SPEAKER_00 0:10

That's that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Thank you, and welcome to another episode of the Carolina Taco Podcast. I am Afro and I am here with my co-host, Lexi. Yeah, guys. Uh welcome back. Happy that you guys are with us again. You guys usually know how we start these off. We usually start off what we've been up to lately, what's been going on, and then we usually get into our topics and stuff like that. So, Lexi, what have you been up to since the last time we talked?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Not much. I passed my network plus certification exam. So that was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Okay, how long was the test?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Uh it's like two, I think you get two hours to take the test. It's like is it 70 or 90? I think it was 70 questions for me.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Oh how how was it just uh how was it it's it's difficult.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I'm not gonna say like it was easy, but like knowing your acronyms, knowing your port numbers, knowing like uh the troubleshooting method and things like that, you you can pass it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Nice, okay, and you get to pick and you were able to pick that time and stuff that you wanted to take it, or was it set to like a certain time that you had to do it?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

No, you can pick what time, like they'll tell you what appointments they have available, and then you pick an appointment during that time it's available.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

So gotcha, gotcha. Okay, that's what's up. That's cool. What was the uh was it anything that like during your studying and stuff like that? Were there some things that you were kind of like iffy about, or were you kind of confident in most of the stuff going into it?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Um, no, I was hella like iffy. Like literally, like before I was having a panic attack. I was like, okay, I can't do this. I'm not gonna pass this. I don't know if I'm gonna do this. And then get in, I'm like, okay. And then you like hit some men and it kind of spins and sister for a second. It was like, congrats, you passed with a 792. It's like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

That's good. Okay, that's awesome. And then you gotta take a picture.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

No, you take your picture doing your check-in. I need to go ahead and tell you the process, anyways, because you're gonna have to do it soon. Yeah, but is it gonna be the same for it's usually the same process, yeah.

Games, Cars, And Daily Life Updates

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, yeah. Um we'll talk about that later because I want to um ask you about your I'll bring it up later. But what else have you been uh up to? I know you you're not worried about gas price, but none of that shit, so we ain't gotta worry about that. It's not petty. Hey, anybody that's driving a Prius, anything that's four-cylinder right now, they should be laughing at every motherfucker that has a squatted truck, a lifted truck, or anything that has a ladder on it. It's crazy, yeah. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. What you been playing lately?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Fortnite. I've been getting really getting better at that.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Uh, I was playing Diablo 2.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Because I've never played it. It is hard as hell. Um, not gonna lie. And I was playing a Skyrim on PS5, but now Diablo 4 has come out with their new DLC, so I am playing that.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

I am I'll I I'll go through mine real quick. Haven't been really uh up to anything, doing stuff around the house, got some gravel, got rid of some mulch in the front, put a gravel bed down, got that all situated. Still working on the Volvo. I have a hole in my CV axle in the boot. Yeah. It has a it has a rip in it, so I can't drop it. So I'm gonna take that off and send it to a place in Charlotte that repair those things, and I'm gonna just put it back on. It's the OEM part, and they can replace the boot and make sure everything is good with it. It would have been, it's easier to do that and cheaper to do that than for me to spend 600 bucks on a new part. Me sending it and doing all that stuff and seeing how much it is get fixed right now, sending it to them and stuff. It's like 125.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

You could have drive.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

I'm not driving two hours, hell no. Um, I don't, I don't like driving to Charlotte like that. Not one of my favorite places to drive to. Charlotte and Atlanta. Hate driving to Atlanta.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, everybody hates Atlanta. Like, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Horrible. Horrible. I did it, did it twice. Once, MomoCon, and then I did it. I actually drove through Atlanta to get to Alabama for my sister's white coat ceremony. So, yeah, I hated. I don't like either of those. Charlotte is okay. I've driven to Charlotte a couple times. It's just I'm one of those people that if I lived like in, if I lived in, I don't know. If I lived in Durham or something, I would be like, all right, cool. I'm I'm further north. So it's just, I'm like, eh, I'm cool. Um what else have I been up to? Oh. I love Etsy. Etsy is great. Can I tell you something? I I love Etsy better than Amazon almost, just because they put more care into their shit. Um, I have been getting back into my uh Yurba Monte drinking. That's like my coffee. And been buying different bombilla straws and stuff like that. Kind of got like my whole setup and everything with them.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Okay.

