Latest / He's Hot but Something's Off... / HHBSO 129: What About a Hamster?
Transcript
- 0:02Hello and welcome to He's Hot, but something's off and it is
- 0:07the new year, the first HHB Esso of 2026.
- 0:12Happy New Year, everybody, happy 2026.
- 0:16I hope you all had fun celebrating New Year's, wherever
- 0:22you were, whatever you were doing.
- 0:24I didn't do anything for New Year's, but that's okay.
- 0:30I'm looking really forward to a vacation, semi vacation that I
- 0:37have coming up. I'll be on the Atlantis cruise
- 0:41in February. So it's coming out.
- 0:43Oh, it's actually, it's in like 3 or 4 weeks.
- 0:45It's actually getting pretty soon.
- 0:47I'm really excited for that cruise.
- 0:48So that's kind of like my holiday celebration, if you will
- 0:53just delete a little bit. And it's also like close enough
- 0:58to my birthday. That is basically my Christmas
- 1:03and holiday and New Year's and birthday celebration rolled into
- 1:07that one week, that one cruise. So I'm super excited about that.
- 1:11So don't feel sorry for me that I can do anything for for New
- 1:13Year's. It was kind of intentional.
- 1:15I was like, you know what, I don't need to spend a bunch of
- 1:17money to go somewhere for New Year's every single year.
- 1:24I already am spending some money going on this cruise and I'd
- 1:28love to cruise this anyways, but I hope all of you had a great
- 1:32new year. You know what it was literally
- 1:34like Sometimes I feel like the algorithms, the social media
- 1:39algorithms, the ads algorithms, it's almost like they have
- 1:43microphones. Because right around that
- 1:47stretch between Christmas and New Year's, those three days I
- 1:50was at home and I was just doing normal things.
- 1:53I scaled back on doing work a little bit.
- 1:56I was taking a bit of a break, but I couldn't completely switch
- 1:59off. There were like a couple minor
- 2:00things here, work stuff that I was leisurely doing, wasn't
- 2:06swamped or anything, but the rest of my I was just relaxing,
- 2:10chilling. It was pretty rainy here in Los
- 2:12Angeles just watching TV, just scrolling through Instagram.
- 2:17I so rarely do that, but like I just let myself just mindlessly
- 2:21do it. You know what?
- 2:21You can easily kill an hour and not even know it just by
- 2:24scrolling through social media. But anyways, as I was scrolling
- 2:27through Instagram that stretch between Christmas and New
- 2:30Year's, I started seeing memes and posts about basically people
- 2:38not doing anything for New Year's.
- 2:41You know, all the graphics and comics and memes about
- 2:45celebrating New Year as if it was just any other day by like
- 2:48going to bed early or just like being at home and how it's just
- 2:52like a day like any other day. So I wasn't specifically
- 2:57searching for anything on TikTok or social media.
- 3:00I was just scrolling through whatever came out on my feed.
- 3:04I was not doing any searching. So like somehow there there are
- 3:08microphones everywhere. I'm talking to a microphone
- 3:11right now. Anyways, the one thing I did do
- 3:16over that break was I was dog sitting a good friend of mine.
- 3:20Well, there are a couple, so a couple of good friends of mine
- 3:23here in LA. Once in a great while I would
- 3:25dog sit for them. So I think if you're on my
- 3:29Patreon, I think you would have met him already because I did a
- 3:33few posts with Louis the dog on my Patreon over the holidays for
- 3:38my Patreon subscribers and his daddies were on a trip for New
- 3:45Year's, as many people were. And I wasn't doing things.
- 3:47I was like, hey, I'm not like really doing anything.
- 3:50If you guys want it or need it, dog sitter, like, you know, I'd
- 3:54be more than happy to like I wasn't doing anything.
