It's Friday, January 3rd, and I'm here at the Pirate Island Hotel in Legoland, Winter Haven, Florida. I'm glad I have a chance to film. The family is heading down right now to do s'mores, and I'm like, I'm good. I had ice cream earlier. I had popcorn. I had breakfast. We had sushi for dinner, which was nice. I don't need s'mores on top of all that. At least it's 57 degrees outside, so they're going to enjoy the campfire. It was a nice day today.
It's nice to have a couple of days off. Well, technically I filmed a video yesterday. I'm filming one today. I filmed one the day before. I didn't really take a day off from filming, but it's cool to film somewhere besides my studio and to be out. There's a lot of stimulation, seeing so many people I've never seen before all around Legoland. We got to do most of the stuff in the park today. We got up a little after 7. I slept in this pull-out bed, like a single bed, in with the kids while they slept in the bunk beds. I kept waking up all through the night, but I still felt like I got a great night of sleep, which is nice. I got in bed around 10 p.m. and got up at 7:30 a.m. That's nine and a half hours in bed. Solid rest. I'd lie there listening to all the kids in the hall and the parents, wondering, are they going to come back up right now? Probably not.
The morning, and a kid who looks like Scarface
So what happened today? Jack got hit in the face with a sword this morning while he was running around playing with the boys during breakfast. They brought me a plant-based breakfast platter, which was pretty good, and it's included with our room. Laura and the kids had sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, gravy, and biscuits. It was a nice, filling breakfast.
Then we went over to Legoland. The one roller coaster broke right at the top of it, and there were people stuck up there for 15 or 20 minutes. We walked around for like 30, 40 minutes, almost close to an hour, before we could even ride anything, but it was fine. I was out there walking. I rode one roller coaster a couple of times with Madeline, and then I was walking by another roller coaster that was closed. I thought, hmm, what if we walk by here and it opens right for us the moment we get there? And that's exactly what happened, which was cool.
What I want to do with my music
I've been wondering what I want to do with my music. Right before bed last night I watched Marshmello talking about how he made some song that I don't even think I've listened to before. I was just interested to see his workflow. He's got like 100 tracks or so in the arrangement view, audio and MIDI lanes, around a hundred of those in one song. And I'm like, ugh. Do I really want to take the time to make these catchy little songs and try to ride the formula? Make music that's just like everybody else makes, except tweak it just slightly so it doesn't sound quite like everyone else's?
Or do I want to just get weird, play around, and have fun? I already do the formula on my crypto channel. I make the titles and the thumbnails when I need to get views and clicks and to bring in that money. I do what I need to do over there. But with my music, I don't think I want to do the formula. I want to make weird stuff. Stuff where you go, what is this? I've never heard anything like this. I want to make something I can just grind out to every day and have fun with, something different and unusual, not your regular thing. I want to make something like that to get my thoughts together.
I was thinking about it today. Do I want to spend 10 hours trying to make some trap song about my life that hits just right, or a rap song, or some deadmau5 style thing like Imaginary Friends? And then put videos out showing how I make it? Those are going to be boring anyway. Do you really want to watch me writing rap lyrics or trying out different drum beats? I don't know.
The kids losing it at lunch
So at Legoland we sat down to have lunch after riding a few of the roller coasters, and the kids were just losing it. Madeline pushed Jack over a curb and he tripped and fell. Then she started to spiral, and then they started fighting. She scratched the other side of his face today. So now he looks like Scarface, with scratches on the left and the right and a whack from a sword. But he kind of likes it. He's very fascinating. He always asks questions like, what happens if you break a bone? Stuff I don't think about and am not really interested in thinking about.
I had a dream last night, and the camera cut me off at 30 minutes. You all should have heard the stuff I was saying. The camera just decides, shut up, and cuts me off. It hits maximum recording length, and I'm like, how do you know what the maximum recording length is for my life?
How much of this can I deduct?
I wonder how much I can deduct on this from my taxes. It's going to be like $1,500, $1,600, $1,700 for two days here. Could I deduct $400, $500, $600 of it? I made a couple of videos in the hotel room. In my experience it saves probably 15 to 20 percent for every $100 I deduct, so about $20 back for every $100. Take $500 off and I get roughly $100 off my taxes. That seems reasonable to me.
