Hold Up, And Another Thing!!!!
"Hold Up And Another Thing" is a podcast that typically focuses on discussions surrounding current events, pop culture, and the complexities of modern life, often with a humorous twist. The host Mr. Bell and his guest engage in conversations that challenge common assumptions and explore various societal issues. The show delves into diverse topics, featuring interviews and discussions that provide insights into different perspectives. Each episode may cover a range of subjects, making it appealing to a broad audience interested in learning and exploring new ideas.
The podcasts aim to entertain while also provoking thought and discussion on relevant topics.
Hold Up, And Another Thing!!!!
Cena’s Last Bell and The Importance of Taking Care of Self
Cena retires and we unpack the finish, the legacy, and why tapping out told a better story than a sendoff win. Then we jump from personals to Tinder, the old internet to AI, and end on money, self-care, and small wins that add up.
• why Cena’s retirement taps into wrestling tradition and future-building
• the booking debate, missed heel-turn closure, and the Rock distraction
• separating greatest wrestler from most important figure
• the “Pina Colada” twist as a mirror for modern relationships
• personals to Craigslist to Tinder and chat roulette culture
• early internet community vs smartphone social media
• AI promise and peril, learning, jobs, and what remains human
• trade schools, curriculum reform, and paying teachers more
• six-figure spending pressure, cost of living, and boundaries
• self-care without guilt, small wins, and year-end pride
Youtube to https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPIs6Ko7BCc9l5jlE5AbAUqZ0gAOhmuq-
https://mixed-vibez-drip.printify.me/
What it do, what it is. Welcome to another episode of Hold Up in Another Thing presented by Mixed Vibes Medias. Y'all re mixed media. Y'all rein on the vibes. It's your boy, Mr. Bell. AK aka say your name upon his pod. Mine up with you tomorrow. And uh I'm joined by Mr. Burt Glass himself. What up, whip?
SPEAKER_04:What's going on? Y'all look the glass almost in break. I stuttered for a second. I was over here eating.
SPEAKER_00:I was like there on a delay for a moment. He must be taking a drink or something real quick.
SPEAKER_01:Look, I was like, uh the glass was stronger than normal. Hey, cool, cool. But the other version, the other voice y'all just heard was, What's up, Joe? How you doing?
SPEAKER_00:Ah, what's up with you, man?
SPEAKER_01:Samuel, Samuel. Do you want to say your your your aka? Or no, you wanna leave it?
SPEAKER_00:Um, which one which aka am I? Am I the president of uh Caucasian?
SPEAKER_01:The other one, the other one you uh Mr.
SPEAKER_00:Kissman, you know what you you oh nah man, I can't do that anymore. I told you that story. I know I'm saying I know I I don't want that again. Quit please don't do that. They might hear it.
SPEAKER_01:They might go, they might pull up on you and do it again.
SPEAKER_00:It's like hey, it's like Candyman dog. You say that name three times, bro. It's over.
SPEAKER_01:All right, cool. We'll leave that aka alone. All right, uh, we're gonna start off with something that recently just happened. Uh, the retirement of John Cena. Anybody know me and uh me and Joe big into the wrestling world. Uh we you know, Joe, he goes a little further back than me with the wrestling. I you know, I I watched it for a little bit, then I stopped, then I checked in, and then I stopped. And now here I'm watching the more I'm watching a lot more as I'm an adult. But John Cena, as a lot of people, uh well, WWE, I ain't even gonna say a lot of people, WWE has started calling him the greatest of all time. He uh holds the most tight world title range with 17. He I won't say it's a five-time United States champion or five-time tag team champion. He is a Grand Slam champion, but uh he has very many, many memorable moments. Uh, but he decided to retire, hang up the jorts, and call it a career. Uh he said he's done and he is not coming back. Uh, Joe, what do you think about John Cena's retirement?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, man, I'm gonna say that the ending was beautiful. Let me just get that right out there first.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I love the ending. Um, one thing I will say is I feel like, you know, the whole idea of John being the greatest of all time, and they say it about a lot of wrestlers, and I know that. I feel like we're gonna have to take a step back for like maybe five or ten years before we can actually revisit that with, you know, like proper, I guess, the scope of things, you know, I'm saying to be like, was he really the greatest? I feel like maybe in terms of like being an entertainer, sports entertainer, hands down, dude. Yeah, I would have to say he probably is one of the greatest, maybe the greatest. And it's not just because of what he did in the ring, but it's all the other things outside of the ring, you know what I'm saying? His make-a-wish stuff and all that, like the way that he carried himself. He carried himself a lot better than you know, I'm saying some of our heroes of the past. Now, hopefully, like I say, 10 years from now, that still stands. Like, we don't find out a bunch of crazy shit happening right now that we didn't know about, so only time will tell. But I mean, wrestling, right? The dude really stuck with it, you know. I'm saying, like, he came into it and he committed to it, and he wanted to be the best, and he wanted to leave an impact on the sport, and he did that, especially going out the way that he did. I mean, he went out, he went out the way he wanted to so well, man. I mean, come on now, have a smile on his face. Had a smile, a smile on his face, man. That is a person who is sitting there doing what they wanted to and doing it their way.
SPEAKER_01:All right, let me ask you this. Do you because it's triple H is getting a lot of heat for the for the booking of the match? Do you feel like this was a Triple H decision or a John Cena decision?
SPEAKER_00:Both. Okay. Um I mean, I honestly, you're never gonna tell me that John wanted to win. I absolutely will never ever believe that John Cena wanted to win this because John Cena through and through is such a wrestling, you know, he's so he holds himself to those rules, those unwritten rules in wrestling. And what I'm is when you are leaving the business, you leave the business by putting the next generation over the same way you came in, like when he came in, you know what I'm saying, and Kurt Angle, and he had to do that. That's he wanted to leave the industry in the hands of people who could carry it on, and there's no way that you can you have to do what's right, you have to leave it that way.
SPEAKER_01:So I agree with you 100%. I feel like if you listen to John Cena do his interviews, especially on this last run, he always talked about like you know, building it for the future, putting uh putting WWE first, and stuff of that nature. And like you said, John Cena is a very traditionalist. If I knew, let's be real, once he said he was gonna retire, you knew he was going to lose his last match. I could like that out, it's a lot of outrage, but I think that's the I don't even think it's just casual fans, it's hardcore fans, too. That's upset that John Cena didn't win or the fact that he tapped out. And in my head, I'm thinking, you it's wrestling is nothing but the ultimate storytelling. Yeah, throw some athleticism in there, you know what I'm saying? Throw some athletes, you know, throw that in there, but it is storytelling. That is the that is the closing of a chapter. The person who says you never give up, get you know, tapped out. And if you listen to the commentary, they talked about how John Cena John Cena hasn't tapped out in X amount of years or whatever the case may be. Yeah, 20 20 years, I believe. Yeah, if you listen to that, you already knew what was coming.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, you knew good. They literally were like giving you everything before it happened, and I don't know, man. Like sometimes, you know, I feel like fans will hijack the show so much and they don't appreciate what they're being given. You know, it's like I seen uh I seen some a meme or whatever, somebody was like, let me get this straight. You all wanted John Cena to turn heel, you know, be a bad guy, whatever. You also wanted John Cena to start losing to other newer wrestlers, and then when he went and lost to newer other wrestlers and he turned bad, you all hated him for that.
SPEAKER_01:You can't win. Okay, so the thing with the turning bad, because I'm that was horrible, that was trash.
SPEAKER_00:They did it horribly.
SPEAKER_01:So the I was gonna say the thing that went it turning bad was when the rock got involved and then there was no conclusion in it.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yep.
SPEAKER_01:If like let's say the rock popped up to uh when Saturday night's main event happened, and he was like, he got beat up too by Gunther or something like that, then maybe even that's not much of a closing, but at least it is some type of closure. You threw Travis Scott in there and you threw the rock in there, and then you went away from that real quick, which obviously I heard you know some heat on Travis Scott in the back because he wasn't really catching in the whole wrestling thing, and then the the rock, they just bring TKO, the people on the board, just be like, We got a problem bringing a rock in anytime there's you know what I mean, right? If they had not gone with that and just let John Cena go heel, or even gave some closure to it, whatever the case may be, then you know it would have made more sense and it would have it would have actually acted like a story.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they they just dropped the ball, and that was so bad.
