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Reflections of Life: Dreams, Dilemmas & Decisions
18 Plays3 days ago
Ever had that dream where you're back in school, totally unprepared? I break down what those recurring dreams might actually mean – and it's not just about forgetting your homework!
Plus, we're playing "Would You Rather?" with some seriously thought-provoking scenarios. Time travel to the past, ditch social media, or live in a world without smartphones? Let's see if you agree with my choices! #dreams #wouldyourather #tattoos #lifelessons #unsolicitedperspectives
And in a true Reddit-inspired moment, I dive into a story about a tattoo artist who bailed on a client...and how I would have handled it VERY differently.
🔔 Hit that subscribe and notification button for weekly content that bridges the past to the future with passion and perspective. Thumbs up if we’re hitting the right notes! Let’s get the conversation rolling—drop a comment and let’s chat about today’s topics.
For the real deal, uncensored and all, swing by our Patreon at patreon.com/unsolicitedperspectives for exclusive episodes and more.
Thank you for tuning into Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Let's continue the conversation in the comments and remember, stay engaged, stay informed, and always keep an open mind. See you in the next episode!
Chapters
00:00 Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🔥💥
00:55 🎙️ Unsolicited Perspectives: The Journey So Far 🚀
02:25 😴 Trapped in High School? Decoding Your Dreams 😨
03:26 🧠 What Your Subconscious Is Saying 🤫
08:34 🏀 Dreamer's Confession: My Basketball Struggles 😔
18:04 😬 Holiday Navigation: When Politics Intersect 🤬
23:03 🤔 Would You Rather: Netflix or Instagram? 🤳
27:38 🕰️ Back to the Future or Lost in Translation? 🗣️
32:16 📜 Time Traveler's Tip: Don't Change History! 🚫
33:06 😎 Choosing Time Travel or Language Translation! 🤫
34:17 🚗 A World Without Wheels or a Life Offline? 📵
36:08 😄 Finding Freedom in Missing Out 🔕
42:18 🎨 Inkredible Stories: Tattoos & Triumphs 💪
47:19 😱 Tattoo Nightmares: A Reddit Rabbit Hole 🐇
58:44 Closing Thoughts and Announcements
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Produced By White Hot
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Transcript
Introduction and Upcoming Episodes
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. stay Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch our video podcast.
00:00:39
Speaker
What would you rather and an interesting story about a young lady and a tattoo? But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
00:00:55
Speaker
I want to talk about dreams, but before I talk about dreams, we are rapidly approaching our 200th episode. We just celebrated our two year anniversary, but our 200th episode is rapidly approaching. It's going to happen in 2025, but really early in 2025. Really excited about it.
00:01:15
Speaker
Can't wait for the 200th episode. Don't know what I'm going to do yet to be special about it. ah But we're going to try and make it special somehow, some
Holiday Schedule and Exclusive Content
00:01:22
Speaker
way. It will definitely be a sibling happy hour. So don't worry. My sister will be on there to celebrate. I want to give you guys a heads up. We're about to run into a holiday. Thanksgiving.
00:01:32
Speaker
So we're going to be doing this show and then releasing The Sibling Happy Hour on Tuesday. And then we're gonna be taking a brief hiatus, but we will be back December the 6th. So we won't be releasing shows on November the 29th. And I believe December the 2nd or 3rd, but we will be back December the 6th. Stay out of my DMs, stay out of the emails. We gonna give you shows, I promise. If you miss us, if you miss us,
00:02:00
Speaker
Go on our YouTube page. We'll be posting YouTube exclusive stuff during this brief hiatus, because it's real brief. It's only two shows, right? It's ah it's literally a week. That's what we're doing. We're just taking a week break. But YouTube, there'll be YouTube exclusive stuff on there for all you people that are missing our podcast.
Interpreting Dreams
00:02:21
Speaker
Dreams.
00:02:22
Speaker
And I had a crazy one last night. So last night I had a dream and this is a reoccurring dream. This dream happens once a month guaranteed. It may be more frequently than that, but it's definitely guaranteed once a month. And in this dream, I am back in high school and I'm on the basketball team like I was in high school.
00:02:45
Speaker
And there was a game that we're that's about to start, and I cannot find my jersey in my uniform. I can't find it. Cannot find it. And I know I'm going to ball out. I know I'm going to ball, but I cannot find my uniform. Last night in particular, I couldn't find my uniform, nor could I find my shoes. Actually, I did find my shoes. Eventually, I found my shoes in the dream. But they had a hole in it. And I was like, I can't play with these holy shoes.
00:03:13
Speaker
So I was thinking, like, what does this all mean? You know, they say a lot of times your dreams don't mean anything. Sometimes they say that they do mean something. So I decided.
00:03:25
Speaker
to look it up and talk about what your dreams could possibly mean. You know, we express how important mental health is on this show almost every single episode. And realistically, when you're having dreams of you're back in high school or you're late for class and you forgot to turn in your homework, or we all have those type of dreams. We all have those type of dreams. There is a deeper meaning in these dreams that I'm gonna decode.
00:03:55
Speaker
Now, how did I decode it? Well, I focused on two books and then articles, right? So I focused on the interpretation of dreams by Sigmund Freud. I know Freud is an interesting character, but a lot of what Freud be saying is true. A lot of it. I'm going to tell y'all that I married a woman that was almost exactly like my mom. Like, almost exactly like my mom. It freaked me the hell out. One day I woke up and I was like, I'm married to my mom. And, you know, my sister often talks about the people that she dates, resembles our father. You know, so like, Freud had something, you know, he was on to something when he was talking about stuff. So he wrote a book called The Interpretation of Dreams. That's where I got some of the source material from. Carl Jung also wrote a book, Man and Assembles, now.
00:04:47
Speaker
It wasn't gender specific. He just, you know, these are old school books and they just used man as in the entirety of the human race, including men and women.
00:04:58
Speaker
And then I took you know different articles from the American Psychological Association for that they you know did publishing for research and dream analysts. And basically what it comes down to is dreams about missing school and the school bus or class are surprisingly common among adults. These types of dreams are often linked to underlying feelings of anxiety, stress, or unresolved issues from the past.
