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Episode 13: Stories from Japan, How to Make Changes Stick, Navigating Media Recommendations
160 Plays9 days ago
Charles is (temporarily) back from Japan, and he shares stories about great food, a wild haircut, and a fortune he received after hiking up a mountain. Chris and Bryan share an update on the 700 watt tube amp. The trio answer questions about sticking to resolutions/new habits and navigating an awkward conversation.
If you'd like Bryan, Charles, and Chris to answer your question on an episode of Amplified Nonsense, call (513) 334-3803 and leave a voicemail.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Amplified Nonsense'
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Amplified Nonsense, a podcast that's about amplifiers but is driven by your random voicemail questions. Your hosts are Charles Henry of Silktone, Chris Benson of Benson Amps, and Brian Sowers of Sour Sound Transformers.
00:00:22
Speaker
My name is Emily, I'm the producer, and I'm here to keep things on track. Before I get too far into this episode, you can call 513-334-3803 and your own voicemail questions for our hosts. That's So let's turn it on over to our
Travel Frustrations and Anecdotes
00:00:42
Speaker
hosts. How are you all doing? Doing all right.
00:00:48
Speaker
I'm pretty stoked to get the out of here next week. dude I was upset within 30 minutes of arriving back in the country. I was like, my phone died on the airplane. So I was taking an Uber from the airport and I had to get my phone charged so I could order the Uber.
00:01:06
Speaker
So I have my charger in my hand and my phone in my hand and I'm walking around looking for somewhere to plug it in and there were several places and everything I plugged into just didn't work it didn't charge. Classic. And i I find an airport employee looking employee and I say hey excuse me do you know do these not work or where is and before I could even finish I don't know keep walking I was like yeah I'm back.
00:01:32
Speaker
Which airport was this? SFO. Yeah. Yeah. That killed my not angry for two months streak. I got some Japanese candy in the mail today. Oh, hell yeah. What kind?
00:01:44
Speaker
I cannot read it.
00:01:47
Speaker
What was It tastes like. One was really thin and extremely salty, and the other had like four different things going on. Hell yeah. Like it was like gummy, but chocolate, but peanut butter, and also crunchy somehow. It was kind of indescribable. That's awesome. Craig from a Mass Sent in my way.
00:02:10
Speaker
Oh, hell yeah. Craig rocks. I hung out with him while I was over there too. He's he's a big curry person. So he's obsessed with like all the curry around there. So he's shown me all the hell of good curry spots.
00:02:21
Speaker
I love curry. Yeah. Do you guys like raisins in your curry at all? No, I don't think I've ever done that because I'm not a freak. I grew up eating curry with raisins, spicy curry on rice with raisins in it.
00:02:39
Speaker
i think you're like my mom might have My mom grew up in Africa, so maybe it's like from African cuisine or something like that. I'd f*** with that. i That sounds pretty good.
00:02:50
Speaker
um I loved it. and My wife thinks I'm a a weirdo whenever I put raisins in my curry. Yeah, I'd mess with that. That sounds... yeah I'm okay with it in like pineapple fried rice, just a taste, but all in all raisins are kind of gross.
00:03:07
Speaker
Man, my last week over there, I finally found, I've been on a taco quest over there to try to find like the best Mexican food in Tokyo, because it's the one thing I miss when I'm over there. And I found a restaurant, the tacos were good, not the best tacos I've ever had for sure. The tacos were were great. They did pastor and they did they did one that was like duck breast tacos with mole. That was so good. But all of the rest of the food, like the taquitos and the chips and guacamole, and they did like roast beef rellenos, is probably the best Mexican food I've ever had anywhere.
00:03:37
Speaker
It might be the best food I've ever had. it was pretty great. I'm pumped to get back. And how long have you been back at this point for our viewers at home? Three days. I accidentally slept 14 hours yesterday. I fell asleep at 2 a.m. and I woke up at 4 thinking I had only slept for two hours and was like, why can't I sleep?
00:03:59
Speaker
Jet lag is so weird. And then I saw all these missed calls and I was like, whoa! And I just somehow slept through everything, like all the way to 4 p.m. That sucked. So now I'm all thrown off.
00:04:10
Speaker
that's That's why you're drinking coffee right now at 515? Yes. Yeah. just need to put some raisins in that coffee. You'll be doing swell. yeah Raisins and curry.
