SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
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with a twist of lemon.
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Okay. So today is January 19.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:29]
We record normally on a Tuesday,
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and I I think I usually reference that, but I'm I'm gonna be real explicit about it so that when this comes out on Thursday,
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if the world comes to a, like, sudden end on Wednesday
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:43]
and you release this, everyone's not like, oh, why was Stan and John completely tone deaf to everything going on in the world?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:50]
That's fair.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:52]
Don't We try to be tone deaf sometimes, don't we? Oh, we we we definitely do. I think we are firmly on the side of tone deafness. Like, we we operate this podcast in a world in which politics and, like, the things of the world just don't exist. You know? The only thing that matters really is my opinion and occasionally yours.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:09]
Yeah.
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I mean, when when you look back and you reflect on it, right, I think the most significant
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:17]
events
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:18]
that we've reflected on have been, like, grilled cheese sandwiches or
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:22]
which of Fanker's meat rubs came out on top. And, you know, there was the the period of milkshakes,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:29]
which, you know, I think was was significant.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:32]
Honestly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:33]
it was transformative for this podcast and the world and everyone who listened to it. Sometimes we do cover current events,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:39]
like when Endgame came out and we recorded after watching it twice on release night. Right. That's that's really the extent
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:48]
of our current events. But lest lest everything comes apart tomorrow,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:54]
I I will say gets really bad, then we might push this out a week.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:58]
Or we could rerecord. I don't know. I did think about scheduling. I thought about moving the calendar event out one day and and just recording Wednesday.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:06]
I hate doing that though because then you've got, like, no time to edit, and I know that you're really busy, you know, leveling up on Overwatch these days. So I didn't wanna I didn't wanna mess with your schedule.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:16]
But
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I appreciate that, Stan. Nonetheless, here we are. We're recording the day before the inauguration of the next president of The United States, whoever that may be. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:26]
And
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and we just we just hope that we don't have to pull this podcast
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:31]
before it's released on Thursday.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:33]
Oh my gosh. What a year, man. Like, we're we're
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:36]
we're nineteen days into a year that was supposed to be a walk in the park after 2020.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:42]
Right.
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Well, let's just hope that no
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natural disasters hit Indianapolis
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:49]
or
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:50]
Cedar Rapids again. Fingers crossed. I I did get a bit of good news today. I I don't know if you,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:57]
it's like maybe the first bit of good news for 2021 for me. I don't know if you remember me complaining about how HBO HBO Max was not available on the Roku TV.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:07]
Right. Alright. They I and I don't even I don't even know how long ago HBO Max came out because it feels like it was forever ago. But I got I got an email today from AT and T
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:17]
informing me that the HBO Max app is finally available on Roku, which means that the last vestige vestige vestige, whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:28]
Gosh.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:29]
Of my needing of the Apple TV, which is to this day still the worst product that Apple has ever put out,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:36]
is gone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:37]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:38]
I don't have any reason except maybe to watch Star Wars Rebels, but that's on Disney Plus now. So I really yeah. I don't have any reason to watch or to open up my Apple TV anymore.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:49]
There you go. So that's that was good news. That's great. I haven't I haven't turned mine on for a long time, but I have, like, a really old Apple TV too. Yeah. Yours is super old. Mark is probably listening to this screaming
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:01]
at the, the radio in his car saying, but what about Fitness plus? Yeah. What about it, Mark?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:09]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:10]
I think I would be remiss if I didn't say that it looks like you got a haircut, Stan. I I got them all cut. I did. Yeah. The the ponytail, man bun, whatever you wanna call it, is gone.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:21]
It's No. It's kinda looking like you're you're
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:24]
just, like, bleach the tips away from being a lance bass look alike.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:29]
No. No. No. That's
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:33]
too much maintenance, the the leaching tips.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:36]
No. I so I I I grew my hair out. I was trying to figure out exactly when this began.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:42]
I think I think probably the January
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:45]
ish,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:47]
I grew my hair out from that point, and the only thing I did was I shaved below
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:51]
the bowl line. I don't know what else to call it,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:54]
to keep that trimmed because I didn't like hair on my ears. But eventually, the the stuff on top got so long that it would touch my ears, and so I was putting it up into a ponytail.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:03]
In the Christmas pictures, it was a a little, like, poofy thing on the top.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:08]
I did curlers for Christmas Eve,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:11]
And the fact of the matter is long hair is just a lot of maintenance, and it's not for me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:16]
That's fair.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:19]
This this is So no more trying to be the last samurai.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:22]
No. I mean, not for a while anyhow. Who knows for this to go? Who knows what 2021 has to offer? But, yeah, we we cut it off last weekend
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:31]
across the board, and I I feel better.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:34]
I feel lighter on my toes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:37]
So Lost two pounds on the scale. Who knew?
