Latest / Kaleidoscope - Perspectives Beyond The Surface / Kaleidoscope PBTS E3: Sips, Screens, and Social Shifts: A Conversation on Modern Living

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Kaleidoscope PBTS E3: Sips, Screens, and Social Shifts: A Conversation on Modern Living · Kaleidoscope - Perspectives Beyond The Surface

• 0:05
  Hello, welcome to Kaleidoscope. My name is Ruby
• 0:09
  Ray Liu, and today I am joined with Luigi again
• 0:12
  from episode one. That's what he looks like.
• 0:16
  And my good old friend, Tom, from the early days
• 0:19
  of China, Thomas Monroe. Thank you. Do you want
• 0:22
  to give yourself an introduction? Pleasure. Ruby
• 0:24
  and I used to work together back in the days
• 0:27
  of yore when we were both up in Tianjin. I believe
• 0:31
  we're both still working in education. Our paths
• 0:35
  have taken us different ways now. Great to see
• 0:38
  you again. It's been a long, long time. It has.
• 0:41
  In July, I will make an effort to go to Guangzhou.
• 0:46
  Yeah, sure. I'm currently filming this on our
• 0:49
  balcony. Guangzhou is famous for hot and humid
• 0:52
  weather, and it's just broken out into rain.
• 0:55
  Yeah. Yeah, same here. Yeah. And the wind is
• 0:57
  insane. Joined by a pair of cats, but you may
• 1:00
  notice this is taco taco. Yeah How many cats
• 1:05
  Tom? Two i've got a taco bell and bp. What's
• 1:09
  pp stand for british petroleum big pussy Fair
• 1:14
  enough Um, I liked british petroleum it was pc,
• 1:19
  you know Just means big cat that's all I meant.
• 1:23
  Yeah, sure big cat Yeah, sure Wait, I have a
• 1:35
  question real quick. You guys said you used to
• 1:37
  work in education. Who's changed? Who's changed?
• 1:40
  I think Tom you're still in education. Yeah.
• 1:44
  Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm I teach down here nowadays
• 1:47
  Yeah, fair enough. It's also IB. Yeah, I work
• 1:51
  in an IB school. Really? So in the first episode
• 1:56
  we kind of went into Slandering IB in general.
• 2:01
  I don't want this to be like found footage Many
• 2:08
  years later when I apply for a new job, so I'm
• 2:10
  gonna I'm gonna be in full support of IB curriculum
• 2:14
  Everything has its flaws. That's all that's all
• 2:19
  I'm gonna say. Yeah, sure thing Would you like
• 2:22
  a self introduction for me? Oh Man well, I'm
• 2:27
  a teacher too, dude That's it. I'm from Canada,
• 2:29
  Todd. Oh, cool. Ruby says you're a self -proclaimed
• 2:32
  troll, I guess. I mean. Well, what is that about?
• 2:36
  Explain to me. Just because it's incredibly easy
• 2:39
  and funny to make redditors very angry. OK, fair.
• 2:44
  Yeah. Because I enjoy using Reddit, but at the
• 2:48
  same time, I recognize it's like a massive hive
• 2:51
  mind, especially when you subdivide into different
• 2:55
  subreddits. And it's a group of people who all
• 2:57
  think exactly the same way come together. But
• 3:01
  you could just walk in there and say something
• 3:05
  provocative, and they will all take it very seriously.
• 3:08
  Keep sending you messages for weeks about how
• 3:11
  wrong you are. Yeah, that's a good point. It's
• 3:13
  an interesting dynamic. Who's your number one
• 3:16
  target on Reddit? What's your favorite thing
• 3:19
  that's happened? A trick I like to do is with
• 3:23
  British people and then you know how like back
• 3:26
  in 1066 the Normans came to invade England? No,
• 3:30
  I don't. I don't, but okay, go ahead. Okay, British
• 3:33
  people know this and then you should say, well
• 3:35
  actually the Normans were French, which is historically
• 3:40
  debatable. But then it just makes all the British
• 3:43
  people really, really angry if you say that the
• 3:46
  French people conquered us. And I just find it
• 3:49
  funny. Okay, so it's like, basically it's a French
• 3:51
  -English feud. It's the reason the French hate
• 3:53
  the English and the English hate the French.
• 3:55
  That would be one example of things I've done
• 3:57
  many times. But obviously with political stuff
• 4:00
  that goes on, Rezit is very, very easy to rile
• 4:04
  up. Because you just need to say something that's
• 4:07
  slightly not politically correct. or counter
• 4:11
  to the subreddits where you are. And even if
• 4:16
  it's like a somewhat salient point, it doesn't
• 4:18
  have to be. Even if it is, people will get enraged.
• 4:23
  And I find it funny, but also a little bit sad
• 4:26
  that you can't have open communication between
• 4:29
  people of different viewpoints nowadays. Well,
• 4:32
  that's what this is. You don't have to share
• 4:37
  it for your viewpoints. You don't have to agree
• 4:40
  with us. We'll see what happens. Fair enough.
• 4:47
  Why don't you kick us off, since we've both been
• 4:50
  on the podcast before? Okay, sure. The prompt
• 4:54
  you gave me was extremely broad. It's like, come
• 4:57
  in with a viewpoint or perspective. Which could
• 5:02
  be just about anything. Recently, my wife and
• 5:06
  I came back from vacation in Malaysia. it's a
• 5:09
  beautiful country um but my mistake would be
• 5:13
  social media ruins vacations okay yeah okay yeah
• 5:18
  yeah you you go on you go on stuff like uh in
• 5:23
  english is or instagram or or tiktok and you'll
• 5:28
  constantly see like amazing like photos and videos
• 5:32
  of this place you want to go to but just make
• 5:34
  it look fantastic and wonderful and beautiful
• 5:37
  and then Naturally, when you go there in real
• 5:40
  life and you can't recreate that exact perfect
• 5:43
  experience, you feel let down. And you put that
• 5:46
  place on a pedestal and you're like, well, mine
• 5:49
  wasn't as good as that person. Therefore, I've
• 5:52
  been ripped off. I've been scammed. I feel disappointed.
• 5:55
  And this has happened to us a couple of times.
• 5:58
  And now I've just stopped caring about anything
• 6:02
  else, other people's photos. I've stopped using
• 6:05
  all these apps. I barely even post myself when
• 6:09
  I go on vacation nowadays. For example, one specific
• 6:16
  example would be we went on a boat tour from
• 6:18
  Langkawi Island. And if you are very lucky, you
• 6:23
  might see dolphins or even a whale. On that day,
• 6:27
  we didn't see anything. The wife was just like...
• 6:33
  Furious, furious. Like, oh, you know, we got
• 6:35
  scammed, we got ripped off, the driver is lazy,
• 6:38
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, whoa,
• 6:40
  calm down. It was a lovely boat ride. We saw
• 6:42
  monkeys, we saw eagles, we saw fish, like the
• 6:45
  sun was shining, we got to go swimming. And it
• 6:47
  was a really enjoyable day. But if you just focus
• 6:50
  on the, I like the social media. then you'll
• 6:54
  always be disappointed. That's completely the
• 6:56
  opposite of what I expected you were going to
• 6:58
  say. Really? Yeah. I thought you were going to
• 7:01
  say social media destroys holidays because all
• 7:05
  you want to do is like people go onto social
• 7:08
  media just to take pictures, to browse or to
• 7:12
  take pictures and it disrupts the holiday, the
• 7:15
  flow of the holiday. But your perspective is
• 7:17
  - That's what I think. but that's way less interesting
• 7:22
  if you become obsessed with like having to take
• 7:26
  like perfect photos of every dish you eat and
• 7:30
  like making it look perfect and they're like
• 7:32
  curating curating your posts and like photoshopping
• 7:35
  stuff so you'll get like the maximum amount of
• 7:37
  likes then that also sucks yeah like you should
• 7:41
  just chill out live in the real world i think
• 7:43
  it depends i think it depends on the person i
• 7:45
  think you're just that person tom you're the
• 7:47
  just that kind of person who that will ruin your
• 7:49
  life whereas you have people who are I'll say
• 7:52
  can I say unhinged who just want to take pictures
• 7:55
  of everything they want people they want sometimes
• 7:58
  I feel like people want like the the draw of
• 8:01
  social media and documenting your life is a kind
• 8:04
  of existential crisis where life is so mundane
• 8:09
  and that bothers people so they have to take
• 8:12
  a picture to prove to others even to prove to
• 8:16
  themselves that life is, you know, worthwhile
• 8:19
  and interesting. So there's that dynamic, which
• 8:21
  I think I think that's true. I think if a person
• 8:23
  feels like they're kind of like if it kind of
• 8:28
  feels like work to take a picture, it kind of
• 8:30
  causes like a little a little bit of anxiety.
