No way. Hi.
Hi, what's your name?
Aaron?
Aaron? What's up? Aaron?
A lot? Gick a lot. I never thought I would actually ever talk.
To you, to be honest, Well, now we are talking. Now we are here, and I am I am curious to know what it is that you would like to talk about.
Well, I don't really know where to begin, but crap. I have three kids with well, the same woman. We've been together for seven years. We broke up for a year and she lived in a separate state and we kind of and that was when we had one son together.
Now we have two sons and a daughter together. Since she moved to Texas with me, and I had seated on her quite a bit in the past through text physically, and I kind of a fitted all of that and she just kind of spit against me, and obviously, fair enough, has been very hurt about all of that stuff. But on a daily basis, it's just feels like I'm constantly being judged for the little things that I forget to do or you know, the big things that I've done
in the past, and it weighs on me. And about it was twenty twenty she had kicked me out of the house because I was messaging an next on Instagram, and I ended up hooking up with this girl that I knew when I first met to Texas, and we ended up getting back together. My kids got really sick.
I moved back into the apartment and.
I get a message like, oh man, like three months later from the girl that I hooked up with when I got kicked out, and she was telling me she was pregnant.
So so this girl that you I cheat, cheated on your wife with, is pregnant or would would.
It wasn't really, So I cheated to get kicked out on Instagram, I message to ey right, so she kicks me out. We get in this huge fight. She makes me leave, so I leave respectfully so she can have the house, you know. And after that I ended up hooking up with it. So we went together and I hooked up with this girl and then she we got back together in the girl message room and said she was pregnant.
Okay, is she pregnant?
No, she had the kid. This was like two years ago. But then she blocked me deck on everything.
Well, so she so you, all right, so you have three kids with your current wife and then one kid with the we're okay. You have three kids out this woman who you're involved with long term, and then one kid with the other this other woman.
So she blocked me. And that was like a year and a half, almost few years, and I didn't hear anything. And I was taking a trip from one part of Texas to another, away from the girl I've been with for forever, away from my family, and it was the fact that I might have a tab with someone else that I don't know if it's mine.
Was really eating at me.
So I kind of wanted to went about it the worst way possible, made a fake Facebook, found her, added her on Snapchat. But when I added her on Snapcat, I put my phone number in and it sent another vcation to my girlfriend like why do you have a Snapchat? You never have a snappat Then I tried to last for a minute, but then I just ended up telling her that I may have a chat with somebody. So we have and I got kicked out of there. I've been staying in my car on and off.
Aaron.
Well, listen, Aaron, everything you've just told me is uh is completely, completely, completely insane, and I think you know that. Yeah, have you ever been to have you have you ever? Have you ever? Have you you absolutely need to, Like, I'm happy to like chat with you, man, because you know we're here, but you you totally absolutely need to go see a real therapist too. There's there's some, there's some have you ever done that?
Wait a minute, you're not a real therapist.
You know. I'm not a real therapist.
I do, I do?
I do?
Uh so, yeah, I do. I see a real therapist every two weeks.
Okay, what does your real therapist tell you about the the soap opera that is your life?
Hmm.
Man, Therapists are kind of like they kind of go inside. They're like, well, I can understand why you're doing that. You had a bad past your parents, so it's kind of hard to actually feel any clarity from that. Sometimes I just try to be as honest as possible with my therapist, Like I just was with you about why I think I'm doing these things. I have a lot
of things that I'm not gonna say. I your on your on your stream, but that happened to me and my past and that I've been through that coincide with all these actions. And I'm twenty six, man, I have to get it together. I mean, I just told you I have these kids, and like I'm I don't want to be a piece of shit, Like I really don't. It's just I've just made really bad mistakes. I don't want them to define me.
Mm hmmmm hmm. Well, so, I mean, here's the thing, this, this, this, and I I don't know. I mean, I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have three kids, do you? Okay? So look, here's the thing. You should totally talk to a real therapist about this and get
their you know, opinion and whatnot. But as far as I see it, if I were you and I just and I just transported into your body on this day having made whatever choices I I I had made, and it was you and whatnot, and I and I came to a point of clarity and decided that I wanted to be better. I would start by going, let's start with the kids, right, because I mean that's either were these children accidents or did you make the decision to have them.
The first one?
Now definitely all acted and I'm not gonna lie, But not like we obviously we were having We were just doing what we were doing. We knew what we were doing. It wasn't like we were like, oh oh.
And are you are you what do you do currently to try to be a good dad to your kids.