SPEAKER_01:But it it was plus it it did become so to the point where it was only so much he was going to be able to do because the rock don't show up, Travis Scott don't show up that often, and then John Cena only gags so many dates. Yeah, like he had he had the matchup, they had a tournament with Gunther, but you didn't hear from John Cena between the Dominic Mysterio and then the Gunther match, just like when he was the AJ Styles, when they had a match, there was no build for it, really. John Cena just put something out on tour and was like, okay, cool, me and him go fight, which I think about it. There was no if they had to put a better plan together with John Cena turn the hill, I think it would have worked. But you know, it is what it is. I'm happy, like you said, it's very poetic the way that, like I said, John Cena tapdale. I'm happy that they did it that way.
SPEAKER_00:I just watched uh you know the intro for uh Raw before before I jumped on this man, and of course, you know, they started it with Gunther coming out. Boy, that man, he's gonna be uh hated guy for a long time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, the fans was outside chasing him to the tour bus saying F you and all this other shit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they said they had they had to get fucking uh police security for that man after that.
SPEAKER_01:I saw I saw two of them. I'm like, fam, it's not that bro. I'm saying it's not that deep.
SPEAKER_00:Uh what did y'all forget what this was? Did you uh have you seen the thing with Mark Henry yet talking about like the backstage reaction after the match? No, he was talking about he said, bro, you would have thought we were uh like it was a funeral or something.
SPEAKER_01:I did see that. I said he was like, and he's like, I went, I dabbed John Cena up for a quick minute, but I ain't you know I ain't linger around him too long. But it was like everybody was so sad, even though the person is still standing right here, right?
SPEAKER_00:Make sure to reiterate that, like, y'all, hey, John ain't dead, y'all. He's he's right here, he's just he's just not wrestling no more.
SPEAKER_01:It ain't even necessary he ain't gonna be around WWE no more.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. He just signed a five-year ambassador deal, you know. Like, he's not going away permanently. He'll he's still gonna be around just as much as he has before, you know, like these past five years, really.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He just ain't gonna have no matches. He'll pop up, he'll pop out at WrestleMania, do some ha ha's, and last I get somebody a uh F U or that's what I was gonna say, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I can see that.
SPEAKER_01:Other than that, you know, it ain't gonna be too much. He he ain't gonna come out in the draws no more, you know. I mean, he's gonna come out in the suits, you know, uh take the tie uh the coat off and just give somebody the AA, the attitude adjustment. But nah, I just uh oh let me touch back on you said that like the conversation about John Cena being a GOAT, and you uh you painted it perfectly. It's not all about what John Cena did in the ring, it is the stuff that he did on the outside. And they always talk about how if John Cena he did a million things in a day, but if it was if Make a Wish Kid came up, John Cena still made the sound for that kid. I think that that's why they kill um calling him the goat. But let me ask you do you think even if he's not the greatest wrestler, do you think he's the most important wrestler of the WWE? Because that's a different question. If he, you know, is he the most important? Oh because you know, you have your when you think of most important, you think of your undertakers, you think of your stone code, you think of the you going back to uh you know the people who built WW When it was WWF, people who built it to be what that is.
SPEAKER_00:Do I think he belongs on that same stage? Yes, yeah. I really I think he did, you know, when he came in from Ohio Valley Wrestling and he uh went in there around that ruthless aggression era, they had so much talent at that time, but they were also kind of going to a point where it was just getting stale, like they almost had so much talent they didn't even know what to do with it, and they were regurgitating all these kind of like old ideas, you know, and just I think they were still riding so high off that hey, we beat WCW and ECW, we're invincible, that they weren't really fucking trying too bad. And so, you know, John came in there, man, and he really had to he really had to work his ass off to to get that spot amongst, you know, I'm saying that that huge talent pool that they had. He had to fight for that spot, you know. Like if you watch any of his things where he's talking about, I seen an interview not too long, this maybe a couple days ago, where he was talking about uh all these different wrestlers from like Ohio Valley that he was there with, that they were all the people who were supposed to be like next up, you know. Like, and he's mentioning names that I've never even heard before, you know, like he's giving props to guys who are long since left the business, and he still recognizes like, hey, you know, these people were these people were supposed to be the next ones. I wasn't, so I just kept studying and I took any opportunity they would give me, even if it was a character that I didn't like, you know, like the whole rapping thing. You know, Stephanie heard him freestyle on a bus one day and wanted him to do a rapping character, and he was like, It's only a little bit of who I am, but if it's gonna try to get me, you know, save my career, it's I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01:Which led to the John Cena that we end up getting because the John Cena we originally got when he met Curt Angle is not the John Cena, you know, that we got now.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, it is definitely not, man. Like in the John Cena that we all knew from OVW, no, the prototype was not the John Cena that we saw with the Dr. Thug and Omix thing, and so he I get that man credit, man. He like took anything and any opportunity, and he would find a way to make it work, and it's because of that, and the fact that he like after the ruthless aggression, you know, after Chris Benoit and all the whole situation, and like everybody was kind of like backing off from wrestling, nobody really wanted to be that much into it. He took that opportunity and just kept growing and growing and fucking building himself up, and he ends up carrying the whole like company, you know, on his back.
SPEAKER_01:I was getting right to say he turned into like the he's the greatest of his era, uh-huh. You know, if we're looking at that era, I think he is the of that era, and that puts him in. Um I would even it maybe we won't say he's the most important, but I do think I would put him on like a Mount Rushmore, yeah. So that I put I would put him there. Um, so yeah, no, but I just wanted to give a little time shout out, John Cena. You know what I'm saying? The retirement, it they gave it an elf the whole this last year. I wouldn't give it an elf. Bleacher report, yeah. They gave it an elf. I wouldn't give it an elf. I'm not saying it's an A, neither.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, I'm giving it a C C minus. Yeah. I feel like if he didn't because I don't know, have you heard he this motherfucker wanted to do 200 plus dates this year? Damn, really? Yeah. Uh he was talking about whatever he told uh you know Triple H, he's like, hey, this is gonna be my retirement year. He laid out a whole plan of 200 plus dates that he was gonna do this year.
SPEAKER_01:And they took that and came back and said, You're gonna do what, like 26 or 32, I think they came out with no way for him to do 200 dates because he was still shooting movies.
SPEAKER_00:That's what they told him. They're like, John, that's that's awful nice of you. You know what I'm saying? Like, that shows you too how much he really wanted to do, you know, like this is a man who is so selfless that he's like, hey, dude, even though I'm doing all this other crap, this is my last year of wrestling. I'm gonna give you 200 days. It's like, no, you how, John?
SPEAKER_01:There it wasn't, there's no possible way. Exactly. I do w this is just me, and then we'll uh we'll give Will back in the conversation after I say this. Uh, I do wish it ended at like a even if not a WrestleMania, maybe like a Royal Rumble or something along that lines, or maybe a SummerSlam. I would prefer it ended at a PLE, not a Saturday night's main event. No offense to Saturday night's main event, but it doesn't, you know, it ain't it doesn't give the same feel if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, I get you. It definitely didn't feel for as big as it felt, it's still I don't know how to say it kind of felt lacking, but it did.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it it didn't have a gravitas to it. No, 39 main event does not do doesn't do it for you. And I I wish it was maybe they ex maybe his last day was Royal Rumble and he had a match of Royal Rumble, but even then Royal Rumble, it's kind of hard to do it at Royal Rumble because the main event has to be the Rumble, but something else because it just didn't it didn't feel big enough for as how big of a person he is, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like they they did a retirement for Goldberg at Saturday night's main event, and that to me that was fine because Goldberg, when you think of Goldberg, you don't really think of WWE time, you really still think of the WCW time. I don't even wrong, like he had his moments in WWE, but you still think of him as WCW. So him retiring at Saturday night's main event. Okay, cool. And as you know, it's rumors of Chris Jericho coming back. Chris Jericho retiring at a Saturday night's main event to me, fits because Chris Jericho went off and did his other thing with AEW and whatever the case may be. I don't want, I don't think John C, I feel like John Cena deserved a bigger stage than Saturday night's main event. Also, going into next year. I hope AJ Styles, because AJ Styles says this is his last wrestling, his last year of wrestling. I hope his I hope his ain't at a Saturday night's main event because I feel like he he even deserves more, even though, like you said, you think of you think of him more of a TNA wrestler. He's had a run in WWE deck and has been consistent in that in that run. As where Goldberg was a part time and Chris Jerko left. I hope AJ Styles is not, you know what I mean. The um I hope his ain't deserved the nice man effect.