• 8:32
  I think then potentially show they're probably
• 8:36
  they probably feel that way. They're trying to
• 8:37
  like validate. their existence. But then there's
• 8:40
  the other people who are, you know, influencers
• 8:42
  and their whole life is, they got to take pictures
• 8:45
  of everything and it empowers them. I think we
• 8:47
  should get rid of them. What's that? Like be
• 8:50
  gone with the influences. No, I want to be an
• 8:53
  influencer. It's a relevant market, Tom. God,
• 8:59
  it just sucks though. Is that envy talking? I
• 9:03
  don't know. No, I mean, why do you not like,
• 9:06
  that's another question. Why don't you like influencers.
• 9:09
  I can say I don't like influencers because I'm
• 9:11
  envious. It also takes the magic out of traveling,
• 9:15
  right? Yeah. Like you go to a new place and vacations
• 9:19
  are expensive, so naturally you want to optimize
• 9:21
  everything, like make it perfect, like oh on
• 9:23
  this day we've got a schedule where we have to
• 9:25
  go to these places and take photos of this spot
• 9:28
  to look like that person. We must go to this
• 9:30
  restaurant because it's trending and there's
• 9:32
  like no wonder, no exploration anymore. Even
• 9:36
  though I'm 31 years old, we actually stay in
• 9:39
  a youth hostel. But when we get there, everyone
• 9:42
  is just playing on their phones. And you don't
• 9:46
  actually talk to anyone anymore. Because as soon
• 9:48
  as you go to Malaysia, you can get like a week
• 9:51
  long unlimited days of SIM cards for like two
• 9:54
  bucks. Oh, that's cool. So there's like no pressure
• 9:57
  on you anymore. It's just like being in China,
• 10:00
  but with just different scenery. if you just
• 10:04
  say continues to be online all the time it sucks
• 10:08
  yeah why why traveling what's the point so then
• 10:13
  my my question then is you know there's the people
• 10:17
  on their phones documenting everything and and
• 10:21
  then like when i hear that i think is that just
• 10:25
  one dynamic of tourism let's say phones and Instagram
• 10:28
  or whatever, whatever social media didn't exist.
• 10:30
  There would still be those groups of people going
• 10:32
  to the tourist spots. And then there's the other
• 10:34
  kind of person who doesn't want to go to tourist
• 10:37
  spots. Like me personally, I don't like the draw
• 10:39
  of going to tourist spots and taking pictures
• 10:42
  of myself beside, you know, a landmark. I think
• 10:45
  it's I don't think it's I don't know. I don't
• 10:47
  think it matters. You might want I guess in the
• 10:50
  past people took it because photos really had
• 10:53
  a kind of like relevance you could share with
• 10:55
  people. They were kind of they were like Like
• 10:57
  like totems, you know people they had them and
• 11:01
  then they brought them out to show people they
• 11:02
  weren't so accessible So there was this more
• 11:04
  kind of like, uh, I don't know. Let's say magic
• 11:07
  behind them But now it's so instantaneous with
• 11:10
  pictures everybody's and now it's kind of like
• 11:12
  i'm i'm the in group i'm part of the in group
• 11:14
  Look, I also went the leaning tower pizza. I
• 11:16
  did this look i'm pushing it and but you know,
• 11:19
  even before that everyone did it They just didn't
• 11:22
  have You know a little phone a little computer
• 11:25
  in their hand to show it instantaneously. Yeah,
• 11:28
  so I I invested in an old camera like an old
• 11:33
  film camera. It's an Olympus mu2 like like the
• 11:38
  Pokemon mu2. Yeah and I get like a set number
• 11:43
  of photos, depends how much film I bring with
• 11:46
  me on vacation. And then if I want to get them
• 11:49
  processed, I need to send them off to like some
• 11:52
  guy. It takes two weeks and I get them back and
• 11:55
  I can put them in a photo album. Yeah, yeah,
• 11:59
  yeah. And that is my totem. And it's not like
• 12:02
  sharing with everyone on the internet. It's maybe
• 12:04
  for like me and my family, you know? Yeah, it's
• 12:06
  a lot more a lot more stakes when you do that
• 12:09
  old kind of media and you have a camera. I also
• 12:12
  have an Olympus. I do it my way because it feels
• 12:15
  like it has a lot more meaning, you know? Yeah.
• 12:18
  And it's a lot more intimate and it's a lot more
• 12:22
  cool. Basically, it's nostalgic, right? Yeah.
• 12:27
  Yeah, I think there's nostalgia behind that.
• 12:31
  But I think also, again, like I said, there's
• 12:34
  more stakes behind wasting film and really thinking
• 12:38
  about the composition. you're gonna document
• 12:40
  something right yeah with phones it's expensive
• 12:42
  so many pictures can be taken yeah and it kind
• 12:46
  of cheapens the experience it's expensive and
• 12:50
  you can't check it after you take a photo so
• 12:53
  you might like send the film off two weeks later
• 12:56
  you get it back and like oh that one says i'm
• 12:58
  like crap oh no Like that one just has like a
• 13:01
  massive glare in the lens so you can't see anything.
• 13:05
  And that's how ghosts were discovered. So we
• 13:11
  get all the ghosts in pictures. Nobody thought
• 13:13
  about it. Yeah, I agree. I would definitely say
• 13:19
  travel is inundated by everybody taking a picture
• 13:21
  on their phone. It's kind of unsettling. I think
• 13:24
  maybe the idea of having film cameras or having
• 13:30
  digital cameras and just being able to take a
• 13:32
  thousand photos has escalated that problem, for
• 13:35
  sure. Because now you can take a photo everywhere.
• 13:39
  And you can take a thousand photos everywhere.
• 13:42
  You don't have to think about which one you want.
• 13:44
  Right, but then the other question is why this
• 13:47
  urge to have to take a picture of everything?
• 13:50
  I hate taking photos let me just say but I feel
• 13:53
  I have to do it and then I have I always catch
• 13:55
  myself like I was driving to an island last weekend
• 13:58
  and the the scenery the the water was so beautiful
• 14:01
  while I was driving on the bridge and I thought
• 14:03
  oh I need to I need to take a picture with my
• 14:05
  phone I need to get this but there's there's
• 14:07
  you know your your perception beyond the camera
• 14:11
  is totally different you can never really catch
• 14:13
  it catch what you're viewing from the the camera
• 14:16
  phone it's not the same um but it's But then
• 14:20
  it kind of it also takes you away from just being
• 14:23
  present and just having that memory yourself
• 14:26
  Why do I really need to show it with do I really
• 14:28
  want to take a picture of this to remember it?
• 14:30
  Or to show it to people that I care about or
• 14:34
  to somehow Validate myself to the rest of the
• 14:36
  world like look what I have. I have this kind
• 14:38
  of I'm part of this I don't know charm circle
• 14:41
  Yeah, people just want that they want the count
• 14:44
  right? Yeah Yes, you post something you post
• 14:50
  something but none of your friends have posted
• 14:52
  before because you went on vacation somewhere
• 14:54
  cool and then you get all the likes of any feel
• 14:57
  special and you get the Endorphin rush like all
• 15:00
  the serotonin or whatever goes to your brain
• 15:02
  and then it feels good for a moment Yeah, but
• 15:05
  you should have the serotonin in the moment instead
• 15:08
  of stressing about Like getting a good social
• 15:12
  media post. You should just sit back and enjoy
• 15:14
  the boat ride like as you're like cruising along
• 15:17
  by the beach exactly that and like revel in it
• 15:20
  because that's a unique unique experience you
• 15:22
  probably will experience again for at least one
• 15:25
  more year or a while anyway i mean i completely
• 15:28
  agree with your observations both of yours but
• 15:31
  my perspective is a little bit different because
• 15:33
  i have been posting more online lately than before
• 15:37
  but i'm not posting photos and um it's I'm kind
• 15:44
  of harking back to the idea of blogging and sharing
• 15:50
  thoughts and feelings. I mean, that's what this
• 15:54
  podcast is as well, right? It perspectives beyond
• 15:57
  the surface, not just what you see in a picture
• 16:00
  or what you did today or how you're cooler than
• 16:03
  everybody else. I honestly, I don't give a fuck.
• 16:05
  What I want to know is you. Yeah, I'd rather.
• 16:10
  Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I mean. Blogging is really
• 16:15
  a form of like journalism. Yes in a way and I'm
• 16:19
  okay. I'm okay with that I Could respect that
• 16:22
  yeah, it doesn't it doesn't drain your it doesn't
• 16:25
  drain or take away from your experiences And
• 16:28
  if like I'm completely done for someone going
• 16:31
  Instead of going on Instagram three posts a day
• 16:33
  on like this cool picture this cool picture this
• 16:36
  cool picture I I can respect that but I know
• 16:39
  that you went and you sat on Photoshop and you
• 16:42
  edited this photo for X amount of time and then
• 16:46
  you posted it on Instagram and you're pretending
• 16:48
  like your life is great when it might not be.
• 16:51
  Like hopefully it is. I don't wish ill on you
• 16:53
  but what would be cooler is if you incorporated
• 16:56
  that photo into a longer form media and then
• 16:59
  told us about your holiday. So you think the
• 17:05
  blog will come back? No, no way. It's not gonna
• 17:08
  come back. It's not gonna come back. Like, I'm
• 17:11
  realistic. It's a nice sentiment. I want blogs
• 17:13
  to come back. I don't want to take pictures of
• 17:15
  myself. You used to be a blogger. Yeah, I did.