00:04:22
Speaker
What
Building Amplifiers: Technical Dive
00:04:23
Speaker
have guys been up to? You still hammering on that amp? Yeah, it's getting pretty real over here. Yeah. yeahp Got it mounted up, which took about six hours maybe.
00:04:35
Speaker
Oh, not bad. Six hours and at some point, at some points of there's three people holding different things in place. It's ridiculous.
00:04:46
Speaker
It's so heavy. And today i actually started wiring it. So i got like I got all the mains stuff wired in, the transformers. And ah I think I'm going to stay tonight and try to get the rest of the power supply and the ah the protection circuit wired in just so we can see if it's going to work.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. yeah That's crazy. I can't wait to hear about the first ah switch throw. Well, we we did that earlier just to test voltages, and Brian did a great job. The transformers were right on the money. I think the bias transformer was like maybe five volts north of where you wanted, but Yeah, I looked back at that and I was computing unloaded voltage on that winding while the other windings were loaded. So that's just a you know ah spreadsheet error. But I mean, it's it's all in the zone.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. And the transformer is such a massive transformer in such complexity. I was expecting there to be some sort of hum or rattle, just transformer, physical vibration. And the thing doesn't even feel like it's on. It's awesome. Wow, that's cool.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I mean, both of those are pretty low excitation. I think like they've run, i don't know, off the top my head, I think it's like 1.2 Tesla, but they're M6.
00:06:06
Speaker
So in transformer world, that's probably, that's maybe not conservative. That's just like kind of middle of the road. You know, I've done stuff that runs hotter for other reasons, but obviously this thing, we don't want anything to run hot. It's already a freaking heater.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yep. So we'll we'll know a lot more by midnight tonight and I will have a much merrier Christmas if there's no issues. Well, yeah, your house will have heat. That's Because you'll have that thing. Yeah, I'll bring that home. But... Yeah, going well. Thanks for asking.
Resolutions and Personal Growth
00:06:36
Speaker
Well, do you all want to go ahead and ah jump into a caller question? Sure. I guess. yeah We all have holiday stuff to do, so we're going to keep this one a little short, I guess. Yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker
Well, this is well-themed for the week. Let's ah hear from our first caller. Hey, guys. I know people make a big deal about New Year's resolutions.
00:07:01
Speaker
And with it being almost the new year, i was wondering if y'all had ever had a resolution actually stick. And I guess maybe more generally speaking, what has helped you start a new habit and stick with it? Thanks a lot.
00:07:15
Speaker
I don't think I've ever stuck to one ever. I've definitely made incremental change, but I stopped. I stopped with resolutions long ago because quite frankly, it's just, yeah, you know, incremental change works for me. Like massive change. Like on day one, I'm doing this. um I'm just not that person. You know, I tried to stop stop cursing and that didn't work.
00:07:34
Speaker
And, you know.
00:07:39
Speaker
I don't, I'm trying to think if I've ever intentionally started a new habit. I've stopped a lot. but Starting a new one. m i got some new ear pods that helped me walk every day. That's about it. But I don't know if if that was incremental change. You did it. It was incremental change. That wasn't like a new year's resolution. yeah You didn't walk every single day from day on from that day on.
00:08:05
Speaker
You're like you did like a couple of days a week and then you're like, oh I'm going to keep doing this, you know, and you got a little better about it. And now it's just now it's just what you do. That's just who you are. You're a walker. You're no longer a talker.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah. I've, I read recently that incremental change is the most effective in, in like, even if you, the hardest thing to do is to actually start a task. So even if you're trying to like, you know, you want to start doing pushups every night or something for your health, like even if you start with just one, just one per night and like do the action, your brain, as soon as you just start with the idea of, okay, I'm only going to do one, that's easy to tackle.
00:08:43
Speaker
Once you're doing it, you'll do more. Whatever the lowest like barrier to entry is for your mind, I think is the most effective. Yeah, i actually got that advice in like middle school from a teacher because i had been behind on basically an entire semester's worth of coursework because I was drawing like pirate ships or something on my desk instead of working. and I was like just so overwhelmed. and She was like, well, you got to what you got to do is pick the easiest one first and start with that.
00:09:14
Speaker
and when When you're done with that, you'll feel a little less overwhelmed and it'll make everything else go a lot easier. so just go in order of easy to hardest.
00:09:24
Speaker
yeah And I think about that quite a bit. For me me personally, I've never stuck to a new new year's resolution ever. um The only way I seem to change is is a little thing I like to call negative self-talk.
