1417 - Sea Noodle

From PRX. because I'm here to put you to sleep and keep you coming. So what could be a better time to record a podcast to put people to sleep than right now? And I said, yeah, let's do it. So I'm here getting cozy to help you get cozy. And believe it or not, my dog's cozy near my feet. She doesn't even have a cozy, but I mean, she doesn't have a tea cozy. but it's been a while since we've referred to T Cozy's or I dog-sitted a dog once named Cozy but interestingly enough you don't need to be Cozy Cozy's optional with Sleep With Me Cozy could be optional there's a channel called Cozy I'm going to have to check out I think it's over the air too So I'm going to get an antenna and tune it in. Your antenna might be tuned to these lulls. Welcome to sleep with me, by the way. This is a podcast to keep you company and take your mind off stuff so you could fall asleep, to be your friend in the deep dark night, and yeah, to be a mild distraction. Something to listen to to distract you from whatever's keeping you up versus putting you to sleep directly. But I'm glad you're here. we work really hard on the show to try to help you out and let me see if you're new what we got coming up is support so the paying for the show is optional particularly for new listeners or occasional listeners then after the support is a long meandering intro it's easier in bedtime and then we'll be telling you a story from our episodically modular series get best social big farm in the sky PI and I'm really glad you're here. I really hope I can help you out. Regular listeners, so glad to have you back night after night. And we try to keep a variety of styles of episodes coming out night after night after night. And we're here for everybody, right? Whether you're new, whether you only listen once in a while, whether you're just going through a tough time, or whether you listen night after night after night. And if you're one of those people that listen night after night after night, year after year after year, you're like a regular listener and the podcast has made your life better. You're like, I really need to get through to, and we could really use your support, either supporting the sponsors that are coming up or supporting the show directly to benefit, not just you, but everybody else that listens. We count on the people whose lives have been changed by the podcast. And that's what keeps us around for everybody, for you and everybody else. So I'm glad you're here. I work really hard. Oh, and yeah, these are the ways you, if you say, yeah, no, the spike is making my life better. How can I help? Here's the ways you could do that. Hey, everybody, this is Scoots. This is one of these messages. Again, I'm setting aside trying to directly get people to support the show on Sleep With Me Plus and get a better understanding of what's not working. So if you're someone who listens to the show most nights or listens on a regular basis or has listened for a long time, or you listen all night long, or you fall asleep fast, and you're someone who could support the show, but something is holding you back or keeping you from doing so, I'm trying to figure out what that something is. And is it a feeling like a feeling of guilt, a feeling of discomfort, of not wanting attention, like not having to put yourself out there or not even being sure what supporting means or what you get? If you want to take the time to answer any of those questions. It'd be a huge help, especially if I'm saying your experience is not something I mentioned. It's something I don't know about. And you could fill out the form at sleepingmepodcast.com slash listen and let me know. I appreciate it. Thanks. Oh, Mystery Bard. A lot of people help out on the show. Who are they? This posty poster song Sounds like a near fall Wrote the theme song Girl W the legend Ashley, Kenny, Scotty, Jennifer Eric and the team at his town Or on the website I am the mystery bar I do the lullabies, yeah I do commissions at Jonathanman.net I'll write a song for you Any reason at all You can tell me the story and I'll make it personal You see the kindness shine Straight on through When the listeners form their own Facebook group Keith, Stacy, Sarah, Julie, and Jennifer. These are your non-a-raiders. Get support, dear Scooter, on Patreon. Buy the merch and support the sponsors. You can find anything you want at sleepwithmepodcast.com. And we're so proud that we could dance. Rusty Biscuit, Lois, Hannah like banana. Leah does the transcripts. Thanks, Mystery Bard. You should gift yourself the gift of sleep phones with Sleep With Me branded sleep phones. We've got a few different ones. And you can get those at sleepwithmepodcast.com slash sleep phones. That's the only place you can get the sleep with me versions of sleep phones. sleepwithmepodcast.com slash sleep phones. And use the promo code sleepwithme at checkout to get a discount. That's sleepwithmepodcast.com slash sleep phones. And use sleepwithme at checkout. Thanks, everybody. What do you say we get on with the show? Whatever's keeping you awake, it could be thoughts on your mind, thoughts you're thinking about, about the past, the present, the future, thoughts, things on your mind. Thoughts, you're always on my mind. I mean, if I sang that song, it wouldn't be just about one person. It'd be, it'd be, they see how many, like when Scoots did that Willie Nelson tribute song, did that version of Willie Nelson. Oh, it was 8,000 stanza. Is the stanza? Yeah, no, he hasn't stopped. He started singing it. And then he says, oh, what about that? That thought's also usually, then he changed around. You're usually mostly always, nearly always on my mind. though I may not notice you. So thoughts, it could be feelings, anything coming up for you emotionally related to those thoughts, physical sensations, like whatever scheme. It could be changes in time, temperature, routine. You could be traveling. You could have guests. Maybe work a different schedule. Maybe your schedule changed. Maybe you're in the middle of something. Maybe you're going through something. Whatever it is, I'm here to keep you company and take your mind off of whatever it is. Whether it's thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, trouble getting, or something much, much different, I'm here to try to help. And the reason I make the show, or the reason I even get into what could be getting in the way of you and the sleep you need and you deserve, is that, I don't know. I think with this show, it's important for me to let you know that you're welcome here. And you're not, I don't know, understood feels a little bit too pressure-filled. But, like, we get it around here. While I might not, I mean, I get what, I know what it feels like for me. When I can't sleep and I've had trouble, like, I've been having trouble the past couple nights because of something. And I know what that feels like at night, in the middle of the night, during the day and before I go to bed. And if it feels anything like that for you, I'd like to help. But even if you say, no, it feels different for me or I'm dealing with something you can't quite understand, I know