I'm still going to the house every day even though we're not together, and I play with them. I also try to help her clean. The youngest is about to be one on the thirty first, so I just like really helped with him as much as I can.
With her.
She's in college now, so I'm just trying to help her at the same time, like play with my kids and make sure they're the first priority. But it gets mixed up because this all happened right before Christmas, so this is fresh.
Okay, and you're still and what's your deal? You're you're you're in a relationship ship with the woman that that that is with the mother.
Now we're done, okay, and you're for now.
You're not in a relationship. Are you in a relationship with anyone right now?
Nope?
Okay, I think you know what. I think that's probably good, yeah, because it sounds like you got a lot of stuff to to work through.
Can I preach for a second, gig?
What is I I don't know what is what? Give me a small sample of your preach.
Hinder dating apps. I just feel this compelling to just want to talk to somebody because I've literally like been with somebody for seven years and I just don't like being alone. Yeah, get way more comfortable with myself.
Yeah, yeah, I buddy, buddy, I I I get you, but I I I'm not a real therapist, but as somebody talking to you on the phone right now, who understands that who? And I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and I want to to try to be helpful to you in this conversation. And in doing that, I'm going to tell you that Tender is not going to help you right right now. You You've I if I were you, I would say you have not yet unlocked Tinder.
That is a good way to put it.
You have you, you have not yet unlocked Tinder. Tinder is another person entering your life. Is not going to be the thing that turns you around and makes everything awesome. I know it hurts that you feel uh lonely and you're used to having someone.
But.
This is that you have. You just have shit you gotta take care of. And I don't think that you're you know, and you said, you're twenty six, I'm twenty and you know, look, one day we're going to be forty. One day we're going to be fifty, and we have a lot of time between now and then, and in that time we can really make, you know, positive changes to like our behavior and our life. So that's kind
of what I think we want to focus on. And for you, since you have kids, I mean, the first thing is like, Yo, how can I be a better father to my kids?
Absolutely so, no, geck. I think this is why people call you because although you're not a real therapist, you're our age and you understand the generation that we're living in, and you understand the kind of shit that we think about. And it really is really easy to talk to you about this stuff rather than somebody that I'm uncomfortable around. For some reason, I feel like I know you because I've just watched you so much so well, so I really do appreciate what you do.
Thanks, man, I appreciate that. So I mean, listen, so get into it with me here, Okay, we what do we want to do? We want to be a better dad to our kids, all right, we want to be a better dad to our kids.
What else, no no dating apps, no sex for a while.
It's a good idea.
No relationships, no flirting, no chatting, just need to be need to work on myself.
And that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. That sounds like it'll be healthy. All right, So we're gonna chill out on the dating apps and we're going to chill out like looking for and I, by the way, I do this too, I think, and I'm not the only everyone does this. We're going to chill out on the whole like looking for a solution to our life's problems in another person, you know, right, So Okay, there's that,
and then what what and what how? How else do you feel like you you can you can fuck up less.
I need to have more space from the mother of my children. Okay, I need to give her space that she deserves.
Okay. I think that's a good idea. All right, So we're gonna give space to the mother of your children. That's and that's the I I think that that's that's wise. That's a wise observation that you understand.
Uh.
I know, I fucked up really bad. Don't get the wrong I didn't call for you for you to tell me that it's okay. And I know that I did something a lot of things wrong, a lot of things I haven't said, but I'm just the past couple of days, I've just been really torn up about it.
Mm hmmm. So okay, we're gonna do that, and then uh, and the kids live with your with the mom, right right? Okay? And what's your what's your schedule at them? What's the deal?
I usually so Tuesday Wednesday or Tuesday Thursday. She has college, so I get them from six to ten. But then the rest of the week is kind of open for me to reach out and ask if I can come over.
Okay, do you have a job?
I do?
Okay? Do you are you you're financially supporting the kids?
Yes, in the house and I'm not even living there.
Okay, great, all right, that's good. I mean in my opinion, and I don't have kids, but and just in my opinion, if you want it, is like the bare minimum to do as if you have kids is like be present in the kids life and financially support them. So do you feel as though you are doing those those things?
Yes?
I really do.
Okay? Is are your children important? Is having a good relationship with them important to you. Absolutely, yes, okay, all right? What and then the rest of this stuff sounds sounds personal. It sounds like you're trying to like, uh like just learn how to be alone.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's a big thing.
Uh.
I just it's so easy to backtrack on that and then all of a sudden, I find myself talking to somebody or.
