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Relationships, Annoying Habits and More - Q&A with my Housemate

2021-03-21 · Q&A video · Ali, Sheen · recording, 21:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Relationships and personal life (also: YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Answering questions

Ali and his housemate Sheen answer viewers' Instagram questions about living together: his loud keyboards, cold bedroom and World of Warcraft, her podcast Dream Girl and her blog, which she credits him with, her thesis-writing tips, and what they will miss when she moves out.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Cold open and intro: questions sent in via Instagram

  • ★★ Asked whether they are dating, Ali and his housemate Sheen say they are very sure they are not. — 00:00:29 · Sheen

00:00:44 — Are you dating, are you related, the housemaid question

00:01:39 — Living together: the loud keyboards, snoring, mess, staying quiet while Ali records

  • ★ Sheen says Ali's typing on his mechanical keyboards bothers her and has woken her several times in the morning; she prefers the much quieter Apple keyboard. — 00:01:40 · Sheen
  • ★ Ali calls the IQUnix L80 keyboard he is trying out a very nice keyboard. — 00:02:06
  • ★ Sheen says Ali no longer snores because he now tapes his mouth shut at night. — 00:02:35 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen: So as not to disturb Ali's recording, Sheen used to watch TV on mute; since learning she can use Bluetooth AirPods, she does that. — 00:03:34 · AirPods, Sheen

00:04:04 — Productivity guru, TV and World of Warcraft; is Ali interesting outside productivity

  • ★★ Ali says he does not think watching TV is a waste of time: relaxation and downtime are an important part of a healthy, mindful life. Sheen doubts he means it. (playful) — 00:04:04 · Sheen
  • ★★ Ali was playing World of Warcraft the night before filming, when he told Sheen to go to bed. — 00:04:32 · World of Warcraft, Sheen
  • ★★ Sheen finds Ali interesting because he is always learning something new: magic, singing, guitar, piano and now freestyle rapping. — 00:04:53 · Sheen
  • ★ Ali and Sheen have recently started watching The Wire together. — 00:04:53 · Sheen
  • ★★ Sheen helps Ali with ideas for his book: late at night, after a call with someone helping him with it, he writes on the whiteboard and she feeds him ideas. — 00:05:18 · Sheen

00:05:45 — Spitting in coffee, weird habits, the better housemate, what living together taught her

  • ★ Sheen says Ali sleeps with his window open and his fan on even when it is one degree outside. — 00:06:37 · Sheen
  • ★★ Ali says the ideal sleeping temperature is 19 degrees. — 00:06:37
  • ★ Ali says he finds it much easier to get to sleep when his bedroom is freezing and his bed is cold. — 00:06:37
  • ★★ Ali's favourite quality in Sheen is that she is warm and empathetic and makes people comfortable around her, a trait he tries to copy without much success. — 00:08:35 · Sheen

00:08:39 — Thoughts on each other: favourite quality, Sheen's podcast, who marries first, habits, chocolate

  • ★★ Sheen has a podcast called Dream Girl, about women's empowerment. — 00:09:13 · Sheen
  • ★★ Sheen says Ali is the reason she started her podcast Dream Girl: he pushed her to put herself out there. — 00:09:13 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen: Asked who will marry first, Sheen says Ali wants to marry and have children sooner than she does, since he is the one on a wife quest. — 00:10:18 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen: The habit Sheen would change in Ali: she would like him to listen more, as he hears but does not listen. — 00:10:55 · Sheen

00:11:39 — Who influenced whom: the podcast, the blog, Squarespace or Ghost, negative comments

  • ★★ Sheen says Ali told her to build a website and write a blog, which has been very useful and brought her many good connections, and that people should start a blog too. — 00:11:39 · Sheen
  • ★★ For a blog Ali recommends Ghost, which he calls objectively better; Squarespace, which Sheen's blog uses, suits people who do not know how to use a computer. — 00:12:12 · Ghost, Squarespace, Sheen
  • ★★ Sheen: Living with Ali, Sheen has learned to deal with negative comments: seeing how cool he is about them, she tries to be the same. — 00:12:40 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen says haters accuse her of trying to milk Ali's clout. — 00:12:40 · Sheen

