKER_1: I'm just, I'm looking at it, and I'm like, hmm, do I want this craving to be inside of me?
SPEAKER_1: Do I want this to be my craving?
SPEAKER_1: And I'm like, feeling, I'm swishing it around in my mouth a bit, and I like the mouth feel.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know if-
SPEAKER_3: I'm just gonna-
SPEAKER_2: The mouth feel of a craving.
SPEAKER_1: So here's, here's my craving.
SPEAKER_1: With isolation occurring, I have been craving people reaching out more.
SPEAKER_1: And this craving applies to myself as well, because I have a hard time reaching out.
SPEAKER_1: I feel I'm very busy.
SPEAKER_1: That's not really an excuse.
SPEAKER_1: It's more just like, it's my reasoning for myself why I don't do it more.
SPEAKER_1: But when people reach out to me, it makes me feel good.
SPEAKER_1: I love when people reach out to me and just send me a message unprompted.
SPEAKER_1: And I don't, I don't know, maybe it just stems from like having anxiety, but like, I remember having the anxiety of like messaging people is annoying them.
SPEAKER_1: Messaging people is bugging them.
SPEAKER_1: And it's like, they can just not look at it if they don't want.
SPEAKER_1: And so, like, I know people still feel this.
SPEAKER_1: I even talked to my partner, but this has been an active part of our relationship about how communication isn't bugging because of previous experiences.
SPEAKER_1: And I used to feel this too.
SPEAKER_1: I want people to reach out more.
SPEAKER_1: I want to reach out more and just send a message, even if there's no goal to the message, even if it's just like, sup.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And then not having the expectation, like, you have to answer.
SPEAKER_1: Just being like, here's a hook.
SPEAKER_1: Do you want to take it?
SPEAKER_1: You don't gotta, but it's there for you.
SPEAKER_2: This is good.
SPEAKER_2: This is a wholesome craving.
SPEAKER_2: I'm gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_2: I'm bad at this on both sides of it.
SPEAKER_1: Well, maybe, hey, Brianna, it'd be a great solution to the craving if maybe we could like, talk through this more than, huh?
SPEAKER_1: Because I feel like I've mostly resolved the feeling of like, I don't feel like I'm bugging people.
SPEAKER_1: I don't feel like, if I think I should message this person, I do it as soon as I have time.
SPEAKER_1: Sometimes it's like, I should message this person.
SPEAKER_1: And then because of my memory, my terrible memory, it's like, I should message this person.
SPEAKER_1: And then 10 minutes later, I have my phone, and I'm like, what was that thing I was supposed to do?
SPEAKER_1: I don't know.
SPEAKER_1: And then it doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_1: And then I'll remember the next day, and then I won't do it.
SPEAKER_1: And this is my problem, is remembering to do it, because I usually think about it when I'm in the shower, or when I'm waking up, or when I'm having breakfast.
SPEAKER_1: And I make a thing about, I don't touch my phone in the morning until right before work, and just to check a couple messages, and then just like, I don't touch my phone again until after work, mostly.
SPEAKER_4: Sometimes I break my rules.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, you know, sometimes you gotta break your rules.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like the thing for me is I just, a thing that I have kind of come to recently realize is that texting is just not my particular type of communication.
SPEAKER_2: I can text and enjoy it a little bit, but it like ends up stressing me out, because I'm very much am the way of like, oh god, a text came in, I have to respond to it.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, that's such a bad mind frame.
SPEAKER_1: I don't mean to put you on the spot, but this is a thing in our culture.
SPEAKER_1: Let me try and like say the thing that helped me unlearn this.
SPEAKER_1: Even like 10 years ago, 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago, this culture didn't really exist, because if I wanted to reach out to you, I sent you an email.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: You don't respond to emails right away, right?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_1: You can let an email sit in a while, and that's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, except then if someone sends a follow-up email, because I've let it sit there too long, my brain melts.
SPEAKER_1: Usually, if someone sends a follow-up email, what you can do is be like, a message received, I'll look into this, and then they won't send another email.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe this is just like, as a developer that is now working with teams a lot more, communication is like, you have to develop your communication skills in order to work as a team.
SPEAKER_1: And also in my personal life, I've been working on my communication skills.
SPEAKER_1: You know this Brianna, for the past forever, but very deeply into the discourse of how communication is done the past two or three years.
SPEAKER_1: And really working on myself because of things in my personal life.
SPEAKER_2: Mood, mood, absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_1: Really, I have opinions about communication.
SPEAKER_1: And one of the things is, I hate the concept of quote unquote being left unread.
SPEAKER_1: Because what it implies is you're not allowed to read somebody's message until you reply to them.
SPEAKER_1: And I think that's so silly.
SPEAKER_1: I think it's like, I don't even know what I'm gonna say to you until I read your message.
SPEAKER_1: And that's one of the best parts about textual communication is I can sit on that for a while.
SPEAKER_1: I can read your message, and then I can think about it.
SPEAKER_1: And then I can respond.
SPEAKER_1: Verbal communication is great because you can respond so quickly, but text communication is so great because you can sit on an idea.
SPEAKER_1: When you take away the feeling of you can sit on this, that's when textual communication becomes, I don't like this.
SPEAKER_1: Because I also, for a very long time, in high school, I was the person who would send paragraph texts.
SPEAKER_1: I have this memory of when you meet a new person and we would send one message to each other a day, and it would be a book length.