00:09:37
Speaker
Just pervading myself. I'm imagining that Caribbean enthusiasm episode where in the mirror when he gets stoned. I don't think I saw that one. Yeah, which one's that? what There's words I shouldn't say. When he when he smokes weed and he's in the mirror and he's just like, look at you, you're a fat guy. And he's like yelling at himself, like, do better. i think it's the one... it's so funny oh I think it's the one where he picks up the prostitute for the carpool lane and he gets weed from her and he smokes and freaks out. ah i totally don't I totally don't remember that episode. It's so good. that's so good i Yeah, i don't know. Just ah getting disgusted with myself to a point.
00:10:28
Speaker
Where I can no longer ignore the problem. And then and then i yeah then make a positive life change. And then I make fun of myself for doing it. That's awesome. Man, you got to take RuPaul's advice. Just tell that inner saboteur to shut the hell up.
00:10:43
Speaker
Shut the hell up. Shut it down. I am the inner saboteur. Believe in yourself. We are one. Do you guys have any resolutions you're going to fail this year? I'm going to stop being stressed out.
00:10:57
Speaker
he yeah I'm going to try to get younger by 10 years. I'm not sure if that's going to work or not, but I'm hoping that helps with my back problems and general attitude.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah. I get made fun of a lot for being old and in Japan. Mayu calls me Oji-san all the time, which is old man. That's fun. God, you're like the young one. i know. Or maybe Emily's the young one.
00:11:28
Speaker
I don't actually know. I think maybe we can talk about this later. i think Brian and I are the same age. 44. 44? Mm-hmm. m Chris is actually my inner saboteur. Yeah, I do that for me and Brian.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, Chris's negative self-talk is actually my sleep paralysis demon. Whenever you're in the bathroom alone, you make sure to call him on speakerphone first. Yeah. Clean up your wiring. Get your act together. Answer those emails.
00:12:00
Speaker
I have said some kind of rough things to Brian for which I apologize. Oh, whatever. I'm deserving of all of it, I'm sure. See? Negative self-talk. Yeah. Definitely. He's a masochist, so it's all good.
00:12:12
Speaker
I've got what men crave. Negative self-talk. Okay, Camacho. I've got what brains crave.
00:12:25
Speaker
but Has anyone like used that in any marketing for like a pedal or an amp yet? I think it's too real, man. Yeah. No one wants to be reminded of the dystopia. Yeah, it's already happening. I actually was thinking about why we're even making a 700-watt amp today. Yeah? did you Did you come up with your tagline?
00:12:43
Speaker
I think it has a lot to do with just... Flex culture?
00:12:48
Speaker
Man, i'm I'm going to keep thinking about it, but I got real close today. I was like, why did that pop in my head that we should make like a thousand watt tube amp? Yeah. ah Other than, you know, the pre-conventional, like that would be fun, you know? Well, you were driving around, like it was like an intrusive thought and that you were like, oh, I'm going to share this with Brian. And meanwhile, like you share it. And I got completely sidetracked with whatever I was working on and started working up spreadsheets to see if it was even possible. Yeah, I think you sent me a partial schematic like less than a day later.
00:13:20
Speaker
it just went
Cultural Observations and Humor
00:13:21
Speaker
from there. Yeah. I was reading about an app today that someone made. There was a thousand dollars and all it said was I bought this app and it was just like a rich guy flex move or whatever. Maybe it's just like that.
00:13:33
Speaker
It's not. It's not. and i Thank you for suggesting that. It might be someone else's rich guy flex It's a real thing. It's a real thing.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yes, it was a real thing. It was called i Am Rich. It was released in 2008. It was priced at $1,000 adjusted for inflation. That's almost $1,500. And it was pulled from the App Store less than 24 hours after its launch. However, eight copies were sold. Oh, my God. I'm in the wrong business. $1,500. That's like $2 per watt.
00:14:13
Speaker
good deal
00:14:17
Speaker
Also, what kind of just blew my mind right there is the fact that you said 2008, and so $1,000 adjusted for inflation is $1,500? craziest thing, I think, going back to 1990, seems to be about 50% 17 years, because if you want to look at $10 in 1990, think that's about $20 today. Inflation is bad as they say it is.
00:14:40
Speaker
inflation is as bad as they say it is ah Yeah. that the truth The price of eggs is killing me. I'm out of here. Y'all. for me I just figured out how much my healthcare care was going to cost. And I'm, yeah. Do you want me to tell you how much healthcare is in Japan?