you have no experience with. I still want to help, but I have another piece of good news, which is that there's enough people listening out there. that right now, somewhere in the world, someone else is listening who really gets it and who is really rooting for you. Like right now, there's someone who's been through something and they're really glad you're here. They're so happy. And they're so hopeful that you get the rest you need and you deserve because they know really, really what you feel like. They've been through something. And this podcast helps them out. And maybe it won't help you out, but maybe, you know, we, we help you on the way to find something that does. But if that gets through to you, even if you never listened to the show that, Hey, we're in this kind of together, separately and together. And we're rooting for one another. Even the people that you like can't relate are rooting for you. And they're also rooting for you to like, if you keep coming back, that you get that experience to lie in bed, hopeful that someone else out there. Get some relief, too. That's what this show's about. And because the thing is, you deserve a good night's sleep. You deserve bedtime you don't have to dread. You deserve a bedtime without rigmarole, where you can get the rest you need so your life is more manageable tomorrow. And ideally, you get the rest you need on a regular basis so you can be out there in the world flourishing. Because I know this, our world's a better place with you in it, and we need you in this world right now. We really could use you because, yeah, it's a lot nicer. Now, the way the show works is I send my voice across the deep, dark night. I'm going to use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents. So that means I'm going to go off topic. I'm going to get mixed up. Then I'm going to repeat myself, use natural organic filler words. and then I'm going to forget what I was talking about again. Then I'll go on and get mixed up. And all of that is to keep you coming and taking my hand off stuff. But when you first get here, the show could be even annoying to some people, and it may never change, but you could be skeptical, you could be doubtful, you could be irritated because I don't know what exactly brought you here or how you found the show, but usually you get here to sleep with me and you're kind of like a little bit rough around the edges, right? Because, you know, if it's anything like my experience. And so that's normal. Now, if you find you never like me or the show, that's okay. It's not a big deal at all. Like, I have a website set up. It's a pretty normal thing, like sleepwithmepodcast.com slash no thank you. And that has other sleep podcasts and sleepy stuff on there. because everything I set up until this point is still true. But for most people, it does take two or three tries to get used to this podcast. So just give it two or three tries and see how it goes. That's what most regular listeners have said over the past 10, 11, 12 years I've been making this podcast. Hey, it took the first time. This wasn't what I expected. The second time I was confused and I was like, what is this dude going on about? And then the third time I woke up and then I realized, Oh, now I didn't realize I was looking for something like this. It's like, because it's a podcast you don't listen to, but you can listen to it. You can kind of barely listen to it. It's like a TV on in the other room, a show streaming under your pillow, sand passing through your hands, an out-of-focus picture. It's something you can tune into when you need it, where it just provides some nice background noise. it's like a friend you call or a roommate that tells you a story that never goes anywhere. But it's comforting and distracting at the same time, or I don't know, alternates between the two. I don't know. You get to kind of see how you're going to use the show. But yeah, that's one thing it takes some getting used to. The other thing is this is a sleep podcast that's been around since 2013, before it was a thing. But the show is not meant to put you to sleep. There is no pressure to fall asleep with this show. The reason the episodes are over an hour, I don't want you to worry about falling asleep. My job is not to put you to sleep. It's to keep you company and distract you while you fall asleep. Because there's people listening that I learned early on can't sleep at all, and they need a friend in the deep, dark night just to be there for them. Or there's people that listen during the day because they need a break or they need something to listen to while they do their job, and they need me there too. So I'm here to be here whether you listen to me now, whether you're awake, but you don't have to worry about falling asleep because my job is to be your boyfriend, your Borbae, your Borsib, your Naboor, your Borby, your Borman, your Boris Borlov, your chairman of the boards, your Borsib, your Borbra, your Borcas, your best boyfriend forever. I'm just here to be your companion or not even your distant companion in the deep dark night and hang with you and kind of talk for your benefit so you could fall asleep. So that's it. I mean, that takes some getting used to too. It's a sleep podcast that doesn't put you to sleep but you fall asleep. Yeah, kind of. You'll see. You'll see. And yeah, so the other thing is to structure the show that I like to share at the beginning because the show is structured in a specific way to benefit the maximum amount of people it can. But you can't adjust how you listen. That's the great thing about all podcasts. And then we have different versions of the show to meet your needs. But this particular version is what benefits the most amount of people because most people listen to this version linearly. So the show starts off with a greeting. Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. so you feel seen and welcomed in you say oh okay i might check that show out seems nice enough and say sweet uh then uh there's a support listener support and sponsor support so paying for the show is optional because a lot of people only listen from time to time when they're going through a tough time or they're new so really like the people that listen the most are the people we count on to support the show, everybody else, you know, you're just listening for a little while. We got you. And the sponsors help do that too. So, uh, that's what the support's about. Then separate from the support is, uh, but after the support is a show within a show. It's the introduction of the podcast. It's like around 12 to 20 minutes long where I try to explain what the podcast is, but I kind of go off topic. I get mixed up as I talked about earlier, but I follow a familiar structure every time, but every intro is different. And I think what's important about that is that it's familiar, right? Okay, every intro is going to be familiar, it's going to follow, but it's different every time so that whatever keeps us awake has something new to keep distracting it, but you still say, oh, okay, but it's reassuring at the same time. The other reason the intro is like 10, 15, 20 minutes