Like, I don't know, what else do you feel?
Like? Uh?
What what else? What else? What else would you like to change? Like if like five years from now, what would you like to have be different?
Hmmm?
Maybe to be able to and this is gonna sound kind of dumb, but maybe to be able to say, like I'm not smoking weed every single day or.
All right, you know.
If that, dude do that.
I don't think that's dumb. And also, you know the whole thing about like you go to the therapist and they say, oh, well, you're this way because your childhood was a certain way. I've been thinking about I've been I think I mentioned this on another podcast recently. Actually I actually yeah I did. There. I like the whole idea of yeah, like understanding why you are the way
you are because of how you grew up. I think it's helpful because you understand it and then you go, all right, it's my responsibility to like deal with this shit, you know, right, Like you can't just blame it, and then you can't, like you get like resigned to it and go, oh, I just had to fucked up, you know, childhood, and so I'm fucked up forever, and I'm just gonna be miserable and and and sad all the time, you know, like you gotta is there something even there's even even something.
I think that empowering about being like, uh, okay, I'm gonna fix right, So what I mean, what else do you want to fix?
I guess my anger in some ways. Uh sometimes I could have a short vieuse on certain things. When there's a lot going on where the kids are all running around, I'm like, hey, I want to be like less jumpy sometimes. You know, I'm severely ADHD. If you couldn't tell, I was prescribed adderall in second grade until twelfth grade and then I haven't been medicated since. So I literally grow my head is everywhere at once. You were talking about
if you don't have any kids earlier. I'd like to see some little gex eventually, dude.
Me having kids around, no, well, because I don't want I am nowhere near and I'm giant, nowhere near children at all.
Dude, I hope one day, when we're in our thirties, I turn on your podcast and there's a little GaX with their face faceted.
Oh I would I think I think they would call CPS on me if I put any of this stuff on the child. Uh. Anyway, So listen, man, I'm gonna I'm just gonna leave you with this, right, which is I'm just gonna leave you with this. Next time you like you like the the the problem of search, next time you feel this inkling to to get addicted to Tinder and to find the solution to your problems in
somebody else. And by the way, I want you know, I've had plenty of of of, you know, experiences in my own life where you know, I was trying to find the solutions to my problems in somebody else. And
I think it's it's a very very very common thing. Okay, I think he's here's here's what you Here's what you need to understand is that you can't is that you have a lot of is that you have a lot of like ship going on with you right now that you can and should fix internally, and that even if you did find a new cool person on your Tinder right, it wouldn't it's not a long term fix to any of these problems, right, Okay, just think about that. What's my stance on pornography?
Yeah?
I can't.
I feel like, how'd you know I was watching it right now? That's what I do. I just have it on. I have I have multiple monitors, and on one of them I'm taking calls ano the other one I'm I'm watching a lot of porn.
I think that's like a big root to my problem. Like I forgot to say that.
But what's my opinion on photography? It's cool that it's there, you.
Know, it's just there.
I mean, don't don't just start small, start small, dude, don't don't take away all your little pleasures immediately. Yeah, what's your name again?
Eron?
Is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go.
Get hard? Stay Geking, you know, keep calling GEK Dude. I love this show. I'm gonna watch it until the day I die. Well, hopefully you don't have before me.
I don't know.
We'll see, we'll see. I'm trying to not eat as much candy anyway. Take care, man, Thank you very much.
Good thanks for talking to me.
Man.
That would be funny if all the porn I was I was just watching a ton of gecko porn. I don't know what gecko porn would be, but it sounds hot.
Hello.
Hello, what is your name?
Serenity?
Serenity? Lord give what's what's the what's you know? The serenity prayer? I think it's like an aa thing, like, Lord, give me the Is that called the serenity prayer? Do you know what I'm talking You don't even know what I'm talking about. This the one that's like, Lord, give me the strength to fucking do something, and the wisdom to do that thing too. It's just it's called the serenity prayer.
Who gives Okay?
I think yeah, it's like, Lord, give me the strength to accept. Oh, okay, okay, I remember it. I remember it. Lord give me the strength two the strength to accept the things that I can't control, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. That's the Serenity Preyer. I think it's the Serenity Preyer. Yeah. Anyway, you wanted to talk about Super Smash, Brothers Melee.
