5.09 /// Answering randomly generated questions...

Hello and welcome to Infinite Prattle , Unscrupted , unedited prattle , on everything Hosted by me , Stephen , Listen like , share , subscribe and enjoy the show . Happy Sunday to you . If you are indeed listening on a Sunday , I hope this will go okay .

If you did see the live video , I did a quick live basically saying how disorganized I am and how messy my room is , and I took my setup apart at the beginning of this week , after recording the last podcast , with the idea of stripping all my workspace down , simplifying it and removing my microphone , trying to get it set up for trying to practice a video

podcast . Um , that did not go to plan , uh , basically , um , yeah , I haven't even set my microphone up , so I'm sat holding my own microphone today , uh , so hopefully you'll be able to hear any things like that bouncing around . Um , I will try my best for you . I will try my best . Yes there's a day episode , today's episode . Oh , firstly , how are you ?

I hope you're well . I'm doing all right . Been volunteering today at the Heritage Centre in Crewe for Railway Heritage . So nice interacting with some nice people today and , uh , talking about trains , which I have mixed feelings about anyway . Um , yeah , so today's episode is I have just found the first random topic generator and conversation starter thing in Google .

Other search engines are available and use the first one just to generate some random topics . Some of them were weird , so I skipped a couple . So this isn't the first three I generated , because some of them were like what does your office look like ?

Which I thought was really boring and you wouldn't want to know , because it's the same as any office , and some of them were weird . So I picked the first three , which , to be fair , I've only only didn't use four , so this was like probably seven goes , and I've used three out of seven , so that's not bad , is it ? So yeah , let's get into that .

So the three questions are a tv show that you love and want to bring back and why ? Now it doesn't say one that was cancelled , the one that just finished . So I'm going to use one that's cancelled , so stay tuned for that . Who is the oldest , who's your oldest friend and how did you meet them ?

And the last one is what are your goals for the next two years ? And I think I'll start with that one . Actually , I think I'll start with the third one I've read out because you know I don't like it when you're in order , that's .

I'm a I'm a off the cuff kind of like spontaneous person who struggles to tidy his desk , apparently , um yeah , so what are your goals for the next two years ? Well , two years is quite a while , isn't it ? it's like , it's like . Time is weird , isn't it ? because , like , two years is uh quite a while , isn't it ?

It's , it's like , it's like time is weird , isn't it ? Because , like , two years is a long time , but it also goes past really quickly , like this last year , I think has been . This last year has been super , super quick for me and , um , I , I would say , over the next year I definitely want to go to America , hopefully Japan .

So I don't know if I've managed both in the two years , but hopefully . So depends on how much money we have . Um , but I definitely want to fulfill my uh aspirations of going back to america , um , maybe to the east coast again , or even maybe over to california .

Uh , me and my mate have been trying to plan a road trip for years , so maybe we'll do both maybe we could go Philly for a few days and then fly over to California . Who knows ? But I'd love to love to get that planned in and actually accomplish that . We were going to do it this year and we turned 40 last year .

We were going to do it for a 40th and decide to postpone it , maybe to the beginning of this year and , lo and behold , it's October . We've done bugger all so and we're 41 this month , sorry , scott . Um , yeah , definitely holiday to America , and I'd love to go to Japan . So if we can get over to Japan in the next two years , amazing .

If not , a nice couple of holidays somewhere else would be lovely . Um , career wise , I'd just like to have a job . So if I can stay where I am or maybe get a promotion , then fantastic . Um , I'm quite happy with doing what I'm doing at the moment getting loads of getting loads of experience . I am doing a couple of courses .

So I'm doing an ebosh course , which is a health and safety course , so I'm doing that next year which I've , which I've wanted for a while , and I I've also considered trying to apply for some other courses . So maybe a bit of an educational journey for work over the next two years . I'd like to publish my book .

I've written a book about my dog and I'd like to publish that . I'd like to get that sorted and see if we can get that published and actually make progress with the other five books I'm currently writing , because , again , I can't focus on one thing . Yeah , and just make sure I'm paying my bills and try and pay a bit of my mortgage off if I can .

I've got a bit of savings and I'm really wanting to try and reduce my mortgage down and pay that off as soon as I can . So , yeah , so , holiday , holiday , some training at work , publish a book and , um , pay some mortgage off , is that ? unachievable . I don't think so . Oh , and probably lose some weight again .

Actually I'm gonna throw some , lose some weight there , because fortunately I said I was never gonna get fat again and I'm fat again , so anyway , uh , maybe lose a few stone , at least two , at least two . Keep , keep , keep , keep them aspirations low , steven . Okay , so I'll go . I'll flip back to the TV question now .

I was thinking about this because I'm literally only just done this . I'm literally done this . The first , the first show that came to my mind , is the one I'm gonna to talk about , but I thought about some others .

