SPEAKER_00 0:10

Thank you, and welcome back to another episode of the Carolina Otaku podcast. I am Afro and I am here with my co-host. Welcome back, y'all. Um it I feel like this is like a broken record, but it's been a minute. You know, I've been traveling and all that shit and everything like that. But you guys know how we usually start these things off, what we've been up to, what's going on. Uh, I will say we actually do have some good stuff to talk about today, some stuff that we're kind of bringing back into a conversation just because of uh, you know, everything that's going on and all that shit. So, yeah. You want me to go first or do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Yes, go first.

Barcelona Trip And Flight Misery

SPEAKER_00 0:47

All right. Um, well, as I said, I have been traveling. I went to uh Barcelona for an RD conference. And Barcelona is really nice. It's it looks really great. It's a really nice looking place. It's beautiful. Architecture and everything is on point. The way, honestly, I would say actually their airport is probably one of the best ones that I've been in. Like just for going through customs and everything. It was really good. It was just all electronical. Like, scan the passport, take a picture, through. Real easy. Yeah, real easy. But here in America, we don't do that, which is weird. We don't do that because I came in through Atlanta with that same bullshit. Come in, you go through the ticketing shit, you have to check your bag again, and then 10 hours there, eight hours back. I I with this trip, I've realized what makes a trip better for me. And it's not where I'm going, it's how I'm getting there and how comfortable I am getting like when I'm there. I need extended seats, I need the extended plus or enhance plus, whatever the fuck they call it. Because comfort plus? Yes. I need that shit. No, I need that shit because it's just like it two seats, four seats, two seats, right? Tight as fuck. You got people in front of you that don't understand fucking just being polite and they have the audacity to just put their seat back for no fucking reason. So your knee is like literally into their back, right? I'm on an aisle seat putting my foot out. I swear, every time a person would go up and down that aisle, my leg got hit by that cart so many fucking times, it's not even funny. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Do you know how much there was so much ass just like pressing up against my arm? It was insane. Like, it was it was not comfortable at all. It was horrible.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

So see, this is why I like when I am on an airplane, I try to fly Comfort Plus or First Class. It's it's it's about the comfort. Yeah, it doesn't matter how long you're like you want to be comfortable when you're on a flight.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And like last time I was on a flight, somebody did the exact same thing. They put their like seat back, and I'm just like, bruh, like, come on.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

It's food was shit. It was just horrible. You want pasta, chicken. I don't want none of that shit because it's cold. Like, do you have anything that is wrapped in plastic? Like something that's like I can rip, like, rip over to eat. It can be a cracker, whatever. I don't care. I'm not eating on a 10-hour flight. I'm not. Because the last thing I need to do is go use the bathroom on that flight.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

True, true.

Expectations Versus Big City Spain

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Not doing that. Like I said, getting to Barcelona is great. But the thing that, and this is just me being just um not knowledgeable about Spain in general. I've been to Italy, I've been to Romania, I've been to Germany and stuff like that, right? So I've been to European countries and all that shit. With Spain, I was expecting, and I keep telling people this, I was expecting that warm, like kind of like almost like really warm feeling. Does that make sense? Like, I was expecting just a warm feeling, almost like a damn like this. Yeah, but in all reality, Barcelona is a I'm talking just Barcelona. Maybe I just went to the wrong city, couldn't went to Madrid or you know, whatever. Barcelona was just a place, was just a metropolitan, like a big ass place where people spoke Spanish. That was it. It was, I saw a lot of like Asian people, of course, Spaniards and stuff like that. Some black people, it was kind of mixed, but not a lot. But it was very kind of almost like a uh standoffish type of joint. And that's when I had to come into realization, shit, this is still a European country. They're still in fucking Europe. Like, this is Europe. I I compared it to like if you went to probably like a really big city anywhere in America, you went to like somewhere in California. I can only relate to like if you went to a DC or Charlotte, that's the way I saw it. The architecture in Barcelona, great. And we were like right down the street. Our hotel was right down the street from Barcelona FC. So the football club, right? And they had a game against Newcastle Wednesday night. So it was crazy, people cheering, yelling, and all that stuff. But some of the like we went to out for a restaurant for a team meeting. Like I was, I don't know what I was expecting, but the food was just like cool. You know what I'm saying? Hotel was nice, but it was just uh, I don't know, maybe I was expecting more. So much to the point where I'm planning a trip to like Colombia and learning Spanish with what am I using? What is that shit called? Dreaming Spanish and watching like videos and shit like that, just like trying to get that shit going. And I think I know it's gonna be a totally different experience, you know, from Barcelona, of course, you know, because it's South America and all that shit. So I'm expecting like, you know, a really like good time there and kind of getting that feeling, you know what I'm saying? And just seeing like you would think I was thinking like vibrant colors and all that shit. Like the shit that you would think, like, you know, like you you would expect in like South America. I was expecting that, but it's still a European country, so that's what you're gonna get. Yeah, yeah, that's what you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