Yes, So a couple of years ago my friend started working for one of the companies. So recently I've just been spending a lot of time going to different like fighting game conventions and maybe I go for like Smash, Melee and Ultimate. And I happened to see a stream
where you were talking about Hbox. Yeah, and it's just funny because I don't know, he's nice and like, I've just had the opportunity to meet him and it's been really fun going and yeah, getting to travel around the US and go to a different place and just hang out with everybody in like the fighting game community.
I love getting to talk about my extremely niche hobby of competitive Super Smash, Brothers, Melee. Competitive Smash, Yes, in general is not very niche, because like I mean, Super Smash Result, like Super Smash Press Ultimate, like everyone fucks with But I I hate alt care about it. I don't I don't watch it, I don't play it. It's specifically the one for the game cube that I'm into. Yeah, Yes, so you you work for Nintendo.
No, no, I don't Luigi.
And Super Mario sixty four tell us.
I have no idea, but yeah, I just got into it because my friend she started working for a company. Uh it was like a gaming company but it dissolved, but yeah, while she was working for it, Like that's how I got introduced to it. And I always played Melee growing up. But it was really fun just going and seeing like how competitive it was. And yeah, everybody in Melee is pretty nice at least, like all the fans.
And yeah, so you've been how many different tournaments have you gone to?
Oh?
I think maybe five or six so far, and then this year I'm planning to go to one, Like my next one is in Vegas.
Wait what's it called?
Uh, I don't know if you say EVO or even.
You're you're going to Evo. Yeah, they don't do Melee anymore, but Evo Evo is like the super fighting game tournaments.
Yeah. I went to Genesis too. You went to Genesis, Yeah.
Like this year, like in twenty in February, back in February.
Yes, Yeah, it was really fun.
That's sick. Who who'd you meet at Genesis? We're we're you know what fuck it, it's my podcast. We're talking about competitive Super Smash Brothers Melee. Who'd you meet at Genesis?
Well, I guess a bunch of different people, but like, I'm very fortunate that my friend she's dating someone who's like friends with some of the players. So I'm not very cool myself, but I just like by association and very fortunate to get to meet some of the players.
Like salt Uh, Leffen, you met Lef?
Well, yeah, I mean kind of off hand.
How would I actually I had one interaction with Leffen. So Leffen is U is one of the best Super Smash Brothers Melee players in the world who is known he's like this is his thing. He is known for being a dick. And one time I sat one time I was at it. I used to go to these tournaments, and I went to play with him, and I asked him if he would be down to play friendlies and he kind of like rolled his eyes and said sure.
And then we play like one game and he four stocks me and then he just like unplugs my controller and like vaguely like throws the cord at me. And you know what, here's the here's the great thing about having a persona like being known for being a dick. I didn't walk away from that interaction being I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't like, oh, man, if I got to meet left and he was a dick, I walked away been like, yeah, that's what that was his that's his thing.
That's kind of an honor.
Yeah, it was kind of. It was kind of an honor exactly. I had this. I had one interaction. I had another interaction with Hungry Box.
Uh.
I thought this was pretty funny. I was playing him. I went to Pound twenty sixteen and we we played where he was on a setup and I plugged in to play friendlies with him and we start playing and I take the first stock and I took the first stock and he looked at me and he was like, are you ranked? And and I looked at him and I was like, I said, no, are you And he did not think that was funny at all.
He was, Oh, I think that was pretty clever.
Good job, thanks man. Anyway, that's uh, yeah, I haven't been to a smash major in a long time, but that's that's it. It's kind of sad, man. It's kind of sad because I do wish that I was into like a a Fortnite or Call of Duty or street Fighter or ultimately something something that's like, because Melee is only going to go downhill. It's only it's not going to get more popular. There's only every year going to be less and less people playing it. It came it's
like a twenty five, twenty six year old game. Yeah, so nobody's nobody's gonna this is always gonna be less people playing it. It's a bummer. I was into like a real game.
Same, I know what you mean?
Do you play? I do?
Yeah?
Who do you? Who do you play?
I like playing Peach? And then my personal favorite character who I don't play against anyone, is Kirby, even though he's like the shittiest, but he's just my personal favorite.
Do you play any of the other Uh? What is it? Do you play any of the other fighting games?
I tried recently getting into a street Fighter, but as lame, it as like my hands kept cramping up, and I was like, maybe this isn't for me, and like all the combos and.