long is because this show's not meant to put you to sleep right away. There is a version of the podcast Bedtime Stories from Sleep With Me that doesn't have the intro. And then we have a variety of versions on Sleep With Me Plus for people that listen in different styles. But for most listeners, the intro is the wind-down period. So people are in bed getting comfortable. They're getting ready for bed, or they're winding down, like doing a chill activity, petting their pets. Maybe they're noodling. I don't know what that is. Is that appropriate to say? Because I don't know what it is. Or I guess canoodling. Doesn't that just mean like, is that like when you kiss each other's noses or something like that? I don't know. Or like they're chilling. I mean, maybe someone's like sculpting foam noodles, like pool noodles. Or just contemplating that in their mind. I don't know if that's a wind down activity. Maybe drawing on pool noodles is. I don't know what you'd use. Like, was it Sharpie work on a pool noodle? Does anybody draw on pool noodles anymore? Oh, never. Okay. I guess that makes sense. It makes perfect sense. He said, well, I don't have a pool. So, yeah, it's just something I put out there. So, that won't be an activity. Here's one. You could use a pool. if you have a roommate or even I guess a bed mate with a sense of humor, uh, you could use a pool noodle, like a similar to a tin can phone to whisper sweet nothings. So forget the drawing on pool. If you want to, instead of canoe, we could just, that's what noodling is actually like. There's a platonic noodling. That's where you, uh, you say, uh, race car bed, number two, race car bed, number two, this is your roommate. And, uh, the train bed come in go ahead train bed train bed i just wanted to say good night okay good night train bed i was already asleep but good night again okay good night racer race car bed number two so you could do that and then you could have more what are the other ones i guess if you're you know if you're working on a spiritual thing you do your spiritual things through there Isn't that one of the And then there's like You could do you know whisper sweet nuts You know it doesn even have to be It could be sweaty back nothings too you know through the pool noodle Just some ideas So that noodling It's a new concept on Sleuth of Me. You know, a variety of ways you could use it. Please keep your noodling below, like, low decibels. No shouting in noodles. So there you go. Because people were wondering earlier. They said, it's good. So I just Googled noodle. I don't think, no, no, no, that's a different version of it. I don't know anything about it because I didn't search for it. I just started rambling, pointless meanders. But, yeah, just in case I invented my own. Yeah, it's like a tin can phone, but it's a pool noodle. It's more repurposing. I mean, it's like this is a cutting edge of recycling or creative reuse. It's, yeah, short-term. I mean, I don't know how far it would, I don't know what the world's longest pool noodle is. I guess there's got to be one. You need a pretty long, you need a long pool. And I guess like an Olympic sized pool, it's probably going to be longer than that. World's longest pool, meet the world's longest pool noodle. It's a little bit shorter than your, you know, because obviously we got to get it in there. I mean, technically, if you can't go in a... I mean, it could be the world's largest ocean noodle, or the world's largest lake noodle, or the world's largest sea noodle. Maybe I should do an episode about this, I guess. Maybe we'll do an episode about this instead of Get Passos, Big Forever in the Sky. I think this is what you're calling to me now. An episode about sea noodles. so that's what we'll be talking about now I changed my mind that happens on the intro so the intro goes on and on and on to ease you into bedtime then there'll be a break with some support and then there'll be a long me and oh the intro's meant to ease you into bedtime just like a bedtime routine part of your bedtime routine yeah then there'll be support then there'll be a story I guess it'll be about sea noodles old sea noodle and I don't know what it'll be about. But I just like how those words sound. Sea noodle, ocean noodle. How come sea noodle sounds better than those two? It's more sleepy. I just don't know. That's why I do this. So I'm glad you're here. I work really hard. So do the team of people. We really hope we can help you fall asleep. Thanks again for coming by. And if this podcast changes your life on a regular basis, if you love this podcast, we really could use your help to keep the show going for you and for everybody else. And these are the ways you could help the show back if it makes your life better on a regular basis. Thanks so much. Hey, everybody, this is Scoots. If you are hearing this message and you support the podcast on Sleep With Me Plus, you pay for the podcast, you should not be getting this message. It means you're listening to the ad-supported version of the podcast. and here's what I want I want to make sure you're getting the the the ad free versions of the show because you get ad free full episodes you get ad free story only episodes on the same day the full episodes come out you also get bonus stuff you get episodes super early or a little bit early if you're a bore friend or bore best you get those all night all intro versions but if you're listening to this version you're not you don't have access to that for some reason so please send me a message through our website, the contact form on our website, so I can help you get everything set up. Because I don't want you missing out on that stuff you're paying your hard-earned money for. But plus, if you listen all night long, if you fall asleep fast, all the versions of those episodes, they're a lot better for all night listeners. They're a lot better for people who fall asleep fast. So let me help you get everything set up. send me an email through the contact form on our website so I can help. Thanks. All right, everybody, this is Scoots here, and this is a trending Tuesday-style episode, even though our episodes don't come out on Tuesdays. Do they come out on Tuesdays nowadays? This episode is not necessarily coming out on Tuesday. This is a little bit of a seasonal episode for the hearts go pitter-patter, though I had a non-seasonal episode I know it came out it had to have come out in the last 12 months but I think it came out more recently than that oh Buttertones yeah one of my favorite episodes of Buttertones when did that come out? in the fall okay so it's still quite a few months ago so I always put out these proposals related to romance and romantic season. By the way, I just want to put this out there. I know there are some, in the general category of romance, writers that listen to this show, novelists and short story writers and of romantic fiction, I guess I would say, reach out to me. I mean, I know I emailed back and forth with a couple of you, And especially if you live in New York State or New York City, because I have a kind of pitch idea for a bookstore. It's not a romance bookstore, but I have