It reminds me of like people from overseas when they come to America and they have the idea that the streets are paid paved with gold and they're not and they get him just like yeah, it's piss and trash everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So I uh, you know, did that, had to go through Atlanta for the layover. Like I said, it's I don't know. I I hate Atlanta. I I say that with the bottom of my heart. I hate Atlanta. I do. I've driven in Atlanta, I have been to Atlanta three times now, driven through it twice because I went to Alabama, but it's just the airport, you know, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

It's it takes a lot to get used to, like it's very overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, if you know how to catch that train, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

You're good, yeah.

SIM Cards And Travel Money Saves

SPEAKER_00 7:14

And I knew where international flights were because I've been through there before. I was like, all right, cool, I know where to go. Boom. But in Atlanta, at this time where I went, they're doing construction on the Delta side. So, you know, it was it was it was okay. When I got to Barcelona, got to Barcelona, first thing I did, get off the plane, went through all the custom shits, and I bought a sim card for my phone. And yeah, I know I had to because I don't have ESIM on my phone, which that's gonna change before I go to Columbia. But I will say buying a sim card did help a lot because I just didn't have to deal with like paying Verizon$10 fucking dollars or$15 a day. So that was cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah, definitely I would recommend getting it in some, it makes it so much easier. I bought one when I went to DR and literally like I didn't even go off the plane yet to start at work, and I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yep, yeah, yep. That's what I want. But yeah, it was uh it was it was cool. You know, it was just nice to go there. Would I would I go back to Barcelona or Spain? Probably not. No, I would go back to Romania before I go to Spain. Shit, I I'll go back to Germany. Germany is great.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

I mean, if you go to Germany, you have to take me with you because that's on my bucket list. I'm just saying that now. Thank you.

Bringing Back Drinks And Souvenirs

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Germany. My mom and my sister are going in May. So I told them that they're gonna enjoy that. I brought back like some chocolates and I brought back some um some alcohol. They in Barcelona, or maybe Spain just in general, they drink like here, Vermouth. Like they drink that shit like straight. And the kind that I got, you can't buy here in America, and it's actually really fucking good. It's good, like it works really well. Huh?

SPEAKER_02 8:54

So they had you be the alcohol mule. I had to do that when I went to DR.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Nobody else got any.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Oh, you rude. I this is all for me. So like when I went, my brother texts me. He was like, Can you bring me some mama joana? And now that's when he texted me this, I was like, I just got some in a cup, and I was just like, uh. And I was like, Yeah. And it's it tastes really good. Like you drink it straight, like, but it was really good. And then another friend of mine was like, Hey, if you can hind me some Hini Pure White, that'd be great because you can't get it here unless you go to the duty stores. I was like, okay. So I'm going back through customs, and the guy's like, basically, what you got, and we're like listing off all his alcohols, and he's like, So they told you to, yeah, okay, go on through. Welcome back.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

And I got some um, there's a certain honey rum that's Cuban that we definitely can't buy that in America. We do not get anything Cuban imported. We can't. It's just something that we don't do, right? So I bought two bottles of that also, and that shit is very smooth. When I got back home, me and my sister tried the Remooth and the honey rum, and we were like, damn, that shit is good. And the chocolate that I bought was actually really good, tasted really nice. So, like I said, it's uh it wasn't bad, but like I said, I was expecting something totally different.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

You just didn't live up to your expectations.