Yeah, I'm actually I'm gonna take this opportunity to share something with my audience, people who are listening to this. If you've gotten this far in this conversation and you haven't turned this off, and this is of any interest of you, do you should check out? And what's your name again, Serenity? Surendity? I right, we did the whole thing with the press, Serenity and serending. I'm sure you
know about this. I'm sure maybe you've seen this. There is a and and and let me and stay with me on this, folks, Okay, this is this is gotta stay with me on this. There was a four hour long documentary about the competitive Super Smash Brothers scene. It's a fantastic stick documentary. It's it's for free on YouTube. It's called The Smash Brothers. It's by a guy named uh Samus or some sam Ox. It's called the Smash. If you just go on YouTube and you search the
Smash Brothers. I think it's like at nine episodes or something, but you go watch the first episode. It's really sick. It's how it basically basically what happened with Super Smash Brothers made. It's an old game and the community kind of died out a little bit, especially when Brawl happened.
And then this guy makes this documentary about the competitive Super Smash Brothers scene, and he kind of like rely, like this documentary comes out and everyone's like, oh, this is so sick, and then everyone gets in on it and it kind of revitalized the scene. So you know that a formal recommendation to go check out this four hour long Super Smash Brothers documentary on on YouTube. Have you seen it?
Yeah?
It's pretty cool.
Yeah, well, and especially it's just nice having like recognition for such like, as you said, like a niche group. And yeah, so.
Do you so you don't work in a video what do you work in video games?
No?
I don't.
It's just more of like I don't know, a passion, I guess, like a really big hobby. So I like video games and yeah, once I went to like my first one and seeing like competitive gaming, I was like, oh, this is addictive and like just especially sitting in the crowd and being there, I finally understand the hype for sports and other things.
What. Uh, it's true. It's funny. I was never into like sports, but that was kind of like my version of sports was it was, yeah, I got it at that point.
Exactly.
Yeah, And it's funny because the like the biggest esports in the world are like mobia games like League of Legends and DODA yes. And I don't get that because, like, you could be any random motherfucker. You could be like sixty year old boomer person and you could be looking at a And that's why I don't get why, like fighting games aren't the most popular, because you could be like a boomer and watching a fighting game and be like, okay, the one the guy getting hit a lot is losing.
Like you understand the concept of a fight, right, But I look at a moba and I have no idea what's going on?
Yeah, there's a lot going on definitely, uh yeah, Like yeah, especially in League.
What do you what do you work in? If not video games?
I work for an online technology company that does like online monitoring for kind of like the best way I can describe it is I do monitoring for like looking out for like school shooters and other violence and other things.
Do you see Do you see a lot of fucked up stuff all the time on the internet?
I do.
I do. Yeah, well, actually not too much, just because I was kind of already interested in it and like it's interesting. We get to sometimes, like train with like the FBI, and sometimes through that we'll see like really graphic images of like crime scenes.
Uh.
And actually, like whenever I first went into it, I thought it was gonna be kind of like disappointing or I was going to be like, oh, no, the youth
is so like negative. But actually a lot of things that I see, like a lot of younger kids are really supportive of each other, uh and like really against bullying and and like surprisingly like a lot of times you don't hear about it, but they are stopping like school shootings and another school violence like bombing and things up pretty frequently, which is so well, I guess that probably sounds negative, but no, that's not.
That what why I feel like that's well, I guess you're right. I guess that's a double edged sword because it is positive, but I guess negative that there it's happening in the first place. Yeah, but I mean that's nice. That's so okay, because here's the thing I I I I worry for the children, you know what I mean, because they're kind of fucked up.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so he that you're you know, you're monitoring their chats. Wait, so that fucking government liked. Do they actually they monitor well our ship like that. I can't whistle whist the Therapy Gecko podcast right now.
So the company worked for it. I can't say their name, but we're kind of like we try to be as non invasive as possible. So you'd have to type something or do something on a computer that the school has like paid to sign up for monitoring. So a lot of times, you know, it'll have to be like I'm going to bring a gun or I have a gun, or I'm gonna shoot up a school, and then you kind of trigger something and then I review it and then if I have to call the school or if
I have to call the police. We also do like suicide uh watching Sometimes the funniest part is it will trigger for I see a lot of porn, and then I also see like a lot of fan fiction that the kids will write. And the fan fiction is always really funny because sometimes it'll be like, oh no, it is this child talking to an adult like this, but it's just I'm writing like a Wolf fan fiction or Harry Potter or something.
So these are like, oh so this is like on this is like on the school computer.
Yes, yeah, Okay, Okay, I.
Mean, I mean yeah, I feel like if you're watching porn and talking about bringing a gun in on the school computer, you kind of fuck around.
And find out, right, Yeah.