• 17:17
  I used to be a blogger. So, you know, I don't
• 17:20
  want to take pictures of myself. I don't think
• 17:21
  I'm as nearly as, like, photo -worthy as all
• 17:26
  the other, you know, cauliflower -headed. children
• 17:30
  who are influencers now. And that sucks for me,
• 17:33
  but when I wrote, foo foo, boy did I have a voice,
• 17:36
  I loved it. But nobody reads! Then I'm gonna
• 17:38
  sound like an old person. Nobody reads anymore!
• 17:40
  I don't begrudge influences their influence.
• 17:44
  I don't begrudge them their sphere and the things
• 17:48
  that they do. I think it's cool. I respect it.
• 17:51
  But I think that the way that social media, short
• 17:55
  -form videos and stuff like that is taking over.
• 17:58
  Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's the thing now.
• 18:00
  You've got to take like one minute clips from
• 18:03
  this with like all the jokes in it and make a
• 18:05
  YouTube short so that people will come and watch
• 18:07
  this one. I'm doing that. And you know what?
• 18:10
  My shorts suck because they're not like the engagement
• 18:14
  on the shorts. Not short enough. They're not
• 18:16
  short enough. Yeah. And I'm like, it's 30 seconds.
• 18:20
  What the fuck more do you want? How do I? It's
• 18:24
  30 seconds of somebody literally pouring their
• 18:26
  heart out into a fucking wine glass, and you're
• 18:29
  not interested. So, okay, with that in mind,
• 18:33
  you guys obviously travel more than me. Sure.
• 18:37
  How often would you say you see... Much more
• 18:40
  than me, by the way. I don't travel that much.
• 18:42
  How often would you say, like, what's the kind
• 18:44
  of tourist, the kind of social media tourist
• 18:47
  you see? Just photo taking, or are they creating...
• 18:52
  content for views. One of the best things about
• 18:57
  being a teacher is the long vacations. I work
• 19:01
  at an international school so I get about three
• 19:03
  months of vacation a year. So we go on quite
• 19:07
  a few vacations and one place that hurt me the
• 19:13
  most out of anywhere was Japan. I heard it's
• 19:18
  getting bad. because I remember when I was a
• 19:20
  kid I watched anime and I put champagne on this
• 19:23
  pedestal I was like oh it's gonna be this amazing
• 19:26
  wonderful place where everything will be awesome
• 19:28
  and cool and fun and every moment will be excitement
• 19:31
  and you know for like the ease of our first time
• 19:35
  going in we went to Tokyo Kyoto and Osaka which
• 19:39
  like the three most touristy places in the entire
• 19:43
  nation and we went in like July which was like
• 19:46
  peak season so everywhere we were going, we were
• 19:49
  battling with crowds. Yeah. And also having lived
• 19:54
  in China for a long time, that sort of corrupts
• 19:56
  my innocence, you know. It's like, oh, they have
• 20:00
  Buddhist temples with big buddhas. Well, I've
• 20:03
  already seen all those in China. They have noodles
• 20:06
  and dumplings. Well, we have noodles and dumplings.
• 20:08
  Oh, they have onsen. We have wenquan. So like
• 20:12
  lots of stuff wasn't unique and fresh as I wanted
• 20:15
  it to be. And then every single place we were
• 20:18
  going was just jam -packed full of tourists all
• 20:21
  doing exactly the same thing. And I got there
• 20:24
  and I was just standing around like, why are
• 20:26
  we here? What are we doing? Why did a thousand
• 20:31
  people come to this street corner? And I just,
• 20:35
  I could not fathom what we were actually doing
• 20:38
  with our time. It's like, I paid so much money
• 20:40
  to come here and it's a street corner with some
• 20:43
  billboards. Like, all the magic just all drained
• 20:47
  out of it. That's when I started becoming more
• 20:51
  and more cynical about tourism. Poor Tom, he's
• 20:53
  grown up. He's grown up. One of the things that
• 20:58
  I've always wanted for myself is to never get
• 21:01
  on a tour bus. That's like one of the rules.
• 21:03
  I think now I want to get on a tour bus. Because
• 21:05
  I've said it for so long and I'm thinking, maybe
• 21:08
  I should just go on a tour bus. You will be disappointed.
• 21:11
  See what happens. Depends on the tour guide and
• 21:14
  where they take you. The only tour bus I want
• 21:16
  to get on is one that stops at vineyards. Yeah.
• 21:19
  Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. Can it be a crap
• 21:22
  brewery? It can be both. Anywhere where I can
• 21:24
  get drunk. Agreed. Yeah. How much of the... I'm
• 21:29
  trying to articulate this. How much of... The
• 21:32
  the the the fact that social media destroys holidays
• 21:35
  is a product of wrongful media portrayal or oh
• 21:41
  Sure, okay, there's two dynamics to that so there
• 21:48
  is the person who Feels that they must document
• 21:53
  themselves in their vacation or else it is a
• 21:55
  waste and then there are the people who are also
• 21:59
  on in the area of the vacation are getting in
• 22:02
  the way. So like, which one are you? Why are
• 22:04
  you sad about that? Are you sad because my photos
• 22:06
  aren't great? Are you sad because all these people
• 22:11
  are taking pictures of themselves? Like, are
• 22:12
  you an NPC? No, I think it's just like, it's
• 22:16
  like people are doing like chasing the dragon,
• 22:18
  you know, they're addicts. Yeah. It's a social
• 22:21
  media addiction. I think there's some truth to
• 22:23
  that. it's all about like pride and arrogance
• 22:27
  and like trying to show you are the best or you've
• 22:30
  had the best experience you are the most unique
• 22:32
  person out of all the people in your like contact
• 22:36
  list and it's like no just chill out like just
• 22:39
  live in the moment like be that meme nobody's
• 22:43
  on their phone live in the moment and it's actually
• 22:47
  a good point like that's really what you should
• 22:49
  be doing On my flight back, we were sitting behind
• 22:56
  a couple who went to the same place as on Langkawi
• 22:59
  Island, and they had got engaged. And the entire
• 23:04
  flight, this girl in front of me was just photoshopping
• 23:07
  all of her engagement photos to make her boobs
• 23:12
  look slightly bigger and take away... slight,
• 23:17
  like, facial, like, wrinkles and stuff like that.
• 23:21
  Adam, like, wasn't it a happy moment anyway?
• 23:24
  Like, do you really need to give yourself an
• 23:27
  extra cup size for your engagement photos to
• 23:29
  make it a more valuable experience? Uh, well,
• 23:35
  I mean, the obvious answer is no, but who knows
• 23:37
  why she was doing it. Yes, it is because she's
• 23:39
  going to post it. Like, on her Instagram and
• 23:43
  all her friends have looked. Here's what I think.
• 23:45
  I think it's... I understand the... I understand
• 23:49
  the desire for a larger cup size. Well, we're
• 23:54
  getting out of time. Yeah, a little cup size.
• 23:56
  It's got to do with the photo being unflattering.
• 24:00
  That's what it is. This person... Everybody wants
• 24:04
  a good photo. So, you know, they have to Photoshop.
• 24:09
  their photos until they're satisfied with how
• 24:11
  these people are worried i'm gonna look ugly
• 24:13
  that's it well i think if you post something
• 24:15
  real then real friends will like it if you post
• 24:18
  something fake then fake friends will like it
• 24:20
  okay it'll be real ugly that's the problem like
• 24:27
  i i post real ugly photos of me i don't mind
• 24:31
  maybe we should you you have more self -confidence
• 24:33
  like the more pertinent question is how much
• 24:37
  photoshop is too much because like color saturation
• 24:41
  sure right why not i think i think okay people
• 24:44
  just don't know photography and they don't know
• 24:46
  the rules and so and this is again because of
• 24:50
  i think phones today it's just so instant they
• 24:52
  just take a picture i'll fix it after instead
• 24:55
  of thinking about like you know tom got his his
• 24:58
  olympus and he really has to think about his
• 25:00
  composition You gotta know photo theory, you
• 25:02
  gotta know rule of thirds, you gotta know all
• 25:04
  that stuff. So for me, like, I had, I walked
• 25:08
  into a fucking pole a couple of months ago, okay?
• 25:12
  And I had this scar on my leg for a long time.
• 25:15
  And every time I took a photo, I edited out that
• 25:18
  scar. I personally, I don't think that's too
• 25:21
  bad. But I didn't change the shape of my body,
• 25:24
  right? And I think once you start changing the
• 25:27
  shape of things, maybe that's questionable. This
• 25:29
  is another topic. that we've diverged off of.
• 25:32
  Yeah, we do need to move on to the next one.
• 25:35
  We're bad at that. It depends on what type of
• 25:38
  scar it is. If the scar has a cool story, I think
• 25:40
  you should keep it. Oh, yeah. Like, will you
• 25:44
  kiss it by the shark or? Here's the story. I
• 25:46
  will tell you. I was walking my dog at night
• 25:49
  and there's this stupid water piece of concrete
• 25:53
  sticking out of the ground. It's like a water
• 25:55
  marker thing. Yeah. OK. I walked into it and
• 26:00
  it scraped off. I still have the scar. It's there.
