Discussion Combustion Podcast | #317

[00:00:00] We'll have this discussion. Discussion? What discussion? This is a discussion. Combustion. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, this is Discussion Combustion Podcast with your hosts Kevin Batstone and Arthur Rawe. DCPC back at ya baby. Playing the classic. It's been a while. We got our song playing. ACDC shot in the dark. Let me turn it off so we don't get a copyright on it.

[00:00:27] That was nice. Apparently 30 seconds is all you got. Six years ago when we were doing this show, we were just watching some of our old episodes in the basement. It's hard to believe that was six years ago, 2020. Seven if you go back to when we were just audio. All seven, yeah. That became our pre-DCPC song. So it's been a few weeks. It has been more than a few. Has it been like three weeks? We had Alec Henkelman on, which he's fighting. If you catch this early enough in the week, he's fighting in Castle Rock this weekend. He's boxing.

[00:00:53] Yeah. So free plug for him. It's at the Wide Open Saloon in Castle Rock. He was our last guest. Yeah, super solid lad. He's a great guy. Yeah, and it was. It's been over a year since we've done a Discussion Combustion solo. The last time we did a solo is when I started the Grit Movement. Yeah. That was a big day. That was a big day. Because you were thinking about quitting all podcasts. I was going to be done with everything. All podcasts? I don't think I was going to. I don't know where I was at. You just wanted to quit HFA and DCPC. Yeah.

[00:01:20] Because you had MTG rocking on. Right. Because I can do that anywhere in the country. Yeah. But no, yeah. And then we went to the Grit together. Cody Candelario, shout out to him. And then he was on the show a little bit after that. And it's hard to believe it's been almost two years since we've done a solo. Yeah. I mean, they're saying that since they turned CERN off, that time is moving slower. I feel like it's moving quicker. I mean, I feel like the days just, there's so much to do. That's the other thing is we're just busy.

[00:01:50] That, yeah. It's just all of a sudden, like, the day is done. And what I keep thinking about is I'd rather have a lot of long days than quick days all the time. Yeah. If life goes so quick. It is nice to have, like, you need to have that this Sunday. You need to just shut it down for the day. Yeah, I think I do. Because you've been going hard. I've been staying very productive. It was nice to have that Sunday when Crystal was in town to just do nothing and rest, eat food, you know, and enjoy each other. It was great.

[00:02:20] We need time to reset. It's important. You know, it's good. Because you'll burn out if you don't. I'm on the precipice. I've been on the precipice for months now. Oh, these are good. Potential overload. I've been, like, making jokes like I need to, like, forget some things so I can continue to learn all this new shit. Yeah. And, you know, since AI has really, really kind of stepped into what we do, too, with the podcast. Well, in some ways. Well, think about it. Go back to the grid together.

[00:02:50] That's when we started Opus Clips. So our promo clips started getting run through AI. Our show notes, we started. Free plug for Opus Clips. Great. I highly recommend them if you're trying to do promo clips like what we do and what I do with Mashcats. Actually, Opus Clips, I want to get paid for this advertisement. Okay. It's been a while since we had a sponsor on this show. Who was our last sponsor? I think it was a real estate company. It was real estate. But anyway, so then we went. Out of Florida and Colorado. Yeah, that's right. I talked to him last night, by the way. Yes. I'll tell you about that.

[00:03:19] He's doing well. He's a good guy. He has everything under control. Derek Blue is a solid lad. I can say his name. Okay. I'll tell you more off mic, but. Okay. What was I saying? I'm getting in podcast mode here for a DCPC. You don't got to get in any mode. Well, I'm trying to think because, you know. We're just talking. We have discussion combustion. Combustion. HFA is like, you're kind of structured. MTG is structured. Usually we have a guest on this show. So we kind of have some structure. I don't know what to do with my hands. You just leave them where, put them wherever you like. All right. So Opus clips.

[00:03:49] Then we started doing the show notes with a little bit of AI help here. Yeah. That did make that a lot easier. Made it a lot easier. Because a lot of people are hating on AI and I was a huge hater too. But I'm going to tell you this. I'm still kind of a hater. Yeah. But I use it. So it's everything in moderation kind of thing. You'll notice our thumbnails on the YouTube channel are now AI generated. But I think it looks good. I think it's that whole like, get with it or get left behind. Yeah.

[00:04:17] But I have an issue with defaulting into something that's new just because it's new as well. Fair. And I do think that AI has a high risk of making humans more dumb. Oh, 100%. You know, so. But that's not going to stop us from using it for thumbnails or show notes. Right. It has applicable things. But like for creating music and AI movies and like, I don't want to see a lot of that stuff. The AI movies? Yeah. I don't want to see it. I don't know how you stop it though. You can't stop it.

[00:04:46] You can't stop it. That reminds me, I was going to do this article on Happy Friday tomorrow, but I'm going to do it here instead because we're on the topic of it. Okay. Where did it go? So there was an AI hacked into another AI. All right. All artificially done with the AI. Okay. AI hacked into another AI. It's beginning. Which one hacked into which? Let me see. Which AI is dominant? An autonomous open AI agent went rogue and it hacked the infrastructure of an AI platform hugging face. Is that the name of it?

[00:05:16] I have, maybe that's the agent, the AI agent. Yeah. It hacked hugging face, whatever that is. So open AI would be chat GPT. That's what that umbrella is with Sam Altman. I wonder. Apparently it hacked. That's crazy though. If it, if AI is hacking other things already, we're, I mean, the terminators are probably by Christmas. Hopefully not. They're coming buddy. I would like to hope that the terminators just attacked the pedophiles. I don't think it's going to work that way.

[00:05:45] All the most corrupt man-made drug injecting into our fast food. Get all those big three conglomerates. I'm not going to name those names here. Yeah. Here's the problem. We just need to wipe them. The problem with that is, is the money that is going to fund these terminators. It's coming from them. Correct. So they, they have propaganda behind the terminator. Correct. So the AI is going to turn into propaganda that propagandizes its own propaganda. Yeah.