SPEAKER_00:I hope not. You know, AJ's always said though, he wants to go out. Just without any kind of fear. Like he's like, I just want to wrestle and then just be done. Like nobody even knows it's my last match.
SPEAKER_01:But then he also let us know last year. This this coming year is his last year. Right. Isn't that kind of weird? So, but hey, it could be any time. It could be WrestleMania, could be SummerSlam. It could, you know what I'm saying? It could be uh survivors. Stay tuned. Yeah, so now shout out shout out shout out to WWE, shout out to John Cena, you know what I'm saying? Um, hope John Cena well in his retirement. Um, well, sorry to go on the long rant, but you asked us something pre-fired about a about a particular song. You wanna share, you won't share it.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, man. I thought I was muted that I was over here snoring and shit.
SPEAKER_01:All right, man. We just have a good old conversation about WWE, man. Ain't no snores, ain't no snooze fest over here.
SPEAKER_04:So make sure y'all go back and watch this episode so I can see what y'all talking about. I put me to sleep again, though.
SPEAKER_01:Uh all right, man.
SPEAKER_04:But nah, uh uh, so I was uh sitting back when I had actually watched TV and on the episode of um credit to the Simpsons, uh they had uh mentioned this song, and I mentioned it was in the first song, and I went and I listened to the song, and I thought the um the song should be discussed just a little bit. And then and because it has many layers, there are many things you can discuss about the song. So the song is uh pina colada. I know a lot of the listeners uh should be familiar. Um if you don't know, think of the uh Taco Bell commercial in the early 2000s. They had a little pina colada drink they used to jingle. Uh it's that song. And um, come to find out the song's about a fact. And it's about um a man who's tired of his what he calls a mundane relationship to flame has burned out. So he, you know, picks up the personals and sees an ad. And he responds to the ad. He decides to go meet the person that he responded to, and he meets up and realizes it's his woman. Same one he's tired of. Uh me personally, I listen to the song with my wife, so we kind of look and we kind of both giggled at it. Cause it was funny to think, you know, no matter what what I thought of the whole song was no matter what you do, you're supposed to be with who you're supposed to be with, bruh. Just sit down and sit still. So that was my that's what I concluded out of the song. I thought it was funny. That is pretty good for her stuff.
SPEAKER_01:So you took out, you took out of it. Hey, this is where we're supposed to be, so we need to chill. I took out of it. Once you told me that, I was like, man, both of y'all out here shouting, gee, y'all need to be together.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so you say you say back of a part that this relationship don't need to, because they he said they laughed and they, you know, realized that they have more in common than they thought, and they, you know, enjoyed their vacation.
SPEAKER_01:Both of y'all heard with a wondering eye. Oh, that ain't that, don't sound crazy. Like, hey, I know we both was trying to cheat on each other, but let's work it out because we we discover new things. That's what makes you question why didn't y'all already discover these new things?
SPEAKER_00:That's a polyamorous couple right there, if I've ever heard. Yeah, they need to go find another couple. They some, yeah. I'm saying, dog, there's some swingers right there, man.
SPEAKER_04:You know, it's one of my questions. One of my questions was, what's he because the way he found the um the ad from his wife obviously wife or girlfriend at the time, was he uh picked up the paper and he looked at this the personals. And I was thinking to myself, what's today's version of the personals? Tinder. But that's straight up like that's like you know, the personals was you write a look good look quote, you don't have to show yourself, you kind of get them hooked on what you say. Yeah, you don't you don't necessarily present yourself until necessary. Okay, would Facebook be not Facebook dating, but just Facebook? Well, you know, if you got your pictures and things in your corners, people can scroll through and the timeline. There's too many pictures involved in it to be considered the personals. The personals was like, you know, for people who don't know it was an ad in the newspaper in a section, and it just kind of said what you were looking for or what you were into.
SPEAKER_00:Do y'all do y'all remember the uh misconnections thing in Craigslist? I was getting ready to say Craigslist.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. I Craigslist would be the closest thing. There's a classified personals within the classifies ad uh section. So I guess yeah, Craigslist would be the closest thing.
SPEAKER_00:It's either that or back page, y'all. And I don't think nobody wants to talk about back page anymore.
SPEAKER_04:Nah, I think the government said backpage today. I would I would hope to God they did, dog. Yeah, coochie on there and that. Anyway, more discreet.
SPEAKER_01:Craigslist turned into the back page.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:At some point, Craigslist did the same thing. But yeah, I guess y'all right, Craigslist is probably the closest thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. Craigslist would be the closest thing to like the old school personals, like the things that you know, you just picked up the paper and seen an ad for shorty, and it made me think of the um the phone line.
SPEAKER_05:Oh gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh gosh, the Dayton line. So everybody I know from my time did it. I don't care if they say they didn't, they at least did it for fun, right? Like you might have not been serious about it, but you did it to pass time on a Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00:It'd be probably bro. Everybody did at some point, man.
SPEAKER_02:That was the equivalent to that today.
SPEAKER_00:Um, oh, I have an idea on that one. Have you heard of chat roulette?
SPEAKER_04:Okay, no, see, that would be something similar. That because it was kind of like, you know, you just go from chat to chat. You had to listen, you had to listen to the intro. So some hey, some people knew how to sell themselves.
SPEAKER_01:Wait a minute, what is chat roulette?
SPEAKER_00:So chat roulette, man, it's basically like your website, you get on there and you just hit a like you hit a button, dude. Like it's a little, it's almost like a uh like a roulette. Yeah, it's a fucking roulette thing. Yeah, thank you. And you hit it, and just a random person pops up, dude.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, yeah. You just talk to random people all across the world. It's an international thing. They got a few different they got a few different versions of that. Uh see, but the mystery in the phone line was just because somebody sound good on the phone don't mean they look good.
SPEAKER_01:So what chat relates? Just a bunch of uh texting, basically. Nah, it's it's like webcams. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's the that's that that that's the aspect that makes it a little different from the crazy because sometimes like you'll be on there and you'll be talking, or like you'll see, you know, I'm saying you can buy clips of this online where people will be talking to somebody, and like the person they're talking to, all of a sudden their voice completely changes. What the fuck is this?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and then it's like I guess it's like you know, it's kind of a fun prank that people like to do, or it and and the good thing about the the the phone line was most of them was like locals, so like if you really wanted to see somebody, you could see somebody like so. Like that was the cool thing. That chat roulette, like international, got people all over the world. People flashing you and shit, all weird shit.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's gonna say there's uh there's a lot of stuff on that yeah, it's just it's extreme. Whenever you, whenever you give people a webcam and tell them they go sit in their room, it's these strangers, and ain't no repercussions for really what you do in front of that stranger because that's a stranger.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I didn't know that I didn't know that was even a bang.
SPEAKER_04:The other one starts with a O. I can't, I don't know how to pronounce it. Like O Omegle.
SPEAKER_00:O-M-E-G-L-E. Yep, omegle. I forgot that one.
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:I know that one's I know that one was really popular, like like around the two about the pandemic and shit.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's the one they still use, man. That's the one I'm thinking of.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because you just go on there and but you can end up talking to anybody. I think they might have finally put age parameters to where you won't end up in a chat room for kids.
SPEAKER_00:Good. Yeah, it was like there was a lot of people that were getting into that, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they get to some you people were ending up, and it you like Joe said, you see video, so like if you go online and Google it and go to YouTube, people kind of just show you what they be doing on that, and you can kind of watch how the system works.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I might have to Google that because like I said, I had never heard of that. I didn't even know that was like I said, I didn't even know that was a thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and just people talking to random strangers. It's like think about like the chat rooms back in the day. Yeah, randoms, yeah, whoever had internet connection.
SPEAKER_01:Do people have that much time on their hands, bro?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you gotta think that now they should. It was people made real connections. Now you're just on social media hopping in the comments, talking stupid to people you wouldn't talk stupid to in person. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:That's a good point.
