Speaker 1: Hello, Hey, what's up?
Speaker 2: Hey? Is this the GAK?
Speaker 1: This is the GEK? Who is this?
Speaker 2: This is Spencer? How's it going?
Speaker 1: It's going all right?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: What's going on with you? Spencer?
Speaker 2: Nothing? I'm technically at work right now. I got about
Speaker 2: nineteen minutes left on my shift.
Speaker 1: You got nineteen minutes left on your shift?
Speaker 2: Exactlytes eighteen minutes now, actually just turned to three forty two.
Speaker 1: What do you think should we run out the clock?
Speaker 2: I think we should. I think that's a wonderful way
Speaker 2: to spend my time.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do it. Let's run out the clock. Waits,
Speaker 1: what job do you have?
Speaker 2: So? I mean, I guess my job. It's like the
Speaker 2: title makes my job sound kind of fake. You know
Speaker 2: you ever have those kinds of jobs?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my title is advancement assistant. I work at a
Speaker 2: nonprofit and I basically helped them fundraise and organize volunteer
Speaker 2: events and do some marketing for them.
Speaker 1: So what are you doing? What are you supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing for the next eighteen minutes?
Speaker 2: Working on email campaigns? But technically I am done with that, so,
Speaker 2: you know, figured i'd call you and see what you're
Speaker 2: up to.
Speaker 1: Wait, So why can't you just go home?
Speaker 2: Oh? I am home. I work from home.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, all right, so you like your fire, so
Speaker 1: you don't really have to do anything for the next
Speaker 1: seventeen minutes. No, No, all right, pretty good. Well especially,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this, is there anything in particular
Speaker 1: you called in to want to talk about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been trying to call in for a couple
Speaker 2: of months now. Uh. Last year I cut off or
Speaker 2: two years ago, I completely cut off someone who was
Speaker 2: my best friend. And I knew all my friends supported
Speaker 2: me in doing that because I'm in a big like
Speaker 2: friend group with him. But but now I feel like
Speaker 2: they kind of resent me for it because they still
Speaker 2: talk to him and like him, and we're on like
Speaker 2: a big group chat still, but it's just me and him.
Speaker 2: They don't like each other, you know. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean what happened? Why don't you guys
Speaker 1: like each other? Uh?
Speaker 2: Well, it was me that cut him off first because
Speaker 2: he was talking a bunch of crap about my girlfriend
Speaker 2: now fiance, and then yeah, it got to be a
Speaker 2: little too much, so kind of told him I didn't
Speaker 2: want to talk to him anymore. And you know, he
Speaker 2: he tried to apologize to me. I didn't really let
Speaker 2: him let him do it because it was kind of
Speaker 2: like a recurring thing. He started doing it. I told
Speaker 2: him to stop because he started doing it in sort
Speaker 2: of like a joking manner, but you know, it's not
Speaker 2: really something you joke about. He was like calling her
Speaker 2: her ugly and shit, and I'm like, all right, like like,
Speaker 2: don't do that. That's not respectful, Like you know, you
Speaker 2: shouldn't be doing that, and and you know, and he
Speaker 2: and he kept doing that, and if you can't, I
Speaker 2: don't want to be friends with someone that I have
Speaker 2: to tell them, like something as simple as like, you know,
Speaker 2: don't talk shit about my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: You know, did your did your girlfriend ever know that
Speaker 1: this guy was talking about her? Uh No?
Speaker 2: I never told her and she still doesn't know. Uh
Speaker 2: I like she knows. She's not dumb, because like I
Speaker 2: cut off one of my best friends that she knew,
Speaker 2: and now we're not talking and I'm not telling her why.
Speaker 2: She can kind of put two and two together and
Speaker 2: be like, oh, yeah, he definitely said something about me,
Speaker 2: But I don't really want to because he's talking like
Speaker 2: about her looks, So I don't want to tell her
Speaker 2: that and then have her be all like self conscious
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So I guess that's my way
Speaker 2: of justifying not telling her, even though I know deep
Speaker 2: down I should tell her.
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know. I don't think you. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you should tell her. I don't know if
Speaker 1: like yea, you ever heard that phrase that other people's
Speaker 1: opinions of you is none of your business.
Speaker 2: That's true, and this is this is someone that I
Speaker 2: wouldn't take advice from.
Speaker 1: So you yeah, no, I don't think you need to.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to tell her that she
Speaker 1: he was talking about her. But I think it's it's
Speaker 1: totally justified to be like, Yo, I don't want to
Speaker 1: hang out with this guy, but your problem is that
Speaker 1: everybody else is still hanging out with this guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They they still like him and they're still you know,
Speaker 2: friends with him, and I'm not like, and I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna I'm not gonna blame him for that, Like they
Speaker 2: didn't do anything to them. But I feel like now
Speaker 2: that I don't like him and I don't really hang
Speaker 2: out with him, I don't really want to hang out
Speaker 2: with him, and they still do, it kind of just
Speaker 2: puts an in their perspective, probably puts like an unnecessary
Speaker 2: rift in the friend group.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you that, did you ever like so
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry maybe you said this orady, but when
Speaker 1: he was talking about your girlfriend, and did you tell him, like, yo,
Speaker 1: stop doing that and he just he just did did
Speaker 1: not respond at all. Yeah, he just completely.
Speaker 2: Fucking I told him. I'm like, I told him, like,
Speaker 2: nobody thinks that's funny except for you, because nobody was
Speaker 2: laughing at it. So I was like, nobody thinks that's
Speaker 2: funny except for you. Stop. He did it like a
Speaker 2: couple more times after that, and then it was all
Speaker 2: because of a football game too man like his football,
Speaker 2: like the team that he was a really big fan
Speaker 2: of lost the game. And then he like, and I'll
Speaker 2: admit I was chirping him a little bit, you know,
Speaker 2: I was trying to I was talking a little bit
Speaker 2: of shit, but nothing too personal. And then he just
Speaker 2: goes and says another thing about about my fiance and
Speaker 2: that was like my breaking point with him. So like
Speaker 2: it was known that he did it and that I
Speaker 2: wasn't a fan of it, and that I've told him
Speaker 2: to stop multiple times. And then after he did it
Speaker 2: that time, I was like, all right, I don't, like,
Speaker 2: don't even bother apologizing because I don't because like, you
Speaker 2: obviously don't mean it because I've I've told you to
Speaker 2: stop this stuff in the past, and you haven't. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a tough situation.
Speaker 1: And how many how many people are in the group?
Speaker 2: I would say, like ten to twelve?
Speaker 1: Whoa brod? Having twelve friends is crazy?
Speaker 2: I know, right, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 3: Technically eleven, Well, listen, twelve, I mean twelve, So that's
Speaker 3: a big enough group, right that you don't have to
Speaker 3: First of all, that's a big enough group that it
Speaker 3: can split off into several different subgroups.
Speaker 1: And I mean twelve is big enough that you don't
Speaker 1: have to really necessarily interact with or be around this
Speaker 1: guy if you don't want to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And that's what it's been like. He doesn't.
Speaker 2: We don't even live in the same state because we
Speaker 2: all met in college and then we all graduated and
Speaker 2: I'm living in Indiana. He's off in Illinois, so I
Speaker 2: haven't seen him in like a good year. So like,
Speaker 2: whenever we get together as a big group, he's there
Speaker 2: and like, it's fine, And I told him like I
Speaker 2: can be friendly with you, I just don't want to
Speaker 2: be your friend. It's like when we're there, there's like tension.
Speaker 2: And then whenever I'm hanging out with the people from
Speaker 2: the group that still live in Indiana and ever, like
Speaker 2: whenever he comes up, I can tell that there's like
Speaker 2: that they don't really want to bring him up, even
Speaker 2: though like I don't care if they bring him up,
Speaker 2: but like I just feel like they kind of resent
Speaker 2: me for for you know, holding such a grudge against
Speaker 2: him for so long.
Speaker 1: Well, where's this tension coming from? Like what's so like
Speaker 1: tension is when like there's something you know supposed to happen,
Speaker 1: but what's supposed to happen, there's no tension. There's really
Speaker 1: no attension here because it's like you don't like and
Speaker 1: it is there any way, shape or form in which
Speaker 1: you are feeding into tension. I mean it's pretty cut
Speaker 1: and dry. It's like, look, I don't you know what
Speaker 1: is there to be they don't want to be around
Speaker 1: this guy. I haven't.
