MIC CHECK MEDICINE
I use my MIC and my platform as a form of "therapy" or "medicine" for myself.
MIC CHECK MEDICINE
BLOCKBUSTER BLUNDERS AND RENOVATION REALITIES: Critiquing Franchise Fumbles and Navigating Cultural Contrasts in Home Improvement
Are iconic franchises like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings being ruined by misguided attempts to cater to specific audiences? We make a bold case that recent marketing strategies are not just costly but also detrimental to these beloved series. Join us for a candid critique that questions why high costs and low viewership seem to plague today's blockbuster shows and movies. From there, we switch gears to share personal life updates, including a birthday celebration and the trials of ongoing home renovations. You'll hear a fascinating comparison of construction practices between the U.S. and the Philippines, touching on differences in materials, methods, and contractor roles.
Ever dealt with a frustrating delivery mishap that made you question accountability standards? We recount such an incident, providing insight into the disparities in service expectations and communication barriers encountered during home renovations in the Philippines. Through relatable anecdotes, we highlight the importance of supervision and detailed explanations in project management. Despite the challenges, we recognize the competence of local workers, offering a balanced view of what it's like to navigate home improvement in a different cultural landscape. Tune in to explore these cultural nuances and hear personal stories that resonate with anyone facing similar trials.
What's going on everybody? This is the Objective, jerk, and I'm said jerk, hope things are good, whoever's listening, whoever listens. I hope you're having a good year, good day, good week, good month, hope it's all good. I hope you're not a Star Wars fan. I mean, I can't really say too much because I'm not watching it, but you know from what I can tell, just the Star Wars shows and everything is just. It's just.
Speaker 1:Star Wars is just another ruined IP. I guess you know they ruined. Let's see Return of the Jedi, indiana Jones. They ruined Willow. They're trying to ruin Lord of the Rings. It's like it's just.
Speaker 1:Instead of making, it's like, why not make something that's like it but its own thing? Because they know it'll fail. So that's why people are like what can they just leave the established ips alone if they want to make something that's caters to, you know, the gay community or whatever, and then make their own, but no one will watch it? So they have to do that. With the established IPs it is, and now no one's watching the stuff that's coming out. Nobody's watching you know the shows, and it costs them like so much money for these shows too. Like it's insane. I'll put the screen up so I can light myself up a little bit, put the screen up so I can light myself up a little bit. But you know, these shows that cost as much as these horrible movies that are being put out and nobody's you know the subscriptions are just going down. Like how is this still going on? How do they keep just throwing money at this crap and getting nothing in return, and how long before they realize that they're not making money and they stop doing it? So it's like what's really going on? You know that's like there's no.
Speaker 1:Nobody took marketing, which I kind of get. I took marketing classes and I just I hate marketing. It just seems like the most pointless job. You're just trying to market stuff that people don't need. You know what I mean. Which most things in the world today we don't need. You know, today we don't need. You know what was the crap that they try and sell to us is just that crap, you know. And but I do remember you know, uh, market research and you know finding out who likes what, the ages, and you know, and you and you go after that target market and they don't do that and they're just losing their ass. It's like insane, but anyway, um been having some. It was my birthday the other day, but we've been having um, some contractors working on the house a little bit, getting some things done that we've been wanting to get done for a while. Um, I've talked about it before.
Speaker 1:You know, just everything is concrete and rebar here, not much wood, you know, and so it's it's. It's a lot different. I need to learn how to to do like. I know the basics of how you, you know, lay down some hollow block and but, like in the States, if you're going to do something and you need to use some concrete, like I put a fence up in my yard one time and I concreted all the corner poles or the major poles and then I just kind of pounded in the other poles to support it. It worked out great. But anyway, the concrete, it comes in a bag, you stick it in a bucket, you add some water and you mix it up. Good to go here. They buy sand that they have to sift and the rock and then they buy like it's like concrete that's concentrated and then they mix it all together in this big volcano looking thing and then they use that. I don't know, you know I, I only know how to do it.