• 26:04
  That's it. Can you see it? Well, it's much better
• 26:08
  now, but it was really dark and it was much bigger.
• 26:11
  So I just, I just took it off. I have no boo
• 26:14
  -boos. Too afraid to live. It's not a cool story
• 26:17
  and it looked bad and I just took it off. Okay,
• 26:20
  fair enough. I have one of my buzzy's. He's got
• 26:23
  like a giant scar that caught his shoulder. and
• 26:27
  he goes up to his neck. He is also a teacher
• 26:30
  and he just tells kids whatever they ask, like,
• 26:33
  oh, I was attacked by a bear. He's Russian. So
• 26:38
  people believe him. I think that mine is a good
• 26:44
  follow up on social media destroys holidays because
• 26:46
  it's more about holidays and pleasure. I always
• 26:49
  hear about people saying it's before this time,
• 26:52
  you can't drink yet. And I just think it's bullshit.
• 26:55
  I think that you should be allowed to drink whenever
• 26:59
  the fuck you want, but keep it classy. That's
• 27:02
  it. That would be a really easy question to answer.
• 27:04
  Yes, drink whenever you want. Oh, but then again,
• 27:06
  maybe not. Your qualifier is keep it classy.
• 27:11
  Is it possible to be a classy drinker at 9am?
• 27:15
  Yes. What does a 9 a .m. drink look like to you?
• 27:20
  A 9 a .m. drink looks like breakfast with orange
• 27:23
  juice and like a beer shandy with orange juice.
• 27:27
  Ah, I see. Or champagne with orange juice. What's
• 27:31
  that called? A samosa? Yeah, samosa, exactly.
• 27:35
  That's what I grew up with. I grew up with this
• 27:38
  ability to drink at any time of the day with
• 27:41
  a few caveats. You're not going to open a bottle
• 27:44
  of rum. in the morning. Well you might if you're
• 27:47
  in the Caribbean, but not when you're at home,
• 27:50
  right? Okay. But if you're making breakfast for
• 27:53
  your loved one and you make a samosa and you
• 27:56
  eggs and bacon, why not? Mimosa. Samosa is an
• 28:00
  Indian snack that looks like a tribal. Well,
• 28:04
  I apologize world. I am culturally insensitive.
• 28:09
  That's why I asked. Thank you. In my mind, I
• 28:15
  knew it was going to be one of those things.
• 28:16
  I was like, isn't he the little Indian triangle
• 28:18
  stuffed with food? You know what I hate with
• 28:24
  a passion? Brunch. like the concept of brunch
• 28:30
  and like every restaurant like every western
• 28:32
  restaurant in guangzhou like advertisers like
• 28:34
  oh come to brunch and you can like buy breakfast
• 28:37
  and get mimosas this is a farce that was like
• 28:43
  invented by alcoholic housewives as an excuse
• 28:46
  to day drink and pretend it's classy yes you
• 28:49
  know it's like my favorite kind On the weekends,
• 28:54
  I kind of understand it, but if you're drinking
• 28:57
  in the middle of the day on a weekday, it's because
• 29:00
  you're bored and don't have a job. I think that
• 29:03
  answers the question of when you can drink though.
• 29:05
  Obviously, you're not going to be drinking at
• 29:07
  work or before work. I mean, some teachers do.
• 29:12
  They're bad teachers, Tom. I think that drinking
• 29:18
  at work after duties, that's fine. I also think
• 29:21
  going home once all your duties are done should
• 29:24
  be fine. I like to. If somebody is drinking before
• 29:30
  class or during class or before a meeting, you
• 29:33
  should probably not be doing that. That's a fucking
• 29:36
  dumb idea. Do you draw a line between having
• 29:41
  a drink and getting drunk? Do you think they
• 29:44
  are different? Yes, definitely. Like yes, you
• 29:49
  know me I almost never get completely plastered
• 29:53
  drunk So that's my definition of classy like
• 29:56
  you're never getting wasted or tipsy beyond Reason
• 30:02
  and my reason is like maybe two mimosas or a
• 30:07
  glass of sangria For brunch or breakfast and
• 30:12
  then something at lunch and then at night if
• 30:14
  you really want to get plastered that's that's
• 30:17
  a nighttime thing or maybe a Saturday afternoon.
• 30:21
  Yeah, after 12. Like, no need to wait for five
• 30:24
  or six or one or twelve. I mean, objectively,
• 30:28
  I can't say when the right time to drink is.
• 30:30
  I can make the argument that brunch defines the
• 30:33
  right time to drink. Okay, brunch is, you know,
• 30:35
  you miss because you missed breakfast, you combine
• 30:38
  breakfast and lunch with the same kind of, you
• 30:42
  know, dishes. And someone somewhere introduced
• 30:45
  the samosa mimosa. the mimosa sorry right they
• 30:50
  introduced the mimosa into brunch or or it somehow
• 30:54
  became associated with that um so i think at
• 30:57
  least in the americas maybe culturally the opportune
• 31:02
  time or the the most inappropriate time to start
• 31:05
  drinking is not before brunch time but then there's
• 31:08
  also the saying it's five o 'clock somewhere
• 31:10
  and those raging alcoholics just drink whatever
• 31:13
  I don't think, I think that if you are an alcoholic,
• 31:17
  you shouldn't be drinking. Yeah. Yes. That's
• 31:21
  by definition not classy. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So
• 31:24
  it's about what's classy. Can you say, drink
• 31:27
  whenever you want. Whenever you feel like having
• 31:30
  a drink, have a drink. Is that classy? Unless
• 31:32
  you're an alcoholic? Yes, unless you're driving.
• 31:36
  Okay, I can say I've drank a beer in the morning
• 31:38
  in my life at times, but I've just like woken
• 31:41
  up and I felt like it because it was very, very
• 31:44
  hot and I just was thirsty and that carbonation
• 31:49
  just felt like a good idea. So I drank a beer.
• 31:52
  I draw no distinction between going for brunch
• 31:56
  and having the Moses at 10 a .m. and go to 7
• 32:00
  -Eleven and buying a couple of soju to drink
• 32:03
  on the street corner at 10 a .m. Those are the
• 32:05
  same activity, but one has class privilege. Uh,
• 32:09
  okay. Fair, but man, that just sounds sad. 10
• 32:12
  a .m. at a family mart getting a soju. Soju bottles
• 32:14
  of soju. For me, soju's just putrid. That's why
• 32:17
  I think it's not good. One soju is the most economically
• 32:22
  viable way to have a drink. I think, and it's
• 32:26
  delicious. The amount of alcohol that is in a
• 32:30
  bottle of soju, and that's 20 % alcohol. That's
• 32:33
  not that bad. Compared to one mimosa. I don't
• 32:36
  know what stuff is like where you live, but around
• 32:38
  here you get free flow mimosas for like four
• 32:41
  hours. Wow. And that is, like that adds up. That
• 32:46
  sounds like a part of it. They don't taste good.
• 32:48
  That is not classy. I want to go there. Yeah.
• 32:51
  Anyway, some people might... I'll give the button.
• 32:54
  Okay, now we have to, now we have to, now we
• 32:56
  have to define something else. Like, why do you
• 32:58
  drink? Why is the person at 10 a .m. getting
• 33:00
  a soju? Okay, because in my mind, there's bad
• 33:03
  alcohol and there's good alcohol. Personally,
• 33:05
  I like to, I like, when I drink things, I like
• 33:08
  to enjoy them. That's why I like craft beers
• 33:11
  and hipster crap like that. I feel the same.
• 33:14
  So, like, when I drink something, it's not just,
• 33:17
  I gotta drink it fast. I gotta feel that buzz.
• 33:19
  I want to enjoy it because I know it's poison
• 33:22
  and I know it's gonna make me feel putrid if
• 33:24
  I drink too much of it too fast. So who are these
• 33:27
  people getting soju at 10 a .m. on a street corner?
• 33:30
  You're looking at him. Ah, Tom. So Tom, why are
• 33:35
  you doing that? You felt like, oh, so much energy.
• 33:39
  Honestly, the only time I've ever got soju was
• 33:42
  like late at night when Matt Ward said we had
• 33:46
  to walk to a bar that was like an hour away.
• 33:49
  Ruby was there too I believe and we'd have to
• 33:52
  like go traipsing through Tianjin in the middle
• 33:54
  of the night. I remember those nights and I remember
• 33:57
  Matt Ward and he would literally do that. And
• 34:00
  Matt's a funny character because he would be
• 34:01
  like we'd all be at a party having a good time.
• 34:04
  I should get him on this podcast. Yeah do it.