Speaker 2: I never really thought of it that way. I mean,
Speaker 2: it is kind of just I guess I guess I
Speaker 2: could just be making most of it up in my
Speaker 2: in my head. See, this is why I need to
Speaker 2: because I like, I've talked to him about it before
Speaker 2: and we've come to like an understanding obviously, But I
Speaker 2: don't know. I guess I just kind of feel like
Speaker 2: there's something left to be said, and I feel like
Speaker 2: that might be on more on my end than everybody
Speaker 2: else's end.
Speaker 1: What's the what is there left to be said? You know?
Speaker 1: I mean you guys, you said you came to an
Speaker 1: understanding with this guy. What does that look like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the understanding that the understanding we came to. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 2: just that that we're not friends, but when we're when
Speaker 2: we're together with our big group, like we can we
Speaker 2: can be friends or we can be friendly. I guess
Speaker 2: the thing that's I'm not gonna lie, the thing that's
Speaker 2: kind of eating me up inside of that I should
Speaker 2: just say, punch this guy in the face when he
Speaker 2: first did it, and then none of this would have happened.
Speaker 2: We could have kind of moved past it.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you you you believe
Speaker 1: that if you punch You believe that if you punched
Speaker 1: this guy in the face, things would actually be better
Speaker 1: and you guys could be friends.
Speaker 2: Now I feel like you know, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know. See, when you put it that way, it
Speaker 2: really doesn't sound that good.
Speaker 1: No, it doesn't make any sense at all, unless if
Speaker 1: that's what you believe, unless if you if you genuinely
Speaker 1: believe that if this guy, let like, all right, let's
Speaker 1: say that this guy came to you. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: say this guy came to you and he was like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, and you could punch me in the face
Speaker 1: if you want. And then you punched them in the face,
Speaker 1: would you? Could you guys be friends now.
Speaker 2: Or or no? Maybe? See here's the sorry my water
Speaker 2: botol just sell. But here's the thing. So this guy
Speaker 2: actually had beef with another guy in the group that
Speaker 2: the same year, like two years ago, and he punched
Speaker 2: this guy. He punched the guy that I have beef
Speaker 2: with in the face, and then they didn't talk for
Speaker 2: like a couple of months, and then they were all
Speaker 2: okay after that. I feel like if I had gotten
Speaker 2: that aggression out when he first did it one, I
Speaker 2: don't think he would have done it again afterwards, because
Speaker 2: I think the problem is that he just kept on
Speaker 2: doing it, you know, and like even though I would
Speaker 2: tell him to stop. I feel like if I just
Speaker 2: showed that aggression right away, like, you know, don't like,
Speaker 2: don't talk shit about my girlfriend. I'm gonna punch you
Speaker 2: in the face, then it would have squashed the beef
Speaker 2: a lot earlier, and it would have gotten as bad
Speaker 2: as it did. Hmm.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, and well okay, so how about this, So
Speaker 1: why don't you go up to him and be like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: we gotta fight. Yeah, sounds like you want to sounds
Speaker 1: like you want to fight this guy.
Speaker 2: I don't want to fight him because he's a lot
Speaker 2: bigger than me.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe, yeah, maybe maybe I just kind of let
Speaker 1: this guy. You just gotta let this guy maug you.
Speaker 2: Yesh, I just let him, Just let him go after me.
Speaker 2: I don't know, See, I don't know. It's just like
Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess I just kind of feel
Speaker 2: bad that I brought this tension into the friend group
Speaker 2: and kind of kept it around myself instead of just
Speaker 2: squashing it right away. It took me a while to
Speaker 2: talk to him.
Speaker 1: Well, what would that look I mean, when is the tension?
Speaker 1: What would that look like? If you squashed the tension even.
Speaker 2: We would like we would be like we would be
Speaker 2: friends with him, like we used to talk all the time.
Speaker 2: I haven't talked to him in like two years. Other
Speaker 2: than like we would talk like and I guess our
Speaker 2: group chat would be a little bit more active. After
Speaker 2: all that happened, our group chat kind of died out
Speaker 2: and it's been kind of on it's been kind of
Speaker 2: inactive ever since. You know, m.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, well, okay, so now the group
Speaker 1: chat has to factor. Wait do you haven't talked to
Speaker 1: this guy in two years?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I like I've talked to him when we have
Speaker 2: like our like when we all meet back up as
Speaker 2: a group, But other than that, not I like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I talked to him last year about the issues, and
Speaker 2: that's why, like it's I said, like, it took me
Speaker 2: a long time to talk to him about it, so
Speaker 2: like I don't like I so it took me like
Speaker 2: a year to talk to him about it. But like,
Speaker 2: other than that, I've only talked to him when we're
Speaker 2: in a group, you know.
Speaker 1: Hm hmm, Yeah, I don't know. I guess you could
Speaker 1: reach back out to him and be like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I think we have to You can either reach back
Speaker 1: out to him and be like, hey, listen, let's let's
Speaker 1: squash this beef. Like, are you ready to like apologize
Speaker 1: to me? Because this is fucking us up? You know,
Speaker 1: I mean you can't, you can.
Speaker 2: Like I don't. The thing is, he's got like the
Speaker 2: thing that I want to see. Like the reason I
Speaker 2: don't want to squash it is because and this is
Speaker 2: gonna sound kind of stupid, but I like, he hasn't
Speaker 2: really changed as a person, and I knew that if
Speaker 2: like I know that if he had the opportunity to
Speaker 2: do it again, he would, like he's still kind of
Speaker 2: the same person, and I would love to squash be
Speaker 2: with him. I just want to see him kind of
Speaker 2: change as a person and mature a little bit. And
Speaker 2: like I again, I just haven't. I haven't really seen
Speaker 2: that yet. Like he's still kind of on the same bullshit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's he's he's probably not going to
Speaker 1: do that if he hasn't already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we're all twenty four, so our brains
Speaker 2: haven't fully developed yet, So there's still hope. Like and
Speaker 2: when I told him, like when I was talking to
Speaker 2: him about it last yek, I told him, I was like, dude,
Speaker 2: like I like I don't want to be your friend,
Speaker 2: like you're kind of just like I don't want to
Speaker 2: be your friend right now, you're still just kind of
Speaker 2: the same person. Yeah, but is this.
Speaker 1: Really causing that much of a difficulty in the friends,
Speaker 1: because why don't you just.
Speaker 2: Like, after after talking to you and kind of getting
Speaker 2: it all out there, it does really seem more like
Speaker 2: I'm making up the tension in my own head and
Speaker 2: if I just kind of let that go, then it
Speaker 2: will go away itself too. So I'm thankful for that
Speaker 2: because I haven't really because this is why I've been
Speaker 2: calling you, because I haven't really talked to a non
Speaker 2: biased third party about it, because everyone else that talked
Speaker 2: to you about it, like knows people in the group,
Speaker 2: you know, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, what does everyone else say, Well, they'll they'll take.
Speaker 2: My side because it's obvious, like yeah, you shouldn't have
Speaker 2: been talking about your girlfriend, right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know sides. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Taking sides is about, like ego and pride. You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't fucking do anything who won, who's right and
Speaker 1: who's wrong. This is fucking doing it. This is a
Speaker 1: logistical issue. This isn't about sides, you know, because listen,
Speaker 1: you're right, he's wrong, he's right, you're wrong. Who gives
Speaker 1: a fucking shit? You know what matters is logistically, how
Speaker 1: do we move forward in this situation? That's what matters, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's that's matter.
Speaker 1: That's the question to be solved because because oh, you're right,
Speaker 1: you know, who give? So what what do you do
Speaker 1: with that? Where do you where you cash that those
Speaker 1: tokens in?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the answer is like, well, how do you move
Speaker 1: forward in the situation? The answer is, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It depends on everyone and how your spirit feels and whatnot.
Speaker 1: But I'm a big fan of the path at least resistance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I need I gotta like stop
Speaker 2: dwelling on it and just kind of just kind of
Speaker 2: move forward and be like, uh, all right, what happened?
Speaker 2: Did happen? And it sucks, but we have come to
Speaker 2: our understanding and we just kind of got to move
Speaker 2: on from there.
Speaker 1: You have three more minutes left to work, right, I.
Speaker 2: Do have three more minutes left of work?
Speaker 1: Is anyone coming for you? How's it? Where you go ahead?
Speaker 1: I'll leave?
