Victories, Vacations, and Vibrant Playlists

My dog kept on getting uti eyes and so they had to remove , um , her hood because that was affecting , that was really giving her the uti eyes often . So it was kind of like let's nip this in the bud and kind of like , clear it out , remove it , and then that should solve that issue .

And , uh , my sister's a veterinarian and when she , uh , she came over , I want to say the week that Sonny got the surgery and she looked and she was like , damn , they cleaned up . She was like a totally different dog . It's crazy , crazy . I was like , wow , this dog is definitely by any , she's getting plastic surgery .

She has metal in her legs oh my goodness . And it's , it's , it's wild , it's wild .

But I have a a friend of mine . She's like into like international football , like football , international football football and , uh , she's a fan of Chelsea , right . So I was asking her questions about this whole this football shit , right , and um , I was like it's so much shit to this show . Here's the shit .

There are so many teams in this shit and the funny thing is is each country has their own like leagues , right , and then it's just like his . This is crazy . So , let's say , in the in the UK , you have the Premier League and you have the championship league . That's the one below it , right ?

So in the Premier League , this is crazy because this happened in real sports here in America . Like in sports in America , people will go ape shit .

So the three worst teams of the Premier League after a season get demoted down one , wow , and then the two , either it's like the two or the three in the in the , the one that's below the person , below the Premier League . They get brought up , so at any time you can lose your spot and you can just keep going lower and lower and lower and lower .

Prime example have you seen that Ryan Reynolds bought a football team ?

She told me that I was like what ?

Let's say it was the Rockies , let's say it was the Blue Jays and let's say it was the , the Padres Right , those three were last . And they get sent to the minor and then , and then you bring up , like I don't know , uh , uh , the Durham Bulls . You bring up the base socks and then , uh , uh , I don't know , you bring up another team . That will be wild .

People will be picked . Look , I don't know how many people like baseball I enjoy baseball , I am Orioles fan man People will be pissed if their whole team just gets dropped down to the , to the goddamn minors on some , on some bullshit . Yeah Right , so I mean it would . It would make shit really spicy . It would make shit really .

It would make shit really spicy . You know it's crazy . I'll be in meetings for work and I do that shit and it pops up every time and I say I need to turn that shit the fuck off every time . Um , sorry , I'm describing um .

So there are like these gesture AI things that you can do and it'll make like , if you have a thumbs up , it'll make a thumbs up cloud beside you , which is really fucking stupid . You guys , if you work from home or you work on zoom , remove those shits . Honestly , I don't think it's zoom , I think it's the Mac itself , Um , but that doesn't do that .

Like authentic shit like this is like going back to like early like 2003 , 4 , 5 , where everybody was buying those big-ass jerseys and you had to get like the real , authentic shit . You know what I mean . You get the NPA , or does it the MPLS Lakers Jersey with that baby blue and that burnt like you had to be Like off . It has to be authentic .

But there are so many teams , so many teams and houses and shit . Like it's insane . It's insane . So I've just been watching like a lot of like Football shit and it's actually real . I know it's crazy , but it's actually really interesting . It I , I get it , I kind of get it . I really do . Can I sit there and watch a game ?

Probably not , but the jerseys go hard though . But the jerseys go hard though . I'm not gonna hold you in the logos , the logos of fire too , and I think that's that's kind of like the thing of it .

Like most of the time it's like a family thing , like how , like every black man in the south is like a Cowboys fan , like that's over the age of 50 is a Cowboys fan , because , because you got to think about it , the reason why they are Cowboys fans is because , well , there weren't a lot of teams down here when they were growing up , right , there were only

certain football games that they would get on the television because of where they were right , and Cowboys was considered America's team , so that they , they Just beat their heads and Cowboys , cowboys , cowboys , cowboys .

And it's like , oh , we got the Buccaneers coming in , and we have the Atlanta Falcons and we have the Carolina Panthers , like all these southern teams just start coming in and shit , and it's just like , oh my , look this , nah , cowboy fans of diehards . And they Right .