• 34:08
  We'd all be at a party having a good time you'd
• 34:11
  be like yeah this is amazing we're gonna party
• 34:13
  until... 10 a .m and then two minutes later he's
• 34:16
  like okay bye and he'd say goodbye to one person
• 34:19
  and then just leave and not speak yeah just bounce
• 34:22
  what do you call that kind of goodbye it's not
• 34:23
  an irish goodbye that's when you say goodbye
• 34:25
  to nobody you just leave what's it's about wars
• 34:27
  goodbye yeah it's unique it's completely unique
• 34:31
  tell everyone else for me i gotta go oh he didn't
• 34:33
  say that he just if he if you happen to bump
• 34:36
  it would be an if if the way to the door parted
• 34:40
  like the red sea it would be an irish goodbye
• 34:42
  but if you bumped into you'd be like goodbye
• 34:44
  okay map wars once made a boars game i believe
• 34:50
  it was like a version of monopoly where one of
• 34:52
  the cards you could draw was like put down your
• 34:54
  drink and go home it's like the game just like
• 34:59
  literally sent you home and that was it he was
• 35:04
  trying to convince all of us this would be an
• 35:06
  amazing game to play and be so funny because
• 35:09
  he um they kept talking about this he kept talking
• 35:12
  about this game because they played it at his
• 35:14
  cottage in canada he's connected oh okay yeah
• 35:16
  and there was one of them was eat a eat a teaspoon
• 35:20
  of mustard that sounds good actually oh yeah
• 35:22
  yeah yeah yeah yeah stuff like that that's great
• 35:27
  you ever had a full I could do it. No, I'd love
• 35:34
  foster. It's really not fun Mmm challenge accepted.
• 35:38
  Do you have mustard? I do we'll do later. We're
• 35:40
  not doing on the podcast. Okay at the end at
• 35:42
  the end Tom's gonna want to see it. All right,
• 35:45
  I could do that. I love super yellow French's
• 35:49
  mustard That's what it should be. Ah, it doesn't
• 35:51
  matter. It's just mustard happy baby. Oh, I love
• 35:54
  mustard so much anyway Anyway, honestly, I really
• 35:59
  don't drink that much anymore. Back in Tianjin,
• 36:02
  we were a group of degenerates who used to like
• 36:06
  constantly drink almost every night. But the
• 36:10
  last time I got really drunk was at Christmas,
• 36:12
  which is difficult to do because you just start
• 36:16
  drinking and then you're like, oh, I have about
• 36:18
  like four ovens going full of like turkeys and
• 36:21
  hams and potatoes. and I thought he said I cooked
• 36:23
  dinner for 10 people. Well, I'm absolutely smashed
• 36:26
  now. Yeah, a bit of a ten... a bit of a... tangent.
• 36:31
  Tangent? Yeah, it's feeling weird. Can I say...
• 36:35
  that's the right word, right? Tangent. Tangent.
• 36:38
  Tangent. Tangent. Not tangent. Okay, tangent.
• 36:42
  The best... I'm... yeah. Best Christmas party
• 36:49
  I remember in memory for me is the one that you
• 36:53
  organized with your With your we have the Airbnb
• 36:58
  Airbnb You made you made lamb chops. I made lamb
• 37:04
  chops and Malva pudding. Yes. Yeah Malva pudding.
• 37:08
  I never had it before. It was awesome Yeah, it
• 37:10
  would be amazing and the Airbnb for some reason
• 37:13
  has a sauna So like 1 a .m. all of it is like
• 37:16
  stripped out of god of a sauna together at that
• 37:18
  photo Yeah, skip today skip to today and I cannot
• 37:23
  join you either. We've never had you've never
• 37:26
  been in a sauna european style with other genders
• 37:29
  I have never been in a sauna with other with
• 37:32
  other genders. Um, I have I can say I can say
• 37:35
  I have okay. Wait, wait Yeah, I have but not
• 37:39
  no not multiple with one opposite. Okay. Yeah
• 37:43
  Have you been in Osano with multiple? No, can't
• 37:46
  say no. Because that's a different story. Do
• 37:48
  lesbians count? Yes. Okay, then yes. Yes, I can.
• 37:55
  Back on Boos. What's your favorite drink? My
• 38:01
  favorite drink is probably black beer like Guinness.
• 38:05
  Stout? Yes, stout. and when when we were at university
• 38:10
  we used to do something very cool which was a
• 38:12
  pint half cider half stout i went together it's
• 38:15
  like called snake bite i think it's really good
• 38:18
  so a stout on top of another kind of beer in
• 38:23
  the same glass a cider apple cider so the cider
• 38:26
  like somehow denser it stays at the bottom yeah
• 38:29
  yeah yeah really interesting huh yeah it's alcoholic
• 38:32
  cider i don't know americans always have like
• 38:35
  the non -alcoholic version i didn't know that
• 38:37
  non -alcoholic ciders were a thing yeah i didn't
• 38:40
  what americans do you have in utah no i'm pretty
• 38:44
  sure in america apple cider is like just like
• 38:47
  cloudy apple juice you're right there is apple
• 38:49
  cider but then there are ciders which are alcoholic
• 38:52
  drinks then apple and also made apples yeah that's
• 38:56
  apple juice That's dirty apple juice. I would
• 38:59
  agree that apple cider is dirty apple juice.
• 39:02
  Unfiltered, maybe. Not dirty. Cloudy. Yeah. Because
• 39:05
  the first beer... Okay, Tom, I have a question.
• 39:07
  Why aren't you drinking alcohol right now? Why
• 39:10
  did you go for cocaine? Because I'm kind of fat
• 39:13
  now. You haven't seen me for many years. I weigh
• 39:16
  like 90 kilograms now. Okay. That just means
• 39:20
  you're married, Tom. Just means you're married.
• 39:23
  I like to drink in social settings. I guess I
• 39:27
  am talking to people but you're not really here
• 39:30
  in real life. So I only drink when I'm like so
• 39:34
  surrounded by people and I can pace myself with
• 39:37
  them. Yeah. I stopped drinking, like I calculated
• 39:42
  at one stage when we were in Tianjin, there's
• 39:45
  a craft brewery. Okay. Underneath, I stayed in
• 39:49
  the... We possibly... Yeah. I stayed in the dingiest
• 39:52
  part of Tianjin, this building called Chunji
• 39:55
  Center. Didn't meet any of the safety codes.
• 39:58
  It was a disaster, but the apartment was amazing,
• 40:01
  actually, even though it didn't have many windows.
• 40:04
  And every night we would go downstairs, have
• 40:06
  a wee burger or an Elvis burger. And it's so
• 40:10
  unhealthy. Oh, yeah. And drink like two to three
• 40:15
  liters of beer. a day. Good Lord. You know, in
• 40:18
  Tianjin we did not make a lot of money. Yeah.
• 40:21
  And we were going to spend like one or two hundred
• 40:24
  kuai every night on beer and burgers. Like now
• 40:29
  I'm old, now I'm getting fat, even though I'm
• 40:32
  trying to be healthy. It's really difficult.
• 40:35
  It's really hard. I've since June last year or
• 40:39
  July, when the holiday started up to now, I lost
• 40:43
  26 kilograms and it's been one of the hardest.
• 40:47
  The only reason that I was able to stick to that
• 40:50
  is because I wanted to transition. I tried the
• 40:55
  intermittent fasting last year and I got about
• 41:00
  two months in and I was losing about five kilograms
• 41:05
  a month. I was really happy with it. But then
• 41:11
  we hit Christmas and I'm like, oh, Christmas.
• 41:14
  Well, obviously I've got to eat for Christmas.
• 41:15
  There's going to be like chocolates everywhere.
• 41:17
  It'll be fun. And then I could just not get back
• 41:20
  into it again. Why not? Why couldn't you get
• 41:23
  back into it? What makes intermittent fasting
• 41:26
  difficult now? So the first week is the most
• 41:29
  difficult because during the first week, your
• 41:32
  stomach shrinks. After one week. You have like
• 41:36
  the routine set up as it actually became physically
• 41:39
  difficult for me to eat dinner. Like I tried
• 41:42
  to eat more than a couple of bites for dinner.
• 41:43
  I'd be like, well, I'm stuffed. I can't eat anymore.
• 41:48
  But it's like the first week you constantly feel
• 41:51
  hungry. Yeah. And if I have like a little bit
• 41:55
  of stress, like I need to write some reports.
• 41:57
  I need to like do a project. I need to like do
• 42:00
  something else. Yeah. Then I will eat. Yeah.
• 42:05
  I see that a lot in the adults around us. Just
• 42:09
  always eating, always snacking. Which adults
• 42:12
  specifically? I'm not gonna name names. Around,
• 42:17
  you know, Polpark. Where I am. For clarity, he's
• 42:20
  in MYP and I'm in PYP. Next year... I'm upstairs,
• 42:23
  he's downstairs. Yeah, next year you might come
• 42:26
  back downstairs. Who can say? But I, if I'm around...
• 42:30
  I'll probably go to grade five. Yeah, which is
• 42:33
  upstairs. Oh, yeah. Okay, cool. I'm teaching
• 42:36
  K -3, so like upper kindergarten. Okay. I used
• 42:41
  to teach, I used to teach grade two, but because
• 42:44
  of our student numbers basically plummeting recently,
• 42:49
  they had to move the teachers around. I got stuck
• 42:52
  in the early years. At first, I really didn't
• 42:54
  like it, but it's a bit of a golden goose. Yes.