- 3:56I love dogs. It's a great way to get to play
- 4:01with a dog, hang up with a dog and without any of like the
- 4:06expenses of a dog or like the the more, the less enjoyable
- 4:13chores that comes with a dog. Like you don't have to pay for
- 4:15the vets. You don't have to bring him to
- 4:18the vet. You don't have to pay for and
- 4:21take him to the groomers. You don't have to buy the dog
- 4:23food. You don't have to buy the dog
- 4:25toys. So whenever Louis gets dropped
- 4:29off, the daddies will drop off like toys, treats, food, leash,
- 4:34doggy bags, the poop bags, some pee pads as well.
- 4:38So it's it's it's very, very easy.
- 4:39So it's actually a really good way to if if you like dogs and
- 4:44will love to occasionally have the company of a dog, but you
- 4:50are aware that dogs can get expensive.
- 4:56If you own a dog, you know, like you will need to pay for like
- 5:00meds and vet bills and things like that.
- 5:03All that stuff like it overtime does add up.
- 5:06So it's a great way dog sitting every once in a while to just
- 5:08have the enjoyment of a dog without any of the chores that
- 5:12come with a dog. And I realized that I always
- 5:16kind of knew that dog sitting for a friend is always you get
- 5:20all the fun with none of the hassle.
- 5:22I knew that, but I have been thinking about the last couple
- 5:29of months as I have talked about on the podcast.
- 5:32So I get in my own dog, but this time with Louis, I was like, OK,
- 5:37let's just like pretend. Let's play pretend.
- 5:40Let's pray pretend for these two weeks that like Louis was
- 5:43actually my dog and kind of put myself into the mindset of like,
- 5:46OK, let's assume Louis is your dog.
- 5:49Instead of just having a mindset of like, oh, you're just dogs in
- 5:51him for like a little bit. Like what would be all the
- 5:53things you might need to do? And having him like in the house
- 5:57was very helpful for that. I was like, you know what, dogs
- 6:02are fun. I love dogs.
- 6:03I don't know if I want a dog to the level of like having to do
- 6:08all the things you would need to do for a dog.
- 6:11I think with Louis, it's kind of like a pretty good case scenario
- 6:15because he's very low maintenance.
- 6:17He's a bit of a diva. He's kind of a Princess.
- 6:20He may or may not give you the time of day, but he's very
- 6:25docile, very chill around the house.
- 6:27He doesn't ask for anything really, but he doesn't ask for
- 6:32anything. But at the same time, like he
- 6:33won't do much for you. He's kind of just there, which I
- 6:38think for a lot of people when you think of having a dog's
- 6:40companion, they're not really thinking of, they don't want the
- 6:43dog to just be there. They want the dog to like keep
- 6:48them company more than just like it being like 2 feet away from
- 6:53you, but not wanting to actually snuggle or hug you or anything
- 6:56like that. I don't know.
- 6:57So I am going to just shelf that for now.
- 7:04I'm going to table the wanting to get a dog because you know,
- 7:10if I step back and think about it, money that I would spend on
- 7:13a dog, the way it gets expensive is because sometimes I travel.
- 7:18Like if I am the type of person to never travel or travel very
- 7:22rarely, I think I probably would have a dog already.
- 7:26But I'm in the travel business now as well.
- 7:28But I've always travelled a lot, like I've got this cruise I'm
- 7:32going on in February, it's I'll be away for probably like 8 days
- 7:37total. You know, someone has to take
- 7:39care of the dog. So it's great if you have a
- 7:41friend that's like willing and able.
- 7:43But like a lot of people, I'm going to put my phone on mute.
- 7:47Whoops. Sorry guys.
- 7:48A lot of people aren't willing to like just dog sit for you.
- 7:53You know a lot of dog lovers who tend to have dogs already.
- 7:56But you know you can't always depend on friends being able to
- 8:00dox it for you when it's when you need them to dox it for you.
- 8:03But your friends have lives too. OK, that's fine.
- 8:07They have people that will like dox it for you for money.
- 8:10They have doggy hotels. They have people that will like
- 8:13dog and house sit for you. Some people will do that too.
- 8:17There are also people that they'll dog sit for you like at
- 8:21their place. It's not like a doggy hotel.
- 8:23It's not like a business per SE, but there are people that you
- 8:26know, they're like individuals. It's almost like the Ubers of
- 8:31dog sitters that you know, like you'll drop off your dog to them
- 8:35and they will take care of your dog while you're away in their
- 8:38own home. It's like professional dog
- 8:41sitting. Basically.
