Rob: I think I'd want my face to be proportionate. It would just,

Rob: you know, like having, you know, having a melon head is weird enough as it is,

Rob: but that if you have like a tiny face inside your melon head,

Rob: you know, children are going to run screaming every time that they see you. Right.

Danny: Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, a show with unexpected questions and unfiltered answers.

Danny: I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests 5 questions

Danny: created by a random question generator.

Danny: The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I,

Danny: which means this could go either way.

Danny: So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Danny: Today's guest is Rob Lynch. Rob says he's always been a jack-of-all-trades,

Danny: but with the common thread of the written word connecting everything together.

Danny: He's written music reviews, screenplays, short stories, movie reviews,

Danny: sports and articles and just released his first full-length novel,

Danny: Voudon Caliber, available on Amazon.

Danny: With the deaths of many important family members in the last few years and the

Danny: complicated presence of addiction in his family, Rob's whole way of thinking

Danny: and negotiating life has been turned on its head and he works to understand

Danny: life a little more day to day.

Danny: Life is about gratitude and service, as Rob says, and finding out what that looks like to you.

Danny: So Rob, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Rob: Thank you so much for having me. And it's so great to see you again.

Danny: I know, mate. I was just thinking that. I mean, we've known each other.

Danny: I was thinking about this as I was getting ready to come on and record with you.

Danny: We've actually known each other for almost 20 years. And you were actually a

Danny: groomsman at my wedding in 2008.

Danny: So that's at least how long we've known each other.

Danny: Now, most people find increased wisdom as the years progress.

Danny: In 20 years or almost 20 years is quite a long chunk.

Danny: But, I mean, in that time, you still support Tottenham Hotspur.

Danny: So what's your excuse there, mate?

Rob: Well, actually, I have to...

Rob: My support with Spurs has kind of fallen by the wayside, if I'm being completely honest.

Rob: And it's got nothing to do with their dubious performance. it's more about I really

Rob: And I know that this is probably going to come off sounding a little naive,

Rob: but I really, really hate the way that most European football,

Rob: especially English Premier League, has been monetized and made so exclusive, right?

Rob: From the moment that we started getting it here, and I want to say it was around

Rob: maybe 95, and we were getting like one game on a Saturday morning, right?

Rob: And it felt like it was always a Man U game, I might add. But it really sort

Rob: of gained in popularity.

Rob: And then we started getting full slates or games, like three on a Saturday morning,

Rob: three on a Sunday morning.

Rob: Sometimes you get one on a Monday evening when you got home from work.

Rob: And then all of this subscription type service started.

Rob: And it was just one of those things that I said to myself, you know what?

Rob: Like, it's just, it's, it's, it's one commitment too far.

Rob: And I just don't want to be part of this anymore.

Rob: And like, I, I follow like the tables randomly and I'll look for highlights

Rob: and, you know, that sort of thing.

Rob: But yeah, I've kind of, I've kind of like walked away from it.

Rob: You know, I'm more about the national program and MLS and, you know, Scottish league.

Danny: Yeah. I hear, I mean, especially, I mean, like this year we've seen the world

Danny: cup prices that were released by FIFA.

Danny: And it's just got crazy, crazy scandalous. And the amount of games that you

Danny: mentioned, the pressure that's put on players and we're seeing more injuries

Danny: than that, it's definitely not,

Danny: it doesn't feel like the common fans game anymore. I 100% get you there.

Danny: I'm still going to stick to the fact that Spurs are crap. And I'm saying that

Danny: as an Arsenal fan, so I'm obviously biased. And you just came to your senses, Mick.

Rob: Okay, well, I'll give you that. This is your room, your show,

Rob: so I'll give you that for now, okay?

Danny: No, no, I hear you. I hear you. It's like ridiculous life. The subscription for Fubo is just crazy.

Danny: And your book, you just published your first book. So congratulations on that.

Danny: And it's a mash of different genres with crime, adventure, horror,

Danny: and more between the pages.

Danny: So I'm curious, and we'll get two or five random questions soon.

Danny: But I'm curious, what's the most difficult thing in bringing multiple genres together like that?

Rob: I think maybe creating a level of plausibility. would be the biggest challenge.

Rob: I've always really been...

Rob: Attracted to mashup stories a lot

Rob: of them don't do particularly well whether we're

Rob: talking about a movie or a book um or

Rob: any other kind of media because i think it's

Rob: a very sort of foreign idea to a lot of people

Rob: like for example done a little bit

Rob: differently and better marketing the movie cowboys versus

Rob: aliens should have been huge that movie

Rob: should have been huge you know but uh for whatever reason that just didn't work

Rob: and um over the course of the last few years i think i've maybe kind of been

Rob: emboldened a little bit because um very quickly my favorite genre of novel has

Rob: been the horror western which which is really making a lot of headway

Rob: And, uh, you know, makes for some absolutely fantastic stuff.

Rob: So I'll finish off your question, you know, by going back to,

Rob: you know, where the idea first sort of sprang into my head.

Rob: And it was actually something that I had been carrying around for 35 years.

Rob: And I'm going to be dating myself here, um, by saying that, uh,

Rob: when I was in college, I worked in a video store, right.

Rob: And it was like a January night where there

Rob: was a snowstorm going on inside and me and one of my friends um who

Rob: i'm still in touch with today we were sitting there nobody was

Rob: coming in we were bored we're just talking about

Rob: different things we're going back and forth and we were talking about the um

Rob: the virtues of um the western film which is my favorite genre and the gangster

Rob: film which is his favorite genre right and we're going back and forth and no

Rob: mine's better because of this and no, mine's better because of this.

Rob: And then one of us, and I don't remember who one of us had said,

Rob: but it would be really cool to figure out a way to get them both in the same movie, wouldn't it?

Rob: And I carried that around with me for like over three decades.

Rob: And then when lockdown hit and I decided that I was going to finally do this,

Rob: I was going to write this.

Rob: I started out with, it was going to be gangsters and cowboys.

Rob: And then I thought to myself, wait a

Rob: If I'm in for a penny, I'm in for a pound. I'm going to stretch this as much

Rob: as I possibly can, right?

Rob: So I took every kind of pulp fiction action archetype and put them all in the same story.

