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Bidets, Goal Updates, and Taking back Spending  image

Bidets, Goal Updates, and Taking back Spending

Late Stage Evolution
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8 Plays4 months ago

Brian and Dave give an update on "being present" and how Brian has dealt with his family being away for a couple weeks. Dave speaks about how a bidet might be his great purchase. To wrap up Brian and Dave speak about the economy and the changes they have made to their spending. 

Transcript

Introductions and Episode Theme

00:00:01
David Isaacs
Hello everyone. It March 5th, 2025. I'm here with b Brian.
00:00:10
Big Dog
What's up, everybody? Welcome to our latest episode of our podcast where we try to figure it out so you don't have to.
00:00:18
David Isaacs
Yeah, we're, we're getting there.

Brian's Solo Adventures

00:00:21
David Isaacs
I think, I don't know as far as where we've gotten in the progress bar for figuring things out or if we'll ever get there, but we're certainly trying and this week yeah we're just gonna update a little bit about kind of the balancing of things and where we're at uh i know you're you're missing your wife and son last couple weeks brian do you want to talk about that and kind of that change
00:00:50
Big Dog
Yeah, they left me, um unfortunately. No, I'm just kidding.
00:00:53
David Isaacs
it went out for milk milk and your son went out for cigarettes and hasn't been back
00:00:58
Big Dog
Yeah, then my wife kind of, you know, ah happens to be once, shame on you. Happens to me twice, a shame on you again. Okay. A little George Bush reference for you folks who are younger generation.
00:01:11
Big Dog
um yeah, they went on vacation like two weeks ago. So they' they'll be back this Sunday, but it's been hard, you know, just going to work, ah waking up, having to be responsible for my own meals.
00:01:26
Big Dog
You know, it's hard enough being responsible for wiping my own ass, I guess, you I'm a bit of a man child at times. So
00:01:35
Big Dog
it kind of took me out of my routine a little bit, you know, it's like, wake up, watch my wife turn her alarm clock off for like the 17th time, shower, go to work, come back, pick up my son, you know, play with him, keep him busy until my wife gets home, then dinner and, you know, get the ball rolling and try to have enough energy to stay awake past nine o'clock at night.
00:02:03
Big Dog
So, It's been tough, but, you know, also on the flip side of that, I've been able to play a shitload of video games. Like, just putting in all the modern hours into Madden.
00:02:17
Big Dog
um That's what I feel like felt like playing lately. I guess I'm just, like, ramping up for next week for the league year to start. um You know, winning championships with the Lions like they should have this season, but, know, still not salty about that, i promise.
00:02:33
Big Dog
And hanging out with friends, like I once saw Winter Soldier, or I'm sorry, the Captain America 4. it was this okay.
00:02:41
David Isaacs
Yeah, I was at...
00:02:43
Big Dog
It wasn't good. It wasn't great. It felt like old school Marvel a bit, ah as you know Anthony Mackie calls it classic before It was...
00:02:56
Big Dog
it was think like an hour and 40 minutes. So it was pretty short. um Kind of saved their budget for big action pieces. There wasn't really anything, don't know, new that they added to the lore or anything. Obviously there's, you know, a character kind of but makes a big appearance. Won't spoil that.
00:03:21
Big Dog
But it wasn't really anything you weren't expecting. So overall, good, good movie. ah I give it like a six out of 10. good popcorn movie
00:03:30
David Isaacs
Yeah, like just one of those classic action movies that maybe the critics don't enjoy as much, but general audiences should be able to enjoy it
00:03:40
Big Dog
yeah for sure and again it's not anything to uh it's not like some of the movies that won the oscars this past week it's not like the brutalists right there's no sort of undertones or or uh theme that they're sticking to it's kind of just a generic action movie so um uh and then i'm this weekend i'm going to a comedy show in pontiac which is uh about 20 minutes from my house uh it's a they've
00:04:11
Big Dog
favorite comedy duo, it's called Are You Garbage. You can follow them on Spotify or YouTube. They got plenty of comedy specials and podcast episodes out, but just a good time. They play are You Garbage kind of live with the crowd, so it's not just... It's kind of an interactive comedy show at times.
00:04:29
Big Dog
And then I'm also playing Magic the Gathering with some friends on Sunday, so, you know, yeah, keeping
00:04:37
David Isaacs
Nice.

Affordable Local Entertainment Options

00:04:39
Big Dog
keeping busy.
00:04:39
Big Dog
That's... what's been kind of keeping my um normal amount of depression away. So I'm missing them. Let's do it with you, David.
00:04:48
David Isaacs
Yeah, so as like well is well, has that kind of changed? So as far as balancing like the goals that you have, so now with having more free time, I think you had mentioned before that you were like really busy and you were just taking time to kind of decompress.
00:05:03
David Isaacs
But has that affected? Like, I know you still have some freelance stuff that you're working on and your weight loss stuff. So with making your own meals and kind of like work, are you still balancing that in there?
00:05:16
David Isaacs
Or has it gotten to, has it kind of just thrown you out of whack of the normal routine? So it's been harder to stay on task.
00:05:27
Big Dog
Yeah, the first, like, week or so, I was pretty busy, so was able to keep myself on task, but this, like, last week or so, I've, maybe the last five days, really, I've kind of just, you know, hung out on the couch for what felt like all day Saturday. Went to a roller derby tournament. That was kind of cool.
00:05:50
Big Dog
ah
00:05:51
David Isaacs
Roller Derby tournament?
00:05:52
Big Dog
Yeah, those are sorry, not a tournament, but, like, a game.
00:05:53
David Isaacs
OK.
00:05:55
Big Dog
Uh, my coworkers ah skates for Flint. the They don't have like a mascot or anything like that. But it was kind of, it was a, I open experience was kind of an underwhelming term. i would actually use beautifully chaotic. Like I didn't know what was going on. I'm pretty good at picking up on like sports terms, plays, you know, this had no idea what was going on. it was kind of like,
00:06:26
Big Dog
seeing a ah ufo like i i can't really describe what i saw you know maybe no one even no one will even believe me that i actually went and and did it much like a ufo but uh if you do have a chance to go to some local derby tournament uh or game go go do it it's it's a fun time you could do worse things with ten dollars
00:06:51
David Isaacs
Yeah, I didn't even know those still existed. thought that was always like a type deal. type deal
00:06:59
Big Dog
Yeah, it's kind of starting to get popular. I mean, I know there's that Elliot Page movie that came out. think like Whiplash or something. thing It like was filmed.
00:07:13
David Isaacs
Whiplash is the J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller movie. movie
00:07:17
Big Dog
Oh, yeah. um I'll look it up. but yeah it's a I think they kind of reinvigorated Derby in some fashion. It's kind of like a underground now almost like it kind of feels like old school wrestling like she carries like physical tickets on her at all times i think she gets a commission for doing it um all the money are the majority of the money that they all get back just really goes back into the derby team itself like they do fundraisers all the time but you know it's in a literal roller rink it's not like it's you know at like the palace or lca or anything like that uh
00:07:56
David Isaacs
Well, it's not it's not where you go, you know, like a skating rink, like roller skating rink. It's not the same as that they have a track that they have to follow, right? and
00:08:07
Big Dog
ah they just From what I saw, they already had that at that particular skating rink, but if they were to do like you know like an actual one, and I'm sure they would just probably tape it off.
00:08:21
Big Dog
So I guess there's some amount of interest in the Flint area for Roller Derby because it was actually imprinted on the rink itself.
00:08:21
David Isaacs
Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:33
David Isaacs
Yeah, well, that goes back to what we had talked about before with going to different events that might not cost a lot or just new experiences and kind of just being open to new experiences because they're going to cost you less.
00:08:47
David Isaacs
You know, there's the whole thing with the Lions tickets right now and the price raises and them getting rid of people that hadn't been to games in however many years and There are people that had season tickets since the 90s, and i remember like the story of a guy that had eight season tickets in one row, but he would sell them to be able to get enough money to buy himself like premium seats at the 50-yard line, and they'd gotten rid of him, even though the Lions work with Ticketmaster and Ticket Brokerages to sell seats to them, which they then sell to other people, but they just don't want...
00:09:27
David Isaacs
just regular people being able to do that, which is crazy. Uh, but that just kind of comes back to the whole thing with the supply and demand of, yeah, now the team's good.
00:09:38
David Isaacs
Now people want to come and watch. We sell out all the time. So we really have, we can really dictate who is allowed to have season tickets. Instead you could go a soccer game. You can go to roller derby or ah comedy show or whatever else.
00:09:57
David Isaacs
don't to worry about it as much because they're just appreciative that people show up and support them.