Yerba Mate Obsessions And Squirrel Rage

Career Direction Toward SRE Work

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Bought my uh bought myself a new gourd, but it's stainless steel, so it's easier to clean and I can travel with this. They say this one is a torpedo. Like you have torpedo, imperial, and this is like a hybrid torpedo imperial type shit. But I know somebody's probably gonna correct me either way. But love drinking it. It's really nice, very soothing, and it kind of I will say it kind of tames my appetite because when I drink this, I'm not like really hungry like that or anything like that. So it's actually not bad. But the big the biggest thing I like, I love the bombilas. Like, I love the craftsmanship of them, love the way they look. This one has like the flat, so you can like push the mate up on the sides. It's great. Um, so been getting them more into that. What else? See, that's about it. Yeah, that's about it. That's what's been going on. Um, and I hate squirrels, man. I put out bird, so I got a bird feeder, a deck bird feeder, and I put out this bird food. I put out this, you know, this food for the birds. For the birds. I have a video of two squirrels. One squirrel is in that bitch just going, like, going. And this is other squirrel, like on the on the banister, like moving real slowly, trying to get something. Trying to get something, and other squirrels like, and he goes back and like gets back to the food. And I'm like, oh my gosh, these squirrels are fucking insane. They're horrible. I'm like, this is for my birds, man. Like, I don't, I see y'all every fucking day. I don't need, I need the birds to come. But yeah, that was also something that uh happened. But kind of within this episode, what some of the things I want to talk about, as Lexi said, she, you know, passed her cert and everything like that. I would say over the past week into the weekend, I was doing research into kind of just where I want to go, just career-wise, kind of just moving in that direction. Um I I kind of had to sit and kind of contemplate, like, okay, I've I've had different positions and kind of had to figure out what position that I've had that was actually something that I enjoyed doing. Because I I really don't think that I never really like enjoyed my job. Like, I don't wake up and be like, oh my gosh, I cannot wait to get to work. You know what I'm saying? Like, no, like I don't I don't know how many people can say that nowadays. Can you say that?

SPEAKER_00 8:46

No, I can't say that.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I don't know. It it's it's tough to say that with just the way everything is now. Yeah. And because the market and the job market is cutthroat, you kind of have to be cutthroat with it. Because if you're, you know, lack of days of cool and going like you're not caring about anything, and everything is just cool and dandy, and you're going through your job, and you're like, oh, people are great. No, that's not the way it is. People are fucking savages, and everybody is looking out for themselves. So you kind of have to do the same. So I was sitting there, I was like, okay, I like being a system admin, right? And then I thought about it and I was like, okay, I enjoy reading logs. If I know what to look for, cool. Like, if I'm like, okay, this is the issue, let's check this log, and we should see something here, right? And I'm like, all right, I love that. And I love also just having to do search for certain things like that. And I like working with my hands. Also, like doing the networking stuff with, you know, the previous job, and I like pulling cable, terminating cat six, cat five, and you know, pulling fiber optic cable and stuff like that. It's it's nice because you get to plan all that stuff out, you think about it, and you just do it. Right. So with that, I was I'm kind of moving towards more of a SRE position. You know, kind of like a site reliability engineer.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

I know what that is very well.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Oh, no, I know, I know you know, but you know, just because it's I never wanted to be like, I never wanted to be like a manager.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Never wanted to be like a team lead or something like that. You know, I never wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

I think when I first started my journey, like I wanted to be a manager. And like after like seeing what they gotta go through and like being rejected and rejected, it was just like, okay, no, I don't I don't want to be a manager, I don't want that responsibility. I don't want to have to deal with like everybody's attitude and and shit like that. I just I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Setting up meetings, weekly meetings with everybody. Like managers, most of the time, a manager is in meetings from the time they sign in to the time they sign off, and then after the fact, even on weekends.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Right? The pay, you get paid more, but of course your responsibility goes up with that, which makes sense, but you really aren't doing you're not doing the stuff that you enjoyed doing before you were a manager. Now you're just like you're part of the at a place I used to work, they call it the Oak Table. You know, all higher ups and stuff like that, talking about everybody else below them. So I never wanted to do that, and I never wanted to go in a direction. Like, I'm a pretty honest person. I'm gonna say what's on my mind. So if I'm a manager, I'm gonna tell you what the fuck is up. Yeah. I remember being at Schwab, I remember being at Schwab, and I knew that I was ready to go. And my manager knew that it was, he was like, I know you want to get the fuck out of here. He was like, I know you want to leave. I know. Like, and you know, he was just like, because my my he would listen to my phone calls and he would just hear the monotone, like voice and everything like that. There was no fluctuation in the voice or anything like that. It was just straight monotone. And he was like, you gotta give something, man. I know you don't want to be here, but you have to give something. So I was like, okay. But then I ended up, you know, leaving and doing all that stuff. But going in the direction of an SRE with that, doing research and stuff, you know, I have the experience and all that stuff, but I think adding something to the resume would help.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

