S1E2: Mike's Anti Fun Police Mascot
Mike Unson
EPISODE SUMMARY:
"Then I had all these brilliant ideas for events, and then all of a sudden, COVID!" - Mike.
Mike watched The Devil's Advocate again and it made him log out of FB and his other social media. Why? Listen to our conversation while Mike puts social media plus the COVID-19 pandemic in practical (and funny) perspective.
My guest, Mike Unson, is a Filipino stand-up comedian, writer and translator. He does not have any current active social media so you may need to track him via different avenues in life!
Listen to the Episode
MAIN TOPICS:
00:00 - Episode intro
01:13 - Mike's intro
02:16 - Mike and Wish's catch-up
09:55 - The anti-fun police and friendships
15:46 - Mike's realisations: The Devil's Advocate and social media
20:52 - Wish's indie film stint and (sucky) corporate job
24:00 - Tonality in communications and old school SMS blues
30:57 - Freeloaders, skinny food influencers and critics
36:40 - Mike's future projects
38:56 - Pandemic keywords
44:18 - Wish's important words from this episode
45:39 - Outro
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
QUOTABLE QUOTES
"You don't really need to get in touch with your true friends as often as you would with a superficial friends."
"(The word) hate should be reserved for other, more annoying stuff."
REFERENCES FROM TODAY'S CONVERSATION
Funko Pop wiki
T9 Predictive Text wiki
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Wish 00:02
Hello, dear humanity. Welcome to Human Thesaurus podcast. I'm your host, hyperexcited Wish Ronquillo Peacocke. I met our guest through my former job at this start up in mid 2010 called Bubbly. It's like a precursor for TikTok or any other social network that's really booming right now. So we have this celebrity listed users for that one. And Mike is one of them. Who is the new celebrity in the Philippines, and he's a comedian. So Mike is a Filipino stand up comedian, writer, and a translator. My synonyms for him is a comic book as a noun, deliberating as a verb, and resonant as an adjective. Probably will know why once we start talking. So let's welcome Mike Unson.
Mike 01:13
Hey, my name is Mike. Same as the words mic as in microphone as a noun, scheming as a verb and tidy as an adjective. I like the word nefarious and I dislike the word hate.
Wish 01:29
Oh, love. Welcome, Mike.
Mike 01:33
I don't know if I followed the instructions. I just copied your template.
Wish 01:38
No, that's perfect. I really want people to do it verbatim so it's consistent across the show, right?
Mike 01:46
Actually, they do the same thing in another podcast that I listen to for Conan O'Brien, for example. I'm nervous to be Conan's friend, but it has to be something to be Conan's friend or something like that. So. Hello. Wish.
Wish 02:07
Hello. So how have you been the last time? We only speak, like, through Signal, but how have you been?
Mike 02:16
I'm good. I think the last time I saw you was, I don't know, 2017, but it was somewhere in Ortigas (Manila, Philippines). You were with your brother and you went to one of my shows in Ortigas, and that was like the last time I saw you. And then after that, you mailed me something. So I think it came from. I don't know. It came from a Balikbayan box.
Wish 02:49
Yes, that's right. I think that was last year.
Mike 02:54
Yeah, last year you sent me a candy bar and your book.
Wish 02:58
Yes, I remember now that I sent a Balikbayan box for my brother. And it's easier to send parcels that way because if it's just by mail, it's not going to get to you.
Mike 03:13
Yeah, tell me about it. My friend from the States, the only thing he's able to send me are greeting cards or postcards anything like toys or whatever. They just disappear.
Wish 03:32
Right. It's so sad, isn't it? Because when I sent my wedding invitations and there's a few that went and they're really highly crafted, they're like $55 each and they're like handwritten and all of these things. Yeah. Half of them didn't go and they're not even to the province. I sent them within Manila.
Mike 04:01
Okay, so somebody now has a collection of your invites. Some serial killer. The Manila serial killer. Sorry. Serial mail thief has your invitations in his Museum. These are things I've stolen through the years. Here are Michael Unson's toys. Here are wedding invites.
Wish 04:30
How many toys do you own nowadays?