a pitch idea for a bookstore that's a new bookstore that another listener owns. So reach out to me. But so this is not, well, this is like my attempts at making, my lifetime attempts at making romantic fiction come true for me. So this is not a Hallmark story, though, I mean, at this point, I guess Hallmark Channel has enough. But between the seasonal holiday stuff we do, Hello, what was the name even? we had two series that would have been perfect for you. One about a shop. Can't remember the names of them, so I guess that doesn't help. As well as this series. Or, I mean, if you're competing with the Hallmark Channel, look me up already. So this isn't a series so much as a continuation. All right, so sorry, a little interruption there that you didn't hear, but a little cleaning going on unexpectedly. But I think I was talking about, okay, so every once in a while, these episodes come up where I'm trying, like my whole idea was to partner with an already established company. I came up with this oh-so-witty idea. It doesn't seem like it's, you think, maybe add less to the witty word wit for it. And, but like, this was many, many years ago on the podcast. You know, there's like a platform used to exchange money with people without having to do cash called Venmo. And a long time ago, I'd go on there and I'd say, huh, like that four by four pixel person who loves avocados or guacamole or chips or something. I also like those things. I wonder why. Venmo doesn't have a secret layer where it could also become a dating app and so then I said well why don't I invent the idea and not do anything about it except talk about it and I said okay sounds great and so they came up with a date mo well if you want more dates use date mo and then I thought oh there's another thing date moi would you like to date moi uh okay date mo date moi and crickets particularly on a sleep podcast that's kind of expected but it was like okay crickets okay not no response okay next step would be um okay let's do something about it so i came up with ideas for different uh seasonal events uh to bring people together RomComCon, which already existed, unfortunately. So did RomCon. I was like, huh, I have a great idea. RomCon, like no one ever thought of it before. And then a sub-conference within RomCom, RomComCon, which is within RomCon, which is a conference about romance and particularly romantic fiction. We would have a mini-conference called RomComCon, which I think already also existed. But those didn't go anywhere either. But then I had this idea recently when I was recording the intro, and I said to myself, holy cow, you know, because there's a lot of things attributed to romance, right? Rings, being pleasing, whether all that glitters is gold or silver, being pleasing to many people. say, okay, or whatever they say, every gift belongs if you want to go to the mall or use something that all the glitters might not be gold. My love for you is harder than zirconium. So, yeah, so those things all have gone through my mind. And then I thought about this idea. And I think we've used tin can phones for romance before. If we haven't, then we should. And so I had this idea to repurpose pool noodles. Not every pool noodle is hollow. But you say, like, which is interesting. Because, like, pool, here's an idea for pool, because you say, well, I'm kind of over pool noodles, right? This is the idea I had, which, like, is like, why don't you come up, like, this is what I proposed as part of Date Moi, our next, our first final, our first and last final launch of Date Moi. for the 2026 holiday romantic season we said okay let's do because pool noodles this was the first idea it didn't work out but he said okay how come there's only like how come there's not angel hair pool noodles which ones would you like a pool noodle like pool noodles pool noodles pool noodles or pool, you know, pool, Solamente pool noodles. Uh, like, I don't know how, like my Spanish dono noodle, um, not pool noodles. Oh no, no, we don't know. This isn't pool noodles anymore. We only have pool noodles here or maybe it's a pet pool noodles and poodles. Uh, and this one was going to be called oodles of pool noodles. and then I said what am I oodles and oodles of pool noodles and they said yeah they'll just add you know triple cost to the sign and I said okay but it'll be in neon right oodles oodles oodles oodles oodles oodles of pool noodles and pool no we don't have it could be like a cat cafe with poodles those ideas can go through but so the oodles oodles of pool noodles Oodles, oodles, and oodles of pool noodles. Come on down. You know, come on down. You need your pool noodles. Because this was my, like, I thought this would be the ad. You know, we got angel hair. We got, you know, regular pool noodles, which is kind of like spaghetti. We got a penne, you know, because then you could, you know, like, very similar to, like, floaties, but longer. you know we got Fusilli we got the other ones that I don't know you know Stars Macaroni I mean great for putting under your butt like a macaroni very similarly shaped to the rear like shaped to hold your rear end and believe me don't worry we got accessories too but then I started thinking about okay that won't work we really need to like I said in the intro something splash for our pool noodles, some sort of big splash. And again, I thought, I know there's like a long noodle that's also hollow, but that's not, like you could fill it with stuff, but you don't necessarily need to. And it's good for soaking up sauce. And I said, okay, there are pool noodles with holes in them. and then I said okay what can we get the world's largest pool noodle and they said okay well here's the thing the largest pool is this long so you're gonna have and they said so it kind of is like a fixed thing somebody and I said okay what about the largest lake noodle and they said even the people that were open-minded at you know date moi hq which is just koa and some stuffed animals you know my test my test audience they said lake noodle doesn't sound doesn't sound appetizing i'd rather have a pool noodle in the lake i don't know why i can't tell you exactly you know pond noodle definitely not swamp noodle very niche it oodles and noodles we could have that in a special section and we could wouldn't be a thing it'd be like oh no no this is special so oh yeah it's like uh we've changed the texture and uh you know it's it's you these are algae friend believe it or not like we make swamp noodles for people who love the swamp so this is algae friendly uh and uh but the algae will wash right off uh and you know we do sell in variety you know swampy colors and non-swampy colors, depending on your preference. So swamp noodles, they said, eh, okay, there's a small percentage of people who have ever existed who may want a swamp noodle. And I said, like Adrienne Barbeau, there was in a movie who dated someone, maybe she could have used a swamp noodle in that film. And then I thought about romance. So these things were swimming in my head, right? Like, these puns just keep accidentally appearing. So then I thought, okay, well, ocean noodle. And they