And so I uh looked into AWS certs. I've used AWS as a system admin, adding users, removing users, making different groups and stuff like that. So I'm very familiar with it. Not to the point of I I watched one video yesterday and I said I said, I said, okay, yeah, I didn't know you could do all that shit in here. Okay, I was just I was going in and just doing the admin shit, you know, adding users and making roles and all that shit. But um, yeah, it's a lot to it. Um, but I think uh I, you know, I sent the message to Lexi because she has a search and I asked her, like, hey, what do you know about you know anybody who has taken this AWS cert before? She was like, nah, but it shouldn't be that hard though. That's exactly what she said. She's saying, nah, it should be, it should be, it shouldn't be that difficult.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

It shouldn't be that difficult. It okay. All right. So with AWS, they have like levels to the shit, okay? So you have your foundational, you have your associate, and then it goes up and up and up, right? Well, the the start that he wants is a associate. So it's just a step above foundational. Found you don't need foundation because you already have worked in AWS doing like the basic stuff in AWS. So basically what you're just doing is building upon that.

unknown 14:31

Yeah.

Learning Styles And Certification Strategy

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Yeah. So it it's, you know, it's it's a journey. Um, I did, I will say, I, you know, kind of just doing research and stuff like that and looking. I, and this kind of got me into thinking of the question since you have your certs. I am a person that needs the visual. When I was growing up, you know, because this is gonna be very well. When you're growing up, you're like, oh yeah, I can read something and I can get it. You know, that's just, you know, because you want to see, maybe this is me personally, but you wanted to seem like, oh yeah, you can get shit, like kind of just reading shit. But when you start getting older and you're like, yeah, I need the visual. Like, I hate to bring cars back into this, but before I know before I have to do something on any of my vehicles, I'm watching a video like three or four times just so I know what I need, the type of sockets I need, you know, everything. And once I do one side, doing the other side is like that, I can do it in like less time than it took me on this side, unless you get into like stupid, rusty ass bolts or some stupid shit. But for me, learning-wise, I need the visual and I also need the hands-on in order to get it. So it's just a rinse and repeat type of learning method. I wanted to ask you what what is your uh what's your learning method? Like when you know you're going for a cert, what what are you doing? What are you like, all right, we're gonna do do it this way, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

So for I was just thinking about this the other day. So, like, because I have tried my network plus before and I failed. Okay, but when I did it that way, it was more of like a self-paced type thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

And I think for me, I am more of like for certification, I have to be in a class. And not necessarily that I'm in the class because I'm like paying attention or whatever, it's just that it makes the material that we're going to have to see on the exam in an organized format for me. So we're like, we're learning this to learn this, to learn this, to learn this, this, this, this, so you can pass the exam. But as far as like in general learning, I'm more like a visual hands-on type learner. Like, I have to do it myself too, to like break it down. But for certifications for me, like studying, doing all that stuff, um, like videos, like like going over different topics and stuff, are big help. Doing like uh practice exam questions are another big help. Um I'll even use like Gemini to make like little like notebooks. Like I made one for Network Plus, and it'll ask questions and you can have it do like quizzes and and all kinds of stuff to like learn the material more.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

When when you're going through that, when do you know or when do you say to yourself, well, let me ask you this. Are you a person that you'll set the test ahead of time and then you give yourself that timeframe to learn it? Or are you a person that says, let me learn this first, and then I set up the test?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

So for me, it's more of let me learn this first before I take the test. But I'll have like a timeline in my head, like I need to have it done by this, like like in two or three months. Let's say like three months out. So I need to learn all this material in three months. If I feel like I can I've learned it earlier, I will take it early. But my end date, like I must have it done, is take by this day.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Okay, okay. Out of the certifications that you've had, which one was the like most difficult one to study for?