Oh yeah , oh yeah , um , but anyway , that's what , that's what's been , yeah , that's what's been going on with me , um , so yeah , just learning more information and stuff like that .

So I kind of want to go into , like the the big topic first , because I think this might Lead on to other conversation and stuff , because , I don't know , this might be like a Therapy session more from me . Maybe not you , because I know you , you do this , you take that , you know you , you take it .

? So over the weekend my sister came over and we were just sitting chilling on the couch watching YouTube videos and shit right , and she asked me . She was like when was the last time you actually like Took a vacation ? Fuck you .

And I was like the last time I took a vacation , but the last time I just took like time off for like a long period of time Was probably I wouldn't count me moving into my house . I mean , I took at least like a good two weeks off for that , just so I can make sure that everything was moved and everything was everything . But I wouldn't count that .

So before that it was probably Momocon , momocon , it was probably Momocon . And that was when 2022 . Yeah , it was 2022 . Yeah , because all 2023 I was .

Right , and I'll also say that I , I ended last year , this year With , I want to say , almost 90 hours and pay time off , because I wasn't , I was taken like like a day or two . You know what I mean . Yeah , and I don't know . This is . This is mentality that I've had , like even back in , like Like okay .

So I think this came back from school awesome , like my mom was like a real stickler for like attendance and like being even if we were sick . My mom would be like , alright , check this out , it's how it's gonna work , right , you gonna go to school , you gonna sign in , you gonna get this attendance and then I'm gonna come pick you up . That that was it .

Like that was the move . You know what I mean ? That was the move . So Me taking time and I guess another big thing is that In my head , I don't take time , because the last thing that I want to do is take time and then I come back and it's like hey , christopher , um , hey Christopher um . Hr will speak to you real quick . What ?

I was like I had to go do emergency surgery , and so when was this ? this was July of 2020 , so yeah , so like I , I was in the hospital like recuperating and I get out . After 10 days being in there , I finally got discharged and like not even . Like . 24 hours later , my boss is calling me and is like , hey , I Need a doctor's note .

Like really it's short insurance or doctors care . Could you just got the hospital . I was like wait , wait , okay , but why like ? Why like I just I just got out of surgery , like I literally Like almost died and you want anyways . So like I Like I had to fight one line fight .

I had a , told my , my , my doctor , and she told the nurse , and the nurse like okay , handles your paperwork Not even the next day . My friend that were there , she called me , she's like I just got laid off . So yeah , it's crazy .

No , I definitely , definitely understand that , but it's always like , okay , I Can be gone for a week , or like a week and I have , and I come back and they're just like hey , christopher , um , so HR would like to speak , we would like to speak to you for a minute , and it's just like so we've come to the conclusion that we will not need you anymore , so

get the fuck out .

So , like I Was in a meeting with like just co-workers the other day because they were doing some little survey thing , but Everybody there was like yo , take your time . It was like it was one of the questions asked . It was like oh no , we're taking our time because , like , obviously Y'all are not loyal to us .

You know , I'm saying like and like mentally , they're just some days that you just don't feel like off to and you just have to take that that day . And so , like I Am a big advocate of like taking your time , like you have , it is there for you .

You know , don't sit there and try to like suffer in silence , like you know being intact , you , you can burn out . So taking that time away and like regrouping and Re-gathering your thoughts and coming back is always good , especially like . So , like for me .

When I started working like , I worked at a very stressful place and I worked there for eight years and like One thing about everybody that was there come like March or whatever , you got people already like on written up , like write-ups , because , like they took it all their time .

Because , like you're just trying to decompress and like not deal with with the bullshit , um , yeah , and , and you never know what can happen late , just being in the field that we're in , like you see people get pips and like you know they're gone . You know they were . Did I need a pip ? No , it was somebody to try to get them out the door .

Yeah , what is pip ?

You know , some people might be like , well , why don't you just leave , can't ? I don't have anything set up , you just can't leave a job without having the plane right and I I you know , like I said before I I was on a pip for that job that I left . I Was on it and I was like I'm out . I left .