SPEAKER_1: It was so long, but it would take a whole day.
SPEAKER_1: And you had to find the time.
SPEAKER_1: And genuinely, at one point, it got unsustainable, where it's like, all right, we're just gonna no more long messages.
SPEAKER_1: And it just broke.
SPEAKER_1: But for a very long time, our messages just slowly got larger and larger and larger and took more and more time, and we understood that.
SPEAKER_1: And then somewhere along the line, it was like, messaging is for making plans only.
SPEAKER_1: That was how I thought of it.
SPEAKER_1: And now it's like, messaging is for communicating however I want.
SPEAKER_2: I think for me, it has always been...
SPEAKER_2: So in high school, mine was kind of the other thing where it was just me and another person going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth all day, just wake up till go to sleep, which was very stressful for me.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, God.
SPEAKER_2: But well, it is very stressful for me these days if I have that sort of text communication relationship.
SPEAKER_2: But at the time, I thought it was good.
SPEAKER_2: I don't...
SPEAKER_2: It doesn't work for me anymore.
SPEAKER_2: But the thing that I find now is sitting on an idea, sitting on a text that you haven't responded to has two things that come up for me.
SPEAKER_2: They're the two possible options.
SPEAKER_2: One is I didn't forget about the message.
SPEAKER_2: Two things happen.
SPEAKER_2: Either one or another thing happens.
SPEAKER_2: You get to choose.
SPEAKER_2: You can either choose to press on in a risky position or...
SPEAKER_2: Shut.
SPEAKER_2: And the first one is you could forget, you could not forget that the message exists and therefore, it is just in your head the entire time that you're trying to work on something else and you're like, oh God, I have to respond to the message.
SPEAKER_2: Oh God, I have to...
SPEAKER_2: Or not even, but like, oh, that's a thing that I have to do later is respond to that message.
SPEAKER_2: That's the thing that one, at some point, I will have to do.
SPEAKER_2: Ah, scream, scream.
SPEAKER_2: The other option is you completely fucking forget about it.
SPEAKER_2: It's like, it's just out of your brain completely because my memory is also bad.
SPEAKER_2: And neither of those options are great.
SPEAKER_2: And both of them, yeah, both of them definitely can come up.
SPEAKER_2: And so that is why I find that like text communication, like I love to video chat people when it works.
SPEAKER_2: I love to hang out with people.
SPEAKER_2: I like to communicate and stuff.
SPEAKER_2: I just, whenever I try to text communicate, I'm like, ah, this is the most stressful thing I've ever experienced in my life.
SPEAKER_2: That's why I said I like talking to this person.
SPEAKER_2: I appreciate this person.
SPEAKER_2: And that's why I tend to find that like, I can have little tiny conversations here and there, but like more substantial text conversations, like truly exhaust and drain me.
SPEAKER_1: So sometimes I forget a conversation too.
SPEAKER_1: And I feel like that's fine personally.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know.
SPEAKER_2: I just think that it's fine.
SPEAKER_1: The expectation that like, like if you want an answer, follow up.
SPEAKER_1: Just send a follow up email, send a follow up message.
SPEAKER_1: Like that's fine.
SPEAKER_2: Logically, I think that makes sense.
SPEAKER_2: But the feeling is I am the worst, most insensitive, unthinking fool in the entire world who has betrayed not only myself, but my friends' respect for me and care about me.
SPEAKER_2: I am a disaster of a being.
SPEAKER_1: This is coming back into like something.
SPEAKER_2: This is the IRC conversation we had yesterday.
SPEAKER_1: Exactly.
SPEAKER_2: The last episode.
SPEAKER_2: This is the way that I think my brain works.
SPEAKER_2: I want to communicate with people and then stop communicating with people and then go back to communicating with people.
SPEAKER_1: You expect people to dislike you from the jump.
SPEAKER_1: Your assumption is that people are going to dislike you and you have to make them like you rather than people have no feelings towards you until you put yourself out there.
SPEAKER_2: Right, but like, yes, you're absolutely correct.
SPEAKER_2: That is the thing.
SPEAKER_2: That is the theme of my life.
SPEAKER_2: That is the way that my life works.
SPEAKER_2: I literally was having a conversation earlier today about how this, you know what?
SPEAKER_2: We'll get into that later.
SPEAKER_2: That's related to my last craving.
SPEAKER_2: We'll get into that.
SPEAKER_2: But no, this is totally a thing.
SPEAKER_2: It's like, to me, a text conversation is a test.
SPEAKER_2: It is a test of whether or not you are a good enough person and a good enough friend.
SPEAKER_2: I don't consider it that from other people.
SPEAKER_2: I don't super, if someone forgets to respond or doesn't respond for time, the most that I will feel is like a moment of annoyance and then it passes.
SPEAKER_2: But my brain does not give me the same courtesy.
SPEAKER_2: And so reaching out is hard.
SPEAKER_2: And so, Clair, how do we make this easier?
SPEAKER_1: I don't know how I solved this.
SPEAKER_1: I like the thing is, I get where you're coming from because I was exactly where you were three years ago.
SPEAKER_1: Exactly, like, I got no-
SPEAKER_2: Clair, you are sounding a little bit like an inspirational speaker.
SPEAKER_3: I'm so sorry, I hate that.
SPEAKER_2: I hate that, I hate that you just said that because it's true.