Packing Smarter And Anti Pickpocket Gear

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, and that's on me. That's on me. That's that's something I should have just knew from the jump. It's still a European country, and that's just that's just the way that it is. Maybe I went to the wrong city, maybe Barcelona isn't like where it is, maybe it is Madrid or somewhere else. But you know, it was nice. I I learned when I travel what I need to be like comfortable. I don't mind the long flight as long as I am comfortable in the long flight. That's it. Right. Um, but I bought my suitcase that I that I bought during Black Friday last year, came in fucking handy. I forgot what the brand was. Fuck. Oh my gosh. But it was a carry-on. Didn't take, didn't really check anything. I took a duffel bag that can fold up and I put that into the into the carry-on. Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Hold on. Wait, did you have a long white D TSA?

Gardening Plans And Life Updates

SPEAKER_00 11:07

No, no, no, no. Um, I had a, I bought a, because I heard that in Barcelona they're like pickpocketers and all that shit. So I bought this crossbody. It was bought off of Amazon uh brand called Tom. Tom Talk. Or some shit like that. And this crossbody was nice. It can fit my MacBook Pro, it can fit my MacBook Air in it, it can fit a water bottle, I can put my passport, my wallet in the front pocket. That was the best. This has been the best bag I bought in a while. Next, next to like my Timbuktu bags that I bought when I was in college and stuff like that. So yeah, that was that was also great. But uh yeah, I mean, that's that's really what I've been up to. Came back working and that's about it. Looking, well, we'll go into that next. Go ahead. What have you been up to?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Um, not really much. I am starting my little garden back up this year. I just planted like some sunflowers, and then today my raised bed came. So I'm gonna try to put that together this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

What brand is it? What brand is it? Do you know?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

My raised bed?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, I know that's crazy. Is it wood or is it metal?

SPEAKER_02 12:19

It's wood. One's wooden the other is I think metal. I gotta see. I ordered like two.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Okay. That's uh Amazon?

SPEAKER_02 12:28

No.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Two.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

And then I went. So we got a Dutch Bros finally in my town.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

You do not need more fucking coffee.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

So we have one of those now, so that is awesome. What's the name of that tea like? They have a really good tea. It's like called kick you in the I think it's like kick you in the ass or kick you in the something. Kick you in the face. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Kick you in the nuts.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

I mean, hey. So we got that now. And um I'm finally replacing the couch that got like damage when I moved houses. So that'll be here this week. This week coming up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Nice. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Other than that, I've scheduled my network plus, so that'll be in like two weeks. So we'll see how that goes. And then I've been playing a lot of like Diablo Sue and Fortnite. So yeah, that's pretty much what I've been up to.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Um, so I want to start with this. I want to thank Lexi for helping me not get shit taken from me with uh Stanley. So I have gotten back into drinking my Yerba. I have gourds, I have metal gourds and stuff like that. I bought some like really nice ones from Argentina yesterday. And Stanley has a Stanley make cup system or something that allows you to have a precision pour when you're pouring your hot water with your uh yerba. So I wanted one, saw it, and went to the site. Well, the site was a total fucking knockoff. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know how Stanley, I know Stanley really can't do shit about it. And I was like, what the fuck? And she I sent it to her and she was like, hey, that's not real. And then she sent me the link to the real one. All them bitches are sold out. So I had to go another route. I had to buy a Stanley thermos off of Amazon. I had to buy an attachment that allows me to get the precision pour and do it that way. Because if I wanted to get a precision pour thermos, I would have to order it from Argentina, and that's gonna be 150 bucks for a damn thermos. No, and then the messy ones, Stanley Cup, the Stanley ones that collab with Messi, those are sold out, so those are going for like I don't fucking know, 200 bucks, which they usually go for 60. So yeah, the market on that is crazy, but it's whatever.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

It's a lesson for you guys to learn from his mistakes is check the link. Yeah, make sure it is the right link. Like he got caught because this one had Stanley and it had two S's in the name, like at the end of Stanley's, and I'm just like, this ain't that and then I go look and I'm looking at the interface. I've ordered Stanley's from the website before, and I'm like, this doesn't look like the order interface that they use when you're on the official website. So I went, I went and double checked, and I was like, Yeah, this ain't yeah.

