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Episode 7 - Vegas or Bust
16 Plays3 years ago
Ross and Gregg discuss Ross's adventures in Vegas.
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Unmotivated and Unprepared'
00:00:11
Speaker
You're listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared, a podcast where we take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle to muse about life, liberty, and the pursuit of randomness. Now here's Greg and Ross.
Ross's Vegas Adventure Begins
00:00:34
Speaker
What's up, everybody? It's Ross. Hey, it's Greg.
00:00:38
Speaker
And welcome to Unmotivated and Unprepared, episode seven, where we're going to have some fun, Greg. You know why that is? Why is that, Russ? Because I went to Vegas last week. Now, they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But I figure probably with the number of listeners we have, that's probably still pretty safe.
00:01:03
Speaker
Well, also, you're pretty safe. Let's be honest, like I'm beyond like what you did in Vegas is not exactly like the things you don't want to tell your wife about since she was there was there. I didn't even I didn't even go in that little high roller thing. You know, the big Ferris wheel, I didn't go into a Ferris wheel. Like I, I stayed down on the ground.
00:01:25
Speaker
Well, my wife and her friend decided they go up in the, in the big bearish building. She came down and she's like, Oh yeah, that was a smart choice for you. You wouldn't like it. I'm not a Heights fan. Me and Heights don't get along very well. She's like, you made the right choice. I'm like, good, good, good. Because I also only lost $4 gambling, which we'll talk for me. I was crushed. We'll talk about my gambling budget. Not going to be an addict tomorrow, right? Russ? No, no, no. Cause I, cause I have a, I have a bit of a,
00:01:55
Speaker
I have a completionist personality, you know, like I want to, I want to finish something out and gambling to me is always like, it's never going to finish. It's, um, I'm always going to either, it's always going to keep going. So yeah. So I went to Vegas one. I mean, I know it's the desert, but Greg, it was hot.
Surviving the Vegas Heat
00:02:11
Speaker
I mean, we just, we just, we just, it's hot. Oh, it was miserable. I mean, we just, uh, skipped from hotel AC to, you know, casino AC to casino AC. Well, first, first, where'd you stay? Where'd you stay in Vegas?
00:02:24
Speaker
We stayed a funny story. We stayed at the Vidara. Okay. And I know that's bougie. We went to a, we did the whole, we did the standard window shopping thing, looking at jewelry and going in and acting like you might come back later and then never coming back. But the lady asks us, Oh, where are y'all staying? Are you staying here at the Venetian? And we're like, Oh no, we're staying at the Vidara and the sales. I was like, Oh, the fancy hotel.
00:02:51
Speaker
I was like, I was like, look, there's a story behind it. They have a washer and dryer.
00:02:59
Speaker
like leave it to me being all like function over for, you know, you picked a place with a Washington dry. I could just see the Venetian ladies look too. Like she's like, okay, you're looking at Rolex is a $5,800 a Rolex. And you're like, well, um, I might not buy this. Nah, we good. What do you have in the, uh,
00:03:22
Speaker
Under five hundred dollar range it's like what are you like what were your priorities man but but yeah so we stayed the vidara it was crazy hot i that led to well let's start my gambling budget cuz i've got a whole bunch of comments about him in vegas attire and things people where is a
Fashion Faux Pas in Vegas
00:03:41
Speaker
ready.
00:03:41
Speaker
a little loony, but while the guys are tank tops playing blackjack, like those are the ones that I trip out at, right? Like they're like sitting in a high roller casino at the Bellagio wearing a tank top, a visor and like shorts. Oh, because that makes sense. Yeah. But, but I mean, like the thing about, the thing about the way people dress in Vegas is I, they dress
00:04:05
Speaker
They don't care about what other people think of them, which I think kudos to them, right? I don't think we should care from a body image perspective. We should love ourselves, embrace ourselves. But buddy, Vegas, they go all out. It doesn't matter. Flip flops, jeans, see people in sweaters, see people with next to nothing on walking into fine dining restaurants. I'm like, okay, this is Vegas. And that's like, I think one of the only places on earth that you could literally get away with wearing anything you wanted.
00:04:33
Speaker
pretty much anywhere and no one's gonna bat an eye. And I'm like, what happens if that just flipped the switch and the entire world was that way? Like everybody just wore whatever they want to whatever place like that would be really distracting in some in some. Well, I mean, close wise now, like I was just having this conversation earlier today, I have not understood why a bathing suit is acceptable person like apparel for the regular every day. Like I've just Oh, yeah, no bathing suits everywhere.