SPEAKER_2: No, you're right.
SPEAKER_2: And like, it's because you're also doing hand movements, which I don't think the audience can see, but you are doing hand movements, like you are giving the speech to an assembly in a high school.
SPEAKER_2: I was where you were three years ago.
SPEAKER_1: I sat right where you are now.
SPEAKER_1: You points at the general audience member.
SPEAKER_2: You, I'm pointing at one of the listeners right now.
SPEAKER_1: I'm pointing at you, the one listening.
SPEAKER_1: The only person listening right now.
SPEAKER_2: But I think that you're right.
SPEAKER_2: Like this is, I think it's totally understandable for you to be like, oh yeah, I was in this place and I have found ways to like cope with this feeling or move past this feeling.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, and I am in no way a motivational speaker.
SPEAKER_1: I am in no way a life coach or whatever the hell they do.
SPEAKER_1: It's just like, at one point, I realized I deserve better.
SPEAKER_1: And that path took me down.
SPEAKER_1: I treat people the best I can treat them.
SPEAKER_1: And I expect people to treat me the best they can.
SPEAKER_1: And sometimes me or the other person messes up, and I expect us to be able to hold ourselves accountable.
SPEAKER_1: And I expect us to make space for mess ups, but also be able to call each other out on them.
SPEAKER_1: Trust is really the thing.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, no, I think that that's rad.
SPEAKER_2: Also, how neurotypical of you, Clair.
SPEAKER_2: I know, I know.
SPEAKER_1: I'm definitely neurotypical, uh-huh, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_2: I don't know that there's a way to transfer that knowledge from you to me, except for the ways that we have totally talked about before of just transferring knowledge.
SPEAKER_3: Yeah, we need to just get our craving solution.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, usually some sort of ingestible method is typically how we go about it.
SPEAKER_1: What was it?
SPEAKER_1: Was it gum that it was like, here's my brain gum?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_2: That sounds like something we do.
SPEAKER_2: Sure, this sounds like some bullshit we come up with.
SPEAKER_2: There is a way where we could just fix the culture and our brains.
SPEAKER_2: So we just do that.
SPEAKER_2: And there we go, craving fucking salt.
SPEAKER_1: Sorry, wait, what is the salute?
SPEAKER_1: I feel like you just skipped over.
SPEAKER_1: I feel like I blinked and you were just like, we'll just fix society.
SPEAKER_1: And then you didn't give me how.
SPEAKER_1: And it was just like, we'll just fix society.
SPEAKER_1: Great.
SPEAKER_1: This is a good craving.
SPEAKER_2: Well, no, Clair, as we all know, we live in a society.
SPEAKER_2: And if we can say we live in a society, then we can also say we can fix society.
SPEAKER_2: And that's why I'm running for president in 2020.
SPEAKER_1: Look, this is the price of leadership.
SPEAKER_2: I've already got the slogan for you.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, it's so perfect.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, yeah, no, I totally definitely want to be in some sort of leadership position in a government.
SPEAKER_1: Look, Brianna, when I think politician, I definitely think you.
SPEAKER_2: Thanks, Clair.
SPEAKER_1: That's what comes to my mind when I think politician lately.
SPEAKER_2: I think my best quality as a politician is the way that the perception that people don't like me even a little bit gives me full blown panic attacks.
SPEAKER_2: That's my favorite quality that I have that is fitting of a politician.
SPEAKER_1: Uh-huh, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, it would be such a unique quality, right?
SPEAKER_3: As a politician?
SPEAKER_2: What if, yeah, it would, it would.
SPEAKER_2: I have an idea.
SPEAKER_2: I've just figured out an idea.
SPEAKER_2: What if we make an emoji that just says, I don't hate you?
SPEAKER_1: Is that the, is that like the bottom emoji?
SPEAKER_1: What is the name for that emoji where it looks like someone like asking for spankies?
SPEAKER_3: You know the emoji I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_1: It's like the doe eyes looking up.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, that one.
SPEAKER_3: I don't know what it's called.
SPEAKER_2: It just looks like the bottom emoji.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, it's the bottom emoji.
SPEAKER_2: Spankies, please.
SPEAKER_2: That's that emoji.
SPEAKER_2: This can be the anxiety emoji, and it just is in fun, cool font.
SPEAKER_2: It just says, I don't hate you.
SPEAKER_2: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_2: You can respond to this whenever you need to.
SPEAKER_2: It's totally fine.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe it's just more emojis.
SPEAKER_1: I use a lot of emojis.
SPEAKER_1: I said I used emoticons last time.
SPEAKER_2: That just might be it.
SPEAKER_2: I don't use that many emojis.
SPEAKER_2: You use a lot of emojis.
SPEAKER_2: You're comfortable with texting.
SPEAKER_2: I'm not so comfortable with texting, so I think that makes sense.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe you just need to text more.
SPEAKER_1: Hey, Brianna, maybe you need to dive in neck first.
SPEAKER_2: I'll just use more emojis.
SPEAKER_1: Not head first.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I'll just use more emojis, and that'll fix it.
SPEAKER_1: That'll fix all your life problems is more emojis.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe you should start a podcast about emojis, and you can call it Emoji.
SPEAKER_1: And it would drive itself.
SPEAKER_2: That would be a great podcast idea.
SPEAKER_2: I'm glad no one has taken that podcast idea yet.