SPEAKER_00 18:41

To study for or to take?

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I say both.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

So I really like because I take like most of my certifications are like Comp T. Like, there are some I have that are not Comp T, but all the ones I have that are Comp T, you can find resources on them like anywhere because Comp T is a pretty popular uh you know certification for IT. Um so I think the really none of them I have had challenges finding like materials for. And even the other ones I I have, okay. The hardest one probably would be other ones I have probably would be ITLs before. It's just that, yeah, people take it, but like they're not making like steady group, like, you know, all that kind of stuff. Like, you can find some resources, but it's not as plentiful as the other certifications.

Choosing An AWS Cert And Study Tools

SPEAKER_02 19:43

It's it's niche. Once you start getting to like kind of niche certifications, you you kind of I hate to use the word, well, I guess you're kind of pigeonholed into using like you're pigeonholed into using certain resources based off of I guess your research and stuff and what other people have said about this and saying, oh yeah, this is has been a good resource for doing this and whatnot. Okay. And I guess that that's kind of the way that I went. I was like, all right, let's this is the certification I want to go for because I was looking at like the first the first AWS for like just the foundation one, like the basic.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

I don't think you would need call practitioner because you've used it before. You're not coming into blind.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yeah. And I was like, okay, let's see what the other one is and see how much of a gradual step up it is from it. And I was like, oh, okay, this is cool. And then doing more research on it, I noticed that some people were going to basically two different people that were that had like visuals and stuff like that teaching it. And both of them were on Udemy. And some of them like you had to, and they had their own stuff and everything like that. I think one was Stefan, and the other one was Kinstilla, Kintila, can I forgot his name, but that's the one I went with. Um, and like I said, it's very organized, very detailed. And, you know, kind of reading reviews on each of them, on each of them, somebody would say, for Stefan, go like if you want to get the information fast and get to the test fast, watch him. If you want to use this other person, he goes into it hard detail. You know, like very detailed, very just like kind of like really into it. And I was like, I think I want that. You know, and there wasn't, it wasn't like a crazy price. Like you get a whole course or a whole thing, practice tests and everything, and it's yours. And you can go check it out anytime for like 40 bucks. And I was like, Yeah, that's that's not bad. Because the test itself is like what, 100?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

150.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Yeah, so it's like, okay, cool. You know, you pay for the resources that. You need and in order to get you to where you want to get to. So yeah, that was just something that I look more into just to kind of go in a different direction and stuff like that. Because I literally, this is gonna sound crazy as shit. I was like, I don't know how to get this together. So I put it in like Chat GPT. I was like, I like doing this. I like doing this. I enjoy remote, but I also don't mind doing office, like going into the office sometimes. I the best time in my life was this is gonna sound really stupid. I was working for a German company and I didn't like the job. And I had money saved and everything. I left that job and I was just living off my savings. But this was during COVID when I knew, oh my God. Jesus, uh a beautiful time. I was having interviews every fucking day, every week. It was, it was, it was that nice during that time. It was crazy. Like companies were just like, come, hey, come the fuck on. Like to the point where I was able to basically, I had two final offers, and I was able to go to one company and say, okay, this company's giving me this. Can you guys beat that or match that? And they said no. So I just went with the other company. That was the best time in my life, right? And I kind of want, I know I can't get that feeling if I'm working, but I can get kind of close to it to something that I actually enjoy doing. And it's a more freedom type of thing. So Chat GPT was like, you should look into, you know, SRE. You like reading logs, you already have the system admin background, and you might want to add some more to your uh, you know, to your resume and stuff like that. Check out these certs here and you know, give me the information on them and all that stuff. And I was like, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. And I guess the biggest thing is what I saw was that a lot of people that go for these AWS certs just have that. And they don't have like they get the cert, but then try to get their foot in the door to get the experience. Which it's I think it's possible. I think it happens a lot, but it's sound I'm reading like going on Reddit and stuff, it seems like it was it's difficult to do that. Yes, you have the cert, but if you don't have like any experience at all, you have hands-on, it seems like the places won't even give you a chance to get your fucking foot in the door. And it's uh Chat GBC was like, well, you have almost like 10 years of experience. So adding this to your shit would actually help you a lot. You know, I don't know. I I always tell people like, oh yeah, you should go for certifications instead of instead of like the degree. But my thing is, you you really, as long as you have like some experience in like customer service or something like that, and it's like it's also luck. It's also a luck of a draw. Also, you could get into customer support. It's possible.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Well, hold on, let me reject that.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