00:05:27
Speaker
I'm just going to touch on what I considered the four main reasons why we have these type of dreams.
Dreams and Work Pressures
00:05:34
Speaker
The first one is stress and anxiety. More specifically, deadlines, responsibilities, and performance anxiety.
00:05:42
Speaker
Adults often face various pressures and responsibilities, such as work deadlines, family commitments, and financial concerns. These pressures can manifest in dreams as scenarios where they are unprepared or running late. Dreams about missing a class or being unprepared for an exam can reflect concerns about performance in real-life situations, such as work presentations or important meetings. So stress and anxiety.
00:06:08
Speaker
like Okay, if you're stressed out or anxious about something, these dreams may occur. And yeah, there isn't typically a direct correlation, right? Like you can't pinpoint it most of the time. That's the reason why it's going back to previous instances where you would feel this type of stress.
00:06:28
Speaker
or anxiety. and and And so I'm just trying to think about what in my life is going on right now that I would feel stress or anxiety. Well, you know, work is always a stressor. It's the end of the year. I got to meet more than a few deadlines. And so, yeah, also gearing up for the beginning of the year. The beginning the years of the year is a big time of year for my company. Actually,
00:06:55
Speaker
Actually, it's a misnomer in fitness that fitness begins the the push begins on New Year's. That's not true. What ends up happening is is people start to get into fitness. The ones that are going to be serious about it and stay for a while, they start to gear up before the holidays. So it starts right around the middle of October.
00:07:17
Speaker
as they say to themselves, all right, I need to start on the right path here before the holidays hit because I don't want to start behind the eight ball at the beginning of the year. Right. So you get a push up until New Year's. Then you get a push after New Year's. Right. And then you get another push in in the middle of February towards the beginning of March. Those are all the people that had made their New Year's resolutions.
00:07:42
Speaker
but didn't do it at New Year's. So they're coming back and then there's another push right before the summer starts. So there are busy periods is not all New Year's resolution. As a matter of fact, the majority of the time, the New Year's resolution, there's like 75% of them actually fail. The ones that actually stick to their their health and wellness plans are the ones that actually start right before the holidays around this time period and the ones that actually start in right before the summer. They tend to stick with it and go. So yeah, work could be part of a thing and I got deadlines and I got meetings that I'm doing.
00:08:24
Speaker
But I don't feel like it is super stressful right now. So what could be some of the other reasons why I might have issues and might be having these type of dreams? Or for those people out there, why you might be having issues and might be having these type of dreams?
Family, Holiday Stress, and Mental Health
00:08:42
Speaker
Unresolved issues, more specifically, past experiences and insecurity. School is a significant part of many people's live experience. From that time can lead a lasting impression. Dreams about school might resurface unresolved feelings or conflicts from the period. These dreams can also reflect a sense of insecurity of or fear of failure that originated during school years but still affects the person in adulthood.
00:09:10
Speaker
All right, gonna be completely transparent here. I have imposter syndrome. Way worse than a lot of normal people. I know it, is written I've been told by therapists, I got it. I never, I always feel like I am pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. No matter how skilled or knowledgeable I am in whatever I'm doing, I always feel like I'm pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. Now, let's talk about the dream that I had with basketball.
00:09:40
Speaker
I've told the story of you know my my high school basketball career. I moved to different schools, played played at three different high schools. One was a prestigious high school. I didn't stay at that high school. I went to another high school and my end of my high school basketball career was less than ideal. Some people would say,
00:10:00
Speaker
And it's only one. Some people would say that I was never as good as I thought I was. Other people would say that I didn't live up to my talent. I would say I didn't love basketball. I really liked basketball. And when I say that to my mom and dad, they can't comprehend it because they were like, you worked so hard in basketball to accomplish these goals. I don't understand how you said you didn't love it. And I tell them,
00:10:25
Speaker
you just said the key word there, goals. I had certain goals. But when I set a goal, my personality is to do everything in my power until I accomplish the goal. Get no satisfaction from accomplishing the goal, but work so
Success, Achievements, and New Goals
00:10:39
Speaker
hard to accomplish the goal. So I left some stuff on the table when it came to basketball, because by the beginning of my senior year, I said, I don't even want to play college basketball. I don't know if I want to finish out this year. And I just,
00:10:52
Speaker
I just went through the motions. Like, my boy would tell you, like, I didn't go to Saturday morning practices. Like, just didn't go. I should have been kicked off the team. Like, just did not go. And so there's a part of me that I don't really look back to the past that often. You know, what was done was done and I kind of moved forward. But there is something that I left at the table left I didn't leave it all on the floor, in other words. Like, there were times where I could close my eyes and replay games and it was just like, yo, why did I not care and did not give any effort? The older version of me would say, hey, man, give it your all because you don't know when that last dribble is going to be your last dribble. And though I didn't love basketball, I mean, there were times where I was in love with it. There's a difference.
00:11:40
Speaker
Right? So people out there in relationships, you can be in love with somebody and then you can love somebody. You can fall out of love. You pretty much never stop loving
Handling Holiday Stress and Family Disagreements
00:11:52
Speaker
somebody. It's a deeper feeling, right? I i love my ex-wife. Haven't spoken to her for years. But I love her because I want her to do well. I want her to succeed. I want her to be happy. I am nowhere near still in love with my ex-wife. She can walk into this room right now. I'm like, hey, woman, why are you interrupting me doing my podcast? That's what I'm saying to her. But but like I'm no longer in love with her. so
00:12:17
Speaker
I was in love with basketball. I didn't love basketball. But at the same time, I didn't give it my all. And so there might be a little bit of regret there. Hmm. ah Another one of the key reasons why people may have these dreams or why I may have had this dream last night was symbolism. Learning, growth, and control. School is a place of learning and growth and dreaming about it may symbolize a current phase of personal development or desire for self-improvement.
00:12:48
Speaker
Missing a bus or a class in a dream can symbolize feeling out of control in one's waking life and might reflect a fear of missing out on opportunities or not meeting expectations. So, I mean, there's definitely that control thing with not meeting expectations when it goes back to me playing basketball. And I'm always trying to self improve, so that would make sense. But we still haven't figured it out.