What about kids who are like I feel like there's a lot of the school shooter genre of joke is oh is out? Like how many times is a kid like I'm going to bring a gun to school? But he's he's just uh, he's just he's just trolling.
Well, so that definitely happens. That's kind of part of my job is I have to go and look and kind of make like the judgment or the call. We're always going to air like on the side of caution. But there are some schools where they've already had shootings in their school, so they'll be like very serious about it, and any type of like joke or comments they kind of want to know. So you'll end up emailing the counselor or calling them let them know, and then they'll
review it. Yeah, just because well obviously like a serious issue, but a lot of kids will also make like, you know, like when you're having a shitty day, like how I want to kill myself or and they don't really mean that they literally want to die. But that's also part of my job is just making the determination of that and deciding what to do.
Do you think the kids will be all right?
I really do. I really do think the kids will be alright. I definitely do.
Well, that's reassuring. Well, what what do you who do you mean in street Fighter? Is that street Fighter your main fighting game?
No? I would definitely say it's Melee?
Are you good?
Absolutely no, No, I mean I wouldn't say I am.
I got you know what I should? I want to do a twitch stream one day where I I I fuck I Slippy net play people. I actually did that once. I actually I remember a long time ago. I was I was streamed like as a Gecko and then I uh said, like I was on I was either on the phone with somebody or in the chat with somebody, and they were like, yo, I play I'm down to play you. And I just streamed myself like I was doing actual video game twitch streaming, and I streamed myself
on Slippy. For those who don't know, Slippy is when you can play Melee online with other people. And I streamed myself on Slippy and I just got my fucking ass whooped.
Yeah, then it gets pretty brutal on there. Some people are well, I mean, yeah, a lot of people are really good. I was surprised.
Do you play online? Yeah? Are you good?
No, it's mainly for fun, yeah, just mainly mainly for fun a hobby. I mean, some of my friends are really really good. But I'm just a casual player. I mean I play Kirby so that if anyone knows that kind of speaks for itself.
Well, certainty it was I will I'll say this. I'll say it was serene to talk to you. You probably get jokes about your name. I've realized every time I make a joke about someone's name, they look at me, uh, with such a disgust because they've heard that joke a hundred times. But Serenity, it was serene to talk to you. Is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go?
I just want to say hi, chat and give a shout out to the gets girlies.
Rock and roll having good night, Serene, rich Ridity, have.
A good night.
Bye bye.
Yeah, dude, send me send me some send me slippy codes. If you if you, if you're listening to this and you play competitive super smash Bros. Melee, send me a fucking slippy code, and uh, if I just completely run out of anything else to ever do with my life, maybe I'll play Strangers and Slippy. That could be fun. Actually, that would be a fun stream. Maybe I'll do that. Yeah, send me slippy codes.
All from Ripe Potato Man to accept, Press one to send a voicemail, Press two.
Hey man, what's your name?
I'm Ripe Potato Man.
All right, well, Ripe, how how old are you?
I'm twenty three?
Cool man. Have we ever spoken before?
Nope, never spoken before?
Well, Ripe, what's uh? What's going on with you? Man?
What?
How's life?
Honest to goodness?
Life should be going great?
Life should be going great? Why? Why?
Uh?
Why this should?
Well?
I don't know. I got my dream job. Things have been going great for me, but I don't know. I lack the sense of community. I don't talk to anybody. Yeah, and I don't know it just things have just been going great for me in every on paper way. But I just feel like things just haven't been living up to their expectations.
You know, through most of my life, I've been a fairly I mean, I've always had. I've always had a lot of good friends. I've always had a lot of good friends. But I think in my mind, i've always I've been attached to like stoicism in this sense of there's what you can and what you can't control. And one of the great eighth difficulties of life is that you cannot control other people unless if you're like a
crazy person, then you try. Then you like form a then you try really hard to like feed people poison and control them and all that stuff.
But but but normally, but normally, normally it's like, you know, I'm I'm I try to focus in the realm of what I can control and then not what I can't control.
And so community is a tricky one because it's really important. You can't just be an isolationist. You can't just fucking not talk to anybody or have no friends or you
just can't do it. And I'm trying, I'm in my head, I'm like, I'll, you know, I'm all I'm responsible for solving all my problems, right, so how do I solve a problem that, uh is, this has nothing to do with that has nothing to do with me, because it's about other people, right, it's like, how do you You can't make somebody love you, you can't make somebody be your friends. But and I've been thinking about this a lot, because I've to think about this my whole life, and
I think you can. What is within your control is to put yourself in more situations where you are around other people.