Gas Prices And EV Charging Reality

SPEAKER_00 15:37

So fuck that. This is my first time ever buying a Stanley. Honestly, cups are made from tall, it's the Walmart brand, and they do well for me. So I never bought a Stanley cup ever. But other than that, another big thing that's going on, I we're both in the South, and we gas prices are almost at four fucking dollars here. I drive, I have a truck that is a V8 and almost a 16, 17 gallon gas tank, and then I have a Volvo station wagon that takes, I can put regular in it, but I'm not gonna do that because I'm not a crazy person. So I put the recommended gas of premium in it. Premium is crazy right now, even though the mileage would be good. It's just no. I am really considering, really considering, I know you're gonna look at me weird. I am really considering buying like a mini fucking van with a V6 in it and just driving that bitch. I'll put big tires on it and just drive it.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

I didn't say do it. I would say, because you don't know how long this is gonna last. This could be for a short little spurt, or it can be for a while.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

So if I find something for under grand, I'm gonna go for it. I really don't give a fuck about my grand. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Have you seen the used car market lately?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yes. I know, look, I know what I'm getting myself into. As much as I talk about cars on this podcast, I know what I'm getting myself into. I know, you know, but like I said, maybe I don't know for sure. But um, but yeah, it's it's it is it's crazy. And I think I I brought this up to you before uh last episode. I know the electric, the electric gang is like, ha, you know, like, you know what I'm saying? Like you you can be driving around, honestly. I'm gonna say this and it's gonna be crazy. You could be driving right now around in a Fisker and still have the upper hand. Fisker is out of business, right? Like they're bankrupt, they went bankrupt, so they're not a thing anymore. If you're driving around in a Fisker right now, you have the one up. You do. Sorry, you know, you just do. So uh yeah, electric cars are looking pretty good right now. And what I was talking to Lexi before we started was I would think that the price that you pay to go to a supercharger or something would change also with the petrol, but she's telling me it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

No, it doesn't change with the petrol um prices at all. So our prices and rates are are kind of a little bit different, and it depends on where you are and how busy that supercharger is. For instance, like here in my area, most superchargers are around like 34 cents per kilowatt hour. And the only time that goes up is when demand is high. So what that means is like, so if I charge my car over 80% and there's a lot of people waiting, they're called like a congestion price and it goes up. Or if you leave your car after it's been charged and you just leave it there, there's an idle fee and they charge you a certain rate as you leave it there.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Um most of the time, if you're at a supercharger, you're not charging up to like full, you're charging enough to get most. I mean, unless you're like on some like real travel shit, most of the time, people if they stop at a supercharger, they're like traveling, are they charging to full battery?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

It depends on what they're there for the supercharger for. There's some people that don't have a charger at home, and so they just go to the supercharger. But I mean, it's recommended if you still charge just to 80%, but like some people don't want to do that, they'll charge to 100 because like they don't want to be at the supercharger every freaking day because they don't have a charger. So they'll charge it up to 100 and let it be. But as far as most people, it just depends. If you're traveling, it'll tell you you you know, you might have like five, 10 minutes on a charge, and then you can leave and continue your journey. But if you're trying to like, for instance, if I take it and I'm coming back home from somewhere and I don't want to deal with it when I get home, I will stop at a supercharger to let it charge to like 80% and then just take it home so I don't have to deal with it when I get back here.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Okay. I gotcha, I gotcha. Okay. It I don't like I said, man, if I can find four cylinder or six cylinder, I'm in it. Like I get it. Like having a Prius right now is probably like the shit.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Them gas prices.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah, it's probably the shit right now, but it it's it's just the way that it's just the way that shit goes.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

I mean, everything is going up right now.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And wages are still staying the same.

PC Parts Getting More Expensive

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Crazy. Like even now, hard drives are going up like M.2. Those prices have started to surge.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yep. Fucking insane. I I and I I don't I think I know people are like, oh, it's it's it's gonna go down and stuff like that. I don't think shit's gonna go down with this, like, with the tech shit. I don't. I think that shit is going to stay at a very steady and it might jump up a little bit, but until something crazy happens and they can they can have the reason to go like higher than where they are right now. I think it's just gonna stay steady because people are gonna start saying shit and be like, I'm not paying for this shit. Why would I pay for this?