- 8:43They're charging you money for it.
- 8:44You're friends with, I guess probably do it for free.
- 8:47But dog sitting is actually very expensive.
- 8:48But I looked into it. I was like, OK, if I had a dog
- 8:51right now, I would need to probably find a dog sitter for
- 8:57when I go on this cruise in February.
- 8:59If I didn't have a friend that would do it for free.
- 9:02And it it's a bit of a burden to like have a friend take care of
- 9:06your dog for like extended periods of time, you know?
- 9:09But anyways, the going rate for doggy hotel or like a
- 9:15professional dog sitter, at least in this part of LA, it's
- 9:19about 70 to $90.00 per night. Could be a little bit more, you
- 9:25know, if you pick like a more expensive place, but like it's
- 9:28starting from about like 70 to $90.00, that's kind of like the
- 9:32expected price range you're looking at.
- 9:34So over the course of like 8 days, that's what like 600 ish
- 9:38dollars? That's a that's a decent chunk
- 9:40of change. So yeah, for now I would, I'm
- 9:45going to table it. I'll see how I feel maybe like
- 9:48in the springtime. So yeah, I don't know where this
- 9:52like I wouldn't say obsession. I don't know where I got this
- 9:57like affinity, I guess for dogs were from.
- 10:01We never had pets. OK, we didn't, we did have pets
- 10:03when we were younger, but we never had anything that was like
- 10:05a dog or like a cat when we were younger really.
- 10:08We did have some hamsters though, when I was like younger.
- 10:12I don't know why. Like so we, there was a period
- 10:14of time where we had just like a hamster that you buy from like
- 10:17the pet store in the mall, a little hamster.
- 10:20We have like this plastic hamster cage.
- 10:23And then you would have the sawdust down in the bottom with
- 10:26like the little water bottle dripper thing and like you would
- 10:29feed them these like little pellets.
- 10:31It's actually kind of cute. Maybe I should, maybe I should
- 10:33get a hamster. How can, how long can hamsters
- 10:35stay alive? We just like go away for a week.
- 10:37Can they, if you give it enough water, if you gave a hamster
- 10:43enough water and food, can they just be self-sufficient for a
- 10:47week? So I think cats can do this, but
- 10:50I think people can leave their cats in the house for like 4 or
- 10:54five days. And I think it's OK assuming you
- 10:58have like an automatic feeder, for example, just fresh water,
- 11:03like the litter box. Because cats don't need to
- 11:08really go outside. Because I know of people that
- 11:12they have cats and they can go on the trip for like a week and
- 11:14like the cats are completely OK. Anyways, we will visit.
- 11:20Maybe I can't, maybe a hamster would be fun.
- 11:23I have no idea where all of this is going.
- 11:26I think maybe I just need to get up more.
- 11:27Anyways, we'll switch topics a little bit and oh, by the way,
- 11:32quick plug my skin kick. I'm going to run ads as Segways.
- 11:36Now the Segway between topics, I'm going to run ads.
- 11:39My skin care company Magnate is up and running, so please go
- 11:43check that out. I think I would like to give
- 11:47some sort of podcast exclusive discount code.
- 11:52Wouldn't that be good? OK, I'll add it to my To Do
- 11:55List, but I'm still getting the hang of creating discount codes
- 12:00for different things. You know, a lot of e-commerce
- 12:02like websites, they'll have discount codes for different
- 12:06things. Even when I go shopping, when I
- 12:08get to the point of checkout where you can put in a coupon
- 12:11code, I'll go onto a new tab, a different browser window and
- 12:15I'll start Googling to see if they need discount codes for
- 12:18that particular vendor. So yeah, I, I think I should I
- 12:22think it's only right and fair that I give you guys some sort
- 12:26of HHBSO exclusive podcast discount code for that skin care
- 12:32for the for the magnet. So I should probably do that
- 12:35yeah and as well another plug because I have multiple
- 12:38businesses now just Joey Travels is definitely open for business.