Balancing Personal Goals and Social Activities

00:10:04
Big Dog
Yeah, exactly. I mean, with, so my roller derby ticket was $10, you know, or otherwise would have like $12 at the door, or it's $12, I'm sorry, it was $12, and then it would be $15 at the door, but um even with my, and then with the comedy shows, it's like $40 after fees, so I spent, you know, about $52 in two different events, right? Like, i mean, that's not even, it's not even enough to get you in the door you know, most major sporting events, you might be able to get like, you know, NBA or, or NHL, maybe, you know, some of the, or I guess maybe a baseball game. But my, my point is that I'm able to do multiple things for <unk> around $50, you know, not including any other expenses.
00:10:51
Big Dog
Um, that's almost unheard of. So, um,
00:10:54
David Isaacs
Yeah. And our mutual friend, Swadley, I had convinced him to go to this hardcore show last Friday, which ended up having to skip because working that painting job.
00:11:07
David Isaacs
But he went and I got, you know, kind of his takeaways from it because there was one band he really wanted to see and he saw them he thought they were great. And what's interesting like when you go there, you don't really know what kind of crowd that you're going to get and So he had called it The Crop.
00:11:23
David Isaacs
And he's like, the crop there was kind of kind of weird. Because you don't know. There's one corn slipknot. like You kind of know what you're getting into. kind of the people that seem to have lived in their parents' basement their entire lives.
00:11:39
David Isaacs
So that's how I would... It's hard to visualize, but yeah those are the type of people that frequent those shows, like have been fans for however long. But with different bands or different styles of music, especially up-and-coming artists in a specific genre, it's very hit or miss as to what crop of people that you're going get to show up.
00:12:02
David Isaacs
Because there's like a different... group of people that show up for most of the death metal shows that come around. So there's going different ones for hardcore bands that are coming around and are coming up and,
00:12:15
David Isaacs
Yeah, it's just interesting because we're going to see Poppy here in a few weeks. And she had just released more of a metal album.
00:12:26
David Isaacs
So it'll be interesting for we show up and what kind of crop of people that are going to be there. So sometimes it's not even about the show. Sometimes it's, you know, the people watching and that could be part of it, too. so just having those shared experiences or just going out by yourself and doing these things like, yeah, instead you would have been doing what?
00:12:49
David Isaacs
Sitting at home playing Madden. Like, you know, there's always going to be times for the decompressing and kind of taking time for yourself, which I do agree is important, especially when you're overworked and what have you.
00:13:03
David Isaacs
i mean, especially with me and the last couple of weeks just being so busy that I've kind of neglected some of the goals that I had had or the goals that I did set for myself, especially with the standing desk and walking pad like getting 10,000 steps in a day, ah been able to accomplish that.
00:13:23
David Isaacs
Problem is sometimes with the painting job, I left my phone out of my pocket so I wasn't tracking my steps and then you open it up and it's pretty deflating because you don't have that sense of like that tracking, that sense of accomplishment you get because phone wasn't tracking your steps to be able to account for your goals. And yeah, and it's a whole thing, but just, you know the last weekend, uh, our mutual friend, Eric, or I don't know if you would consider him a friend, but he's my friend. Uh,
00:13:54
Big Dog
I like Eric. He said he wanted to be my friend. Maybe he said that as, a you know, just to be nice. But I like Eric. You know, got nothing against the guy.
00:14:00
David Isaacs
yeah. Yeah. But yeah, sign us up for this job that was taking a lot longer than we initially anticipated. So kind of to put in some overtime ah over the weekend. So I think it was about 24 hours between Friday, Saturday and Sunday altogether just doing that.
00:14:17
David Isaacs
So the last Monday and Tuesday, i was like pretty tired to the point where not even well physically, obviously, but also mentally.
00:14:28
David Isaacs
And it was weird. I came back home and I look and there's a piece of molding that had like paint scuffed up on it. I'm like, oh fuck, I got i gotta to make a note of this.
00:14:35
Big Dog
you
00:14:36
David Isaacs
I gotta come back and fix this. Like client's gonna be pissed. Like my my mind had just been molded into like work mode and I had become a painter for an entire weekend. and But it was a lot of fun. I mean, I've seen a tweet before where someone's like, they should have jobs where it's four hours of coding and then four hours of packing boxes.
00:14:57
David Isaacs
Like that's kind of what I was getting into with the, on Friday, especially doing my work, you know, emails, chat messages, Excel, looking at data and then drive to the site and I'm scrubbing walls and next year's playing music and you look up and next thing you know, it's nine o'clock, it's time to go.
00:15:16
David Isaacs
Like it's,
00:15:19
Big Dog
Little left brain, little right brain action, you know, works both sides of it, right?
00:15:23
David Isaacs
Yeah, guess, you know, coming up with different solutions to the problems that you face, like how we had talked about. either last week or the week before is kind of the knowledge and experience that you have when you do things. But when you first start out, it's like, OK, well, we didn't think about this. We didn't account for that. And you have to think about, OK, what's the next step? What do we want to do next? Or how do we solve this problem?
00:15:48
David Isaacs
Who's going to solve it? Well, somebody else is working. How do we, you know, so it's a lot of like good communication instead of being in an office where I'm waiting on an email from an external partner or I'm having a meeting with somebody that's in California.
00:16:04
David Isaacs
It's like everyone that's there in the moment, you're working together. yeah have a question you can ask right away or you're wondering what to do next. You just kind of huddle together and bounce ah ideas off each other and then you go and get it done.
00:16:18
David Isaacs
So yeah, I mean, I wouldn't mind doing that more often, but I can definitely see like kind of the wear and tear that happens from doing that for however many years. Because Eric's dad was there with us, Keith, and he had been a painter forever.
00:16:32
David Isaacs
So like, I can, I can tell like he, he probably doesn't like, he probably wasn't having as much fun as we usually do. He probably just thought it was just another job that he had to do. but ah yeah I quite enjoyed it so that's the other thing about like these experiences and whatnot I wouldn't agree to help people move because that sucks and i have i have I have agreed to do it before but if you're like hey we're we're painting if you want to come help out we'll wear a pizza get beer I'm like yeah fuck yeah
00:16:54
Big Dog
yeah. yeah
00:17:05
Big Dog
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pizza and beer is definitely worth painting, right? I mean, especially because, like, I find myself whenever I paint, um I always, like, find muscles that are sore, so it's like, oh, cool, I need to work that out at the gym next time.
00:17:10
David Isaacs
yeah
00:17:18
Big Dog
Yeah.
00:17:18
David Isaacs
i'm I'm telling you. I'm telling you. When i I went to the Golf Simulator League yesterday, and that like the bottom of my lats from like going up and down with the roller like this were sore.
00:17:33
Big Dog
Yeah.
00:17:33
David Isaacs
I do lat pulldowns all the time, but I guess I wasn't getting deep down enough to the point where I could paint for however long that I had to over the weekend.
00:17:41
Big Dog
Yeah, do the, oh, sorry, go ahead.
00:17:41
David Isaacs
But I think the...
00:17:45
David Isaacs
I think, yeah, pizza and beer is proper payment for painting. Moving, like, no, you're going to have to pay me.
00:17:53
Big Dog
Yeah, it's like it's like the meme, right? Like, if if you're in the 30s and moving, just pay for a moving company. A slipped disc is not worth pizza and beer.
00:18:01
David Isaacs
No, it's not. And that's, you know, inflation, physical inflation, because the wear and tear I'm having to put on my body. Like, why do you have 12 dressers that we need to move?
00:18:12
David Isaacs
Why are they all up two flights of stairs?
00:18:16
Big Dog
Yeah.
00:18:16
David Isaacs
Like, what what do you have? Why is this one particular piece of furniture so goddamn heavy and so goddamn large and we need to move it? Like, no, I'm not doing that. give me ah Give me a fucking box of clothes. I'll put it in the moving van.
00:18:30
David Isaacs
Like, I'm not helping you get a couch and have to pivot it around some stairs to get it out the door. Like, I and i would never ask anyone else to do that. I would feel way too bad. without actually paying them to do it. Like, cause I'm not doing it for pizza and beer.
00:18:47
Big Dog
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. and always like I'm a bigger guy. It doesn't mean I'm like the strongest person in the guys. I'm always the first up to be volunteered to help someone move into my family. I'm like, fuck off. like I have way better things to do with my time.
00:19:01
Big Dog
Once you're in my direct family whatever, immediate family, um like call or text me an email so I can deny you.
00:19:01
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:19:11
Big Dog
like I'm not doing it.
00:19:13
David Isaacs
Yeah. Yeah. Or like getting signed.
00:19:15
Big Dog
I'm
00:19:16
David Isaacs
Yeah. Getting signed up to do things like, no, there's, there's no chance.
00:19:22
Big Dog
Yeah, like, you know, putting the ah the boundary, if the the mental part of it, mental health part of it. Like, I just don't want to do it. Like, I'll, you know, I'll help my mom and dad out. They don't live far from me. Like, I'll help my brother out. But like, if you're like my first, even if you're my first cousin, it's, it's going to be a, that's no for me, big dog, like, not worth it for me.