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Right now, RAM prices are gonna stay through the roof until there's more supply. Right now, there's there's no supply. A lot of companies have sold out their whole entire stock for 2026 just to these AI companies. And right now, even if a new company comes on the horizon and being like, Yeah, we're making RAM, it takes months, yeah, sometimes years before those products can even drop because they gotta be produced. So, yeah, as far as like components like RAM, I I didn't know that's gonna be up there for a hot minute. I think and then we're not getting another graphics card. I looked at those recently, those are still high as fuck. Like I looked at the one I bought around the time last year, right? My 50, right? Yeah, 5090. It has gone up since I bet, I bet.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Are they coming out with a six?

SPEAKER_02 22:11

No, they're skipping a series.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

So they're not even doing one this year. Like, there's no nothing. So for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Well. I tell you what. I'll tell you this. I know I'm like, I'm way behind on mine. I'm like, you know, I'm two things behind. But I kind of wonder what 3090s are at right now. I really wonder where they are. Because if it can't be like I'm saying maybe like 800 tops. 800 tops.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Like if my old what my old car goes for right now.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Gotta be like 800. It can't be anything like higher. That would be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Someone on Amazon is selling a brand new 3090 Drex card for two grand.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Yes. A used one um is going for 1500 right now. Or 3090.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Um that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

I do see eBay. Listen, hold on, let's see what this one is. It looks like it's 450. No, this is the what is this? That's a 4090. That's not what I got. Um some new egg. Yep. 1975 on new egg.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

That's crazy. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Now, mind you, this is like two generations ago. Yeah.

PS5 Price Hike And Steam Alternatives

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Goodness. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. 30 30 70s are probably like around that 800. Probably. Damn. That's insane. And now that we bring this up, we talked about something else in the last episode that I think I want to bring up because we talked about this and we thought that uh Xbox was gonna uh do some shit, but they didn't. It was actually uh PlayStation, and uh they those motherfuckers said, you know what? We are going to uh do a price hike April 2nd. So this week, this week there is a price hike on the PS5s everywhere in America. We talked about the cost of the PS5 Pro, it was at$750.$750. They are raising that to$8.99. That's$900 for a PS5 Pro. Are we hearing that right now?$900 for a PS5 Pro. Digital, the physical, like disc copy, the physical uh disc version is$650 and the digital is$599, so$600.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

It's so crazy because like I don't think I ever experienced where like I bought a console for one price when it first came out, and now it's like even more. Usually they go down over time unless you're like getting like a pro version or they did like some big upgrade or something of that sort. No, these are just base models here. Like the base model went up from I got a digital, yeah. Like I don't even think mine was$94.99 when I got it. I think maybe$449 or whatever when I got mine. So like that has now gone up to$599. My Xbox when I got it was$500, and now I think it was what what are they now for Xboxes? Like six dollars.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

I think they went lower. I think it might have been lower. Yeah, that's but this shit in this$749 to$8.99 is insane. You can't oh they went up.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Okay, they went up, so now they are$649 for one terabyte.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I don't know. I don't know. These companies are just fucking pushing you, they're pushing you guys to go to PC, like they're pushing you. They're like, you know what? Just go.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

But just go like you can't even go to PC right now because the prices are still astronomical.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

So this is when, this is when Steam Machine can come in and just like take it. Steam Machine could come in. Eight nine hundred dollars for a PS5 Pro? Are you serious? Nah, man. That's that's not even like that's not even like I don't even know. I can't say that's rent because rent nowadays is higher. But I was paying$800 for my first like apartment when I was like by myself. Like, that's my first apartment rent, and that was back in 2015. So it that's crazy. I'm sorry. It's it's uh it's Steam Machine. I I really do think if they do it right, if they do this shit right, I really do think they can come in and like sweep it, yeah, take a lot of people and just say, you know what? Yeah, we see the the what all these other companies are doing, you know, the other gaming companies and stuff like that. Come over to us. We have everything that you need. This is how much it is, and there you go. And we have it handheld. You can take it on the go. It's been around for a minute, so we know that it works. Like it's crazy. Crazy. And if the steam machine, if they if they are saying that the prices of these steam machines are what they are, the high-end model, two terabyte, is going to be around 900 to 1,000. Okay. The base model, 512 gigs, 500 to 700 bucks. Yeah, I'll pay that if I didn't have a PC. Now, these aren't like for sure, for sure, but I mean, I don't know how many people are going out and buying PS5 Pros like that anyway. Was that like a big one people were going?