Rob: And I think, you know, at least based on test reads and based on the feedback

Rob: that I've been getting so far, since I released it at the end of October,

Rob: I figured out a way to make it work.

Rob: So I'm very grateful for that.

Danny: And I know the reviews on the Amazon page, the sales page, they say,

Danny: they speak to that where a lot are saying they're grabbed from the first page,

Danny: the genre mash-in works really well and the plot threads tie together well.

Danny: So obviously I'll be sure to leave the link to that in the show notes.

Danny: So whatever app you're listening on, make sure you check that out and check out Rob's book.

Danny: And we'll speak about where to find that later for sure.

Danny: But as is our want, we're here for five random questions, mate.

Danny: So if you're ready, I will bring up the random question generator and we'll jump into it.

Rob: I am ready as I'm going to be.

Danny: All right, let's have a look. Okay. Question number one, Rob.

Danny: Would you rather be rich and ugly or poor and good looking?

Rob: Nothing like, you know, nothing like coming out of the gate slow,

Rob: huh? We're going to go right to the heavy hitters.

Danny: We're going to put you right in the spot, mate.

Rob: Oh, I think that my answer to

Rob: this would be based upon how it is that I'm feeling on any particular day.

Rob: But considering that we're doing this today, I think I would probably say...

Rob: I think I would say poor and good-looking.

Danny: Poor and good-looking. So you're going for, I'm not going to say vain,

Danny: but what's your reason in there?

Danny: Because if you're ugly, if you're rich, you could probably get work done maybe.

Danny: I'm not sure how much work and how bad it might look. But what's your reason behind that choice?

Rob: So I was just having a conversation with somebody a couple of days ago.

Rob: And we were talking about people who have really kind of shaped the landscape

Rob: of the economic Western world.

Rob: You know, your Rockefellers, your Carnegie's, Henry Ford, uh,

Rob: JP Morgan, you know, stuff like that.

Rob: And I don't know that I 100% looked at the question as what would traditionally

Rob: be considered physically ugly.

Rob: Um, I know that based on my limited knowledge of a lot of these people,

Rob: um, while some of them may have been very, you know, striking specimens of human

Rob: beings, I don't think that they were particularly nice.

Rob: I think that some of them actually had some pretty ugly souls.

Rob: And I think that maybe looking at it both from an inside and an outside perspective

Rob: is what shaped my answer.

Rob: I don't believe that it has to be an inevitability that just because you become

Rob: rich and famous, that you have to become rich.

Rob: Ugly or corrupt but i think

Rob: a lot of times by default that does happen with people

Rob: um just because you're forced to make a lot of really unkind

Rob: and um inhumane decisions just for that extra million so i think maybe i was

Rob: a quote i was i was equating that not just uh as much to physical good looks

Rob: but maybe sort of kindness of soul as well too does that make sense it does Yeah,

Danny: And it's interesting you mentioned some of the names that you mentioned and

Danny: whether you're born into riches, for example, or you work your way to riches.

Danny: And I think using your metaphors, I think if I think of some of the people that

Danny: have been given riches by their parents, a lot of them are actually very toxic people.

Danny: Whereas if you've got people that have worked their way up and know what it's

Danny: like to be poor and struggling and and recognize that there's a really well

Danny: known actor. My brain's taken a dump on me and I can't remember who it is.

Danny: But a really well-known actor who came up through hard times and he makes sure

Danny: that he knows that his kids know about that and that their lifestyle isn't normal.

Danny: It's not what everybody experiences and you have to work hard and kindness is

Danny: so key to that and you can't treat people like crap just because you've got the power to.

Danny: So it's interesting. You feel like there's more if people are given riches in

Danny: later life either through parents or they've come into it with not working too hard for it.

Danny: Do you think that's easier, you've got this newfound power, like you say,

Danny: to become less of a nicer person as opposed to people that don't have riches to start with?

Rob: I think that maybe that comes down to the responsibility of the person who has provided those riches.

Rob: I know somebody who is...

Rob: She is really, really successful in her field and, um, is very much a mentor to me.

Rob: And, um, I know that at least up until recently, every, I could be wrong.

Rob: I think it was every Easter, every Thanksgiving and every Christmas,

Rob: she would take her kids on the actual holiday to work in a soup kitchen, right.

Rob: And say, this is, this is how you, you know, this, this is how you keep yourself

Rob: in check and remember that you're owed nothing, right?

Rob: This is, you know, what we have is from hard work and that, you know,

Rob: what it is that we're contributing to right now, that can easily happen to anybody.

Rob: So, you know, count your blessings and, you know, never forget what it is,

Rob: you know, to retain your humanity.

Rob: And, you know, further to that, I would also say that all of my,

Rob: You look at anybody who has helped shape generational culture, right?

Rob: You go Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Zeppelin, all of those people,

Rob: they each represent a different decade.

Rob: They all came from abject poverty.

Rob: They all came from, well, maybe abject poverty is a bit of a stretch,

Rob: but they all came from very lower working class.

Rob: And you know even Kurt Cobain could be thrown in there as well too but these

Rob: are the people that are hungry and these are the people that are always going

Rob: to change things because they know what it's like to need and want

Danny: Yeah it's you were telling me um in the green room before we started recording

Danny: uh about a fan uh event that you went to uh where tamora morrison the guy that

Danny: plays boba fett in the star wars movies um had a really nice interaction with

Danny: you and your daughter that He was looking for a fan stamp.

Danny: And I feel that's a good example where, you know, that kindness was something

Danny: that didn't need to be shown, but he took that moment and showed kindness.

Danny: And I feel he's probably come from a working class background where he realized

Danny: that it doesn't take a lot to be kind, but it means such a lot to be that person.

Rob: Absolutely. I completely agree. It's a great example for sure.

Danny: That's awesome. I like that. I loved your answer, by the way,

Danny: but I like that question as I want to ease us in.

Danny: So poor and good looking, but not in the vain, you know, Carly Simon,

Danny: you're so vain approach to, you know, good looking. I like that.

Danny: So let's have a look then, Rob, at what question number two brings up.

Danny: All right, I'm curious about this because you've got a lot of different experiences.