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:40]
I don't think it was that much. I wish. That would've been great.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:44]
That would've been great. Oh, man.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:47]
No. But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:49]
yeah, it was time. So I don't know what'll happen next. I don't know how long we'll let this grow, but I'm I'm done with long hair for the time being. So Alright. My beard is still going strong. You usually can't see it because I'm behind a pop filter. But Well, it's I mean, you're you're like pure hobbit mode. No. Hobbits have clean faces.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:05]
Right. What in in the Tolkien universe, who has who has a beard? Dwarves. Dwarves.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:10]
You're full dwarf mode. Wizards,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:12]
men, pretty much everybody besides hobbits. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna compliment you by calling you a wizard.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:18]
Has to turn gray first. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:21]
So
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I mentioned Disney plus in passing here. I think that's really the news of the week, isn't it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:27]
I believe so. WandaVision hit the first of this
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:32]
crazy
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:33]
phase of new releases on Disney plus. Yep. So this is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:41]
As far as I know, this takes place post
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:44]
Endgame, although we really haven't gotten Yeah. We know. Much clarity there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:48]
I will say we know
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:51]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:52]
it's I mean
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:55]
well, hold on. We so we better pause this. We're just spoiler alert. We're about to talk about the two episodes that were released of WandaVision.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:03]
If you have not watched them yet on Disney plus, and you care, right, that's that's the important qualifier there, and you care, you probably should pause this, run over to your television or your smart device, whatever, watch those episodes of WandaVision,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:15]
and then come back to this podcast. Because now, we're gonna talk about what actually happened in the episode. If you haven't seen it, well, you you will know. You will know. They are only
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:23]
thirty minute episodes, so you got that going for you. Yep. So this is supposed to be our transition into the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The the way the MCU does is they release phases of a storyline that build up,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:37]
you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:38]
in cinematically
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:40]
to some event. And you had the first Avengers movie, you had the Ultron arc, and then you had the arc that actually concluded the whole thing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:48]
which was the Infinity War arc. And that actually
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:51]
laced itself back into the previous phase. You could make an argument into the first phase too, although it's, I think, still debatable how much they were being deliberate at that point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:02]
Because, you know, fundamentally, right, you have
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:04]
you have a Infinity Stone laying around when the first Captain America movie is released.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:11]
However,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:12]
they're they weren't explicit about it. Right? And then you've got Dark World, you've got another one. So that like, there's there's these things that are lingering around.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:22]
This is the first TV show, just like Mandalorian was the first live action TV show
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:28]
for
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:29]
Star Are we throwing out the first three seasons of Agents of Shield or not?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:34]
I mean,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:35]
it's it's complicated. Right? Because the claim now is that it's not part of the MCU. I think it's really hard to make that argument considering the way they laced in with Winter Soldier. But
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:48]
anyways.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:49]
I I do think if I if I understand correctly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:52]
the content direction of Agents of Shield and Agent Carter, by the way, was done separately from the group that handled the storytelling
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:01]
of the movies. And I think that that's different. I think this is all a unified
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:05]
story group, just like they've done with Star Wars since Disney bought it. Sure.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:10]
This is an interesting character. Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, appears in Age of Ultron with a much thicker accent than she has in any subsequent movie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:21]
It is I first spoiler, it's virtually gone in this movie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:25]
And TV
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:26]
show. Sorry.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:30]
The other character is Vision, who also appears
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:33]
in Ultron.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:34]
They both derive their power from the vision stone or the mind stone rather.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:39]
And that mind stone is destroyed
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:42]
at the end of Endgame, but it's it's just, like, ripped out of Vision's head at the end of Infinity War. Infinity War. Right? The
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:50]
last time that we see
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:53]
Wanda,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:54]
she is
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:55]
whooping Thanos something fierce. She tells him, you took everything from me,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:00]
and then she loses her focus because of the ship firing raining fire. Right? But at that moment, up until it happens, we actually I at least I thought I thought that she was gonna take out Thanos right there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:13]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:14]
In the comics, she is one of the most powerful beings in the MCU.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:19]
I don't know that they have properly
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:22]
conveyed that in
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:25]
the movies thus far.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:27]
But she's she's like the real deal. She's super powerful.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:31]
The closest hint I think that we get is in Civil War, she literally kicks
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:36]
Vision,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:38]
you know, through the dirt, like literally Right. Plunges right through the building. So she's got the ability to to, you know, take on
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:46]
the the bearer of the mind stone, which I think is a big deal.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:50]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:52]
Yeah. So everything I've heard, she is also the most powerful being on Earth.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:58]
I hear that there are some
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:01]
who are extraterrestrial
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:03]
who may rival her power, but, you know
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:06]
She's definitely in the top tier, and I her character's changed a lot over the years. This show is based upon, like, four or five different series.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:15]
I think it's important to note that Vision also is, like, pretty different from the comics. I I think, some people can disagree with me there. But why don't you give us a rundown of this first episode here?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:27]
Yeah. So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:29]
really, the
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:31]
interesting is it's like an old school sitcom.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:35]
Starts off in black and white.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:38]
It's funny, laugh tracks and all.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:42]
And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:43]
really
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:44]
Wanda and Vision have moved to a new neighborhood.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:47]
Apparently, they're married, which is kind of a fun little aspect of the story too because they're trying to figure out, like, when do we get married?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:55]
Why don't we have rings? And stuff like that. Have a level of obliviousness
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:59]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:00]
is is alarming. Right? It's it's I think that's the first hint that maybe
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:04]
this is not happening in what we would constitute as normal reality.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:09]
Correct.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:11]
But, yeah, the plot is really a sitcom plot.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:15]
At least the surface level plot is.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:18]
Vision
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:19]
is working at something where they're supposed to be productive,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:25]
And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:26]
the boss is coming over to their house for dinner.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:31]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:33]
yeah. So that that's the plot.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:36]
They don't know this. Their vision just marked it with a heart on the calendar because the boss's name was Hart.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:41]
So there's some situational comedy there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:44]
And then he brings the boss and his wife's home, and Wanda has no idea that she's supposed to be making a home cooked meal for them. But she first shows up in a in what looks like a nightie, a pretty provocative nightie,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:58]
she's using her witch like power to try and assemble a meal. There's the neighbor Agnes who
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:04]
is is just kind of invasive.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:06]
There are a lot of interesting Easter eggs I think throughout the show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:10]
It it happens in black and white, and it also happens with black strips on the side. Right? So it's it's almost in a a lower
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:17]
resolution. I'm not sure it's actually old school April,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:21]
but
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:22]
regardless,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:23]
it's it's meant to give you that idea that it's being recorded older, like you're watching it through the lens of an older television.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:30]
Yep. There's some speculation. I haven't seen anybody conclusively say
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:35]
what episode one is based off of in terms of old sitcoms. You and I had some discussions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:40]
You were leaning towards what I love Lucy?