said, eh, I don't know. Ocean noodle, probably not. Great lake noodle? And they said, not even, like, definitely just not appealing. And I said, okay, sea noodle. and all of a sudden just like in the intro it was like wait a second what'd you say sea noodle and they said huh sea noodle it has it has a catchy sound to it and yeah that maybe the long journey home you know sometimes takes over a year to uh come up with ideas just like i don't even know when the last demo episode came out in february or near february but uh uh sea noodle was going to be a part of it. So I said, okay, what's the world's largest sea noodle? And they said, as far as we know, whatever's larger, like one billionth of anything, one micron larger than 0.0 would be the world's largest sea noodle. Then I kind of came into the conglomerates because they said, just because you can't just start calling it a sea noodle. and say it's a world. I said, well, okay. All right. Opposition taken. I mean, I respect that you disagree with my approach, but I see your noodle. That's a bowl noodle. And this is, I'm working on designing a sea noodle, which is a hollow noodle. and yeah we're going to work on we're going to do some studies at some point about the sea probably be more sea friendly than you're like no offense I'm not uh we're gonna make it sea friendly and at some point yeah we'll come we'll make a really long one but as soon as I started thinking about how long they were and I thought about longing and connection and date mo and tin can phones. Now at this point, I think even the stuffed animals were no longer listening to me. And I know Koa was not. She's like, could you put on something for me to watch? And I said, okay. And she even saw, you know, like, I think they said, this is about as interesting as his kitty cat in neighbor's house. You're going on and on and on. And I said, well, by the way, Koa, if it's so interesting, we could just run a test with some of my, whatever you call it, experimental sea noodles, which is basically like hollow pool noodles that I could find and duct tape to make longer pool noodles. But I was trying, you know, that was only, it was hard. I mean, thanks to like, I did try the tape, you know, on Craigslist one time, I said Craigslist, I meant script notes, maybe because Craig's on there and they do like, uh, but, uh, so on script notes one time, Vince Gilligan was on there and, uh, what did I say? Did I say Gilligan? Uh, yeah. I mean, that's, that's his last name, I think. Uh, okay. Vince like he was on there talking about this special tape and and and and then I made my daughter listen to the episode because it was so good But that tape did not work It was outer space tape Tape not actually from outer space Just a name. Just like sea noodles. Not actually from the sea. But not actually noodles either. So, okay. So I said to Koa. So I said, let's do, I don't know, what are they called? Like when you're working up prototypes. I said, let's do some prototyping. And I said, we could run some of these down to the neighbor's house if you want to talk to the cat. But then Cohen and the stuffed animals did not have anything to say to the cat. Now, I did try it out. Now, this was in the warmer months. So I just kind of put it by the window, like the window was open. The screen was there, though. And then I just, I'm pretty good at making meow sounds. I mean, not for a sleep podcast. Yes, I mean, I do do a pretty good Sir Pounce meow. And so, I mean, I don't think it's bragging to say. I have pretend, I mean, I have done Sir Pounce from, who's Tom and Skat? One of my favorite moments on the show. Oh, who's this lovely fellow? Sir Pounce. If you ever want to see laying out a strategy with Marjorie, right? And then who Tommen is and why and everything else after that, but Tommen makes sense. Just that scene. I just want to see and say, grasp me. He was so proud to say that the cat's name was Sir Pounce. And so proud to say like, like that he, he didn't have to say that he thought of it. And she was so like, she just knew how to handle it. I said, oh, Sir Pounce or whatever. I don't even remember. I'm probably reimagining the scene. But yeah, Sir Pounce, man. I see your cat's name, Sir Pounce. Like you do rule, Tom. That's why, you know, Tom became such a part of the podcast. So, okay, so I was meowing. The cat did seem to notice it. So I said, okay, prototype works. So I said, let's move forward with like a test production. And, you know, by the way, if you make enough phone calls, you can get somebody to start making longer pool noodles. So, okay. So then the next thing was finding a sea where we could test these, like, pool noodles out, right? And I did have to figure it out. First, I looked up. I said, okay, so sea is like a division of an ocean. delineated by landforms or currents or latitude and longitude, but it's not limited to marginal sea. Who are you calling a marginal sea? Well, a marginal sea is a division of an ocean partially enclosed by islands, archipelagos, or peninsulas adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean at the surface and or bounded by submarine ridges on the seafloor. And there is a list of seas, largest to smallest, but they're all pretty big. And then I said, well, I don't understand what a marginal sea is, but I think that's probably what we want. And someone said, why don't you just test it in like a bay or something? And we'll call like, cause we can figure that out. Cause there's a, I mean, by the way, there's a lot, like a lot of nice C's. And I said, I could list the C's. Here's what we'll do. And they said, what? I said, okay, so here's what I'm now proposing. And they said, okay, go ahead and propose. I said, okay, so, okay. So you're saying, do you, you have a, a, a, a, a enclosed body of salt water. They said, yeah, we got one. I said, warm enough for people to like be able to like have swimsuits on. They said, yes. I said, is it predictable? Like the weather and the surface. Oh yeah, we got, we got, we got that. I said, who am I calling? They said, oh, this is your imagination speaking. I said, great. Perfect. So, so far, so good. I said, which way? Oh, unrealistic expectations department. Okay, good. So like you're very, you're one of my more adept parts of my being. So that's good. You're very reliable. We do our best here at unrealistic expectations. So unrealistic expectations became a partner, launch partner for like the seventh launch date moi so they were providing the sea which were they were calling the secret sea and i said oh man they said isn't that tantalizing i said yeah oh man and they said i said yeah so the secret sea is where we're doing the launch of sea noodles and uh they said yeah yeah and they said so then we got the sea noodles and they said the next thing we need is uh um uh like uh things people can float in and uh and then if we said if we're talking about i said if i'm partnering with unrealistic expectations then lots of uh sandy beachfront maybe some grassy beachfront nearby maybe some of those like maybe cabins and cabanas and you know like the things you see like maybe even some of those things with