Danny: So and you obviously you're well written, well traveled.

Danny: Question two, Rob, what was your least favorite subject in school?

Rob: Math.

Rob: Math easy particular

Danny: One because i know there's like various subcategories right or.

Rob: Yeah i never um i never got to

Rob: the point uh through my uh educational career

Rob: that i was sort of um for lack of a better term specializing um i like you know

Rob: calculus trigonometry um functions all that kind of stuff i dropped that from

Rob: my curriculum i don't know what it is like now but in my day you had to,

Rob: once you hit high school,

Rob: you had to do two years. You had to do grade nine and grade 10.

Rob: After that, it became an optional subject, right?

Rob: And based on your very kind intro that you gave regarding me,

Rob: I've always been a word person.

Rob: My entire life, I've always been a word person.

Rob: And I just think that I have somewhat of an intellectual allergy to numbers.

Rob: It has just never worked for me.

Rob: And funnily enough, both of those grades of math, grade 9 and grade 10,

Rob: I failed them both and had to do summer school.

Danny: Yeah, I think it's still the same now, actually. Our kids, our son's now in

Danny: high school. Our daughter starts after the summer, so she'll start in September.

Danny: And I think it's the same way we were trying to help him select these courses.

Danny: And there were some that were mandatory, and I'm pretty sure English,

Danny: math, maybe even French, because obviously we're in Canada. That may have been mandatory too.

Rob: French was mandatory for two years when I was a kid. I don't know if it still is.

Danny: Yeah, I think it is. I'm not sure. But I'm with you. I hated math.

Danny: I was in the UK at the time when I was in high school and my subjects were always

Danny: English, art and history. I loved history of a passion.

Danny: But I'm curious, I mean, you're a creative person and you mentioned obviously

Danny: you skew more towards the written word.

Danny: Do you feel like English and art and subjects maybe like that are more suited

Danny: and more natural to move towards as someone that's creative?

Danny: And maybe math and geography, for example, Possibly, you know,

Danny: science like physics, chemistry are more for people that are very,

Danny: not strict, but more structured in their way of thinking and learning, etc.

Rob: Partially, yes. Only because, and I apologize if I'm sticking on your terminology

Rob: or tripping on your terminology too much.

Rob: Despite the fact that I, that I lean towards more of a creative vein,

Rob: I still have a lot of, a lot of discipline and regimen in my life.

Rob: I was just thinking before we had met up in the green room and,

Rob: uh, we're shooting the breeze.

Rob: I was just thinking about, um, have you read, uh, Stephen King's on writing?

Danny: I haven't, no. Okay.

Rob: So he released it a few years ago, and it's sort of his, into the look,

Rob: you know, through the looking glass, this is how I created what I created. This is how I work.

Rob: This is how I would suggest that you work, and that kind of thing.

Rob: And I am by no means Stephen King's greatest fans.

Rob: I would take up the whole show if I talked to you about all the problems that

Rob: I have with the way that he does things, right?

Rob: But you can't deny his success, and you

Rob: can't deny his popularity and what an

Rob: absolutely amazing book i couldn't recommend it higher um because

Rob: he talks a lot about discipline and he talks about what it is that you need

Rob: to do uh to get to where you want to be and you know he says oh you know and

Rob: it's and i think it's a little a little millennial sparring that he throws in

Rob: there in that he says oh you know you're you're tired.

Rob: You've got a part-time job. You have to go to school.

Rob: You're having grief with somebody in your life. Well, let me explain to you

Rob: that when I wrote, I think it was The Shining.

Rob: It might've been The Shining or maybe it was The Stand, but it was one of his like magnum opuses.

Rob: And he had said that he was living in a trailer with his wife and two kids,

Rob: was working a full-time job during the day and then at night after the kids

Rob: went to bed he wrote that book on a

Rob: Fallout ironing board that came out of the wall of the trailer

Rob: And did that probably until the wee hours of the morning, then went to sleep

Rob: for a few hours, and then the cycle started over again.

Rob: So if that isn't discipline, then I don't know what is. And then the proof is

Rob: in the pudding. You look at where the guy is right now.

Rob: He is considered the master of the genre and probably will be for some time.

Rob: So there's my long-winded intro to your question.

Rob: Uh i would say that the uh short answer is that i do think that there are certain people

Rob: that are i i believe that the the common colloquialism is left brain right brain

Rob: right the one is more one is more hard fact which is you know science and you

Rob: know maths and uh that sort of thing and the other side of the brain is a little

Rob: bit more creative that's where

Rob: your musicians your painters your actors uh your writers uh that that sort of

Rob: thing comes from i think there's also been maybe some kind of correlation that has been made between

Rob: left-handed and right-handed people that there's maybe something there that

Rob: is tied with creativity versus hard sciences but uh that would be a whole other

Rob: vein of discussion i think i

Danny: Thought it'd be interesting because i know i can i only know i think one left-handed

Danny: person And I always was amazed.

Danny: And this was like, again, when I was in the UK, I was always amazed watching

Danny: her ride because it's natural.

Danny: Obviously, the right hand person, you're moving from left to right.

Danny: It's a natural course or flow of your hand.

Danny: But to be left handed and do the same, it looks more awkward because you're

Danny: now kind of pushing your hand over as opposed to, you know, just letting it flow over.

Danny: Well, tangent. but yeah it makes sense because like the left brain right brain

Danny: if that ties into the left hand right hand and what you know what part of your

Danny: brain is more creative virtually structured it'd be kind of cool to to dig into

Danny: that might have to do just some uh some good old googling to use that term if

Danny: we can still use googling after this mate i.

Rob: Think it's okay i am a lefty myself so i know exactly what it is you're talking

Rob: about um and i also recently read speaking of Googling.

Rob: I also recently read online that the amount of left-handed people in the world

Rob: is actually increasing.

Rob: It's very slow, but it is increasing. It isn't so much a rarity as what it used to be.

Danny: Yeah. Well, now I can say I know two people. So now my knowledge of left-handed

Danny: is doubled. So that's a result.

Rob: I am sure that I am in excellent company.

Danny: She, I don't know, I lost touch with her years ago, but yeah, she was awesome.