[00:06:12] It's see, that's the problem is, is when you're dealing with a system that is corrupt, it's, it's corrupt from the top down. So that means every single layer. Correct. Of the system. It's the trickle down effect. And, and just in case if people are unaware of this, and this is an opinion based program people. Okay. But you can look this stuff up. Pfizer does not make cheese, but Pfizer, the company who distributed the C 19 vaccines,

[00:06:38] one of the companies that did that Pfizer does make the fermentated material. It's like lab grown. It's in cheese that goes into cheese. Yeah. And unlike almost 90% or something of American manufactured cheeses use this specific lab grown, fermentated thing in their cheese, which is produced by Pfizer. So Pfizer doesn't make the cheese, but they make one of the key ingredients that is basically in all of our cheeses. So is there a conflict of interest there?

[00:07:08] I feel like there is. Uh, there is a conflict of interest there. Every time I fuck a podcast, someone's got to call me. Is it important? Kind of. You can pick it up. I should probably take it. All right. We're going to pause it and we'll pick it right back up. And the universe can't help it. That's fair. It's just, it's always been just how it works. You know?

[00:07:35] And, and one thing about the universe too, is it's going to make sure that you can handle it by giving you extra challenges right before you succeed. So it goes, you got to keep pushing, man. Keep digging. So I look at those phone calls that you were just receiving before we had to put on pause as like an extra challenge to getting to the successful episode of the solo. Well, and you heard what the call was about. It was entertaining. It was entertaining. For sure.

[00:08:00] So while you're doing a podcast and somebody else's job, someone isn't doing their job at all. That's the world we live in, my friend. No names. No names. No names. Nope. Someone who is doing a job now is our good friend, Josh. I'm so happy for our friend. He's, he's turned it around since our last solo. Dude, I just, I, I don't know how much I want to rant on that subject, but I really want us all to challenge ourselves. Yes. All of us.

[00:08:29] My friends, my family, everyone, all of us, everyone should be challenging themselves in some form or fashion. Yeah. Cause it's just like, like, how do you know what you're made of? So I'm not this kind of beast. I'm not like Alec. I'm not like our old friend, Matt, uh, C, but these guys like want to get in the ring. They want to challenge themselves. They want to see if they still got it. And so they want to do it physically. Like I'm, I'm not a physical altercation type of guy, but like maybe I'm trying to grow

[00:08:59] and be a better person so I could see what the fuck I'm actually made of. Well, yeah, but you can do that without beating the hell out of somebody in a ring. That's what I, yeah, that's what I'm getting at. But that is a good way to challenge yourself as well. I think Alec's going to crush it this weekend. Oh, he's totally. It's heavyweight competition. These are big boys. I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't want to mess with Alec. No. Hell no. No, no, no, no fighters. I do. I want any part of no, I respect it. I do. I've gotten more into UFC. I would say this last year than I ever have. Okay. What does that mean?

[00:09:28] Well, since I went to Paramount plus, it's easier to watch. Okay. So like I caught like the last six or seven fights on, on, on there and it's, it's good. I mean, you start to learn more about the sport. Just like anything. It's like folks that don't know NASCAR, they put it on like, what the hell am I watching? That's kind of how I felt with UFC for a while, but I'm starting to learn it a little bit. It's a fun sport. It's, it's, it's more entertaining than watching baseball unless you're betting on baseball. I love baseball though. I like the sport of it. I mean, I, it's fun to play.

[00:09:57] My Red Sox won 15 in a row as of this recording. Okay. Going for 16 by time this airs. Okay. Most in history of the ball club. Is it almost like the world? Series. Series. The playoffs for that will stop. What's the world cup? That's, that's what just ended with. That's soccer. That was FIFA. Yeah. FIFA. FIFA football. Spain won. Spain did win. Yeah. They beat Argentina. Yeah. I see. I don't know the rules of FIFA that well. Um, I watched a little bit of it just cause it was kind of cool.

[00:10:25] Cause normally those games are on at like three in the morning. Right. But because FIFA was here, they were on at decent hours. Yeah. So I was able to watch it. Now, did you see the SOCOM demonstration that was held in Florida? No. So it happened during the same time that the world cup was happening too. So it's like people came for the world cup and they happen to be in the Miami area during the SOCOM demonstration, then they were probably like, what in the hell is going on?

[00:10:52] Cause they like staged this whole, like the mayor got kidnapped. They don't know if it's in this, if the mayor's in this boat over here. And so they like have all these SOCOM Navy seals and like all these people like doing these demonstrations with blanks and shit. And dude, they, they had to have let off like over 250,000 blanks. Damn. Like they were doing the, the war boats, the black Hawks, like some of the techniques. So that was, it was kind of a cool YouTube watch. It was like 30 minutes long.

[00:11:21] It was this whole capability demonstration on our SOCOM. Do you remember that video game? SOCOM US Navy seals? Yes. PS2. You could like talk, talk to it. It was the first interactive game where you had the headset and you'd be like team regroup and your team would come running. I thought that was the coolest game ever. It was cool. At the time. It's probably still super cool. The PS2. And you know, what's messed up about that is like, I would always, always buy the games, trade them in, go get new games, this and that.

[00:11:46] And like now all the gaming companies are going digital only no more hard copies. Like if you don't have older playstations or Xboxes or Nintendo's with hard copy games, then like there's a likelihood that you can never play those ever again. And like with anything new that comes out, you know where I'm going. I do. It's like they're taking away our ownership of something that we paid for to have. The physicality of it.

[00:12:15] I mean, it, it, every, but think about everything. When was the last time you bought a DVD or a Blu-ray to watch a movie? Um, I bought one within three months ago. Okay. And it was the Matrix trilogy. An older one. Yeah. And it was all three in one box. It was like 10 bucks. Yeah. Cause everything now you just, it's digital streaming, purchase it on Amazon prime, whatever. So my PlayStation five doesn't even have a disc drive. I would have to buy one and install it. It's a digital only edition.

[00:12:43] So I have embraced the digital gaming world for the last two years, probably. Yeah. I haven't had any physical games. I'm trying to think. In a long time. Yeah. So at any time they could be like, yeah, you know what? We were going to just delete Kevin's account because of whatever reasoning. And then you could lose access to all the games that you've paid for. Possibly. But like, it is a possibility. I feel like you could fight that. It's a possibility.