SPEAKER_1: It'd be very interesting to have a trans woman do that podcast idea.
SPEAKER_3: What a unique perspective.
SPEAKER_2: Shout out to Emojidrome.
SPEAKER_2: That feels like it solved it, right?
SPEAKER_1: I feel like it.
SPEAKER_1: I feel like maybe if it didn't solve it for you, it solved it for me.
SPEAKER_1: And maybe there's someone that has gone, fuck you, Clair.
SPEAKER_1: I didn't sign up for Life Advice.
SPEAKER_1: And then someone else went, hmm, interesting concept.
SPEAKER_1: I'm going to ruminate on this until I feel anxiety or something, and then maybe less anxiety.
SPEAKER_1: Who knows?
SPEAKER_2: So basically the experience of watching a motivational speaker.
SPEAKER_1: Where do I get my motivational speaker plaque?
SPEAKER_1: Do I go to the like, which office is it?
SPEAKER_2: Which board room?
SPEAKER_2: I think you have to go to a high school gym.
SPEAKER_1: Okay, great.
SPEAKER_1: Do you want to give me your hot take that you had served?
SPEAKER_2: So, Clair, I think this craving is pretty simple.
SPEAKER_2: How do you know when something you make is good?
SPEAKER_4: Hey, Clair.
SPEAKER_2: Hey, Clair, I want to just be able to know that.
SPEAKER_2: I just want to be able to know it before I show it to anyone else.
SPEAKER_2: I just want it to be perfect before anyone else sees it.
SPEAKER_4: Oh, my God.
SPEAKER_1: Okay, so I just want to say, the first thing that came to my mind was a line from Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
SPEAKER_1: The line goes, how do you know when it's done?
SPEAKER_1: At some point, you stop.
SPEAKER_2: That also makes me think of a line from the half of it, which is what's the...
SPEAKER_2: It's about what's the difference between a good painting and a great painting.
SPEAKER_2: They say it's just five strokes.
SPEAKER_1: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_1: How do you know if something is good?
SPEAKER_1: You show people, I guess.
SPEAKER_2: But, Clair, why do you...
SPEAKER_1: Please, say whatever you're about to say, but I just want to predict.
SPEAKER_3: You're going to concoct some wild thing where your friend now hates you because you've shown them something you're genuinely interested in.
SPEAKER_2: Now, please go on.
SPEAKER_3: Say exactly what you're going to say.
SPEAKER_2: I'm going to say exactly what I was going to say, which is, what if you show someone something that isn't perfect, and they decide you are evil and cancelled because you made something imperfect, and they hate you now?
SPEAKER_4: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_1: I'm sensing a theme.
SPEAKER_4: I had a rough day, Clair.
SPEAKER_2: I'm doing fine.
SPEAKER_2: This has been on the brain recently.
SPEAKER_2: You really think you're evil.
SPEAKER_2: This has come up.
SPEAKER_1: You really think you're evil.
SPEAKER_1: You think people will think you're evil.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, with this one specifically, it's not just, oh no, the thing that I...
SPEAKER_2: It is partially like, oh God, I don't want to show anyone the thing that I made in case it's somehow problematic in a way that I didn't catch, and it ends up making someone feel bad.
SPEAKER_2: But there is also the level here of, oh God, what if it isn't good?
SPEAKER_2: And then I've showed someone something that isn't good, and they understand finally and immediately that I am a fake creator girl who cannot, in fact, create anything good on the first take.
SPEAKER_1: Well, no one can create anything good on the first take.
SPEAKER_2: I mean...
SPEAKER_1: Everyone has their first take.
SPEAKER_1: Even if someone shows you, like, this is the first thing they did that day, there was one before that.
SPEAKER_1: There was something before that day.
SPEAKER_2: You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_2: What have you considered, Clair?
SPEAKER_2: That you have to be immediately good?
SPEAKER_2: What if someone could and that someone was me, and I could just do it?
SPEAKER_2: What if I could just do it?
SPEAKER_1: You'd be revolutionary.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, what if I just did it?
SPEAKER_1: That'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_1: You'd get documentaries made about you.
SPEAKER_1: You'd have a million-dollar record deal.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know.
SPEAKER_1: I don't think you're going to get that.
SPEAKER_2: I'd have a record deal for some reason.
SPEAKER_2: I write things, but they just say, do you want to be on some songs?
SPEAKER_2: And then I nail it because I'm perfect in everything the first take.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, this is what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like this is the expectation.
SPEAKER_1: You write something really good, and now you're just going to get a record deal.
SPEAKER_2: That's half a joke, right?
SPEAKER_1: Because that feels like the expectation.
SPEAKER_2: This is the thing.
SPEAKER_2: I know that it's a ridiculous thing.
SPEAKER_2: I obviously know that it's a ridiculous thing.
SPEAKER_2: There's still the feeling where I don't want to show someone something and say, hey, do you have any criticism for them to have an answer?
SPEAKER_2: How embarrassing would that be?
SPEAKER_1: I love criticism.
SPEAKER_2: No, I love criticism, but the idea of reaching out and being like, hey, could you criticize this?
SPEAKER_2: Is terrifying because you never know what the criticism is going to be.
SPEAKER_2: What if the criticism is...
SPEAKER_1: Please don't say you're evil.
SPEAKER_2: What if the actual thing is, what if the criticism is, you should abandon this project?
SPEAKER_1: I think the follow up to that is why.
