Mental Health Matters - Live from the Fair!

Well, that did not go according to plan in any way, shape, or form. No, no. Sitting at the fair in my car because I couldn't do it from our, uh, booth because there was live music. I'm like, StreamYard was working until like 8:58 and then it decided not to. On the plus side, hey, Thank y'all for waiting. DJ, thanks for holding down the fort. Um, and hopefully I didn't get dinged too hard because I know Facebook gets pissed if you talk more than 10 minutes late. And like G Web said, officially dismissed, right? So hi everybody, it's Saturday night. It is not 9 o'clock. Um, and it's been a busy day, weekend, all of that. And, uh, so anyway, welcome to Suicide Prevention Saturday, aka Mental Health Matters, on A Great Start Shooting School. Got to meet a bunch of people today at the, um, fair that I was just at, ran from basically. And, uh, yeah, technical difficulties, welcome to the world. Uh, popcorn, popcorn is good. Oops, wrong one. Um, sorry, I was reading Saria fans, but then Abigail popped up. So, live from the fair. So close. It was gonna be really cool. I had the picture of the, um, all the rides at night, so it would have been sort of like its own little fireworks show. So anywho, I'm glad that DJ has been keeping you all entertained. I'm like, dude, just start. And did he start? No, no, he did not. He's like, I'll wait. I'm like, uh, hopefully I don't get dinged on Facebook side. I guess I'm not even sure how that all works. G-Webs, tell me, am I gonna die now? Class is supposed to be dismissed 12 minutes ago. Probably not. So, uh-huh, thank you. Yes, directly from Tennessee about 2 years ago. One of my favorite hats. The other one is, um Says love just in all the silver sequins. I like them both for, you know, because blinginess and all of that. How is your weekend going, everybody? How was your Saturday night? Um, fair closes in about 15 minutes at 9:30, and I left my booth around 8:45 because I'm like, oh, I'm gonna do tech check. And how did that work out? It did not. So so much. Um, but, uh, all right, well, geez Louise, it's so funny, I keep going and click on something and Abigail says something. Um, so yeah, well, I don't know, every time I set up a live it's like Facebook only allows up to 10 minutes late. So anyway, it is what it is. All right, mental health matters, what we've been talking about today at the fair, yesterday also. I've got Walk the Talk America stickers and I've got little— oh my goodness, guys, ready? I have little tiny wristbands. Oh, you know, like my big Walk the Talk America wristband, but all I have is like small left. So all of these little 5 and 6-year-olds have now Walk the Talk America bands because all little kids like them. And so I was happy to hand them out at the fair. So Walk the Talk America's got a lot of love both last night and today. Got one more day of fair to go, and, um, tomorrow be done by 7 o'clock, 6, 6:30, I think maybe. I'm not entirely sure because I just get to show up. And so walkthetalkamerica, uh, forward slash love. Talking about to folks how that if you're worried about somebody, you can do a self-assessment and just answer the question as if the way you would think they would answer it. And then it gives you free resources at the end and ways to deal with, and also score kind of a, well, are you really extreme, should you call someone, that sort of stuff. So that's been fun. So that's how Mental Health Matters has kind of rolled into how this weekend has gone. And, um, originally there was going to be an interview, but that fell through this week because life does not go according to plan, and, um, that is just how it goes. Yeah, so here's the thing, Surya fan. County fairs here, we have like town fairs. It's not like out west where you have a county fair that is ginormous. We have that, it's, uh, sort of. It's called the Big E and it goes on for like 2 and a half weeks or so where it's like every, um, each state in New England actually has a building and then there's the rides and the food and horse shows and all sorts of crazy stuff. Oh my goodness, it is my favorite, uh, Carrie Ann Sampson Auclair. She sings. For those of you, you know, are you not always impressed with the people who sing the national anthem? My girl Carrie Ann, she does that. She sings the national anthem at very, you know, lots of fun places. She's got back from GRPC, um, for those of you who went to GRPC, she was there. I'm pretty sure she was a speaker. I don't remember on what, because I've yet to be at GRPC other than on a slide of a presentation at GRPC. So, you know, that's as close as I've gotten so far. But nice to see you, Carrie-Ann. She's over on the Facebook side, if you didn't know. That's what the little thing is. I know you don't use Facebook, but I'm pretty confident you all know what that looks