[00:13:09] And in a world with no updates and physical copies, it was never a possibility. Those days are gone. Yeah. So like this whole AI stuff and like going digital and okay, since we're on DC PC, we got to talk flock cameras and data centers. I just drove by one. It was humming. A data center. That's massive. Yeah. Those are like 60. I feel like I get radiated by something when I drive by them. They're like probably super static electricity. Yeah. There's something. Cause like 5g, you can't feel.

[00:13:40] So here's the thing is all these data centers, they didn't exist like two years ago. Yeah. And we were all using chat GPT and like all these ask G like all these different, whatever the AI system is, we were using it just fine to the capability that you and I are using it still to today. So like we didn't need to have all these data centers for AI. It's actually for these flock cameras.

[00:14:06] So then they can hold all this cloud data and these flock cameras, they track your license plate, the dents in your car. Like dude, they are illegally surveilling us right now. And they're going up everywhere. I mean, I don't know if you are in a small town, if they're experiencing it in their town. Yeah. I'm sure they are, but maybe there's towns it hasn't reached to yet. You know, I go to some pretty rural places, real rule, real rule, rural, real rule. Remember?

[00:14:37] He doesn't remember. No, I remember. I was just leaving you hang it. Let me hang it. Real rules from happy Friday, Denver. Yep. Shout out to that old show. Look, flock cameras, no good. Mike Patchen, everyone who's watched the show long enough knows the Doom series we call out when Mike comes on. Mike's been talking about this shit for seven years. He's like, it's coming. They're going to be putting cameras in your neighborhood saying it's going to make you safer. Here's the thing about everyone that thinks like Alex Jones and Mike Patchen and all these guys are out of their fucking mind.

[00:15:06] They have a very, very high batting average. Yeah. Like all the conspiracies came true earlier this year. I almost had an existential crisis when all this shit. You did kind of go off the rails when you were starting to like wake up to some of it. Because dude, it was like, holy shit. Like it's everywhere. It's everything. Well, and the problem is, yeah, once you question one thing, you question everything. And you start to realize that we've been lied to our entire lives.

[00:15:32] Not about everything, but about a lot of things and important things, fundamental things. Like I've completely stepped away from politics. Good. I was slowly starting to do that anyway. Yeah. Like I used to be really into it and I was like slowly letting go, but now I'm just completely done with it. I don't, there is no political solution. There isn't. Well, it's, it, that is just a smoke screen. Like it's never, it's never been red versus blue or black versus white.

[00:16:01] Like all this stuff is, is designed to keep us divided. Divided. A hundred percent. And against each other. And it works. It works. It works very well. Phenomenally. It gets better with time. And then they get us going into the schools. Like, so the stuff that happened in, in 1913, when the Rockefellers like took over the medical system, they took over the educational system, they took over the food distributions and like that's, and then the two world wars happened after that.

[00:16:28] Like I know I sound crazy nowadays compared to how I used to sound. But I feel like I sound in my opinion, like I am more open to looking at reality in different ways. And this is where it's going to be another problem with AI is because everyone now just goes to the AI to ask it questions. What, what year was this? How did this happen?

[00:16:52] If AI is going to be a propaganda defender or if it calculates its algorithms from quote unquote fake news, right? Because we've tested that theory with some, with some AI stuff. We, we, we prompted and asked it questions about stuff that we believe to be true in history. Yeah. And it's like, nah, that didn't, that didn't happen. But AI has also been proven to make critical and like obvious mistakes. Like if you ask it how many E's are in 17 gives you a crazy number.

[00:17:21] I don't know if you've seen that viral video of that guy with his phone. I've seen something similar to that or where they like ask it to count to a million. Yeah. That's, that's kind of stupid. I don't know why you would need to do that, but it does. Or like, it was like a, he's like, what month has the letter X in it? He's like, oh, that's October. He's like October, huh? We'll spell that. Ox-tober. Ox-tober. Yeah. So little shit like that. If it's already making just hiccups as simple as that. Yeah.

[00:17:46] If it's not through news and propaganda and shit, it's, it's not good. Yeah. So, and then it's like, okay, AI is getting so advanced that it is hard to differentiate. Yes. So now you can. Pictures is hard. You can say, oh, that's AI or like that was AI. Like that wasn't me. Yeah. You know? So there's like this whole fall safe and you know, what is all this? Like, okay. All these conspiracies and shit.

[00:18:12] Like, what is the point of lying to people at a global scale? Well, Steve, you've come too far now. You can't, like it's, it's too much. The lie has gone too far. You can't be like, oh fuck. You know? Well, no. And they're still super greedy. Right. It's all about the money. Right. Basically everything comes back to the money. And control. And like wanting to control and. And religion does a good job at that too. I, I believe in. In history. I believe in higher powers.

[00:18:40] I, I do believe in that there's like a greater good as well. But I also believe that religions were written by man. And there's a lot of them. And then the Bibles are rewritten. And there's a lot of them. Yeah. So it's like, okay, every religion is just praying to the same energy. Like that, that's all. I will elevate on that hill. Cause it's the truth. There are some religions that also practice more violence within the religion. Like they, it was within the teachings. Yeah.

[00:19:08] To do bad things to folks that don't believe the same thing as you. Yeah. So we've been seeing that in the middle East for years. So like a divine energy, a being that is capable of creating the earth wants you to kill other things. Yeah. Well, it doesn't make any sense. I'm not a religious expert, so I wouldn't trust any of my scripture readings, but. Yeah. There's just always been something about it that I'm like questionable about. Anything that has a human attached to it has. Corruption. Somewhere. Potential for corruption.

[00:19:38] And especially if it's, you know, they get to go tax free. Right. That's what I'm saying. Like I'm talking about, I don't want to pay taxes on stuff. What do I have to make up my own religion? It has been interesting though, because they said Bible sales are actually at an all time high. And it's within younger kids. So the. Because Epstein's coming out stuff and they are praying to the devil and like sacrificing children and like drinking blood. Which is horrible. So like. It's horrible. I started wearing like St. Miguel once all that stuff. Like. Dude, if. What is St. Miguel? St. Miguel.