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, and they're not even wet. They're just rocking it out of the hotel. Yep. Yep. Just wearing wearing the bathing suit and that's you know, that's how it is. But you do you like like I it's if if the hotel and the establishments are going to allow it.
00:05:22
Speaker
Um, you know, I'm, I'm not going to stop you out of her. I won't. You're not going to see me where a rock and a bathing suit go into a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. The European, you're going to be the European style. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. Of course. I really, yeah, I won't go on a big, I won't go on a big Ferris wheel, but I'm going to wear a European style bathing suit. I would like the beef Wellington and I would like my nuts to be out. That's, that's, that's.
00:05:52
Speaker
Oh, that's the type of beef. Yeah. Like, like, it's just not, it's not going to be me. That's too much. Oh, so we've already gotten there. Five minutes in, you know, I don't know how it always ends up there anyways.
Gambling Lessons and Wins
00:06:11
Speaker
So my gambling budget, Greg was.
00:06:16
Speaker
$20 a day $20 like it's a $10 minimum on blackjack every day of the week shoot not the tables that I find man Where were you at Fremont Street? Like how'd you find how'd you find less than $10 a minimum bet? Well, so I played
00:06:33
Speaker
I played craps for the first time. Really? Yes, yes, yes. So, here's the thing. I played craps, but I wasn't quite comfortable enough, and you're gonna say, of course not, to play on the table with all the people and all the, you know, all the- Oh, you played craps by yourself?
00:06:52
Speaker
I played, well, I played, yes, I played on the little, the ones where you've got the individual machine. So like people sit around it, but you've got your own thing with it. I know, I know you play digital craps. That's what you play. You play digital. There's still a dice that bounces, you know, which people will say, Oh yeah, but Vegas totally waits those dice and it's, it's against your odds and everything else. But we'll, we'll,
00:07:14
Speaker
Oh, so it's still digital, but there's physical dice. Oh, no, there's physical. Yeah, you hit the thing and the thing pops them up and they fly up in the air and they land. So it's not truly digital. There's still a physical element of it. But it's still digital. Like you weren't around a table with a bunch of people putting down chips. Correct. Correct. No, because that's I I am that's that makes me like that gives me a lot of anxiety.
00:07:36
Speaker
Why? What's the anxiety for standing at the table? Well, one, I don't know how to play because I've never played before. I would be more comfortable doing it now because I've played a little bit. Like I know where to put the chips. I don't want to be that moron who's sitting there like, Oh, put the chips in the green part of the carpet. No, no, no, no, sir. Yeah. They're like, they're like, this dude's on a roll. What are you doing? Step away, son. So, you know, I, I wanted to play a version that I could take at my own speed, study the stuff when I tap on
00:08:07
Speaker
You want to put math around craps? No, but when I do the pass line, I want to know what it is that I'm going to win with when I do the pass line. I used YouTube, Greg. I used YouTube to teach me how to play craps.
00:08:22
Speaker
I mean, I'm not like in the casino, you know, I'm not that unprepared in life. I'm not sitting there in the casino like with the YouTube thing. Why won't this? Why won't this? No, no, but you watched it before. You watched it before. Yeah. I watched it before in the hotel room. I'm like, all right, I'm going to learn. Pretty close to buying a book. Like you bought a book to watch, but you watched it on YouTube.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Which, which to be totally honest was pretty quick to pick up like for, for like the more simple stuff, you know, there's, there's some more complex stuff you can get in and odds and you know, percentages and everything else, but for the most part, it was a pretty easy to pick up. And so I, uh, watched my YouTube video. Thought I was an expert threw in 20 bucks, had no clue what I was doing.
00:09:10
Speaker
10 minutes later walked away with $85. Hey, that's not bad. That's not bad. No clue what I was doing.
00:09:17
Speaker
Oh, you had YouTube. You had YouTube expertise. I had YouTube expertise. That's true. So, but like, I didn't know. I was like, Oh man. It was like, you win $15. I'm like, Oh, wait, maybe that wasn't an all man. Well, that was something different. So walked away. That was a, that was day one. I say I had a $20 budget, but if you divide by how much I gambled, I really only gamble 20 more dollars.