00:13:18
Speaker
What would be the pinpoint of the reason that I had this dream? What's going on in my life that I would have this dream? Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, I think I figured it out, but I'm going to tell you after I finish explaining the fourth phase, which is routine and familiarity.
00:13:37
Speaker
School says school is a familiar setting for many people. It can become a common theme in dreams. These dreams often use familiar scenarios to represent broader emotional states or concerns. These dreams are often a way for the subconscious mind to process and make sense of stressors and emotions. They are usually not literal, but rather symbolic representations of underlining feelings.
00:14:02
Speaker
in these dreams are frequent or particularly distressing, it might help to explore an ongoing stress or unresolved issues in your waking life. Okay, so like I said, it's about once a month.
00:14:16
Speaker
right They don't really cause me a whole lot of stress. right It's not a stressor. I find it interesting. I guess in the moment, in the dream, I'm stressed, but when I wake up in the morning, it's like, okay, it's not that big of a deal. So much so that I had this dream, woke up in the middle of the night, and I was thinking, that would be interesting topic to talk about. so Scrap the whole first intro of the first segment that I was doing today jotted down in my half sleep to to make sure that I talk about this because I know that I've talked to other people and everybody can relate. So now, what is it that I came to the conclusion? What is it going on in my life that has caused this these dreams of feeling like I'm unprepared, feeling like ah like I'm missing out on something? I don't know exactly what it is. I know exactly what it is. It's the show. So this show is growing. Like I said, we're about to hit our 200th episode.
00:15:14
Speaker
If you're watching on YouTube, there's more production. I'm learning more things as far as the post-production and just improving the overall quality of the show. I'm ambitious, extremely ambitious in life in general. And I've set new goals. With each 10 or 58 episodes, there's new goals. There's new things to attain.
00:15:41
Speaker
And when you get close to accomplishing a goal and you set another one, well, that adds on some worry, some anxiety. Am I going to accomplish this goal? And so there are some things that are going to be happening in 2025 that's going to be surrounding around the show that I've already started planning that I'm not going to let you in on the secret yet. I will release that information when it happens. But there are things that are happening that I'm excited about. But then that excitement can be some anxiety. And once again, I don't have complete control.
00:16:16
Speaker
Nor do I want complete control. I have complete control of what the content of the show is. I have complete control of when things go out and what's being seen. I don't have control of how it's received. It's been received fairly well. Like I said, we've grown, we have I don't even know how to say this, 15 times, multiplied our subscriber list on YouTube 15 times from what it was at this time last year. Like, growth is crazy. The streams on our audio is crazy. We're doing fantastic work. And I should be proud. I should be. And there's a piece of me that is.
00:16:59
Speaker
There's also that ambitious side of me that says new goal. Y'all hear it in the family. You're here with my sister. My sister's and in Granite School right now. She's got a new goal. She is busting her ass.
00:17:13
Speaker
in grad school. Now, there's a lot of people that's been out there in grad school, but she's also dealing with a new puppy, and she's got other responsibilities. She's also doing this show. There's a lot going on. We tend to do that in our family, set these goals, lofty goals, accomplish them the majority of the time. I would say our success rate as a family, as a five-member group, my mom, dad, me, my brother, and sister, it's about 90% of accomplishing our goals. It was pretty freaking phenomenal.
00:17:42
Speaker
Also, when we set these goals, they're so lofty that we add stressors to our lives. Now, what was the whole point of me opening up, revealing what's going on inside of me? As we are getting into the holiday season, y'all are going to be dealing with stressors. We just got out of a whole election campaign and some of my friends, some of my dear friends, are going to be spending time with their family.
00:18:12
Speaker
And they voted on different sides of the aisle. and it's caus And it's causing a lot of stress and anxiety that some of them, when I talk to, are not really dealing with it. They are trying to avoid it.
00:18:29
Speaker
when I don't know if that's necessarily the best thing in the world to do. I wish them the best because I know me, I cut off all Trump supporters. Anybody that voted for Trump this election, I want nothing to do with you. On a personal level,
00:18:45
Speaker
Nine times I tend on a professional level as well. Like I just don't want anything to do with you. You just don't rock the way I rock. You move different than I move. And this isn't a situation where just because we move different, we can be cool. This moving different is so drastic that we just have different principles of life.
00:19:08
Speaker
And that's the way it is. But people are dealing with a lot of stress coming out of this election, coming out of ah the incoming president's cabinet's picks, coming dealing with family and the holidays, which is all always a stressful time. I want everybody out there. Maybe you're having these type of dreams, maybe you're not.
00:19:34
Speaker
Fortunately for me, I'm gonna be seeing my family this this holiday season, and I'm looking forward to it because that's where there are no stressors. But for some of you people out there that are gonna be seeing your family members is that you disagree with on principles, and it might be your father, you might be a ah woman, and your father voted for Trump, and you're like, you literally voted against me, but you said that you loved me.
00:20:01
Speaker
I know I have some friends that are like that, that have this situation going into holidays. It's a stressful time for them. Take a deep breath. Take one foot in front of the other and move forward. That's all we can do in life. If it becomes too stressful, obviously seek help. If you're having these types of dreams all the time, seek help. Like I said, I have it once a month and it's always when there's a lot of stuff going on and I got a lot of stuff going on right now, but it's all positive. There's nothing negative going on. It's just a lot.
00:20:34
Speaker
And so I'm planning things out, as my sister says, I'm meticulous. So that's the reason why this dream came up. I don't want to get caught off guard and be unprepared. I don't want to not have some form of control of what is going on within my life. I know we don't have complete control and I'm not a control freak, but to have no control is scary. There are some people out there that have no control over a how certain family members are going to speak to them and act towards them for the holidays. And this is causing great stirrer. Not stirrer. Not stirrer. I don't know what stirrer is. Great stress and fear. That's what stirrer is. Stirrer is stress and fear merged together. Good God, ladies and gentlemen. i um I will mess up some words in a minute. But like I said, take a deep breath.