Is Gaming Pricing People Out

SPEAKER_02 28:02

The only reason I know about this because a friend of mine hit me up and was like pissed because the pros were going up because he was just about to get a pro for$750 and now they went up to 900. And so I guess there are some people who do want the pro, but the only reason he wants it is because he does like his PC and the upgrades. Like, I mean, right now you it's not affordable to upgrade. So he was like, All right, I'll upgrade my console. Well, now that's not affordable. So it's just like, what is really going on right now with the gaming market? It's like low-key being priced, or like, are people being priced out of gaming?

SPEAKER_00 28:36

It seems like that. It seems like it's becoming a really expensive hobby. I mean, it was already a really expensive hobby, yes, but you can still get your foot in the fucking door. You know what I'm saying? Now you can't even get a toe in that bitch. You can't even get a toe in that thing. So you you I don't know. Yeah, I and I do agree with that. I do think the Steam Deck is gonna be a great way to get into PC gaming. You know, I don't I think I think Steam Valve, what they're gonna do, they're gonna come out with a new Steam Deck. And I think it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be something a little bit more thinner, not as like bulky as the first gen or the I guess would the old would the OLED one be a second gen, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Yeah, no, OLED kind of, yeah. It's like they're adaptive.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah, so I think they might come out with something a little bit thinner and maybe have a little bit more options to it, but I think that their their market of this is your PC on the go, that's their shit. I'm not saying that Xbox can't do that well, but Steam does it really well, and they have the catalog to back it up because they have damn near everything.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

You know what? It kind of makes me wonder, too, about spiritual seat that little hat I'm putting my eyes on right now. Um, so you know how like Microsoft has been moving more and more away from hardware, yeah, moving more into like cloud-based gaming and software and things of that nature. I wonder if they're like maybe aware of on the horizon RAM prices and shit was gonna go up. And so, I mean, the the best way to capture a market, if you can't afford it, you know, cloud gaming. Use whatever little computer you got. I mean, technically you can use like a whatever little Matt button to game on, but you can do it.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

I don't like this because I don't either. Because I I see that I mean a game is a game no matter what, but cloud gaming is cool, it is dope. You know, it it's oh if you got Steam and all that shit, that's what you're doing anyway. But I don't know. Like I said, I think Steam can come in and really like put their foot in the door and say, you know, here's another option for you guys. Because something else that came up, and they might be able to take the handheld shit too, because something else that I saw was this. I don't know how true this is. I don't.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

It's true. They so it had a great launch, but really a lot of people haven't been buying them. And I think they're they've been debating back and forth if they were gonna do a price hike or not on theirs. I know they said they were gonna drop the prices of the digital games.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Yeah, but I think that um yeah, according to Bloomberg, Nintendo has reduced its switch to production by over 30%. That that that was a I mean, the hype, this is this is gaming as a whole. Like, this is it. The hype for something coming out. We talked about this. The hype of a what's just a new game coming out. The hype is there. People are talking about it. This shit's gonna be crazy. Streamers get early access, they start streaming it. People are like, oh man, this looks cool. Streamer gets gives their two cents about it, like, okay, yeah, it's this, it's that, it's this. Half of the people that watch the streamer don't try the game, half of the people buy the game, and then you got half of the people after six months or three months or whatever still play the game. Some people fall off from it, all that shit. It reminds me, uh, we we talked about this a lot. It reminds me of when Diablo came out and the hype was everywhere. It was it was on those that first couple weeks, that first couple months, everybody was on that shit. Everybody, yeah. You playing Diablo, get on that. That shit was going, right? Three months, four months later, dying off. Not dying off, they still had like their core fan base.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