Home Improvements and Humorous Insights

00:19:46
David Isaacs
and I feel for like the truck guys too to be around it's like oh yeah dave Brian's got a truck yeah you can come help us out it's like um yeah maybe I'll come drop the truck off yeah like we can switch cars if you want but I'm not sticking around to do this shit
00:20:03
Big Dog
Yeah, i I didn't even think of that one ah when I leased my truck. It wasn't until after people started asking me, I'm like, oh, this is, a this bed is for show. It doesn't actually do anything. In fact, it's probably safer if you just rent a truck.
00:20:20
David Isaacs
Yeah. Yeah. Cars nowadays, I mean, probably not even built to be able to handle that shit. It's like, no, but I'm kind of at my mileage already. And my, you know, my suspension's pretty shitty.
00:20:34
Big Dog
is just They just don't make them like they used to, unfortunately. You know, it's kind of just a glorified sedan. So, um you know, sorry about that. home
00:20:43
David Isaacs
Right. Yeah, I guess back to what we were werere talking about the yeah, I'm starting to be in present little bit more, but it's also kind of made me a little bit more emotional about things and which I think is good.
00:21:02
David Isaacs
Not as stoic, you know, when conversations like not avoiding kind of conflict or arguing in that sense and between the the painting thing that kind of threw a whole wrench in more of my physical activity.
00:21:18
David Isaacs
So I didn't get my steps in Saturday and Sunday, but it's all right because I know I was the one playing music. I had my phone out my pocket, that's fine. And then Monday and Tuesday of this week, I didn't get my steps in either, but that was just because I was recovering. Like my my feet were cold because of how how swollen my legs were, that they were cutting. I felt like they were cutting off circulation of my feet.
00:21:44
David Isaacs
And, you know, I...
00:21:45
Big Dog
I think.
00:21:47
David Isaacs
I need a set of a bed and breakfast. It was a rotten bed and breakfast from McDonald's for me. And that's what I needed. So maybe that's the next business idea.
00:22:00
David Isaacs
People that overwork themselves go and do ah go to one of those places. Yeah, I mean, I haven't been to the gym in a few weeks. yeah I was recovering from being sick.
00:22:11
David Isaacs
And then last couple weeks job something got screwed up so having to dig down and figure out the issues that were coming from that so yeah i mean it's it's not always like oh getting down on myself because i didn't get all my steps or haven't gone to the gym you know life gets in the way and not to say like to continue making excuses like that because i'm not one to like making excuses but Sometimes it just happens.
00:22:41
David Isaacs
Sometimes it's good for you to rot in bed and get McDonald's because you don't want to go to the grocery store because you don't really have the energy after you've been brain dead from painting for so long and being overworked and whatnot.
00:22:54
David Isaacs
So like self love and care also comes into play with that.
00:23:00
Big Dog
Yeah, you need time to yourself to wind down. um think we talked about this earlier. it's just everyone needs downtime. um You know, and taking a ah day, afternoon, or, you know, just a couple hours, couple of minutes, just to kind of like reset yourself goes a long way.
00:23:18
Big Dog
So yeah, I wouldn't feel bad. ah just need to get back into your routine after you, you know, maybe start Monday, right? It's not a goal for going back to the gym on on like a Monday or something, or even if you just go for 15 minutes or 20 minutes at the end of the week, at least you're kind of getting back into it.
00:23:35
Big Dog
It's kind of what I've been doing, you know, waiting for my wife and son to get back home, know, cleaned up the house a bit. um And we're getting some new toilets installed this week.
00:23:45
Big Dog
So, you know, trying to get back into ah reentry into life. So I get it.
00:23:53
David Isaacs
You get in one of those fancy Japanese toilets.
00:23:57
Big Dog
One is a Toto. It's not higher-end Toto. um It's an Ultramax 2, which, you know, I'm sure one of our 15 listeners, if you're a plumber, you know it. It's still pretty good. And eventually I'll order a bidet for it. So going full tater, as the ah the bourbon community would call us with my toilet. want to get, like, every accessory you can think of. I'm obsessed.
00:24:24
Big Dog
Yeah.
00:24:26
David Isaacs
i'll I'll tell you this. bidet - is probably a top five purchase of mine of all time. Like it is far and away. It's paid for itself already time and time again.
00:24:40
David Isaacs
Like sometimes, you know, going in there and it's like i'm wiping a clay pot. you know, I'll go through half a thing of fucking toilet paper sometimes, dude. It's bad. And I know I got to get
00:24:50
Big Dog
Yeah, it's like wiping a marker.
00:24:52
David Isaacs
Yeah, wiping a marker, wiping a clay pot, like just crazy. But I know that has a little bit more to do with my diet, and I should focus on that. But one thing at a time, like it is just, you know, four four slices of toilet paper and done.
00:25:13
David Isaacs
Done-zo. Like it is great. So i anyone listening, I'd highly, highly recommend getting up a bidet. Like don't knock it till you try it.
00:25:23
Big Dog
yeah i i tried one when i tried one like i said like i just like go up and down home depot but uh my first experience
00:25:31
David Isaacs
You're spreading your spreading your cheeks in Home Depot. and
00:25:35
Big Dog
dude that's why i'm banned from home depot didn't i tell you that okay um i would just go i just i had to really go to the bathroom so i just used the sample toilets on the floor i got escorted i got escorted like ah arnold schwarzenegger and uh
00:25:45
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:25:51
David Isaacs
What did I do wrong? What the fuck?
00:25:52
Big Dog
what the fuck did I do wrong?
00:25:57
Big Dog
What is that? Oh, a total recall. Yeah. Like I, like being escorted by security.
00:25:59
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:26:03
Big Dog
Um, but yeah, uh, the first experience with a, uh, but Dave and it was total was at a hotel in Hawaii. It's a very nice Hilton.
00:26:15
Big Dog
Uh, and this, this total toilet, like I wanted to rip it out of the wall. I was in love. Like, it It did all the things that really did it for me. so i've been It's been on my in the back of my head. like When I was going buy a home, i was going to get a bidet. But, you know, homes are much more expensive.
00:26:37
Big Dog
So it's taken me this long to get to that point. But I'm excited. And, ah you know, i kind of feel a little bit of elitist when it comes to toilet now that I own Toto. Like, that my cheeks won't touch anything else.
00:26:49
Big Dog
So... You know, I just have to hold off poop until I get home.
00:26:55
David Isaacs
on vacation in Florida or something. He's like, no, that's enough for me. I'm I can't do this anywhere except my house. But it it is ah for me too.
00:27:06
David Isaacs
and like if I go out somewhere, I would be staying the night or we go on a bachelor party or destination wedding or something.