Mike 04:33
No, I don't, really. It's my brother who collects.
Wish 04:38
I thought it was you.
Mike 04:40
No, I have a few things that I collect. Like, there was a time I was collecting these Funko Pop toys. I don't know if you're familiar with them. These figures with the big heads?
Wish 04:53
Yeah. I have a few.
Mike 04:53
So they're called Funko Pop. So I collected them for a while, and then I even started a business with my manager. Actually, my manager recruited me as a minor partner in his Funko Pop business.
Wish 05:06
Wow.
Mike 05:07
He eventually bought me out already. But right now I just collect a few diecast cars. But I'm not a major collector of toys. I collect random stuff. Well, I wouldn't call it collecting books because I read a lot, so I have, like, a bookshelf, but every now and then, I discard books that I feel I've read one too many times. So I want someone else to get the experience that book, and usually to make space for new ones.
Wish 05:47
What are you reading right now?
Mike 05:51
No, I just finished reading. I'm into Jack Reacher. That's like my. What do I call this? My guilty pleasure reading Jack Reacher books, because every book has pretty much the same plot, so you don't really need to think about it. It's just a fun read. You read it, put it down, read it again after a few days. So I finished reading a Jack Reacher book. But right now, I'm about to start reading a book that my friend wrote.
Wish 06:24
Filipino?
Mike 06:26
Yeah, Filipino author.
Wish 06:29
What's the title? We can share that link.
Mike 06:33
No, unfortunately, this book is no longer in publication.
Wish 06:37
No way.
Mike 06:40
The Sky Over Dimas by Vicente Garcia Groyon. And this book won an award. See, it says here, winner of the grand prize for the novel on English, Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, 2002.
Wish 07:01
So it's out of publication already. It's going to be in libraries, right?
Mike 07:08
No, it's funny. My friend Vince is also friends with my uncle, who's also an author. So when I found out that he wrote this book, I asked my cousin, can you check your dad's bookshelf? He might have a copy of Vince's book. And then when I talked to Vince, he was like, oh, I had a joint book lunch with your uncle, and I gave him a copy. So if he liked my book, it's still in his bookshelf because he throws away books that he doesn't like. My cousin found this for me. So that means my friend passed my uncle test. Wow.
Wish 07:47
Yeah, that's really impressive. Beyond friendship. So what other things, like have you been doing? Are you still doing your Kumu show? Like, what keeps you busy right now?
Mike 08:03
I'm writing for two TV shows, and I stopped doing the live streaming thing because, well, I just can't get the hang of performing without an actual audience. So in the beginning, it was fun. I would be performing on this platform. And then I would read the comments. People would be cheering for you in the comments, laughing, writing stuff. But after a while, I'm like, this isn't doing anything for me. I still miss performing live, and it made me miss performing live even more. So I eventually just had to stop the live streaming thing and just focus on my work from home stuff.
Wish 08:53
Right.
Mike 08:53
Actually, now that you mentioned it, I haven't performed online. I think the last Instagram Live. But other than that, it's been pretty much work from home for me and binge watching TV shows.
Wish 09:17
Yeah. So when was your last face to face live audience performance? How long has it been?
Mike 09:30
February 2020, I think either February. March 2020 was my last live performance for my anniversary. So I celebrated my 17th year in February 2020. And then I did a small show in a coffee shop to celebrate, and I was thinking, wow, 2020 started out really well for me. I had a few gigs in Jan and then a big hosting gig in February. Then I had all these brilliant ideas for events, and then all of a sudden, COVID! The anti-fun police. They should come up with a mascot. Like a fun looking COVID mascot. Hi there. I'm the anti fun police.
Wish 10:23
I'm the killjoy of the world!
Mike 10:27
Then guess what, guys? I am now going to expose humanity's greed.
Wish
And stupidity!
Mike
And indifference and stupidity! Years from now, I'm going to think about COVID and remember all the nasty stuff it has exposed regarding human nature and stuff.
Wish 10:58
Absolutely. I think there's a lot of humor there in some ways. Like dark humor, I think.
Mike 11:04
Yeah, exactly.
Wish 11:05
But, you know, during this pandemic, I just realized that we don't get in touch too much. But I think we have this kind of friendship that there is a common understanding.