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:43]
So that is what
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:45]
Anna's mom, missus Buto,
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:48]
called called out.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:51]
I have never actually watched I love Lucy, so maybe we need to do a subseries on viewing
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:57]
Vile of Lucy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:59]
So it is not a secret that I'm a huge I love Lucy fan. I named my daughter Lucy after Lucille Ball. Like, that there was a there was a correlation there. I don't know that I
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:11]
think this is I love Lucy ask. I think this is So I think it it came like the thing was
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:16]
like, Wanda fumbling over words and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:20]
Maybe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:22]
I I still and I I told you this when you told me the I Love Lucy theory. I still feel like this is more Dick Van Dyke esque, including the bedroom scene,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:31]
where they've got very separate
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:34]
beds.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:35]
And and just some of the the fact that it's a house in the suburbs also, I think, kinda doesn't really gel with I Love Lucy. She doesn't move to the suburbs until after I Love Lucy. It's during the Lucy Desi comedy hour when they they move out to the suburbs, and then they got a huge ranch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:50]
So I I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:52]
feel like
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:54]
the Dick Van Dyke element is strong. I also we're gonna get to the second episode, but I also, quite frankly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:00]
could see episodes one and two as both being
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:03]
Bewitched themed. I I think Sure. That's also just kind of
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:08]
her character is very
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:10]
Sam, like Sam from Bewitched,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:12]
which have have you seen that show? Are you familiar with that show at all? I have seen parts of it. But, yeah, I caught the intro to episode two of WandaVision right away. Yeah. Yeah. The the it was, I think, much more clear there. I can't tell if they're progressing through decades or what exactly they're trying to do. There there's some speculation in the Internet about that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:30]
Episode two, not to totally jump the gun here, but episode two has some things
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:34]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:35]
the scene with Dottie, which is which is this other lady in the neighborhood
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:40]
where she's emulating the behavior that's very Samantha. Like, Samantha does that in Bewitched as she's trying to acclimate to the the world of mortals,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:49]
you know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:51]
I think that the the whole
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:54]
Samantha
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:55]
as a archetype for Wanda is an interesting angle.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:00]
They have not played up the witch angle
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:03]
of Wanda much in the movies.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:06]
In the comics, like, she's a hardcore witch. Like, this that's that's her jam, you know? So I think there's something interesting there. I don't know at this stage either how important it is which show it maps to.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:17]
Right. And and I also gotta think that they're kinda they're tiptoeing on a line because
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:23]
Bewitched is not under Disney property rights at all. Sure. Right? I Love Lucy is not either.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:30]
I Dream of Jeannie is not,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:33]
which is another one that I kinda wondered if maybe we would transition to cool owners. Yeah. Yeah. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:39]
you know, we'll we'll see how this this shakes out. But what was your biggest takeaway from episode one?
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:45]
So I don't wanna go there yet, Stan. Okay. Alright. Alright. So with this kind of play off these old time sitcoms,
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:52]
I think it is an opportunity for people who
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:56]
have not been interested in Marvel at all to actually come in and watch what is a Marvel TV show
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:02]
and find enjoyment in it. So, like, I texted my family group and said, hey. WandaVision might actually get mom into the MCU. And she's like, what's an MCU?