Personal and Professional Reflections

00:27:13
David Isaacs
It's like, man, I and just maybe a travel bidet or something because it is it is added so much more to the experience and I yeah live with my mom and I had one installed in like my bathroom because she has the master bedroom that has her own bathroom attached to it.
00:27:30
David Isaacs
And we she has a Halloween party every year for our family. And I was gone doing something came back and she's like, if I had to hear one more fucking word about that bidet, I was going to lose it.
00:27:46
David Isaacs
It's like everyone loved it. And like, I don't, it's kind of weird too. It's like, I don't, it's like clean it, obviously. and cleaned it before I used it after people had been over.
00:27:56
David Isaacs
But yeah, it's just kind of weird. It's like feel violated because of other people using it It's like, oh yeah, Dave.
00:28:03
Big Dog
Yeah. the
00:28:05
David Isaacs
vi Yeah. Great pocket pussy, man. That was a great purchase. Like what, what you talking? What, huh?
00:28:11
Big Dog
David, are you getting insecure because your toilet was seeing other people? did you ask if it was dating a black guy?
00:28:20
David Isaacs
No, it wasn't about that. it was just... I don't know. It's a stream of water cleaning shit off people. Like...
00:28:26
Big Dog
no no, I know.
00:28:29
Big Dog
Bad joke, I guess. Um, But yeah, i I don't even know where we were going with this. I'm completely lost, because now all I'm thinking about is going up and using up a bidet.
00:28:40
David Isaacs
We're just talking about balance in the sense you do more in one area. am i You might revert in some other areas. So it's not exactly like always taking a step forward.
00:28:53
David Isaacs
Like with me, there's... And being present to these things with... you know I'm drinking more... like diet soda instead of just water, drinking more coffee the last few days, eating more fast food instead of actually going to the grocery store because I haven't taken the time. You know, I got laundry piling up in that.
00:29:15
David Isaacs
So I'd like to do is start scheduling out things to do the next day or like, you know, plan for it for the day, but try to get it done for the week, you know, before the start of next week or something.
00:29:28
David Isaacs
But yeah, so just having less energy to kind of do things and now i'm dealing with the repercussions of that. But instead, like I didn't have the mental capacity to play video games, but I've been reading still.
00:29:43
David Isaacs
still walking on my walking pad a little bit, you know, my dog's been sick. So having to clean up after him, make sure he's eating, make sure he goes out and uses the bathroom a lot because he's been having like stomach issues and haven't been able to take him for a walk, which is how I get some of my other steps in. Like, yeah, you can always plan for things, but you're going to have to adapt as you go along the way. Cause one,
00:30:10
David Isaacs
You know, shit happens. That's outside of your control. And two, the things that you are trying to work on and things that you're trying to accomplish, they're just going to show up in bad habits and other areas. You'll revert back to, if you're exercising more, you might revert back to eating.
00:30:28
David Isaacs
unhealthier or if you try to eat healthier, you might not be, you're spending more time cooking. So that time spent doing that is going to take away from some other things. So there's just a ton of examples. So just trying to put some more emphasis on that.
00:30:46
Big Dog
Yeah, it's all, like you said, it's all about finding the the right balance for yourself. Like, I think even when I meal prep, you know, I don't have the greatest knife skills. I'm not bad.
00:30:57
Big Dog
um like, sometimes I'll cut an onion kind of funky. So sometimes I'll get, like, you know, chopped onions from, like, Kroger or whatever just to save a little bit of time. i mean, realistically, i probably save five or ten minutes doing that. But, um you know,
00:31:14
Big Dog
Sometimes it's worth to pay that at little extra cost for the convenience of it on some things. um But I know that that's something I don't exactly enjoy doing.
00:31:27
Big Dog
I'm still getting better, but, you know... But meal prep and really just trying to find balance in anything is always going to be tricky and going to different for everybody.
00:31:41
Big Dog
um Like,
00:31:41
David Isaacs
course.
00:31:42
Big Dog
for... For me right now, it's, like I said, was, I kind of had like the, we'll say bachelor kind of four or five days, even, even longer where I was just really wasn't doing anything. I was, I was eating fast food, which I definitely should not be, but I, I didn't really feel like cooking for myself. You know, I was just, I just really wanted to go from like watching Black Hawk down to like the kitchen, throw something in the microwave and be done.
00:32:13
Big Dog
And that's exactly what I did yesterday, but... ah Yeah, it like I said, I'm kind of doing a re-entry point into this atmosphere, so... um The toilet's are getting installed tomorrow, so that'll be kind of nice. i spend Friday...
00:32:35
Big Dog
ah cleaning up the house and then Saturday it's kind of full of activities. So, you know, my last little hurrah, I guess, of, ah you know, having the free time and then Sunday it's just kind of, you know, waiting for them to get home. And, you know, that's when, lack better term, life starts again.
00:32:58
Big Dog
You know, coming back on vacation or we're already planning new vacation for July. So I have that to kind of look forward to, but, um That'll be my first vacation in three years.
00:33:10
David Isaacs
Really?
00:33:11
Big Dog
Yeah. ah Between just really having a lot of kind of credit card debt I've been paying off this last year to finishing a boot camp or PTO, I just haven't been able to go in three years.
00:33:27
David Isaacs
Yeah, credit card debt's a killer. I know a lot of people deal with that and the kind of predatory APR rates that they have. So, it's good that you got rid of the debt and now, like, putting money aside for vacations and that. What are you guys thinking?
00:33:43
Big Dog
Myrtle Beach. um i have never then I've been to North Carolina, but I've never been to South Carolina. So um and know Myrtle Beach can tend to be, a get overcrowded, especially in like when it's, you know, really nice out like summer, springtime.
00:33:58
Big Dog
ah so we might look, I think it's like Charleston is the next biggest destination in South Carolina, but we're really just looking for somewhere in the the South to that's, that's got plenty of beach and, um, you know, enough room for, it's about 10 of us going. So, um, yeah, but until then, yeah, it's just kind of getting back to the everyday life. So I'll probably also plan on going grocery shopping. haven't done that since they've left really. It's kind of just been, ah was pretty well stocked to begin with.