Mike 11:20
Oh, no. I stalk to you all the time. You might not know. I check your feed. I edit your photos.
Wish 11:29
Oh that's why everything is changing.
Mike 11:32
I would like to see a photo of yours on Facebook and write a letter.
Wish 11:39
Wow. Thank you for revealing that to me. Okay, bye. Yes, in all, I will redirect that back. That's kind of creepy. I love it.
Mike 11:52
Actually, I read something that you don't really need to get in touch with your true friends as often as you would with the superficial friends, I guess. Like my good friend from high school, Lawrence, who's in LA. We talk maybe every quarter, once every quarter, or whenever I have a question about something stupid or if I have a dumb idea I'd like to share. But it's not like we talk every week. But whenever we do, it's like we were just talking, like last night, pretty much us. When we talk, we don't even do the super. What do you call these? Formalities? Hey, it's been a while. What are you doing, by the way? It's as simple as hey, Wish, Where's my so and so? Hey, can you get me this or watch this show there.
Wish 12:57
Yeah. And I also appreciated that. I think during the pandemic, we go through roller coasters of emotions, and I think I appreciated it that you shared a little bit of yourself more with me during that time. Yeah. Like what you're saying, it's just really very natural for really, truly authentic friend to just do that without any hesitation or any judgment or whatsoever. But I was like, oh, Mike is human. Okay, now I understand.
Mike 13:39
No. Plus, if you've been stuck home for a long time, you eventually I wouldn't say you get tired of the people you're living with. It's just that it gets boring. I guess not in a bad way. It's just that, for example, the last time I went out was March 13, 2020.
Wish 14:06
That was my birthday.
Mike 14:08
Oh, see, I celebrated without you.
Wish 14:11
Thank you.
Mike 14:14
I was alone in a coffee shop contemplating, oh, my, there's going to be a lockdown on the 16th. It's probably the last time I'll ever be out. So. Happy birthday. Wish mental signal. But yeah. So after that, after March 13, 2020, the only time I've been out is for my vaccine. I've been on permit mode ever since, so I do everything online. Well, actually, it's my sister who does the buying groceries, buying rapid stuff. But other than that, it's all been online. Online. So I basically live in the Matrix now. I'm waiting to get unsunded.
Wish 15:08
So how is this, like, entire pandemic you think will evolve your humor or your performance when you get to perform again?
Mike 15:19
No. If the pandemic were a person, it actually knocked at my door and went, Michael Unson, you can stop performing now because you're a great guy. Regardless.
Wish 15:37
I am confused here.
Mike 15:46
The world doesn't deserve you there. No, actually, I have one realization. You see, during the pandemic, I re watched Devil's Advocate. You know, the Keanu Reeves movie with Al Pacino.
Wish 15:59
Yeah.
Mike 16:00
And Charlize Theron. And there's this Al Pacino monologue towards the end where he talks about, you build egos fiber optically connected. Sorry. You build egos the size of cathedrals fiber optically connected to every eager impulse being your own God, blah, blah, blah. And I realized, Darn, he was talking about social media.
Wish 16:24
Yes.
Mike 16:25
And this was, like, in the 90s. And, like, Al Pacino after that, I stopped using Facebook. No, I still use messenger, but I logged out of Facebook and I realized that I don't need to be on a softmail platform. I check Instagram from time to time, but right now, I'd rather be in touch with a few people. I read this article where you can only maintain 20 friends at a time. And then after reading it, I'm like, hey, I don't even have any friends. Cool.
Wish 17:05
You've achieved the epitome of friendship standards.
Mike 17:09
It's gotten ridiculous. Like, check your Facebook, for example. And sometimes you see or you'll read, you have 5000 friends, or you'll click on a person and it says 5000 friends full, meaning they can't accept any more friends. Or you try to add someone and they go, this person has too many friends, thus cannot accept your friend request. Choose to be a follower. Wow. My point is you have thousands of friends on your social media, but you think about it. None of these people. A lot of these people don't. In the greater scheme of things, absolutely. Like out of 5000, you'll find like, one Wish Ronquillo, and that's it. Everyone else is like a hi hello, somebody you met at an event and they're like, hey, I'm going to add you. Or somebody who saw you randomly and thought you were cute and added you anyway. Or a friend of a friend. When they do this thing, you might know, these are people, you know, they should add something. These are people you might know but not necessarily want to be friends with.