00:21:32
Speaker
one foot ahead of the other. And remember, if it's an overwhelming stressful situation, you ain't gotta to enter it. But you don't have to. Your mental health and your peace is the most important thing. And if other people can't respect it, to hell with them, no matter who they are. Because at the end of the day, your mental health and wellbeing is literally the most important thing to you. So look out for yourself.
00:22:00
Speaker
In the words of Kamala Luppertati from the Sopranos, take care of yourself. Be a better friend to yourself.
Exploring Dreams' Meanings
00:22:08
Speaker
Take a deep breath. Put one foot in front of the other. Go forward and live your life.
00:22:24
Speaker
Okay. All right. That was pretty heavy for a first segment. But as I was going through this, waking up this morning, going through that in my head before I recorded this, I felt like it would resonate with everybody out there that are going through some things. Just know you're not alone. I'm here with you. And if you had them dreams, it means something. You might want to figure out what it means. But To lighten up the mood, I want to play a game.
'Would You Rather' Game and Personal Preferences
00:22:55
Speaker
Would you rather? We've all played this game before and I got three interesting scenarios of would you rather. Now, when I saw these scenarios, y'all are going to have to bear with me because I'm going to be responding to them in real time and I don't know where my answers are going to go. I literally do not know what I'm going to say to segment. Typically, when I record these shows, I have a framework, an idea of where I'm going in that particular segment.
00:23:23
Speaker
I know what the questions are of would you rather, I don't know as I work this out live, as you were listening to me, where my mind and heart is going to take me. Okay. Let's go with the first scenario. Would you rather give up social media or streaming services for a year? Wow. I would say that I'm addicted to social media.
00:23:51
Speaker
absolutely addicted to social media, that I am always on Instagram. I'm not really on TikTok that much. I used to be on Twitter a lot. Now I'm on Blue Sky. Y'all can catch me on Blue Sky. That's where I'm at right now. And I try to get into threads, but threads, you know, I can't follow threads. Like I can't follow the actual threads of the threads, but I love social media. You know what else I love? My streaming services. now If it was all streaming services, no, I can't give up. Because then what am I watching on TV? if you it To me, if you say, I'm giving up streaming services, that means I can't watch TV. Because I don't have cable. I haven't had cable since 2012. And that was only direct TV. And the only reason why I had direct TV is because I needed the Sunday NFL ticket because that's when I was still in the football. Other than that, I don't need
00:24:48
Speaker
ah don't I don't need cable, so everything I do with streaming service, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, now you're telling me I got to give up either my social media or my streaming service. This is a tough, tough scenario. On one hand, if I gave up social media and just stuck with the streaming services,
00:25:13
Speaker
My mental health would be a lot better because social media, for the most part, is damaging to your mental health. I mean, it really is. There's been studies done to it. It's a cesspool. It's not good. But if I got rid of streaming services, I'm going to be bored. I can't even watch wrestling. Ro is going to be on Netflix.
00:25:42
Speaker
all the the pay reviews all on Peacock. Those are streaming services. I couldn't watch wrestling. So what's my answer? Which one would I choose? Which one would you choose? I would love to hear what you guys would pick. Some of you people are like, now really I'm not really into social media, so it's not that big of a deal. Some people are like, I don't really watch that much TV, it's not that big of a deal. Let me tell you something.
00:26:08
Speaker
I love power that's on stars, right? Like I can't give him up power. i guess I guess I figured out the answer. Social media gotta go. I'd probably still sneak and get on social media. Cause I don't think I could give up either one for a full year. It'd be easier if there was some money involved. You just talking about just give it up. out You give me some money, I can give up a lot of things. But yeah, I would have to choose social media and I would be healthy healthier and happier giving up social media as opposed to my stream of services. I mean my wrestling.
00:26:46
Speaker
I need my Tulsa King. I love that show. If y'all haven't watched Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone, that's a great show. I need my power. Superman and Lois is about to end, so I can get that up. But I need Invisible from Amazon Prime. I don't really watch The Boys because that's too gory for me. I don't really like it all that much. You know, they got new stuff coming out, Creature Commandos coming out for Disney, um for ah not Disney Plus, for HBO Max.
00:27:10
Speaker
you know The Penguin just ended, that was a great show. Yeah, I'm giving up social media. All all social media does is revel my anxiety and turn me into a creep because I'm always looking at these IG models. Okay, on to the next scenario. Would you rather have a time machine that could go only that could go only to the pass or a device that could translate any language. So would you rather have a time machine that can only go into the pass or a device that can translate any language? So you got a time machine. It can't go into the future, but it can go into the pass. Or an instrument that can translate any language. This is not going to be a really difficult for me. I'm going with the time machine.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going with the time machine to go back to the past. Ooh, wait a minute.
00:28:06
Speaker
Wait a minute, hold on. Well, yes, okay, I would go back, i yes, okay. I'm choosing the time machine, not the device that could translate into languages because actually I think that's coming anyway, relatively soon. Y'all have, we already have Google Translate on these new Google phone models and then Apple is coming up with something similar. So we're literally going to have a device that's gonna translate languages in into real time.
00:28:32
Speaker
fairly shortly. So, ah plus that doesn't really, like I don't travel. I should be traveling more. I do want to go over to Europe. I want to go to Italy and France. I do want to do that. But, you know, other than that, I mean, I could speak a little bit of Spanish, so I'm not really tripping on that. But but having a time machine to go back into the past, because what I would do is something simple. What everybody would do.
00:28:57
Speaker
I would go tell the younger version of myself who's gonna win a Super Bowl so he can go to Vegas and make bets. And then I would choose one or two mega millions of Powerballs to win. Like like if I go back to my 18-year-old self, I'd win a mega million, and then on my 35-year-old self, I'd win a Powerball, like something like that, on top of all the betting. So basically, I'd be rich. Would I go back and tell my younger self not to make certain decisions? Yes, I would. I would go back and tell my younger self, hey, man,
00:29:27
Speaker
You didn't need to put no spinners on no truck. Oh, better yet, you didn't need to put that that sound system in that truck. Oh, you didn't need to tint the windows to that truck. All that stopped becoming cool by 2004. Now that was cool after that point. Hey man, you don't need those gold chains.