00:34:38
Big Dog
Um, But there times where you'll like, I have this rotisserie chicken on the fridge and I don't feel like eating it. I'm going to go to McDonald's get a meat chicken because that makes sense. Heavy on sarcasm.
00:34:52
David Isaacs
and No more laying on the couch watching military movies with your hands in your pants deciding which fast food restaurant to go to. You know you got to get back to your big boy responsibilities come Sunday.
00:35:05
David Isaacs
Let's get it in while you can.
00:35:06
Big Dog
You sir... Yeah. You, sir, make too many assumptions on my hand. That would be imply that I had pants on to begin with. I was Winnie Pooh-ing it the whole time, but I'm joking.
00:35:15
David Isaacs
i can't do that.
00:35:17
Big Dog
I'm joking. I'm not doing that, but...
00:35:19
David Isaacs
but Yeah, that's that's like a different class of people to have a shirt on and nothing underneath because i I need to have something below my waist on at all times. Like I'll walk shirtless around. Sure. But I don't know who the fuck's been doing that. it Yeah.
00:35:37
Big Dog
Yeah, that's very Buffalo Bill. like Yeah, it's
00:35:41
David Isaacs
Like tucking it between my legs.
00:35:45
Big Dog
it's... Yeah, ah looking forward to that.
00:35:55
Big Dog
Some progress on me. ah My wife's business, as far as like my side business, I'll lead it with this. My wife's side business, which she's a baker.
00:36:06
Big Dog
She primarily does cupcakes and wedding cakes, sheet cakes, that kind of thing. um Occasional brownie, but her business has taken off like clockwork. So I've actually kind of taken a step back on my own.
00:36:20
Big Dog
and know that I had a sales goal of about $12,000. um I think I'm going kind of reevaluate that now. i mean, I know it's only March, but, um, kind of focusing on building up her website. We kind of just had like a, built like a basic landing page style.
00:36:37
Big Dog
Um, but I mean, she, she already has four or five cupcake orders for the week that she gets back. So, and she, that's, she's almost getting to the point where that's like a part-time more than a part-time job.
00:36:53
Big Dog
I mean, you know, and I get to work on my marketing skills a bit with that. Um, and we're gonna kind of go full court press on that, I think. So be putting more time and energy into that rather than, um, freelance web building. um you know, I haven't put as much time into that marketing wise, just because I'm still kind of backlogged on projects.
00:37:22
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:37:22
Big Dog
So, um, I think by the end of this, which is end of this month is actually my birthday. Um, I should be caught completely caught up on that.
00:37:35
Big Dog
Um, you know, going from April 1st to like March 27th, so about a year old, I think I've had 23, have 23 freelance projects, uh, with about 60% of that being paid. So, um,
00:37:53
Big Dog
yeah, i sometimes you just got to swallow your your ego a bit um and just play support. I mean, it's either way, it's revenue for us, but my wife is far ahead of me in doing that.
00:38:09
Big Dog
And just to have that like work-life balance, you know, with my son and family, like, you know, ah we can't both be working part-time jobs. I make good enough money where I can pay my bills and pay down my credit card debt and still be fine so um
00:38:23
David Isaacs
order a nice toilet. Yeah.
00:38:26
Big Dog
and well i work for a plumbing supply that helps but yeah and hey i had to buy a new pc that wasn't cheap my uh my other you know pc was dying just couldn't handle the equipment that i had that's what she said um
00:38:34
David Isaacs
Right.
00:38:45
Big Dog
So yeah, that's kind of like progress.
00:38:47
David Isaacs
That's...
00:38:50
Big Dog
You know, as far as what I had set from the beginning of the year.
00:38:54
David Isaacs
Right. Well, that plays into kind of what we were saying, right? You make these plans and you have to adapt as you go along. So don't think it's anything wrong with doing it. It's just kind of like how you spend your time during the day.
00:39:07
David Isaacs
and that's how buying the walking pad, using the standing desk more. It's like I haven't gone to the gym, but the amount of time during the day that I've been sedentary has gone down.
00:39:19
David Isaacs
So it's not like I'm... not going to the gym and not doing anything else. It's that some of the time that I spend during the day now focused on other things. And my body needs to adapt to have me be standing a lot of the time or walking. Because I believe it's kind of weird with the calorie science because it comes down to how much you weigh, your height, how much muscle you have, how much fat that you have.
00:39:43
David Isaacs
But I think it comes down to like 0.15 extra calories between standing and sitting each minute burned. So an extra 0.15 for each minute. So I can't do the math in my head for that, but it's definitely a lot more calories burned throughout the day between sitting and standing. And then you add in the walking on top of it. So 10,000 steps, which is a pretty good goal for a lot of people.
00:40:10
David Isaacs
At the mile per hour that do is just one mile per hour on the walking pad comes out to be about two hours. So I used to be a really big physical book guy. But now with like trying to find something to do when I'm walking, i stand my iPad up like right here.
00:40:29
David Isaacs
And I'm just like...
00:40:33
David Isaacs
So, you know, standing over top of it. Postures killing. like Terrible posture. Whatever. We'll fix it some other time. But that's kind of become some way so I can get reading in as well as walking.
00:40:46
David Isaacs
and I did finish... think I've had... see my second or my third book finished this year because I don't remember if I started fairy tale before the end of the year but I think I I think I started in January so I've got three books down this year it's not that it's a goal of mine to finish a certain amount of books but more or less that I'm spending more time reading then I would be watching TikToks or YouTube videos and also like TikTok has taken over a lot of my time kind of killed my productivity but
00:41:19
David Isaacs
you I and don't care so much about my work and what I do, so I don't want to be as effective as I possibly can. But then therein lies the problem of like dress for the job you want, not the job that you have. And I think that kind of plays into your demeanor at work and how efficient and how much work you want to actually get done.
00:41:39
David Isaacs
Instead of just being kind of lazy and letting things slip through the cracks, like I think I need to continue to be more detail-oriented. But but kind of similar to how we had said before with your defense mechanisms or what you learned growing up can actually be more detrimental as you get older and starting realize like I'm not as trustworthy as a person when it comes to doing things like planning events or