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, I'm just gonna ask you how your
Speaker 2: day was going. I feel like I feel like we're
Speaker 2: going to a good uh good conclusion too to my
Speaker 2: to my problem. I've I've found clarity, You've helped me,
Speaker 2: You've helped me find myself.
Speaker 1: Okay, good, good, I'll take that. I'll take that to
Speaker 1: the bank.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How's my day going? My day's going? Okay, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I have anything else. I feel
Speaker 1: like we have to. I feel like I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to. I want to go two more minutes
Speaker 1: with you because I want to. I said I was
Speaker 1: going to run out this clock, and now I want to.
Speaker 1: We got to Philly. We gotta fully do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we we really do.
Speaker 1: How do you want to spend these last two minutes?
Speaker 2: I kind of want to get to know you on
Speaker 2: a on a bit of a deeper level. I've been
Speaker 2: listening to your podcast for so long and and like
Speaker 2: I feel like I have you you figured out pretty well.
Speaker 2: Like you're a social person, you like activities. But what
Speaker 2: what else? I've been watching a lot of decks there recently,
Speaker 2: so I'm I'm big into finding that that dark side
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 1: Oh god, what else? I let's see what can I
Speaker 1: tell you about my dark side in the next two minutes.
Speaker 1: One minute now, okay, one minute? Uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I get depressed sometimes, but everyone knows that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nothing exciting nothing, I'm sorry exciting life.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no good?
Speaker 1: But uh uh is dexter good? Should I watch it?
Speaker 2: I think you'd like it a lot. I'm on the
Speaker 2: fourth season right now, which is apparently the best season,
Speaker 2: and so far so good, man, very very good. I'm
Speaker 2: on like the seventh episode, Ship's Going Down. I feel
Speaker 2: like you'd like it. We watch watch a couple of
Speaker 2: episodes after you're after you're done with the stream, and
Speaker 2: and tell me how you like it.
Speaker 1: What's your name again?
Speaker 2: Spencer?
Speaker 1: Spencer?
Speaker 2: S p E N s E R?
Speaker 1: What what else was it supposed to? Oh?
Speaker 2: Ship?
Speaker 1: Really? Okay? I was when I thought of you, is like,
Speaker 1: I was like, what the fuck else are you supposed
Speaker 1: to spell Spencer with? But there's no there's an S
Speaker 1: instead of a C.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, how about that? Throw a book or a
Speaker 2: series of books?
Speaker 1: All right, Spencer, let's end this phone call.
Speaker 2: All right? You have a wonderful Is.
Speaker 1: There anything else you want to say to the people
Speaker 1: of the computer before we go.
Speaker 2: Acknowledge your tribal chief.
Speaker 1: Acknowledge your tribal chief? Yes, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: It's it's a w W reference, the only thing good
Speaker 2: thing to say. It was kind of dumb. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It wasn't dumb. It's just I don't know what it means.
Speaker 1: That doesn't that's not the same.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's it's a lot, a lot to explain.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I'll see you later, see you, Gek,
Speaker 1: bye bye. All right, we're gonna google this. We're now.
Speaker 1: I'm not letting this get away from us. Okay, acknowledge
Speaker 1: it's your tribal chief. This is a w W E thing.
Speaker 1: The phrase acknowledge your tribal chief. It's a popular catchphrase
Speaker 1: used by Roman Raids, a professional wrestler who identifies as
Speaker 1: the tribal chief. What does it mean?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Okay. I think it's like a cartman respect my authority thing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start using that acknowledge my tribal chief. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It feels like a weird thing for a
Speaker 1: white guy to say, but I I don't know. It
Speaker 1: could be fun to say.
Speaker 4: All from rue.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hello, Hi there, Hey, what's going on?
Speaker 2: Gek?
Speaker 1: Not much. Man, are you? Are you the guy who
Speaker 1: texted me I recently had a supernatural encounter with God?
Speaker 2: Yeah, dude, that's me.
Speaker 1: Uh Rue is your name? That's the name of the
Speaker 1: kangaroo from that's the name of one of the kangaroos
Speaker 1: from Winnie the Pooh. But funk all that shit. You
Speaker 1: you had a supernatural encounter with God? What does that
Speaker 1: look like?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 5: Yeah? So this year has been fucking absolutely kind of
Speaker 5: crazy for me. To be totally honest, I feel like
Speaker 5: I've been coming into the man that God needs me
Speaker 5: to be. I've personally found God and have been on
Speaker 5: my walk with Him and Jesus. So yeah, I'm more
Speaker 5: than willing to tell you about my experience if you're
Speaker 5: if you're willing to listen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. You know what's funny is, I've actually been
Speaker 1: like I go to the park a lot. I go
Speaker 1: to the park a lot to record this podcast, and
Speaker 1: there's always somebody who's trying to talk to people about
Speaker 1: God and I It's like I'm always like I'll go
Speaker 1: up to them a lot actually, and I'll talk to
Speaker 1: them about God and stuff, and I feel like.
Speaker 5: What do you do you like ask do you ask
Speaker 5: them questions or do you like, well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well because I feel like, well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's like in New York City, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: ninety nine point nine percent of people who walk past
Speaker 1: that person, they will not look at them, you know,
Speaker 1: because nobody wants it. But I'm you know, I'm weird,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm like, I got some time to kill.
Speaker 1: I would rather I would rather talk to this preacher
Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes than look at my phone for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: That's the main reason I'm doing it.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I learned some stuff.
Speaker 5: I feel like a lot of people who represent faith
Speaker 5: and represent God have kind of tainted his name, and
Speaker 5: I've been a victim of that myself. If it weren't
Speaker 5: for the encounters that I've had with him this year,
Speaker 5: I would have been in the same boat. You know.
Speaker 5: I've totally rejected God as a whole and the idea
Speaker 5: of him just because of the hypocrisy around the faith
Speaker 5: and the hypocrisy that people have brought to it. So like,
Speaker 5: I totally get why people are super dodgy around it
Speaker 5: because I've been there myself. But yeah, it's cool that
Speaker 5: you are open to the idea of whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Well sort of, well, okay, so I'll say, and I
Speaker 1: want to t I talk too much about myself, but
Speaker 1: I I want to get to your encounters. But well,
Speaker 1: I talked to one dude I think I want to say.
Speaker 1: It was like a they're getting funky. Used to be
Speaker 1: like there's there's Jewish, Christian and Muslim, and now it's like, no,
Speaker 1: he can be you know, there's a lot of funky
Speaker 1: mixed religions. And I was talking to some guy I
Speaker 1: think he was. He was Jewish. He was Jewish, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about God. I don't know, I can't he's
Speaker 1: kind of I don't know what exactly what he was,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't fully Jewish. I don't know what he was.
Speaker 1: But he liked God and he was like talking about
Speaker 1: I I'm not there's a few things I'm not sold on.
Speaker 1: I'm not sold on heaven and Hell. I'm not sold
Speaker 1: on heaven in Hell because I feel like, so we're
Speaker 1: all in God's image theoretically right, and so if we're
Speaker 1: all in God's image, I almost I've I've lately have
Speaker 1: taken on a bit of a deterministic point of view
Speaker 1: of the world. And so like, you know, any any
Speaker 1: evil that exists on the planet is almost like of God,
Speaker 1: you know, if we're all made of God. So it's
Speaker 1: like those two the idea that we're all created by God,
Speaker 1: but that we also uh can make these sort of
Speaker 1: decisions as mortals, that landis in heaven or hell. It doesn't.
Speaker 1: It feels a little weird to me. I mean also,
Speaker 1: it's like a way of completely of like absolving yourself
Speaker 1: of any I do think humans probably maybe have choice
Speaker 1: in things, but a lot of that deterministic. But anyway, anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't know I'm getting I'm too much on myself.
Speaker 1: What what was your encounter with God?
Speaker 5: This is this is this is the way the conversation
Speaker 5: is flowing. Let's let's keep it going, Okay.
Speaker 2: So I can style, I can.
Speaker 5: I can only speak on my own experiences. Like I said,
Speaker 5: I'm new in the faith, so I'm a horrible person
Speaker 5: to give facts. I can only speak on on my
Speaker 5: own accord. But as far as I understand it, you
Speaker 5: say that you you're not sold on the whole heaven
Speaker 5: and hell thing. So my idea of it is everything
Speaker 5: that's wrong with the world is the absence of God. Right,
Speaker 5: God in in itself is love, God in in itself
Speaker 5: is wholeness. Okay, so hell itself and everything bad in
Speaker 5: the world is the absence of God. In my own head, Okay,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of there's a lot of scripture that
Speaker 5: I can quote that can back it. I actually don't
Speaker 5: have my notepad with me. I have a lot of
Speaker 5: that in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it, I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1: I always I get it as like an allegory, Like
Speaker 1: you don't even like to believe in what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I don't even think you have to believe in anything
Speaker 1: beyond uh, the empirical.