00:29:48
Speaker
You don't need a specially designed Superman chain with a Superman emblem with a B instead of an S in the middle. You don't need that. Certain things you bought and made money on, ah the certain things you bought and lost money on, you didn't need to do. Guess what? At the age of 26, 25, 26, 27, you don't need to go to the strip club every Monday just because you got ridiculous amounts of cash because you're a bartender. You don't need to go to the strip club every Monday. You know what you could do? You could take all that money that you're spending at the strip club every Monday, because it's a lot. Put that in a bank account. Save his account to be exact. Let that money bubble up and then go buy you a place. That's what you could do. Hey, you know what? You ain't have to mess with that girl.
00:30:38
Speaker
You could have left her alone. Hey, you know what? That one girl that you really liked that you didn't say nothing to. You should have said something. She hit you up later after she was married and was like, hey, yeah, I had a real huge crush on you back in the day. And you ain't doing nothing.
00:30:53
Speaker
With that time machine, I can go back and change some things. Who knows where my life would be? You know another thing that I would do? Go start this podcast earlier. I would go back to myself in 2009 and I would say, hey, Bruce, why don't you start a podcast? I don't know how to do it. Let me teach you. Be five years in the game right now. Be deep in the game. Yes, so there were things that, no regrets. But if I had a time machine and I could change some stuff,
00:31:21
Speaker
some stuff that I would change. You know, I think everybody would change it. Plus, it'd just be cool to go back in time to, like, I knew my grandparents. Like, I knew my grandparents, right? Like, I was of age. My first grandparent didn't pass away until I was 16, so I knew them. But I didn't know them. You know, it would have been real dope to go back in time to see what they were like in high school, middle school, as kids, as grown adults. Instead of hearing these stories,
00:31:49
Speaker
firsthand you know from from my dad or my aunt and uncles to just hear it and to like be there with that person. That'd be real dope.
00:32:01
Speaker
be real dope to go back in time and meet some of my great-grandparents. I wouldn't go too far back, because, you know, you go too far back. You know, I'm a black man in America. You go too far back, you might put myself in a situation I might not be able to get out of. Maybe I don't get to the time machine just in time before the overseer try to catch me. I mean, that's a realistic problem.
00:32:22
Speaker
It's a realistic problem. so But it'd be cool to go back and see, I don't know, what was New York City like ah during the Harlem Renaissance? I would love to go back and see that. What was Chicago like when Al Capone was running the streets? you know So there were what would it what was it like during the Black Panther Party movement in the 60s in Oakland? So me being a historian, I would go back in time and observe these things that I've read about and just just be immersed in that. So this was an easy one. We are eventually coming with devices that will be able to translate languages within an instant. We already kind of have them. They're only going to get better and more sophisticated. So I could care less about that because I don't really be talking to a lot of people that don't speak the the languages that I speak anyway. But the ability to go back in time
00:33:17
Speaker
back to the future, like Marty McFly. And just, even if it wasn't to change anything, even if there were there the rules were you go back in time, but you can't alter anything about your life, there were some times I would just want to go back and relive.
00:33:31
Speaker
You know, there are moments in my life that I would definitely just love to go back and relive. And there are things that happened in history that I would just love to go back and observe. or observe So this one was an easy one. This wasn't was ah wasn't as hard as choosing social media or streaming service. This one was really easy. I'm choosing that time machine. Whether I can make money out of it or not, because the the benefit of just reliving past events of my own life or observing historical events is just too much to pass up.
00:34:06
Speaker
All right, so we're going to do one final one.
Living Without Modern Conveniences
00:34:08
Speaker
Would you rather? And please, in the comments, tell me which one you would rather. I want to hear from you guys. I think it was really dope to find out, you know, what other people think. Maybe there are other things about these scenarios that I didn't even think of. Enlighten me. I love learning. So and and I love hearing other people's perspective. And this is solicited, not unsolicited. So I want to hear your solicited perspective. But on to the third and final.
00:34:36
Speaker
scenario, would you rather live in a world without smartphones or world without cars? Now, when I first read this, I was like, oh, it's easy, it's cars, because I don't have a car anymore. Where I live, I don't need a car. I tell people all the time, look, Ubers can get me where I want to go. I'm not far from public transit.
00:34:58
Speaker
not far from the metro to take me just about anywhere in D.C. but that's within walking distance that I want to get to. I can even take a train to both of my parents where they live. I'm always drinking, so there's no drinking and driving, so I don't need a car anyway. So I was like, oh, easy. No smart, I mean, no cars. I'm gonna go with smartphones. Because I mean, we kind of need smartphones. Nah, I thought about it. No, we don't. I grew up in a world where there were no smartphones.
00:35:27
Speaker
I cannot go up in a world where there are no cars, because even though you've got these public transportation, like it's not all the way across the world. I think there is a train that you could take from the east coast to the west coast, but I don't want to do that. And I don't want to be in control. I don't want somebody else being in control of my entire trip. Sometimes you want to just get in the car and go somewhere. Y'all don't remember this, because this is before any of us were ever born. But before there was cars, people was all hoarse and buggy. It took forever to get places.
00:35:56
Speaker
It took forever, but there was a time when we didn't have smartphones. There was a time when we just had cell phones. There was a time where cameras weren't even on and cell phones. It was a cell phone to just call. I'm talking about even before texting. And you know what? We lived life easily without smartphones. We've become addicted and attached to their smartphones. But let me ask any of you a question out there. Has there ever been a time that your cell phone stopped working or you broke it or anything like that. And you couldn't get a new cell phone quickly. In other words, you had to wait a day or two before you had, ah before you could get a cell phone. So you were without a cell phone for a couple of days. How'd you feel? For me, the initial, the initial feeling is anxiety. Oh my God, there are so many people trying to get ahold of me that can't get ahold of me.