• 42:58
  So, incredibly. Easy. I was going to say, whoa.
• 43:01
  I love it. It's so much fun. Yeah, I was going
• 43:04
  to say, well, duck in early years. That was,
• 43:06
  I love early years. That was my best. Still to
• 43:09
  this day, the job I love the most. I might go
• 43:12
  back to kindergarten after this job, maybe. Bye.
• 43:16
  it's more difficult to plan the classes like
• 43:19
  prepare for them because you need lots of materials.
• 43:22
  So you have to be like really on top of like
• 43:23
  your ordering and your budget because you have
• 43:25
  to like set up stations and make it look really
• 43:28
  nice and create learning invitations but like
• 43:30
  once you're in there and you're just sort of
• 43:32
  like okay I'm going to teach you how to do your
• 43:35
  two times table and stuff like that. Okay, this
• 43:38
  is how you use a full stop and a big letter.
• 43:41
  The kids are a lot of fun and you play games
• 43:45
  most of the time, which is really, really nice.
• 43:47
  And you can see them grow, right? Yeah, depending
• 43:51
  on how well you do your job, you can definitely
• 43:54
  see them learning. It's just the routine. Routine
• 43:58
  is the most important. It's just so clear on
• 44:02
  what needs to be done, so it's not very stressful
• 44:04
  in that respect. You just stick to those routines.
• 44:07
  You get hugs, you give high fives, teach them
• 44:09
  the letters of the alphabet. Have you ever...
• 44:11
  It's amazing. I want to bring this back to the
• 44:14
  topic. Have you ever drank at work when you were
• 44:17
  not supposed to? I haven't. I can honestly say
• 44:22
  I haven't. Do you say get drunk at a party? I
• 44:26
  said have a drink at work when you were not supposed
• 44:29
  to. At work? I don't think I'll get in trouble
• 44:32
  about saying this, but like... back in Tianjin
• 44:36
  when we used to work for a training center. And
• 44:39
  due to the unique way they managed the schedules,
• 44:42
  they was invited in for admin days where there
• 44:46
  were no students there, but we had to show up
• 44:49
  to work anyway. And then like there would be
• 44:52
  it starts off with one or two of us sneaking
• 44:56
  off to have a drink at lunchtime and ends up
• 44:58
  with like almost the entire foreign teaching
• 45:01
  staff. just in a bar above the school. Yeah,
• 45:04
  I remember those days. Well, that sounds like
• 45:07
  it's the school fault. Yeah, exactly. That temptation.
• 45:11
  For me, it was so a school I worked at on Fridays,
• 45:17
  the kids would go home really early and you had
• 45:20
  to stay until four thirty. Yeah. And once the
• 45:25
  like there was a Friday meeting. Once the meeting
• 45:28
  was over, I would walk over to Family Mart and
• 45:31
  get myself a drink and pour it in my coffee and
• 45:34
  walk back. Oh my goodness. Again, no students
• 45:38
  there. And then the other one was while I was
• 45:41
  in Tianjin working for a training center recruiting
• 45:44
  teachers, I was the HR interpreter and I was
• 45:50
  working on Sundays. Nobody in the office it's
• 45:56
  head office and I would finish I would always
• 45:59
  schedule my meetings would finish in the morning
• 46:01
  because if like all the all the all the Interviews
• 46:05
  and I'd rush through all my admin be done and
• 46:08
  then lunch would hit and I would walk down Go
• 46:11
  to this like Korean restaurant drink two beers
• 46:13
  and then go back. Oh Tom. Hello. Are you there?
• 46:16
  No. Oh No Tom's gone What he's been seeing all
• 46:25
  the time he's been seeing us This one here. Oh,
• 46:30
  no Department's a mess. What? No, it's just a
• 46:33
  table. Um, is he coming back? I have questions
• 46:38
  about and we haven't even drinking our topic
• 46:41
  This is going well, it's good. Let's text the
• 46:45
  group. Let's see. Yeah, you mean to drink Oh
• 46:59
  Yeah, thank you, I just need some You're back
• 47:06
  are you back? Can you hear me? I can hear you
• 47:09
  see me. We cannot see I Cannot hear or see you.
• 47:13
  Okay, we can hear you but we cannot see you Man
• 47:18
  Tom, can you see me now? Tommy can you see me
• 47:25
  Okay, I can see your your profile picture Okay,
• 47:58
  this would go fucked up Okay, can you see us
• 48:35
  now? Okay, not here. I'm gonna delete this. Remove.
• 48:56
  Tom, can you see us? It's switched. Yeah, it's
• 48:59
  switched away. Still nothing. Well, you know
• 49:27
  worst -case scenario, we got an hour at least.
• 49:29
  We got an hour at least, yeah. But there's another
• 49:33
  thing we can try. You can hear us? What? Amazing.
• 49:40
  Can you hear me? Well... Oh! Oh my god! You're
• 49:46
  here Okay, so it's an internet connection problem
• 49:52
  it seems like now I need to put you back on I
• 49:57
  Need to put you back on OBS. Hold on one second
• 50:01
  Our little background thing disappeared. Maybe
• 50:05
  I can bring it back. Oh, yes. Okay. Well, you
• 50:08
  know what? I'm sure this will get better over
• 50:18
  time, but for now, I'm just a noob to meetings.
• 50:21
  You're back, Tom. I'm back. Luigi, I have questions
• 50:24
  for you. Luigi. We were talking about drinking
• 50:26
  at work, and you were about to tell us something
• 50:29
  that happened at a training center in Tianjin.
• 50:33
  You guys were talking about a training center
• 50:35
  in Tianjin. You never worked at a training center?
• 50:38
  I did, very, very briefly, and it was part time.
• 50:42
  Yeah, it's an experience, isn't it? Yeah, they
• 50:47
  still owe me 4 ,000 R &B. I still remember. That'll
• 50:51
  happen. Is this why you don't want to spend money?
• 50:54
  Because of that? No, not the only reason. Yeah,
• 50:58
  okay. Okay, talking about the classiest time
• 51:00
  to drink. Okay. There are two kinds of drinkers,
• 51:04
  I think. There are people who enjoy, like, a
• 51:07
  kind of connoisseurship when it comes to alcohol,
• 51:09
  and there's the other people who drink because
• 51:12
  they just, like, they need to get drunk. And
• 51:15
  I think that is what we have to clearly define
• 51:19
  when we're debating this question to when is
• 51:21
  the right time to drink or other. Yeah, right.
• 51:25
  So, you know, interesting. I would call myself
• 51:28
  an alcoholic, but I definitely think I drink
• 51:31
  to have fun. Yeah, you're not. I'm not. So, yeah.
• 51:35
  So people drink to have fun. That just means
• 51:37
  getting anything in you till you feel a little
• 51:40
  wonky. I don't. I mean, I I understand the feeling
• 51:48
  of, you know, being inebriated, but I've never
• 51:53
  really... For me personally, I didn't drink until
• 51:55
  I was 27. True story. I did not start drinking
• 51:58
  until I was 27. So up until that point, you know,
• 52:00
  I understood that my peers always probably kind
• 52:03
  of thought I was, I guess, anti -social in the
• 52:06
  respect of drinking. So when I did start drinking,
• 52:09
  for me it still, it was a social kind of dynamic.
• 52:13
  Now I think now when I drink it is because It
• 52:18
  does help me like relax because I do like the
• 52:21
  feeling of being in a bearded Some people say
• 52:24
  you know when you people who don't like to drink
• 52:27
  don't like to lose control So that's why they
• 52:29
  don't drink because you know that's what happens
• 52:31
  when you drink you you get drunk I can kind of
• 52:34
  see some logic in that because one reason I do
• 52:36
  like to drink is because it makes me well, you
• 52:41
  know lose control and as much as like I don't
• 52:43
  I can't think very clearly and I like that because
• 52:49
  like if my mind's racing, that's why I'll want
• 52:52
  to drink but in that case I have to be really
• 52:54
  really really stressed out and I know that's
• 52:56
  not a good way to cope with whatever is happening
• 52:59
  to make me drink that way but otherwise when
• 53:03
  I drink really the reason I like to drink is
• 53:06
  because I like to It's the novelty of the alcohol
• 53:13
  and the flavors. So it's a kind of fat -headedness.
• 53:16
  I like connoisseurship. It's an art. It is an
• 53:18
  art. People hate craft beers. I feel like here
• 53:24
  in my world, not you, but people around us hate
• 53:28
  craft beers, but I love them. I think they're
• 53:30
  so great. I think the novelty is what makes drinking
• 53:35
  so, for me, it's what keeps me drinking really.
• 53:38
  It's really more, will this new drink taste interesting?