Speaker 2: To find empirical, because I have no idea what the fuck.
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, I'm I don't know the whole thing
Speaker 1: of Like, you don't have to believe in anything supernatural,
Speaker 1: I think to believe in what you're saying, because everything
Speaker 1: you're saying is just allegorical, Like God is just God
Speaker 1: is just being nice at that point, you know.
Speaker 5: Right, Okay, I see what you're saying. But yeah, God, okay, Yeah,
Speaker 5: So I guess I'll just kind of open up about
Speaker 5: my experience. So in the beginning of the year when
Speaker 5: I actually have had a few encounters with God himself
Speaker 5: this year or just like the presence of what is holy.
Speaker 5: So in the beginning of the year, I at the
Speaker 5: end of last year, I went through a horrible breakup.
Speaker 5: I went through kind of just like a really horrible
Speaker 5: time in life, and I felt that God called me
Speaker 5: to him through kind of just like the people around me,
Speaker 5: kind of opened up my eyes as to who He
Speaker 5: is through his creation, you know, like I look around
Speaker 5: everything that is and ever was, and everything is so
Speaker 5: perfectly fine tuned that I say to myself, how can
Speaker 5: there not be a God?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 5: And I feel like God opened up himself through that
Speaker 5: kind of opened up my eyes that fact.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm such
Speaker 1: an asshole. But is everything so perfectly fine tuned?
Speaker 5: Well as far as like the chaos and everything in
Speaker 5: the world, but like at yourself, get your brain, your heart,
Speaker 5: everything nature, the bees flying around me right and there's
Speaker 5: literally a bee flying in my face right now. Sorry,
Speaker 5: you know, just stuff like that, Like you go to
Speaker 5: like a waterfall and everything is running in fine tune
Speaker 5: and all of that. I understand what you're saying. Like
Speaker 5: the the bad things in the world, you know, is
Speaker 5: that kind of what you're getting asked to? You don't
Speaker 5: think that things are are finely tuned?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I don't think things are perfect, and
Speaker 1: they've never been, but I I I'll things are good.
Speaker 1: I think they're but they're like, for as bad as
Speaker 1: they are, they're pretty Like I'm surprised that the world
Speaker 1: functions as well as it does currently, even though there's like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, war and uh famine all as bad stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like the fact that you know, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be a hundred set perfect, but the fact
Speaker 1: that it functions as well as it does currently.
Speaker 2: It's pretty pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: It's pretty crazy. I agree with that. I'll buy that.
Speaker 1: I'll buy that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the idea of consciousness in it itself
Speaker 5: is fucking crazy. Like I remember being a kid and
Speaker 5: gaining consciousness. I don't remember when it was, but I
Speaker 5: remember gaining consciousness and being like what is this, you know,
Speaker 5: and looking at myself and being like like, I'm a
Speaker 5: person and I'm experiencing I'm experiencing this experience and everything
Speaker 5: just kind of works, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you were going through some time. So let's
Speaker 1: get a little less philosophical, a little bit more personal.
Speaker 1: So you were going through some stuff and then you
Speaker 1: know what happened. How did you kind of you seem
Speaker 1: you strike me as a peaceful and optimistic gentleman. How
Speaker 1: did you arrive there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Man, thank you.
Speaker 5: I still struggle with the peaceful and optimistic part of life.
Speaker 5: If I'm being totally honest with you, Okay, I will
Speaker 5: open up about a specific thing that I've been kind
Speaker 5: of going through. So I've been real big into the
Speaker 5: reeve scene. Okay, I've been real big into the reeve
Speaker 5: scene the last like three years of my life, which
Speaker 5: I feel like God right now in the current point
Speaker 5: of where I'm at, is telling me to step back
Speaker 5: from that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 5: I'm not really sure how this correlates to what we're
Speaker 5: speaking of if I'm being totally honest, but I just
Speaker 5: feel like I just feel like I should say it. Okay.
Speaker 5: So I've been in this circle for the longest time. Okay,
Speaker 5: over the last like month or so two months of
Speaker 5: my life, I have just felt a really uneasy and
Speaker 5: just like dark presence in those areas. Okay, as far
Speaker 5: as drugs go, you know, I've been in a struggling
Speaker 5: addict since I've been like sixteen years old, pretty much
Speaker 5: have tried everything in the book. Just people around me
Speaker 5: have pulled me down to some dark places regarding the
Speaker 5: rave scene and all of that. But yeah, I recently
Speaker 5: the encounter that I've I'm speaking of kind of had
Speaker 5: a lot to do with that and about my struggles
Speaker 5: with addiction. I was sitting in my well, hold on.
Speaker 5: I had a weekend where I went out, Okay, okay,
Speaker 5: hold on, hold on, hold on, gek, I'm getting ahead
Speaker 5: of myself.
Speaker 2: Let me backpedal.
Speaker 5: So I came to God in the beginning of the year, okay,
Speaker 5: and I cut off a lot of that stuff for
Speaker 5: a long time, and then I went back to it.
Speaker 5: I fell back into old habits. I fell back into
Speaker 5: a lot of drugs, and I fell back into a
Speaker 5: lot of that kind of stuff and felt myself kind
Speaker 5: of floating away from God.
Speaker 2: Now I had a.
Speaker 5: Mentor for the longest time, and he reached out to
Speaker 5: me and kind of asked me how things were going,
Speaker 5: and I opened up to him. I was like, yeah, man,
Speaker 5: I fell this is where I'm at. And so he
Speaker 5: set a date a few weeks ago, like a few
Speaker 5: mondays ago, and he was like, I'm coming to get you.
Speaker 5: We're gonna talk things out, and I must see where
Speaker 5: you're at. So I told myself, come Monday, this is it. Okay,
Speaker 5: Come Monday, I'm going in and I'm looking back to God. Okay. Now,
Speaker 5: the weekend before that Monday geck was the craziest weekend
Speaker 5: I've ever had in my life. I went out and
Speaker 5: almost it almost felt like I had to get it
Speaker 5: all out of my system.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: I went crazy. I did everything. And there's a story
Speaker 5: in the Bible where the devil takes Jesus Christ around
Speaker 5: and about and he tests him. He tells him make
Speaker 5: these rocks into bread. If you are Jesus Christ himself,
Speaker 5: throw yourself off of this sledge, and the angels of
Speaker 5: God will catch you for it says, a foot will
Speaker 5: not strike a rock.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 5: The devil tempted Jesus Christ with all of these things
Speaker 5: in that moment, and I felt like I was in
Speaker 5: the exact same situation that weekend. It was the craziest thing.
Speaker 1: The devil tempted Jesus to jump off a fucking cliff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's more of a day or than a temptation.
Speaker 2: That's more it was like, yeah, yeah, the way I
Speaker 2: ordered it kind of sounds like that.
Speaker 1: Man, but uh so the devil, the devil.
Speaker 5: It was more like it was more like prove yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah the devil shit tested him.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, it was more like prove yourself. Okay, anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 5: so I went through something very similar to that the
Speaker 5: weekend before that Monday, Man, I told myself, I was like,
Speaker 5: come Monday, this is it. I'm walking back in ghek.
Speaker 5: Let me tell you about this weekend. Okay, I've never
Speaker 5: in my life had so many women thrown at me.
Speaker 5: I've never in my life had so much put in
Speaker 5: front of my face. I had so many drugs offered
Speaker 5: to me, I had so many friends offered to me.
Speaker 5: Like typically a regular like night of me going out
Speaker 5: and like raving and going crazy, I go to a rave, uh,
Speaker 5: get fucked up and go home. But this specific night, man,
Speaker 5: I got like connected to a lot of people, and
Speaker 5: I've got I got connected to a lot of like
Speaker 5: people in the scene in my area in Charlotte, and
Speaker 5: it almost felt like the devil was kind of like
Speaker 5: showing me what he had to offer you. Know if
Speaker 5: I like went this way.
Speaker 1: Okay, and so all right, so let me like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna like your story so far is okay. So you
Speaker 1: were not doing well, you had a mentor sponsor, let's
Speaker 1: say almost, and uh, your sponsored was like okay on Mondays.