Wish 18:42
Yeah. It's like, here are the people you might know but don't care about but want to snoop around.
Mike 18:50
Anyway, this is a girl who has some beach photos pervert.
Wish 19:01
But they want it to show off. So it's a stalker's paradise, I suppose.
Mike 19:10
Yeah, that's actually what social media promotes. I think this is just my opinion. But it promotes stalking and creepiness because it's the equivalent of a stranger entering your house and going through your photo albums. Like, imagine just walking into your apartment or your house one day and there's this guy making your photo albums and hey, Wish Ronquillo, I love this wedding photo. I'm going to take a photo of this for my pretty collage at home. Now I'm going, wait, do you have any albums of husband. I want to be friends with him too.
Wish 19:51
The way you put it, that's extra creepy. That's why you draw the line.
Mike 20:00
Sometimes you have a public page, right? You have like an author page.
Wish 20:05
I do.
Mike 20:05
So sometimes you'll post something, right? For example, me having coffee somewhere and then you'll have these random comments from people you don't know, right?
Wish
Yes.
Mike
And then they start fighting. So imagine that in real life, you're in a coffee shop and coffee and all of a sudden a stranger walks up to you and, hey, I like that. Hey, you're having a cappuccino. That's great. I like cappuccinos too. And then another guy shows up. I hate cappuccinos. Cappuccinos are for losers. And then another guy shows up. Hey, guys, stop fighting. You have no right to my opinion. I don't like you. Well, I don't like you either. Let me put a thumbs down on your face.
Wish 20:52
Oh, my gosh. Now you're giving me an idea to make a short film with this literally. Probably when we see each other, we should be with my film director brother and we make something. This is awesome.
Mike 21:08
Yeah, I saw your video. That was your brother, right? The parking lot thing?
Wish 21:13
No, Dear Maggie is with my best friend and her husband.
Mike 21:20
That was a sad video. Actually, if I remember correctly, Dear Maggie was pretty sad after watching it.
Wish 21:27
Yeah. I went back to my creative route so I started doing script writing again and that's one of my first ones after I left my corporate job. And when we did that for...
Mike 21:46
Sorry, but you didn't quit your corporate job, right?
Wish 21:49
No. At that time I left my corporate job, my sucky corporate job and then I want to run away out of Australia for a while. And then I got stuck in San Diego, in California for three months because I've got some paperwork that I needed to fix.
Mike 22:08
They realised, are you really Wish Ronquillo or Elena. Something.
Wish 22:17
Maria Elena Christina.
Mike 22:20
Now let me guess, you had a sucky corporate job and one morning you realize I have shit loads of money, but I feel so empty I can do whatever the hell I want.
Wish 22:36
I wish it's just like a Hollywood movie like that. But it's a little gloomier and darker than that.
Mike 22:45
Okay. No, actually you mentioned this to me. I remember you sent your chatting and you don't really share these things with me. You just give me little cryptic messages like I'm going through a face or I'll tell you all about it next time. So I know when something's going on with which the one sentence replies that are loaded with what if.
Wish 23:17
It's great to tell you more about these things face to face because some of these things are beyond just words. It's also the expression that you're going to give. Like when you're storytelling those kind of things.
Mike 23:36
You can't really tell me too many things because you might be watching TV one day and you're like, wait a minute, this is exactly what happened to me. And then cut written by my phone.
Wish 23:52
That's great. I mean, I would be flattered if you're going to write a story about me on TV, that's going to be fantastic.
Mike 24:00
Sorry, but you're right about there are some things you can't say through text because my friend who's an NLP practitioner explained this to me that when you're chatting or texting with somebody, you don't have what they call tonality.
Wish 24:16
Yes.