• 53:42
  I have to know, so I have to try it. The drunkness
• 53:45
  comes second. It's not drink to get drunk first,
• 53:48
  it's the flavor first. And so with alcohol, it's
• 53:52
  so fascinating because there's this illusion
• 53:55
  that, or there's this allure that what you are
• 53:59
  drinking could be something you never tasted
• 54:02
  before. And so that's why I do it. I think there's
• 54:06
  diminishing returns. I'm a glisten, I'm a heathenist,
• 54:10
  but ultimately I'm like, do I want to spend a
• 54:16
  thousand quai on a bottle of wine when a 200
• 54:20
  -quai bottle would do the same thing? Never do
• 54:23
  that. I win! When I was a kid, I always used
• 54:25
  to walk past these wine bars. I'm like, maybe,
• 54:28
  maybe I will like that when I get older, I will
• 54:30
  start to understand it more. I'm like, no, no,
• 54:33
  I just think all the people who like go in for
• 54:34
  like these super expensive alcohols are the pretentious
• 54:37
  cunts. Yeah, to be sure. When I was young. I
• 54:40
  mean, I like, I like craft beer. I used to make
• 54:44
  beer. I wasn't very good at it, but I used to,
• 54:46
  I used to try. Why did you stop? Why did you
• 54:51
  stop? It's a great investment of like time and
• 54:56
  resources and then for something you could purchase
• 55:00
  very cheaply at any supermarket. Yes. So it's
• 55:04
  fun for the novelty of it but ultimately the
• 55:07
  economics just don't work out. And you gotta
• 55:09
  wait a long time for the beard root. Yeah I used
• 55:11
  to make it in graduate school. Yeah, yeah, like
• 55:15
  a few weeks at least Once I made a stout and
• 55:20
  it was I made a stout and I wanted to make it
• 55:24
  like Asian themed So I got all these weird Asian
• 55:27
  herbs and one of them was black cardamom Which
• 55:29
  I'd never used before and I put in too much black
• 55:31
  cardamom and it was just like bitter bitter syrupy
• 55:35
  stout I just imagine like an Indian flavor like
• 55:38
  a beard tasting like curry If it's got cardamoms.
• 55:42
  It was just so bizarre. But you know, other things
• 55:44
  I made were, you know, normal stuff. IPAs. And
• 55:48
  like, we made mead once. The reason I stopped
• 55:50
  is my friend who I made them with, he moved like
• 55:53
  six hours away, so it just kind of sputtered.
• 55:55
  Yeah, like, like making beer, it's not like an
• 55:59
  intensive process. You do the fun stuff for like,
• 56:03
  one day. I mean, it's like, not wasted a month.
• 56:05
  I would say it is intense. I think it is intense.
• 56:08
  You gotta check the gravity every day. You gotta
• 56:10
  get a big, like, I don't know, I think they're
• 56:13
  called carboys. Oh, I didn't do that. I never,
• 56:15
  I never measured how much alcohol it actually
• 56:18
  had. Oh, really? I was just like, oh, hey, it's
• 56:20
  making bubbles. That means something's alive.
• 56:23
  I was very, what's the word? I don't know. Scrutinous?
• 56:26
  Meticulous, thank you. I was very meticulous
• 56:28
  because I was always in fear that like it would
• 56:30
  sour or go bad. The easiest thing to make alcohol
• 56:33
  -wise for me was, believe it or not, like rice
• 56:37
  wine. You'd boil, you'd cook rice. Rice wine.
• 56:40
  I never tried it. I would cook rice, and then
• 56:42
  you'd go to the Asian supermarket and you'd get
• 56:44
  a yeast ball. So they sell just ball of yeast.
• 56:47
  And then you smash it up, and then you put it
• 56:50
  in with the rice you just cooked, and you put
• 56:52
  it in a container, and you just put it in the
• 56:54
  fridge and forget about it. And it separates,
• 56:56
  and then that's it. And you've got booze. And
• 56:58
  it's a little carbonated. That feels like it's
• 57:00
  too easy. It's really easy. Yeah. That's what
• 57:04
  I did. Tom's like, should I be making rice wine
• 57:07
  today? Anyway, I drink first for the taste. Gotta
• 57:10
  taste good. Otherwise I would just take shots
• 57:12
  of really hard liquor if I wanted to get smashed.
• 57:14
  Exactly. It's easy to get drunk if you want to
• 57:16
  get drunk. But I drink for enjoyment and appreciation.
• 57:20
  One of the best drinks I've ever had or the best
• 57:23
  drinking periods of my life was I was living
• 57:26
  in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And I had this friend
• 57:29
  whose dad was a British guy who brewed his own
• 57:33
  meat. Amber Ale. Oh, meat, lovely. Yeah. And
• 57:39
  we would go to his place, just take a bunch of
• 57:43
  meat and barbecue. And then they had a lake with
• 57:47
  kayaks. We would go on to the... He had this
• 57:50
  huge golden retriever called Charlie. I'm sure
• 57:55
  you've seen the photo actually of me and Charlie
• 57:56
  together. on a pickup truck anyway um i remember
• 58:01
  going there finishing almost half a barrel of
• 58:04
  this beer that he's that brew while we were barbecuing
• 58:08
  and kayaking all day and we lost i think two
• 58:11
  of their like expensive british meat pint oh
• 58:15
  man yes inside this inside the little lake tom
• 58:19
  how did you make beer i'm curious do you remember
• 58:21
  Did you make it in China? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
• 58:24
  I started making it at university. Yeah. Where
• 58:29
  there was like a society at our university for
• 58:31
  making beer. And that taught me the basics. And
• 58:34
  then I continued to try in China and do it in
• 58:37
  my tiny apartment. That's what like you can't
• 58:40
  be done. I'm thinking of how would I make it
• 58:42
  here? I like you can buy you can buy everything
• 58:46
  you need on Taobao. Yes. It's just trying to
• 58:49
  find it because I don't know the Chinese terms
• 58:52
  so I was just like trying to translate all the
• 58:55
  like equipment I needed into Chinese and then
• 58:58
  put that into Taobao but it would not give you
• 59:00
  like an accurate translation so it's quite difficult
• 59:04
  to like find everything but eventually I got
• 59:06
  it and I have like a about 20 litre setup but
• 59:10
  I'm probably gonna try and sell it all because
• 59:13
  I haven't used it for many years yeah many years
• 59:16
  I remember the last time I saw photos of you
• 59:19
  was maybe When I just moved to Suzhou. Yeah.
• 59:24
  I need to make a stand. I'd like to brew beer.
• 59:27
  I'd like to do all the things I love to do. I'd
• 59:29
  love to raise bees. I'd love to brew beer. That's
• 59:32
  so fun. I think it's possible. All of it is possible.
• 59:35
  You just have to find the right place. Yeah,
• 59:37
  I know. That would be a good vacation. Do you
• 59:39
  think I'd put a beehive on the roof of my apartment
• 59:41
  today? Yes. Yeah, definitely. I don't know what
• 59:44
  the laws are for bees. Last week I went when
• 59:46
  I went to the island. honey from this old farming
• 59:51
  couple. In their house they had beans. What?
• 59:53
  They kept the beans in their house. That's crazy.
• 59:57
  I think if you move, I have one friend. I used
• 1:00:00
  to keep a barbecue. Huh? Do you remember Jessie
• 1:00:03
  from India? I used to keep a barbecue on the,
• 1:00:06
  huh? Tom, you go first. You speak, I'll wait.
• 1:00:10
  I used to keep a barbecue on the roof of my apartment
• 1:00:15
  building. Yeah. And nobody noticed for a very,
• 1:00:18
  very long time. And it was fine. That's all I
• 1:00:22
  had. I don't think anyone would say anything.
• 1:00:28
  Yeah, no, probably no one would notice for a
• 1:00:30
  while. And as people hang their laundry up there.
• 1:00:33
  Oh, they do. They do. Well, then, yeah, maybe.
• 1:00:37
  Maybe they'll notice. You know, in some places
• 1:00:39
  people have chickens. I feel like chickens are
• 1:00:43
  a bigger health risk than a beast. I mean, beef
• 1:00:47
  poop is delicious. You can eat it. Chicken poop
• 1:00:50
  stinks and carries disease. That's true. It is
• 1:00:53
  a very good fertilizer though. I have to say.
• 1:00:56
  I can say. I think that if you go to... If you
• 1:01:01
  move to... You remember Jesse who ran Indie Bar
• 1:01:03
  with Rain? They may have been, like, a bit more...
• 1:01:10
  Yeah, I didn't really go to Indy so much. It
• 1:01:12
  was... It was one old Weijinlu. Yeah. Yeah, I
• 1:01:16
  remember it. Like, yeah, a little bit. They used
• 1:01:23
  to use the outdoor gas burners to heat indoors
• 1:01:27
  and then every night we would just get massive
• 1:01:29
  carbon monoxide poisoning and wake up with massive
• 1:01:33
  headaches. No, not that part. Not that part.
• 1:01:37
  Okay. Yeah, I'm going to have to... Okay, I said
• 1:01:40
  open. Irrelevant, I guess. The point is they
• 1:01:44
  moved to a really rural province in this tiny,
• 1:01:48
  tiny little town and they opened their own...