Speaker 1: You call your sponsor Friday Monday, He's like, all right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna come down, we're gonna talk. And then you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, before I, you know, start getting my shit
Speaker 1: together with this guy, I'm gonna go out for the weekend.
Speaker 1: And you go out and the devil starts tempting you
Speaker 1: with with with drugs and women, and yeah, okay, and
Speaker 1: then what happened? What happens? What happens? Come Monday.
Speaker 5: So Monday had an even pain geck comes Sunday, Okay, Sunday.
Speaker 5: I was coming down off of a lot of shit, okay,
Speaker 5: and I was going a little crazy, man. I was
Speaker 5: low key spiraling. And there was a like, I want
Speaker 5: to say, like a four hour period Sunday night after
Speaker 5: just being depressed all day because I went crazy the
Speaker 5: weekend before where I felt genuinely felt like I was
Speaker 5: going fully manic, and it was honestly really scary Gek.
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna just give this pretense for absolutely no reason.
Speaker 5: I meal prep my breakfast in the morning, okay, Okay.
Speaker 5: So I was out of groceries at like ten PM.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh shit, I need to go get
Speaker 5: groceries to meal prep breakfast in the morning.
Speaker 2: I go.
Speaker 5: And get groceries, get back to my house with said groceries.
Speaker 5: I'm sitting in my driveway. I shut my truck off.
Speaker 5: I'm sitting in my driveway and I do not feel well, Gek.
Speaker 5: I feel horrible, I feel sick, I feel heavy. My
Speaker 5: soul feels heavy. Okay. And there was a solid hour
Speaker 5: where I felt these presences. Okay, I don't want to
Speaker 5: I want to call them demons, geg, but I don't
Speaker 5: want to give him a name. But they felt heavy, dude.
Speaker 5: They felt so heavy, so dark. And I'm sitting in
Speaker 5: my truck and it felt genuinely felt like God himself,
Speaker 5: Jesus Christ himself was looking down on me and looking
Speaker 5: at all of this unfold. Okay. I have never in
Speaker 5: my whole life felt a presence like that. And I
Speaker 5: could you know what the crazy thing, Gek is is
Speaker 5: that I could differentiate. Okay, I could differentiate set presences.
Speaker 5: Like I said, I felt these presences, these dark beings
Speaker 5: around me, okay, and I knew that they themselves were
Speaker 5: dark and evil, But I could also differentiate the presence
Speaker 5: and the holiness of God in that moment, and I
Speaker 5: felt God looking at me and watching all of this
Speaker 5: unfold and watching me go crazy. Okay, These said dark
Speaker 5: presences genuinely were making me go crazy gek And I
Speaker 5: don't know how else to explain it other than they
Speaker 5: were telling me I was going and crazy. There was
Speaker 5: a voice in my head screaming at me to call
Speaker 5: nine one one, screaming at me to screaming at me,
Speaker 5: telling me that I'm going into psychosis, full blown psychosis.
Speaker 5: And I can't help but feel like something left me
Speaker 5: that night.
Speaker 1: Did you call nine one one?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: I did not. I can't help but feel like something
Speaker 5: genuinely left me that night. I don't know if God
Speaker 5: called it out of me, if God called it out
Speaker 5: of my soul, but it feels like God told me
Speaker 5: to lock in for real, as corny and weird as
Speaker 5: that sounds, and so God.
Speaker 1: And so what happened, and so what happens on myny
Speaker 1: when you went to go see your person.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Man, so I was kind of creeping up on that.
Speaker 5: But like I said, it felt like I was going crazy.
Speaker 5: When I talked to my mentor, he was like, yeah, man,
Speaker 5: I have one seen this. He told me that he
Speaker 5: wasn't expecting me to come out of my house. He
Speaker 5: had this exact same situation happened with like some woman
Speaker 5: that he was like pulling trying to help out of
Speaker 5: the pits of addiction. And it was the same kind
Speaker 5: of thing where he reached out and he said, I'm
Speaker 5: coming to get you and we're going to talk it out.
Speaker 5: The day that he came and got her, her peers
Speaker 5: said that she tried to overdose the the night before.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: And I can't help but think that I crossed paths
Speaker 5: with the same kind of entities. I don't want to
Speaker 5: call them that were trying to convince me that I
Speaker 5: was going crazy. And because think about it, Gig, had
Speaker 5: I called nine one one, had I gave in, okay,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have went with my mentor.
Speaker 1: You know, And you're never hold on, You're not You're
Speaker 1: not gonna, You're not gonna. I I think, if if
Speaker 1: you have a voice, I'm gonna go ahead and say,
Speaker 1: if you have a voice in your head screaming at
Speaker 1: you to call nine one one, shourobably do it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the thing, man, that's the thing. But this
Speaker 5: ship is real, and I will everybody.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'll let you, I'll let you, I'll let
Speaker 1: you finish before we go.
Speaker 5: Okay, Okay, okay, okay, I want to I do, and
Speaker 5: I am very interested in your input. But I will
Speaker 5: say to everybody listening, okay, and I would really appreciate
Speaker 5: if everybody went at this with an open heart and
Speaker 5: open mind, because this ship is scarily.
Speaker 2: Real, y'all. Okay, but God loves you.
Speaker 5: Okay, God loves you, and he wants the absolute best
Speaker 5: for you. And I'm coming from the most genuine place
Speaker 5: in Ruth's heart.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, Rue, listen, listen. Uh here, here's here's the thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna just I'm sorry because I've let you
Speaker 1: run off alone.
Speaker 5: Man, I've been I've been rambling.
Speaker 2: There's a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure, and I'm gonna what do
Speaker 1: I think? Well, it's hard because I'm deeply agnostic at
Speaker 1: this point. I don't know what is up and what
Speaker 1: is down or whatnot? But do I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: I actually know what I think is probably that if
Speaker 1: you really want to know what I think, I think
Speaker 1: you had uh some kind of psychological issue caused by
Speaker 1: doing too many drugs. That's that's That's probably what I believe.
Speaker 1: But I I just hope you're okay. I hope you're
Speaker 1: like doing fine, and I hope that you're not doing
Speaker 1: too many Just as long as you're safe, you know,
Speaker 1: as long as you're not doing too many drugs, you're
Speaker 1: not fucking killing yourself over things. You know, that's good.
Speaker 1: But I I I appreciate you you calling and sharing
Speaker 1: your story.
Speaker 2: Rue.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else do you want to say to
Speaker 1: the people of the computer before we go?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm gonna repeat myself.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 5: God loves you, Okay, God loves everybody in the world,
Speaker 5: and he wants the best for you if he wants
Speaker 5: to see you succeed whatever it is that you're going through. Sobriety,
Speaker 5: that's what it is for me, Okay. But I know
Speaker 5: I receive calmness, I receive tranquility in my soul knowing
Speaker 5: that there is a God out there who wants the
Speaker 5: best for me and that's it.
Speaker 1: Uh, well, thank you for calling, Ru. I'll see you
Speaker 1: around the universe.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Man, love you get I listened to you all
Speaker 5: the time. Thanks, and I hope I get to speak
Speaker 5: to you again.
Speaker 1: Goodbye, have a good night, Rue.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 1: I maybe rushed them off the foot, but I don't
Speaker 1: think I did it. We talked, We got a good
Speaker 1: That was a good twenty eight minutes of talk. Well,
Speaker 1: I think I don't know. I'm a little irritable right now.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I think I just am feeling
Speaker 1: I'm coffeed up. But I mean that, you know, I
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know, man, I mean I know
Speaker 1: a little bit right. I like thinking about God. I
Speaker 1: like thinking about mainly I think about God as an
Speaker 1: allegory more so than of like a genuine spiritual demon.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of that stuff is
Speaker 1: hallucinations and whatnot. But again, I don't know. I appreciate
Speaker 1: Rue for sharing, and I wish him good luck. Hello,
Speaker 1: gig Hey, what's up?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 1: What's your name?
Speaker 2: Hello?
Speaker 4: My name is Bruno.
Speaker 1: Bruno. Yeah, Yes, what's up? What's up?
Speaker 4: What's up?
Speaker 2: Is it going?
Speaker 4: I'm I'm actually working at the moment I'm at the
Speaker 4: hotel and I'm calling from the from the phone of
Speaker 4: the hotel.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of crazy.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna because I spend way too much money
Speaker 4: if I do it from my phone.