I thought , well , some that have been cancelled or some that you know just finished , and I think the only one that I would have wanted to bring back , apart from you know one that finished .

Normally I love Friends , but like I think that kind of finished in a good place and as much as I'd like to see where them characters are , I think sometimes when they bring it back , it's it's , it's forced . And then the only one other one I'd want to brought back was Frasier , but like that's come back and I actually don't mind it .

I've got yet to watch the second season , but yeah . I like the first season of that uh , different dynamic and such thing . But yeah , yeah , I enjoyed the first season . So I think for me that would have been the one I would have chosen . Obviously , they've already brought it back , so for me it would be Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

. Now , this is a program . I don't even know what year this came out . It's got to be way back in like 2007 , maybe even 2006 . And it starred Matt . Oh my God . His name's gone and he played Chandler in Fence . He passed away last year . Or was it this year , matthew Perry ? Sorry , yeah , matthew Perry . Was it this year ?

Was it this year , matthew Perry ? Sorry , yeah , matthew Perry . So it was a . It was a TV show , um , that was .

It was kind of based on like a Saturday Night Live kind of program , so it followed the inception from like the , the previous show , finishing to the writing of the next show and all the political things and all the in-house things that went on in that seven days , and there's a big countdown clock on the wall and , um , it was written by , um , the chap that

did , oh my god , aaron Sorkin . He did West Wing and and loads of other stuff . To be fair , he's done so many different things . West Wing , he's written films . I think you've got a few good Matt , a few good men . Yeah , moneyball Hero , I think as well . He's written screenplays for all these things .

But Studio 16 on the Sunset Strip was a brilliant show and it is . I've just just googled it and it was 2006 to 2007 , and , yeah , it was basically a behind-the-scenes look at a sketch comedy show like Saturday Night Live , and I just loved it . It was just brilliant , it was well written . It was dramatic . It flowed well .

The characters were , you know , relatable and , if not likeable , watchable . Matthew Perry was great in it . He played one of the writers with some issues , and it's got really good ratings on Internet Movie Database . Like a lot of people reviewed it , you know , give it 10 , 9 and 10 , out of 9 and 10 , out of 10 , which is great .

And it did one season and I believe the reason it didn't do any more was because it didn't get the ratings they were expecting .

And I don't know you know what ratings they were expecting , because I think from what they were saying , it was averaging like 30 million viewers or something , but apparently for America that's not great and they wanted 40 million , something like that .

I remember seeing something at the time and just thinking that's bonkers , because it's such a good show and I I how I got into it was this um , the pilot episode was given away when Apple used to do that like 12 days of Christmas .

They used to give free things away and they give an episode of that away in the 12 days of Christmas and I downloaded it , watched it , thought it was great . It wasn't on TV in the UK at the time , so I can only watch that one episode and I really enjoyed it , yeah . I really really liked it .

So when it was available to download the whole lot , I watched it . And then I was waiting for the new season to come out and I think it had been like 6 or 7 months and I was thinking it's been well over a year since that last season . And then I googled it and it was like , yeah , it's been cancelled .

And I was well disappointed because it was just such a good show , um , the characters in it , um , yeah , just just the whole , you know , the whole whole cast .

So Matthew Perry played um one of the writers , um Bradley Whitford , um , he played another writer and producer I think he was just a producer , I don't think he did writing and Amanda Peet's in it , steven Weber , sarah Poulsen Like loads of people , like recognisable faces . And DL Hewley , yeah , steven Weber . Yeah , I've said Steven , haven't I faces ?

And , uh , d d l hugh hughley , uh , steven , yeah , steven weber , yeah it's just I said steven , I'm not , uh , he'll send it , that you'd recognize . Oh , it's just loads . It's just loads . It's just a great show , um , yeah , and it's just very . It's just very , uh , well written and very much an Aaron Sorkin , if you like the West Ring .

I mean , I've never really seen the West Ring , but I've seen bits of it and it's very written , obviously in that style because it's the same guy . But it's just very fast-paced , very witty subtext and , yeah , just great . And I was pretty good when I I realised , when I googled it , um , that it hadn't been , hadn't been renewed .

Um , pretty gutted , really pretty gutted . Um , yeah , it still makes bit sad now and I'm going to re-watch it . Actually I might re-watch it . I've not seen it in ages because I saw it when it was out , so I watched it at the time and a few years later I re-watched it , but yeah , I think it's on Prime Video at the moment , actually the whole season .

I've said I've put it on iTunes , but I think it might be on Amazon Prime . I don't know . But anyway , if you get a , chance to watch it , then watch it . If you like the West Wing and stuff like that , I don't think you'll be disappointed . Yeah , it's good behind the scenes of a show , how that goes about as well . I enjoyed that side of it too .

And the last question . What is the last question ? Oh yes , oh yes , oh yes , oh yes . Who is your oldest friend and how did you meet them ? Okay , so I'm quite lucky . I have quite a few long longevity friends , as I would call them .