SPEAKER_2: Super fair.
SPEAKER_1: If I'm asking for criticism and someone says a blanket statement, my response is, interesting.
SPEAKER_1: Why?
SPEAKER_1: I want to know.
SPEAKER_1: And I guess, again, this is just a communication thing of, be precise with your communication, right?
SPEAKER_1: Especially if you're critiquing something.
SPEAKER_1: Again, as a developer, what I do is get criticism on the code I write.
SPEAKER_1: That is my literal, everyday job.
SPEAKER_1: And it sucks sometimes.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, it depends who's giving criticism.
SPEAKER_1: Some people can't give criticism well.
SPEAKER_1: Some people can.
SPEAKER_1: The thing is, people are different.
SPEAKER_1: And you're going to have people you go to.
SPEAKER_2: For what it's worth, I've also done this.
SPEAKER_2: I did an English degree.
SPEAKER_4: Yeah, you're good at this.
SPEAKER_3: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_2: Well, to clarify, in English classes, one of the things that often is done is a writing seminar thing where in one person prints out copies of their essay for everyone.
SPEAKER_2: And people go over their essay and then you go around the room and everyone critiques your essay, which sounds terrifying.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, so it is like you say, you're not supposed to say anything.
SPEAKER_2: Here's the structure of how it goes.
SPEAKER_2: Is everyone supposed to read it the night before?
SPEAKER_2: Then you read it out to everyone, kind of make notes along the way where the flow doesn't super work, right?
SPEAKER_2: Because saying it out loud helps with that.
SPEAKER_2: And then one by one, everyone in the class will say, here's what I thought of this essay, here's some things that I think could be improved with it.
SPEAKER_2: And usually by the end, someone's like, yeah, what that first person said, what this person said, basically just that.
SPEAKER_2: That sounds awful.
SPEAKER_2: What?
SPEAKER_2: That sounds awful.
SPEAKER_2: On one level, it is awful.
SPEAKER_2: On another level, it's incredibly useful.
SPEAKER_2: I don't know that it is the best way to go about it, but it's very useful to have 15 people tell you what they think.
SPEAKER_2: This is in small classes.
SPEAKER_2: This is for smaller classes.
SPEAKER_1: Because I've actually done this.
SPEAKER_1: I went to you, first off.
SPEAKER_1: I took a creative writing for young adults and children, and one of the first people I would turn to is you, because you're a great writer.
SPEAKER_1: And then in class, what we would do is we'd have groups of four.
SPEAKER_1: And one by one, we have, I think it was 10 minutes or something per story, maybe even less time.
SPEAKER_1: One person would read.
SPEAKER_1: You could read your own, or you could get someone else to read it.
SPEAKER_1: And that was really useful, because I'd always ask someone else to read mine, because I want to know how they read it, because that gives me more feedback than if I read it.
SPEAKER_2: That sounds way better.
SPEAKER_1: It was super useful.
SPEAKER_1: Genuinely, people would stumble on a thing, and I was like, that's not good enough.
SPEAKER_1: I want that to flow.
SPEAKER_1: I want that to come so naturally that you don't have to think twice about that.
SPEAKER_1: Or even if it didn't sound right.
SPEAKER_1: I always ask someone to read mine, and I would always offer to read someone else's, always.
SPEAKER_1: And it was always the same for people.
SPEAKER_1: So by the end of the semester, you knew who these people were, sort of.
SPEAKER_1: And that was really useful, because A, it's only three or four other people.
SPEAKER_1: So you're not getting the entire class's feedback, which is helpful.
SPEAKER_1: I was like, oh, you're gonna get 100 people's feedback?
SPEAKER_1: That sounds terrifying, but I guess you have 100 perspectives, which I guess is useful.
SPEAKER_1: But if it's 15, I don't know, four versus 15, it's not worth the being put on the spot for me.
SPEAKER_1: That's my opinion.
SPEAKER_1: But I think that class is how it should be done, right?
SPEAKER_1: Small groups read each other the work.
SPEAKER_1: And this is coming from someone who has absolutely no practice in writing whatsoever.
SPEAKER_1: So don't listen to me at all.
SPEAKER_2: To me, what works best really depends on the class and depends on who's in the class.
SPEAKER_1: And the writer.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, and the writer.
SPEAKER_2: Unsurprisingly, there is no one way to do this perfectly, which is a problem, because that is essentially what I'm asking to solve with this craving is I simply want the way to do it perfect where I don't have to risk anything.
SPEAKER_2: See, Clair, I would like to create interesting, good and powerful content without having to take any risks or make any choices that could, in some way, cause any sort of strife or potential for harm.
SPEAKER_1: Unless you want to cause strife.
SPEAKER_2: Yes, unless I wish to cause strife.
SPEAKER_2: So what about robots?
SPEAKER_2: I'm just saying, I don't want to go to robots.
SPEAKER_1: I think the solution to this craving isn't a unified method of solving this.
SPEAKER_1: I think this is finding your method of getting feedback.
SPEAKER_1: And I'll just say, if texting and reaching out doesn't work, what about this?
SPEAKER_1: Let's try this one time, but here's my suggestion.
SPEAKER_1: Read me something you've written one time on a video chat.
SPEAKER_1: Or I'll read you it.
SPEAKER_2: I see.
SPEAKER_1: We'll do exactly what the class did, but with social distancing and also like, it's less work because traveling and whatnot, then you can hear it.