00:09:40
Speaker
Technically, no. I played slots one time because I... Well, here's why. It's brilliant what the casinos do now for those of you listening in. The casinos used to, when you would cash out and you'd have
00:10:00
Speaker
$10.27, they give you some coins that would pop out. Now they just give you the ticket for $10 and so you got to go to the cashier. So people just leave those things laying around. They're like 27 cents. I'm not going to go all the way waiting in the line for a 27 cent ticket. Well, I played when I wasn't on the high roller, I played with another $20 of cash money.
00:10:28
Speaker
This time I was like, oh, I know what I'm doing now. That $20 went by real fast. And all of a sudden I ended up with 30 cents on a ticket. And so I'm like, well, I can't, I mean, the minimum bet was like $5. So I'm like, okay, cash out. Took my 30 cents. I'm like, what am I going to do with this 30 cents? I'll find a slot machine.
00:10:52
Speaker
for those listening and again, it's almost impossible to find a slot machine where you can actually even spend the reels with 30 cents nowadays. They're all like 75 cents a dollar, $2. So I go searching around the Link Hotel Casino and I found one. One line bet, 30 cents.
00:11:13
Speaker
So basically Snowball's chance in hell. In hell. Throw that, throw that bad boy in 30 cents, one line, push the button. Boom. You win 10 free spins. The big mini game starts to go up top. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, are you kidding? Well, cause they have my data. They know I just stuck the thing in. I have the ticket. So they know I do how much I just lost and everything. So they're throwing me above one $16.
00:11:42
Speaker
I'm like cash out, cash out, go, go.
Gaming Strategies for Freebies
00:11:47
Speaker
So I literally played slots one time, one line, 30 cents. Now that was a return. That's like some crypto level returns on my investment there. So, so I was only down four bucks for the whole time trip, the whole time trip. And, and then I decided to try to explain since of course I'm a craps expert now.
00:12:13
Speaker
$40 at a YouTube video, I decide to explain to my wife, you know, show her. I'm like, well, let's sit down. They had one of the the house. I'll show you how to play. That 20 bucks went even quicker. I'm talking.
00:12:28
Speaker
nothing happened than seven out every single time. Every single, I'm like, that's how you could lose money. Oh yeah. Really, really fast. Yeah, for sure. You can play forever if you've got enough bankroll and you start to just kind of vacillate in between, you know, it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down, but boy, oh boy, that went first. So ultimately I ended up up like
00:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, 65 bucks. Something like that. That's not bad on your budget. I mean, that's not bad on your budget. I mean, like, well, craps, craps are the best odds. They have the best odds. Yeah. Of Las Vegas games. Yeah. Because it's just the dice, right? Right. And I guess what? Is Blackjack next? And Blackjack's next, right? If you play the rule book, right? Right. And if you play by the cards, if you play the cards, you will do better in Blackjack. So most I've ever lost in Las Vegas
00:13:17
Speaker
Actually, in gambling in general, I've lost a total of $100 gamble. Wow. Look at you. And the most I've ever won is $800. Hope the IRS isn't listening to this podcast. They're going to be like, we've got a- I gamble like you do. I gamble like you do. I don't understand the point of gambling. And the reason that I am willing to bet on Blackjack or any other game is because I want the free drinks.
00:13:45
Speaker
because I figured out the price. I'm like, well, so a $12, a scotch costs $12, right?
00:13:51
Speaker
So that means that they'll bring me a scotch every three hands. If I win on Blackjack, the odds are one and a half, right? Times. Which means that for every three hands I play, I'll win one and a half hands, right? And I get a scotch every three hands. So my thought process is if the bet is $12 or $10, I'm doing better. I've got the ups on the casino. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
So I played a drink. I don't play to win. I played a drink. So like how many scotches can you give me before my money's run out? And if I win money on the table, that's great, but I'm not really playing for the game. I'm playing for the drinks.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah. And they're just hoping that eventually the house will win and that you'll have had so many scotches. You're like, Oh, let's just put a hundred dollars. No, no, I won't because I'm playing $12 scotches. My gamble is $12 scotches. If they gave me chips and said, bet how many scotches that's just slide the scotch across the table. I'll bet the scotch. I'll bet the scotch. I'll go ahead.