I say five or six, seven, eight years ago, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Now it's totally different. Yeah, it's totally different. Yeah, it's totally different. So I take that back. Um but it's uh yeah, it's just something that um working on planning it and kind of just doing it. I don't know what time limit I want to give myself to get this done, but I'd probably say probably before I go to Columbia would be like a good like point because that would be like, oh yeah, celebrate if I if I pass it and stuff, got it, cool. That's dope.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

When you pass it, sir, when you pass.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Look, I'm not one of those type of people. You know this.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Anyways, I said what I said. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

And that with the with the whole visual learning, also, that's how like I'm doing the Spanish stuff too. So I'm using Dream in Spanish, and it's like I'm a fucking toddler. It's like I'm a fucking toddler. I am sitting here watching videos of people speaking Spanish, and they have pictures and they're drawing stuff and everything like that. I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like a toddler. But this is the method. Like, this is the method that they use. It's like you're it's it's like you're a fucking child and you're just hearing stuff around you, yeah, and you're just picking it up over time. You know, being able to just your brain just being able to put stuff together and be like, oh, okay, that would mean that, that means that, that means that. And also using other supplement stuff outside of Dreaming Spanish too. But no captions, nothing. It's just you listening. And it's the whole rinse and repeat stuff. You know, is that the ranges we can work in and talk to some people that came and one was Puerto Rican and another one was Dominican? And I asked her, I was like, what's the best way to learn Spanish? And she was like, listening to it. Listening to it, listening to the music. If there's certain music that you want to listen to, listen to it. You know, just listen to YouTube videos in Spanish and everything like that. Like, it's it's not about trying to. And I hate like I hate classroom stuff. Like, I hate, I hated school. School was not my shit. It wasn't. I was I'm actually kind of I hated school. I I'm kind of surprised I even made it to college. I'm so serious because I hated school. So it the whole like sitting down with the textbook and then learning like the grammar behind what you're saying in Spanish. It's cool. I get it. It's necessary. But I can listen to a song two, three, four times and memorize the whole thing. Like I if I'm if I like the song, I'm gonna memorize it and I'm gonna sing the fuck out of it in the car. Right? So that's the that's the way I, you know, that's the way I do stuff. So it's uh, yeah, it was just, you know, kind of going for the cert, kind of seeing where it is, and yeah. And uh Lexi was like, oh, can I join you? Like, you know, through this journey. And I was like, oh yeah, cool. Let's do it. You know, she just wants to add another cert underneath the belt. I got my AWS. Look at me.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

I already have Azure. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 29:20

All right, nigga. But it it's the thing of I do wonder people that are around our age, is it just tolerating a job and everything that you do outside of that is the shit that you just love doing?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I think right now in this job market, we're just tolerating it to tolerate it because we gotta pay bills and this job market is ass. So but it also okay, during COVID, I mean, that was the thing. People were like upscaling to get into new roles that paid more, finding their passions and things of that nature. So it was a great time.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

But now, yeah, yeah, it's not, it's not that great. It's not that easy.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

It's it's really tough. I I don't know. Like I said, I'm I haven't met anybody that has said, oh yeah, I love my job. I haven't heard anybody say that in years. It's been a very long time since I've heard someone. I think the last person I heard say that was like my dad or my mother. You know, like it, it's it's a very and they're they're both retired. So it's um, yeah, it's it's it's tough to say that. You know, even going in into college, like I I couldn't really say I love my major. You know, it was just something that I was like, oh, I'm good at this shit. Okay, I understand it. All right, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Let me just do it. Yeah, yeah. That was it.