Economic Challenges and Job Market

00:42:04
David Isaacs
whatnot. Like I turned 30 May and like I am planning my own birthday party.
00:42:13
David Isaacs
The golf trip that we take every year is planned by me. Like, There's a lot of things that I do. ah showed up to the party on Saturday and they and also such a fucking observant person, dude. it annoys the shit out of me. But I show up and it's like we don't have any like actual food.
00:42:32
David Isaacs
Like we have dessert stuff and like dips. So like I'm just ordering pizza and that's $60 just like gone to order this pizza. But I don't know.
00:42:44
David Isaacs
and It's like trying to be more present, but instead of being overstimulated with video games, YouTube, like whatever else I'm doing, once work gets done, i'm like overstimulating myself just during the day, trying to pay more attention, be more present.
00:43:03
David Isaacs
having to understand like more of what people are asking me to do while I'm at work, taking time to actually give out responses and then paying attention like around my friends and everything. So yeah, it's, it's always an adjustment as much as you don't want it to be. i just don't want to be one of the people that are just stagnant and especially with the current job market, the AI stuff,
00:43:27
David Isaacs
You really need to be able to adapt. And it's tough for a lot of people right now that have been trying to do these things, still can't find a job, but just got to kind of be on the forefront of anything, I guess, and trying to be proactive about learning as much as you can you're still working and having other shit to deal with every day.
00:43:49
Big Dog
Yeah, I ah talked about this with a friend last night um who's kind of in a similar situation, although they are... They've been unemployed for 10 months, and then he just started working at an... Not in LA Fitness. Lifetime Fitness. He started working at Lifetime Fitness as a concierge.
00:44:09
Big Dog
I mean, a gym membership there, at least in Michigan, is like $200. So he gets that for free, and he's making like $20 an hour, but... um He's been unemployed for 10 months and his biggest issue was trying to just get him out of his own way.
00:44:26
Big Dog
um you know, he said he experienced, you know, heavy amounts of anxiety, know, just going through depression and he didn't really spend as much time. ah he felt as like putting in to like learning and like leveling up your skills.
00:44:44
Big Dog
um But I think a lot of that had to do just with just depression. Cause I, I went through all the same thing when I was unemployed. Like I didn't really feel like doing anything. Like was like, I feel like I'm, I'm good and what I do, but to be honest, there's always something new you can learn.
00:45:03
Big Dog
if you have a strong base, right? Like we went to school for like programs like JavaScript and React where I really don't even use those necessarily on an everyday basis, but I think just practicing your fundamentals and this goes for anything in life. I mean, you know, form for like weightlifting, just working on the very foundational skills that you were taught will go a long way to be able to make versatile skillset.
00:45:31
Big Dog
um i I believe that in job, I believe that in life. So, um
00:45:39
Big Dog
and it also kind of helps you, like you were talking about earlier, was working both sides of your brain, um whether it's painting and then, you know, coding or whatever, like, you know, working a spreadsheet and then, you know, trying to get your second coat on of that, that gloss or semi-gloss.
00:45:56
Big Dog
So I think for him, Getting back to my friend, I think like him having a job where he's got to be social, you know, he's kind of got to get you sad again because he's been mostly like a cat dad for the last 10 months.
00:46:14
Big Dog
And I think for him, it was just like building ah building momentum really. yeah know getting a job where he's being social and he kind of has to be like out of his comfort zone. and That's going to like help him do like freelancing or just like learning new skills for his coding, you know, and he's bringing in revenue or an income in the meantime, not as much as nearly as he was making, but it's something to pay the bills.
00:46:39
Big Dog
And then, you know, you build up your skills and learning and hopefully he'll be able to land, you know, something a little bit better soon. but Yeah, my advice with him was just kind of just build on his foundation.
00:46:50
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:46:53
David Isaacs
the Yeah. You know, and ah focus on the things that you have control over because sometimes some things you don't. And it is hard.
00:47:04
David Isaacs
really feel like I've gotten to the system where other people determine your worth based on a sheet of paper. And that's it. You're competing against other people's sheets of paper and they're determining whether or not you're worth more than that other person based on that sheet of paper to begin with.
00:47:23
David Isaacs
And then throughout the interviews and what have you. So, yeah, it is tough and it's easy to sit here and say, you know, well, you just got to keep going or you need to do this.
00:47:34
David Isaacs
People have responsibilities. They have mortgages, bills, kids, and whatnot, and they're unemployed right now. So I do think there really needs to be something that's done, one,
00:47:47
David Isaacs
for People that work any job, no matter what they're doing, to if you work 40 hours a week, you should be able to own a home, be able to pay your bills, be able to have children and not have to worry constantly that you're not going to have enough.
00:48:02
David Isaacs
Two, jobs need to where I'm working at right now. We're so short staff, but they won't hire anybody. And I think that's kind of the same across the board for all these other companies.
00:48:15
David Isaacs
Kind of like the expected recession that they're now forcing because they don't want to hire anybody. And how long is it actually going to take to build things back up again? Because I think the kind of common thought right now is that they're trying to increase efficiency by downsizing.
00:48:32
David Isaacs
And forcing the people that are still there into being overworked. So you got a bunch of people that are out of work right now. You got a bunch of people that are being overworked, underpaid.
00:48:44
David Isaacs
it's It's just bad. And if I actually had ah good enough idea, like I think I would do things differently. Start my own company, hire some of these people and build it out.
00:48:56
David Isaacs
And obviously you're going to deal with road bumps in that along the way, maybe hiring the wrong person, but I think the, at the end of the day, feeling good about, you know, if you have a successful business and you pay people well and they respect you and that's giving them kind of a purpose, a way to spend that money because, or spend that time to make that money because yeah, you, if you were working before and you were getting up at six, seven, eight o'clock in the morning and going and doing something for that amount of time and then coming back home, it's very,