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:13]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:14]
there's there's that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:16]
But then there's also,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:19]
I
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:20]
wouldn't say a ton of stuff,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:22]
but there's a lot of stuff for the diehard
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:25]
Marvel people who've seen every movie and followed along,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:29]
specifically
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:30]
at the dinner scene
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:32]
where
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:33]
Wanda has to tell Vision to save mister Hart,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:38]
while he's choking.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:40]
And secondly
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:42]
is the very end where we get a Truman show like nature,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:46]
and there is somebody in a room with a notebook watching,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:51]
basically, the episode on a screen. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:54]
So there are a ton of Easter eggs. I mean, the the sheer volume of Easter eggs, both to the movies as well as to the comics,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:00]
are are almost overwhelming. Like, I I feel like every day, I find a new article online that points out new Easter eggs.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:07]
I can't remember. Is this the one we got the Stark reference with the toaster, or is that the next one?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:12]
I think it was the first one. Okay. Because we had two commercials between the two episodes. It's hard for me to distinguish which one is which. One was a Second one was to watch. Okay. Stark Industries toaster. Then you get a little little of their little reference, little connect connection.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:25]
The zooming out and and on the TV thing, think, is is important because up until this point, you don't know what's happening. Right? Like, is Wanda and why is Vision, who we all think is dead,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:38]
in this, you know, nineteen fifties esque setting? And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:43]
the the hypothesis that I'm operating from at this point is this is mostly happening in Wanda's head. Right? And she is she's captured incapacitated
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:51]
in some way.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:52]
I think a lot of the rumors floating around is that she's she's lost her mind, you know. She's just over overwhelmed with grief. I think that that's probably true.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:01]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:02]
I don't think she is aware of what's going on, and I think that what we are starting to get at certain points in this episode is a level of awareness
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:11]
that not all is right in her universe. You know? Yep. And, man, those are so quick.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:18]
They really are. You could miss them. Yep. Like
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:22]
so it's I think it was exceptionally well done.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:27]
I don't remember the actor's name who plays Vision.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:30]
Betany. Whatever his name is Betany. Yeah. Really not a he's not a really good looking guy. I gotta tell you, he's better off in makeup.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:39]
But he
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:41]
I think he is thoroughly enjoying playing around with this character. You can kind of see the energy that he's bringing to the screen that,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:49]
just doesn't show when he's stoic vision. Definitely. Definitely.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:53]
So, interestingly, Sarah, my wife, was sharing with me an article she wrote the other day that talked about when he was called into
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:01]
the MCU offices after Infinity War. So his character's dead. Right? And he basically Yep. He's he's out of contract at this point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:09]
Apart from Tony Stark, he's he's actually been around the MCU
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:14]
about as long as anybody, really. Like, he he goes all the way back to that first Iron Man movie as the voice of Jarvis.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:20]
Right. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:21]
he was expected at that point to be canned,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:24]
and apparently, that was when they offered him a TV show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:27]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:28]
which caught him off guard, and he was just ecstatic about it. And I think I think it's
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:32]
it's just cool how long his his presence
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:36]
has survived,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:37]
and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. I'm I'm actually a little apprehensive that this is gonna be a one and done kind of thing with him. We'll we'll see. Yeah. But so
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:47]
we've got we've got this other interesting
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:52]
thing going on with WandaVision, is that up until this point, right, the characters of the MCU are fighting against a clear bad guy, and they're trying to save the world.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:01]
Yep. And I'm convinced that Wanda's gonna try and save herself. Right? And so there's an introspection
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:07]
in what the character is doing. I also think that there's just some fascinating,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:13]
like, mental health elements that are going on in this show that we're just beginning to, like, scratch the surface of.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:20]
I think this is gonna be a deeper show
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:23]
than we've gotten in the movies. I think it's it's about time that we got that level of depth.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:28]
I was really surprised at how much you liked this first episode. I like, I was You texted
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:34]
me before
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:35]
I watched it, and you said, I don't think you're gonna like us.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:39]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:40]
I And then I think I was five minutes in,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:43]
and I told you you were dead wrong because I was laughing like I haven't laughed at a TV show in a long time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:50]
So I I'm gonna be really curious to see if this holds true for you throughout the season. Because I looked at this and I thought to myself, okay, what what is the what is the arc? Like, what is gonna happen
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:02]
in this story? And is John gonna be
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:05]
engaged enough?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:07]
Because there is a there's an element of this, I think, that's character building at this point. It's not world building. It's not hold that I don't like character building,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:15]
but you think that Captain America is built really well. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:20]
Well, of course he is. Of course he is.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:24]
I I just can't figure out why I mean, was it just the laugh the laugh element that got you No. I think it was the writing. I think that there is an art in being able to actually pull off well what the writers have done.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:39]
I think that we start to touch on the depth a little more in episode two, and then the article that you sent over actually really
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:48]
doubled down on it. I'm like, why WandaVision is such a sad show or whatever the name of the article was. I'll link it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:56]
But yeah. So so is it is it time to transition to the second episode?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:00]
Sure. I think we covered everything in the first. Well, give me the lowdown, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:04]
Second episode,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:08]
really focuses on Wanda's social life and getting more involved in this community,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:14]
and she joins up in the talent show,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:17]
enters Wanda and Vision as magicians,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:20]
which there's no way that could go wrong. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:25]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:26]
I mean, good news. Vision
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:28]
also
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:29]
wants to join
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:31]
it was like a neighborhood watch or something like that. I don't think he wanted to join it. I think he just wanted to provide them some feedback, right, and some some, like, suggestions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:41]
And it comes come to find out that the neighborhood watch is just a bunch of guys