SPEAKER_2: That's a good idea.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe.
SPEAKER_2: I like this idea.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, this seems like a good idea.
SPEAKER_2: And honestly, like asking friends for feedback and in general, like that is the course of action that I would take.
SPEAKER_2: I'm just being a little bit of a weenie about it and wanting to do it without having to.
SPEAKER_1: And what I want to do is I'm like-
SPEAKER_4: You don't want consequences.
SPEAKER_2: I don't want consequences.
SPEAKER_2: I also don't want to inconvenience anyone.
SPEAKER_2: I also am like-
SPEAKER_2: This is what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_2: Right?
SPEAKER_2: This is the thing is I am the most, like, collaboration is a positive thing.
SPEAKER_2: And like, it's all about working together and like working on each other's things as opposed to working on your own.
SPEAKER_2: And I am also the person who is like, if I have to like, you know-
SPEAKER_1: If you have to exist near somebody.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_2: If anyone else is at all inconvenienced by the fact that I've made a thing, that's not okay.
SPEAKER_1: Good.
SPEAKER_1: I guess the solution is practice what you preach.
SPEAKER_2: I think the solution is practice what I preach.
SPEAKER_2: Thank you for the Brianna therapy episode of Salt Cravings.
SPEAKER_2: I've been a week between therapists.
SPEAKER_2: It's been a-
SPEAKER_2: it's been a time.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, I'm your mom now, except it's I'm your therapist now.
SPEAKER_1: And it's just me.
SPEAKER_2: Clair, do you want to-
SPEAKER_2: do you want to give us-
SPEAKER_2: give us your last craving?
SPEAKER_1: Do you want a fun one, or do you want to continue the therapy session?
SPEAKER_1: Or I guess, like, a middle ground?
SPEAKER_2: I don't want to continue my therapy session, but if you want to-
SPEAKER_2: if we want to start one for you, I'm down with that.
SPEAKER_2: This is the episode of Salt Cravings in which Brianna and Clair hot off the presses of talking about gender theory at the end of last episode just really get into our feelings and get into our thought processes and just-
SPEAKER_2: just really talk about it.
SPEAKER_2: And the jokes are incidental at best.
SPEAKER_1: I feel like friends just talking and making jokes together is good comedy in my opinion.
SPEAKER_1: But maybe that's my opinion because I'm one of the two friends.
SPEAKER_2: I agree with you though, as the other of the two friends.
SPEAKER_1: Well, seeing as we are the two friends who own this podcast, we get to decide that.
SPEAKER_1: So my second craving, you can maybe therapize me in a second.
SPEAKER_1: I didn't think of this as a deep craving.
SPEAKER_1: First dates.
SPEAKER_1: I love first dates.
SPEAKER_1: And there's something about first dates that just like-
SPEAKER_1: I mean, I can tell you what it is about first dates is the excitement as it's known in non-monogamous spaces, NRE or new relationship energy, I feel like applies to new people and new friendships as well as romantic things.
SPEAKER_1: And I think it's very exciting to meet a person and be like, what does this person think?
SPEAKER_1: I can ask any question and I don't know the answer to it.
SPEAKER_1: Brianna, I've just demonstrated that I can pretty much like predict what you're about to say.
SPEAKER_2: We know each other very well.
SPEAKER_1: I love that.
SPEAKER_1: I love our friendship.
SPEAKER_1: Me too.
SPEAKER_1: But like, I love both.
SPEAKER_1: I think there's room to like, I like both knowing someone very deeply and also having no clue who someone is and getting to know them.
SPEAKER_1: And so something about a first date is like, we are both here to learn about each other.
SPEAKER_1: It is that explicit, like we are here because we both want to make an attempt to understand each other.
SPEAKER_1: At least that's my idea of it.
SPEAKER_2: I think that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like I definitely have felt this about like good first dates for sure.
SPEAKER_2: This is a really interesting craving.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Because it's one that I don't necessarily get all that much.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, I'm in a monogamous relationship now, so like obviously I don't.
SPEAKER_2: But even when I wasn't, like there's always this thing to me about like first dates where it's like, okay, is this gonna, okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_2: Is this gonna be good?
SPEAKER_2: I also understand the excitement, and I think the excitement is a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_1: It's kind of like stage excitement.
SPEAKER_1: Like there is a nervousness to it, but it's like, ooh, like, ooh, I'm excited.
SPEAKER_1: I'm excited, but I'm like nervous.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, but there is something very fun about being like, I'm going to engage with a person who I don't know what they're going to say, or I can have ideas of it based on like what I know about them so far.
SPEAKER_2: But like, I, you know, there's this assignment of being surprised by someone.
SPEAKER_2: I think like one of the like things that really stood out for me on my like, my first date with my current girlfriend is like, she would tell me jokes that I'd like never heard before and start losing it.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, that's so wholesome.
SPEAKER_2: Right?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, like that's the thing that's very exciting about those things.
SPEAKER_2: And also, you get to reveal yourself to a person who's never met you before.
SPEAKER_2: So you get to tell them the stories that you've told everyone else like five times, but they've never heard them before.
SPEAKER_1: So it's fresh, all the jokes that like, yeah, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_2: People don't know about the thing that we referenced at the beginning of this episode.
SPEAKER_2: They don't.
SPEAKER_2: They have no clue what we're obsessed with.