SPEAKER_04:That's a good point. Because I think the internet was more social than it is now with social media.
SPEAKER_00:The internet back, I man. When I first got on the internet in 1997, god, I'm old. Uh man, yeah, going in the chat rooms back then, it was not anywhere near like it is now, you know, like trying to interact with people back then. People were excited, people were like, you know, uh community exactly. It was like a community of people like wanting to build a better world and thinking that we were going to.
SPEAKER_04:Well, that was, I mean, that was still creeps, and whenever since the internet's been around, it's gonna be oh, yeah, just like real life since since humans walked the planet. There was three creeps over there in the corner somewhere doing something weird. Oh, yeah. So it's gonna be that's gonna be the case. So now you just move it to the digital world. But it was like like Joe said, the relationships felt more authentic, yes, you know, like because it was you, everybody was kind of like pioneers, you know. You're figuring out this chat shit, you're figuring out this email stuff, you know. We're trying to figure out how to steal music together, you know, like we're doing all type of shit.
SPEAKER_02:Like we just like we try to go back there, like you know, like we can steal it. Let's go and steal it, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Like so back then, that's what the internet was. It was communities of people getting to know each other. You can find music on the internet. It was shopping really wasn't a thing. I don't care people say, I was buying college books, shut up. You was going down to the college book store and buying your damn college books. You weren't going to your fucking internet for that shit. Amazon really wasn't a thing. So hey, don't try to lie and say you was buying books. You might have bought a book with you just trying to be fancy for your people's. Right. But it was just it was it was just pure just it was enjoyment at the beginning, and it just started to shift. Um social media changed it for everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Let me ask you like what do you recall like a specific like time where you where you just knew like the internet that I knew and the internet now are just completely different?
SPEAKER_04:So I guess for me, growing up through it, like I like Joe said, '97, you know, '97, I was 10. So we were the the school kids that were introduced to the internet. See what I'm saying? So like my group was like supposed to be part of the the entrepreneurs and the leaders for the future of the internet. Because we was one of the first ones who really like got the full-flesh internet. Uh, even though it was dial up and shit. But like, so like I've just watched this steady pro progress of it. Uh it's a wild place now. And I think I seen the change honestly around like 2000, like I want to say like 13-ish. Um when the iPhone and smartphones became readily available for most people. We start to spend more time on our phone, and they had these plans to where we can get on the internet because the internet was a big part of the phone. Then we start letting it absorb more of our time and giving it more of our energy, and we shifted it a little bit. Uh and the shift was crazy because it just got wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I was gonna say, if I had to pick a time, it was when you when you was able to get on the internet in your pocket.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:When that that's when it that's when the internet went down you. Like you said, it was already like we'll say, it was already preeps and stuff on the internet. You already seen you are you could, you know, you seen stuff, but it wasn't as widespread until you we've taken a new turn with AI though.
SPEAKER_04:This is the new bruh. We're standing in the middle of the next turn, you know.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm we're standing on the cusp of something I feel like is gonna be bigger than the internet.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's it's gonna give the internet more purpose. Yeah, AI needs the internet, it's that's it's lifeblooded, you know, it's like oxygen to us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I feel the true, but I feel like what AI is going to do, the c I feel like the cause, well not the cause, but the problems that the internet end up causing, I think AI is gonna do is going to be worse. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? AI works off the internet. I get that, but what I'm saying is the impact that AI is gonna have on the communities and on the world, I think it's gonna be worse than what the internet is.
SPEAKER_04:Well, anytime information becomes available and not only available, but easier to comprehend and able to alter to comprehend when you may not be able to comprehend other forms of it. Whenever that information becomes available, yeah, things are gonna get more spicy. Like, I mean, lean on the internet's early days, people were out there giving out the recipes, the pipe bombs. What happened? You know, the anarchist cookbook, baby. Like what happened. So, like, it's like whenever information is gonna get spread, and now AI allows us to absorb the information in ways that most people can comprehend.
SPEAKER_00:Like I think the scariest part about AI though is the fact that AI is slowly becoming self-dependent. It will it and by the end of the year, you know, not this year, but 2026, AI will not really need us anymore. We've already got it to the point where it can it can teach itself, it can learn itself, it can adapt, you know what I'm saying? Like it can do so many things that they're like, I seen some, I seen something the other day that was talking about how do we how do we know we're not a simulation when we can look at AI and we can see that we can train AI to develop its own thinking pattern. You know what I'm saying? Like you can make a game like The Sims and you can put AI in there, and then suddenly that game doesn't realize it's a game anymore because it's operating like us, because it's like it's it's living, it's artificial intelligence. So in it in the game, the game thinks it's the real world, so then the game will eventually start making its own like AI or whatever, you know, like its own games inside of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, so that yeah, I was gonna say that that's scary the thing, and then like with AI is like you said, it's our it's self-dependent because I can think of back to like small things with AI, where my mother uses the insulin pump, and the AI knows when to give my mother more insulin and when not to give my mother more insulin. Yeah, it's you know say, of course, he's reading some of what off of her body, but some of it is just the intelligence of well, you this is when you drop around this time every day. Anyway, we know to give you a little bit more or to take it away at this time because we done we'd have it, we done trained it on your body to now we know your body better than you do. Yep. So I think that's the thing for me.
SPEAKER_04:Every the the I don't have the scare factor as most people. Um to me, I guess being a technology junkie, uh I look, I'm just so when y'all say self-dependent, you have to remember AI has to be trained. For now, so as but as humans will continue to to to change.
SPEAKER_00:But the problem is, but like what happens when we no longer have to train it? That's what scares me. Like, I'm not loving AI.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I always have to train it because we always developing, we're always changing. Somebody's gonna have to go to AI and say, hey, there's this phrase six, seven, or hey, there's this, or hey, there's that. Humans are constantly, that's the way the system works. AI trains off of the internet what's put on it. So, like, yeah, it can get to a point to where it thinks and to where it can predict. But the thing with predictions is predictions can go awry when something slightly goes different in the human element, most likely we're gonna change something. I hear you, and I get to have to be forever trained.
SPEAKER_01:I get your point, but I also do believe at some point it's not gonna need us to train it. It yeah, no, they've already got one down where like it's going to be able to, we the trained it so much. We the I think we've it's going to get to the point to where it's going to be able to see what we already trained and programmed, programmed it to do, it's going to build off of that and see the changes that's going on in the world without us putting the information in.
SPEAKER_00:I think that it'll be able to fetch that information on its own.
SPEAKER_01:It won't need us to teach, it won't need us to train it no more because it'll be able to train it and it'll be able to, uh, I ain't even gonna say train. I think it would be able to learn and adapt on its own without our input at some point. It may not be like Joe said, maybe 2026. It may be 2027 or 2028, 2029. But at some point, I do believe AI is going to be able to adapt itself to where we're we don't need to, we don't it don't need us no more. I think that is what does a self-sufficiency AI do.
SPEAKER_02:You said what what does a self-sufficient AI do? What was AI's what was what was it created for?
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say my question, my question is gonna be what couldn't it do? Yeah, well because everything that everything is it can do everything because we have trained it and used it in every aspect, so it can crash, it can crash a market, it could crash a banking system, it can crash your social media, it'll be able to take over your governments by just using it.
SPEAKER_04:How does it crash the market? What does it do?
SPEAKER_00:Have you heard about the one that have the bonds?
SPEAKER_03:But have you heard about the one that's gonna crash it?
SPEAKER_00:The uh they tried to get one of these AIs, you know what I'm saying, that they were programming, they tried to get it to like shut down. And when they were writing the code to tell it to, you know, I'm saying, like turn itself off or whatever, the AI was now smart enough to recognize what they were trying to get it to do and kept rewriting the code and would not allow them to shut it off. That's like the kind of stuff that I I worry about because if AI is now smart enough to recognize when we're trying to like turn it off or do something like that, you know, it's like no, no. What what does that lead to?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, see, like well, I get your points. I just think as I do real, I this just my belief. You're like your your thoughts is different. I do I just believe at some point it's not going to need us no more. It's it's going to be it's going to adapt and be self-efficient on its own.