00:14:58
Speaker
I'm quite familiar with, with the concept of socialized healthcare care or at least like discounted healthcare care ah for foreigners and such. Yes. I'm quite aware. Okay. I don't need you to rub it in. You jackass for everyone else out there. It's $12 month.
00:15:13
Speaker
Nice flex. It just covers everything. My back hurts a little bit more now. Thank you. That's my new sleep paralysis demon. It's just like waking up in the middle of the night and my back hurting and just thinking to myself, do i have $12 right now?
00:15:32
Speaker
a Meanwhile, I can't get a rheumatologist to call me back for the last, what, six weeks? So I got a haircut over there. So I went to a Japanese barber for the first time and um it was like 22 bucks and it was like a full head cut, no buzzers, was all clippers. It was like Edward Scissorhands. Dude was a pro, he was a hella fast.
00:15:55
Speaker
And then it was a full like straight edge razor shave, head massage, neck massage, shoulder massage, and then he wet willied both my ears and it was really weird. Whoa.
00:16:08
Speaker
That's why it was so inexpensive. I mean, here you'd have to pay at least an extra 50 bucks for that. And it would be a totally different. avenue It would be out on 82nd. Yeah, it was wild.
00:16:23
Speaker
I was all about it. So you're wet. Willie, man. I guess so. I am now. I did. I had no idea. i was like, Whoa, what a way to find out at the barbers. I put a little mustache on and went back. Wow.
00:16:39
Speaker
Well, if you all are interested, we have one other kind of short, a little funny question. Hi, this Andrew calling. My question is when somebody is recommending a movie or a TV series or an album to me, how do I politely tell them that I'm going to forget about this conversation while we're having it and I'm never going to watch, listen, or otherwise consume the thing that they are recommending to me?
00:17:09
Speaker
Okay, thanks. Bye. You just given the one word response. Nice. Just start talking about the Fast Serious movie series, like no matter what their suggestion was.
00:17:22
Speaker
I never have that with movies or TV shows. I'll pretty much watch anything, but I do have it with podcasts and that's with all podcasts. I will never. Have you seen the Fast and Furious? Yeah. I've seen every single one of the Fast and Furiouses. Dude, you gotta watch those. Those are great.
00:17:37
Speaker
I've actually so actually seen them all. They're pretty fun. Fantastic. I saw one and I thought it was really funny. The first one is stupid as hell. It's so, so dumb. But then like they like start launching so like modded cars into space and Ludacris is an astronaut. And it's so so stupid. It's great.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, they do that Ridley Stratt crossover with the Alien franchise. you know like it's Man. I can't tell if that was serious, Charles. Is that real? No. Oh, okay. Because I would i would believe it. That was a joke. That was a bad joke. I'm sure there's a new Fast and Furious I haven't seen where that has that happen in it, so...
00:18:20
Speaker
I enjoy almost all TV and movies from a dispassionate observer perspective because it tells me a lot. I like to try to figure out what a TV show or a movie is for or like what kind of person it's for and what is activating them. It's sort of like, a I guess it's kind of like a psychological thing rather than just, ah I'm really enjoying this. Yeah. So I watch a lot of garbage. I love it. I love it. I just watched alien earth and it was awesome. It ah yeah yes it was a huge separation from like the alien franchise, but as a standalone, it was so far rad.
Analyzing Media and Entertainment
00:18:58
Speaker
I think I love, love, love, love how bad at life everyone in the alien movies is.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah. That is unbelievable. Like just absolute incompetence everywhere, every scene. They're, they're an exploration into the demise that happens, you know, from super capitalism. You know i mean? Like alien earth is a great, is an even better example of it because the world's effectively owned by what and in the show it's four or five corporations and the concept of like a literal corporatocracy.
00:19:33
Speaker
But yeah, no, was it no Holly that did that one? don't know I don't know. Howley, Howley, I think is his name. yeah that's the He did ah Legion. do you ever see that? Oh, um that show rocked so hard. That was so good. That's right. That guy is brilliant.
00:19:48
Speaker
Oh man, that was good. But still, the question that that we had proposed was how do you tell someone that you don't give a when they're when they're suggesting a Nicki Minaj record or something? Most people I talk to, I would probably take a recommendation from, i guess.
00:20:06
Speaker
So I don't know. I would too, unless it was a podcast and then I would tell them that I don't listen to podcasts. I don't either. I don't have time for that. too big work We're probably doing this all wrong because we don't listen to podcasts. Yeah.