SPEAKER_1: Uh-huh, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And so you can share that on a first date.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, and there's something so exciting about that.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, you made me think about my first date and how I was blown away with one of my current partners.
SPEAKER_1: I showed up on the date, and I think I've told you this story.
SPEAKER_1: It's like the first week of school, back to school, university, September, it's hot, it's gross.
SPEAKER_1: I'm wearing like a hoodie and like jeans, and I am like not like feeling stuff.
SPEAKER_1: I'm like, okay, I'm doing this because of...
SPEAKER_1: There were circumstances, things were said months previously, and then a meeting was set up months later because of circumstances.
SPEAKER_1: Okay, okay, I'll go on this.
SPEAKER_1: I'm not really like...
SPEAKER_1: I'm not in the mood for dating right now.
SPEAKER_1: And I show up, and they're sitting there with a bouquet of flowers on the first date.
SPEAKER_1: And I'm just like...
SPEAKER_1: I was blown away.
SPEAKER_1: And I was like, I messed up, I messed up.
SPEAKER_1: And I've never forgotten that.
SPEAKER_1: And you know what?
SPEAKER_1: They continue to blow me away.
SPEAKER_1: It's, I believe, three years later.
SPEAKER_1: And yeah.
SPEAKER_2: That's so cute.
SPEAKER_2: And so good.
SPEAKER_2: Clair, okay.
SPEAKER_2: I figured out how to solve this craving.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, I'm so glad.
SPEAKER_2: Clair, what is the perfect first date?
SPEAKER_2: Top to bottom.
SPEAKER_2: The like, well, okay.
SPEAKER_1: You're just gonna get me talking about my first date.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, I'm talking like all over, like setting.
SPEAKER_2: I'm talking about like what is the best, like the perfect first date thing to do, where it should be, the like perfect routine before the first date.
SPEAKER_2: Like, let's go through it.
SPEAKER_2: Let's set up the perfect first date.
SPEAKER_1: I think a lot about firsts.
SPEAKER_1: That's something about me that like firsts and lasts mean a lot to me.
SPEAKER_1: I know that's not true for everybody, but I think about firsts and lasts constantly in the most arbitrary ways that people just don't think about, and I've noticed that about myself.
SPEAKER_1: And so I keep a record of my favorite firsts.
SPEAKER_1: So I could tell you, I could go into great detail about this.
SPEAKER_1: And the thing is, I would just be pulling from real examples.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know how much I want to do that, but I will say I want to go on a first date where I feel confident that I am just fucking killing it with like my outfit and my style choice.
SPEAKER_1: And I think that's something that I haven't gotten to do yet.
SPEAKER_1: I've been pretty confident, but I haven't been like, like usually when I'm confident, it's like, oh, this person is killing it even more.
SPEAKER_1: And it's like, dang, I thought I brought it, but they're here just showing me up.
SPEAKER_3: And it's like, that's not how it is.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I was going to say, I think, Clair, that might be, oh, I'm attracted to this person.
SPEAKER_2: I think that's what that might be.
SPEAKER_2: I think the thing that you're describing is not, oh, no, they've not done me.
SPEAKER_2: But in fact is, oh, I like this person.
SPEAKER_1: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_1: No, there is that too.
SPEAKER_1: But I'm always, I always have the feeling of like, oh, I should have tried harder.
SPEAKER_2: You sound like me.
SPEAKER_4: Um, come on.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like in a lot of cases when you're like, oh, I should have, I should have tried harder.
SPEAKER_2: I should have tried to meet them.
SPEAKER_2: They're like, damn, I should have tried harder.
SPEAKER_2: I should have tried to meet.
SPEAKER_2: Like, I feel like it's a mutual feeling a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_2: At least I hope it is.
SPEAKER_2: So if you're listening, just...
SPEAKER_3: Oh, God.
SPEAKER_2: I was going to do the joke of, so if you're listening, just at Clair on Twitter, just tell her the answer.
SPEAKER_2: But I don't want to make that joke.
SPEAKER_1: Just tell me how hot I am.
SPEAKER_3: Just on Twitter.
SPEAKER_2: Just at Clair on Twitter and tell her how hot she is.
SPEAKER_2: Is there like a specific, is there a specific time of year?
SPEAKER_1: Summer?
SPEAKER_2: Summer is first dates?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, hell yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Not September.
SPEAKER_1: July, June.
SPEAKER_2: Gotta be, gotta be.
SPEAKER_2: It's early summer, yeah?
SPEAKER_2: Early summer.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, I was gonna say mid, but then I realized June is early summer, so yeah.
SPEAKER_2: June is absolutely early summer, yes.
SPEAKER_1: Sometimes I forget spring gets warm.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's wild, eh?
SPEAKER_1: It's weird that spring doesn't end in March, and it does in fact start.
SPEAKER_2: It's weird.
SPEAKER_2: I think it's fucked up that seasons have levels to them, right?
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, because we're in a latitude that is true.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's wild.
SPEAKER_2: A season doesn't just immediately stop at the end of the season and turn into a completely different weather pattern.
SPEAKER_1: You mean like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing?
SPEAKER_2: Yes.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's weird.
SPEAKER_2: We're not in Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing.
SPEAKER_2: We are in a world in which dates can happen.
SPEAKER_2: I guess they can also happen in Stardew Valley.
SPEAKER_1: I want to live in a world where dates can't happen.