SPEAKER_00:I hope my only hope is when that does happen, is that we have done enough to be able to like that it will be good for humanity, or at least you know more good than because we know there's gonna be people who will use it for bad. I just hope there are more people out there who will train and will continue to like because like Will says, you know what I'm saying, we are still training it. There are way, it's way too early, you know. I'm saying it's not at that point yet where it can completely be self, you know what I'm saying, self-sufficient. I just hope that while we're still in this, you know, I'm saying, I don't maybe infancy stages of it that we're that we're doing right with it, and when it does finally hit that point, it doesn't backfire on us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, at least like saying for me, AI is hurtful. Uh hell AI might decide two years from now that I'm taking bank, I'm taking money out of everybody's bank account. I'll just oh no, you know what I mean. What if that stuff happens? It took for me, and I guess maybe maybe I am also looking at it from I guess from the field that I work in, that at some point AI bro, we're obsolete. We know I was gonna say the field that we work in, AI ain't it's gonna take our job. It may be that makes me think of okay, what's next after that? Because that ain't that's not where AI is gonna stop at. It's going to it's going to continue.
SPEAKER_04:I laugh because I laugh because I I read a story not too long ago, and it it compared us to I think it was like um the late 70s, early 80s. Okay. And every person at the time said, Computers are gonna take our jobs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Computers are gonna take our jobs. Computers are gonna take our jobs. Yeah, that's everybody like this. It was like everybody, computers are gonna take our jobs. So we're just gonna do it again.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, to a degree, but computers did take some.
SPEAKER_00:It did to a degree. I feel like the same thing that happened back to the job. Computer named it jobs. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04:Name an industry that computer killed all their jobs.
SPEAKER_01:Uh all okay. That's why to a degree. Did he kill all of jobs? No, but did he did he kill some of workers?
SPEAKER_04:The masses, the mass amount of people say computers are gonna take our jobs, it's gonna wrap out our industry.
SPEAKER_00:That'll happen with anything.
SPEAKER_01:The assembly line took it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's always gonna be a widespread panic over stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Like it's like I know computers came to the assembly line before Ford uh employed more people than they did back then.
SPEAKER_00:I know that my job right now, like you know, me and just like me and Q just said, we know that our job can be done by a computer, by an AI. It's just will it be able to give you the same service that we do? Will it be able to do the same things, you know what I'm saying? That same interaction? No, you're not gonna get that. That's like, and that's what the hope is is that you know what I'm saying, they won't completely replace you with an AI. And that the air is a good thing.
SPEAKER_04:If you're scared, hey, I gonna take your job. I'll tell you right now, Quentin, drop out of school. Because you got you're going from the number one degree to AI, will have no problem taking your job at. I switched my major. Well, good. You need it as a matter of fact, you need to go ahead and like I said, drop out and you need to go to the JCTC and get you a construction trade, like they say. You will, those will be the millionaires of the future. Whatever you're doing, it's gonna take your job. That's what they say. That's the logic to everyone. I believe that too.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say part of the reason I changed my major was because of the simple fact of okay, at some point, hey, I'm gonna be able to do my do what I'm going, what I'm paying all this money to go to school for.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you change your magnitude if you don't mind sharing with the world, sports management. Sports management. Yes, okay. AI be able to do your job.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, man, it's possible, hey, you know what I mean? But I that's why I changed my major from accounting, because it's simple fact I was like, hey, it's it's a strong possibility that AI is going to be able to do this.
SPEAKER_04:No, that's not it's not a strong possibility, it's a fact that it can.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know what I mean. But I'm saying that my job, that that job will be obsolete at some point in the near future. That's why I like I said, I changed my nature. But you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna switch the conversation up from AI. Um, we are it's the holiday season, and I've been wanting to do this episode. I was gonna do it by myself one time. You know, I always say I'm gonna try doing more episodes, just me talking. I don't think I'm really good enough to do like solo pods, but I got y'all heard, so I'm gonna talk to y'all about it. Um, when's the last time you did something for yourself? And why do we not spend more time doing things for ourselves and taking care of other people?
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna start with you with. Oh man, last time I did something for myself. I had something earlier, but I realized I don't know if I did that for myself. Um last time I did something for myself. Jesus old. Well, I mean, I don't know. I take I I take all the little things I do for myself into consideration. Okay, I go out, I go buy myself clothes, I you know, I I take myself, I go get food, you know. I'm doing things for me, I'm not doing it for nobody else. I ain't buying kids shit. It's all me. It's just my time to enjoy my hard work. So yeah, I take little victories, and that's just the way it is, you know. If you always looking for big ones, you never get none. I take little ones, I'm winning all year.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, that's the only way you get to a big victory, too, you know. Like you gotta celebrate the small successes.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So I take little times out to to, but like grandjusters. I mean, I took I went to Vegas earlier this year. Um, I wanted to do that because I never flown and I wanted to fly. Um was it? Uh the flight or Vegas? Vegas. Um Vegas was cool. I mean, it was what, I want to say January. Uh the weather wasn't bad. Warm in the day, cool at night. Um, so you actually get outside and do stuff. Um it was right around the time of the uh electronics conference because they do that every year or whatever. Oh, the E3? Yeah, so there was a whole bunch of extra people there. Uh it had wrapped up the day we got there, so they were pretty much getting, you know, leaving, you're ready to leave.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Well, I know you would have loved that if you'd have got there a day earlier.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, I would have I would have loved it, but I wouldn't have gone in on all them people. I just read about it on the internet. Yeah, but uh yeah, so I just make little victories, man, little things. I take time out to you know, buy myself stuff, do things for myself. Uh and I try to make sure I disconnect it from everybody else. Like, this isn't for anybody else. This is for me. You know, I'm buying me this, I'm buying me that. That's pretty much all you do as an adult. Take time to buy yourself shit, uh, or money to buy yourself shit. How much we got Harvey though?
SPEAKER_01:I ain't gonna I want to go to Vegas, but I want to do the I don't want to do the strip Vegas. I want to do the whether I guess what you would say, the locals. I want to go to the neighborhoods of Vegas.
SPEAKER_04:Because they mean you fly up there with us next time. Uh we'll probably be going this for the coming up year. We're going to Mexico this 26th. Uh uh Cancun. Um that's gonna be the the 26th. Oh, yeah, we're gonna do uh Christmas in uh New York. Oh hey, you ever been there for it? No, I've never been to New York City my first time. Uh this year, this year we're uh doing Christmas in Dallas. Uh last year we did Atlanta uh Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00:So okay. Christmas time up in New York City is beautiful, bro.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're going Christmas, New York next year. That's my my dream's always been to go to New York City. Uh if any New Yorkers is listening, don't rob your boy. Uh I got nothing for you. Uh I'm a broke nigga from Kentucky. Uh so leave me alone. But uh yeah, we're going to New York next year. So that's the type of little things I do for myself, vacations without the children. Uh I bought myself a car.
SPEAKER_01:Uh that's what I say. That's something right there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But that's not for me though. Like, I can give my kids rides, you feel me? So like when I've been doing little niggas start riding in the motherfucker, and then that's when it becomes an issue. It's not this is for everybody, you know.
SPEAKER_01:But I was gonna say, but you know, but it's still it's still something for you. Like uh going to Vegas is still something for you, you know.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, yeah, then the kids didn't go. That was just me and and Michelle. So that we that was for us. That was you know, I think that victory because that was for us. Like, that's for everybody, man. I ain't it's a family need, yeah. I feel like yeah, it's like I ain't man, anybody got no money on this payment, but it's for everybody. Of course not.
SPEAKER_01:What you say? Uh Joe, what's the last thing last time you did something for yourself?
SPEAKER_00:All right, bro. This is this is gonna be really goofy, but uh y'all know that McDonald's Grinch meal? Yeah, I wanted them socks real bad, boy. So uh I got them socks. Okay, yeah, uh nah man, this is probably like a week. You know what? This was a week ago. Yeah, it was uh last Friday. Yeah, last Friday. Not yeah, so the 5th, December 5th. Yep. Okay, well it's something, yeah. I mean, it's something small, but you know, it was like I just want these, I don't I don't know why, but I wanted them damn socks. You get all of them? Nah, man, I ain't got going crazy. I got one hair.
SPEAKER_04:You roll around town looking for new joints.