00:49:31
David Isaacs
it's a lot harder to fill in that time when, you know, it's not structured in a way like you could be doing anything, but you also don't want to do something because you don't have the money to be able to do it.
00:49:43
David Isaacs
And yeah, I mean, it's just tough. And I kind of came to the decision, like I got rid of my Amazon Prime subscription, I got rid of all my streaming service subscriptions, need to work out a way to cut down on Spotify,
00:49:59
David Isaacs
Every time I get that notification every month, it pisses me off even more. Like we have to, think we have to revert back to stop being so consumerist in some of these areas, especially streaming, social media, and what have you, and just the amount of data and money that they extract from us each month to be able to use these services.
00:50:23
David Isaacs
And Netflix just announced, I think, another pay and or another price increase. So it's like, yeah, we just, yeah, just get rid of it.
00:50:28
Big Dog
Huh?
00:50:31
David Isaacs
I had looked up ah the other day about gardening, like gardening tips in Michigan, like when to start planning things, maybe eventually we'll look into some chickens because the egg shortage, whatever is terrible.
00:50:49
David Isaacs
And yeah, I mean, it's just affecting so many people's lives, the tariffs, uh, stock market, 401ks being down, people that were planning on retiring. like We're getting to that point now. And I think the the billionaires are trying to take back that power that they lost from COVID.
00:51:12
David Isaacs
And i it's been happening since you know the end of 2021 with the layoffs and what have you. But how is it like Mark Zuckerberg can spend 40, 50, $60 billion dollars on the metaverse and then come back around and make all these decisions and get rid of a bunch of people.
00:51:32
David Isaacs
Like, you know, there, there really needs to be more regulations as to who you can fire, how many times you can fire somebody and,
00:51:43
David Isaacs
our reliance now on the stock market 401ks and people investing in general, because the thought is that Social Security we pay into, but we're never going to see that money.
00:51:56
David Isaacs
Because by the time it'll be gone by the time we get up to that age. So it's really given public companies like so much more lead way, kind of do whatever they want.
00:52:06
David Isaacs
And this increased the amount of billionaires that we have and thus has increased their power over our elected officials. They don't care as much about us as the lobbyists that's paying them to have their second, ho you know, their second vacation house somewhere.
00:52:27
Big Dog
Yeah, I agree with all of that. um You know, as a father, wife, sorry, outwife, husband, there you go.
00:52:37
David Isaacs
Mm-hmm.
00:52:41
Big Dog
it's It's hard not to get, um you know, scared, sad about the situation. um you know, especially because it's out of our control. And I always preach to myself and to my wife, like, we can only worry about the things that we can control, but it's hard, you know.
00:53:02
Big Dog
um We're comfortable, but, you know, if some major event would happen, like, we don't have the money saved. It's just been a hard last four or five years for us financially. Like, I've been going back to school, so or I went back to school, school being a coding bootcamp. And yeah, I leveled up my salary. I'm not going to feel sorry for that. But at the same time, like cost of living is also starting to catch up with that too. So it's almost like going back to the salary that I had before I started going back to, you know, got into tech or got a new job. Right. So,
00:53:39
Big Dog
um you know, I don't really have an opinion on, the stock market or all the regulations that should probably come. um I hope they do something that's in the favor of the ah middle class because we keep getting, you know, screwed over and over again.
00:53:54
Big Dog
i don't see myself, you know, either hitting lottery or thinking of some crazy tech unless, you know, there's a crazy in demand for, for baking, right? Like there's just going be a surge of people getting married and they need a wedding cake.
00:54:10
Big Dog
So, It's just doing what you can control not easier said than done worrying about the things you can't control, right? So, like I said, trying to get more money in my wife's account and, you know, that's what I can focus on.
00:54:28
Big Dog
More money, hopefully less problems.
00:54:29
David Isaacs
Right.
00:54:31
David Isaacs
Yeah. Well, it's like you focus on things that you can control and plan for things that you can't. Right. So cost of eggs probably affected the baking business.
00:54:44
David Isaacs
And if the amount of people being laid off is probably going to affect the business as well, it's less people that are willing to pay for
00:54:44
Big Dog
Oh yeah, yep.
00:54:54
David Isaacs
Cupcakes or sheet cakes or wedding cakes, like less people having weddings or scaling back on what they're spending money on to have these weddings. So, yeah, I mean, it is just kind of the overall macroeconomic factors of these decisions and kind of where we have been heading to for however long.
00:55:14
David Isaacs
we're paying all these taxes. We're not really getting help, um not from the government, not from companies that view you as disposable anytime they want to.
00:55:27
David Isaacs
And it yeah, it it brings a lot of people down. And I know even in the coding bootcamp, we'd had people in there that were unemployed and having the hope to gain this knowledge to find a job.
00:55:39
David Isaacs
And then that entire, part of companies kind of just went under and they've either fired a bunch of people or they're not hiring anybody on they don't want to take on junior developers do these things like just tough and that's know of the things we can't control is how they view you as a prospect to be able to bring in their companies and yeah i think cutting down on the amount of interviews you're able to give too is another
00:56:11
David Isaacs
indicator because what have I had? Two separate companies where I made the final interview after three previous rounds of interviews. I'm in the fourth round of the like final interview, the fourth interview and still didn't get the job.
00:56:24
David Isaacs
It was like, why am I even brought into... the final interview, if there were questions about these things, like, am I just being used as a fucking Guinea pig for them to gain more experience and how to accurately hire somebody? Like, I don't know, but yeah, more needs to be done.
00:56:44
David Isaacs
Trying to get, go ahead.
00:56:44
Big Dog
Yeah.
00:56:47
Big Dog