Mike 24:17
So you don't know. Like for example, I could tell you in person, "Get out of here, Wish that will never happen." So I'm like joking or something. But text form that may sound offensive might be "get out of here, that will never happen!" Or FOOL! As much as possible. I don't discuss anything important via text or chat. That's when I call because so many things can be misinterpreted when it's just words.
Wish 24:53
Absolutely. Yeah. Especially like when you catch someone in a bad mood and then they get out of here. It's just like what the are you on about? Depending on the mood, it will have different interpretations as well.
Mike 25:09
Exactly. Then you start to over analyze, "oh my God. Wish told me, later" and then you tell your friend. "She replied to me later."
Wish 25:23
She replied to me. "K" what is that all about? It's a fully loaded K. I hate that.
Mike 25:31
I hate when people send you the K or the you too. Have you ever experienced this? You send, like a nice holiday message to a friend of yours, like somebody whom you thought was closed. Something like, hey, I was thinking about you this Christmas. Haven't been in touch, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they just send you one word, reply likewise. Or you too, right?
Wish 26:05
Yeah, it's kind of sad. It's lazy.
Mike 26:08
Or the blue thumbs up.
Wish 26:13
It's so lazy, man. Especially. I take the opportunity messaging in full word because it's an opportunity for me to keep on honing my writing skills. And a lot of people are losing those writing skills. And I've seen mostly my Filipino friends, Filipino family, they have these broken no vowel words all the time. And that's one of the signals that I stopped replying or I just ghost. No, I can't.
Mike 26:48
Well, at least people are texting actual words now. I remember the first time we started texting. Like, what? The first time text messaging became a thing? Instead of saying late, they'll send you an L with the number eight. So letter B, late, L, 8. And then eventually they introduce T9 dictionaries that would be qualified. In my school, for example, people could not get a lot of people couldn't get the T9 thing. They're like, look at this, it's possessed. And then at first, I was one of those people who thought that T9 was like a big mistake. And then when I tried playing around with it, I'm like, no, it's actually predicting. That's why they call it predictive text. It's trying to figure out what word you're spelling. So with the combination. So you're pressing the button fewer times.
Wish 28:02
Yes. And also remember that we text like that. We need to make it as short as possible because like a certain number of characters, 60 characters or something.
Mike 28:17
And back then, I remember I had this phone. It was a one liner, so you could only see the messages per line. It was strange. This particular phone that I had, this was my first GSM phone. I can't remember the brand right now, but it had this thing where if you turn on caller ID, you have to decide whether the name shows up when you're receiving a phone call or when you're receiving a text message. It can't be both. So there's something in the setting where something like name appears for a phone call or text. So naturally I put it on text because when you pick up your phone, you can just say, who is this?
Wish 29:10
Yeah, that's right.
Mike 29:12
But for texting, see the mirror act of asking who someone is that's already $0.50 for you or something. Right. Some people would get offended because why you deleted my number.
Wish 29:30
At that time, you can only have like 100 numbers or 50 numbers in your...
Mike 29:35
Yeah, something like that. Depending on your phone I think it started with models that can only accommodate 50 numbers on the phone book. Then it became 100. Then eventually it got out of hand. Like, there was a time I had, I think, 3000 phone numbers on my phone book. I had to clean it up. And right now I think I'm down to 400. But I probably talked to less than 100 people in that 400 list. Of course, you have the occasional you know, people tend to message you when they need something, especially if it's convenient to them. Oh, you work in a TV station. Can you do this for me? Hey, I haven't spoken to you in 20 years, but I heard, oh, you have a book out. Can you give me a free copy? Even though I know you're not making any money out of that book yet, but I'd like to support you by asking for a free copy or I want to go to your event. But can I be put on the guest list?
Wish 30:53
That damned guest list. Oh, my gosh.
Mike 30:57
You know, one time years ago, I was going to popular comedian (show). I got a message from somebody who I last spoke to, probably in College, maybe 2013, I think, and a guy who I last saw last hung out with in the 90s suddenly messaged me and was kind of like, didn't really outright say, hey, can I have free tickets? Something like, I want to watch your show. So I like, oh, you can call this number. This is my agent. She has a few tickets on her so you can buy some from her. And then the next reply was, oh, I have to buy them. And that is it.