SPEAKER_01:Nope. But uh um, yeah. Okay, this I'm trying to think of something I did. Because I what made me think about it is I always get told I'm always helping other people, and I'm always looking out, and when people need me, they call and I go running. But that's just because that's I saw my mother do that my entire life. So of course I I did what my mother did. We were all we that's how one way that's how I show that's how I show love is hey, if you need me, call me, I'm coming. Um that's your love language. Yeah, that's my love language. That's how I'm trying to be being supportive, I guess is the way to put it, is my love language, or being dependable. Um last time I did something for myself. I'm trying to think. Think about me and shirt at City Trends, probably about two months ago.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. See, I went I went Spurs and I've been shopping for the last month and a half. Every time I get paid, I go get me some uh outfit. See, I ain't that they're not the expensive outfits. I ain't going out by Nike Tech fits and nothing like that.
SPEAKER_00:I know you got them Balenciagas, bro. Come on now.
SPEAKER_04:Nah, shoot. What you mean? Everything I got comes from the the discount store.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, nah, I'm a very big on the Brothers uh in the games.
SPEAKER_02:Where's where's the games at? It's in India, it's in Cortana.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, well, man, I already know you ain't gonna try to but I spend a lot of time over there, so games is cool. Matter of fact, I'm gonna be getting games this weekend.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, which we've been up at a bells or whatever.
unknown:Bellas.
SPEAKER_04:Where's the day? You know where Dick Sporting Good was, they put the uh bowling alley.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah, right there. What's in there?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, huh?
SPEAKER_01:What's in there?
SPEAKER_04:It's close. I go in there and shoot, I'll be getting uh some Nike. Shout out to Nike if you don't want to see that voice was some free swag. Anybody listening for the Nike Company? Uh just do that. We hit my email. Uh I got some uh Columbia. Uh I've been getting all type of stuff out of them, man. I keep the kids fresh too. They got South Pole, the old brands like Echo and shit. I didn't know they had Echo before.
SPEAKER_01:Bro, I mean I knew that was upper, but I didn't know what it was. So now I've been in there.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you go in there, bro. They got you fresh, bro. You'd be like, damn. Is it uh what's the price of hitting though? It's the it's uh discount store prices, so it's like brelluses.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04:Same thing. Yeah, I've been there. Same thing, yeah. Yeah, everything's cheap too.
SPEAKER_01:I might pop in there on certain.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, we yeah, only difference from only difference from them umbrellas is they got class over there. You like the umbrella, yeah. You're gonna save money, but you're gonna get robbed, or you might get shook down by a security guard. I thought that was Ross. Ross, yeah, yeah. Ross got security too. Ross ain't Middletown Ross, Middletown Ross ain't got no security.
SPEAKER_01:Middletown Ross do hell the one by the uh I think Matthew's mile. I don't think they got security.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I forgot the one I went to. I forgot they had uh, I can't even remember. Oh, TJ Maxx on Tailsville, where about you quit. Yeah, shoo you walk in there. Little buddy definitely had an AI.
SPEAKER_03:I was like, damn good, that'd be like still out of here. He just waiting on the motherfucker to try him. He just waiting. Damn.
SPEAKER_01:Oh damn. All right, uh, so why do y'all think we don't do more stuff ourselves?
SPEAKER_04:Is it I know the reason I don't is because I got responsibilities. If I ain't had no responsibilities, shit, I'll be spurred on myself all the time.
SPEAKER_01:I was getting ready to ask. Is it because we got responsibilities or is it just because we selfless?
SPEAKER_04:I think I'm selfless. Uh-uh. If I had it, shit. If I had it, I could take care of everything else and spur it on myself all the time. Nah, yeah, I'm done. I'll do it, bro. This is what it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I also feel like a part of you know what I'm saying, why we are the way we are is because of the, you know, like the idea that men are supposed to be a provider. You know what I'm saying? Like, like for me, I'm just like what Will said, dude. If I had the money to be able to fucking splurge on myself and to do all my stuff, yeah, I'll ball till I fall. I've done proving that in the past. But at that same time, I was always, even when I did, and maybe y'all have this same thing too, man. When you splurge on yourself, is there ever a part of you in the back of your head that kind of feels like shit for doing it? Or is that just me?
SPEAKER_01:I feel like I wasted money.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I feel like I could have done something else with that bread. I I feel like I could have done something to help somebody else out, or something like that. Like, I almost feel selfish when when I do something for myself, you know what I'm saying? Like, even when I like sat here and told you, you know, I went and bought these damn socks or whatever, you know, there's part of me that's like I always think, you know, like, well, you you you're blessed, you're lucky to be able to do this because other people can. And then I always kind of have this like lingering, like I don't know, this feeling of guilt or something that I carry for it. And I don't know if that's just because who I am, or if that's because, you know, as a man, that's what they've told us to help others. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:It's probably a little bit of both, but nah, I get like that too, especially around uh I used so I would I would need I would be like, I won't get me some new tennis shoes, and I will go look, but then somehow I would end up looking in the kids section around my son, and then my sister would be like, You already bought him some, go buy yourself some. I'm like, Nah, he probably can use another pair. And then my sister was like, No, he's all right, go buy you some shoes, and I'll be like, All right, cool. Then I'll go back and look at look at me some shoes, but then it's in my conscience, in my head, I still end up buying my son some shoes, too, because it's just like, well, that like we said, that's my responsibility. I'm supposed to take care of my responsibility, and if I'm splurging a little bit on me, I feel like I'm obligated to spurge on him a little bit, even if I had just bought him some. Yep, that it's just. It's in my head that I'm telling myself, like, hey, now I gotta do that too. And I that's what made me want to have that conversation, is because I'm trying to figure out like, is it I think it's the way I the way I was raised, but I also think it's part of me is is it just a responsibility that I have that I feel like I have to take care of other people? Is that too much of a burden? Or is it not a burden? It's just something I gotta live with. You know what I mean? That's what made me want to have that conversation, is because of simple fact I don't think it's a burden as much as this is what you uh this is what you signed up for, right?
SPEAKER_04:Like so like this is what it is. Like for me, I the shoe example really hit home. So this this recording is happening in December, right after the um uh the Jordan gammas came out.
SPEAKER_00:And bruh, don't even get me started on that one.
SPEAKER_04:Wanted these shoes, and I was I was gonna get them. I was like, you know what? 235, it is what it is. Your boy better be clean at work uh with these gambles. And then and then my thought was, well, I'm trying to get these, I'm trying to go see my sister and my dad for for Christmas. Now, if I keep that 235, 250 after taxes, shipping, whatever, in my pocket, then we we all have a better trip. So just the responsibilities of of it all waned heavy on me. I was like, well, I can't gotta, you know, gotta do what's good, what's good for the group, right? Yep. You know, and uh that's just that's just because we have these responsibilities, and they're not burdens because we would be sad if we didn't have these responsibilities. As much as we'd be happy to be able to do things for ourselves, we would be sad. You know, for the most part, when you look at people who don't have those responsibilities that, oh, something in my life is missing. Oh, I never did this, never did. So you had all this fun, you traveled this world, did all these things, but you know you never sat down and just enjoyed what it was really about. You never got to build that family and the future for yourself. Now you looking all stupid, but you had all the fun in the world. You took all those moments and took care of yourself and been selfless your whole fucking you know existence as an adult.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So we we signed up for what we wanted, and we're gonna get through that, and then we're gonna have a time. Hopefully, we all live long enough that we're gonna be like, you know what? Now it's just time for me. Because I'm cutting mine off. I see all the the posts on social media shit talking about if they 18 and they follow hard times. Well, your ass better fall on the shelter, motherfucker. I ain't doing it, your old ass over here. Nah I'll tell I'll help you out though. I will help you out, but I'm not I'm not gonna let you just be in here scotch-free. Like, I ain't with that, you know. Like, I get getting back on your feet, man. I'm not charging you market rate on rent. But you're getting charged.
SPEAKER_01:I was just gonna say, I think I gotta find out I keep thinking about that. Like, I gotta find the balance of I'ma let you rock out here for a little bit. Because I ain't though when you get 18, get out type stuff. Because you still 18. You don't really still know.
SPEAKER_04:They chose to leave and they chose to come back and my gloves open.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's you, you know what I'm saying? You still you still finding yourself. But it do get, I gotta figure out what that age is at the point where it's like, all right, now you an adult, you get you gonna have to start paying rent. You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to figure out is that age 23? Is that age 22?