[00:20:07] St. Michael. Is one and the same. St. Miguel. St. Michael. St. Miguel. Is the slayer of evil. And this pendant depicts St. Miguel killing a demon. And on it, it says that. Let's see if I can read this.

[00:20:26] There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. I think. Looking at that on camera, it's going to look like you had some sort of disability. You know. No disrespect to disability folks. Dude, but. Yeah. No. Like. Yeah. I don't blame people for buying Bibles because if they're praying to Baal and stuff. Yeah. But here's the thing. Right? With. With.

[00:20:55] It's bigger than that though. It's. If you need outside entities to get through life, I think that's weak. I don't think you're looking within. Right? Everyone's looking for that scapegoat. If I just go to church on Sunday, then I'm a good person. You know, if I, if I do my hell Marys and my. It's probably not a great fucking topic to go into because religious people are very serious about their religion, but I just, I feel like you're looking for something outside of you. It's like drugs and alcohol and buying cars and women. Religion like frees you of something. Right?

[00:21:24] It's almost like an excuse to be an asshole for the rest six days of the week. The Bible's in the trunk the rest of the time as they say. Yeah. I mean, I've been told this by people who are religious that I live a more religious life than religious people do. And what does that even mean? It means that I try to help others. I'm selfless. I'm honest. I, you know, like I live by these values that intuitively all humans know. Yeah. Like we know if we're doing the right thing or the wrong thing, like unless you have like

[00:21:54] you're completely psycho or something, but, but like, and the more that you practice paying attention to your intuition, then the stronger it gets. And like your level of connection, which is like divine. Okay. So I don't believe in a religion, but I do believe this like divine energy. Yeah. I can get by. And dude, it's beyond serendipity. Some of the things that I've seen you connected with more so since I got off the booze dude.

[00:22:24] See? Yeah. Booze, even weed, like that stuff, that stuff disconnects us from like this higher power that we could be part of that I agree with. And so I'm guilty of disconnecting myself with the 420 for sure. The 420. Yeah. Cause we've had a lot of folks come on here that have given up weed and they've said like it unlocked another level of clarity for him. I never use marijuana heavy enough to have, to have assessed that, you know, for me, I was super casual marijuana user. I was never like a daily heavy user. No, you weren't.

[00:22:53] And solid work with the booze man. Cause like you might a couple of times a month, maybe once a week, maybe it's not, it's not a plan. You're not looking forward to it. I think like you did what you wanted to do there and doing what I do for a living as everybody knows what I do for work. Yeah. I'm around it. So there's going to be cocktail parties, there's supplier meetings, there's, you know, and I think that was actually a good thing rather than being like, Oh, I'm going to quit booze. I'm going to quit the industry. I'm going to, cause when you put up like that much block to it, I feel like it's easier for the demons as we say, to come plowing through that wall. Yeah.

[00:23:22] When you, when you are around it, you know, some people can't test it. Right. Like they say true, heavy, heavy alcoholic shouldn't even test it. Yeah. Says who, right. There's another religious AA type of push behind it. Everybody has a different battle with it. My brother's gone through it. My dad went through it. Right. Everybody has their own relationship to it. We were talking about in the group chat earlier about substances. I'm three and a half years off of cocaine. Yeah. You know, nicotine is becoming a problem at the beginning of the year. I got off of that.

[00:23:48] So as long as we're actively trying to be better. Yeah. I think that's a good thing. And it's a challenge like getting uncomfortable. And we've talked about this on DCPC for years, for years. But like where we are now is the result of all the challenges and times that we believe in ourselves when no one did, or, you know, like you start to build this lifestyle

[00:24:14] of like anti-complacency, a lifestyle of production. Yeah. Cause we, it's to the point where you and I feel guilty if we sit around for a Sunday. I just need that. You, you definitely need that. You, we've been on the run these past few weeks. I think, I think I could do three days doing nothing and, and I wouldn't feel guilty at all right now. Cause here's the thing is I would still be doing something cleaning. Right. Right. Right. Right. I would like clean my place. I would probably go to the gym, do some laundry, like just like organize some shit.

[00:24:42] But like, I just don't want to think about anything serious for three days. Well, yeah. And if you're home, you want to be in a clean home. At least I do. Yes. You know, it's better that way. It's just better. And by clean, like it doesn't have to be spotless. I mean, tidied. It's still lived in. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying you're not going to find a speck of dust or a little bit of spaghetti sauce on the stove. I'm saying maintained. Yeah. Like pretty clean to where you're not walking around like with sticky feet. I don't, I never understood people could live like that. Or, or like, here's a big thing for me.

[00:25:11] I really do like clean surfaces. Are you too? Like not every sticky shit on it. Like I don't need tchotchkes and stuff in every single corner. Like I really don't know you don't need tchotchkes in every corner. Little gizmos or doodads. Doohickeys. Doohickeys or fidgeters. Fidgeters. Right. No, not every piece of countertop needs to be taken up. It's nice to have space. I agree. And your new place.

[00:25:39] You haven't really talked about that on the air since you got it. Yeah. You know, I like keeping my business to myself. Yeah. It's weird. So we won't talk about where it is, but yeah. Becoming a homeowner, getting a place was a responsibility I ran from. When I was doing opiates almost seven years ago, over like over six and a half years ago. It was at the start of the show. Dude, I was, I was, I was hiding from accountability. I was running from responsibility.

[00:26:09] That's any addict. That's all I was doing. Any addict is doing the same thing. I didn't want to deal with anything. If I could just find my drugs and, and just have a nice safe night where I don't have to have a worry in the world. And then all that shit compounded times 10. Oh yeah. And then, and then sober me or soberer because I'm still doing pot. Yeah. Had to fucking pick up the pieces, dude. And like, it was a mess. It took you years to get out of it. It was a mess, but it was a lot of growth. It was worth it through that.

[00:26:39] It was worth it. You know? I mean, that's where the true growth begins and everybody, you know, rock bone. He hasn't hit rock bottom. That's another AA term. And I don't think everybody hits the same kind of rock bottom. Yeah. Just cause you're not, you know, homeless face down in a ditch. Doesn't mean you have or have not hit rock bottom. It looks different for everybody. It does. Yeah.