And uh, but that's the real problem. That's the real problem. Is that in this day and age, I can try to go and go to a bar, or maybe go out and try more social exercises and do more athletic things that can bring friends to you. But the truth of the matter is is that in this day and age, it's really hard to try to make friends. Like all of my friends at this point are seven hours away.
I've moved so far away from all the people that I've grown that I've learned these things from that I've developed friendships with to try to take this dream job that I can have a salary that can allow me to survive in this economy. But the truth is is just that now that I've find only have some level of affluence, I've lost all of the social characteristics that give me the ability to be the person to give those people the person that I want to be.
Oh yeah, that sounds that sounds juicy. How what where do you live.
Right now?
I'm living in North Carolina. I grew up in in upstate New York, but I moved to Tennessee when I was a kid, and I developed these friendships when I was a teenager that actually gave me friends that were real friends. And then as soon as I got a good job offer, I moved away to North Carolina to you know, to have that sense to move on with my life and be a person and gain the job that I've been working for for a long time to get. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, once I had it, I've lost everything.
Yeah. Yeah, very tricky, very tricky. Hmmm mmmmmmm. Okay, what have you done? And you do you live in like a big city in North Carolina?
I am about an hour north of Charlotte, so I'm in a smaller city area, but it's and I I mean, I can't afford gas to drive towards a larger city or even I mean, truthfully, I just spent my last hour watching a football game and you know, just having some maide in the oven pizza and that was the best part of my week.
Yeah, yeah, dude, Yeah, dude, I'm laughing. I'm sorry. I said that's juicy, and I laughed only I it's I resonate with you. That's why I'm laughing.
No, I totally get it. No, because you understand. Yeah, so I feel like in a pickle.
All right? Hm m mmmmmm hmmm. Tell give me some other things. What else have you tried? Right? What else have you tried?
Well?
I'm I'm not a religious person, but I went to church this morning, you know, just to find a sense of community because I just I need to talk to a living person and outside of my work, because the people at my work.
They they talk to me, they like me, I feel like and I feel like I've gained a lot of community and a lot of as of friendship there. But at the end of the day, there are people I work with, you know.
Yeah, And what do you like?
I sorry?
Yeah. What do you like to do?
I like to build things. I like to do things.
I like to just.
Add a positive force to the universe build things.
What things do you like to build?
I build experimental vehicles, I build houses, I build whatever you name it. I I try to build, you know, if there's a problem, I try to solve it.
Okay, So you're like a what's I don't know if there's a word for what you are. But you build. You build vehicles, not.
Like cars, but more like I. I build one wheel, you knowicycle, broomstick type things, you know, like I, I try to build the weirdest thing I can think of. I use three D printers, I use whatever I can come up with to solve whatever problem I have in my head and make it work.
Okay.
I have hype hobbies to a degree.
Okay, so what you what you should do is take those hobbies right like three D printing and uh building and here here if I could can I, if I could give you some homework, and I'll do it too. If I give you some homework, would be to take that hobby that you have to build, because that's what you just described is really great. Actually, so like the hobby of you know, three D printing of building things.
Charlotte's uh uh m hmm. Yeah. Okay, you live in you live in somewhere that's big enough I think for you to do this. Iither find think about different groups, different in persons, social groups like a robotics club like uh like like when you like, when you were in college, they had all these clubs. Right, there's clubs. Club clubs
still exist, they still exist even as an adult. So I would think of some clubs that are related to building, whether it's like a fucking architect meetup or a hackathon or some ship like that. Right, Okay, So you scour the internet. You scour Facebook and meet up and Google and Craigslist, and well, don't scour too much on Craigslist because then you'll end up sucking a guy's talk. That wasn't funny, you know, I tried, I was, I was like, that wasn't funny. I wish I didn't say that. No,
it wasn't. It wasn't funny, it was it was happy, it was that wasn't funny. Uh okay, So so do that, right, and here's what you here's the here's the key, here's the truth, here's what we here's what we Here's where we take our fucking power back. Okay with here's where we take our power back? Right? Okay, If we don't find any of this shit, what do we do? Right?
I don't know.