I mean, I still play it. I'm just yeah, I haven't played it lately. I've been playing two, but I am gonna go back to it once the DLC drops. So I mean, people still play it. I mean, it's not as wonderful as it was when like it first came out, obviously, and like having all everybody on, but I mean it still does have a good, loyal fan base that plays.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Yeah, definitely. And those are the people that that fan base are usually people that played Diablo 2, and first the original Diablo and everything else, like those, that's that fan base. You know, I talk a lot of shit about you know, like Metal Gear and shit, but I I play it. You know what I'm saying? It's just my shit. It's just that's where gaming is, and I think consoles are in that same, in that same realm. Nintendo Switch was coming out, people were going crazy over it, new Pokemon coming out too, and all that shit. You don't have to do the slide thing with the Joy-Cons. They just magnetizing, just clipping and everything. I still have my original Switch. Actually, I I don't really even touch my Switch like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

And I haven't even touched it.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah. My shit's been collecting fucking dust. Now that Steam Deck though, yeah. I'm fucking with that. I haven't been really playing that many games like that anyway. After I was going through the Wolfenstein uh franchise, I kind of just said, I mean, hold off on that. It's I don't know where I don't want to sit here and say like gaming is still gaming, it's still out there, people are still enjoying it, but it is really becoming a very, very expensive shit. It really is. And it doesn't seem to have a there is no like, like, okay, this is the entry level. Do you think there's still an entry level into this shit? Or you have to, you you have to, if you want to get into gaming, you at least gotta come in with like a good like five to six hundred off top.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

I mean, I I would say right now, no matter how you slice it, you're you're gonna be paying at least five hundred dollars, some way, shape, or form, to get into that gaming door. Because even the S's I think went up. I don't think they went up as high as to like$500.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

But like they still went up. Or even like buying like a basic laptop and trying to do like cloud gaming, like through Nvidia or you know, through Xbox or whatever other services they are, you're still looking, like at least for a decent one, like$500. So yeah. Yeah, you have to have some type of like funds right now to like play with, you know, to even start gaming. And it's not even just that, it's just like everything is going up and disposable income ain't disposable like it used to be. So, like, you have to make these decisions. And I wonder how gaming companies are going to handle that when people are not buying like consoles and not buying expansion packs or you know, cosmetics and shit like that because they don't have the money to it cost too much.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

When that starts happening, they're gonna start letting people go.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

It's a it's a vicious cycle.

Convention Tickets And Rising Costs

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Yeah, they're gonna start letting people go. Like, all right, well, we saw that our numbers aren't doing so well this quarter, so we gotta start letting people go. And they do it in the most fucking stupid ass times. It's the holiday season, Thanksgiving, going into Christmas. Oh man, we gotta let people go, you know, before the holiday season. Like, man, isn't that great? You know, it's uh I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

It's uh, you know, it's it's almost it's I'm not I'm not saying it's this like uh speaking of that though, like Epic just laid off a thousand employees.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

So I mean it's already started. I don't yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

It it kind of reminds me uh well, I'm not saying like it's at this level, but I can remember it's almost like the like conventions, right? I can remember paying for a ticket for a convention, and I don't know, you pay like maybe like 50 or 60 bucks for like a weekend, a weekend pass or something like that. Now, depending on the convention, and most of the time, a lot of these conventions are not really small ones. They're you know pretty massive, have some years underneath their belt. We gotta raise these prices up, y'all. We got to. You want that, you want that weekend pass? That weekend pass is gonna cost you like 120. You know what I'm saying? You trying to get into Dragon Con? What? You wanna go to Dragon, you wanna go to Dragon Con? Bring your ass to Dragon Con. Give me that$150,$160 for that weekend pass, maybe even more. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

No, I'm just thinking, so those things I'm okay with, right? And I explained to you why. So, like cons, concerts, things of that nature, yes, they're gonna go up over time. Okay, it's not it's not something that historically over time it gets cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. Unlike technology, historically, the cost of it has gone down, like as things are being developed and new technology comes out. Like, look at the price of computers when we were kids. You know, it's like for a home PC, you're paying like two, three grand for just to have one in the house, right? And so since then, like you can get a laptop like$300,$400. Like it is it's gone down, like where it's more affordable. But now we're seeing the reverse of that where people are getting priced out because it's getting more and more expensive. Same thing with consoles, like you know, as a kid, like I mean, inflation-wise, it it was cheaper, but like if you look at comparing the prices then to the day, it's you know, it was right, yes. But like now it's the reverse where, like I said earlier, like I paid$500 for my Xbox Series X when it came out. Now that bitch is like close to$650. Yeah. Four days Amos Hack model that I paid for back then. No, no upgrades, no changes, but it's now$150 more.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