00:14:58
Speaker
Imagine you go to a table and like, it's like odd bets. Like, oh, this table is a scotch bedding and this table is like. Gin. We're going to bed gin. Oh, the gin, the gin table at, uh, at the Aria is great. Great. I mean, like it's a big pour.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, I want, I would like two ounces, but I mean, granted on the casino side, I mean, the bottle costs them $35, $40 a bottle. And so they're, I mean, they're obviously jacking up the price of the Scott Jeff bar. But for me, it still costs me $12. It's the same thing with perks, right? Perks at a hotel. They're free.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah, they're free. They're free for the hotel, right? To upgrade your room doesn't cost anything if no one's going to bought that room. Bingo. But to you, that's $100. To you, that's $100. I'd rather play for perks than I play for money because money's just stupid. Oh, man. Yeah, see, I lose.
00:15:55
Speaker
I lose money and I know it's exhilarating when you win. My 30 cents, watching those free spins, I'm like, whoa, getting goosebumps. But I lose 20 bucks. I'm like, man, I could have had an eighth of an appetizer here. Right, yeah, yeah. So slots get you hooked. I mean, it's a game, right? Let's be honest. There's always a chance you're going to win big.
00:16:17
Speaker
Right. But it's a game you're playing for the game. And if you're having fun doing it, if you're enjoying it, here's the part that I trip out at slot machines, you always see that old lady who's in there.
00:16:28
Speaker
I've been here since 6 a.m. I've been up and down the whole time I've been here. Yeah, I don't know why I'm here. Like, I just come here, I get the joy of my family, doesn't want to visit me. I just sit here to play the game and the slots. This is what we're here for. And I trip out of those people because, like, to me, I'd rather be doing anything else other than playing slot machines.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, because you're just like, just pushing the button. It's not even like you're enjoying the stuff. But there's moments, I mean, there's moments where the game is really fun. And like, you like see all the reels hit, and you're like, wow, dude, we're gonna play the mini game and it spins. And there's moments, it's exciting. But you got to remember, you're playing with real frickin money. Like you're playing with your money. If you like, if you like that piece, there's a bunch of free mobile games that fake credits, you know, that you can you can play all day long.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'd rather you be like, okay, if you win tonight, you get free tickets to, you get tickets, not even free. If you play, we guarantee you at $180, if you bet $180, we'll give you tickets to the Bellagios O. And I'd be like, cool, let's play this slot machine. Let's do this, yeah, it's gonna be fun. Cuz I'm gonna buy tickets anyway, we'll just play, see what happens. And if I win, great, if I don't win, great, I still get $180 tickets to the Bellagios O.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, and that's why people that are spending a crazy amount of money get these different statuses. Yeah. I don't even think I'm a gemstone status, Greg. I don't even think I'm like Pearl or something. I don't know. They've got these funny names for it. You end up being noir.
00:18:12
Speaker
Like yeah yeah diamond at caesar's palace platinum or whatever yeah yeah you get all this stuff and they're like you're like um dusted off charcoal right now like you could be diamond one day with enough pressure i.e on your wallet but yeah but that's why comp status never really made sense to me i don't understand the joy of
00:18:34
Speaker
the free stuff you get in Las Vegas, because it's not free, you paid for it. I'd rather just pay for it. Right. So I say my status on an airline, I got like you get status on an airline, you get platinum, maybe you get upgraded on a two hour flight. But let's be honest status status for me is stupid. Like it's only great when I'm at a Marriott or a hotel where they got a lot of free rooms and you get upgraded to a bigger room. That's fantastic. But overall, you're paying for that status. You're paying for that.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's a quality of life improvement that I'm looking for at the status, but nothing's free, especially in Vegas. And the house definitely wins. But people love that. I mean, they love to get status on Vegas slot
Data and Ethics in Casinos
00:19:17
Speaker
machines. They love to get it. But if you did the math on it, the status that they're giving you is nothing compared to what you put in that machine. Oh, yeah. The ads where they're like, every $100 you lose will give you $20 in free slot credits. I'm like, yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
So you can lose that too. Yeah. Right. Because so to keep you playing also, but that's the, that's the strategy. And it would be very interesting to me for like.
00:19:43
Speaker
you're a data guy, but to understand all the data behind like every little thing because you know, like when you press cash out and you get that ticket, it's got that barcode. Oh, I wanted that. They have you. They have your life. They have your life. I wanted to do behavioral analytics for Las Vegas casinos. That's what that was like. If you look at sociological dreams, one of the dreams you'd have is like how to do behavioral analytics on vices.
00:20:08
Speaker
Like because... I mean, look, we did it at the company we were at, right? Like I was doing measurements on how much people spent at the gas station determined if they were smoking cigarettes or not. Like there's just... there's a plethora of data. If you can use it to your advantage as an organization, that's what you want to do. The thing is that I didn't want to be in the manipulation business, which is what I found out more often than not is that people don't want to use the information for good.