You make it? You make it you you put yourself out there, okay, and you say hey at the Charlotte Public Rec Center every every first Tuesday of the month where we're doing a building event. And you go on Facebook and Craigslist and and and meet and you and you make a little flyer with or you hire somebody else with all your money that you have, and you and you and you make a flyer and you fucking make the event right and even if it goes just and just doing this just to be like I try
just to be like. I took my loneliness and my community problem into my own hands. I didn't wait for somebody else to fucking do it for me. It'll make you feel better. And there's a lead least one other lonely motherfucker playing with legos in your area that you guys can uh you know, hang out. So that's my that's my that's my that's my practical advice to you.
And wile I'm just I'm going to ask this not just for me, but for everybody who listens to you religiously, because I do. I listen to you all the time, Matt right, I love all of your streams.
Thanks.
I just want to ask you this question. Purely in this day and age. All right, we've lost so much when it comes to social interaction. What would be your advice to somebody who's trying to make friends, who's trying to meet people, who's trying to get out of this horrible social bubble that we've constructed over the last few years, to meet people in person? What is your advice?
Well, first of all, I just I just gave I just told you my advice. That's exactly my advice.
And for me personally, no, no, for me personally, but I genuinely need that, like for all the rest of the people who are listening.
No, but but but but it wasn't It wasn't for you personally. It wasn't for you personally. It was a very practical thing. It was what are your hobbies, what are your interests? What are you naturally attracted to? That's what I asked you. You said, it's building, And so it's okay, take all of your natural hobbies and things that you're into and attracted to, and you go out and you find in person events related to them, and if those don't exist, you create them. That's the advice. Yeah.
And also, I'm not I'm not one hundred percent convinced that I agree with you that we are in the least connected age ever.
It's oh, we're in the most connected age ever, but not the most socially connected age ever. Where people can see each other in person. You want to meet someone online, you can meet them in line in a second. If you want to find someone who has the same interest as you, you can meet them hands down, way faster than you ever could before. But the truth is that this this person to person connection that you can find from just meeting people in person. I feel like we've.
Lost well, how old are you? Twenty three?
Yeah?
Okay, well I'm I'm you And I don't really have a good sample size for that because we're of the age that where we grew up with with I don't we don't remember a time where there wasn't an internet.
I don't know if you've talked.
To people who who who do But but I'm gonna I'm gonna that whole question. Are we lonelier now than we were before? Is uh? I don't necessarily think I agree with that, because the Internet holds so much better everything I just told you to do, Find an interest, find and then find an in person group that relates to interest, and then that doesn't exist create it. That whole process that I just told you is a thousand times easier with the Internet.
Oh yeah, yeah, it definitely is because you can just go on whatever whatever social media website you want to choose and find people and find a group.
Yeah, and you can hand.
That and it's never been easier to go suck a random guy's cock, which is a form of connection.
God bless Craigslist.
What's your name again? Write potato man, Write potato man. Well, are you gonna be honest with man? It's fine if not. Are you gonna do this?
I'm gonna try.
I'll let you finish. I'm sorry, I let you finish. Go ahead.
No, I'm gonna be honest with you. I've thought of doing this before. I genuinely have. And to be honest with you, there's a lot of trepidation that comes from the fact that just should I should I not? But the fact that I've actually been able to get on the phone with you after all the streams I've watched with you. I'm going to try to do it because you motivate me to do it.
Please, dear fucking God, if this works for you, let me send me like an Instagram DM. I would love to know if this worked for you. What was I gonna say? Well? What else are you gonna do? Right? Are you just gonna rot and die?
No, to be honest with you, I like I said, I have the job I've wanted for a very long time. I've been working towards mechatronics for a very long time. I have a job that's giving me an internship of mechatronics. I shouldn't have Priuthfully, I shouldn't have gotten this job. If it wasn't for the lack of people in the market right now, I wouldn't have the job I have. They're pushing me to finish my mechatronic certification right and
they're the ones who are helping me. They like me the fact that I work as much as they want me to work. I will stay late, I will come in early, I will do whatever the hell they want me to do. I'm getting motivated from the fact that the people that believe in me believe in me, so I'm going to continue moving on in that pass. But the fact is I don't have the social interactions and you're helping motivate me. Whether it's from this call alone,
but from the streams i've watched from you before. You've helped me motivate myself to go and try good.
Please let me know how it works for you. I'm I'm very excited to hear.
I appreciate that, man, Righte potato.
Is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go?
Yeah, Love, life, and happiness. Those are the three keys to everything.
Thank you, righte potato. Man, I will talk to you soon. God bless you.
All right, I'll keep watching the stream. Thanks man.
Beacon goes on the line taking its phone calls every night. Every Beacon goes to it. I'm just teaching you to loud in the lives