like. Can you all tell I have been running? I was so mad when the tech failed. But let's talk. Mental health matters. Walk the Talk America, wtt.org/love. DJ's dropped it a couple times over on the YouTube side. Um, and life not going according to plan. Who here can relate to life not going according to plan, whether it's dinner plans or work plans or life plans or cleaning plans or any of those things? Right? How often does stuff go according to plan? Here's the reality of that: it actually probably goes according to plan way more than we realize most of the time. Um, I spoke on The Future Is Watching. Okay, so sorry, hold on, because I know half of you can only see half of the other thing. So Carrie-Anne spoke on The Future Is Watching. I knew that. I mean, I read that. I, I did know. I think— did you put up some of your, your, um, slides also, or you just talked about the future is watching? All right. And G-Webs over on the YouTube side wants to know if you know where is GRPC being hosted next year, um, because G-Webs is very good at keeping up with these things as long as you give them the info. Um, and Abigail, I'm assuming we're talking about Life does not go according to plan. What I was starting to say is that it probably goes according to plan more often than we realize. Unfortunately, I fear that we notice it's not going according to plan because we're much better at acknowledging when things aren't working out. We're not as good at praising when stuff is actually working the way it is supposed to. And it's like, when stuff works out the way it's supposed to, we expect it to do that. And the reality of it is, is like, we notice the good, but we're not as excited or annoyed by the good as we are the bad. And, um, I don't know, we gotta focus on being thankful for— guess what? The coffee machine did work this morning, and it did work yesterday, and it did work the day before, and the day before that. The one day it doesn't work, then it's like, oh my gosh, does this ever work? And the answer is yes, it usually does. So notice what's happening that is working out, because it's easy to get annoyed with stuff when it doesn't work out. I wasn't mother-effing the phone, but I kind of was because I'm like, it was working and then it didn't, and this is our life. Um, and I know Surya has caught us up here and there on various challenges that he's had. Um, and here's the thing, and Jamie's out here, or I mean, I think I saw Jamie earlier at least. I don't know if he hung out because, you know, G Web said that class was dismissed after 10 minutes of the teacher not being here. But, um, life goes according to plan always. It just doesn't necessarily go according to your plan. There's what we think should happen, and then, um, there's what actually happens, and there's what we want to happen, and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Um, oh, and apparently DJ knows that next year GRPC is at Salt Lake City. Very cool. All right, so yeah, I can tell you're looking excited to go to Salt Lake City. Um, hello Jamie, there you are. Yeah, see, well, like I said, I'm, I, I'm coming in late, so I'm just glad that everybody showed up and hung out. And, uh, holy moly. All right, I got nothing for you. I got running around like a crazy person. I got to spread the word on Walk the Talk America this weekend. I get to go back tomorrow, uh, 7 AM, 6, 8 AM. Yeah, there we go. 8 AM till 6:30 PM tomorrow. So that will be a shorter day. And I will continue to spread the word about Walk the Dog America, mental health, suicide prevention, because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths we talk about are suicides, and most folks don't know that. And I forget if I tell you guys, but I'm actually on the ballot for our local election this year, so I also hung out at the, um, Republican town committee tent for a little bit today as well, doing double duty sort of thing. And, um, that is just— it's just, you know, I'm out of breath and like, okay, I appreciate all of you folks for popping in. Oops, sorry, again clicking on the wrong things and just trying to remember what Carrie Ann says. And sometimes it was meant to happen, and there's so many things in my life that I know for a fact I did not want to happen. I thought it was a horrible thing. And, um, in retrospect, there are plenty of things that are true blessings that at the time just totally stink. And I think for all of our mental health, it's definitely important for us to remember our plan is not the only plan, and it is happier if you remember that it's the way it's meant to be, no matter how not so awesome it is. And wait, did I just do that, or did DJ do that? I don't even know. DJ, did you just do that? You did just do that because he just undid it too. I wasn't touching it. He's quiet in the background. Oh, there he is. There we go.