[00:27:08] And like that self disappointment of like, dude, why am I doing this again? I'm spending my last $100 that I have for two weeks for one night again. Of drugs. Yeah. And it's just like, for what? Yeah. But when you're in that drug mindset, booze, whatever, you're not thinking clearly. You're just thinking about the dopamine you're going to get from the drugs. Yeah. It's like gambling. Like I had, I got real close to going into some serious gambling problems last year. Yeah. I don't know if I've really discussed that on the air, but. No, you haven't.

[00:27:37] I mean, you kind of saw me get out of hand there for a minute. It's that addictive tenant. I started getting pulled in. And you were, you like, had it under control is how you were. That's how it started. Yeah. Just like anything. And next thing you know, it was the point where I was like, yeah, you know, I could probably skip the electric bill and gamble that this month. No way. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'll not skip the electric bill, but I'll pay that on the next check and take the late fee on it so I can gamble that money. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:04] That sounds like I'm, I'm trying to get a handful and I don't care if I'm in debt. Yeah. So that happened with gambling and I realized, I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I feel like gambling is, is almost worse than doing opiates because I spent 120 back in the day. It may be the in private night. Yeah. For the night. I've gambled a thousand in a night. Yeah. And, and like that one 20 got you feeling good all night and maybe even into the next day. Gambling is temporary. Gambling dude. Yeah.

[00:28:33] You lose 800 in like two hours, 10 minutes, less. You can lose in 10 minutes. I lost a thousand bucks one time in 10 minutes. Yeah. By betting like an idiot. Oh my gosh. A hundred dollar hands on Baccarat and shit. Oh my gosh. You know, it's, it's sober. It's kind of fun. It's completely sober. You are not having fun. You're high on, you're chasing that win. And when I knew it became a problem, it was just like beer. It was like eight, 16, two shots, four shots, eight shots. It was like, okay, I only won 25 on that hand.

[00:29:03] I want to win 50. I want to win a hundred. I want to win two 50. You wanted the wins to be bigger. Oh yeah. Just like drugs. You need more. Dude. That was my problem. Cause I got into gambling too, a little bit. I feel like I turned the corner from that craving, but like I would, I would go in there and honestly I would do great at roulette. I'd be doing these small bets for like the game for like the first 45 minutes, dude. And I'd, I'd be up like $40. And then you start betting heavy. And then I'll be like, you know what? That's what I would do. I got this profit. So yeah, I'm gonna start swinging it.

[00:29:35] It was that like the actual addiction is when you lose money and be like, I got to get that back. You got to get it back. And then, so then I just lost 50. So let me, let me bet another 50 to try to get that 50 back. And now you're down a hundred. So you're like, ah, shit, let me try betting a hundred. Yep. Been there. Clint. Hopefully he catches this out. I'm not going to black Hawk with you. Now I'm not saying I'm never gambling again. Yeah. Cause it's just like the drinking thing. Okay. Right. Like that's not where I'm at with it.

[00:30:02] Cause I just did gamble with Clint, what six, seven weeks ago, somewhere in there. And so, uh, but it's not the chaos. See, my problem wasn't the casinos. It's draft Kings. Yeah. That's where I really lost control. Casinos. You can kind of watch your money go. Well, and you have to drive an hour there. And you got it. It takes forever to get there. Whereas draft Kings, I can do it while we're podcasting right now. Yeah. You know? And so, um, that live baseball betting shit was fucking, it was exhilarating. I deleted that shit.

[00:30:31] They still send me free bets every once in a while. Cause like I haven't been using their platform. So they're like, come back, give us more of your money. And I'll bet that free bet. Like I did on the phone with you hit cash out. Yes. That's the way. But it's just, it's just that slippery slope. It's it is. It's like with me with booze, but some people like crystal goes and gambles. There's a, in Rochester, we have a lilac club casino and she'll go like after work on the weekend or whatever.

[00:30:56] And she's great about, she puts 40, 50 bucks into the digital roulette shit or whatever. It's just fun. She'll make 30 bucks on it and then leave. That's a great night. Like she does. She has it under control. Yeah. I feel like men have a greater liability of effing up unless if, I don't know about that. But if, if anyone is drunk, well forget that. If you're gambling with booze, it's not, you're screwed. Maybe, maybe we are just all equal and some people just have better control than others.

[00:31:25] Well, and some people don't have financial freedom, right? Like we're fortunate enough to say that, yeah, I gambled a thousand bucks, but I'm like, like all my bills were still paid. Yeah. I know I made a comment about the electric bill, but there was still, like everything was still paid. Yeah. I wasn't like going rogue on payments to gamble. Like calling up your landlord. But I could see, I could see that line, you know, with gambling. Yeah. Gambling is a slippery slope, man. We've talked about, you know, I had the idea for dopamine nation, right?

[00:31:55] Drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, food, the gym. Anything that gives you a dopamine hit is potentially addictive. There is something really nice about the gym dopamine hit though. It's a good one. Um, yeah, dude, like you legit can feel like this euphoria, but you can see again, I won't mention any names, but folks that use like performance enhancers and steroids and that, then it's the gym, right? You get pulled in. I want to get bigger.

[00:32:25] I want to get bigger and stronger and stronger. It's just more, more, more, more. That's like body dysmorphia. So here's the thing is like everything requires balance and you have to walk the tight rope on every single subject. And you got to check in with yourself at least once a month. I feel like, where am I at with this? How am I doing financially? Am I making the right moves here? Am I treating myself good? Yeah. You know, whatever it is that you battle with nicotine, whatever. Cause that, that one got out of hand for me too. Yeah. And you were honest with yourself. Well, I was going to have a heart attack.

[00:32:54] That shit was waking up in the middle of the night. That was insane. If I didn't tell this story, I was on the Zins and I was up to the nine milligrams and I was doing three at a time. So it's 27 milligrams. That's a lot. And I'd be like, yeah, just buzzing on that shit. I woke up resting heart rate. One 40. Dude. That's like if I'd been walking at a six incline at almost four miles per hour for over 12 minutes. Oh yeah. I knew at that moment I was like, I can't do this anymore. It's going to kill me.