I thought I Talked to my mother , my father and I think I talked to my step-moms too , and I talked to my sister too , about like doing that , like leaving that job and finding something better , and I actually read something to this woman left her job and didn't rush to Go find someone put some time , did what she wanted to do , really was able to relax and

Then , when she was ready to go back into the work field for the workforce , she had certain things that she wanted . She wanted a certain amount of money that she wanted and she got that and she took her time with it . You know what I mean Me leaving that job and being out of work for three days . That was probably the best time in my life .

That was the best time in my life because it was just waking up . I plodded the ten jobs . I had interviews lined up every fucking day . I know I said this in old podcast . When I say every day , I mean every day , monday through Friday and I was set them shit up early in the morning .

I remember for this job I had the job that I have now there was another company that wanted me and I told them how much this job was giving me . And I told them well , this job is giving me this , can you match that ? They didn't even respond . They didn't even respond . They said yeah . They said no , niggas . Yeah you can keep that .

Like it was like a couple hundred shy of like what they have put in the job offer and like I was like oh , no , um , can I get it to such and such number ? And they're like , yeah , give me a couple hours , not even three hours later . Okay , we can do that , so yeah .

That job can say we can't do that and you just move on . And they move on and it just goes to the next person something , because they know that somebody will take it . They know somebody will take it . I Go on . I go on LinkedIn damn that every day . And I see how many people apply to jobs like individual jobs .

Over a hundreds of applicants Apply to jobs and they're like oh , you don't want this . Fine , see ya , we can just go to the next one to plug over here is like Me , trying to get into like cyber like that .

So let's let's say you have , let's say you are in your late 30s , right , like 30s to 40s , right , and you have a college grad here , college grad here , and you have the person in the late 30s to 40s , right .

So You're gonna have some experience , just work experience as a whole , if you're the , you know , 35 and older , but it might not be within the realm of tech , but you have something that says you learned what you learned within that realm of tech .

All right , you have this grad , fresh out the water Eager , still got the simulac on his breath , still still just getting off the teat . He is bright-eyed , bushy , tailed , ready . He or she is ready to go right . You know how much you have to make to survive this motherfucker .

The grad , he knows , but he really don't know no right , oh , we can give this guy a Lower cost and we , he'll get the experience and he'll get paid . It might not be to the we know that we can this , I'm the company , we know that we can pay him more . But Well , just say , you'll get a lot of experience out of this , this , this opportunity , right .

Say that shit to somebody that's 35 and older . Bit , I Got experience , motherfucker . I need a job , I need money in my pocket , but you don't have the experience in tech to actually go in and Put your foot down On something like on a certain amount , because that's just not the way . You can't go in Asking for numbers and stuff like that .

That's just the way shit works with , not within tech , I think within a lot of different fields , right . So it's man , tons of people , people right now that are going in a second . There are people going to the tech every day at .

I mean , that's the way it is , and I will also say something , something else , to the taking the vacation time . It's . Another big factor for me is has been working from home . I've been working for almost since 2018 , right , and a lot of people a listen to me . Hopefully I will make this into a clip . I swear to God . Oh well , listen to me .

If you work from home and if you hear people say you work from home , you're already home . What exactly ? You already know ? I'm going with this . Why do you need a vacation if you work from home ? What the fuck ? Fuck you , real shit , fuck you . It's , it's . I chose the word from home , yes , because I don't want to go and drive into an office .

I don't , if I can work from home , get paid the same amount or more than what you get paid , and I don't have to wait . Yeah , go and waste gas back and forth . No , I'm good . So , yeah , I'm gonna take that vacation time because I'm I'm still doing work from this office , looking at the screen in meetings doing what the fuck I got to do .

So this goes for anybody that works from home and you deal with people . That's like man , I gotta you know , I gotta get up every day and drive my , drive my ass to work . What ? That's your dumbass fault , nigga . You chose it . You chose it and base and funny thing is based on a career .

There are some things that you have to go and do , but this is still the career that you chose . You know what I mean . This is you . I don't know many construction workers that can't work from home . You have to be out there . You know what I mean . I don't know many . There are some doctors that can Stay from home .