Wish 31:50
Wow. Why are people that seeming so entitled, like, for freebies? I can't deal with it.
Mike 32:00
I don't know when this started. I remember a time when there was this popular food critic and she had this book where she had a book that you could buy in bookstores or wherever, and there would be reviews, there would be detailed reviews of restaurants. And when I did some research, this particular food critic would only write about a restaurant if she enjoyed that restaurant. But if not, she wouldn't say anything negative. Nowadays, you see, food critics are like, oh, let's say, for example, I ate at Wishes Cafe, and it's the workplace, blah, blah, blah. So you wouldn't read anything like that from this particular food critic. And she never asked for freebies. She actually became unannounced, anonymous, paid her bill. And if she liked the food, she'll write about it. If she didn't, she won't say anything. But nowadays you have these food, whatever you call them, I don't know what you call them. Reviewing restaurants. And then at the end we're sponsored or they got the meal for free, or they're like, super skinny and they're like, I'm like, if you look like a model and you have no business reviewing food, why are you even reviewing Lechon or whatever?
Wish 33:40
Sure. I actually praise skinny people who could eat so much.
Mike 33:51
Yeah, that's different.
Wish 33:53
But I think it costs us a little bit more hate and love because everybody's like, how come you're still skinny and you're eating a lot? Yeah, I like those kind of like what you're mentioning, that food critic who's got an end in mind, like what she wanted to do and how she wanted to build a positive kind of environment for her criticism about only the food that she loves. And that's what she wanted to explore. And the problem nowadays is that a lot of people are hiding behind their social media accounts to criticize people really badly. Because for me, I also love to be open and sometimes really criticize and be a critic about especially what I eat or what I drink.
Mike 34:39
Right.
Wish 34:40
When I don't like something, especially a service, I just wanted it to be a little bit more constructive than this.
Mike 34:45
Right.
Wish 34:46
Because you need to help them.
Mike 34:48
People are criticizing for the sake of criticizing because it probably makes them feel good to bash something. But actually when you criticize it's because you want this place or you want this person to be better. Right. Like, for example, if you watch, let's say, a video of somebody and you simply write cringey. So I'm like, why do you even bother watching this video?
Wish 35:15
Yeah.
Mike 35:16
Or for example, you'd read comments like, I watched this video. I stopped at 30 minutes. Let's say it's an hour video. And I'm like, wow, why do you bother watching? I think you would have figured out it was bad from the first to three minutes, right? Yeah.
Wish 35:34
It's crazy. Mostly when you capture an audience attention, it's the first 30 seconds or something like that. So it's strange, those people, I don't know.
Mike 35:47
It's my favorite. Let's say there's a celebrity who says something comes up with a very good message, and you have this anonymous idiot with no profile pick with a code with a username, zero followers, zero content. "You have my respect." I don't think this guy gives a damn. So just shut up and watch it. Press. Like press dislike.
Wish 36:28
Exactly.
Mike 36:29
"You have my respect, man."
Wish 36:32
"Yes, man. I felt so much that I have to make this account." So apart from your two exciting TV shows, what are your future projects? I mean, it looks like Philippines is getting vaccinated and all of these things, and probably some things will be opening up. Well, I'm just trying to attract positive energy to here.
Mike 36:56
I'm not even sure. No. I have a few personal projects. Like, I don't know if I ever told you, but I do ink drawings.
Wish 37:10
Yes. You mentioned it to me. You've shown me some.
Mike 37:14
Right. Anyway, I have this friend from high school who became my good friend in College. And then we kept in touch. In fact, every time I would bump into him, he would tell his wife, oh, this is my friend Mike from Benilde. He does awesome ink drawings. And then recently he messaged me and he wrote a comment in one of my I found an old drawing of mine. I posted it on Instagram and that he messaged. He's like, can you make me one? I'll have it framed. Offers to pay for it. But I'm like, no, you don't have to, but I'll make you one. Every time something good happens, a new variant shows up. The COVID anti fun police is always coming up with new ways to annoy us. Let me call my latest invention, Omicron or whatever. I'm not sure. Actually, to be honest, I'm not even that excited to go back to doing live shows. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. But otherwise, I'm just happy to be able to do some fulfilling work. To do fulfilling work while we're having this annoying, this pandemic... this wretched pandemic.