Danny: She's a very creative person as well, though. She became an artist,

Danny: opened her own sort of art studio, like saw a ton of stuff.

Danny: So, you know, definitely a creative side there, I feel, of left-handed anywhere.

Rob: Lovely.

Danny: So, there we go then. Left-handed, don't like math. We can live with that one, I feel.

Danny: So, let's have a look then. Rob, doing well here, mate. Let's have a look at

Danny: what question number three brings up. okay and remember this is a family podcast

Danny: so question for you rob do you shower in the morning or the evening.

Rob: Morning morning

Danny: Always mornings mate.

Rob: Uh not always uh if it has been a day of hard stringent yard work or i don't

Rob: really play in any beer leagues anymore um for you know football or hockey or

Rob: anything like that um so sometimes that would warrant an extra one.

Rob: But, um, yeah, it is almost always morning.

Rob: I feel that it's just such a natural beginning to the day, right?

Rob: There's again, like what I was saying in the last question about,

Rob: you know, discipline and about routine.

Rob: I am such a slave to routine.

Rob: Um, it's almost embarrassing, but, uh, I, I find that if it,

Rob: if it gets thrown off too much, it, um, really creates a lot of problems for me.

Rob: And it can really throw my day off. I will always tell people the story that

Rob: for a brief period in my late teen years, I was flirting with the idea of joining

Rob: either the police or the military.

Rob: And I am actually the first generation of my people,

Rob: meaning to say the lynches that go all the way back to, I think it's 400 years

Rob: in Scotland and then maybe 700 years in Ireland previous to that.

Rob: And then I think before that we might've been Gauls, but I'm not sure before

Rob: he passed, my father was fooling around with this stuff, doing a lot of genealogy.

Rob: So, you know, it was very, it

Rob: was very interesting. It's a shame that he never got finished with that.

Rob: Maybe I should pick that up one day, but I'm the first person in my,

Rob: in my generation as far, or I'm the first generation, I should say.

Rob: I was people within my family that was not military.

Rob: I had military running through what looks to be hundreds of years.

Rob: And for years i looked at it as a dig that when i talked to my my folks about it you know

Rob: both of which were gone now and they both served um when

Rob: i talked to my folks about it i had said you know i'm thinking about this i

Rob: had a good friend in high school um that i used to play like dungeons and dragons

Rob: where and he was in the reserve and he ended up i think he ended up pursuing a full career.

Rob: And I think became an officer if I understand correctly, but I think maybe he inspired me.

Rob: And I had said to my folks, you know, I'm thinking about maybe doing this.

Rob: And I remember my father who was a very stern man, you know,

Rob: grew up in a, in a port town

Rob: during world war II, you know, so he, he, he saw some hard stuff and, you know, he said to me

Rob: with as tender a voice as his

Rob: brogue could muster the military is not for

Rob: you son right and i took that as an

Rob: affront for you know for for a long period of time and

Rob: what you know what's he saying is he saying that i'm soft and you know

Rob: whatever else and you know what yeah he was saying that i was soft

Rob: and i think that this maybe ties in with one of the earlier conversations that

Rob: we were having that um i think that i think that hardship breeds necessity and

Rob: you know my folks were really really hardworking people and they really understood

Rob: the difference between want and need.

Rob: And we had everything that we needed. We didn't necessarily have everything that we wanted.

Rob: And there's some, my father served in a live theater in his late teens and early 20s.

Rob: And he never spoke about it. He never wanted to talk about it.

Rob: And I talked about this at great length in his eulogy when I eulogized him a few years ago.

Rob: And I think that whatever it was that he saw and whatever it was that he experienced,

Rob: it shaped the way that he did things for the rest of his life.

Rob: And he was always grateful for quiet moments.

Rob: He was always grateful, even just for an orange, something like that,

Rob: something that we completely take for granted.

Rob: And even though my father wasn't the most day-to-day regimented person,

Rob: he had an incredible conviction of character.

Rob: And um i think that some of that ended up getting

Rob: passed down to me in terms of discipline as well too

Rob: uh again if i was talking

Rob: about the differences between my father and i we would be here until

Rob: the sun went down but i think that that

Rob: probably ties in maybe there's even something like kind of genetic there about

Rob: the fact that my showers always have to be uh first thing in the day you know

Rob: for me it's like you know it's wake up stretch shower coffee out the door morning

Rob: commute right i even feel it sometimes on the weekends that you know when it's like i wake up

Rob: i realize it isn't as early as what i'm used to it being um and it can sometimes

Rob: throw me off a little bit that oh i'm used to you know i'm i'm used to things

Rob: just being a b c d e right it's probably also why i'm a relatively simple eater as well too

Rob: simplified even more since i became a vegetarian but uh

Rob: Yeah. Man, I really made a meal of that question.

Danny: None at all, mate. And this is why I love the show, because it does take my

Danny: guests into tangents and lets you open up and just tell your story, which I always love.

Danny: So I appreciate you sharing that, mate. And it's weird, because where we live,

Danny: we live on a well, so our water is limited.

Danny: We have to sort of manage it, especially in the warmer weather.

Danny: But our son, both our kids are competitive athletes.

Danny: My son does soccer, football. My daughter does cheer.

Danny: So obviously they love showers. But in warm weather, it's because we have to limit it more.

Danny: It kind of messes up with the routine. So I can completely 100% get that, mate.

Rob: You know, it's a creature comfort. It's a simple comfort. But it's all part and parcel.

Rob: It's all like a piece in the juice out it gets us through day to day.

Rob: I think. Right. So yeah, morning showers all the way.

Rob: That being said, before we move on, I do understand people who do it in the evening as well too.

Rob: My, my, my oldest, for example, my oldest daughter, she's an evening shower person.

Rob: Because she wants that time to get herself together in the morning and focus

Rob: on other things and reserve energy for, you know,

Rob: maybe, you know, what her ensemble is going to be for the day or her hair or,

Rob: you know, thinking about if she's got a presentation at school,

Rob: you know, how am I going to tackle this, that sort of thing.

Rob: So not taking away anything from the evening people, but the morning shower

Rob: just works better for me.