the like that uh you know i see it used to see them i always see them in travel magazines uh bungal over ocean bungalows and they said over sea bungalows okay and i said perfect so they said don't worry we'll have all of that and i said okay so we need i said like i'm a I said, do you have a few minutes? And they said, we have all your entire life together. And I said, you're a lot better at listening to me than Koa and the stuffed animals. And they said, who's that, your new favorite band? And I said, hearty, har, har. They said, okay, so we need things to float on. And they said, people aren't going to be floating on the sea noodles? I said, no, the sea noodles are part of the romantic thing. And they said, what part of the romantic thing? And I said, okay, so here's what I'm picturing. How calm is this sea? And they said, very calm. If you want to calm, we'll make, you know, so unrealistically calm and picturesque. And I said, this is going so well. so I said well in that case like we could have pool sea floats uh I want things where people could be lying on their back or their stomach or their side like I was thinking stand-up paddle boards uh but we could have a variety of options and they said yeah I said originally I was thinking rowboats or smaller rowboat type crafts but then if you're lying your arms out of it like it's hard and they said well we could look at soft rowboats too or soft drifting craft we're thinking you're going to be having drift right and I said yeah how will that work in this sea and they said oh well it's great it has like a counterclockwise current slow counterclockwise current and then it kind of goes and a figure eight counterclockwise, but in a very languid pace. So it'll keep everybody, the crafts moving, but very slowly, and they won't bunch up because there's like a few eddies and stuff. And I said, wow. Yeah, it's not just one current. So there's an ovular current and a figure eight current. And I said, okay, this sounds good. And they said, okay, so you're going to have different sea floaters, sea loungers. And they said, something like that. I said, yeah, and then we're going to find people who are already in connection, romantic connection. And they said, okay. They said, potential? I said, well, I mean, if you can get one of those, I mean, I've never watched those reality shows, but a lot of my friends do and my daughter does. I mean, we could do a test launch on that, you know, talk about unrealistic expectations. so we could do it on that one of those shows and they said okay well tell me more about your idea because these shows are pretty hip and concerned with mainly looking good not just physically but impression wise and I said okay then this may not work then And they said, okay, so picture a couple or, you know, more, depending. I mean, whatever the established relationship is, or this is like, you could use it for flirting. So I think we could do that. We could do, yeah, we could have different groups. This could be, actually, the way you described the currents, I'm thinking we could do speed dating with this, but it'd be very slow. And they said, okay, we can arrange that within your unrealistic expectations. Great. So, okay, so now what I'm picturing, why don't you walk us through the established couples and then the speed dating? Okay, can I do the dating first? Because it'll make more sense. Because the dating, I think the flirting, I think we're better off with the flirting. the pool noodle is good for anything the sea noodle I mean so what I'm picturing is okay let's just say it's a couple in this case and they're side by side now they can position themselves and they're each in a separate float right and the sea noodle by the way it's less relenting it's a little bit This is not a pun. It's a little bit stiffer than a pool noodle. It still has some, and that's because the soundtrack, you want it to be somewhat straight. It can bend a little bit, but you want it to be somewhat straight. And so it keeps everybody at a distance. So each person, and maybe we have something on the thing. Maybe it's magnetic. I don't know. So their two floats are whatever. I'm saying they're about 10 feet apart initially. And you can, like you basically are lying and maybe your eyes are closed. Maybe they're not closed. Or maybe it's dark out in the moonlight. So things are more vague. But you're whispering, you're basically, I guess in this case, they'd be answering questions. So it could start out towards dusk. So then you're making eye contact. So you do more than one round. I've never been on speed dating before, but I think it's just like you just talk to 10 people for like one minute each or something like that. The way this would work is that, let's say it takes like each route of this magical sea we're talking about. again, you get one answer, maybe it's announced or projected in the sky and you say, you know, uh, you know, what's you like the soft thing about you or something. I don't, I don't know. I don't, I'm not good at designing these questions like, uh, or it could be a story starter, like a pink shell was found on the sandy beach uh and then like i mean that could be a hard one for some people but it'd be easy for other ones but maybe it just makes them laugh uh and they have to repeat the question so like uh that might be something and uh so they like basically they do that once and that one like it like and then it starts to get like more towards the dusk and then you do a second round with each person and that way you have like a sense you know i think you get a second chance or um i don't know maybe you could i don't know i guess you could opt out of the second round it'd have to be a soft way to do that you know say well that guy scooter he'd never he He's a nice person, but I'd rather, you know, like do another circle around the sea with Brad Braderson. Say that Brad Braderson always. So, okay, so you know what I'm saying? So then you get a kind of second rotation. Okay, so let me make sure I'm understanding this. They're communicating through the pool noodles. So they have to be at a further enough distance, and it kind of has to be required that they don't shout. So, I mean, it would be work on one of these romantic game shows, because if you shout, or I can picture that some people that are a little more confident, they would try to say, Like say, okay, 10 feet, I don't need 10 feet. Let's get closer together right away. So I'm thinking that the pool noodle is somehow fixed where it's like you have to stay 10 feet at the first pass. Then on the second pass, you do a shorter pool noodle, so you're a little bit closer together. And then you could do a third pool noodle if you wanted. Uh, like, like each time opting in and maybe that reduces the pool, uh, uh, sea noodles. So we keep calling them pool noodles, but sea noodles. And that gives us also like a chance to, uh, make the environment more romantic, like where the grass and the bushes were wet with dew and the moonlights on the beach. There's a nice soft light coming from bungalows and music. And maybe there's like the sound of someone counting, like a coin collector