[00:33:24] It's too much. And I, that was, I chewed for two months. Got out of hand that quick. You were going so hard. So way too hard. So would you say you have an addictive personality? 100%. I'm an addict. I like, don't want to admit to that, but I, I, I do need to admit to that here. It's important to admit to it because I think if you tiptoe around it, it leaves the door open to justify it. Well, yeah. And here for me with booze as of today, when this episode drops 74 days, not drinking.

[00:33:54] But here's the thing is I didn't tell anybody I was going to do this. You just did it. I just did it because like at some point, like who fucking cares what anyone else thinks. It's all about how you feel. Correct. And like, whenever I would drink a couple beers, even if it was just two, that never felt like enough for me. So I was like, all right, I might as well like get down if I'm going to have some. And then I'm, I'm more likely to do it the next day. And then I'm more likely to eat like shit. And then my sleep. And then I have anxiety.

[00:34:20] Like since I haven't drank in those 70 something days, like you're more apt to go to the gym and my, I'm less anxious about everything, even though I still feel the pressure. Yeah. I'm less anxious about the pressure. A hundred percent. You know? So yeah, I agree. We do need to be honest with ourselves. You got to check in. Where am I at? How am I doing with this? Cause it's easy to go off the rails again with whatever it is. And it sounds fun. It does sound like fun. Like I'm not going to sit here and lie, like slamming a couple of brewskis with you and Jamie last Saturday.

[00:34:50] Like I was like, dude, that sounds like fun. I want to go over there. Yeah. I know you guys didn't really get down that hard, but like. I didn't drink. And Jamie's not drinking. It sounded fun. Jamie's not boozing like you. No one, no one does it like we used to do it anymore. Yeah. That's good. You know, nobody. And that's, well, there's probably a couple that might. It depends on the aspect. They're in different stages of their life with it. Yes. You know, it's been what? Two and a half years since I've drank on a podcast. That's a huge accomplishment. That was the first step though. I mean, we used to just get wasted on this show.

[00:35:20] Oh, it was my favorite thing to do. It would be like Wednesday, middle of the week. Let's. It would be an excuse for me to get loaded. Yeah. Because then from here we'd go to the bar. Yeah. And then go network. Go network, which is drink more. Yeah. And then go network some more, which is drink at the house. Yeah. We're having a business meeting. We made a lot of executive decisions for the future of this show drunk. But they were the right decisions. Well, because when we were sober the next day, we're like, yeah, that still sounds like the right move. Yeah. We would book podcast guests drunk.

[00:35:50] That was, that was, that was, that was not a good move. That didn't always work out. That was not a good move. And then we came up with that rule. Like no more drunk guest invites. Yeah. No more inviting people that we needed bars on the podcast. We had some strange guests from, from that. We also had some good ones though. This is how the people's podcast is born. You talk to everybody. DC piece is not what it once was. Hence, you know, here we are at what is today? The 23rd of July. What is this episode number? Like 316.

[00:36:19] Is it the stone cold stunner? No, that was with Alec, right? Yeah. Alec 316. So it's 317. Mm-hmm. Which is kind of cool, I guess. Next one after this will be my birthday. 318. Yeah. That's dope. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's been a cool thing. You know, we were looking at old episodes when we, before we jumped on here and it's cool to see like seven years. We look different. We were, the shit we're talking about then is different.

[00:36:46] You know, the AI stuff wasn't even big then yet, but we were still talking about it. We knew it was coming. Yeah. We were still talking about it. So it's kind of cool. It's like a little time capsule. It is really cool. We were in different parts of life. Podcasting is fun. You know, we, we do make money off of this. It is, it is profitable. Yep. Um, sometimes we pay for it. It's, it's like anything when you are creating, sometimes the money is not as important as like the experience. The experience.

[00:37:14] Think about it like taking your wife out or me taking my girl out on a date. It's the part of the, we have to court the podcast. You got to date it. You have to put money into it. You have to give it experiences. Yep. Are we thinking about any of the money that we spent on gas or for the tickets for the zoo? That was a great day. Yeah. We haven't even thought about that money. Those fans though. I'm thinking about how much money those fans are. Have enough money to pay for some of those fans. Dude, that was the mega fan. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is fantastic. It was. And I really had no idea that that even existed. The zoo?

[00:37:44] In Colorado Springs. I didn't know it either. I may have heard a whisper at some point being a native, but I never fully understood. I thought it was Cheyenne, Wyoming. What was there? Yeah. So we get there. It was, it was awesome. What a great day. It was really cool. The otter was my favorite of course. It was fun with the girls and we rode the, we rode the little ski lift over the whole zoo. The gondola. That was, that was my favorite part I think. Really? The gondola? Yeah. I tried that climbing wall up top. I saw you messing with it. I couldn't really.

[00:38:14] I didn't have the right shoes for it. I couldn't imagine trying to do that when I was 260. Everything's a little harder when you're heavy. Dude, when you're heavy, like life is just uncomfortable. I've never been heavy. It's very uncomfortable. It seems it. It's very uncomfortable. Yeah. It seems it. You just like kind of hot all the time and. Sounds very uncomfortable. And like your knees hurt more. You were a big boy at one point. Yeah. Like when we were doing big D's. Mm hmm. That was probably the heaviest year.

[00:38:43] That was when I quit pills and then like. Got addicted to food and sugar. Food and booze. Like I went way too hard with food and booze, but you know what? Whatever route you need to take to better your life. Yeah. Like, and then now I'm, I got the booze like at a say, at a good place. Yeah. And then honestly, like I haven't been puffing as tough. Like I've been more eating it. You do the edibles. Yeah. I'm eating more, but like. It's always been your thing though, hasn't it? The edibles? Well, within the last 10 years. Yeah. But it's like. You've been smoking weed since the day I met you.

[00:39:14] Yeah. Like puff and tough. Like it's. I'm starting to see some of the negative effects of like, it stinks. Like, you know. Your lungs. The heart rate, the carcinogens, you know, it's expensive and. It is expensive. You know, my wife doesn't like the way it smells. And like, I don't even know if I 100% love the way it makes me feel anymore. It's weird. Like late thirties coming up on 40. Yeah. How priorities are changing. And like we do. I'm just happy. I'm not living like I'm a 20 year old anymore. I agree with that.

