#329: Josué has a growing hyperfixation: plants. The buds talk about their experiences with caring for plants, and all the fruitful metaphors that can bloom from such a rich topic. And of course, they can’t leaf without a few good recommendations of some garden-variety media.

Marc Cuiriz 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand ourselves and each other is through the media we care about. My name is Marc Cuiriz and I am joined by link Keller.

Link Keller 0:23
Hello,

Marc Cuiriz 0:25
Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:27
Hi.

Marc Cuiriz 0:28
And Josué Cardona.

Josué Cardona 0:29
Hello, hello, hello.

Marc Cuiriz 0:32
Josué it is finally your turn this week

Josué Cardona 0:35
finally.

Marc Cuiriz 0:36
Yeah, so please enlighten us. What is your topic?

Josué Cardona 0:39
Yeah. So I, I really like it when we get a chance to do workshops for GT, Geek Therapy 101, or we teach like introduction to Geek Therapy. We’ve done them many, many times. And I always ask at the beginning, what is one of your fandoms or hobbies? Like, what is something? If you could, you know, what’s your favorite pastime? And, you know, we get usual like, oh, like, we’re doing comics and video games and cosplay, movies, blah blah. And somebody always says gardening. And every time I just know it, I know, somebody’s gonna say gardening. So I jumped in. I’m like, oh, gardening. That’s great. That’s great. Awesome. Like, tell me a few things about gardening. I don’t know anything about gardening than the like, tools and the different things I don’t know. I’m like, Oh, I’m sure you know, a lot about gardening. And you can see, like, some of the things that happen, you know, with your plants, you’re you think about them. And there’s probably metaphors that you connect to in in real life. And then they’re probably helpful. It’s like, Yeah, perfect. So it’s like gardening and sports, or to like my, and religion, like those are like the three like super, the ones that we never talk about. But that helped frame it for people who kind of don’t understand what we’re talking about. Depending on the person, one of those three, will get them. And then and then it’s easy to explain. So, I moved recently, and I’m a plant parent now. I’m one I’m now I think I’ve clicked checked off all of the stereotypical millennial things, I think, I think I’ve completed the bingo card. And now I’m now my plant parent. And it was like, some of the stuff is just, I don’t know, it’s, it’s, it’s fun. I’m enjoying it. But also, it’s just a good, like, all that stuff that I talked about at the workshops, it’s true, like, the metaphors are there, they’re very clear. And if you’re doing something like messing with plants all the time, there’s certain ideas that kind of come through your mind that are that may be relevant in other parts of your life. So today, I want to talk about that about taking care of plants about gardening, and also a few video games that have to do with plants. Because this is this is it’s very, it’s very, very topical. And so some things are kind of obvious. So I’ll start with asking all of you, what is your current level of knowledge regarding the plant kingdom? How many of you have plants you have a house Marc? Do you have plants?

Marc Cuiriz 3:22
I do have a house. And I do actually have a few plants. However, they are not my plants. They’re my wife’s plants. However, she’s actually leaving for Sweden, with her mom, they’re going on vacation for about 10 days. So

Josué Cardona 3:36
rest in peace plants

Marc Cuiriz 3:37
I am now in charge of taking care of the plants. And she made sure to go through in detail. This is how you water them. This is when they need to be watered. And this is how you’re supposed to take care of them. All these things. So

Josué Cardona 3:49
what do you think of that? Were you surprised by the level of detail and instruction required?

Marc Cuiriz 3:59
No, because I, I have friends and I have I know people that are plant parents, and are very knowledgeable when it comes to plants. So I know like there’s a lot that goes into it. I don’t think my attention span would allow me to be able to do that. So that’s why personally, I don’t think I could ever get into gardening. Although there have been times when my hyperfixation is like, I want to grow strawberries. Does that ever happen? No. But it’s one of those things were like, it seems interesting to me. I just feel like I don’t I don’t think I’d have the the amount of attention span or like the amount of like motivation. Motivation is probably the wrong word. But just like, I just know me and I know I’d end up forgetting about them, or I just like wouldn’t be able to take the best care of them. But for her like she’s doing pretty well with all of them. And I mean, it’s 10 days, I can keep them alive for 10 days.

Josué Cardona 4:55
Yeah, this is my current hyperfixation.

Lara Taylor 4:58
it can go downhill very quickly, Marc.

Josué Cardona 5:00
very quickly,

Marc Cuiriz 5:00
I’m, I’m sure. And, you know, I will gladly take the blame for that if if for whatever reason, even if I follow those instructions to a tee, they somehow still die on my watch.

Josué Cardona 5:12
It’s your fault, for sure.

Marc Cuiriz 5:14
You know, I’m just gonna take it as a sign that I should just never take care of plants ever. You should never touch anything green ever again.

Josué Cardona 5:22
So, so yeah, this definitely my current hyper fixation. And I wish I wouldn’t have followed through, but I have, until now I have quite a few plants. And one thing that you said is one of the first thing that I’ve recognized that is a challenge for me. And it’s like, there’s no instant gratification here. Like, they don’t just pop like this. Video games have lied to me. You know, just wake up in the morning and you know, they’re flowered, and they don’t have a regular schedule.

Lara Taylor 5:54
Depends on the flower

Josué Cardona 5:56
what, what?

Lara Taylor 5:56
depends on the flower.

Lara Taylor 5:57
That’s true. I was about to say, I have one flower that every other day, it is as flowered. And I’m like, okay, okay, I see the pattern. And so that has been a really good exercise for me to to commit to something that is very slow, very, very slow process, and you kind of do the things and you cannot wait to see what happens. That has been, that has been a a good exercise for me. And, and that was one of the first things where I was like, oh, oh, this is challenging, but like I see, I see the benefits here. And actually, in one of the things one of the reasons why I wanted to do it was because I saw a video that said that most there was like only three out of 10 House plans to get purchased like survive the first two months or something like that? I don’t think so. So like, how, how was that possible? I don’t know. Like that stayed in my mind. And I have I was as a housewarming present. I was gifted a plant and I started taking care of it. And so I started thinking about like I can I can do more of these like this one thing. I’m doing all right. Yeah, so Okay, interesting. Keep us updated. Marc on how many plants you kill?

Marc Cuiriz 7:22
Well, I hope none. However, I will say

Josué Cardona 7:26
we hope none

Marc Cuiriz 7:27
but I will say I am very proud of the fact that like on Mother’s Day, my when we had like my mom and like her...