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:44]
who are sitting gossiping about Get away from their wives and Yeah. Exactly.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:51]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:53]
yeah, he ends up going over there and
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:57]
ends up getting inebriated
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:59]
throughout the whole thing because they're sitting around drinking. No. They're not drinking.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:03]
They aren't? No. No. No. He What I missed? He's he bums a piece of gum,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:08]
and the gum Oh, yeah. Yeah. In the cartoon where the gum gets gunked up in his gears because he's a robot. Right? Like, he doesn't eat,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:15]
and that that messes with his head. Yeah. Inebriates, I think, a good way to describe what happens to him. Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:22]
Right. Right. Right. Okay. So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:24]
he's got this gum. His gears are all gummed up, and,
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:30]
it's time to go to the
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:32]
talent show.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:34]
So he
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:36]
has a very hard time staying in character of a normal human being
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:42]
while he is doing this
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:44]
magic show. So there is a element of restraint amongst
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:49]
the characters, right, to show their powers.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:51]
I think Vision is more defensive in episode one. In episode two, he's more passive. And I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:58]
you you have kind of Scarlet Witch who's just, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:03]
aware but not stressing about it until
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:06]
Vision kinda, like, pulls the covers off of
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:09]
their powers, and she's then trying to explain them away. And I gotta tell you, if she had just wiggled her nose, it would have been perfect for me. That's what I wanted. That that was the bewitched element that I wanted.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:20]
Yeah. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:23]
yeah. We we also did you get the Rambo reference? Did you catch that? I did not. So we have this, and I'm I'm so bad remembering all the details here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:33]
The lady who introduces them from backstage
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:37]
is
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:38]
the same persona
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:41]
that Captain Marvel
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:42]
meets
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:45]
her her best friend's daughter, right, who will become
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:48]
a superhero. Or maybe it's her best friend. I can't remember. It's one of the two. Maybe it's her best friend. Maybe her best friend. I'm gunk on all this stuff. But it's another Way too much content.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:56]
There is. There is. There's a ton of detail in here. But I think they're gonna fold in some other elements to the story.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:02]
So end of episode one, we have the TV show. Somebody's watching what's going on. Right? Throughout both episodes,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:10]
they have a lack of awareness of their origins. Right? Episode one, I think it's much more clear because it's like, when did you get married? Don't know. Where did you where are from? Don't know. Like like all of that. Right? Yeah. Where'd you first meet? What's your song? Etcetera.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:23]
In episode two,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:26]
there becomes a moment at which Wanda
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:29]
is not comfortable with
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:31]
how things are progressing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:33]
and she rewinds the story.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:35]
Yes. Right? That
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:37]
is
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:38]
they hear noises outside.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:40]
I guess that's part that we didn't that's really what instigated his taking concerns to the neighborhood watch. Yep. And
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:48]
then they try to explain in a way the sounds outside.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:52]
The helicopter was in the first episode. Right? It was. Yeah. And and so that this we've got this one object that's in color that crashes into
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:02]
their bushes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:03]
There's a It has a logo on it. Right. Which I know that's important, but I didn't know what the logo was. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:10]
so in the in the comics, there's S. L. D. And there's S.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:14]
L. Is the organization
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:16]
intended for Earth and, the protection of Earth. That's who created the Avengers, etcetera. And S. O. D. Is, this counterpart
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:22]
from from the space angle.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:24]
Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:25]
So S. H. E. L. D. Is Nick Fury and Agent Coulson. Right. S. W. O. D. You don't get a lot of unless you watch through all of Shield. Yep. And Sword is completely a Joss Whedon creation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:36]
Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:37]
He he did the comics that created Sword. Sword's relatively new. What's interesting is, at least, as far as we know at this point in time,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:44]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:45]
the existence
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:46]
of
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:47]
S. L. D. Is is like nil. It's gone. Right? We've lost it. It's been destroyed. That's what Winter Soldier's all about. And we we operate through the second half of the, you know, first set of phases of the MCU,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:58]
really without S. D. All
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:00]
we have is the remnants. Right? Yep. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:04]
it it kinda makes you wonder, like, okay, is this is this coming up out of the ashes of S. H. L. D. I think that's my suspicion is that's what they're gonna try and do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:12]
I don't think it's gonna be a strictly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:14]
you know, shield and sword, like division of labor thing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:18]
Sure. Could be wrong. The the other thing that's interesting in this particular episode is the commercial they do
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:24]
is about the watch. And did you you caught the watch the first time through. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:29]
Yes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:30]
So watch was Strucker watch,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:33]
and there is a Hydra symbol at the bottom of it. Now did you catch the Strucker reference?
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:40]
I did. Okay. So Strucker is the
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:43]
Nazi
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:44]
evil
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:45]
genius guy from
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:48]
back in Captain America stuff. No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:50]
Not Captain America? No. What was it? Nope. He's he's an Ultron. He is the one that creates the twins.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:57]
Right? Oh, right. Right. Right. Yep. But there's something else
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:00]
where we're talking about Strucker. Maybe that's Agents of S. D.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:04]
I'm not sure what you're referring to, but this Strucker and the thing that makes it so important is he is the one, at least in the MCU,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:12]
that creates Wanda's power. Because he's got Loki's staff, right, through HYDRA. And at the opening scenes of Age of Ultron, they they converge on his compound
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:22]
in order to seize back
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:24]
the staff,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:25]
and he unleashes the twins. Right? I think Captain America knocks him out real quick in the head with his
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:33]
shield,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:35]
but that's that's the Strucker. That's the reference. So it's So he appeared in the mid credit scene in Captain America Winter Soldier.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:44]
Okay. Alright. And he was he was in one episode of Agents of S. E. L. D.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:49]
I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:50]
I don't doubt it, but I I I just don't remember that. It's been a while since I've seen Agents of S. D.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:56]
Think the significance watch that too. I think the significance of his placement here, though, is largely because he is the