00:20:32
Speaker
They want to use it for how to manipulate you to spend more money. How can I make it more beneficial for me and worse for you slash humankind? And I am still a glass half full guy and I think there's a way to use data for the benefit of everyone.
00:20:49
Speaker
Um, but yeah, you're right. There's some, there's some organizations and some, some industries, I would say industry, right? That, that they, they benefit from. Yeah. There's like banks and others, but there's no reason for the Vegas casinos to show you on your app for Caesars. Let's say Caesars, right?
00:21:10
Speaker
There's nothing beneficial for Caesars to put on your app, be like, you just spent $15,000 playing slots at Caesars. There's no benefit for them to show you that.
00:21:24
Speaker
They show you tier qualifying points. Oh yes, for sure. Yeah. Because that's gamified. That's gamified of how many points you've accrued. Doesn't mean that 15,000 points you've accrued means you've spent $15,000. They don't want to do that. And they don't want to show you what your loss and win ratio is. They don't want to show you your win ratio is this, your loss ratio is this.
00:21:45
Speaker
There's no incentive to show you what your data is valuable to you. They capture your data. And that's the part that I look at with terms and conditions is that part of me that would love to change the industry for Google and everybody else is not how you're using my data, because I don't really care how you use it. The question is, how is it negatively affecting me of how you're using my data? And that's the part of the conversation I think would be beneficial is if you said, Hey, you just went to Vegas, you spent $10,000 in Vegas.
00:22:16
Speaker
And here's how you spent it. You spent $2,000 on food, $1,000 on a hotel, and you spent $12,000 on gambling. And they'd be like, what?
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, what am I doing with my life but but that's but yeah, and that's I got all kind I got all kinds of thoughts about terms and conditions but that'll that'll get real boring real fast. Well, not for us but you know, no, I mean that but that's it. I mean, that's the secret to the secret to human condition is anything why
00:22:50
Speaker
if you want the world to look differently as a big corporation versus life, is the big corporation has to stop being a big corporation and start being human. Yes. And I think, yeah. Which is very difficult for a big corporation to do when you have that many personalities and humans running a big corporation, because they all, you're incentivized and you're motivated by different things, so. Yeah, I mean, that's a place that's entirely motivated by money. How much money can I take out of your pocket?
00:23:18
Speaker
And I wonder if Vegas would be a lot more fun place to go.
Vacation Budgeting and All-Inclusive Temptations
00:23:23
Speaker
If you just put a message on there that says, you put a number in. Disney would be the same way, right? I listen to one of our old podcasts where we talk about Disney and consistency and everything else. And I was thinking about those conversations. If you put down and said, hey,
00:23:35
Speaker
That's why I love the Disney food plan. That's why I like those things. It says, hey, I spent $5,000. Here's what I got. I got a hotel room. I got tickets to Disney and I got this food all the time. I know that this trip is going to cost me $5,000. Everything else I buy from now.
00:23:49
Speaker
So every stuffed animal, every t-shirt, everything else, that's extra over the top. What I think is problematic with why vacations are hard for Americans to take and want to do again is because they find themselves in that situation where they're looking at their money and going,
00:24:07
Speaker
So the trip was $400 to get there. It was $500 for the hotel. That's not too expensive. But then you add in the food. Food every day. Right. And it's why inclusive resorts are getting a lot more pressed these days and why people want to go on cruises. If American industry wants to get involved with having the American consumer come to visit them, they need to be able to separate and be able to create these all inclusive vacations. Can you imagine?
00:24:33
Speaker
an all-inclusive Vegas trip where you're given credits of things but you're given like you get this many drinks like a meal plant you get this many drinks you get this many buffets you get this this and this well well you could get gambling so in gambling perspective you could do it that way right like so you could say hey you get this much food and this much hotel and this much whatever and this many shows
00:24:54
Speaker
whatever you gamble, we'll give you drinks on top of that. We'll give you other things on top of it. But the rest of the vacation is covered. And I think for what you probably saw in Vegas, I'm pretty sure that that would have made more sense for the American than say what you ended up doing. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because when I budget trips back to your previous point, I always do. I have a hotel.