It's like doctors that look at x-rays and stuff like that . Yeah you know what I mean . But yeah , it's somebody . If you work from home and somebody's like you work from home , I wouldn't . What vacation do you need ? What time off do you need and suck a dick Like , look that , that's that right there . Really piss me the fuck off . That that's some real .

Um , but like yeah , I work from home . But you got a thing like we're like when we were from home . Even though we are sitting at our house , our mind is constantly like did I just hear email that is gonna text ? They did like 24-7 .

Our mind is like going because we have to be connected to to work and you're looking at the same screen , same four walls , like so many days a week .

And then like I Think the thing that is getting to me lately is just like I Can't even go outside necessarily , like if I wanted to , because like I I mean I can , but I can't go like down the road to the Store or like you know whatever . So I'm like attached to my home area During these amounts hours a day .

So it's not like I'm free , no , I'm literally on house arrest or any times an hour , like I can't go nowhere late , right .

It's a totally different time , and I have to be up for this meeting just so I can hear what the fuck they saying . Am I still in bed ? Yes , but am I ? Am I in it ?

It felt , honestly , it felt like retirement at 31 . That's what it felt like . It felt like retirement at 31 . That's what it felt like . And wake up , make some breakfast . Got animated , playing in the background applying the job , like my cry . It was gorgeous , it was gorgeous man , it was gorgeous , it was beautiful , it was so good .

Um , yeah , I gotta take definitely gotta take more time . Definitely gotta take more time , for I think I think one of the big things that I want to do time wise is take at least like a week and a half off , go up to the mountains and like be away from all that shit . Um , you know I'm gonna be safe with it .

You know I'm always carry , of course , always , always . You think about me , a black man gonna be in a camp , about myself . Oh , hell , no , you better hope I don't get no grenades , because if I hear anything I'm throwing something like you bet you , all right , watch this , he will catch me .

Slacking man , I'll get a portable camera and put that bitch right on the front .

I see anything that walk by , um , but going to the mountains and kind of just like get away from , I mean , I kind of already live far from shit anyway , but let's not talk about that yeah , I mean it's amazing , it's great , um , but yeah , I mean gotta take that time , I have to take more time .

My manager , like when she takes time , she takes a week and she travels , like I think she told me she was like , yeah , I'm going like in April for like a week . I was like you're traveling again and she was like , yeah , I'm going to Brisbane Because I'm going to Brisbane on a walking , like a walking trip .

So it's like when she meets up with a group of people and they just walk around Brisbane , stay at places , eat everything , and she I mean been to Spain and all that shit Like she , she moves , she moves , um , so yeah , gotta take that time , definitely . I even went to this past week . I went to a , um , uh , a lake that was near me .

You know like a public lake , kind of within a parking shit , and I was like , oh yeah , I'm going to get back into fishing too , yeah , yeah , and then you give back into fishing .

And I was just like , and then I was talking to my manager at the gun range and I told him that when he was like , yeah , a lot of people have uh , he was out here A lot of people have boats that really can't afford a boat . But they got one . He was like boats and four wheelers and they know damn well they can't afford either of those two .

They shouldn't even have any other motherfuckers . And you know , you know what I said . I was like damn , that's crazy , cause I kind of want a four wheeler .

You know , I come up with ideas basically during the week for these um , for these episodes , and a lot of it is just like just random shit . I'm just like oh shit . I think that would be good to um to talk about , but and we might have to do this on another episode and stuff but I have , uh , two things .

One was , like certain songs that , what do you use to listen to the music ? What do you use ? Apple music or Spotify , Spotify ? You use Spotify . So every you know , at the end of the year , Spotify makes a playlist of all of the songs that you listen to for that whole year .

Right , has there been a song on that list every year , or does yours change every year ?

Um , so each year is always something different . But I do wonder if there's like maybe a few songs that are just the same every freaking year .