Danny: I like it. I like it. and speaking of

Danny: what's working better that's a terrible segue

Danny: no i like it and i i'm

Danny: a i i for me i'd probably be an evening person but

Danny: i'd be an evening bath person as opposed to shower i feel shower is

Danny: there to like freshen and make you really feel refreshed so

Danny: i feel we probably if we had like the unlimited water supply from the

Danny: city i'd probably have more baths but yeah um nice

Danny: warm bath in the evening but i get you i hear you talk completely on

Danny: that mate like i say our son he prefers the winter

Danny: because the water is more plentiful you know so he's

Danny: good to go there so all good all good but yeah i like that that's a good one

Danny: to have for question number three mate let's have a look and see what question

Danny: number four is and you just mentioned you become a vegetarian so rob question

Danny: four do you prefer to cook or order takeout cook.

Rob: I have found um so it's almost six years

Rob: that I've been a vegetarian. Uh, it was actually, uh, and I'm about to date

Rob: myself here. It was my 50th birthday.

Rob: That was the last time that I ate meat and, uh, it was a steak and ale pie as

Rob: a matter of fact. So I know that I'm looking at you right now.

Rob: You can, uh, wipe that drool off your mouth.

Rob: Um, but that was, that was the last one that I had.

Rob: Um, I, I don't want to oversell it though i do sometimes still

Rob: eat fish but i would say that cook is is better like so and and and that's really

Rob: it's for a few different reasons one it's economic unless uh you are one of

Rob: you know one of the people that we were talking about in one of the earlier

Rob: questions life isn't as fluid

Rob: as what it was prior to lockdown right and uh money doesn't go as far as it did

Rob: And i was just having this conversation with somebody not that long ago and

Rob: i once i once saw um bill morris say the exact same thing on his television

Rob: show that when you were a kid

Rob: like going out for dinner or having something delivered

Rob: to your door right it was one of the greatest treats on the planet it was such

Rob: a big deal it was such a big deal right oh we're going we're going to swish

Rob: la for dinner tonight oh my god i think i'm going to pass out i'm so excited

Rob: whereas now it has become

Rob: Such a mundane act. Whenever I, on a rare occasion, when I do walk into a restaurant,

Rob: whether it be, you know, sit down, take away,

Rob: whatever, the lobby is invariably always full of Uber Eats delivery people that

Rob: are standing there waiting for orders for people who have put theirs in ahead of time.

Rob: It doesn't feel as though maybe there's so much ceremony about going out to

Rob: eat anymore as what there used to be or ordering something in.

Rob: It's it has been made so easy now there's a lot to be said about progress and

Rob: i know that there are a lot of people who make a living off of any of the uh

Rob: delivery services uh that come out of that and uh so you know i don't want to

Rob: i don't want to begrudge anyone or step on their toes

Rob: for uh pursuing their hustle but i'm trying to bring back the whole idea perhaps

Rob: on a subconscious level of maybe, um, making that sort of thing more of a treat, um,

Rob: than what it has become.

Rob: Uh, but then, so, you know, it is, it is somewhat economic, but beyond that as well too.

Rob: For example, if I were, if I were to walk into a McDonald's right now,

Rob: there is legit four things on the menu that I can eat.

Rob: It is getting better, mind you, with finer dining, with more mid-level dining and up.

Rob: Even the keg, which for anybody who isn't aware that is in Canada,

Rob: is a big steakhouse franchise here.

Rob: They even offer some plant-based alternatives to things.

Rob: So it is getting a little bit better, but a lot of times the idea of going out

Rob: to eat doesn't hold as much of a thrill for me as what it used to when I was

Rob: younger and when I was eating meat.

Rob: Because a lot of the excitement alternatives and options just aren't there anymore.

Rob: Yeah, yeah. I don't know that I have anything else to add to that.

Danny: No, no, it makes perfect sense. I mean, I think of, I used to love going to the movies.

Danny: Loved it. And again, pre-lockdown, I feel so much has changed in the world, obviously, since 2020.

Danny: But the movie theatres are suffering now because people realise,

Danny: hey, I don't need to go out and, like, you've got kids, I've got kids.

Danny: I don't have to go out and spend $100, $150 on movie tickets, popcorn, Coke, drinks.

Danny: If we're hungry after the movie, now we've got another $100 plus for dinner

Danny: or whatever. That's like one night out.

Danny: Now it becomes $200, $300, which is ridiculous, where you get a decent sound

Danny: system at home, decent-sized TV screen, make your own food, as you just mentioned, Matt.

Danny: And you don't have to worry about people rustling chip papers or crisps.

Danny: Or talking or a phone popping up, a little light screen on their phone with messages.

Danny: It's just, it's very different. So I completely hear you. And I know we used

Danny: to love going out to dinners as well.

Danny: And like you say, it was treats would go maybe at the weekend,

Danny: more than likely once a month though, to make it a proper treat.

Danny: But even now we don't do that.

Danny: And again, I feel a lot of that is done to the kids being super busy with sports.

Danny: So we don't have a lot of time anyway. As a family in the evenings,

Danny: they're super busy with what they're doing.

Danny: Um so i i 100 hear you

Danny: and it's do you feel like you obviously mentioned um economics but also choices

Danny: do you feel things are getting a bit better or we're still struggling when it

Danny: comes to good alternatives for vegetarian or vegan options as opposed to standard

Danny: you know steaks at the keg for example.

Rob: I uh i don't want to take any sake glory

Rob: here because um i i i don't have

Rob: and this ties in with our earlier discussion about discipline um

Rob: i i don't have the discipline yet to be a full-blown vegan there's a lot of

Rob: one of my daughter's friends is a full-blown vegan and it's like my hat is off

Rob: to you man like it whoa like yeah that is that is serious and um

Rob: But I do think that options are getting better, but maybe in a few more unlikely places.

Rob: A lot of your franchises, your North American franchises, they've been really slow on the uptake.

Rob: I listen to UK radio during the day while I'm working, right?

Rob: And I know for a fact that at least for two, maybe three years,

Rob: McDonald's already had their vegetarian hamburger in place over there.

Rob: We only just got it here in Canada, I think maybe seven months ago, something like that.

Rob: So I think that maybe a lot of your more conventional outlets have been really slow.