00:25:23
Speaker
I have flight, and then I have my daily like food budget, and then I have the activities, you know, the excursions, if you will, that you do. And I always, like the hidden cost, well, with Vegas, it's not hidden, the prices of things, like the prices of food, like inflation, ooh, it's, it's hit. And it's, I mean, but when, when a burger is $29, you better be prepared mentally, like when you go on your vacation,
00:25:51
Speaker
Here's my budget for those things. Well, I think like our trip, right? The one that's coming up, like we booked most of the things we're going to do already. Like we already know what the hotel costs. We know the flight. The flight's already paid for, right? So we know what the flight costs. And we've already booked most of our excursions. The only thing left to pay for is daily food and a couple other things here and there.
00:26:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But again, we're budget conscious individuals. And when you look at the American vacation, the reason why people are getting themselves into hard situations with vacations is because they're not able to do that math.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yes. And, and they don't, and, and part of vacation is I don't want to have to deal with that. It's a getaway. That's right. It's a getaway. It's a getaway from your everyday. It's a getaway from the financial strain that you have because you put that aside, I'm going to go use that. I'm going to spend, I'm going to have fun. And, and I think the, the, the misnomer is that you can't have fun if you've budgeted things and everything else, which isn't true. I had a blast and I would actually have had less fun had I not known
00:26:55
Speaker
where my money was going now there was there was a moment we went to once again not a promotion but we went to Martha Stewart's restaurant the Bedford apparently Snoop Dogg visited right after opening and checked it out it was all it'd been like two weeks
00:27:10
Speaker
And I was looking at the prices on that menu and my wife was giving me crap. She's like, stop looking at the prices. You're going for the experience. That's true. And I'm like, and I'm like, uh, and, and this is, this, this was my reasoning. I said, it was an unknown had I known because after the fact, it was a great experience. The food was excellent. I really enjoyed it. It was worth the prices to me because it was worth the experience, but going in there,
00:27:41
Speaker
I mean, it could have been awful. And then it like multiplies how bad it was, you know, with the prices. So that's why like, that's always something me that like, I have to get over that you pay for the experience and the memory of it. And that's what you're but but I think that's I think that's the part of it. Like I remember so two weeks ago, an opportunity to go out and spend $180 on a Tuesday night on Tuesday.
00:28:11
Speaker
and drank way more tequila than I think I've drank out in public before. But that night, with the music that played on a playlist, they were playing obscure reggae songs that I listened to on my playlist. They were playing at the restaurant. And the company I was with and the experience that I had, all the way around, that's the pinnacle of what I spent that money on.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was why it was worth it. Right. And and honestly, that shouldn't have cost that much because it was like happy hour prices on shit. But the part of it that made it special, the money didn't matter. But now the money does matter because now I judge every other place by what the price of the receipt is because I go, yeah, was this the same event that I had two weeks ago?
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah. You now have a barometer and you're like less or more, less or more. And you're like right sizing things. And you have to look at the unique situation and the time and place, but that's, that's exactly my point. I'm like, now I'm going to judge other Vegas restaurants and other things. I'm glad it was the last one or the second to last one we went to because buddy, had I gone to Gordon Ramsey burger after that would have worked out.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's the lesson that I would teach anybody about going out and doing things is be mindful of your experiences, the value of those experiences, because it's not the money itself, it's what that money equates to for experience.
Balancing Fun and Budget in Vegas
00:29:42
Speaker
And we all have a number in our mind with what we're willing to spend. I mean, shoot, there's plenty of dive bars I've gone to and spent $30 and had more of a blast there than I have at fancy restaurants.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. But when you look for experience experience, we're talking about level to level, if you go to a place and it looks the same, when you walk out of there and that receipt comes, if that receipt looks to you suspect for what the experience you had the lack of the likelihood of you going back there is slim to none.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah, and that's all relative to your income, to your budget. Completely. It's a lot of factors. Well, speaking of interesting experiences. I mean, Vegas is always changing. I chatted with you about this a little bit when you found out we were going to Vegas, and you're like, I haven't been in years. I'm like, oh, things changed.
00:30:32
Speaker
there's there's a new grouping of hotels like near circus circus and you're like oh god here we go um called resort resorts world or resort world or something and it's like three i think they're hilton hotels branded but they're like the the crockford and all these other
00:30:49
Speaker
you know, different named hotels. We're like, we had some time to kill. We're like, well, let's go check it out and see. So we go there, because I mean, they're brand new hotels. They always like pull out all the stops, you know, they pump in all like the, you know, the nice scented stuff and everything. So we walk in and I'm in the lobby, nothing sus, you know, just pretty, pretty simple. We start walking into, and it's kind of like an indoor mall type of thing that connects all of the different casinos and hotels.