00:20:21
Speaker
ah ah We have no frame of reference at all. We're like on a podcast every week at this point. Yeah. What about you, Emily? Any insight on that one? do you How do you reject... ah I tell them to text it to me and they almost never do because they also forget during the conversation. oh that's smart. That's really good.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah. I should do that. That is smart. actually do that with a lot of things. Just always ask people, to oh, text, text that to me because I'm going to forget it. And they also forget it. It's amazing.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah. yeah But now I'm going to be thinking like, has Emily ever said, just text that to me at any point in time? Well, if you text me, I'm more likely to to watch Yeah.
00:21:01
Speaker
So it's a a win-win. And then I'll watch one episode of Taskmasters and think, why did five people recommend this to me? yeah What's Taskmasters?
00:21:13
Speaker
It's on YouTube. Oh, well, enough said. I think it's a British show. Has anybody else watched it? Because I don't want to describe it. British. I haven't seen it. now No.
00:21:28
Speaker
Plans to. So thanks to Dave Jordan. And Jesse from Believable Audio for recommending that to me. I did watch it. I don't think I will continue to watch it, but I'm glad I tried it.
00:21:40
Speaker
Did Jessie text you? Dave did. So you were texted. That's why you watched it. Yes. I was asked yesterday, when you have a runny nose, do you use tissue or a handkerchief to wipe your nose? And I said, tissue.
00:21:55
Speaker
I don't use a handkerchief for that. I don't carry them usually. Maybe I should. And they said, me too. My English friend said they use handkerchiefs. And I said, the English are so annoying.
00:22:08
Speaker
And we said they said the same thing about Americans. and So snobby with their handkerchief. So snotty. So snotty. So snotty with their handkerchief.
00:22:19
Speaker
This is a weird one. We're all, we're all like tired. like I'm so tired. yeah I was just saying goodbye because like we're we're, you know, closed for the rest of the year. Well, we as in my employees, me on the other hand, will be working this entire time.
00:22:36
Speaker
But ah yeah, so i I was just saying goodbye to all them. And yeah, it's very like, oh, okay. Now I got to get to the list of stuff that I all have to get done by the end of the year.
00:22:49
Speaker
Me too, brother.
Year-end Reflections and Spiritual Insights
00:22:50
Speaker
Which on one hand are kind of like resolutions, like in a way, but there are 2025 resolutions that only exist now. My only resolutions every year make rad stuff and don't go out of business.
00:23:04
Speaker
I mean, that is really just the goal. Yo, so one more, I know I'm boring everyone with the Japan stories, but I went to Kyoto and hiked up to the top of Mount Inari. So it's like the most supposed to be the most spiritual mountain in Japan. And there's 10,000 torii gates like warding off evil spirits all the way up to the shrine at the top.
00:23:25
Speaker
Most people just go to like the first base and take photos and go down. But if you go all the way to the top, there's a fortune thing and you can pull your fortune. It's like a metal jar and you have to shake it until a number comes out. And it's like, I forget how many, it's like one in a hundred or something like that, or one in 20. And it gives you this fortune and My friend Mayu translated it for me because I can't read kanji. And she said that it said, your business is seeing a large shift right now and you have to make a major change to keep things successful. You are sad because you've lost a close relationship with someone you love and the things you want aren't coming as fast as you want.
00:24:05
Speaker
But if you are patient, it will be blissful. And that was so weird to me to be on a fortune of one in 20 things because it's like everything I'm feeling right now.
00:24:21
Speaker
I've never really believed in that stuff before, but that was really weird to be super tired and hike to the top of the spiritual mountain and then have that be the fortune. I didn't believe her. I was a you're with me because she knows. you sure she didn't write it?
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, right, I know. I was like, you're projecting, you're f***ing with me. And she's like, no, I swear, isn't that weird? So I took a picture of it and had ChatGPT translate it. little bit less heart, but same concept, same thing. And it was really, really weird. So... So, Silk Tone, Japan.
00:24:50
Speaker
Silk Tone, Japan.
Closing Remarks
00:24:52
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplified Nonsense. Our goal is to release a new episode every other week, so please subscribe wherever you listen.
00:25:02
Speaker
If you have a question for Brian, Charles, and Chris about amps, pop culture, or relationships, please call 513-334-3803 three three four three eight zero three and leave a voicemail.
00:25:14
Speaker
If you enjoyed this episode of Amplified Nonsense, please leave a rating and review. Thanks again, and we'll see you soon.