Wish 38:52
Yes.
Mike 38:56
I must have used that word like, a hundred times when I'm talking to friends, I'd be like, hey, how are you doing in this wretched pandemic?
Wish 39:07
So that's a good word that we should take account as part of the theme of the pandemic COVID anti fun police.
Mike 39:19
The wretched anti fun police. Yeah, we shouldn't be saying things like, I hate this pandemic. No, hate should be reserved for other, more annoying stuff like greed and other things. Murder, things like that. But for things like, we shouldn't say things like, I hate this sport or I hate this basketball team or whatever. I learned this from a high school teacher. I remember he'd always tell me, oh, you don't use the word hate. Just say, I don't like hate has anger in it. When you say, like, I hate this and that there's elements of power, there's a power to say that you hate. Whereas if you simply say, I don't like, yeah, there's a chance that you'll end up liking this thing eventually or liking this person once you get to know them. Right? Otherwise, if say, I hate wish because you let's say or I hate Mike. I met him once and he rubbed me the wrong way, right? He didn't kissed me. Didn't make out of me. I hate him. I don't like him. I don't like that guy. Listen to this. For example, let's say somebody goes say, do you know so and so. I don't really like that guy. It's not loaded. You just say, I don't like him. I don't know. I don't like him. Yeah, I don't like him. I hate that guy. See, when you say that, the next sentence could be like, I'm going to kill him. Next time I see him, I'm going to stick some sedative. I'm going to put sedatives in his drink, put him in a drum and mix him with... you know?!
Wish 41:33
I get it. I really love this, Mike, because I'm about to do a closing up saying, what's the word you can impart to our listener. You really answer that very well about choosing a different word, right? Not hate.
Mike 41:53
You. Hate is something you reserve the word hate for something that's really hateful, not for trivial things. Saying, I hate this. You can't just say I hate the color blue Or I hate this drink, I hate soft drinks or I hate vegetables. No, they don't deserve your hate. The salad would one day talk back at you and I do not deserve your hate.
Wish 42:28
Yeah. What did they do to you? Right. Especially if a lot of people stop using the word hate. Probably we're going to be a little bit more peaceful, doesn't it?
Mike 42:43
Yeah.
Wish 42:44
Wow. Yeah. That's a very good part to close this. And Mike making an impact in my new podcast.
Mike 42:57
Yeah.
Wish 42:58
Thank you so much for hanging out with me. It's always been amazing to catch up with you and have conversations with you and I hope we can sit down again, have some discussions and talk about everything again. And thank you so much.
Mike 43:14
Yeah, sure. Anytime, anytime. I tell some of my friends that during these times it's time that I have a lot of talk, but you have a lot of time. You can't really go out. You can't really meet up with people, but there are ways around it. Like, yeah, you could do video calls, you could video chat, make a phone call, and there's a certain power to it, like connecting to someone, calling a friend up or sending, hey, how are you doing? Or, hey, let's talk later, stuff like that. These are powerful things. Connection is a powerful thing and it has the power to make people feel good. That's what we should be using our words for, to make people feel good and everything else will follow, I guess.
Wish 44:10
Absolutely. Well said. One of the most important words about life is kindness. It is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate. As Mark Twain quoted from a compassion point of view states that "kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." You have to take note that nowadays people could be harsh to each other and probably because we're looking the wrong way. If you can see when it comes to this word. There are lots of amazing synonyms that could imbibe the feeling that you may want to think more about and project out there. Like generosity, tenderness, patience, indulgence, thoughtfulness, consciousness, philanthropy, sweetness, selflessness and warmth. There are so many words that is equivalent to kindness. So I'm leaving you with that. Think about it. It's fantastic to be kind. I hope you love eavesdropping. You should start thinking about your synonyms. What are they? Thank you for listening to human thesaurus podcast. Please rate and subscribe. Your support means a great deal. Join me again next week for another episode. I'm your host, Wish Ronquillo Peacocke. Have a fantastic day and thanks for listening.
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