00:13:53 — Girlfriend, vanity, going back to medicine, serious conversations, online persona, Molly

  • ★ Sheen: Asked whether Ali should go back to being a doctor, Sheen says he should do what he wants. — 00:15:02 · Sheen
  • ★ Ali and Sheen often have serious, deep conversations about women's empowerment, racism, sexism and intersectionality. — 00:16:15 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen says Ali is less nice in person than online and makes fun of people who do not speak English properly. (playful) — 00:16:51 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen is friends with Molly, who takes her out for walks away from Ali. (playful) — 00:17:31 · Molly Hunt, Sheen
  • ★ Sheen has a PhD. — 00:17:31 · Sheen

00:17:41 — Coping mechanisms, PhD thesis tips, the wife quest, Sheen starting YouTube

  • ★★ Sheen's tips for writing a PhD thesis: just start writing and get everything down, a word vomit, then improve it; and start from a clear backbone of chapters and subtitles. — 00:18:12 · Sheen

  • ★★ Ali sums up Sheen's thesis-writing tips in three steps: make it exist, make it functional, make it effective. — 00:18:41 · Sheen

    “So step one, make it exist. Step two, make it functional. Step three, make it effective.”

  • ★★ Sheen says she will start on YouTube very soon, only for her podcast Dream Girl, which will now be video recorded. — 00:19:07 · Sheen

  • ★★ Sheen was born and brought up in Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar, and went to a school there that she calls pretty terrible. — 00:19:37 · Sheen
  • ★★ Asked whether he is a feminist, Ali says he feels he is not allowed to identify as a feminist, only as an ally; Sheen disagrees. — 00:19:37 · Sheen

00:19:38 — Growing up in a poor country, feminism, what they will miss when Sheen moves out

  • ★★ Sheen is moving out of the house she shares with Ali. — 00:20:21 · Sheen
  • ★ Sheen will miss the spontaneous things with Ali, like going to McDonald's at 2 a.m. or ordering crepes after deciding to eat healthy. — 00:20:49 · Sheen

Humor (significant)

  • Ali explains that viewers hear "housemate" as "housemaid", as if Sheen did all the cleaning and cooking — 00:00:55

    “They might not be too far off.”

  • Asked whether she has ever spat in Ali's food when he is annoying, Sheen answers — 00:05:43

    “Not in his food. In his coffee. Because the foam, it mixes very well, so he doesn't know.”

  • Asked who is the better housemate, Ali refuses to rank human beings on a scale, then answers anyway — 00:07:54

    “And if I did, I'd say Molly.”

  • Asked for the sweetest thing Ali has done for her, Sheen points to his previous answer — 00:07:54

    “He said that Molly is the better flatmate.”

  • Sheen says haters accuse her of milking Ali's clout; Ali agrees that is why they are filming — 00:13:19

    “Lock me up, Your Honor.”

  • Asked whether Ali is more vain than her, Sheen describes waiting to film in her work clothes — 00:14:37

    “And I was waiting here while Ollie changed three shirts, adjusted his hair, put on a blazer, took it off, and moisturized his face.”

  • Asked how often Ali looks in the mirror, Sheen answers — 00:15:02

    “He doesn't just need a mirror. Everything will do. The back of a spoon, a window, the whiteboard.”

  • Asked for a funny thing viewers do not know about Ali, Sheen reveals his after-meal ritual — 00:15:33

    “Every time, after every meal, Oli will push his belly out and look at it and be like, Sheen, why am I so fat?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Dream Girl · Sheen

Also: People: Molly Hunt

Works: The Wire

Organizations: Instagram · Keychron · McDonald's

Concepts: mouth taping

Places: Mauritius

Products: AirPods · Apple Magic Keyboard · Ghost · IQUnix L80 · Squarespace · World of Warcraft

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