00:36:53
Speaker
After that fades, which is like a couple of hours, when I realize it's really not that big of a deal, I say to myself, oh my God, there's a bunch of people trying to get ahold of me that can't get ahold of me. This is great. I can pick and choose when I want to interact with somebody. With a smartphone, everybody knows if they send you a text, you see the text. I hate when people say, oh, I missed your text. You didn't miss my text. You saw my text and forgot about it, but you didn't miss my text.
00:37:22
Speaker
because you're on your phone, because everybody is on their phone all the time, because we're addicted to smartphones. But there was a world for all my Gen Z's and my Gen Alpha's, the few Gen Alpha's that might be listening to the show, which by the way, if you're a Gen Alpha, you better have gotten permission from your mom and dad before you listen to the show, because we be cussing sometimes on the show. And we'd be talking about mature subject matter. You should understand it, but you should learn about it, but with the cassette,
00:37:50
Speaker
from your parents. But Gen Z and Gen Alpha, there was a time where we were free. And you might say to yourself, what the hell are you talking about, Bruce? What do you mean free? We were free from the attachments of others. We were free to just sit in a house and not be bothered.
00:38:13
Speaker
because nobody could get a hold of us if we didn't want them to get a hold of us. And I guess, you know, technically you could still do that. You could put your smartphone away. And I do it a lot. I have started to put my smartphone away. And when those notifications go off, I get to it when I get up, I get to it. If it's an emergency, then i'll I'll know because there'll be certain notification sounds. But other than that, I'll get to it when I get to it. But there was a time when we would get to it, there was a time.
00:38:42
Speaker
where we had to either call or page our friends to call us to let us know where we was gonna go meet up. Or we already had pre-arranged plans. You look, we're going to meet at the mall, we're gonna meet at the mall at three o'clock, we're gonna meet at the arcade, or we're gonna meet and meet at the at the convenience store, or we're gonna meet at the shoes, or we're gonna meet at Foot Locker. We're gonna meet somewhere at this time, everybody be there. That was a good time.
00:39:09
Speaker
and you're gonna get there when you get there. If you lay, you're like, but you're gonna get there when you get there. There was freedom of not being attached to other people that we just don't have anymore. We're attached. we get People don't have vacations anymore. Think about it, back in the day, for those people that are old enough, know when our parents used to go on vacation? They was on vacation. You couldn't get ahold of them. Their job could not get ahold of them.
00:39:36
Speaker
Nowadays, a lot of my friends had these jobs where, you know, they're attached to their phone and they're like, the officer can get to you no matter where you are. They can shoot you an email, they can shoot you a text, they can shoot you a WhatsApp ad. So you're never on vacation. And I have some friends of mine that are bosses.
00:39:54
Speaker
And, you know, they tell these Gen Z people, hey, look, just because you're on vacation doesn't mean it. You don't answer my email. And these Gen Z people are like, the hell I am. I'm on vacation. No, you need to be ready. Why? Because that's the way that we came up as Gen X and millennials. Nah, Gen Z is like, look, vacation is vacation. That's what I'm going to take.
00:40:17
Speaker
We used to be like that, and we're not like that anymore. So I could give up a smartphone. I can't give up no cars, because even though I don't have one, I can always get one if I need to go on a trip. Sometimes you want to just rent a car and just drive. I don't know where. I might drive to Philly in a couple of weeks, just because. Philly is only three hours away from me, and I ain't never really, really been just a stopover on my way to Atlantic City. I kind of want to check out Philly. I never had a Philly cheesesteak. I want a Philly cheesesteak.
00:40:47
Speaker
I want to try both of them, the Genos and the other one or whatever. I want to try both of them. You know, I want to go down to the land. I want to see the Rocky statue. You know, I want to run up the stairs. I'm not going to run real fast because my knees hurt, but I want to run up the stairs. You know, I want to enjoy life, so I need a car to be able to do that. Can public transportation get me there? Yeah, man, I guess so. But maybe I just want to hop in the car and go so I can give her the smartphones. Smartphones have been literally the death of us.
00:41:17
Speaker
Technology is good. Sometimes technology is bad. And smartphone, hey look, I love my phone. I'm connected to things that I need to do. Things are quicker. But also, I would love to have that piece again of not having a smartphone. But I don't know. You guys tell me what you think. These were all scenarios that I wanted to hear what you thought. And y'all heard what I thought. And I did this in real time, planned it out.
00:41:41
Speaker
you know, say what I needed to say and tell y'all what my position was on each one. So just to be clear, I would give up social media and keep streaming services. I'm definitely taking that time machine and I don't need that device to translate all different languages. And I'm definitely giving up smartphones to keep cars. What would you do? But up next, we're going to be talking about another, what would you do with a bad tattoo?
Advice on Tattoos
00:42:18
Speaker
Tattoos. Some people have them, some people don't. I have three very, very close dear your friends. One, my bestie, got a lot of tattoos. My other two friends don't have one. I don't have a lot. I've got, I don't know, four or five kind of big pieces, nothing been small. I'm gonna get more. I go back and forth on which ones that I want.
00:42:46
Speaker
My dad has a tattoo. My mom has several tattoos. My sister has tattoos. My brother does not. He will not get tattoos. I respect my brother a lot. He remains principled in his stance on things and will not budge. But the theory is absolutely true. I don't know if you could call it a theory anymore. I'm gonna call it a fact. If you get one tattoo, you definitely wanna get more tattoos.
00:43:14
Speaker
The most important thing when getting a tattoo is really doing the research on the artist and the shop that you're gonna be getting your tattoos for from. Really doing the research about what design that you want because even though there is a tattoo removal procedure that you can do, it's painful and there's still something kind of left there and you don't wanna have to go through that. So you wanna decide on a tattoo because it's the rest of your life, it's permanent.
00:43:43
Speaker
that you're going to really enjoy. But like I said, the artist is so very, very important. Can some artists draw a free hand on you and then tattoo over the free hand? Yeah. A lot of times they are, you're bringing them a design, they stencil it, put the ink on your arm and then tattoo The stencil, right? It's kind of like ah tracing. That's exactly what it is. It's tracing. you Most of the time you don't get a bad tattoo when you use a stencil and they're tracing. I recently got a tattoo and it's okay. I like it. It's it's not bad. I went to a different artist. I wasn't as happy.