Speaker 1:In the States. It's like America is spoiled man, we just have it so easy. But so there's things like that. That just really kind of shows just kind of how spoiled American Americans really are, you know.
Speaker 1:But the other thing is like in the States, if you are licensed and to be a contractor and you know how to do all that stuff and a handyman kind of whatever, you have to get a license and you know how to do all that stuff and a handyman kind of whatever, you have to get a license and various things. But you have to have like a truck, some sort of vehicle, you have to have tools to complete whatever jobs that you bid for and get. But here they don't have anything. They just show up and flip flops and they start working. I mean, they I think they brought a shovel, a tape measure, a couple other little things, but it's like they're using my tools. Oh, do you have this, do you have this? They're constantly using my tools and and you know you have to go get everything.
Speaker 1:Like I don, I don't know. It's just crazy. Like in the States you hire a contractor and then that's it. You don't deal with nothing. I mean, you can kind of look and see what they're doing and maybe there's some questions, some problem arises and the contractor's like, hey, we ran into this. I suggest we should do this or you could do this. What do you want to do? You know things like that. Here it's. It's not like that. Like you can probably hear the steel cutter they're cutting rebar right now behind me, behind my room, but so that cutter is actually not mine either. Borrowed it from a family, but it's just it's kind of I don't know. It's just one of those things. It's, it's a, it's a change, it's a cultural change. That I get it, but it's just kind of it's kind of annoying. Like I don't know. But these guys that we got going on right now, they're, they're, they're doing a good job, they're, they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:We've hired people in the past that were basically the equivalent of like me. Like if somebody was to hire me, like I know a lot of stuff but I'm not an expert. Like I know how to do, I know how to weld something, but I suck at it. You know I haven't done it enough to have those really nice beads and sexy welds. You know what I mean. Mine look like you know, fucking Colossus from X-Men vomited on it or something. But there are some good things that I am good at, you know. But but I'm just, I'm a handyman, you know. I can do anything. I can figure out and fix most things. It may take me a while or whatever, but I'm not an expert or proficient in a certain you know. It's like that's how certain people get to be an expert, is they, do they do one thing a million times, the same thing a million times. That's how you get good Me. I've done a million things like one or two times. You know what I mean. I don't know if it's the ADHD or what, but so but yeah, so it's just kind of it's.
Speaker 1:It's it's kind of crazy just the way things are done here. I mean, there you can go the route of getting. I think no, because I think it's still the same. They do the same thing. It's like you have a contractor or what they call a. The contractors they call architects here and they're the ones that kind of figure out what needs to be done. But as far as, like, hands on, I don't know how much they do it's I don't know. It's just I don't know. It's just a little different, a little weird, and then like the hardware stores around here.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I grew up in the States and I had uncles, grandfathers and my father. All could do a little something. You know, my uncle was a mechanic, my dad was a carpenter, my grandfather, he was kind of like a hand, you know. He knew how to do a lot of different things, and so I learned a little bit from all of them, you know. So I know enough to survive.
Speaker 1:And there are some people, though, that don't know anything, that never been taught anything. You know, there are people at my age that probably don't even know how to change a tire. I would think that's probably. I would hope that that's not a truth, but I'm sure it is. I know there's a lot of younger people that don't know how, but anyway you go to.
Speaker 1:So you have, you know, lots of people go to the hardware store, lots of men, not just contractors, but just regular everyday people that want to fix the light switch in their house or whatever, right. So you go to home depot, you go to lowe's, you walk through the aisles, you find what you need, or you find something else like, oh, this will be better, or you have someone that like works there, that was an electrician or is an electrician or something, and they can tell you what would be better. Here they have lots of hardware. They do have a store that's like Lowe's it's called Wilcon I think I've talked about before, and I love going there because it's like I feel like it's like it's like I'm in the States again. You know I can walk through the aisles and I can just look and pick out stuff. But here, like in our, in the town we live in the city they have a bunch of hardware stores but everything's cut off from us. Like you go up to the counter and you tell you have to tell them exactly what you want and they go and get it and they bring it to you.