Learning Spanish By Pure Listening

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yep. Um, so that that's just the way that it was. But um, yeah. Other other than that, that was that's something that I, you know, wanted to bring up and talk about. We gotta talk about your uh your uh light-skinned king.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Here we go. Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Your your uh your my Zaddy Canadian, you know. That's gross. You're Canadian. Uh and we're not my gosh, we're not talking about Drake, you guys. Um I thought, I thought that motherfucker was done. I really did. I thought he was done. And I didn't here's the shit. Didn't even know he came out with something until I saw you posted the song, and I was like, what the fuck is the week? What the fuck is Abel got going on right now? When the hell did he come out with something? So I was like, I thought he was done with this whole like weekend moniker. I thought this was like retired.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

It's not retired yet. He has to do the final leg of his tour, which is in Mexico right now, right? So we did have like a little break in between. So like technically, like, I think from like January until like a couple weeks, he was using a different Instagram. He has an old Instagram called Gene Hatman, has all his stuff that he's done, like while he was in Japan, right? He has been in Japan being like the ultimate weeb over there, right? Anyways, um, but he's a Persona 5 fan, so that makes him even more cooler, my boy, because I love Persona 5. So, um, but because he has to do his final leg of the Mexican tour, he obviously has to go back by the weekend, you know? Can't be changing up monikers in the middle of a fucking tour. But then, like, I'm pretty sure he's probably gonna disappear for a while.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

Like, probably he already came to America, right?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yeah, I saw him last year. Yeah, in August, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

I I really thought I was like, damn, this motherfucker tried acting and he came back to music. He just sucked that bad at the acting shit. Like I said, I thought he I thought he was gone. Like I thought he left. I didn't know he was, you know, still doing his shit. But um, I saw that and I was just like, what the fuck is this motherfucker doing? That doesn't make any sense. Well, I'll ask you, because I know you listened to it multiple times, how was it? How was the new music?

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Um he hasn't even fully dropped it, you know, right? Because like really, yeah, he hasn't fully dropped it. But like the snippet that I watched of it, I mean, I like the song. I like the video more because like I said, he's been like, yeah, he went to let me rephrase again. He went to Japan. So now like all his stuff is like now influenced by like the shit that he saw in Japan. So we have like persona in there, we have Sonic and all kinds of stuff that like he saw and did, and like you see, like his influence in like the little video that he had playing behind him as he was singing the song. So yeah, and then the mask that he wore is supposed to be um a persona mask, so Jesus.

The Weeknd Talk And Sony DRM Worries

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Okay, that's cool. I mean, hey man, you got the money to do it, do whatever the fuck you want. Do whatever the fuck you want to do. Uh but that's what's up though. I like I said, I thought I thought that motherfucker was gone. I really one other thing I wanted to talk about. So there's been a uh uh I guess a kerfuffle uh about Sony and their DMR.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

This is funny because I just talked about this with my twin.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

So Sony uh is don't know how soon that shit is starting.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Soon, very soon.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Like next couple months, or like next couple months, yeah. Jesus. PlayStation support has seemingly confirmed that the PS5 digital games now have a 30-day online check-in DMR. According to reports, new PlayStation 5 titles bought after April 2026 will now crash and become unplayable if you don't connect to the internet. However, Sony also appears to be denying it a new policy and won't confirm whether it's a mistake or not. So, so Sony, you up your prices on your PS5 Pro and then you hit motherfuckers with this shit. So basically, basically, in this whole conversation that we had years ago about everything going digital, and everybody's trying to get rid of like the physical copy and stuff like that, you're pushing people into buying more physical instead of buying your digital stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

I don't think it's necessary more like a push, it's just more of because you remember this isn't the first time DRM has been a thing in naming. Like PC games, it was a big thing in the two, so it's it's more of like kind of preventing like I don't I don't really think it'll be it's for preventing piracy. I don't know really why Sony is doing this, because you gotta think about it, like I guess so like people don't play these games offline, but why does it really make a difference?