00:44:26
Speaker
with the tattoo as I was with the previous artist. So I'm just gonna stick with my tattoo artist, but the person that took me to the tattoo artist, rocks with that tattoo artist and is happy with every tattoo that they got from that tattoo artist. Just sometimes, no, just like it's like anything in relationships, sometimes it just doesn't vibe the way you want it to. I'm not disappointed in my tattoo. I think it's i think it's cool. It's just like this one little part of it that I wish it could be improved. And I might go back to this tattoo artist to go improve this little, little piece. But why am I bringing this up?
00:45:03
Speaker
because tattoo experiences really determine if you're going to continue wanting to get tattoos. A bad experience and a bad tattoo, oh man, that could really i could really ruin a lot of things. And luckily for me, I don't have any bad tattoos. Even a tattoo that I'm not Super ecstatic about like my other ones. I'm still not disappointed, man. It still looks dope. Other people are telling me, oh yeah, it that tattoo looks dope. And I was like, OK, cool. It's just not the standard of which I'm used to. But it's still dope. But I don't have any bad tattoos. And I see people that have bad tattoos. Sometimes you can get those tattoos covered up.
00:45:43
Speaker
Sometimes you can't. Sometimes it's just so bad that you just, you stuck with a bad tattoo. And also, ladies and gentlemen, when you get a tattoo and you're young, realize that your body will change and you need to look at it and determine the best that you can. How is your body?
00:46:02
Speaker
As you get older, go and translate with this tattoo. Luckily, my tattoos pretty much stayed the same because my body has pretty much stayed the same over the last, I don't know, 15 years. Nothing has really changed.
00:46:16
Speaker
But for some other people, things change. And then once again, some other people get bad tattoo experiences. I took my mom for her birthday to get her very first tattoo. I was there with her. It was a good experience for her, so much so that she went to the same artist. The artist that has done the most work for me has also done all the work for my mom and three of my cousins. Like we just adore her as an artist. My mom has gone,
00:46:44
Speaker
to go get more tattoos without me. Because she's had such a good experience. But I made sure to take her to a place where she would have a good experience. Kind of like when you suggest a restaurant. You're not going to suggest a bad restaurant. You're like, oh, this food is good. You should go here. So why am I bringing all this up? I was on Reddit because now that we're doing this,
00:47:11
Speaker
Am I a jerk segment that I actually really enjoy? I've a fallen down rabbit holes of just seeing like stories that people post on Reddit. Reddit was another social media site that I kind of knew about but didn't really know about because I never went on there. And damn, I might have to revisit getting rid of my social media or the streaming services because Reddit is kind of, I'm kind of addicted to Reddit now. So I don't know. Maybe. Let's move on. So.
00:47:40
Speaker
Here's a Reddit story of a person having a not so great experience with a tattoo artist. And then I'm going to respond to this story the best way I know how with my condescension and bit of humor that I typically respond with, with everything. All right, here we go. This is a young lady that went to go get a tattoo from a male artist.
00:48:07
Speaker
Weird question, not sure if this is the right place to post. It is, it's Reddit. I paid an artist upfront for two sessions for a tattoo, which was $800. The artist did the first session and is now refusing to do the second session. And the shot won't contact me back and won't refund my money. I know I shouldn't have paid it upfront,
00:48:32
Speaker
but I've been going here for seven plus years and figure they were good for it. What should I do? Okay. Now, I've never heard of a person paying for a tattoo up front. the full or Normally you put down a deposit and you pay for the tattoo at the end of the tattoo. Any, any, any reputable shop will say,
00:49:01
Speaker
put the deposit, they'll tell you what the total cost of the tattoo is. You put the deposit down to reserve your appointment time. And then the final payment is at the end of the tattoo. you know They give you what the tattoo costs, right? Based on how many hours it's gonna take the du to do the tattoo. The longest um amount of time it is taken for me to do a tattoo,
00:49:27
Speaker
was I think four hours, maybe five hours. The shortest amount of time was a quick 15 minute one. It was a touch up on one of my current tattoos. So it can it can go. I know people that have been, that have had to do multiple hour long sessions to finish up work. Cause they're getting the whole back done or they're getting the whole chest done or getting the whole quad or calf done. It was really intricate.
00:49:53
Speaker
But in none of these situations has somebody had to pay the full price upfront because you don't know what you're getting. You don't know what the final product it is. You're putting out a deposit to reserve the appointment. If you don't show up to the appointment, and you lose the deposit. That's what a deposit is. It's to make sure that you're going to arrive to your appointment that that artist has set aside that amount of time to do the work for you. You don't show up to the appointment, you lose the deposit. But this young lady, I'm gonna assume that she's young, this young lady,
00:50:36
Speaker
knows is this tattoo is going to be two sessions, and if it's $800, that sounds about right. That's that's a two session tattoo, and that's probably about six hours worth of work. It might be nowadays at these rates, it might be four or five hours worth of work because the cost of ink has gone up because of inflation. I learned that from a tattoo artist. But yeah, so there's going to be two sessions, and the artist just decided not to do the second session. Now, there's there's got to be something else In the story, maybe it was a bad experience, maybe you know she smelled bad, maybe she was disrespectful. No matter any of those scenarios, her money should be refunded. As somebody who runs the day-to-day operations of a semi-major business and has his own businesses on the side that he does,
00:51:35
Speaker
You might not refund all the money based on if it was her for ah fault or the tattoo artist's fault. But you're going to refund a large portion of the money. You would say, well, he already did the one session, so there's $400 left. So you take out 25% for administration fees and time wasted. So 25% of $400 is $100, so you get refund her $300 since you're not going to finish the tattoo. No matter what she did,
00:52:06
Speaker
No matter what she did, if she did something, no matter what she did, she should be given a refund for the money that she put in for something that she's not going to get. There was a follow up because a lot of people on the Reddit said, hey, you should file a complaint with a better business bureau. You should go on Google and Yelp and write the reviews of your experience. The worst case scenario, if they're not responding to any of these things, you should file a small claims to get your money back.