My oldest , oldest friend is called Louise and we met when we were about four years old , in nursery preschool for my American friends . So we were about four years old and we were kind of friends back then , even though I think it's probably weird .

Like well , maybe when you're really young it's maybe not weird to have a friend that's a girl , but then I think boys and girls kind of like separate into their own groups because it's a natural divide between boys and girls until they you know , the hormones kick in in high school and they start trying to awkwardly interact again .

Um , louise has been a friend for years and we went to separate junior schools , but then when we came back together in high school , we became best friends and she's my friend still . We still see each other .

In fact , we're going around on Friday , this Friday , to see her and see her kids and yeah , so we've known each other now scarily for like 37 , 38 years , 37 years . Yeah , we're 37 years this year , trying to work out how old I am . So , yeah , 37 years it'll be nearly . Which is which ?

is amazing which is amazing , that , like I never , I never thought I'd see 30 , let alone have a friend that I've known for 37 years . And , yeah , we met in nursery school . And my other longest friend , who I met probably like a year or 18 months later , is Neil .

And I still keep in contact with Neil and I've seen neither of them as much as I would like to , but family life takes over . They've both got kids . But Neil I've known since we were about five or six and again same thing nursery , nursery school , preschool kind of thing .

Um , because I used to go to two like one worked at one , so if I could get dropped off at one , I would . If I went to the other one , um . So yeah , so it was . So they're my longest , longest friends . I still . I still see them now , which is really lovely . And then my other friends . My other longest friends are from college .

So Scott , who's been on the podcast , who did the Star Trek couple of episodes part one and part two with me . I've known Scott since 2002 , when we started college 2000 since we started college , 2002 is when we left um , so I've known him for nearly 25 years uh 20 24 years this year , isn't it ? yes , yeah , so it'll be 24 years . Currently .

They'll be going into 20 , 25 year anniversary next year . So I'm very lucky to have some friends that have known me all my life and grew up with me and know me so well , um , and even though I don't see Louisa Neal as much as I'd like to I don't even see Scott as much as I'd like to I see him more regular , more regularly than the others .

Um , yeah , it's , uh , it's still nice when we do see each other . We just pick up where we left off . And , uh , and one of my other mates , phil , uh , I've known him pretty much like 23 years , uh , and , again , don't see him as much , but he lives in , he lives in chester , which is a little bit further away from me , and he does have three kids .

So I can , I can figure him a little bit for his time being taken up .

Um , but you know , when you grow , when you grow older , like time seems to get away from you a little bit , like you kind of when you're young , you kind of have that , let's just say , the effort to see people , but it kind of it seems easier , I think , to like socialize when you're younger and when you get older , you're just happy to sit in your chair

and drink a cup of tea and watch a bit of telly and chill out . And I don't even have kids yet , so , uh , god knows what I'll be like when I do . I think I'll become completely reclusive if I do have children . Yeah , so just three randomly generated questions there . What would your answers be to them ?

What would be a TV show that you would bring back and why ? Who's your oldest friend and where did you meet them ? And what are your plans for the next two years ? Think about them yourselves and let me know in the comments what your answers would be . Let me know you can also text me as well .

Buzzsprout , the host that I use , have used a thing where you can text me directly . It doesn't involve any numbers If you press the text thing , it just allows you to send a text to me . I can't reply to it , but it's nice to have an interaction and I might be able to give you a shout out on the next podcast .

So , um , yeah , well , I hope you enjoyed that . It's just something different today . It's not a cop-out , it wasn't a cop-out episode . I just thought I've got loads of topics written down for once , uh , in my phone , but I just thought , oh , wouldn't it be interesting to just do a random generated question , see what weird stuff could come out .

And unfortunately it was generating boring stuff rather than interesting stuff . So , uh , they were the three most interesting ones . But maybe I should . Maybe we should have clicked through for longer . In fact , let's have a click now , at the end of the episode . What would be the next question it generated when is the most beautiful place near to where you live ?

Not a bad question . I don't even know the answer to that . If it's a place with a vista , probably Beeston , because you can see quite far when you go up the hills at Beeston . If it's just a town , nantwich If you could meet anyone in history , who would it be ? That's a good one . What ? Are you best at .

I'm not touching that one and on that I'm going to finish because I'm a jack of all , master of none . I hope you've enjoyed today's episode . If you do like , please share . Do all the usual stuff that people always moan at you and bang on for you to do , but I appreciate you listening . Go back and listen to some other episodes if you haven't already .

And yeah , you know , keep prattling . You've been listening to Infinite Dreadful . Thanks for listening . If you liked this episode , go back and listen to some others and please continue to listen . Your support is much appreciated . Please like , share , comment and subscribe and I'll speak to you all again soon . Take care .