- 12:43So if you are interested in going not just on an Atlantis
- 12:48cruise, I know that my bread and butter and that's what I talk
- 12:5295% about over on just Joy Travels, but I have access to
- 12:57book you on any cruise and also any hotel as well.
- 13:01So any kind of travel you want to do, I can probably book it.
- 13:05I won't venture into the more specialized stuff.
- 13:07For example, there are whole travel advisors that specialize
- 13:11in Disney. Disney is like a very specific
- 13:14ecosystem of like, like theme parks and vacations and cruises
- 13:19and resorts. Disney that has like a lot of
- 13:21travel, vacation related properties and things going on
- 13:25actually. And they're, yeah, they're,
- 13:28that's a bit of a special. I do have access to book Disney,
- 13:31but like I would rather help people with things that I am
- 13:35familiar with and I know about and that's cruises.
- 13:39I kind of want to focus on cruises and kind of be the pro
- 13:44in cruises so that when I'm helping people, they're
- 13:47interested in cruises. I'm like an expert for them.
- 13:50I don't want to be a generic travel agent that's like, I can
- 13:56book you on anything, but like doesn't know that much about
- 13:58anything, you know what I mean? Yeah.
- 14:01So I'm ramping up the marketing for that.
- 14:03But yeah, but you're you're at all interested in any kind of
- 14:06cruises. But as you guys know, I'm, I
- 14:09specialize in in particular the Atlantis cruises reach out to
- 14:13just Joey travels on the side of the video podcast available on
- 14:18just Joey T the YouTube channel. I've started putting up QR codes
- 14:23for those of you that are watching on TV and also you can
- 14:25just see on the screen what the the website address and the all
- 14:28the social media handles are. Yeah.
- 14:31So that's the that I'm going to start doing that.
- 14:34I've been wanting to do ads. So when I first launched the
- 14:38skin care company, like the initial launch, that wasn't
- 14:40really a success. And now we've done the relaunch.
- 14:43But like a year ago, I used to have prerecorded ads for the
- 14:47skin care company and I would just edit them in at like random
- 14:52points in the middle of the podcast.
- 14:55And I did that during the edit. You know, when you listen to a
- 14:57podcast, there's always like ads that like are prerecorded or
- 15:01recorded completely separately and they just like slice into
- 15:03the middle, almost like commercials when you're watching
- 15:06something on TVI was going to do that.
- 15:12But then when I sat down and thought about it, it's like I
- 15:16always skip over that when I'm listening to a podcast.
- 15:21The thing I've discovered is if I'm using the Apple Podcast app,
- 15:25I used to use Spotify and Spotify doesn't, it was like,
- 15:29OK, but like for some reason I switch over to Apple.
- 15:33I think I was testing something with the podcast that I host to
- 15:36see how it will show up on like all the various podcast apps
- 15:40because I wanted to like, just see what the experience was like
- 15:42when I was like setting it up. So I somewhat discovered that
- 15:46with Apple Podcasts, it will show you a transcription, a
- 15:53transcript of the whole podcast. You just like a little icon you
- 15:56click in the bottom and then it will show you basically the
- 16:00captioning and have the entire podcast transcribe.
- 16:04But the great thing about that is you can tap on the text and
- 16:08jump to a specific part of the podcast.
- 16:12So usually when I listen to the podcast in the Apple App and
- 16:17it's coming up to an ad, a lot of the times the ads do not get
- 16:22do not get transcribed. So it would just show up as like
- 16:24a little blank, like dot, dot dot in the transcript.
- 16:28And that's how I can see if there's an ad coming up.
- 16:30And when an ad's coming up, I can just tap for the caption
- 16:34that is the next part right after the ads.
- 16:37And I can very easily skip over the ads.
- 16:40So I think most of you that use the Apple podcast, that probably
- 16:44knows about this feature already, but I happened upon it
- 16:47like sometime last year and I was using Spotify before
- 16:49Spotify. I think Spotify has captions,
- 16:52but it doesn't let you jump to specific parts of the episode by
- 16:56tapping on the caption like you could do with the Apple 1.