00:52:36
Speaker
She followed up and said she had done all of those things. And then the tattoo artist contacted her. And I threw texts and said, hey, stop doing this. I'm going through a tough time right now. I got a kid on the way. You're making things horrible for me. I'm not going to do as the second session. Leave me alone.
00:52:56
Speaker
By that point, I was like, uh, no, you're not. The tattoo shop and artist is not right in any of this way because no matter what she did, if she did something, I repeat, she should get a refund. I don't, I don't really know what you're talking about. So ma'am, if you're listening, which you might be, I don't know. You might be.
00:53:20
Speaker
If you're not, maybe this affines you. Maybe somebody that you know is listening to this and says, hey, isn't this your store? And yes, I'm talking about you. File that small claims. Take it to court. It's a shame that a place that you've gone to for seven plus years would treat such a loyal customer like this. And aside from really doing some foul-ish, I don't understand why they wouldn't refund your money.
00:53:47
Speaker
The Better Business Bureau would have got a handle on that and just and been like, hey, what is going on here? Why is this money being refunded? So I'm super curious, and I will be scouring Reddit to find out any additional information of this particular scenario, because I'm fascinated by the story. But what I'm really, really like taking a back bar is having a bad tattoo experience. If the artist is a new artist,
00:54:16
Speaker
and And they're doing tattoos for the first time. Typically, those artists don't do great tattoos. They're not horrible, but they're new. Like, a new barber is not going to give you as good of a haircut as somebody that's been doing it for a while. A new barber is not going to give you as good of a haircut as they would After they've had more experience, they're going to get better. The more times you do something, you will get better. Even if you suck. I'm not saying that tattoo. There are some tattoo artists out there that suck. Yeah, there are some out there. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying even if you're good, you're going to get better the more that you do it. And this scared me.
00:54:55
Speaker
For people out there wanting to get tattoos, to read the story, and they were on the fence about getting a tattoo, and they were like, well, no, I don't want to do that. I want to have a bad experience. I was on the fence when I first got my motorcycle license.
00:55:07
Speaker
For years, um it wasn't that many years. But for years, it was, nah, I don't want to get in a wreck and be paralyzed. That's like the worst like that worst thing that could ever happen to me. That's a legitimate fear. And I got on the motorcycle, and you know what? I got in an accident, and it wasn't the worst thing in the world. I lived. I survived. I was lucky. I was lucky. I lived. I survived. But until before I got into that accident, I was just five.
00:55:34
Speaker
I had been riding for a long time and I was just fine. And the reason why I got in the accident is because I was doing too much. The accident was all my fault. I was doing too much. Bad experiences or hearing about bad experiences.
00:55:50
Speaker
hope that doesn't deter people from doing something that they might actually enjoy. I don't regret not one tattoo that I have on my body. My mom doesn't regret not one. My sister not one. My bestie not one. My dad not one. Like we don't regret them. I don't know too many people that do if they have multiple tattoos that do regret them. Not overall. They might be like, I was young when I got this heart tattoo on my ass. I probably wouldn't get it now, but it's not like I hate it. I had a woman. Look, I dated a woman and she might be listening to the show that had a smiley face tattooed on her booty.
00:56:29
Speaker
And the reason why I know is because she told me. Because she told me that she had to tattoo. And just to see her booty, I was like, well, let me shoot a tattoo. And she showed me. And it was a smiley face. And she had a big booty, too. I'll never forget that booty. Smiley face booty. Anyway, that was her nickname. Anyway, I talked to her. I met her when I was in college. And the last time I connected with her was during the pandemic just to catch up to see how she was doing, which is what a lot of people did. And the tattoo came up, because that night that she told me the tattoo came up, because she always called me crazy for the way I asked to let me see the tattoo, when she was like, I knew what she was really asking for. I was like, yeah, I wasn't slick about it.
00:57:12
Speaker
And she was like, yeah, no, I don't have any regrets of this. You know, we look 40 at this time. She doesn't have any regrets. Like, you don't have any regrets. But a bad experience can leave you with regrets. I feel sorry for this young lady. I know she's she's been going there for seven years, so she's going to get more tattoos. But for anybody that's listening, if you've been thinking about getting a tattoo,
00:57:33
Speaker
You know what you should do? Get a temporary tattoo, other tattoo that you want where you want to get it. those One of those long ones, one of those ones that lasts about six to eight weeks and walk around with it. Half the time I forget I even have tattoos until I'm taking a picture or I'm walking around, I'm like, that tattoo looks real cool. but Yeah, it does look real cool. So if you're thinking about it, and this is anything in life.
00:57:58
Speaker
Take that chance. Get that motorcycle. Get that tattoo. Go skydiving. Take that cross-country trip. Take that trip to the for the European vacation. Take that muff-long cruise. Take a chance. Take a chance. And don't let other people's bad experiences stop you from living your life. If y'all haven't figured it out, that's been the theme of today's episode. Live your life.
00:58:25
Speaker
Live your life. And on that note, I want to remind everybody once again, we'll be releasing another sibling happy hour, but the next
Show Wrap-up and Patreon Promotion
00:58:35
Speaker
Friday and the following Tuesday will be no shows. We'll be back December 6th.
00:58:43
Speaker
and jump on our YouTube page for YouTube exclusive stuff as we're on this little brief hiatus. Because, you know, even if you don't want to watch the whole episode, we have clips of the episodes on a YouTube page, shorts,
00:58:59
Speaker
other episodes on the YouTube page and some YouTube exclusive stuff specifically only found on YouTube you might catch a clip from our Patreon shows on the YouTube page so definitely go ahead subscribe like
00:59:29
Speaker
Mahalo.
00:59:32
Speaker
That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise. And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account and you have a YouTube,
01:00:00
Speaker
Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our video podcast. But the real party is on our Patreon page. After Hours Uncensored, we'll talk a straight ish. After Hours Uncensored is another show with my sister. And once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those are exclusively on our Patreon page. Jump onto our website at uncensoredperspective.com. for all things us That's where you can get all of our audio, video, our blogs, and even buy our merch. And if you really feel ingenuous and want to help us out, you can donate on our donations page. Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can