00:31:20
Speaker
And I start seeing more and more people wearing darker and darker clothing with more and more tattoos and piercings. And this is Vegas. And I'm like, well, I don't really think anything about it. And then it starts as an avid
00:31:40
Speaker
hard rock and heavy metal listener, I start to notice the t-shirts and I'm like, okay, you know, acid witch suicidal tendencies, you know, not necessarily mainstream metal bands. I'm like, okay, something's going on here. And I round the corner and I see a sign for psycho Las Vegas.
00:32:06
Speaker
which I quickly Google, one, wondering why did I not know about this? And two, what is this? It was a three day heavy metal festival. And I'm talking heavy metal, like, like death metal, death metal, black metal, we're talking
00:32:23
Speaker
hardcore stuff. Greg, we walked by one of what normally was a beach club or a day club, and you can hear behind closed doors, you can hear the
00:32:38
Speaker
Like you can hear it and like the pounding. Um, but oh, but, but it gets better. One, one, I'm like walking around and I'm telling my wife, like, I'm like smiling. She's like, why are you smiling? Like I'm amongst my people. You have no piercings and no tent. You're around your people.
00:33:03
Speaker
from a, and then I realize I'm, you know, when you think you enjoy something and you think you're into something and then you find the people that are really into that and you're like, I'm, you're a casual listener. I'm a casual listener. So it helped me. I had a, I had a bit of a moment sitting
00:33:26
Speaker
while my wife ordered boba tea in the middle of a mall, while there was people on a makeshift stage, practically moshing in the middle of a mall. I realized I'm a casual listener. Like, I mean, like, and, and so then of course, naturally I had to,
00:33:57
Speaker
I had to go back and make up for that by later on after we got home, slowly stepping my wife through the In Flames discography on how their style and vocals and production has changed over the years. And by the time I got to album like 12,
00:34:22
Speaker
She's like, I think we're good. And it's like, are you trying to like flex on me now about how much melodic Swedish death metal you know? And I'm like, I just, I'm a little bit more than the casual listener. I know some things. I've met them. You just said melodic Swedish death metal. Yes. Yes. Look it up.
00:34:50
Speaker
I highly recommend their older stuff. I mean, Clayman's excellent. But yeah, so Psycho Las Vegas, I did not know about this, and I'll be honest, I... Do you think it'll go? What's that? Do you think it'll go next year? No. We considered going to a Swedish house mafia set, playing at the win. Remember, I'm...
00:35:21
Speaker
I might not be in my seventies, but I'm pretty much a 70 year old man. I don't think 70 year olds like Swedish house mafia. I mean, that's okay. Well, okay. Here's why. Here's why we look at it. I actually know this is, I think even somebody in their thirties or forties would agree with this.
00:35:39
Speaker
we look and we're like, Hey, let's get tickets. Like I hear good things about Swedish. I know we just went from Swedish death metal to Swedish House Mafia. I hope everybody loves it. Good dance music. I mean, it's dance music. EDM. EDM at his best. Yeah. EDM at his best. So look it up. They're playing Friday night. We're like, Ooh, we're gonna have to stay up late, which usually I go to bed before most Swedish House Mafia isn't going on until one.
00:36:06
Speaker
We're like, ooh, 10 p.m. Oh no, that's when the opener starts. You guessed it, Greg. 1 a.m. is when they come on until 4 a.m. My quote I made was, honey, that's the next day.
Modern vs. Traditional DJing
00:36:23
Speaker
I was like, wait, that's the most old person ever.
00:36:30
Speaker
You want to go out? Sure. When do we get back? The next day? Hard pass. Hard pass. You wouldn't have made it. You wouldn't have made it. So we didn't go to Swedish House Mafia. Marshmello was playing, which I think it's fun telling my parents about Swedish House Mafia and Marshmello. What? Do they play music or is it a food place?