Speaker 1:But for me I don't always know what I want. Like I know what I need, generally speaking, but I need to look at stuff and maybe I'll see something like oh, you know what that's going to work better or whatever. You know what I mean. It's like I used to. I used to have like plans in my head, you know, making like a treehouse or something, and so I'll have like these ideas and then I'll go to the hardware store and I'll look for the hardware and or parts or whatever I need to build on those ideas. But then I might see something else and I'm like, oh, you know what that's gonna work better and if I use this I can do that. You know what I mean. So it's all part of the creative process for me. And so going to the hardware store and like what do you need, I'm like, well, I'm always like I just need to look. Let me look around, you know, and there's a couple of hardware stores that let me do that. But most of them are set up to a certain way. So, basically, the hardware stores are meant or build or made or set up for contractors only, like they're just little stores for contractors, for a contractor that knows exactly what they need, and they go and get it.
Speaker 1:So, like you know, the water lines are a lot different. Here, like all the water lines are exposed. You know, like in the States, water's like in the galvanized piping or whatever underneath the foundation and inside the house. And here it's just like the water line runs from my well and goes along the side and it's PVC piping and it goes into the bathrooms, which it's kind of, I guess, trashy looking, but at the same time it's a lot easier to repair if you need to repair. And so I have a plan of replacing that PVC with the white I forget what they call it but instead of using like the glue, you know, with PVC, when you attach two PVCs together, you know, you kind of rough them up, put that adhesive glue and stick them on there and it like melts it a little bit and glues it together. Well, the white stuff, you actually have a tool that actually heats it up to where it does melt it and then you put it together and it melts together. So it's like it's an even better, stronger bond and the piping is much more durable. And, you know, so it's more expensive. So eventually I want to get it, get that running into all the, into the house, everything that. But anyway, so for me, I don't.
Speaker 1:I've always been horrible with math, right, um, I don't. I've always been horrible with math, right, I don't retain. I'm not good. I'm like dyslexic with numbers. You know how people can. They'll read something, but then the things are jumbled, and so dyslexia. You know, like I feel like that's me. But with numbers and math, you know what I mean. Like I just don't. I don't. Naturally my brain does not function with math. I've always struggled with math.
Speaker 1:Like I could remember you know your multiplications and stuff like that, up to a certain point, I think. When I got to seven I kind of I wasn't very good, but like it's not that I can't do anything with it, but you know, like with fractions and whatever, like I can remember the size of wrenches. I can see a nut and be like, okay, that's a half inch or that's a five eighths, I think, but that's only just because, from doing it, using them over time, you know. So anyway. So there's a PVC pipe and there's a few different sizes, right, so there's like half inch and an inch or whatever. It's just like the two common ones or whatever. But I don't know the size.
Speaker 1:Like I was working on something in the kitchen and I can look at it. I don't know what size it is, but I can know. When I go and look at the piece I need, I know, okay, well, that will fit, that's the same size, that's the right size. Like I can visually see like that's the right size. And so we go to a hardware store and I'm like I need a you know a cap for a PVC water line or like what size, and I'm like I don't know. Just give me what you have, you know, and then I can look at it. Bam, okay, that's the one I need. Um, that's just kind of the way my brain thinks. So the way they have things set up here, it doesn't work for me. But you know, what are you gonna do, right? Um, so that's just kind of that's one of the things, that kind of yeah, somebody's trying to come in through my door. That kind of irritates me.