SPEAKER_2: That's like one of those concepts, one of those dystopias that straight people write about, what if love was illegal?
SPEAKER_2: Oh, wild.
SPEAKER_1: What a wild concept.
SPEAKER_2: No one's ever experienced that before.
SPEAKER_2: Damn.
SPEAKER_2: Forbidden love?
SPEAKER_2: Couldn't understand it.
SPEAKER_2: Couldn't get my head around it.
SPEAKER_2: Is there anything else that's important about a date to you?
SPEAKER_1: Communication.
SPEAKER_1: I like being blunt and honest.
SPEAKER_1: And I don't mean blunt in the way that people go, I'm blunt.
SPEAKER_1: If I say something mean, I expect you to take it.
SPEAKER_1: I mean blunt.
SPEAKER_1: And I'm just going to be real.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, oh, these are my expectations.
SPEAKER_1: This is what I was thinking before we met up.
SPEAKER_1: How do you feel?
SPEAKER_1: And if those don't align, then we talk about it instead of like starting around the fact.
SPEAKER_1: And if they can't do that, then...
SPEAKER_1: I mean, that's fine.
SPEAKER_1: It's just not a match, right?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, that's very important.
SPEAKER_2: Is there also...
SPEAKER_2: How much sharing happens on a first date?
SPEAKER_1: Oh, all of it.
SPEAKER_1: When it's me, it's like, let me tell you every story that you want to hear.
SPEAKER_1: I will just keep sharing.
SPEAKER_1: And usually it's like back and forth, right?
SPEAKER_1: It's like you tell a story, and then something prompts that.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, oh, that reminds me.
SPEAKER_1: And then they'll share a story for a while.
SPEAKER_1: And it's like, oh, well, I thought of this.
SPEAKER_1: And it's just a back and forth.
SPEAKER_1: And that's conversation, I feel, right?
SPEAKER_1: You just share stories.
SPEAKER_1: And I think that's why a first date is so exciting to me, because that's how I communicate with someone on a first date.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, this story that you've told now makes me think of a story that I've told.
SPEAKER_1: And so I can tell a story and make you think of a story.
SPEAKER_1: And it's just like, you know, it's really easy to fill the time on a first date.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's a date, and it's also sort of a storytelling session.
SPEAKER_4: I know.
SPEAKER_2: This is also how I do first dates.
SPEAKER_2: So like, I fully understand.
SPEAKER_1: Wow, it's almost like we should play storytelling games together.
SPEAKER_2: God, I can't imagine doing that.
SPEAKER_4: Who would...
SPEAKER_2: Clair, I can't imagine playing some sort of storytelling or role-playing game with you.
SPEAKER_1: Playing the roles of other people, but in real life, huh?
SPEAKER_2: Sounds pretty problematic to me.
SPEAKER_4: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like a tabletop game as a first date would be a wild one.
SPEAKER_1: Holy Christ, that's so...
SPEAKER_1: You'd have to do a session zero.
SPEAKER_1: You'd have to be like, that would have to be the first date.
SPEAKER_1: Right?
SPEAKER_1: What are the lines?
SPEAKER_2: What are the, like, veils?
SPEAKER_1: Hey, what if you just treat...
SPEAKER_1: In this relationship, what are the lines?
SPEAKER_1: What are the veils?
SPEAKER_2: What's your character?
SPEAKER_2: Can you describe your character?
SPEAKER_2: Can you fill in kind of the character sheet for yourself?
SPEAKER_3: I would run away so quickly!
SPEAKER_3: Can you imagine if you just sat down and someone handed you a character sheet and was like, can you just fill this in?
SPEAKER_2: It's like a D&D character sheet.
SPEAKER_3: What do you think your strength is?
SPEAKER_3: What is your agility?
SPEAKER_3: What do you think your skills are?
SPEAKER_1: I'm trying to think of D&D things.
SPEAKER_3: These guns!
SPEAKER_2: Oh, this is...
SPEAKER_2: That would be a hell of a time.
SPEAKER_2: Hopefully, there are better first dates in your future than that.
SPEAKER_1: I think there will be.
SPEAKER_2: I think we've done it.
SPEAKER_2: We've done 4 Cravings.
SPEAKER_1: We've therapized Brianna.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, we truly have.
SPEAKER_2: Next time, let's make sure all of our Cravings are like a robot or a goddamn new society.
SPEAKER_1: Alright, Brianna, just for you.
SPEAKER_1: Every Craving Next Step says, just get it.
SPEAKER_1: You're gonna be like, okay, so I have these real Cravings this time, and I'm gonna be like, a robot.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, we've done too much of the real shit.
SPEAKER_2: Now we have to go back to our MO of just fully speculative podcasting.
SPEAKER_1: This has been Salt Cravings.
SPEAKER_2: If you want more of our wonderful, wonderful content, you can find us at Salt Cravings on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
SPEAKER_1: You can also find us on Patreon and give us a dollar if you want, or you can rate us on iTunes, Stitcher or any other podcast thing that lets you rate things.
SPEAKER_2: Is there anything else?
SPEAKER_1: I mean, what's the regular outro that we've had for 45 episodes now?
SPEAKER_2: Well, that's all the Cravings today, folks.
SPEAKER_2: Come back next time when you're cravin our podcast.
SPEAKER_1: All right.
SPEAKER_1: I almost just hung up.
SPEAKER_1: Let's go to time that is.