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:03]
the person who bequeathed the power
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:05]
of the mind stone into Wanda. Not to say that Wanda didn't have power beforehand.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
We don't know the answer to that, but he experimented
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:13]
on her with the mind stone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:15]
Right. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:18]
there's that reference, and at the very end of the episode, we don't have this, like, zooming out with the TV. She she rewinds
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:26]
history because she spots
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:30]
a beekeeper. A beekeeper coming out of Coming out of the sewer Yep. Manhole. Who also happens to have your logo on the back of his Indeed. Jersey. Their jacket, whatever it is. And I'm I've suspected that this is another
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:43]
organization from
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:45]
the comics called AIM, and I can't even remember what AIM is
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:49]
stands for at this point, but
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:52]
because I never never see it spelled out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:55]
I don't know if that'll be true. Advanced idea mechanics. There we go. It took me a second. But it's a criminal organization in the in the Marvel Comic Universe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:02]
I don't know if this will be them, but that's kind of what I'm hoping for. I think that'd be pretty cool,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:06]
and and we'll see how that shakes out. But And do you think this is them because they wear,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:11]
hazmat suits. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I I think it just it my initial reaction when I saw them was, oh, that must be someone from AIM. You know? Again, maybe it was just a tease, could be an Easter egg, and a little bit of a nod, and I'm not gonna deal with it. But All we know is that Wanda freaks out, and she's like, no, and rewinds time and changes
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:31]
the story. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:33]
So they never go outside. So this is interesting too because Wanda
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:37]
I I wouldn't say she manipulates time,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:40]
although, I mean, it sure comes across that way, but she's manipulating reality.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:44]
Right? She's manipulating,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:46]
what the mind sees and perceives. Right? Yep. We're getting a sense of exactly
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:51]
how far she can take her powers that she got from the mind stone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:57]
And I think part of this show is just showing exactly how far
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:02]
she can she can, like, go. Right? Like, what is the extent of her power and the, really, the lack of limitation,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:09]
which I don't think we've seen yet. So Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:12]
Let's let's talk a little bit about the Olsen girl. I don't even know her first name. Elizabeth? Elizabeth. Yeah. I thought she did a pretty stellar job.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:20]
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I her
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:23]
handling of this character, the whole the whole of it was really fantastic.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:27]
I was pleasantly surprised because I I went back and I watched Ultron after this, and she really is a lousy actor in Ultron.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:34]
You know? Well, part of it is she's playing this young kid who, like, was just created by this evil genius.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:42]
So there's that. But, yeah, the accent is bad. Oh, it's terrible.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:46]
It's so I'm so glad that they ditched it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:50]
But, you know, I I remember when I watched Ultron. I I I told you a long time that I hated Ultron. Ultron, for the longest time, was my least favorite Marvel movie, and over the years, it's progressively crept up. You didn't like the first Avengers movie initially either. No. Which you also now like. It's true. They've grown on me. And I think I think seeing the rest of the arc, right, it's they it helps. It's what gets me about Ultron
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:14]
in hindsight
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:16]
is just how much of the MCU
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:18]
hinges upon what they did in that movie. Yep. Whether or it was deliberate and preplanned, I I have no idea. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:26]
there is so little
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:28]
of the MCU that follows Ultron that does not somehow tie itself back
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:33]
into this movie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:34]
So and it's very much true to the show.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:37]
Let's
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:39]
let's just cut to the heart of the matter. Did you like episode two as much as you did episode one?
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:44]
I'd say not as much as episode one, but
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:48]
I still enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:50]
So moving forward, we get two episodes for the first week. We'll get one episode every week following,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:55]
And, I guess we'll see where this goes. I think at some point, she's gonna have to emerge
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:59]
from this this sitcom progression. At the end of episode two, she gets color. There's technicolor vision. Yep. Right? At some point, maybe we'll get fully widescreen. I don't know. But, I'm looking forward to this Friday to see what comes next. I just we know from the trailer, right, that at some point, they're set in a present time, and they have some kind of face off. We just don't know how they get there. I'm really curious at what the pacing is gonna be, because you can ride this just
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:25]
90% subcom
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:27]
plot lines with little things thrown in here and there for a while.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:32]
We can't, but I don't think they're gonna do that. They'll they've got a nine episode run.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:35]
And also, I think that would make for a lousy podcast, because at some point, that will wear down on you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:41]
Right? Probably.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:42]
You
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:43]
keep John Kollmeyer happy through fast paced and and world building. That's that's what I what I've learned.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:49]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:50]
Alright. You say so, Stan. Well, if if dear listener, if you've made it this far and you don't want more MCU,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:57]
it's gonna be a it's gonna be a long nine weeks.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:01]
So good luck to you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:05]
Alright. In other news,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:07]
have,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:08]
you looked at Mints recently?
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:10]
I have. So as you know, I am a
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:14]
desktop primary Mint user. Yeah. But I have been
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:19]
loading up the
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:21]
mobile app,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:22]
but I'm not completely sure what the mobile app looked like before all the changes. Oh, man. It I it's so funny. I I because I recommend this app to everybody. Right? Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:31]
this is one of those apps and services that I
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:34]
I don't really have any hesitation in recommending to people. Because
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:39]
if you want to see what you are doing financially,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:44]
for most people, this is the best way to see everything all at once and get a legitimate, you know, perspective on your net worth, your income,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:53]
your expenses, and also maybe develop a budget.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:56]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:57]
I I honestly think that this UI transformation that they did is a game changer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:03]
I I don't know. I'm surprised that you don't use it more on the mobile, but we know that our our habits are very different.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:10]
Indeed. I prefer to sit at my computer still for most things.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:16]
So I don't know what it looked like before, but when I
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:19]
first turned it on, it was hard for me to actually find
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:24]
my budget and where I sat there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:26]
You mean the the button down at the bottom that says this month?