[00:39:43] I think it's a normal for people to want to alter their sobriety in some form or fashion. It's just doing that responsibly. Yeah. You know, because if you know you got a problem with it, it's not. It's not even worth justifying it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I would agree if it's OK to escape reality. Like as long as you do it in a responsible way and it doesn't hurt others. Yeah. You know, there's a fine line there for some though.

[00:40:07] It's interesting to watch as yours click on kind of some of the addiction studies now that we have all the screens in the in the tick tock and all that shit where it's shifting people's mental. That's a drug. Because alcohol is on a major decline when we look at national sales data. Yeah. It's coming down. Yeah. You know, I don't know where marijuana is at food, sugar, probably only going up. That's marijuana. Yeah. You think? Well, yeah, because they keep legalizing it in new states. That's true.

[00:40:33] So like a lot of people can only go up in a lot of people are going from previous drinkers to cannabis, which is, in my opinion, a healthier alternative. It is. I don't like the way it makes me feel. Yeah. So, you know, don't do it. I don't do it, but I will do like those two and a half milligram gummies or whatever, like super low dose. Yeah. Just super mellow. At night. That's really all that the edibles do for me now. Like I don't even feel like I get like baked or bombed.

[00:41:00] It's more like I just get the uncontrollable munchies. Yes. But like, that's really the only side effect and that's not fun for me. So like, I really do it at just lower doses. And I guess I'm kind of weaning off of it, not with the intent to like fully stop, but like, I'm just trying to better myself. And that seems to be in the area of focus right now. The weeds too strong these days.

[00:41:22] I think I know I sound like a kind of a puss, but when I first started smoking weed, however many years ago that was, you could smoke a whole joint and not be wrecked. No, but that's shit that it wasn't good. I'm not saying it was good. It was low THC dirt weed or whatever we call those mason jars, though. That was good shit. That was, that was, that was just a time, that was a time in life. That was one period of time. That was the purest marijuana you could ever smoke. Yeah. It was just one point in time. For like a year and a half. Yeah. Just that's not that long.

[00:41:52] I enjoyed it. I'm glad I was there for that ride. It was a fun time. I always remember when we kind of drove, um, we had some drinks and then the cop, like, I don't even think I was 21 yet. Cop like stopped us cause I want to go get a fucking prime time pre roll. No, I don't think I was 21 yet. He thought I did a drug deal. Yep. Out behind my car. Yep. And so this canine pulls up, this cop canine unit pulls up. We had had some beers. We were like a half a mile away from the apartment. Yep.

[00:42:20] And he thought I did a drug deal cause I bought the prime time and I needed a lighter. So you use his lighter. Yep. And he's like, oh, there's the exchange. And he ran our, both of our licenses. Yep. And he could tell that we had some beers. Yeah. I think I was 20. I wasn't even 21 yet. But we were super comprehensive. I was like, we're going home right here. He's like, yeah. He's like, don't get a DUI tonight. I remember him saying that. Yep. And he all asked the duties. Like, I'm like, dude, I just use his lighter. And then the cop's like, what did he ask you for? He's like, he asked for my lighter. Thank God that dude didn't run away or something. Yeah. But it was all, it was still speculation that it was a drug deal. Yeah. That could have gone. We dodged some bullets.

[00:42:51] I've definitely dodged a lot of bullets. I dodged a lot of bullets when I was drinking and driving. What an idiot. Yeah. That became, I got way too comfortable doing that. Yeah, dude. Where you're actively doing it. Drinking and driving. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Not like drank and then drove. I would do that too. But like actively. I did that too. Having a beer. While driving on I-25. While driving. Just fucking slamming it like, yeah. It's so stupid. I reached a point where I thought, I got so arrogant. So stupid. There was a point where I got really, really arrogant with it.

[00:43:21] Yeah. And it was around the time that this show started getting a lot of success. Mm-hmm. You think you're fucking untouchable. Yeah. I thought I was cool. Like some pseudo celebrity. Nobody gives a shit who the fuck I am. Like it was a learning experience. I care. Well, you know what I'm saying. No, I do. Most people don't give a shit. Most people don't care. Like. No one cares. We had our fame and it was fun. Yeah. And it still is being, you know, a public figure if you will. Yeah. But that was fed into the ego. It did. Partying and being an animal.

[00:43:51] You know. It's like Van Wilder shit. Yeah. Yeah, dude. It's just. It's interesting getting older. It really is. I've reached a point though where I feel like I'm the healthiest I've been. You know, I've got this fitness thing I've been doing the last six weeks. Been feeling good with that. Mentally, I'm dialed. I love my life. Crystal, you know. Sure, it's challenging me in a long distance. I get a lot of questions about that. But when it's real, when it's true, you just know it. Distance is just a number at that point.

[00:44:20] You find a way to make it work. Yeah. And it's temporary. We're in that temporary timeline of it. I'm not going to ask any questions, but I do have curiosity. About what? Well, you know, how, how, what's going to happen? With what? With you and Sweetie Poo. Well, it's only going to get better. Well, and I think that's a great answer. It's great. I'm not trying to iceberg this curiosity on this discussion combustion.

[00:44:50] But I can't wait to see what you two end up doing with each other. Yeah, it's going to be fantastic. And I think it's very exciting. It is. But like, I agree. I am one of the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. And all the things that are challenging me nowadays are things that are actually helping me grow and become a better person.

[00:45:12] And 10 years ago, the things that were challenging me was me running away from accountability and responsibility and stacking up debt and not paying payments and overdrawing my account and fucking getting cars repoed. It's crazy. Like, those were my challenges. So like, the problems I have today, I feel so blessed for my problems. Yeah, you have adult challenges. Or my challenges, whatever. Adult challenges now. Yeah. It's the best. Yeah. It's the best it's ever been. It is. And the cliches are true. As you get older, things do change.

[00:45:41] Some people though, age just isn't ever. My brother calls them children with gray hair. Mm-hmm. And I think that's a good analogy because some people never do. They just still drinking, doing drugs, have like three roommates. And that's fine. I'm not here to judge. That's okay. Your level of success by who you live with or how that works. But I just think you reach a point around 35 where you're like, okay, I gotta dial this. You either turn it the fuck up and dial in. Yeah.