Discipline, and how my parents did it
The kids were whooping each other's butts at the park, and I'm standing there thinking, what do I do with this? My dad used to keep us in line by threatening violence, and then there would be actual violence if the threats weren't respected. And that worked. My brother and I behaved pretty well most of the time, although I'm sure we had our moments. Like the time it was just my mom taking us to pick up pizza. I was pushing my brother down, going, what are you going to do, mom? What are you going to do? Now, my mom was in the army, I think a major at the time. I'm like, you're not going to do anything. Dad does all the spankings and the hitting. So when we got home, my mom knocked me flat on my back and sat on me and said, you think I'm not going to do something? You think I won't do something to you? You better watch it. That's how my parents did it.
Now, my wife says her parents just instilled values in them. They respected that it was special when they were out doing things, and they didn't go crazy with each other. But my kids are beating each other at Legoland, yanking each other's hair, scratching at each other's faces, punching each other in the head, punching each other in the stomach. I really don't know what to do with this.
There's that stuffed animal I showed you in the January 1st and 2nd vlog. I told Madeline, you want to play games with me? I'm going to give that stuffy away. How do you like that? And then she spiraled. Meanwhile Laura was reflecting on the marathon she's going to run for the first time in a week, and she wasn't feeling too good about it, saying, that's so stupid, why do I do this? And then Madeline was throwing a fit because she wanted ice cream, and Laura's like, you two just whooped each other in Legoland, no, I'm not getting you ice cream right now. So Madeline spiraled and was miserable at lunch. Jack sat next to me, and I got some snuggles at least.
Someday we'll be dead, and they'll remember the good times
After our lovely lunch, I'm just thinking, someday we'll be dead, and they'll remember the good times we had. I said that at dinner too. We went to sushi tonight, Tsunami Sushi I think, in Winter Haven, and they were pitching a fit about something else after we ate. I've read about this. I think it was in Eat, Pray, Love. The author said she was in Indonesia and these people's kids would just sit there in the sun with no water or food for hours. You've got to be kidding me.
So I told the kids after dinner, while they were fussing, one day we'll be dead and you'll wish you had a better time with us. Laura's like, why do you have to go there at Legoland? And I'm like, because you know what? The kids sure remember that. I wish, when I was a kid, I hadn't thrown all those crappy little fits, because my life was super easy. Laura says these kids just don't appreciate how good they have it. I told her she's right, but they will someday. Someday, when they listen to all the conspiracy stuff I've been through and hear how bad other people have it, they'll realize how good they had it. And they'll think, wow, my parents were amazing and I didn't appreciate them.
Grateful for the dad I had
That's how I feel about my dad getting to be a better and better parent every day. When I look back, I'm amazed. The fact that my dad didn't beat me every day was awesome. That could have happened, and I definitely put myself in a position and asked for it with my behavior plenty of times. My dad was a Vietnam vet, a recovered alcoholic and drug addict. He didn't go to meetings, but he stopped the drugs and he stopped the drinking. I'm really lucky with how I had it as a child. But if you'd asked me at the time, you wouldn't have seen me behaving like I appreciated it. Lots of times I was the opposite.
So the rest of the day, we rallied. Eventually Madeline got ice cream at around 4 p.m. I made her wait a few hours for it. Jack and I went to Peppa Pig Land with Madeline, spent a little while there, and then Madeline went back to the hotel room with Laura and got it together, and Laura took her to get the ice cream. Jack and I stayed at Peppa Pig Land, and he did all kinds of stuff. He rode the Daddy Pig roller coaster by himself. I talked to my sponsor.
Why I record these memories
I figure I'd better wrap this up before the little battery light gives out. I don't even know if it'll save the file or not. But it's been a nice day. It really has been a nice day. And I'm glad I have a chance to record some of the memories from today, because a year from now I'd be lucky to remember 5% of the stuff I just told you, if not 1% of it.
Is this stuff worth remembering? I don't know. But I really wish I could listen to a vlog from 20 years ago and hear the crap I was doing and thinking back then. That's part of why I keep these recordings going on my Life playlist — so the version of me down the road has something honest to look back on.
I'm glad I'm pretty stable now. I didn't get thrown off my center all day, no matter how much the kids were fussing. I got a little irritable with them for a bit, but then I'd catch myself and think, what am I doing? I'm glad to have this time with the kids. I had a nice time with Jack at Peppa Pig Land. We had a nice sushi dinner tonight. I actually had a spicy tuna roll, even though I eat mostly whole-plant vegan — a sushi place is the one spot where I'll make a bit of an exception. I had a Tokyo roll and another one too. It was a good way to end the day.