Um , and a lot of this shit that I was like listening to was like I don't know . It was kind of like gym shit . But there are some artists that carry on this , some songs . I already know . One song that continues to stay on most of my playlist . Um , I would oh , yeah , yeah , some songs just leave .

So , like the ones to that I can see right now is Camp low . Camp low is a rapper and the song is called Luchini AKA . This is .

It has always been on my playlist since 2018 because , whatever I hear it , I just thought , I just thought rapping to that shit , that 93 till infinity by souls of mischief and superstar by chaos , and I would have to say another one would probably be oh , the mystery of cheese boxing by Wu Tang , like that shit . That is such a great fucking song .

But , um , yeah , and then artists and artists . That always stays on my shit is Alan stone Always stays , like on most of my playlist , tech nine and the somewhere on there and , um Jesus , that has changed a lot .

Yeah , it kind of changed , because one year , I think , like in 2021 or 2022 , I was into a lot of side of baby , because , I mean , his shit was just catchy and I was working on the Volvo then .

So I would be outside working on the Volvo , I was still working out , and it was just good to hear when you're working on the car and you're just taking your time doing shit and everything like that . For you , though , I would think , like SZA has always been on your list .

So signed a family . Stone usually makes it on my list and it's only one song . That usually makes it like I have a whole , I love their whole catalog . But if you want me to stay by , sign a family song usually makes my list every year because I still listen to it and jam to it , because slide kills that shit .

Um , I'm trying to think right now I can already in . Right now I can already tell what's going to be like Like at the end of the year , I already know what's going to be on the list . Mexican , the Mexican OT is going to be on this list .

like that , Not like that , but I think Texas is going to be okay . Texas , Tennessee , Um , I think Texas and Tennessee , the South , the South is really like we'll find Texas .

Texas is really has some really good artists and the great thing is Texas also has like a lot of good like old heads to like the Paul walls , the slim thugs , the flips , the , the trade , the trade of truth , all that shit . Like Texas has some hitters . Like I think I saw a song recently with like a millionaire on it .

I mean people are going to stop and listen . I mean schoolboy Q came out with a pretty dope album recently .

But what I've been listening to mostly that I know is going to be at the end of the year I've listened to like a lot of beats , so like a lot of chill music .

While I'm working , when I'm at the gun range , I have a headset , have a headset in and it's just like beat music and stuff like that , and yeah , I can already tell what's gonna was going to be there . Um , it may be like white noise , because I listen to white noise sometimes when I go to sleep .

I guess like what are things in the states that we live in or where we're from that are the good and the bad , because I have family in South Carolina and I've been to South Carolina plenty of times . One of the biggest things that scares the fuck out of me there is car inspections . You have done that's what I'm saying . That scares the fuck out of me .

Carolina comes back in , I swear when you cross that line , you can just feel it , and then you come back around and then it's just he hit North Carolina . You're just like , oh , what was that ? I just felt that there was a force , there was something to happen .

Like I said , I have family in South Carolina , south Carolina . One of my , one of my fondest memories of South Carolina is meeting one of my on my grandfather's side , my cousin Margaret .

Right she's , she's passed away now , but Margaret , my cousin Margaret , she was a kind of a bigger woman but she was the nicest woman that I've ever saw , ever met in my life . And I remember going to visit her and she saw my sister and the first thing that she said to my sister was that she , she was like you , so juicy .

That's the first thing that Margaret said out of her mouth . I will never , ever forget that . I will never forget that and that was the funniest shit I ever heard . But she was the nicest woman . She was the nicest woman I ever met . Oh , my goodness man , south Carolina , south Carolina has my heart .

When I live there , maybe not , but um , that car inspection thing really does get a fuck out of me . Why , what do you mean ? Why ?

I literally just messed up somebody with that same name . I was like I guess we were late and somehow I don't know , I tell you what . I don't know any . I know some people there . I don't know a lot , but man , I think if I would just go down there and just walk into grocery store I probably meet a whole bunch of cousins . Oh yeah , it was .

I was like yeah , and she was like oh , I used to hear about you all the time from your mama , because we weren't together , and I was just like oh nigga , I thought you go say something else .