- 16:59So I'm using the Apple one now and I, I find that it was great
- 17:04to do that. And I always skip over ads, but
- 17:06I'm listening to a podcast, even if I have to do it manually, I
- 17:12will always skip over an ad. So at the end, I'm thinking, if
- 17:16I skip over ads all the time when I'm listening to a podcast
- 17:19and listen to a podcast almost every day now, why would I put
- 17:24prerecorded ads in the same fashion in my own podcast that
- 17:27other people are just going to skip over anyways?
- 17:30So it kind of doesn't make sense.
- 17:33So I decided, you know what, people are just going to skip
- 17:37over it. But it's so easy to skip over.
- 17:39Like most, a lot of people use the Apple podcast app.
- 17:43I'm sure most of them know about this trick to easily skip over
- 17:46an ad just the way like I do every single day.
- 17:48So like, I don't see the reason of recording ads when people are
- 17:52just going to skip over it when you're watching something on
- 17:55Netflix. And if you have the ad supported
- 17:58tier on Netflix, which I do, and then the ads come up, you know
- 18:01what? I don't mind that so much
- 18:04because I guess maybe when I was growing, I mean, I grew up
- 18:09before streaming when I was in like school, for example, it was
- 18:12just regular cable TV and you can't skip over the ads, but
- 18:17it's a great time to take a bathroom break, refill your
- 18:21snack, refill your water, refill your drink, like what?
- 18:25Whatever you need to do that only takes like 2030 seconds.
- 18:28And with streaming, you can pause it.
- 18:31So it was an it's a very natural point to like take a break and
- 18:34like, or to grab a snack, you know, grab dinner, grab food,
- 18:39grab a drink, like toilet break, whatever you need.
- 18:42And because you can pause it, the break can be as long as you
- 18:45want. But when I'm listening to a
- 18:47podcast, it's not usually because I'm sitting on my couch
- 18:50at home. When I'm watching TV, I'm like
- 18:52usually sitting on my couch at home.
- 18:54OK. I'm not usually watching stuff
- 18:56when I'm out of when I'm out and about, I'm like out and about
- 18:58doing something like maybe if I'm like waiting for something
- 19:04uttered by like if I'm at the pharmacy and I need to like wait
- 19:07for something. If I'm at like the doctor's
- 19:09office and I need like I'm waiting for my appointment,
- 19:12something like that, that's maybe I'll watch like a video,
- 19:16but I'm probably still listening to a podcast more likely than
- 19:18like actually watching something.
- 19:20It's easy when I'm at home that I'm actually watching something.
- 19:22So I got used to commercials in a video, but with a podcast I'm
- 19:28listening to when I'm doing other things or random out and
- 19:31about and I don't have time for ads.
- 19:35So that's why I don't record ads for my my stuff.
- 19:40I need to market my businesses. But I've decided ads in my
- 19:45podcast, ads in any podcast is not the way to go.
- 19:50So that's why you should all get used to me continuing to talk
- 19:57about Magnet, my skin care company, as well as just every
- 20:00travels travel agency ad hoc like this so that you can skip
- 20:06over it. And it's just part of the
- 20:08natural conversation. I will do that.
- 20:11And then I'm just going to watch the steady decline of my
- 20:14listener numbers for my podcast. So there you go.
- 20:19Happy New Year. Go buy some of my skin care and
- 20:21please book a cruise with me so that I can continue to pay my
- 20:25bills. All right, we'll leave it there.
- 20:28We have a light opening a light kick in in kick wait home.
- 20:34What's the word? I'm looking for soft launch.
- 20:38Anyways, I I'm, I'm thinking about some word, but I think I'm
- 20:40missing it. We're going to have a start.
- 20:45I think I'm hungry anyways, we have a light start to the New
- 20:51York. Keep it a little bit shorter
- 20:52than usual for this very first episode of the podcast. 01 more
- 20:56thing I want to plug. This is just going to be like
- 20:59the Joey Plugging shit podcast from now on.