playing with their coins, like peaceful noises. But all is calm. You know, there's nothing like, like everything else is very calm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that idea. I mean, we'd have to find some sort of appealing way if you weren't chosen for the second or third rotation. In like the pot, like what are we going to do about the people that are. We'd have like, I guess we'd have like snacks or drinks or whatever. Yeah, there'd be also optional places for people to go talk more. Like cafe, dessert place. Yeah, like a place with drinks. They could go walking, walking path. And maybe we have other people. Maybe this is like, so if you don't get selected, then you're not just with the other people that weren't selected for a second or third route. But maybe we're pairing people like not everybody. The instructions for everybody are different, right? Everything's going to be a mystery because this is the secret sea. So let's say for you, Scooter, let's just say you're predicting your future without positive intent. But let's just say you went around 10 times and you think there'd be too many people. But let's just say they say, oh, OK, so now we've narrowed it down. so now you're going to take a break and you get to go to the the whatever the lunch hut or whatever and then we pair you with people like that are uh like it's kind of something staggered's happening so we always have pools of people to work from seas of people to work from and we could also say oh okay like we can do tests of like hey what works best to create a casual fun environment where it doesn't have to be necessarily about. And what we could also prepare, because we'd have to charge millions of dollars for this anyway. Wait a second. What? Oh, scooter. I'm just, I'm just, uh, we're just keeping it unrealistic. Okay. But yeah, but the platform is going to pay for all that because it'll make like, it'd be so successful. Of course it will be. Of course it will be. Uh, and you know people will be calling each other's names many times uh and we'll say when you hear your bell each person gets a bell or something come quickly and you'll go and you'll be re but we know what common interests people have so even if they don't make a romantic connection we could have like a gaming area or whatever it is a sporting area or tv you know tv or movie area so that those people could just spend time as friends hanging out or as a group hanging out. So, yeah, I think we could definitely make some adjustments to things. And then the same thing I think I already it makes sense with the the the the the the idea of people that are already established in relationships or fostering newer relationships or rekindling It's kind of like the love sea. It could be a show. The love sea. It gets it's a little bit too on the nose. The secret sea. The new season. It's like the love boat, but it's a sea. But it's actually not technically a sea. But yeah, it's almost like a sea. It's a secret sea. So secret, it's actually not a sea. What are you saying? The secret sea is not a sea? No, no. It's called the secret sea. And it's salt water. Yes. Okay. And so what other programming would you have? Well, I would read through, like in the night, I would read through the 76 largest seas by area, decreasing in order of area. So I'd just do that to help everybody drift off and get comfortable. Okay, why don't you go ahead and do that, and then we'll go from there. Well, there's the Philippine Sea, which is 5.695 million kilometers. Then the Coral Sea, 4.791 million. This is according to Wikipedia. The Arabian Sea, 3.862. Saragasso Sea, I think that was a romantic movie, 3.5 million. South China Sea, 3.5 million. The Weddell Sea, 2.8 million. so that's 4, 5.6 so 7 seas already half the size of the largest sea Caribbean seas 2.75 4 Mediterranean seas 2.51 the Gulf of Guinea is 2.35 the Tasman Sea is 2.3 the Bay of Bengal is 2.172 the Bering Sea is 2 million The Sea of Ocotisca is 1.53. Gulf of Mexico, 1.55. Gulf of Alaska, 1.533. The Barents Sea, that's with a T, 1.4. Norwegian C 1.383 The East China C 1.249 Hudson Bay 1.23 Greenland C 1.205 Somov C 1.15 Mar de Grau 1.14 Rilser-Larsen C 1.138 the Sea of Japan 1.05 the Argentine C 1 million now we drop below 1 when did we drop below 2 great question that was after the Bering Sea. Wow, we dropped from 2 to 1.53. I lost my place. Oh, we were dropping below a million. East Siberian Sea is 987,000. Lazarev Sea, 929,000. Kara Sea, 926. Scotia Sea, 900, Labrador Sea, 841,000, Andaman Sea, 97, 700, Lockedive Sea, 786, Erminger C 780 Solomon C 720 Mozambique Channel 700 Cosmonaut C 699 The Band of C 695 Baffin Bay 689 Laptev C 662 Arrafora C. 650 Ross C. 637 Chukchi C. 620 Timor C. 610 North C. 575 Bellinghausen C. 487 Beaufort C. 476 the Celebes Sea 472, the Black Sea 436, the Gulf of Aden 410, the Yellow Sea 480, Baltic Sea 377, Caspian Sea 371, Libyan Sea 350, Mousen Sea 333, Levantine Sea 320, Java Sea, 320. Gulf of Thailand, 304. The Celtic Sea, 300,000. The Gulf of Carpentaria, 300. Sulu Sea, 260. Cooperation Sea, 258. The Persian Gulf, 251. Gulf of St. Lawrence, 226 The Bay of Biscay, 223 The Aegean Sea, 214 The Gulf of Anna Deer, 200 The Maluka Sea, 200 Oman Sea, 181 Ionian Sea, 169 the Gulf of California, 160,000 kilometers. The Belerick Sea, 150. Adriatic Sea, 138. The Flores Sea, 121. Then we got some marginal seas by ocean. Oh, okay, so this is ocean. Then the Arctic Ocean is the Chukchi Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Laptev Sea, the Kara Sea, the Barents Sea, the Pethora Sea, the White Sea, the Queen Victoria Sea, the Wandel Sea, Greenland Sea, the Lincoln Sea, which is recognized by the IHO but not the IMO, which we'll look that up in a minute. Baffin Bay Prince Gustav Adolph C the Armisen Golf the Hudson Bay Bowman Bay Wager Bay these are all in the Hudson Bay Fox Basin Rose Welcome Sound Fox Channel Bay of God's Mercy Hudson Strait Ungava Bay Native Bay Evans Strait Fisher Strait James Bay and the Beaufort Sea. Let's just look this up. So the IHO is the International Hydrographic Organization Representing Hydrography. It has 103 member states. Ensure the world's seas, oceans, and navigable waters are properly surveyed and charted. It sets international standards and is observer status in the UN, recognizes competent authority on hydrographic surveying and nautical charting. And what else is this? The other one is the International Maritime Organization, IMO. This one's a little bit different. It's a specialized agency, the UN regulating marine transport. It was established following a conference in Geneva in 1948, but didn't come into existence until 10 years later. It's based in the UK, 176 member states and associate members. It's supposed to maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping, maritime, environments, and legal stuff. I don't know, does it talk about how it works with technical committees, subcommittees, legal instruments? Okay, so those are the two ones. Let's get back. Let's spend a little bit more time with the sea so everybody that's resting in the waters. The Atlantic, I don't know if we'll get through all this. Yeah, I think