was gonna say, yeah, it, it can certainly feel that way. Like you're kind of just being like the guinea pig for the, you know, the real life training model, if you offer, you know, sometimes always seems to be like some sort of disconnect between HR recruiters and like the actual hiring manager um about like candidates, right? Like the hiring manager is like, no, we're strictly looking for this wall, you know,
00:57:12
Big Dog
If somebody interviews really well with a recruiter, they're going to push that person too. So there's some sort of you know internal so internal, external politics involved. And in an economy like this, it's really not fair to all parties involved for to be that process. It shouldn't be this overcomplicated to hire a person.
00:57:34
Big Dog
um you know we We all have the technology and resources to identify good candidates. So If you want to make it about culture and a mix of skills, then do that. But, um you know, trying to find like ah the perfect candidate is, think, setting a lot of people up for failure, in my opinion.
00:57:56
Big Dog
And kind of going back to... um
00:58:02
Big Dog
you know, going and taking the bootcamp expecting a level up. It's like, you know, the first we started in 2022 at the tail end of it, where it's like, it felt like every company was still hiring for developers. You know, it's like, that's why I signed up. I wanted to get a better paying job.
00:58:18
Big Dog
And then i think it was like November, two months into our bootcamp Mattel laid up 12,000 people. And then it was like Microsoft and Alibaba, all these companies just started laying off people from overhiring during the COVID period where everyone's over consuming content.
00:58:37
Big Dog
And it's like your, you know, your hope kind of dwindles. And again, it's something, it's one of those situations where you're like, I just spent 10 to 12 grand for this, this six month course.
00:58:50
Big Dog
And I'm just kind of felt like I was lighting that on fire, like watching out the, the, the ticker of, of the these layoffs just continue to go out.
00:59:00
David Isaacs
Yeah, chat GPT well. into as well
00:59:06
Big Dog
Yeah, that wasn't like really a thing in anyone's eye by the end of 2020, or I guess up to that point in 2022. You know, it's like, oh, AI, it was kind of like a closed beta.
00:59:17
Big Dog
And they opened it up to everyone. Now it's this whole big, big phenomenon. um I still think we're farther away. For this, you know, quote unquote, taking over jobs, then people realize, and I think even companies are realizing with us, mean, I know we've talked about this and um endless amounts of time, but, um but it's like trying to find the right, right, right balance of getting people back in because,
00:59:46
Big Dog
You know, they're still saying that the job market's strong, but um it's only measured by, i think it's, least in Michigan, it's like 4%, but that's only measured by the amount of people who are collecting unemployment. So if somebody gets denied or they reach their 24, 24 weeks, they,
01:00:03
Big Dog
yeah there's twenty four a week ah stipend you know they They're no longer a data point. So something to also keep in mind when people say it's a strong economy, it's not.
01:00:19
David Isaacs
it's It's been teetering on this for a while in companies, and like kind of the forced recession, as I was saying. like we weren't hiring people to replace those that we had lost. People had taken on more responsibilities, and you're kind of expecting that out of me as well. but yeah it just Recessions should not exist as much as they do.
01:00:44
David Isaacs
like People in power should have more willingness to kind of fight for just the common person and and either side of the aisle, you know, they had gotten to where they were based on the, the backs of billionaires supporting them and their interests. And,
01:01:03
David Isaacs
Maybe if some of them care more about the environment than others or wherever the party lines divide, but at the end of the day, they're always trying to take more from us without giving as much back.
01:01:16
David Isaacs
And that's kind of the long and short of it. So it really needs to be something to happen. not don't think there's going to be a revolution per se, but the individual can start by canceling their subscriptions, becoming more self-reliant, not being sold on as much of this convenience as we had been to this point.
01:01:40
David Isaacs
And that's that's at least my ideology. Yours might differ, not you, but well, yours could too, but just the general populace could differ. But yeah, in the meantime, just focusing on things that you can't control, planning on trying to plan as much as you can for the things that you can't control.
01:02:02
David Isaacs
And, you know, just, I hope people just keep going and keep trying and trying to find a way that works. But yeah, if somebody tries to convince spend 12 grand on a coding camp, you punch them square in the nose.
01:02:20
Big Dog
Yeah, I mean, I still volunteer some of my time to our boot camp just to ensure that the people who are going that understand, like, you're not 100% going get a job straight away out of boot camp. And I think they've even taken that kind of guarantee off their site um because it's not, you know, their metrics were from COVID times were like, do you know what a div is? Great.
01:02:50
Big Dog
jump on board, pal, right, like, um, obviously not much harder, but, um, also just like talking to those folks, but yeah, use extreme caution when you're going through these data analysts or coding boot camps, it's, it's, it's not as easy as one would think, um, given the time, so, um, but yeah, like,
01:03:18
Big Dog
I wouldn't say my plan or my outlook is necessarily different. It's a lot harder for me to kind of control external thoughts, right? Or, or protruding thoughts of like, how am I supposed to pay for this? Or, you know, I got this coming up without kind of feeling like the way the world's on my shoulders.
01:03:40
Big Dog
um But also try not to think about it that much, but when I do, woof.
01:03:49
David Isaacs
I think that's all we kind of had planned for this

Episode Conclusion and Future Promises

01:03:54
David Isaacs
week. Sorry that we don't have more for everybody, like I said, learning and adapting, I've kind been physically and mentally dead for the better part of the last couple weeks.
01:04:08
David Isaacs
So, hope everybody's doing alright. Hope you had something to take away from tonight, and Yeah, we will see again soon. Any closing remarks, Brian?
01:04:21
Big Dog
Yeah, ah
01:04:25
Big Dog
ah my siesta is ending. My big Lebowski kind of walking around in a bathrobe the whole time is kind of coming to an end. So, you know, put more focus and energy into the cast.
01:04:37
Big Dog
We'll have better topics next time, that's for sure.
01:04:42
David Isaacs
That is for sure. Alrighty. Goodbye, everybody.
01:04:48
Big Dog
Bye, everybody.