Speaker 1: Yet, we're not going to get you in trouble, are we?
Speaker 4: No, not at all, not at all, Not at all.
Speaker 2: Not at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the way from what I understand about
Speaker 1: European customer service is that it's like, uh, if you
Speaker 1: could go to check in at a hotel in Europe
Speaker 1: and then if the guy at the front desk is like,
Speaker 1: I cannot stuck right now, I'm talking to the gickle,
Speaker 1: then uh, they just have to eat. They have to
Speaker 1: eat ship. Yeah, they have to eat ship.
Speaker 2: They care y.
Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, that was a very I'm not good at
Speaker 1: I'm not good at accent, so that was kind of
Speaker 1: like a Russian I feel Russian.
Speaker 4: Really. That's funny because a lot of people I'm Portuguese,
Speaker 4: by the way, I'm from Portugal, a lot of people
Speaker 4: say that people that don't understand Portuguese, it sounds like
Speaker 4: drunk Russian, which is a common comment that I have
Speaker 4: from guests here, including Yeah, I would say the name
Speaker 4: of the hotel because that is probably going to get
Speaker 4: him get in trouble. But I'm going to try to
Speaker 4: disclose that.
Speaker 2: That's the best I can.
Speaker 1: What kind of hotel is this? Is this a popular
Speaker 1: hotel or is it? Is it dead enough that you
Speaker 1: can take this phone call.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's bad enough that I can take this phone
Speaker 4: call because it's a long stay hotel. It's like a
Speaker 4: department hotel. A lot of people come in here to
Speaker 4: do just like temporary work, like a lot of people
Speaker 4: that work in the servers and data servers come here,
Speaker 4: often to just the state instead of renting a house
Speaker 4: because in Amsterdam it's pretty rough to get a rental apartment.
Speaker 4: I'm from Portugal, but I'm actually living in Amsterdam, so
Speaker 4: a little bit more context.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, cool, I love Amsterdam Man. Amsterdam is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite cities in the world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you were here doing the talk in Vondelpark, and
Speaker 4: I was I didn't know, and then I went there
Speaker 4: super fast to see if I could catch you still,
Speaker 4: but nobody was there, so.
Speaker 1: So Bruno, I was.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm actually I'm a little star struck. I'm sorry
Speaker 4: because I called a bunch of times and every time
Speaker 4: the voice memo came up, I thought it was actually you,
Speaker 4: so I got fooled like three times.
Speaker 1: This is me, brother, this is me. Well let me
Speaker 1: ask you this Bruno is and it's okay. If not,
Speaker 1: we can just shoot the ship. But is there anything
Speaker 1: in particular that you called in to want to talk about.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to personally thank you for all the
Speaker 4: all the company that you've been keeping me in here.
Speaker 4: Because I moved from Portugal to the Netherlands by myself.
Speaker 4: You have to wait like a year to actually find
Speaker 4: the house and be here with my girlfriend. But that
Speaker 4: year was very lonely, and I found your podcast and
Speaker 4: I heard like the two most recent ones, and then
Speaker 4: I went all the way back to the bottom, and
Speaker 4: it was like it was kind of like watching a series,
Speaker 4: you know, listening to a series, like every day. I
Speaker 4: listened tolad ly too, so much that I kept I
Speaker 4: kept up until now. So now every week I'm waiting
Speaker 4: for you to drop an episode, and every time I
Speaker 4: get the opportunity to call, every time I see the story,
Speaker 4: it is too late, You're already not on the stream,
Speaker 4: or the line is not open anymore. So yeah, this
Speaker 4: was my chance. I took it and you picked up
Speaker 4: and I'm very happy about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Fuck yeah, that's awesome. That's I'm I'm super happy to
Speaker 1: hear that you've listened to a whole motherfucking catalog. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: let me ask you. I have questions. It's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 1: I have questions about your life, Bruno. So you moved here?
Speaker 1: Please do? Please do?
Speaker 4: I waited so long to be in this position. Aly, shit,
Speaker 4: let me know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you.
Speaker 1: Moved to Amsterdam alone? You said yes? And does your
Speaker 1: girl and you mentioned you have a girlfriend? Does your
Speaker 1: girlfriend live with you in Amsterdam? Now?
Speaker 4: Yes? Right now?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay? And how long were you living in Amsterdam alone
Speaker 1: before she came?
Speaker 4: I came here in the summer of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 4: and she came around and I think late May, beginning
Speaker 4: of June of twenty twenty three. And what was it
Speaker 4: like for it was not a full year, but it.
Speaker 1: Was almost yet What was it like for you when
Speaker 1: you were just here by yourself?
Speaker 4: It was a little lonely. Dutch people are a little
Speaker 4: cold and straightforward, so it was kind of hard to
Speaker 4: make friends at the beginning, because that's straightforwardness and direct
Speaker 4: directness if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm back to the Dutch directness. Yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: their whole thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I got it. I got it wrong because
Speaker 4: I thought they were just being rude randomly to me.
Speaker 4: I was like, dude, I can't I can't deal with this.
Speaker 4: But time passed and I realized that that's just their
Speaker 4: personality trait and it's just how they are. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that's it. That was the I think that was the
Speaker 4: most difficult thing that I had to adapt. And the
Speaker 4: food culture is very bad also, they don't have decent
Speaker 4: gastronomy here. I lost a lot of weights. I used
Speaker 4: to weigh well I don't know the pounds stuff, but
Speaker 4: I used to I used to weigh one hundred and
Speaker 4: five kilos and now I'm down to eighty two. And
Speaker 4: I didn't do any gym or what not. So just
Speaker 4: from the adaptation to the to the food culture in here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well what do you think about the feb What
Speaker 1: is it? Pebot febo? Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my go to. Yeah, if I have to
Speaker 4: eat Dutch food, I go to.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's the For those who don't know, that's the
Speaker 1: like fast food fried shit that they got over there,
Speaker 1: the fried croquettes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's like self service. You pass the cars
Speaker 4: on the machine and the little door opens and you
Speaker 4: just pick up your food. There's no people involved.
Speaker 1: So how is life for you now?
Speaker 4: Lately? It's been weird because I feel like I'm kind
Speaker 4: of stuck in this routine because I work at the hotel,
Speaker 4: as I mentioned, and I live in the same streets
Speaker 4: as the hotel, so sometimes it's I feel like I
Speaker 4: don't leave my streets because the supermarket is also here,
Speaker 4: and a bunch of stuff at home also, So I
Speaker 4: don't know, it's weird. I've been feeling stuck in this
Speaker 4: routine and I've been trying to find something to kind
Speaker 4: of break out of it. I contacted a personal trainer
Speaker 4: to try to make me a workout program so I
Speaker 4: can start working out or something. I started playing far
Speaker 4: Cry five, which I never did, and I'm doing it now,
Speaker 4: So I don't know. I'm just trying to change my
Speaker 4: routine around a little bit because I feel like I
Speaker 4: never leave the street. But overall life is going great. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Me and my girlfriend and are saving up for a house.
Speaker 4: We don't know where yet. Maybe we're going to buy
Speaker 4: in Portugal. I don't know, because here the prices are
Speaker 4: insane also to purchase houses. Yeah, man, just day by
Speaker 4: day going.
Speaker 1: So why did you move to Amsterdam? Why didn't you
Speaker 1: just find a job in Portugal? Is there something better
Speaker 1: about Amsterdam?
Speaker 4: Yes, mainly the wages. The wages are way bigger. The
Speaker 4: minimum wages in Portugal is at I'm not mistaken, is
Speaker 4: eight hundred and fifty something like that, and the minimum
Speaker 4: well at one point eight k. So it's a thousand
Speaker 4: a thousand euros different. So it's it's a big difference.
Speaker 4: I'm twenty eight. I moved here when I was twenty wait,
Speaker 4: twenty five? Yeah, sorry, that was embarrassing. Uh move here
Speaker 4: at twenty five? I mean yeah, just saving up money.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna try to get a house either here or
Speaker 4: in Portugal, and yeah maybe a kid in the meantime,
Speaker 4: who knows.
Speaker 1: That could be cool, That could be cool. What do
Speaker 1: you speak any Dutch? Do you learn any Dutch?
Speaker 4: I've been trying, but it's super complicated, super super complicated.
Speaker 4: I know I'll speak Portuguese, Spanish and English. Like Portuguese
Speaker 4: is my native language, so I speak it perfectly, but
Speaker 4: the other two I speak it almost natively. But Dutch.