this is probably a good place to stop. I mean, all these smaller seas, I don't know if any of them are quite small enough for the unrealistic expectation sea, but I'm sure we'll find one. And, you know, there's a sea out there to carry everybody off into dreamland, you know, not just me. So thank you so much for listening. Whether you're listening to the pitter-patter of hearts season or not, I'm glad I get to help you out. And I really hope I can help you fall asleep. Thanks again for coming by. And good night, everybody. All right, but this is Scoots with a talk you in message at the end of the shows we do. And this is some of an ask questions because since April of 2025, we've been trying to look at the like, I don't know. What I'm doing is not working, so I'm trying to change what I'm doing, I guess. so I've been trying to get some questions together and you could answer these questions or not you don't need to or these ones are kind of just if you just happen to be listening in but I'm here to listen to those answers and you could answer those if you happen to want to tomorrow or even tonight at sleepwithmepodcast.com slash listen so yeah And this will help me understand, especially people that listen, have been listening longer than six months, have been listening longer than a year. They've been listening longer than three years. People that listen most nights or listen all night long or fall asleep fast or even listening so long that everything kind of blends together. I don't even know how long I've been listening. So one question would be like When you press play Sleep with me at bedtime What's something you hope doesn't happen Like I don't know if it's like You know that you don't You know it doesn't start you thinking about more Or that the night doesn't feel as long Or that you don't feel alone Or the physical sensations you don't feel Or the thoughts or the feelings you don't come up. Or it could be something else. I mean, something more specific, you know. But maybe it's not. Maybe there's just not words for it. And what does Sleep With Me replace for you? Like, what did you used to use? Or what does it fill in? Does it fill in silence in the room? Like a TV that used to be on or something, a show you used to stream? Does the show Sleep With Me replace your thoughts, like a train of thoughts you've got to go on a ride with? Does it replace, I don't know, something that helps you rest? And then I guess I'm curious, if you do hear the requests for support and the kind of varying degrees of feeling I have when I'm making those messages, right? And then maybe they kind of slide by or slip past you. Yeah, I want to know more about that. So when you do hear those messages, if you do, like what thoughts or feelings come up? Is it something like, I'll do this later? or someone else probably has it covered or you don't need my support or I don't want to think about that right now, doing something or paying for something or taking any steps or is it like, that's just not for me. I'm not a person that supports podcasts or that doesn't sound like something I want to do or need to do. So, okay. And then if you are one of those people that says, yeah, I'll do it later. Like, what does later mean for you, right? Is it like later? And this is one that comes up in my personal life. There'll be a better time in my life later for this. Like, my life will be more calm. These are my words that I use for internally, not for you. But I'll be more emotionally able to handle that later. or I'll remember later or maybe I'll be sleeping better and I won't need to do it later. Maybe my life will be less full later. And then another question is like, if you've ever looked at Join and Sleep With Me Plus and thought like, I don't need more or the free show always works for me. So what else would I need? I'm curious about that Like what the more might be Does it sound like more work or more effort? Like does it sound like you'd have to do something Or manage something new? Does it sound like a change to a routine That's already kind of working That you don't want to mess up? Because I can't keep doing Like I've got to change around the messaging around the show Even if it doesn't end up working out Because it's just I want to be closer to the listeners I have And I don't want to spend so much time and energy Keeping the show going Or with my concerns around that that it makes it impossible to make the show anyway almost. It's kind of gotten to this point where it's like a conundrum, I guess. So I want to move to getting to know things better and then trying to produce things in a different way. I don't know if a more holistic way is the right way to say it. So yeah, that's what kind of those questions are about, is me kind of understanding more, listening. and most of the questions will have open-ended answers too so if you want to do that you can feel like i got a survey it doesn't i don't know if it has all those questions on there but sleepingpodcast.com slash listen or if this kind of pushed you over that you know you could always support the show at sleepingpodcast.com slash plus but i think it'll say that at listen anyway And again, there's no rush or requirements. It's just, yeah, this way of like, I want to keep making this podcast, ideally for a long, long time in the future. And most of our funding comes through like 80% of the way we pay our bills is by listener support. But I want people to feel welcome, right? And it's kind of gotten to this point where it's like, I think I already said that. It's like I'm so concerned with keeping the show going. It's almost making it possible to keep it going and maybe pushing people away, which I don't want to do. Because, again, my goal this year is not just to keep the podcast sustainable. It's to bring sleepy joy and delight. So I'm hoping I can do both those things together somehow. So I'm hoping, yeah, some of this idea of listening and getting to know. And if you are, the thing is, and it's also no pressure, like if you can't support the show or you decided when we did it last year, you were like in the group of listeners like, no, I don't want to support the show ever. That's great because we like it's the people that I've never heard from. Right. And I'm trying to get to understand better this time. Who are like in a position where they could support the show. And it's just like, I don't know. So anyway, thanks so much for listening. And if you're a new or occasional listener or you already decided not to support the show, you're not in a position to support the show. Thanks, because you're taken care of. And I think probably me getting through this phase of the show will positively impact your show. Because I know when I'm really feeling it, like I'm really like, you know what I mean? You could hear it in the tone of my voice on some of those reads. And I don't know, I'm trying to find a better way to move forward with the show. And I guess I apologize when it's like, I don't know, everything's kind of intertwined. So I wish there was an easier, perfect way to do all this. So I guess I'm going to try this way and see how it goes. Thanks.