Rob: To jump on it because if, if it ain't broke, um, don't fix it.

Rob: Right. Uh, at least as they see it.

Rob: But I also think that one of those, uh, you know, one of the, uh,

Rob: many faceted benefits of multiculturalism, like what we have here is that you

Rob: have people coming from all corners of the world and there,

Rob: there are entire cultures that are based on vegetarianism or that at least a

Rob: large amount of the food, uh,

Rob: that comes from there is, is a highway vegetarian component, right?

Rob: Like, you know, you look at Indian food, for example, um, which I've always

Rob: been, I had, I hadn't had a lot of exposure to up until recent, uh, recently in my life.

Rob: And like, I am samosa daft now.

Rob: Right. Um, and it's, it, it, there's, you know, not only are they delicious

Rob: but you know it's it's like a real treat that has been added to my rotation

Rob: in terms of of what it is that my my

Rob: current way of living will support and then

Rob: you know you get a lot of your even even further east asian foods as well too

Rob: almost everything can be made without chicken or beef even as a kid like i it's

Rob: funny because i remember you know going back to when it was a big treat.

Rob: Like if it was somebody's birthday

Rob: or we were going on vacation for two weeks or something like that.

Rob: And then the folks decided to order Chinese food.

Rob: We'd be looking at the menu. Like all of us would be, you know,

Rob: me and my sister and my folks would be hovering over the menu.

Rob: And I'd be thinking in my head, why would anybody ever get that vegetable fried rice?

Rob: Why would anybody ever get vegetable chow mein? You know, when you've got chicken,

Rob: you've got beef, and you've got pork, and you've got shrimp,

Rob: and stuff like that. Well, you know, now I understand that.

Rob: But I think that we certainly live in a corner of the world where such a lifestyle

Rob: and such a diet has been made a lot easier by the doors that we've opened.

Danny: Yeah. No, I hear. And the great thing that you say, I mean, Canada,

Danny: we're very fortunate and that we have a lot of resources that can make that,

Danny: you know, hopefully make that lifestyle easier.

Danny: I say this as a non-vegetarian, so I apologize if I get that wrong,

Danny: but I feel Canada's definitely got a lot of resources, natural resources,

Danny: you know, for, you know, different lifestyles, which is awesome, obviously.

Rob: You know, economic trends and

Rob: grocery purchasing trends and general

Rob: lifestyle trends are all zeering in

Rob: the direction of a lesser consumption of meat with things going forward and

Rob: please don't misunderstand me here danny i am not trying to say to anybody i'm

Rob: right and you're wrong right i would never ever want to be that person but

Rob: it's a decision that you make and you do your best to stand by it and I think that

Rob: Yeah, a lot of, you know, a lot of changes are being made, like,

Rob: especially in the agricultural world.

Rob: But I don't think it's a wholesale shift at this point, but I think that there

Rob: are some subtle hints that are going on that, you know, things are not going

Rob: to remain the way that they have up until this point forever.

Danny: Yeah, I say it's funny. My daughter made me laugh.

Danny: Maybe last year, two years ago, it was during lockdown.

Danny: So maybe even before that. But anyway, she came to us, you know,

Danny: my wife, Jacqueline, you know, you guys know each other before I knew you, actually.

Danny: But she came up to us and she says, OK, I want to be a vegetarian.

Danny: Can you make me this tomorrow instead of, you know, whatever we normally have? Yeah, OK, no worries.

Danny: That's not a problem. So we made it. And she's like, I'm real hungry for lunch.

Danny: Can I have a sub sandwich? OK.

Danny: And then she went back. It's like, you know, I feel, and I know it's just like

Danny: a random, you know, addition to you.

Danny: I don't want to take away from that at all, mate. But she did make me chuckle

Danny: and you just made me think of that when, you know, what's available and how

Danny: we change, you know, how people's minds change in that.

Danny: But yeah, I hear you 100%, mate.

Rob: I don't think it's uncommon. I think that, I know, I know my youngest went through that as well too.

Rob: And even to this day she still will have periods where I haven't eaten in a

Rob: week, I haven't eaten in two weeks that kind of thing and then

Rob: You know, she's at a point in her life where there's other things that I think

Rob: are taking a priority for her.

Rob: And again, this is, you know, strictly about my own personal choice.

Rob: I, you know, would never, ever, you know, if I walk into a restaurant with somebody

Rob: and they, you know, order a steak across the table from me, I'm not going to sneer at them.

Rob: And I'm not going to, you know, wag the finger and, you know,

Rob: and preach the Holy gospel or anything like that.

Rob: It's just, it's, it's, it's a lifestyle change. And I'll tell you this.

Rob: Anybody who knew me prior to me making my

Rob: change and if they didn't know before i know people who have been floored by

Rob: the fact because oh man i was just i was all meat and potatoes and the rarer

Rob: the better yeah so um how's and is your daughter like where is she with her eating now

Danny: Yeah she's still like um she she likes

Danny: her um chicken she loves chicken she likes

Danny: that but she loves her veggies as well she's on that happy space where she's

Danny: got her protein if she wants it but she loves her

Danny: healthy you know um sides and the

Danny: way we cook chicken it's like healthy anyway it's not deep fried or anything so

Danny: um but yeah she still enjoys on meat currently i'll i'll say very good very

Danny: good see she's 13 gonna be 14 in next month oh my gosh um 14 year old where

Danny: did that go so yeah we'll see how she goes and like i say you mentioned it um

Danny: you know earlier it's you know and I mentioned it in your intro,

Danny: it's the decisions we make for ourselves, right? That's what's key at that time.

Danny: And I support others and the decisions they want to make that's right for them.

Rob: And so really.

Danny: Well, speaking of decisions that are right for us, it's time to get to question number five.

Danny: And we've done well to get to this point, Matt. So I'm going to finish with

Danny: this one because I feel it ties in with the first question kind of.

Danny: It kind of brings that back full circle.

Danny: So Rob, question five of your time in the random question hot seat.

Danny: Would you rather have a grapefruit sized head or a head the size of a watermelon oh.

Rob: My god i oh man i don't even know where to go with this um

Rob: I guess that both of those, or either one, would create a pretty conspicuous

Rob: physical appearance, right?