Speaker 4: I've been trying to practice, but it's hard. It's very hard.
Speaker 4: I know the how's it called, the conversations at the moment,
Speaker 4: like saying thank you and you're welcome and goodbye and
Speaker 4: those that type of stuff. I know, But these people
Speaker 4: try to get in conversations with me. I'm like, sorry, sorry, No,
Speaker 4: it's very complicated, especially for people that have like Latino
Speaker 4: languages has their base. It's very very different. And yeah,
Speaker 4: I already know three languages, so it's kind of hard
Speaker 4: and classes are very expensive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the deal with your girlfriend? Where is she
Speaker 1: also Portuguese? And what's she doing?
Speaker 4: She is Italian. We met in Lisbon. I was living
Speaker 4: in Luson for a year before the pandemic, before no,
Speaker 4: while the pandemic was happening, and pretty much she was
Speaker 4: doing at asthmo's program in there, which is like an
Speaker 4: abroad student program here in Europe. Yeah, we met in there.
Speaker 4: Then she had to go back to Italy. I had
Speaker 4: to go back to my hometown and we were split
Speaker 4: it for like two years. I was constantly going to Italy,
Speaker 4: she was constantly coming to Portugal, and with the COVID
Speaker 4: stuff that happened at time, it was super hard. I
Speaker 4: had to test pretty much every week to be sure
Speaker 4: that fly, you know. But yeah, she actually got me
Speaker 4: this job at this hotel because I had a pretty
Speaker 4: shitty job in a warehouse in here, and she wanted
Speaker 4: to leave for a five star hotel because this is
Speaker 4: a three star hotel. So she left and she gave
Speaker 4: me her job. Yeah, and now I'm chilling.
Speaker 1: Oh, she left her job and then gave it to you.
Speaker 4: Pretty much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can you just do that?
Speaker 4: No, But I knew because I came here to visit her,
Speaker 4: like as you can tell, I've been speaking to you
Speaker 4: for some minutes now, and nobody came here to ask
Speaker 4: me anything.
Speaker 1: That's a very good point. That's a very good point.
Speaker 1: I am very surprised that nobody I asked you to
Speaker 1: do your job in the.
Speaker 4: Past because I also lived close by, as I mentioned before,
Speaker 4: So every time she was working and I was home,
Speaker 4: I would just come here to chill with her. And
Speaker 4: eventually I got to know the manager. So when I
Speaker 4: got in a sensitive position when it came to my job,
Speaker 4: I told a guy like, hey, Sanna's leaving could I
Speaker 4: possibly take over her place? And they gave me, like
Speaker 4: they give me a mini interview, get like some background
Speaker 4: checks and stuff, and yeah, now I'm here being a
Speaker 4: host in a hotel. I never studied like a hospitality
Speaker 4: or anything. They just said, oh you.
Speaker 1: Cool, you can come, and I'm here, okay, And I've been.
Speaker 4: Enjoying the It was very nice. I mean, I meet
Speaker 4: a lot of people from the US, which I find
Speaker 4: interesting because a lot of my base, uh knowledge, if
Speaker 4: you could call it that, Like a lot of stuff
Speaker 4: that I consume comes from the US. So I know
Speaker 4: a lot of stuff, a lot of like I don't know.
Speaker 4: Ask me a question, a general question of American culture,
Speaker 4: like pop culture or something.
Speaker 1: Ask you a general question. I don't even know that
Speaker 1: much about American pop culture, to be honest with you. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: what do you what a what do you think about Americans?
Speaker 1: Like what's the perception of Americans over there? Because I
Speaker 1: have to gander it's not it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's amazing right now? Is it?
Speaker 4: It depends when Okay, think everything and I'm going to say,
Speaker 4: with a pinch of salt, Okay, when Americans come with
Speaker 4: a family to vacation. They're by far the most annoying ones. Definitely.
Speaker 4: They keep trying to get compensations, like, hey, the air
Speaker 4: conditioning was two degrees more than I wanted to. I
Speaker 4: want fifty percent of the total price. Yeah, like a refund.
Speaker 4: You know, that's very common in American guests, but the
Speaker 4: majority are very very like when young people, younger people come,
Speaker 4: they're very I don't like to say open, I don't
Speaker 4: that's not the right word. But easy, too easy to
Speaker 4: talk to, like they're always up for a conversation, for
Speaker 4: a coffee, like they ask recommendations. They do like small talk.
Speaker 4: But when a family comes around, it's no, it's a
Speaker 4: bit of a nightemare. So it's fifty fifty to be honest,
Speaker 4: final answer, fifty fifty. I like Americans when there was
Speaker 4: a family not.
Speaker 1: Really okay, so there so we got a lot of
Speaker 1: care and energy coming in. When you see somebody with
Speaker 1: a fan family.
Speaker 4: A little yeah, because it always comes from the mom,
Speaker 4: you know, m h And yeah that's my that's my
Speaker 4: review on an American guests.
Speaker 1: What's your relationship like with your family?
Speaker 4: Oh, I have an amazing relationship with my family. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I speak to them like at least two times a
Speaker 4: day to my When I say my family, I say
Speaker 4: my parents and my sister. All the other family members
Speaker 4: are a little out of the picture because of some
Speaker 4: family problems. But yeah, the relationship with my family is
Speaker 4: top notch. I don't think a lot of people can
Speaker 4: say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's becoming a little bit more rarer of a thing.
Speaker 1: And do they still live in Portugal or are they
Speaker 1: somewhere else?
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, they still live in Portugal. Yeah. My sister
Speaker 4: is also thinking of getting out of the country more
Speaker 4: as a as an experience sort of thing. You know,
Speaker 4: she's twenty three and she's been living with my parents forever,
Speaker 4: so she wants kind of to get out there and
Speaker 4: experience some real life stuff, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to the States?
Speaker 4: No, but I would love to. I'm planning a trip
Speaker 4: to New York because I met a guest here. His
Speaker 4: name is His name is Jason. Shout out Jason if
Speaker 4: he's listening. I don't know if he's a fan of
Speaker 4: the therapy Gecko, but yeah, yeah, I've been speaking to
Speaker 4: him a lot, and I'm I think I'm visiting Washington, Yes, so.
Speaker 1: Wow, Oh, so you met a guest he invited you
Speaker 1: to like come stay with him and ship.
Speaker 4: Yes, because he was living here in the Netherlands some
Speaker 4: years ago and he came to He came for a trip,
Speaker 4: just like a nostalgia trip because he's retired already and stuff.
Speaker 4: But it was super nice and every time he saw
Speaker 4: me around, he just here in the front desk talking
Speaker 4: to me. And I really quick clicked to the guy
Speaker 4: because he really reminded me of my dad when he
Speaker 4: was more young, and we were just talking. Every day
Speaker 4: he would pass, he will say hi to me, he
Speaker 4: will stay here, and I will just spend almost the
Speaker 4: whole shift with a guy just talking to him. And
Speaker 4: I also told him this, like everything that I'm a
Speaker 4: fan of, pretty much the ninety percent of the times
Speaker 4: comes from the US, and I'm really amazed by everything
Speaker 4: by like I don't know, the little things like the
Speaker 4: yellow taxis, the fucking school buses, like just aesthetic in general,
Speaker 4: you know. And I kept telling him that, and he
Speaker 4: was like, you have to come to my house. You
Speaker 4: have to come to my house, bring your girlfriend and
Speaker 4: your parents if you want to. And I'm like that
Speaker 4: I never went to the US, so I guess first
Speaker 4: stop is going to be Washington.
Speaker 1: Yeah, super cool DC.
Speaker 4: And it's different, right, Washington State and Washington DC.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, Washington DC is over on the East coast.
Speaker 1: Washington State is on the west coast.
Speaker 4: Oh it's DC then yeah, yeah I can't. I can't. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I have to keep an eye out to that yet.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean you could cover a lot of
Speaker 1: good ground. You got Washington, d C. There's New York City,
Speaker 1: there's Philadelphia. You can have a nice trip in just
Speaker 1: those three cities.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, that's kind of what I wanted to do,
Speaker 4: to kind of do like the East Coast from top
Speaker 4: to bottom, not really from top to bottom, but that
Speaker 4: as many places as I can. Yeah, I'm thinking when
Speaker 4: next summer. Fun fact, I never left Europe. Really, I
Speaker 4: don't even have a passports?