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:31]
Well, yeah. Because it was sitting behind this this month thing then.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:34]
So before,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:36]
the lay the lay so first of the the backup. Right? Like, it's
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:39]
it's got a new coat of paint, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:42]
But the ads were much more intrusive. Like, they really got in your way before, and they are way out of the way now, which I thought was was pretty awesome. Because I can actually
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:53]
I can scroll through the things that matter the most to me, which is, like, my my cash, credit card, loan, like that summary, plus recent transactions before I ever get to an ad. And then there's this this month section which
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:05]
again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:06]
like, the ads are I don't even think they're on this page. Yeah. The ads
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:11]
all the way at the bottom, maybe. I don't have any on on this month. I see financial resources, I guess. I wonder Kind of internal ads.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:20]
Yeah. I'd Your next DNS is probably blocking your ads, Stan. That could be that would be so awesome. That would make it totally worth it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:28]
But The the home screen is decidedly less
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:32]
spammy than it was before, and it is as it currently is on desktop.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:37]
I think it's easier to navigate. I like the way that they've laid out the month with the cash flow lines on this. I think that's just a much more clear in terms of what what's happening.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:46]
And you have the ability to see either your net worth or your January spending. Right? I've been I've been erring on January spending because I think that's more interesting
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:53]
from a Yeah. So standpoint. Is another thing where I kind of budget
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:57]
differently than most people would.
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:00]
So like the cash flow is the January cash flow.
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:04]
So it's nice to kinda see what I actually spent,
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:07]
but technically, I'm spending income earned in December at this point. Yeah. And I I budget in a similar fashion,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:15]
but I still think, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:17]
at the end of the month, ideally, right, those lines still equal out because you've you've basically generated the I mean, unless you've got a wildly fluctuating
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:25]
income, which I don't think you do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:27]
I do from December to January now. Okay. Well For this year. But but moving forward, like, in a normal in a normal situation, month to month, those lines should
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:35]
your your income should still probably be yeah. Either close or above ideally. Right? I also budget any overage from last month and rebudget into the next month, so that changes things up and down too. So you should just move that to savings and then have it affect your your net worth. Have you tried using the goals at all?
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:53]
Yeah. So I did a goal for
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:56]
down payment on a house, and currently, I am using a goal to pay off the mortgage.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:02]
I'm not sold
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:04]
on functionality,
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:06]
but it's nice to kinda get a snapshot
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:08]
there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:10]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:11]
shifting gears here just a bit. The this month section, I like how accessible
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:16]
this like, it's it's just a button at the bottom now. Right? Like, it's easy for me to get to. I get over there. I can see So that used to be that used to be what? Budget transactions
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:25]
and different things that they broke out. Yep. Yep. And so And now it's all under this month. This month, you
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:32]
you can land you can actually show your cash flow or hide it. Not a big deal. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:37]
So for you, you could hide it, John, because you don't care about cash flow. Then you've got the budget net worth, though. And then you've got the spending categories, which I actually find interesting now that I'm, like, conforming my life to the the categories of mint.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:49]
But the thing that got me this and this is gonna sound so weird to you, is when you drill in on the budget, I actually can see my income budgets now. Because that was never available
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:59]
on the
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:01]
the app before, and it was a huge source of frustration for me. So there's there's stuff like that that's littered throughout here that I think is interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:11]
One of the things also that jumped at me
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:14]
in the release notes, and I think they've since purged this,
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:18]
but I'm sure you've seen the
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:21]
the services that, like, track all of your subscriptions and show them to you in a list and all that. Apparently, Mint at some point in the future is gonna have that feature because that's what that's what they're plugging in
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:31]
earlier on.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:32]
There's did you look at the
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:35]
Mint sites button from your main screen?
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:39]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:40]
Okay. Top right, there's a little little icon that looks like a gift.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:43]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:44]
You tap on that. There's actually some interesting statistics about your 2020 money behavior, which I think even you might like. Don't don't do it with the sound on though, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:55]
But I I really I think my takeaway from this is Mint is kinda improving, I think, the clarity of what is going on
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:03]
in your spending. And again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:06]
I I I really think this app is just easier to navigate.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:10]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:12]
So but I I guess I'm the only one that uses the app.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:16]
I definitely
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:17]
use mint.com more often.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:20]
I I can't stand mint.com. The only thing I like about mint.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:25]
is
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:27]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:29]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:31]
ability to set, like, an individual or month specific or multi month budget,
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:36]
because none of that's available on
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:39]
the app side. So Got it. There's some functionality that still needs to come up. And and heaven help you if you set a one month budget and you try to edit the amount on the app because that just doesn't work. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:49]
Maybe that's why I always use desktop.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:51]
There yeah. Maybe that's why. Or or you're just a curmudgeon old fool. But And I'm at my computer more than I'm not. So This this update that Minto got me thinking, and I talked talked to you a little bit this weekend about this. It's just, like, post pandemic budgeting, you know, it's a new year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:07]
For a lot of people, you reset your budget. You kinda think about how you're gonna spend your money.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:12]
You know, because a lot for a lot of people, your income levels change at the you know, change of the year because fiscal years,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:18]
for a lot of places run January to December,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:21]
etcetera.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:22]
I just got to thinking, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:24]
what,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:25]
how much different does my budget look from a year ago?
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:29]
You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:30]
And one of the things that jumped out at me, obviously, is, like, fuel because I'm spending so much less on fuel than I used to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:36]
for a variety of reasons.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:38]
But when do you just
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:40]
kind of as a closing question, closing thought here for the day, when do you think about altering your
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:46]
budget categories and your budget line items? Like, what precipitates that?