Danny: I feel so. I feel maybe one's a little bit less conspicuous,

Danny: but yeah, I feel you're going to be noticeable right away when you're walking down the street, mate.

Rob: Yeah, yeah. So with the first option, I'm thinking about that guy who's in the

Rob: waiting room in Beetlejuice, you know, smoking the cigarette and, you know, yeah, yeah.

Danny: He's almost like Beaker out of The Muppet Show, I feel. He's got that kind of vibe.

Rob: Yeah, yeah, because he has that bottom trap mouth and the big bug eyes, right?

Rob: I think I'll go for the watermelon, and I'll tell you why.

Rob: How anticlimactic would that

Rob: be if I just said, I think I'll go for the watermelon. See you, Danny.

Danny: Recording over.

Rob: Yeah. I think I'd go for the watermelon because I think that a reasonable assumption Thank you.

Rob: There would be enhanced brainpower. If you've got a bigger head,

Rob: that probably houses a bigger brain.

Rob: Now, of course, if you're into dinosaurs, that throws my whole theory out the window.

Rob: But I would like to think that we've maybe advanced a little bit beyond the

Rob: T-Rex and the Stegosaurus.

Rob: But yeah, I think I would probably go for the watermelon head.

Danny: When I feel the watermelons, it's more similar to a natural-sized head drive.

Danny: You think about the size, unless you get like a massive watermelon it always

Danny: makes me think of so i married an axe murderer you know would you look at the

Danny: size of that cranium he'd move the size of.

Rob: That boy's yeah

Danny: That's but yeah i feel yeah i feel like

Danny: a watermelon unless it was like a super big massive plump

Danny: ripe one that's probably closer to a human head size

Danny: as opposed to having that tiny little lemon but it'd

Danny: be it'd be interesting to see because obviously your your body would say the

Danny: same size but then does your physical features of your face adapt i'm going

Danny: to assume they adapt right you're not going to have like the same size mouse

Danny: you've got now on a lemon it's like it pokes over the side or it looks small

Danny: because now you've got this big massive watermelon head,

Danny: and would you wear anything in disguise like a hat or a scarf or anything yeah.

Rob: Yeah i'm sort of you know going back into the because i studied from in college

Rob: and you know i'm such a i'm such a student of a film um i'm going back now to

Rob: there was a villain in the dick tracy movie

Rob: um who i think his name was little face and he has this big melon head but with

Rob: a face that's about you know the size of a dessert plate right in the middle

Rob: of it uh which is just the oddest but also the bizarrely funniest thing that

Rob: you've ever seen so i think i'd want my face to be proportionate

Rob: um it would just you know like having you know having a melon head is weird

Rob: enough as it is but that if you had like a tiny face inside your melon head

Rob: you know children are going to run screaming every time that they see you right it'd

Danny: Be yeah it'd be something else man.

Rob: It also the the the visual the visual in my head the first thing that comes

Rob: to mind too is i'm reminded of the appearance

Rob: of one of my favorite batman enemies who is the scarecrow he's got that pumpkin

Rob: for a head right with the with the floppy straw hat on top of it and that's

Rob: actually kind of a cool look so i think that i think i definitely made the right choice there but

Danny: You'd have to be a villain though as well right.

Rob: Yeah yeah yeah yeah he's just he's he's just misunderstood

Danny: We will like that we will like that well speaking of misunderstood i don't think

Danny: it's misunderstood that we've reached the end of your time in the random hot

Danny: seat mate and I like that I like how that kind of came around a whole 360 angle

Danny: there from good looking, ugly,

Danny: rich, poor to watermelon head I think that was a nice you know,

Danny: nice segue there so Rob, I appreciate your time on the five random question hot seat,

Danny: as is only fair I've had you on the hot seat for about 45, 50 minutes now it's

Danny: only fair to put the question,

Danny: master task over to you.

Rob: All right i thought long and hard on this one

Rob: oh dear there we go this this permeated my

Rob: thoughts so i hope i don't let you down this permeated my

Rob: thoughts all week long as i was like you know winding down

Rob: from christmas and then moving into new years and um you know binging a couple

Rob: of things and doing some household chores and everything else so what is the

Rob: most important film book or movie that you have experienced so far in your life

Rob: not favorite most important most

Danny: Important film book movie,

Danny: Ooh, that's a good one, mate.

Rob: And why?

Danny: That's a good one. I'm trying to think of what's really impacted me,

Danny: as opposed to your favourite, like you say. There are two very different things.

Danny: I would say the most important, maybe, maybe, and I might change my mind here,

Danny: so be prepared for that, but the most important movie, I'm going to say anyway,

Danny: is the original Star Wars back in 77.

Danny: 78 when it was released in the UK It was 77 in North America But we got it in

Danny: 78 And the reason for that is like There's a few reasons actually So I'd lost

Danny: a lot of family members to cancer In the summer of 77,

Danny: I'd lost a very dear school friend To an asthma attack Also in the summer of

Danny: 77 So 77 was like a horrible horrible Shitty crappy year,

Danny: And prior to the passing, one of the people that passed was my stepdad.

Danny: Now, we didn't really get on, but we tolerated each other.

Danny: It's typical Scottish stepdad, stepson environment.

Danny: But he had promised to, he'd heard of this big movie. He saw how excited all

Danny: the school kids were, me being one of them, about this movie that just released

Danny: in the US called Star Wars.

Danny: And it was getting amazing, amazing reviews and word of mouth and all that.

Danny: And being a big sci-fi geek, even at that young age, I was 8 at the time so that's aging me.