Speaker 1: Yeah really wait but do you need? Uh?
Speaker 2: WHI?
Speaker 1: So what kind of you don't have, like a Portuguese passport?
Speaker 1: You have an EU?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How do you? How do you like you don't need
Speaker 1: a passport to travel between the European countries, do you?
Speaker 4: No, we don't. We just need to have our ID
Speaker 4: from our country.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: We call it citizen cards because it's like all in one.
Speaker 4: It's your ide, it's your social security stuff. In some cases,
Speaker 4: there's also the driver's license in there mmmmm and a
Speaker 4: UNI document. Pretty much.
Speaker 1: Where where would you want to go if you could
Speaker 1: go anywhere? Is it the US or is there somewhere
Speaker 1: somewhere higher on your list?
Speaker 4: There's definitely stuff higher on my list. So I would
Speaker 4: love to go to Brazil, though. Brazil is kind of
Speaker 4: like my I mean destination, Yeah, to go visit, like
Speaker 4: the but like not the hill the gene do not
Speaker 4: like Bayia, not the main cities. I want to go
Speaker 4: to the heart of Brazil, to the jungle.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Yeah, you want to go to the jungle.
Speaker 4: That's well again take that with a pinch of salt.
Speaker 4: Not really the jungle, but I would like to explore
Speaker 4: like the nature in there. You know, it's very different
Speaker 4: from what we have in Portugal and in the Netherlands.
Speaker 4: And I'm a nature guy. I like to be in
Speaker 4: the middle of the tree. So yeah, not.
Speaker 1: A lot of not a lot of good hike. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of good hiking in DC and New York City.
Speaker 4: I don't No, it's just for the fact that I
Speaker 4: never went. I want to see the stuff that I see,
Speaker 4: you know, through my phone, through my screens on in
Speaker 4: front of me.
Speaker 1: Kind of what's the number one thing that you have
Speaker 1: seen on your phone that you would want to see
Speaker 1: in person.
Speaker 4: That's a rough question. Uh oh, that's tough. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Damn, you just put me on the spot.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's okay, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I guess just arriving and take it in.
Speaker 2: I guess. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of for I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: A lot of China's stuff comes up on my Instagram,
Speaker 1: a lot, like a lot of like weird, crazy architecture
Speaker 1: comes up where it's like here's a whole fuck yeah,
Speaker 1: like stuff where it's like here's a whole like like
Speaker 1: a garden and a whole like big giant park that's
Speaker 1: like on the roof of this crazy building. And usually
Speaker 1: that stuff is.
Speaker 4: Either in oh what you mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Usually a lot of stuff when I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: where the fuck is this crazy thing? It's in China.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like layers. Do you think you're on the
Speaker 4: ground floor and then you go to the edge of
Speaker 4: the building and you're actually in like the thirty fifth
Speaker 4: floor or something.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm hm.
Speaker 4: Do I've seen some beats about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: Do you get a lot of time off in uh
Speaker 1: in Amsterdam at this hotel or are you working a lot?
Speaker 4: I have the average. I have two days two days
Speaker 4: off a week. Sometimes they are not together, which sucks
Speaker 4: because it doesn't doesn't really seem like a weekend. That's fine.
Speaker 4: As long as I have my two three days during
Speaker 4: the week, that's that's okay.
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
Speaker 4: And again, I've been speaking to you for twenty two minutes, right,
Speaker 4: and I just gave a person a package and that's
Speaker 4: that's all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what are you normally like? Okay, so on
Speaker 1: your days off and when you're just kind of fucking
Speaker 1: around and nobody's bothering you, what do you normally do?
Speaker 4: What can you? Can you repeat the question please, it's
Speaker 4: to kind of cut off a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh, on your days off? What do you do?
Speaker 4: A bunch of stuff? Like I told you that, I'm
Speaker 4: trying to change my ways a little bit. I started
Speaker 4: working out, even though I'm waiting for my personal trainers
Speaker 4: to send me the correct training plan, but I started
Speaker 4: doing some workout stuff. There's some outdoor, like those outdoor
Speaker 4: exercise places that are in random park sometimes, you know.
Speaker 4: I started working out in those because gyms are a
Speaker 4: bit expensive in here. I started playing Xbox. I bought
Speaker 4: an Xbox for like one hundred eros, like a series
Speaker 4: X I believe, Yeah, like the last generation Xbox with
Speaker 4: the slim version with mega cheap. So I just bought it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, what you've been playing on the Xbox.
Speaker 4: I've been playing Fair Cry five because it was on
Speaker 4: discounts and I already played the six and it was amazing.
Speaker 4: I really liked it. I never played the five, so
Speaker 4: I just downloaded it. It was on the Game Pass
Speaker 4: for free, so I just did it and I've been
Speaker 4: playing it yet. I also do some I've been I
Speaker 4: haven't been doing a lot of that now, but I
Speaker 4: do a lot of photography and video editing. My computer
Speaker 4: is messed up and I need to save up either
Speaker 4: to fix it or to buy a new one.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad to hear that your job is very
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds easy. It sounds if I think
Speaker 1: if you were able to talk to me twenty four
Speaker 1: minutes and nobody's bothered you, your job sounds like it's
Speaker 1: pretty chill, So I'm happy to hear that.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm also glad that I found this. The other
Speaker 4: job that I had was hectic. It was like in
Speaker 4: the warehouse, it was cold, it was like I was
Speaker 4: twelve hours of a day. Sometimes it was a little
Speaker 4: messed up. This one is way way chiller.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just need to get my computer fixed so I
Speaker 4: can work on some stuff while i'm here, because otherwise
Speaker 4: I get very very bored sometimes.
Speaker 1: What kind of videos are you editing?
Speaker 2: Just?
Speaker 4: Nothing is in specific. For example, I have a video
Speaker 4: that I liked that somebody did and I downloaded it
Speaker 4: and I tried to train my editing skills on that
Speaker 4: video and do something that I like with it. You know,
Speaker 4: it's nothing. It's just for fun, honestly.
Speaker 1: Well, well listen, Bruno, what it's like the You ever
Speaker 1: seen the movie Bruno?
Speaker 2: Yes? I did.
Speaker 4: When I was in in like the fifth grade. I
Speaker 4: was when that movie came out. I was pointed at
Speaker 4: a lot, you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, movie probably ruined your life. Well, Bruno, it's been nice.
Speaker 1: It's been nice talking to you. Man. Is is there
Speaker 1: anything else that? Is there anything else that you want
Speaker 1: out of this conversation? That I can provide for you
Speaker 1: before we go.
Speaker 4: No, what what you could provide that I wanted you
Speaker 4: already did. I just wanted to give you a huge
Speaker 4: shout out for the company you kept me in that
Speaker 4: first year. Thank you here in the Netherlands. And uh,
Speaker 4: You're an amazing person. I hear you constantly through my
Speaker 4: headphones and I've been looking forward for this moment for
Speaker 4: a long ass time. So I'm glad I finally got
Speaker 4: to talk to you. And if you ever come to
Speaker 4: answer them again, I will definitely go to your show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, man, that's good to know. If I ever
Speaker 1: do come back.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, because last time you were here, I wasn't
Speaker 4: able to buy the tickets. I was again, I was
Speaker 4: working that shitty job. I had no time, so I
Speaker 4: couldn't go. Yeah, but if you come again, front Row,
Speaker 4: I'm there, trust.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, beautiful. Okay, Well, hopefully I'll see you that.
Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, I hope, I hope. I hope too.
Speaker 1: So sorry, I'll cut you around the universe, Bruno. Good luck,
Speaker 1: good luck with the rest. I hope nobody continues to
Speaker 1: come into the hotel so you don't have to do anything.
Speaker 4: Well until now, there's just some people having dinner and
Speaker 4: that's it. Yeah, thank Bruno, take care but bye, but
Speaker 4: buye people of the computer.
Speaker 1: That was Bruno. What a nice guy. What a nice
Speaker 1: guy hanging out in Amsterdam at a hotel. The Europeans, man,
Speaker 1: they got, they got a much better work culture than us.
Speaker 1: I got the Japanese and the Americans have shit work cultures,
Speaker 1: and then you got you got Europeans who just though
Speaker 1: don't have to do anything, it's pretty cool, goes on the.
Speaker 4: Line taking your phone calls every night, never goes do
Speaker 4: what his ride.
Speaker 1: He's teaching you cloud in
Speaker 4: Them of your life, but he's not really an expert.