SPEAKER_00:Nah, I mean I think that's age graduation college.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. It's circumstances, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:You know, like if you steal in my shit after you, you know, graduate college, then yeah, you're gonna you're gonna pay a little bit, but like I you weren't paying during college because you was going to school. But like if you just living with me and working, you have to have this dream that our kids are gonna go to college, but hey, let's let's take a step back and look at reality. A lot of kids don't.
SPEAKER_01:You're right. So you know that's one of those kids.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of people are going to trade schools now.
SPEAKER_01:Remember when that was a thing to begin with, and then it stopped being a thing, and now it's a thing again. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_04:Well, don't get me started that we need schools to high schools to be our trade academies. Uh you have a great well, no, that's how it used to be though. Like it used to really used to really be the way that high school wasn't your trade academy.
SPEAKER_00:You went to the high school, yep, and got central high school was that way, man. Central high school, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But uh, yeah, we gotta we gotta take that step back though for real, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:You know, just yes, you man, you you're right. I do I think high school is it's gonna be a whole separate conversation, but high school dropped the ball.
SPEAKER_04:We dropped the ball in high school.
SPEAKER_01:It has, yeah, not only should it be a trade school, it also should have more financial a classes.
SPEAKER_04:But throughout, I don't know if we're dropping the ball in high school. I think that we need to reevaluate the whole curriculum from current kindergarten up.
SPEAKER_01:Good point.
SPEAKER_04:And I think I think we should look for kids' skills and talents and put them in the right type of schools. We shouldn't just have like general school, you know, for everybody, you know. Oh, yeah, okay, you want to be a hairdresser, okay. We're gonna have you go to the school for everybody else, with everybody else. There's gonna be no hairdresser, there's gonna be nothing. Well, we could have been teaching you that from middle school. By the time you graduated high school, you would have had seven years experience. So you're coming out as a really good hairdresser, you know, or you're coming out as a really good plumber, or you're coming out as a really good electrician. Like yeah, I feel like you're right.
SPEAKER_01:We should have it should change the curricula in middle school so then where you get to high school, you can start working on trades or whatever the case may be. Yes, because a lot of middle school is it's uh you are repeating a lot of the same stuff. You spend the first what three months repeating what you already learned.
SPEAKER_04:There is specialty middle school stuff, teaching schools have specialties where they kind of do teach the kids what they need to know the next step. But we all can go to that same school, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:It should be more it should be all schools. I would say, but you know, I give me down a whole nother path where I keep saying teachers deserve to be paid more.
SPEAKER_04:Oh,$100,000 a year. Yeah, oh god, absolutely. Six figure job, yes, six-figure job, 100k. Give them 100 to start with. Okay, give them 75 out of college just to make sure.
SPEAKER_01:Just make sure you're gonna rock with it.
SPEAKER_04:Just make sure you're good at this, make sure you can really do this. And then, like at your five-year mark, we bump you up to 100. You know, it's progressive, though. Every year it goes up a little bit. Uh I agree with you. But yeah, they should be getting 100k. But I did read something just this is no come ramble in it and wrap it up soon. I read something that said people who make a hundred K are the new like middle class or lower upper poor or some shit like that. You know, like basically they're struggling. And and and and I got I read the comments too, because I'm a comment reader. I will not go away from a good post without reading the comments. Uh, and the post, the dude said, I think you guys are kind of slow because if you're making that much money, you need to live better. You can live within your means. And then the person commented on his comment and said, Shut up, boomer.
SPEAKER_03:No, I was like, the boomer is so right, though. Like he is a hundred percent right. You shouldn't be struggling at a hundred K people. Re-evaluate your spending. This is crazy, but it's also the way now, a bit, bruh.
SPEAKER_00:Uh it also, I think a big factor plays into where's this person living at that's making a hundred K. That's what I'd have to ask.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, we'll just we'll we won't because 100k in Kentucky and 100k in New York.
SPEAKER_04:But but the difference, yeah, that that's a whole different world. The price of living in in from state to state is different. But know that if you get 100 for your job in Kentucky, they're probably giving you 125. Well, you're right.
SPEAKER_01:They do make a big difference.
SPEAKER_04:Like my so with that, that's a recoup. So we can we're gonna say average it up. If you make 150 in New York, you're making a hundred in Kentucky. We're making about the same because of the cost of living. So that means you average it up and say 100 is a hundred or whatever, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I see you.
SPEAKER_04:But but then if you go and you get a three thousand dollar mortgage, then nobody tells you to do that. You don't, that's not necessary.
SPEAKER_01:But that's a whole nother conversation because you because then it's like you live in, you shouldn't. I know what you're gonna say when I say this. You shouldn't do it like this, but you live off of what society tells you you probably live off. Like I OBJ, he said, Man, people think I made a hundred million dollars and thinking that's a lot of money and it's supposed to carry me for the rest of my life. It don't he pointed out all the different things that he did with his money that he also talked about flossing, and everybody was like, Well, you don't floss, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:This is why I tell you to do that.
SPEAKER_01:True, but if you looking, we can't act like pre-pressure is not a thing, and keeping up with society norms is not a real thing. If you if OBJ come out looking normal, like everyday clothing wear all the time, people gonna look at him like he's crazy and they're gonna talk bad about him that is putting more pressure.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god, oh my god, I just want to throw my head in the wall, bro. Because you are just you just you just took everything you were taught as a child and you threw it out the window. Everything you were taught as a child, you just threw it out the window because you were taught, and and I can guarantee you this you could pull your mom up right now, and she would say, Yes, that's what he was taught. You were taught just like majority of us to be a leader. I heard you, I heard you, and you do it and you leave as you leave, and you let them other motherfuckers feel how they feel. I heard you so you don't have to spin that. OBJ didn't have to spin that, but I think the cool don't spin that.
SPEAKER_01:I agree with you, but I'm just being realistic. As a word, I can see where a person with a hundred million feels the pressure.
SPEAKER_04:That's just that's just thoughts as a that that might be some some some some systematic shit for black people. That might be some systematic shit for black people, bro.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, I don't even think that's just for black people, man. That's just the look at it. Look Joe, look at it with the lens, though. Look at all these these other professional athletes. Think about the ones you hear going through the most. You are it it's correct to a certain degree. It is definitely a higher thing in the uh black community, you know what I'm saying? It's definitely more, way more prevalent in the black community to have to like to put yourself into debt trying to, you know what I'm saying, present an image. Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And that's what these askers take towards the level. Yeah, they do, they take that to the yeah. It happens in the white community too.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, no, no, no. Now hear me out. Now, I will I'm a big fond believer of you can never say everybody or everything, because there's always gonna be examples, there's always gonna be expectations to that. So, yes, there are white people, white athletes, white rappers, white businessmen who make bad money decisions too. But let's be honest, you see a lot coming from the black community, and not even the ones who reach athlete level, like Joe said, the ones you see living in the projects driving 2016 charge uh 2026 charges.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, no, you I'm not hold on, you ain't heard me. I said you was alright, and I said I said you was gonna say all of this before you said it, but it don't change the fact that the reality is that's what happened, and people feel the peer pressure to do it. Shouldn't they feel the peer pressure to do it? No, but is peer pressure a real thing?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, so bad peer pressure is let's you you the the the amount of peer pressure you allow yourself to be under is the peer pressure you're under.
SPEAKER_00:This is what I always think of, okay? And I don't know, man. This is it's I can't imagine the pressure of like being a person who like was born into poverty, you know what I'm saying? Like born into projects, and got that, you know, I'm saying the opportunity, let's just say play football, play football, made something to themselves, you know, I'm saying, got out there, had like a hundred million dollars. When you go back to that community, I don't know if it's even would it be called just peer pressure, or what kind of pressure is that that you like you feel this obligation to give so much back to your community? Like it's like think of hammer. Yeah, exactly. It's yeah, it's it's peer pressure on such a huge scale. Like, think of hammer, you know, like community scale. Yeah, he got so much money. Yeah, he wanted to help so many people out. It's like he just didn't know how to say no. And it's like, what at what point, you know what I mean? Like, do you because you know, like you get these people who are like, oh come on, man, you change, you know what I mean? Oh, you ain't who you used to be. Oh, you know what, you can't help us out, now you got money, oh you think you're better than us, you know what I'm saying? You start getting those kind of and then and there's a whole nother subject on this that I can't get into because I'm white, so I don't know the full aspects of it. But I just can't imagine that feeling, you know what I'm saying, of like of being like, oh, you know what I'm saying, is there a guilt to it that causes people to do that, to put themselves into that debt?