Yeah, it was me.

Okay.

I didn't know if you would be, if you would post a compliment offered to yourself for yourself. So, you know, junior executive vice privilege or something like that. Yeah, she's right. You are awesome.

Why, thank you. Thank you. But yeah, it is funny. I don't know, DJ, what, what stories do you have? As far as for me, I can tell you breaking my knee, uh, not going to the Olympics at the time was the worst thing ever. But then if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be married to the amazing man that I am. So it's just like, do you have stories like that where it's like there was something that totally sucked at the time, but looking back, you're like, thank goodness God, you know, change my trajectory a little bit, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah, I've got one, and it's, it's one that still haunts me in some ways. Um, I'll try to be brief.

All right, good luck. When— not good at that.

Right on. When I was 19, when I was 19, I was working at 2 different radio stations and 3 different clubs as a DJ and as a music director, and I went to New York in that spring And I interviewed 3 different places, 2 record labels and 1 promotions group. And I was there for 5 days. And I got back. I had— out of those interviews, I didn't think I was going to get an offer for anything. I did have an offer from one. And as I'm traveling back, I'm engaged at this time, and I'm supposed to be married in July, and I'm currently in Iowa. And this is New York City. And this was the young, one of the young man's dreams for me. And so I thought in my incredible lack of wisdom at that tender age that I could accept the position on Monday and let them know, you know, make arrangements to start to be in their employ. And when I called in to do that, they said that they had already put someone in that spot. And that meant that I wasn't going to New York, but it did mean that my pathway was clear to be married that July. And I was a happy man that day. But when I look back, you want to talk about a break in the action and where things might have been different— the University of Northern Iowa, taking the fast train to New York City and getting into the music industry in that portion. Working in artist and representation. That was, that was a big change for sure.

Very cool, very cool. Um, yeah, so let's see. I know Carrie Anne, um, when she hurt her ankle and in her ATV accident, it made her have to slow the heck down because she like couldn't walk for— I don't know, Carrie, and I forget, it's like 2, 3 months. You were— I, I— you and I talked more then because you were being held down basically because you couldn't run around. But, um, it is weird how certain things will happen that seem not so great, and then it's like— I honestly don't know if my— like, my phone is broken now, but I'll find out tomorrow because it's not that important right now because I got home. But, uh, it is interesting. And Abigail, who just said that her life has been not according to plan ever since she's been in Florida, at the same time is like, would have never met Lucy, and she's a gift from, uh, I don't know how to say it. Annie? What do you think, DJ?

I'm gonna say Ane.

Okay. Um, so Anyhow, all right, sir. Well, it's our normal 15, 10 minutes in here. Uh, I'm assuming you've already said hi to everybody, but if you would like to do a roll call, by all means. Um, my plan is not probably to stay awake much longer than this because I gotta get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

Right on. Before I'm corrected, my pronunciation is corrected in the text chat, it's actually Anna. And Anna is the Celtic goddess of love, fertility, and the summer. So in spirit, I guess, Anna joined us tonight. So did the Krabby Turtle, first in the room. C&T Designs and Arms was out there. Sorryfan93 joined us. So did Jamie JH 586. Gun Websites was in the room. Abigail Sorcha Finnegan, Mario Mosin, and Chasing Ghosts round out the YouTube side. On Facebook, uh, we were blessed to have Carrie Anna Claire, um, this evening.

So And I did see Mario and we didn't say hey, so that's my hey for Mario. Um, all right, so 9:30, top of the hour will be Hillbilly. There we go. And that's all I got for tonight. DJ, got any parting words? Because I'm just ready to hit the hay. Peopling all day is hard, not gonna lie. But, and I'll stop shaking the laptop. So, got anything else?

Well, actually, yeah, I've got a quick hit, and it's 3 things that I've been thinking about. And I think there's recommendations I'm giving to myself, but I think they're worthy of maybe passing on as an idea. Okay, there's so much going on in our everyday lives. There's so much, there's so many outside forces that act upon us and try to draw our energy away from positive things sometimes. And so I want to encourage people, you know, during this week, find a peaceful place for yourself. If you got a chair in the backyard, if you need to pull over the side of the road, you know, wherever you can find a peaceful spot for yourself, think about removing yourself from negative and draining conversations about the news of the day, Politics is a killer. There are so many things out there that want to feed on our energy, and a lot of it is negative, unfortunately. And so in that space where you're, you're chilling with yourself and you're removing those conversations from your head, picture yourself a month into the future. Whatever kind of positivity you can reflect on that you would like to see in that month, 4 short weeks. It's not a goal, it's just an idea. And the positive idea about contributing to yourself in that way, I think, may help to put on a little bit of armor when the outside wants to get in. That's what I got for this week. I hope everybody comes back again next week, same regular time, Brooke, same station.

And, you know, logical issues abound, but Probably rock and roll.

That's the way it goes, and that's the way it was. So everybody be safe, have fun, take care of yourself and your crew, and rock. We're out.