Speaker 1:And then, like today, so we had somebody deliver some rock and sand, you know, for the concrete and everything like that. And it comes in this little dump truck thing. And you know from my experience again in the States, if you are a worker, that you deliver goods to somebody for whatever, you know you're not just delivering the goods, but it's like you have to be mindful of everything around you so you don't cause damage to anything else. So it's like if somebody like you're delivering something, they're like anything else. So it's like if somebody like you're delivering something, they're like, hey, I want it there, you look, you say, okay there. So if I dump it there. There's no power lines, there's no, nothing, no tree. Well, you know, it's like you could look at it. Well, I can't put it there because the, the truck won't. You know, I could put it here, whatever, blah, blah, right, but here they don't, fucking so like today.
Speaker 1:Okay, so at the back of my house, which is where I park my cars, I have like a cover that's like an old, you know, like the old grass kind of roof that you probably picture. They call it La Big, but it's just palm tree branches and it looks really cool, cool, but they don't last forever and but they do make a huge difference in it's like. It's like the, the temperature difference when you're standing out from it to going underneath it, even if you're under like some shade from a tree or something like that, or a metal structure. If you go from that to this, it's a huge difference. Like I was like man, we should cover this in our house, but that's kind of more worth, or it's not worth it, but anyway. So we have that in the front, but I had to take a section of it down to make more room for our parking, so to compensate for the shade. They have these huge, you know, like tarp, tarpaulin kind of shade things. They have them in the States too. They're like triangles and whatever, but they're like you know, they're mesh. This one's a big one, so I put that over there at the section I had to remove for. So, you know, have more shade for my vehicles. So you know, have more shade for my, my vehicles.
Speaker 1:Well, so today this guy who's delivering this rock, he like points like you know, this is where we want it, because you can kind of see where we've had other sand and rock delivered. And I was like, yeah, that's fine and I'm you know, but I'm like he's not going to be able to go all the way up though, because whatever the shade thing and or the structure that we do have, so he pulls it in and starts backing it up and I can just see the thing on his dump truck. There's like a piece of kind of pointy angle iron that was welded on for whatever reason, and I could just see it going up to my little shade thing and I'm just like motherfucker, he's gonna rip that open and it, you know, goes way up and he dumps the rock and he comes down and he pulls out and there's this huge fucking hole that he just ripped into it and I'm just like I mean, and that shade thing isn't that much, it's like 25, I guess, equivalent, but it's, it's things like that, like they don't. They're just like okay, like it's no big deal. It's like, motherfucker, take a thousand pesos off our bill. You know what I mean. Like I got really pissed and I just left because I was like I don't want to start yelling at this guy and whatever. And my wife, I think, said something to him or whatever, but she knew I was pissed, but it's just things like that. It's like what the fuck? You know what I mean? And the contractors we have now are much better. They clean up after, and I think I've talked about before.
Speaker 1:But it's like a lot of the people, the manual labor type individuals around here, are just stupid, like they really just have no sense of anything and it's really kind of annoying. And then like if something kind of does come up, like I mentioned earlier before, like a contractor, whatever, would see something or an issue, or you know, and then come to the homeowner and be like, hey, I can do this or I can do this. You know, one of these two ways is the best way. This way is better, but it's more expensive. This way is a little cheaper but will still work, or whatever. What do you want to do? They don't do that here. They just kind of they do whatever.
Speaker 1:And then you come walking out there at the end of the day and be like what the fuck? Why'd they do this? Why is this here? So it's like you really have to like sit there and and and and make sure that they do what they're supposed to do. And I learned that from previous contractors, because I remember when they were adding like the little section to the front of our house and I was like. I was like it's not very high, though. What's going on? Are they gonna? But I was just like you know what? I don't know. Things are different here, benefit of the doubt. But then they get done and it's like what the fuck? I mean it's not like the most hideous thing, but it's like the, the front part of our house is like three feet or lower than the rest of the house. So I mean it works out. It doesn't, but it's still. It's like I wanted it to be the same and it's like why did they think that that was, or shouldn't they have been like hey, I don't know. Like I was just like baffled, I'm like what the fuck? So since then it's like you.