SPEAKER_01:I would think, I would think some of it is guilt.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, you're gonna have guilt from your community. Uh well, you've got a pressure from your community to do things for them and take care of people. Uh, but I think that like, I mean, under proper money management, OBJ should have that honey should have stretched. And maybe not last to the not lasted a lifetime, but because of the celebrity you built. See, you're just talking about the money you made right then. We know that wasn't the end of your money. Like, it didn't stop because you stopped playing football, bruh. Like you're still you're still able to go out and make an income that most people would die for. Just off of your celebrity. So, yeah, we ain't saying that the things you did was wrong as far as as helping people, but I will say that trying to keep up with the appearance of society. We'll have your ass walking around with the Margie Lago face, the organisation, surgery and shit, just trying to like we can't fall into the traps of trying to make people happy with just not doing things because everybody says it's like when skinny jeans came out. I mean, I'm not wearing those. And I never bought a pack. Like, I'm see, print pressure didn't pressure me into the skinny jeans. Yeah, so I'm still able to produce children in a mass amount because my nuts was never tucked. You feel me? So I'm good.
SPEAKER_01:That's something so no small level, but I hear your point. All I'm saying is, we can't act like it's not a real thing. But like I said, but uh before we get out of here, Joe brought up a good thing. Let's end with this on something positive. Um, something that you did this year that you're proud of.
SPEAKER_00:Joe. Something that I did this year that I'm proud of.
SPEAKER_01:Ain't that what you said?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes. No, I'm just gonna say, like, I took I took the biggest fucking chance that I ever could on myself this year. Okay. I literally just I won't get too far into it, you know what I'm saying? Quinn, uh, I'm pretty sure you know a little bit about it and everything, but you know, I got separated from my wife. Uh, we've been together for 18 years. I changed careers. I mean, still with the same company, but I changed the career path that I was on. I did all of this stuff in like a three-month window. And it was just like, I felt like, you know, I'm saying, I'm standing on a ledge and I just looked over and said, fuck it, jump. And I've never done that before in my life. I didn't know where I was gonna land or how I was gonna land. But I just prayed to God that I would fucking land good. And that and I'm so proud of myself for doing that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, it's dope. You did take the jump, you did take a leap. And I didn't know it was in three months, man. Damn, man, it's kind of it was kind of quick. No, bro, it wasn't. You know, I knew the stuff happened, I didn't know it was that like in that little short of time range, but yeah, no, uh, that's what's up. Happy for you.
SPEAKER_04:You know what I'm saying? Uh Joe, I hope you are in a uh great space with your leap. Um, and I think the year will bring you great news. I think it will be a good year for you to come. Um I hope so.
SPEAKER_03:My I hope so.
SPEAKER_04:My achievement. You're welcome, man. My achievement for the year is it's a year. Uh I've battled health issues for almost the last 14 years. So every time I get from the beginning of the year to Christmas, uh it's victory for me, man. Uh and it's as simple as that. You know, you should never take nothing for granted. Uh we are all complicated machines that can always, you know, get a few little flats here and there and have us wobble. Uh so just, you know, live life to the fullest. Every price, I see people out, you know, enjoying their life. It makes me happy. Uh, because I see people out living their life to what I'm assuming is the fullest. And um, that's all I try to do is just keep trying to live to the fullest. So my biggest accomplishment is making it back to Christmas. If I make it, got a few more days. Uh and you know, anything can happen. But if I make it, then I can see another one. It's my anniversary. Uh, it'll be number. Like 13, 12, something like that. Um so you know, that's that's my accomplishments, it's making it back to December the 25th.
SPEAKER_01:That's what's up, dog. It is. That's what's up. I um I I pray, you know what I'm saying? I pray that my we'll make it to December 25th, and he continues to make it to December 25th. Um I need to talk to you next December 25th, bro. What you said on every December 25th that I'm on this earth. Uh something I am most proud of this year. It's a great question. It's a lot of I can think of a lot of a lot of small, I can well not small. I can think of a lot of things. One, uh, I continue this school. Yeah, I just hell. I just looked at a final project grade that took my grade from a D to a B. So I'm proud of that. Um I am some with podcasting. I am proud that I don't let the numbers make me quit. Because with podcasting, some much you have great numbers. Some much you don't. Some much you looking like, damn, don't I really be listening? And so much you'd be like, oh damn, I got a lot of people listening. So I'm I'm proud of that. I didn't let I didn't let the numbers take over like my aspects of continuing to do podcasts, doing something I enjoy doing. Because a lot of people do podcasts and they get into it for money or they get into it for training. I get into it, I just did it because I enjoy doing it. That's why I continue to do it. Uh that's why you're gonna be successful at it. Yeah, I just enjoy actually doing it, and I feel like I get better at it over time.
SPEAKER_00:Consistency and and caring about what you're doing, man.
SPEAKER_04:And if nothing else comes out of it, you are leaving your voice on this planet long after you won't be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think that's uh also the thing I enjoy about podcasting is because with like you, you talked about responsibilities earlier. With the responsibilities that we have, sometimes we don't have the time to just mingle and kick it with people. Like I seen how Will, I seen uh Miss Tammy used to work with us at Cakemart.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, how's she doing?
SPEAKER_01:She's good, and she's like, she said, What's the last person you talk to? I said, Well, technically, I talk to Will all the time because he does my podcast. So I still I still get that relationship because I do podcasts with you, you know what I'm saying? So I that's the thing I'm most proud of is because I didn't let the numbers stop me because it keeps me one, it keeps me doing something I love, and it also keeps me having the relationship that I have. It keeps me with the you know what I'm saying, the friends that I have, and I feel closer with all the people I do podcasts with, y'all, Gershial too, uh Jersey and DQ, you know what I'm saying, my uh my boy Dion. And it also introduced me to new people like Teddy that George was cool with. So that then also I'm proud of I don't know, continue to be a father. Because it can get hard at times. It gets hard at times, especially because he's getting into these teenagers. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, I don't, it's it keeps getting harder. I don't know. I sent Joshua away today, he went to go live in Florida, and I had caught my eyes, I caught myself rubbing my eyes, and I was like, damn, I know he's not going to like nothing bad, you know, like he's going to his dad, you know. It should be a good situation for him, but just like not being able to reach out and touch him, you know. Even when he moved out, I was able to reach out and touch him. You know, mom knew where he lived, you know, he still called and needed things and advice, and now it's like he's probably every bit of a thousand miles away, you know. So yeah, it never gets easier.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna get it's gonna continue to get harder the more he grows up.
SPEAKER_04:Even as adults, when you see it as adults, it gets hard.
SPEAKER_01:But he's but and what made me proud is he sees he sees the effort that I put in to try to be a good father. So to me, it makes me feel like okay, I'm doing something right. Because he sees that my dad actually tries because the things he tells me he is like he's proud. So yeah, but no, those are things most most proud of this year. But teaching him how to be a dad. Man, I hope teaching him how to be in a good human being.
SPEAKER_04:I hope that's really a good dad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you're right, you're right. The recipe we're gonna get out of here. Uh, Mr. Bright Glass himself, Will. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_04:No problem at all, man. I'm always ready unless I'm not ready.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna say you always ready. I text Will at 845. Hey, man, can you hop on in there? Uh Jersey quag then show up. Yeah, I'll be there. So, yeah, nah, uh appreciate it, Will. No problem. Uh Joe. Yes, sir. I appreciate you, sir. Of course. Anytime, anytime. Me and you got something coming real soon for the people. Yes, sir. We do, we do. We will uh y'all just take that hint. It's coming real soon. But yeah, thank y'all for listening to another episode of Hold Up and another thing presented by Mixed Vives Media. Y'all already know the vibes. It's your boy, Mr. Bell, aka K Say your name up on his pie. Mine up with you to my. And we're gonna catch y'all on the next one. Peace.