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:52]
So in general,
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:54]
I don't or haven't had to.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:00]
With the purchase of a dog,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:02]
the dog costs lots of money. So I did add a pets category
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:07]
here in 2021 beginning in January. Before that, I'll fell under miscellaneous.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:13]
Do you is that a budget that carries over, like, month to month, or do you
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:19]
I just budget
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:21]
based on what I think I'll need. So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:24]
like, for January, I budgeted for food and treats and whatever. I did not budget for the dog being infected with a parasite,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:33]
so I am significantly over that budget currently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:36]
Ah, the joys of pet ownership.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:40]
So we'll see if that evolves over time. So my my criteria for editing a thing are I I have categories that generally represent
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:48]
the typical month to month behavior
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:50]
for our family.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:53]
I don't typically change those unless something dramatic has happened. So, like, pandemic, I've lowered my fuel budget. Right? But it took a few months before I did that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:04]
Otherwise, I create I create budgets for, you know, like, specific budget categories
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:10]
for things that are unusual. So we
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:13]
placed a pretty big order with Burpee for plants and seeds and stuff. Right? And lawn garden is not a category that I have every month. So I did a I did a one month for that. Right? I've got enough freedom in my budget that I can do that. It's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:28]
But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:29]
I was thinking the other thing is just like I have positioned myself now in terms of the ways that I category
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:35]
categorize,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:36]
rather,
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:37]
to minimize the amount of edits I have to do. Because I think the more edits I do, the less helpful my budget is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:44]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:46]
But I yeah. So I I don't know. This is would have been noodling on a lot. I'm trying again to conform my behaviors a little bit more to the way that mint works rather than how Stan Lemon wants it to work.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:59]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:03]
I have 15 categories. They all correspond
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:06]
to mint categories or subcategories
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:09]
at this point. And then, generally, I don't use anything else
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:13]
in that category. So I don't use, like, the parent auto category
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:17]
when I have auto insurance and
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:20]
fuel broken
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:21]
up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:22]
Yeah. I think that's maybe the kicker. Right? So you either use the big category or use the little categories. And I use the little categories primarily when there's a fixed cost that recurs
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:30]
at the same amount all the time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:33]
And then I use the big categories when I've got just like a lot of variables. So I've I'm starting to use shopping because I have hobby expenses,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:40]
and I've got like software expenses, and I just got a bunch of stuff in there. Right? And I don't really wanna worry about
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:47]
trying to budget the difference between buying shampoo
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:50]
this month and, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:54]
buying paper. Like, it's just not it's not worth my time. And so I had used the miscellaneous category for a long time, but what I found out is that I was constantly I mean, constantly
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:04]
recategorizing
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:05]
things that way.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:07]
So I'm trying shopping. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:09]
I use the miscellaneous category really
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:13]
what you're creating new categories for.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:17]
Otherwise, I just kind of have a buffer there for if something else comes up.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:21]
But then I split out,
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:23]
like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:25]
lawn stuff would either fall under
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:27]
home supplies or
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:30]
entertainment depending on what it was because sometimes I do crazy things with my lawn that aren't exactly necessary, so I'll use entertainment budget for that. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:41]
So do you do you don't lower entertainment and then increase lawn? That's not what you do?
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:47]
No. So I set a value
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:50]
each month
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:52]
based on the income from last month and what's coming up. So, like, if we're traveling for Thanksgiving this year in November, I will up the gas budget because we're gonna drive to Louisville,
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:02]
and things like that. Or if we're gonna be on the road, then I'll
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:06]
raise dining out and stuff like that so we can
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:10]
grab lunch on the way back or something like that. Okay. But you don't, like, recategorize
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:14]
specific transactions to another category
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:17]
in order to shift funds, I guess, is what I was getting at.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:22]
So in general,
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:24]
I will set the category
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:27]
sometimes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:28]
So we have the grocery store Hy Vee here in Iowa,
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:31]
and there's also a gas station connected to that, and those get miscategorized
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:35]
all the time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:37]
So I do things like that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:40]
But if I buy something from the lawn care nut, chances are it's gonna come in on some weird category anyway, and then I'll just set a rule to always set this to home.
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:49]
Gotcha. Gotcha. Alright. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:51]
dear listener, if you've made it this long through WandaVision,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:55]
I suggest you take a look at your budget and make adjustments. And if you're not already using Mint,
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:01]
this is a service that I can hardly recommend. I think you, John, even you, curmudgeonly John Kollmeyer, could recommend
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:07]
Mint.
SPEAKER_1 [00:48:08]
I could. And if you go back, I think that I fought it for a while, and then our first January,
SPEAKER_1 [00:48:14]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:15]
jumped on it. So It's it's like the dark side of the forest. Eventually, you just give in. Well, what really happened was my primary bank started supporting it, so that helped. That's that makes a big difference. That makes a big difference.
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:27]
Alright, my friend. On that note, my kids and I were watching Avengers last night. We have not yet finished it, so I'm gonna go do that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:33]
Here's hoping to a
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:36]
safe and sound tomorrow so that we don't have to re pull this episode.
SPEAKER_0 [00:48:41]
But on that note, good night, John. This is Stan Lemon reminding you to help control the spread of COVID nineteen. Wash your hands and wear a mask.