Speaker 1:You know, I've learned to kind of go out there and look, and but it's like when I try and ask questions about stuff like I, most of them don't speak English very well. So and I've talked about that before like the Filipino language and English and, I think, most languages. That's why English is complicated for some people, because there's a bunch of words for one thing, and with other languages there's just one word. That means a bunch of things. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But there's really bad communication here in the Philippines, though, like with everybody, like they don't know how to communicate. There's no effective communication. It's very generalized. You know, like in the States, if you want to be an effective communicator, you explain in detail. This is what I'm doing, okay, and you explain the whole thing. But I'm trying to think of like a it happens all the time Like where I'll ask my wife like hey, are they going to do this or this? And she's like yeah, but they didn't really specify in detail what they're doing. They were just like oh, we're going to, okay, like here's kind of an example Like the back part of our yard, the foundation, we're building up a wall a little bit to help keep the dogs, because we had like a gate over on the side and so we tore that down.
Speaker 1:It was like a crappy thing that I just put up to kind of keep the dogs from going in the back so they wouldn't go outside the property. So we're building up the walls and stuff so they can have access to the back of the yard and not run off, so anyway, so this house is like almost 20 years old now. On the foundation, so some of the foundation in the back they did a crappy job or whatever and it kind of it's had to be replaced. We've redone parts of it already. So we're adding to the wall over here and which is great, you know it's.
Speaker 1:It's the workers don't have to do much. Like it's set up pretty good. There's a little curve to it, like I don't know how they couldn't do a straight line, but whatever. But there's one section where it's like really bad. They kind of have to rebuild part of that foundation.
Speaker 1:And so I was asking the guy, I was like how are you guys going to do this, and he's like hollow block, hollow block. And I'm like no, I know, but I'm like are you going to like take down some of this? Like what do you? You know, I'm trying to get specifics how they're going to do it, and it was more, I think, a language barrier than anything. But even if he could speak English very well, they're, they just don't have. You can't go into details. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like they're just there, they, they have words that just you know, like if I was to be like no, let me see, I'm trying to think of something Like there's multiple ways to say something in the English language, but there's a reason for it, though you know it's like no, I can't do this right now. I'm doing this or I want to fix this, but in order to fix it, I have to do this or do whatever. Um, or god, I'm trying to think of something I'm really not doing a good job about it. I don't know, it's just they just they don't have a whole lot of. You know like, english language has thousands upon thousands of words, and Filipinos have like 10 words you know what I mean which you would think I'd be able in high school, and I remember one word, aside from what everybody knows, from movies and crap you know, but I don't know, it's just, it's just one of those things that you know if, if you're looking to go to another country, I'm hoping maybe somebody listens to some of my podcasts before which you know, all these things I knew, but it's like I had my wife, so I was like we'll figure it out which we are and we have.
Speaker 1:But it's just with my craziness I just get a lot of the times I can just let things go and I'm like you know, it's just the way things are here, nothing you can do. But when certain things is just like no, that's just stupid, like what I don't know. So I find myself just staying in my room. You think as much time as I spend in my room it would be cleaner. I got to clean it or I'd have a lot more podcasts or something, but I just hang out here doing whatever. Sometimes I go outside when I don't mind sweating my balls off, I don't know, but it's just.
Speaker 1:I don't like to really go out in public very often because there's always something that just pisses me off and then I'm irritable all day. I don't know, it just sucks. It's a combination of my um introvertness, my ptsd and me just getting old, but anyway, um, but that's it. I've been talking long enough. Uh, thanks for listening. Um, appreciate you guys. Whatever, there's a new option, I guess, with the podcast and of course my wife's got a call. There's a new option where you can send messages and provide feedback and stuff on the Buzzsprout website. So keep that in mind. But anyway, thanks for listening and I'll see you guys next time. All right, bye.