Danny: He said he was going to take us and then obviously he couldn't because he passed,

Danny: so eventually my uncle took us to see it me and my cousin took us to see it

Danny: probably early winter of 78 it got released in London,

Danny: Christmas 77 the rest of the UK 78 so I went to see it, sat there,

Danny: and I'd never seen anything like it like that

Danny: opening shot where the blockade runner that princess liaison

Danny: is getting chased by Darth Raiders star destroyer and

Danny: that big massive spaceship when you're eight year old

Danny: or nine year old in a darkened theater we're in

Danny: the odian uh which is like a chain in the uk we're in

Danny: the odian in edinburgh smacking the middle of edinburgh and this massive massive

Danny: spaceship came over my my head it was like changed my

Danny: thinking of what movies could be like um and because

Danny: of that i got into writing i wanted to write my

Danny: own version of star wars and fantasy stuff like that so i

Danny: wrote some stuff that um i got an award

Danny: at my my school for a fantasy story or whatever um

Danny: and that kind of put me into my creative like path

Danny: if you like it i disappeared and did you know educational stuff what have you

Danny: but it kind of lit that spark of uh let's use this pun lit the spark of rebellion

Danny: or spark you know to to use it from one of the movies like one of the recent

Danny: sequels but yeah that kind of got me into my love of A Star Wars creativity,

Danny: storytelling etc that I feel was kind of.

Danny: Put me where i am now and even though i've gone on

Danny: different paths throughout my life i've always come come back

Danny: to this love of spectacle you know

Danny: excitement adventure like your book mate you know where it's just it's escapism

Danny: to take you out of what can be a crappy world and at that time it was a really

Danny: crappy world for me and this movie changed that completely so that that's probably

Danny: i feel yeah that's my most impactful movie well.

Rob: Said man well said and i i i

Rob: don't i don't think that your answer is dissimilar to a lot of people and it

Rob: is so funny how many times i have read you know famous and just everyday people

Rob: alike how that one particular shot when you know the the the Imperial Starship,

Rob: like how long it takes for its full length to crawl into the frame.

Rob: Like that just blew everybody's mind. It's like, Oh my God. It's like,

Rob: you're practically looking to watch how long is it going to take until we see

Rob: the jets at the back. Right.

Danny: Well, especially in a big theater where you've got like the massive screen,

Danny: you're like a boy, you're not even 10 years old.

Danny: And it's just like the sound and everything is just vibrating and shaking your

Danny: whole body. You're thinking, Holy crap. You know?

Rob: So putting aside, or maybe keeping in mind the original three films.

Rob: How do you feel that the franchise has done as a whole? Like leading up to this

Rob: moment, what is today, January 3rd?

Danny: Yeah.

Rob: January 3rd, 2026, right up to here. How do you feel like with all the TV series,

Rob: with the animated series, with the supplementary theatrical releases?

Danny: Yeah, I feel like, it's funny, the company I work at, we're all Star Wars nerds, all Star Wars fans.

Danny: It feels like a requisite to work there, to be a Star Wars nerd and we have

Danny: definite opinions on this I feel,

Danny: Movie-wise, they peaked with the original trilogy.

Danny: I was never a fan of the prequels. I still am not a fan of the prequels,

Danny: whereas my colleagues are big fans of the prequels.

Danny: And then the new trilogy that came out with The Force Awakens and finished with

Danny: The Rise of Skywalker, I enjoyed them, but they didn't feel strong.

Danny: They kind of felt like there was just bookending a story, basically, and tying up loose ends.

Danny: It weren't really there even. I've been more impressed with the TV shows.

Danny: So first season of Mandalorian and or season one and two, best Star Wars around, period.

Danny: I loved the Han Solo movie. I'm one of the few that actually really enjoyed that. So I'm more...

Rob: Yes, you are.

Danny: I'm more of like a fan of the TV stuff. I loved Skeleton Crew.

Danny: I thought that was so different from Star Wars. Right?

Danny: It was basically the Goonies in space in the Star Wars universe, I feel.

Danny: And it was amazing. I did not have high hopes for that when I saw the initial

Danny: trailers and you saw, like, lampposts or streetlights and, you know,

Danny: suburban houses, essentially, suburban streets.

Danny: I thought, what is going on here? And I was more pumped for the acolyte.

Danny: But then I watched both shows and I loved, loved, loved Skeleton Crew.

Danny: So, yeah, I would say from a creative point of view, the original trilogy for me is where it peaked.

Danny: I'm all about the TV shows. I'm not even, this new Mandalorian Grogu movie that's

Danny: coming out in the summer, I'm not even bothered about that.

Danny: I'll probably wait until that comes on streaming and see how it goes.

Danny: But yeah, I could speak all day. Maybe we'll get an offshoot show called Five

Danny: Random Fantasy Crapshoots or whatever.

Danny: But I could talk all day about Star Wars, mate. So yeah, thank you for that

Danny: question and making me remind myself of that.

Rob: Pleasure, man. Pleasure. And great answer too.

Danny: No, no. And you're welcome. thank you for asking me it hey

Danny: rob i've had you on five random questions and thank you again

Danny: for sharing your answers with me for people that want

Danny: to check out your book and dig into the the genre and see why people are loving

Danny: it so much to find out some of the cool stuff that you're doing in your own

Danny: life or maybe even just to reach out to you and say hey what's a good vegetarian

Danny: dish to introduce to someone where's the best place to connect and hang out

Danny: and see what you're up to uh.

Rob: So um you can get as you mentioned

Rob: in the intro you can get my book on amazon i have um an instagram uh which uh

Rob: you know supports and promotes the book um that my daughters are actually running

Rob: for me um gives them something to do because us old guys you know social media

Rob: is a foreign language to us um so it is official underscore voodon caliber

Rob: and then I also have an email address which is set up in support of the book

Rob: vc-thenovel at rogers.com so that's everywhere that you can reach me

Danny: And I will be sure to leave the links to that in the show notes so whatever

Danny: app you're listening on or even if you're listening to this episode on the website

Danny: just check the show notes out and that will link through to the book site Instagram

Danny: and everything cool that you can do there with Rob so again Rob I appreciate

Danny: you appearing today on five random questions.

Rob: Cheers man thank you so much for having me it's been great catching up uh it's

Rob: been a great experience and it's just been really good seeing you again man happy new year

Danny: Ditto mate ditto cheers boss,

Danny: Thanks for listening to five random questions. And if this is your first time

Danny: here, feel free to hit follow and start anywhere.

Danny: If you enjoyed this week's episode, I'd love for you to leave a review on the

Danny: app you're currently listening on.

Danny: Or if you know someone else that would enjoy the show, be sure to send them

Danny: this way. It's very much appreciated.

Danny: Until the next time, keep asking those questions.