By the way, a ticket to Dragon Con for five days is$165.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

Yeah, that's not too bad.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Yeah, yeah. Um, the internal uh membership is about$4,500.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Those from Die Hard fans.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Those are diehard fans. Oh, yeah. You you know you are going to that motherfucker until you die.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

Die.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Yeah. That's that is your uh, yeah, that's yeah, for sure, for sure. Four-day passed and MomoCon is$110.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

That's right now. Closer you get to the the day. Oh, it's gonna go up.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Um VIP multi-day,$289. One-day ticket, Thursday, 63, Friday, 69, Saturday goes to$81.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

I feel bad for people who have kids that are like into this. One day pass the whole family.

Colombia Trip Plans And Learning Spanish

SPEAKER_00 39:30

And you gotta pay, you're paying for the rave on Friday, paying for the rave on Saturday. You know, it's and all of these are in Georgia, by the way. Like a really big market for, you know, everything. Uh-huh. Right? Yeah. I enjoy, right now, I enjoy going to the small ones. I do. I think those are those are those are great. But even the small ones are like, and I'm not the only person that thinks like this. The small ones also become are very packed. You know, they usually they do it again the next year, and they know that they have to go find a new space. They know what that new space is gonna be more for them. So now they gotta charge more. It's just, you know, just the way that shit just grows. You know, sometimes you, you know, you want to see that in a con that you enjoy, but also you're like, damn, this is a con that I enjoy. You know, it's uh that's just the way it goes, to be honest with you. I don't know. Also, I was talking about like my trip to Colombia. I don't know if I want to go to a jazz festival there or go to um a uh a con. They have a con in uh Medellin.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

I would say go to the con. You could be like, I've been to all types of cons.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Yeah, right. But this is like one of the biggest ones in the whole country. So that's why I want my Spanish to be like up snuff, because I don't want to be a fucking just douchebag American that goes there and I'm holding my phone out trying to understand what the fuck people are saying. What kind of fucking idiot would I? What kind of that I think that's a thing that happens a lot. Like people go to different countries, you know that you're going to a different country, and you expect the shit that you can do in your country is the same shit you can do in some somewhere else, right? A place where they don't speak English, their primary language isn't English, and you expect people to speak English in this country that does not speak English. What kind of piece of shit are you?

SPEAKER_02 41:40

The audacity. Yeah, you have to do that.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Yeah, and you don't even take the thought of like maybe I should learn this language and go there before I go there and actually understand what people are saying. People, I would think people would show a lot more appreciation in the country when you actually put forth the effort and what to learn that language, right? You know, maybe I'm crazy, but yeah, I'm not trying to be one of those, one of those people. I'm not. I really don't want to be one of those idiot ass people, you know. Like, I don't. Like, I probably get called a gringo, whatever, but I don't know my Spanish. I don't give a fuck. Call me whatever the fuck you want. Call me whatever you fuck you want, but I understand what you're saying, and I can listen. My goal is to be able to hear a conversation and be able to talk back in that conversation to them. They might know that I'm not from there, but they can understand what I'm saying. That's the goal. You know what I mean? Conversational Spanish is the goal, right? I'm not trying to sound like I'm from Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, none of that. I just want to have a good, stable foundation and be able to talk and be able to, you know, have conversational input and a back and forth. That's it. That's all. And then grow from there. Because then I want to go to like a Brazil and learn Portuguese and kind of do the same thing. You know? So yeah. So yeah, yeah. I mean, is there anything else that you want to add?

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

You know, Talan's out. So have fun with that. Uh because that shit is dangerous. And uh yeah, you know, thank you guys for listening. And we will see you guys next time. And make sure to follow us on all of our socials and everything like that. And uh yeah, we'll see you guys again in the next episode. Bye. Peace.