00:36:58
Speaker
The trip out for me is that I watch these DJs on the internet, right? We watch them on YouTube. They don't even DJ anymore. They just press buttons on the machine. Because the Pioneer has invented CD players that no longer are CD players. Apparently, they're just spin wheels that tie to a computer that they just cut samples out and then press the buttons of the next song they want to play. Yeah, so it's not you lose a little bit of that appeal
00:37:25
Speaker
They just jump up and down and then press the next button for the next song. They're hype people. Yeah, that's all it is. They're hype men and women. That's all they are now. Well, because they're not real DJs. I think most of them came up playing with Fruity Loops. Like they don't actually are real DJs. I mean, they're not what I grew up with and not what I did.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You heard it first, folks. Greg is throwing down with today's DJs that he's the OG. No, no, no. I am not the OG. There are plenty of OGs that are way better than I ever was. It's not that. It's just a DJ's job is to line up songs and basically put them in position. It's different now. These are artists that made music who can't play it live because they don't actually have
00:38:09
Speaker
They have the same talent I have, which is I produce music, but I don't know how to play keyboards. I just press buttons and it makes music. So, yeah. And there's a level of skill there. It's just a different type of skill. It doesn't play the live. It doesn't play the live music anymore. So you see these guys just press buttons.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. And I will say quick plug for one of my wife and I's friends who still uses legit turntables and vinyl and does all that. You can look up sound swivel on Twitch. Sound swivel? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's on Twitch. He doesn't even do SoundCloud. He has a Twitch. He's got a Twitch. So he does video games and DJ.
00:38:50
Speaker
nope nope nope just just just for fun just just like our podcast just recreational stuff but um i enjoy stuff he does like he does like house and trance stuff and it's really it's really good and i i was talking to him but he goes man i spend way too much money on like
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't vital and stuff like new releases and samples and stuff like people send and I'm like, I never even thought about if you truly want to do it legit and mix stuff. And like, it's very expensive. I just spend 100 $150 on records a week man when I was in college.
00:39:25
Speaker
Like, man, I mean, that's not equipment. That's not whatever. I used to spend that much money on buying records to just to spin the record. So yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So so Greg, we're we're we're way over our normal time, which is all right.
Pinball Passion Ignited
00:39:41
Speaker
We do this sometimes, you know, hey, man, you had a big vacation, man. It was fun.
00:39:46
Speaker
Oh, man, I went to I played. I played pinball for one of the first I know, one of the first times and we've talked about you're the big pinball guy. It was man, I see the appeal. Oh, dude, it's awesome. Oh, man, that's fun. So like, I'm, I'm like, then I'm like, googly, like, look at my pinball machines. I'm like, Oh, nope. Nope. No, you need a virtual pinball machine that costs you $1,000 at most.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's small. That just sits right behind you where you are right now, right by the front door. Oh, yeah, that'll be a good look at work. I can turn my video on and like have the pinball machine like behind me. They'd be like, what's that in the background there? Why is your turn off your blur? It's virtual pinball. Get it right. It's Grateful Dead pinball. Get it right. You know?
00:40:34
Speaker
you're playing the kiss pinball machine if you if you uh before before we close out here i will say the vegas trip was a ton of fun i still am i'm still amazed at how much you can do in vegas every time you go whether it's food whether it's different i mean we went to this place called meow wolf
Vegas: More Than Just Gambling?
00:40:59
Speaker
which is probably a whole nother topic, which is where the the arcade bar was. We went to an immersive one of the like the Van Gogh things. We went to the exhibit. It was it was a ton of fun, but I'm still I highly recommend like you can if you don't gamble, you can actually get a lot for your money in Vegas or you just got a budget for the food. Oh, yeah. So wreck you. So Ross, we'll lead into that next week. We'll we'll add it into our discussions about
00:41:27
Speaker
retirement and life and how to spend your money in the days in which you have nothing else but life responsibilities to deal with. Yes. Baller retirement versus budget retirement. Yes.
00:41:42
Speaker
That's our title for next week. Next episode is Baller versus Budget Retirement. Baller versus Budget Retirement. I like it. I like it. Man, that leaves people hanging. That's a cliffhanger right there. They're going to want to join in. Baller versus Budget Retirement. Tips from two guys who aren't even close to retirement, telling you about how to retire on a budget. We've brought in zero experts at all.
00:42:13
Speaker
I'm sure that'll really pull people up. That's fantastic. Listenership is going to skyrocket. All right, Greg. Well, as always, it was, it was great chatting with you. I'm going to go have some dinner. It's time to eat dinner because I'm an old man and it's like five o'clock. So, you know, what's the, what's the senior special at the Luby's? At the Luby's. Sounds good, Ross. All right. Take care, Greg. Bye. Bye.
00:42:43
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared. Join us again next time as we continue to meander through random topics at a pace defined by our mood, the weather, and what happened five minutes earlier.