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Because because Sony doesn't want you or any can't uh I guess Sony doesn't want you to own anything. Or they want you to just not play the old shit and just like keep on buying new shit. Maybe it's like the card manufacturer shit. Oh, yeah, we're gonna come up with some shit that's going to be shit, and you're gonna buy this shit and it's gonna break down on you after 10,000 miles, so you have to come and get the new shit again. I don't know. I have no idea. But I don't like the way it sounds.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

I don't like it either. And they're also like starting to do dynamic pricing as well. So like that that's being added into Sony as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

So like I told him by the point, I was like, it's not just good, get a PC at this point because it we talked about this, and it it's you know, every week it's like it seems to just be becoming more just it's just becoming more like oh yeah, just just go do it. Yes, you're gonna spend some money, but you're gonna you're gonna love it after you get it done. And like I said, don't buy everything at one time, you guys. Take your time with it. You don't have to rush it. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't have a console, I only have the switch, and that's it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

And didn't Xbox try to do this too on the Yeah, and like that was a big like no no.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Definitely believe they did. It's and it's it's it's just a rumor. They're saying it's just a rumor. Just a rumor. Don't know for sure. Just the rumor. But I don't know. Shit, this shit seems uh maybe they maybe somebody just put it out there just to get like feelers for it, just see how people will react. But I I I would think they would know people would react to this pretty terrible, like, yeah, yeah. I uh yeah, I don't know. I don't know why. I don't know why they would do this, why they would consider doing something like this.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

But I I get it. Like most people now are like online at least once in 30 days to do this, but then that's still not an option for everybody worldwide, you know. Even here, there's still remote places that don't have traditional home internet, so they're using like satellite or they're using like their mobile hotspot or shit like that just to get internet. Now I gotta be on every 30 days, like I may not put this in for like months because like I don't have access to internet to do it. So it's just really weird. I I don't I don't agree with it, I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

It's I don't I we I posted a clip about us talking about like the console and them going up, and somebody made a comment like the gaming just it's it's not it's really not for the gamers.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

It's not, it's not, it hasn't been for a long time, no, for a very long time.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

And I I kind of want to say this is I don't want to say it's gamers' faults for this, but we are the ones that can we we play the shit that they give us.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

I don't think it's necessarily the gamers' fault. I think it's and it's not even it's not even just this industry, like you gotta think about it. Like, with music, you don't own that music, it's just a license while you pay that subscription. So if you don't pay that subscription, you don't own it.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Bro, YouTube premium and Spotify have both gone up several, several times. Yeah, YouTube is going up to it's like 13 to 15 now. Yeah, and fucking Spotify is almost like what like$12 for mines or something. I I got a family plan because I have my mother and my sister on mine. Yeah, that's how it's almost like I want to say like 25 bucks or something like that. And I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos of people like stepping away from the Spotify shit and getting and owning their music, like owning the music, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I am tempted because I was a big person that like own my music. You know, people are buying like old fucking iPods and just saying fuck it.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Let's go back to the old days because that's what worked.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

So it it's I'm just like, man, this shit is this is getting crazy. When I saw the YouTube shit, I said, what the fuck?$15.99 for me not to have fucking commercials? Yes, and you I do get YouTube music with that, but it's I'm just like, come the fuck on. Are you serious?

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Everything like is turning into a subscription model, like we don't really own anything.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Yeah, yeah. Once I once uh once you told me there's subscriptions, once I saw subscriptions for like your car and shit like that, I was like, I'm done. I am done.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Yeah, and it's not just my Tesla, it's also my Mazda. Like, there's a subscription for it for it to be connected to the app where I can do like remote start. Without it, I can't I can't do remote start or getting diagnostics on my car. I have to pay for that.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah, that's insane, that's crazy. And also, Microsoft has been making some changes.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

They got a new CEO in, they changed their logo, they also dropped the price of Unlimited.

Summer Prep And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Yep, yep. Um, so that's cool. You know, Microsoft trying to do some things. I don't really don't think it's gonna do it. Oh, and also, you know, the Project Helix shit that we talked about before, will it really make any changes? Not really. Well, at least I don't think so. Uh other than that, I don't know. I I think uh, you know, I'm I'm excited about doing this, studying for this cert, you know, seeing how it is and everything like that. Uh getting more into the Spanish and all that shit. And um when is that J. Cole concert?

SPEAKER_00 43:49

July.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

July? Oh, okay. Uh and also, you guys, it's gonna be hot this summer. I don't know why, but I just have this fucking feeling it's going to be hot as hell. It's coming up. Spring is gonna be over really quick. Like it's it, we got some cold weather recently, past couple days, but it's gonna be hot. I just have a feeling. It's gonna get really fucking hot. So make sure your AC works in your car. Make sure your AC works in your house. And uh, you know, drink plenty of water. Anything else you wanted to add?

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Nope. See you guys next time.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

See you guys next time. Thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Bye.