The Bloodthirsty Pugs Podcast

This week we continue our conversation from last week. When we're overwhelmed, and feel like life isn't in balance, how do we get back on top? Aaron walks us through his plan for getting back in the game of working out, waking up regularly and sticking to his "F Me" list. 

I feel like I live my life as two characters. We like to refer to them as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  In my Dr. Jekyll frame of mind, I'm waking up at 5 a.m., I'm super productive, waste very little time, work out regularly and maintain a pretty good diet. During this time I feel very happy and on top of the world. Then for whatever reason, I slip into Mr. Hyde mode. In this mindset, I'm sleeping in, playing tons of video gaames, and basically the opposite of everything Jekyll would do. I'm often sad, depressed, and wishing I was back on top. Today I find myself right smack in the middle of the two. So I'm frustrated with myself. In talking with my comrades, I found out that they're in the same boat. 

Hey everyone! I sat down with Aaron Collins and Keith Gawelek to talk about Aaron's new life having a 2 year old and a newborn. It's a struggle finding the balance between having a family and putting them first, but also valuing yourself. We're truly finding the need to rely on our friend circle to keep things in balance and maintain happiness. 

I am so tired of inefficiency in my life.  I always feel like it takes me double the amount of time to accomplish something. Every task requires multiple steps. First I got to clean this up, then organize that, and find that tool. The prep work alone takes half of the time. This summer I plan to optimize everything that I possibly can in my life. From my chicken coop to podcast editing. I want it all to be quick, easy, and efficient. Time to get a lot done! Trim the fat off the hog!

This episode is all about how men relate to each other. We talk about the weirdness that men seem to experience with showing affection to each other. We're weird about it. What role to friends play in keeping a person fortified? Can friends help you beat your insecurity and be happy with who you are? A lot of us try to validate ourselves by dating someone. We expect that person to fill the void. Can friends fill the void and make you feel whole? What would happen if we stopped expecting our spouses/significant others to prop us up and fix our issues and instead depended on friends to help us identify and fix our weaknesses. 

We could be way off base, but it's a good discussion. If you have any thoughts feel free to email us at: bloodthirstypugs@gmail.com  or drop us a line on Facebook. 

Audio clips from the following movies:

Tommy Boy

The Other Guys

What is your time worth to you? It's worth a lot to those you care about. Today we talk about time and it's value in our friendships and passions. It's a trend that we've noticed that's worth talking about. The more time you invest in a friend, the stronger the friendship. The more time you invest in a hobby, the better you are at that hobby.  We're learning from experience that when life gets busy (we get married, have kids) our time dwindles. So what you do with that time is VERY important.   Do you give it to Netflix? Do you invest in friends? Do you invest in a hobby? 

Now I want to go watch "In Time" with Justin Timberlake. 

Do you have a side hustle? Do you have something that you pursue outside of your main job that brings you money or joy? For some reason I feel like I HAVE to have a side hustle. Life would be too boring if I just went to work everyday and didn't have something that I'm building on the side. I'm curious if that's everyone's experience. Is it just me? Or is it just people who have that creative itch? We talk today about Keith and Vince's experience with the subject. Enjoy!

This time we sit down with Keith Gawelek and Aaron Collins to talk about Trial by Fire. The discussion revolves around different experiences we've all had in which we've had to go through a trial by fire, and while it sucked, we came out better on the other side. We talk about our threshold for challenges, and end with some more talk about fitness and how essential it is. 

Hey we're back for season 2!   To start this thing off, I was able to get all four of us in the same room. I've brought back Aaron Collins, Vince Jackson, and a newcomer Keith Gawelek (You'll get to know him more in future episodes).  Being that 3 of us are introverts and Aaron is an extrovert, we dove into a conversation to discuss out differences and try to learn from each other. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, I think you'll get something out of the conversation. 

This morning we chat about how we both struggle with keeping up with all the things we need to do. We try to be proactive about maintaining everything that we're responsible for. This includes relationships, property management, and mental/emotional stuff. How do we stay on top of everything without losing our minds?  Create a list right?  What if that list just keeps growing?   Aaron and I brainstorm some ways to manage life so that we can stay winning. 

Hey pugs welcome back.  In this episode we discuss personality conflicts that exist between Aaron Collins and some of the people he encounters in life. How much should we change who we are to please others? Should the extroverted, kind, and over the line Aaron Collins become more introverted?  Then we transition into a discussion about friendship. Everyone seems to have different views on what friendship is. What does it mean to be friend to someone? What does it take?    Finally, after checking in on lifting progress, we find out that Aaron double booked our meet with his child's due date. 

I sit down with Aaron Collins for a nice 5 a.m. chat.    This episode is good example of our normal discussions that we have when we talk on the phone.  We're both on a kick right now of stewardship. Which is a fancy word for "taking care of your stuff".  We maintain our homes, cars, properties, and strive to be good husbands/fathers.  How do we do all of that and still pursue our dream of creating music, running a podcast, or learning skills like programming.   We want to pursue our ambitions, but don't want to be bad fathers/husbands.   We also don't want to reach 40 and have a midlife crisis because we haven't chased what we're really passionate about.  We don't have the answers, but we're exploring it together and learning along the way. 

In this episode Aaron Collins and I talk about our gripes with Facebook, trying to focus on getting to know others in conversations, and living life on purpose. Feel free to follow us on Facebook and sign up for our mailing list at our website: www.bloodthirstypugs.com

We all have loved ones who we'd like to see make better choices. How do we help them to make those choices?  I've found that the soft, passive encouragement, is not always enough. Sometimes it requires a stronger style of leadership, almost compulsory, to encourage them to make the right choices.  Let's talk about it.   We're also going to talk about the first Biannual Bloodthirsty Pugs Strength Lifting Meet.

Let's talk about AI and the likelihood of the Terminator movies coming true.    Also Social Credit Scores. What are they?  They sound inherently scary, but could they be good. 

How do we continue growing while maintaining balance in our lives?  I worry about falling into the rut of a repetitive 9 to 5 job, come home, watch tv, eat dinner, go to bed,repeat.   How do we achieve more? I am trying to incorporate fitness, self-improvement, and the correct dosage of freetime in my life to make sure I'm balanced and growing. So far it's been good. Let's talk about it.

Sometimes it can be hard to set boundaries with people that we're close to. Alot of us tend to avoid setting boundaries to avoid the discomfort of an awkward conversation, but the result is often a continuing problem in which our friends unintentionally hurt us.  This episode describes a similar situation that occurred within our band Monsters in the Mirror, and how Vince handled setting boundaries. 

I'm sure alot of you are like me. You've constantly heard your parents, or others from the baby boomer generation talk about how worthless millenials are.  It's always driven me nuts.  I was surprised to find out that my closest friend, sounds just like a boomer.  Tune in to hear him out and see if you agree or disagree. 

Let's talk about a "No Buy Year" and what that means. We'll also talk about a little bit of fitness and Vince's theory on why you shouldn't strive to live long.   Our big topic is discussing introverts vs. extroverts and our reactions to crisis. 

A conversation between three guys. We'll talk about hatred for rust, Vince's transformative expreience in Arizona, a theory about why he's predisposed to dislike rap music, and then three stories about learning from disappointment in our lives. 

What the heck does Bloodthirsty Pugs mean?  Is there a story behind the name? Maybe some kind of deeper meaning?  What can you expect from future episodes of the podcast? Tune in to find out!