- 21:01I just uploaded a YouTube video with David and I where we talk
- 21:05about some of the party outfits and themes for the upcoming
- 21:08Symphony cruise with Alanis that we're both going on.
- 21:11So we're very excited about it and there's going to be more
- 21:15videos coming on my YouTube as well.
- 21:16You know, the YouTube, just to be upfront, is part of the
- 21:20marketing strategy for just Joey Travels.
- 21:23You know, a lot of people know me from the YouTube videos and I
- 21:28was making lots of cruise videos, like I've been making
- 21:31them for a decade, like for 10 years now.
- 21:33So there's like a number of people that followed that
- 21:35YouTube channel, but you know, I'm going to be leveraging that
- 21:39as part of the marketing strategy or just Joey Travels.
- 21:43And because of that, I've been making quite a few more cruise
- 21:46and travel related YouTube videos in 2026.
- 21:50For like the last couple years, it's been pretty dry.
- 21:53The last proper cruise video that I filmed on a cruise was
- 21:58like 2023 was like the last big one that I did.
- 22:02I did another one where I was on a cruise where I was like, sit
- 22:04down. I sat down in front of the
- 22:06camera that was filmed in the end of 2024.
- 22:10In 2025, I didn't really make any cruise videos, but like in
- 22:142026 we're going to be, you know, releasing.
- 22:17I've been releasing a lot of cruise and travel related
- 22:20videos. So already already building out
- 22:23the content calendar. So that one that went up with
- 22:26David is already out. Go watch it.
- 22:29There's going to be more videos. There's going to be one that's
- 22:32coming out tomorrow or like on the weekend that's going to be
- 22:37like a enhanced, like remastered version of a past video that I
- 22:44did. One thing that I noticed, I know
- 22:47I was going to like end the podcast, but like I just had, I
- 22:50just had this coming into my head when I was editing and
- 22:55posting videos early on and like 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018-2019,
- 23:04basically even up to like around like time of the pandemic, You
- 23:07know, technology has progressed a lot since then.
- 23:11Smartphone cameras a lot better now compared to like 5 or 10
- 23:14years ago. My editing skills are a lot
- 23:17better. The software that I use is so
- 23:20much better than the software I was using like 5 or 10 years ago
- 23:23to edit those videos. So because of all these things,
- 23:26I was just looking up some of the past cruise videos that I
- 23:30did. I was like, wow, I could edit
- 23:32this so much better and this could be in like much higher
- 23:36quality with the skills that I have in terms of editing videos.
- 23:41Also, because we have much better software now and I have a
- 23:47much better computer now compared to when I first did
- 23:49those videos, it can be like much higher quality.
- 23:52So I'm actually redoing some of my past Cruise videos,
- 23:58especially those after movies because when I look at them the
- 24:02way that they were done back in like, you know, 2017201820
- 24:06nothing, I was like, this looks a little rough.
- 24:09So now I'm going back into the edits for those older videos and
- 24:15I'm kind of like re editing and refining and basically enhancing
- 24:21everything. And then I'm going to repost
- 24:24them again because like honestly, like the jump in
- 24:28technology and like my skill from those like last five or ten
- 24:33years of like editing. It's like so massive.
- 24:36So I'm going to be reposting some of those.
- 24:37So one of those videos that's like the enhanced version, if
- 24:40you will, it's going to come out in 4K.
- 24:42It's going to be like all enhanced.
- 24:44Like it looks like so much better, honestly, much like the
- 24:47original. And one of those is going to be
- 24:49coming like tomorrow, Friday or like this weekend.
- 24:52I'm actively working on it. It's almost finished now.
- 24:55All right. Oh my God, this is how it goes
- 24:57with me on a podcast. I said I was shut up 5 minutes
- 24:59ago and now I've just talked for another 5 minutes.
- 25:01Anyways, we will end it there. Thank you so much for listening
- 25:05to this podcast and for following me and for supporting
- 25:08me again. Please go buy some of my Magnet
- 25:10Skin Care and please book a cruise with just Joey Travels.
- 25:13Happy New Year, happy 2026 and we will see you next week.
- 25:19Until then, bye y'all.