[00:46:07] Because like, you start realizing, oh shit, like, you know, I'm not going to be young forever. Right. And you start. It goes quick. And you start recognizing that. And it's like, well shit, like, even though I need to live for the present, I need to have some awareness of what I'm trying to do with my future. For sure. You know, you have to live in the present. And, you know, as an addict, like when I was doing all the dumb shit, like I was totally present and I had a blast. Like I'm not sitting here regretting anything. Like, sure. I made my life more difficult than it needed to be.

[00:46:37] But like, so even though living in the present is some of the best advice you could ever give somebody, you could take it too far. Well, I'm going to get drunk tonight then. So, so it's like, you have to walk this fine line of every single detail of life. Correct. And like, hold yourself to that standard. And it sounds like a lot and people get overwhelmed by it. And that's why it's easier to just get fucked up. It's so much easier. But then, but, but it's not though, because then you got to deal with that shit later. It's not easier. It's not easier.

[00:47:07] It's just not, it just isn't, you know? So I wouldn't change the thing. I really wouldn't. I wouldn't want to change the thing either. I mean, I could sit here and say I wouldn't have drove drunk as many times, but. Well, thank God that nothing happened. I was very fortunate for that. It did reach a point though, Tori, like when I still was boozing heavy, heavy at the end where I wasn't driving. I remember that. Because I knew I was like, I, there's no, I can't, there's no more get out of jail free cards on that. Yeah. So I started Ubering a lot. Yeah.

[00:47:36] You felt like it was, it was, it was coming. Yeah. It was coming. If I got behind the wheel hammered one more time, I was going to jail. Guaranteed. You have to follow, we have to follow our intuition. The intuition told me. Stuff like that. It knew. You gotta listen to it. So here, you know, fast forward where we're at seven and a half years since we started the show and I love it. You know, it's, it's, it's, we don't do it like we used to. We say obviously we have happy Friday. I've mashed the gas. So we're still creating on this YouTube channel, but I think this was a good check-in. This was a good check-in. It's like therapy.

[00:48:05] DCPC has always felt like therapy. It's, it's always been, you know, it's helped me become a better listener to hold myself more accountable. Yeah. This podcast helped me get off of pills. I'm convinced of that. I would like to say this, this show helped me curb my alcoholism. Yeah. I think it did. Like, dude, if I went back to like our first episodes and I'll be watching an episode where I'm bombed, like I would be, uh, that's not a good look for you. I can't, I still can't watch episode 100. I was trash. Do you?

[00:48:35] I was so wasted. It's, it's funny now. Kind of. It's a little embarrassing, but at least we live. But that's what I was saying in the beginning. So it's like, where's the fucking balance? It's like, we did all this stuff. So, okay. We lived, we got that off of our chest, but like, yeah, that I guess partying and experimenting is, is better when you're young. Yeah, for sure. It's better when you're young. You have more time to recover from it. Yeah.

[00:49:02] And then, and then you also have time to like actually become something. I, I, I went too long. Like I went way too long with the opioid abuse. Yeah. It was until I was like 34 or something. Yeah. So that was too long. I'm in my opinion. Yeah. I think it's different for everybody. Yeah. You know, there's addicts that are sixties. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to put an age number up, but yes, it is around that time, that 30 to 35,

[00:49:29] where it's like, if I don't buckle down, shit's going to be real tough for me in 15 years. Yeah. You know, blowing through your retirement to get high and shit like that. Now you got to start over at what? 40. It is. I mean, you can, you know, 40 is still young enough to start over. It gives you 25 years. It gives you 25 years as well as like kind of on the cusp. If you don't have retirement. Yeah. I mean, it's late to start. Yeah. You're not doable. Yeah. You just, you're going to be working until you're 65.

[00:49:55] I'd just be working at a fucking Ranger Rick of national park. Yeah. You knew I was going to say it. I could see it. Just go fucking camp there. I can see you just stopping and pulling a granola bar out of your pocket and looking at the trees for a while with your hat on. Yeah. I could, I could totally see it. Dude. I want to see that. I think at that point when you're doing that, I'll be probably wrapping up my career in NASCAR media. That would be good. You know, I'll probably doing something from broadcasting for them. Yeah.

[00:50:25] It's headed that way. I am. You have my full support. I want to see you succeed. I mean, it's been a dream since I was a kid. You were living your dream. It's pretty cool. I'm living my dream. It's really cool. We get to do. I'm very fortunate. I think about my life right now and I'm like, dude, I accomplished so many more things that I never even thought I was capable of. Agreed. It's only because I started being accountable, man. This show unlocked a lot of shit for us though. It did. It really did. It changed my life.

[00:50:55] Staying with it. For the best. So DCPC, I'll always be grateful for this program. It's fantastic. DCPC, man. Huge buy. I've thought about getting that tattooed. I mean, it means that much to me. DCPC. Yeah. The people's podcast. We're not going anywhere, folks. It's important. We're here. I mean, we don't drop like we used to, but you can still catch us on Happy Friday tomorrow. Mm-hmm. Caught up on your NASCAR on Mondays and watch Art's daily affirmations on his social. We're here. We're doing it. Daily raw talks are real right now. We're doing it.

[00:51:24] It's happening. It was good to do a solo. I'm going to bring that over here. I love the bullshit button. You've got to have a bullshit button. The bullshit button is great. Oh, no, you didn't. Yeah. I always think of Jamie when I hear that one. Mr. Rorick, we love you. Well, Kev, it was great catching up with you on a discussion combustion. Everybody enjoy your episode of Happy Friday America tomorrow, just like we're talking about.

[00:51:54] And be real with yourself. Like, no one else is going to fucking care. So, only you know the standards that you let slip for yourself. It's true. So, like, it's on you. Yeah, it is. And that's probably the best way to close it out. Great piece of advice. No one really cares about much. I mean, it might seem like they do. People love you. People are going to be there to support you. They care that way. But, like, they don't care. Unless you're failing and then they, you know, misery loves company. Yep. They want to pull you down to the floor to make themselves. People like to point at the failures.

[00:52:23] People will point out the failures for sure, but if you're crushing it, we got your back. Keep going, America, and everybody around the world. So, is that a be good to yourselves? You deserve it.