• 1:02:01
  Our school gets lots of wild animals like snakes
• 1:02:17
  and hornets. And any time we see a hornet hive,
• 1:02:22
  they bring out a guy with a flamethrower to destroy
• 1:02:25
  it, which is really cool. Yeah, they definitely
• 1:02:27
  wouldn't want bees there then, because they'd
• 1:02:30
  attract the hornets. We have like, it has outdoor
• 1:02:35
  playtime, where just a swarm of bees will come
• 1:02:38
  out of nowhere and attack the playgrounds. We're
• 1:02:41
  like, everyone run! Go, go, go, go, go! That's
• 1:02:45
  great. I hope you mean hornets. Bees would never
• 1:02:48
  do that. I mean, I don't get close enough to
• 1:02:51
  check they could be hornets or wasps or bees
• 1:02:53
  but Sometimes we just tell sometimes we I want
• 1:02:58
  the internet to know it's not bees he's describing
• 1:03:00
  Bees do not do that Sometimes we get snakes,
• 1:03:05
  which is even better. I don't think we're talking
• 1:03:07
  about alcohol anymore We should stop here. There
• 1:03:09
  is one thing that I want to do I want to stop
• 1:03:12
  the recording on OBS You don't need to put down
• 1:03:15
  the phone or do anything, but there's a major
• 1:03:18
  So, I'm just gonna stop this. Okay. We're back.
• 1:03:24
  Um, Luigi. Is it my turn? It's your turn. Okay,
• 1:03:26
  I don't know how to pose this as a question,
• 1:03:29
  but I was watching something. Let me just set
• 1:03:31
  this. Let me set the scene. There's a very famous
• 1:03:34
  popular show in Canada. I think it's called The
• 1:03:37
  Social. And it's like the American TV show The
• 1:03:40
  View. Remember that show? Does anyone know that
• 1:03:42
  show? Essentially, there's a panel of women,
• 1:03:44
  all famous in some respect. And it's a talk show
• 1:03:46
  host in the morning. and they talk about stuff.
• 1:03:49
  So there's an equivalent in Canada called social.
• 1:03:51
  Not particularly a fan because I think it's full
• 1:03:54
  of a lot of misinformation. And I actually saw
• 1:03:56
  on the internet here on some social media, I
• 1:04:01
  don't know where, whether it was posted in a
• 1:04:04
  group or on WeChat channels, but it was a clip
• 1:04:06
  from the social and they were talking about AI
• 1:04:08
  and this expert was on and she was trying to
• 1:04:14
  solve the problem of students using AI to write
• 1:04:18
  essays. And she said, we need to essentially,
• 1:04:23
  you know, use AI to kind of extend the challenge
• 1:04:29
  of writing essays for students by saying, okay,
• 1:04:32
  go home and write the essay with AI, and then
• 1:04:36
  come back to school the next day and then critique
• 1:04:39
  the writing of AI. And I think that's really
• 1:04:42
  redundant. So my question, I guess, is, how do
• 1:04:48
  we use AI in school to help students? It's a
• 1:04:52
  big discussion that we have. I think it's important
• 1:04:55
  to remember that we've had pockets calculators
• 1:04:59
  for decades that has not destroyed mathematics.
• 1:05:03
  No, it didn't. A pocket calculator helps you
• 1:05:08
  think faster. I'll give you that much, you know.
• 1:05:12
  But for an essay, it totally takes all of the
• 1:05:14
  work out of it. For a student, there's this writing,
• 1:05:18
  and the student will go, here it is, it's a bunch
• 1:05:20
  of words. And the pocket calculator, Tom, maybe
• 1:05:23
  you make a good point, because in math, the way
• 1:05:27
  I learned it, you know, I know I'm old, but I'm
• 1:05:30
  not that old because the calculator existed.
• 1:05:32
  We always have to show the work when we do an
• 1:05:36
  equation, or when we show an answer for math.
• 1:05:39
  We have to do the work to show who got to that
• 1:05:41
  answer. And I say you can't really do that. I
• 1:05:43
  have an answer to this question. OK. The way
• 1:05:47
  that I use AI, I probably use AI more than any
• 1:05:51
  other teacher in our school. Yeah, I would agree.
• 1:05:56
  And what I recently did is our unit is how we
• 1:06:00
  organize ourselves. And it's about resource handling
• 1:06:05
  and where things come from. So like the supply
• 1:06:10
  chain basically. And what I chose for my students,
• 1:06:13
  one is we're doing a stock market simulation,
• 1:06:15
  which I sent you, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 1:06:20
  That's been polished now and it's working well.
• 1:06:23
  And then the other part is I had them watch a
• 1:06:28
  video on how Lego is made. and where it comes
• 1:06:31
  from and the history of Lego because they all
• 1:06:34
  have an interest in Lego. Then I had AI take
• 1:06:37
  that video and disseminate it and create like
• 1:06:41
  little group info sheets and I had it do some
• 1:06:47
  things that aren't real. I had to change the
• 1:06:49
  stats and stuff. I gave it to my students and
• 1:06:52
  I told them that I used AI to make this information
• 1:06:55
  and they're... Their job is to write a paragraph
• 1:06:59
  about where Lego comes from, how they think it
• 1:07:02
  works, and then their homework is to go home
• 1:07:06
  and fact check everything that they do. Okay.
• 1:07:09
  And then come back and rewrite the paragraph
• 1:07:11
  in a way that is true. And then identify where
• 1:07:14
  AI was wrong and where they were. So I think
• 1:07:16
  Ruby did what a lady on the TV show suggested.
• 1:07:20
  That's a really good idea. You're very creative.
• 1:07:21
  Thank you. I have to understand this. So they
• 1:07:26
  wrote a paragraph by themselves in class. They
• 1:07:29
  watched a video. I gave them information. They
• 1:07:32
  paraphrased the information and organized it
• 1:07:34
  in a sequential fashion to create a paragraph.
• 1:07:37
  By themselves. By themselves. No AI. No AI. But
• 1:07:40
  the information was generated by AI. That's okay.
• 1:07:44
  Because it's just an example. they use to help
• 1:07:48
  them get the skills. And as far as English skills
• 1:07:50
  go, nothing has changed. Right. It's the same
• 1:07:53
  skills here. So in that respect, us using the
• 1:07:55
  AI, I think is not the problem. Yeah. Because
• 1:07:57
  we know how to use it responsibly. And the kids
• 1:07:58
  don't have the skills we want them to have. And
• 1:08:01
  the issue is, they just go home, they get AI
• 1:08:04
  to generate it, and then... But now the transferable
• 1:08:07
  skill is, if they go home and they get AI to
• 1:08:10
  generate it, they have an example of when AI
• 1:08:12
  was wrong, and they know how to fact check. They
• 1:08:15
  know how to fact check. But even so, I think...
• 1:08:19
  We can't make them run the mile. They're never
• 1:08:21
  going to have to run the mile. Yeah, and that's
• 1:08:24
  the issue. So the way to get... My personal...
• 1:08:27
  What I would want is to say, okay, tomorrow you're
• 1:08:30
  going to write your essay in class, and then
• 1:08:33
  your homework is to do the research for the points
• 1:08:35
  you want to use, something like that, and get
• 1:08:37
  the sources. And they'll have to come into class
• 1:08:40
  and write the material in class. For me, as a
• 1:08:44
  student, that would have never worked because
• 1:08:46
  my points form as I do the research. Right. Well,
• 1:08:50
  I know. But what can you do now? Because they're
• 1:08:52
  just going to go home and they're just going
• 1:08:54
  to use AI. That's what I think. Yeah. The reason
• 1:08:58
  why we have to write so many essays is to present
• 1:09:02
  form and present your ideas and arguments. You
• 1:09:06
  need to have something interesting to write about
• 1:09:08
  that you come up with. and if the kids' cards
• 1:09:12
  come up with ideas and interesting thoughts by
• 1:09:15
  themselves, there's really no point to it. So
• 1:09:18
  you just have to think about how else can you
• 1:09:21
  assess children to find out they have interesting
• 1:09:25
  ideas about works and can form arguments and
• 1:09:29
  present them. I just think they just need that
• 1:09:33
  practice of writing or creating something, you
• 1:09:37
  know. with their minds. What are tons of things
• 1:09:41
  we do? It's kind of like, maybe this is a bad
• 1:09:45
  analogy, but we drive a car, and it's a tool
• 1:09:49
  we use to get places. But when the car breaks
• 1:09:51
  down, we don't know how to fix it. So we don't
• 1:09:55
  have those skills, but we're using the thing
• 1:09:57
  to get the results. And it's kind of how students
• 1:10:01
  use AI, they get the results. and you know when
• 1:10:04
  disaster comes oh well across that bridge when
• 1:10:07
  i get there are there resources to help it's
• 1:10:09
  my they're not they're not self -sufficient is
• 1:10:11
  what i really i really like teaching early years
• 1:10:14
  is because i don't need to worry about this this
• 1:10:17
  is a one -off problem like my five -year -olds
• 1:10:23
  are not using the ipads for ai they're trying
• 1:10:27
  to sneak on to pokey or like cool laughs games
• 1:10:30
  dot com or something Something to consider for
• 1:10:34
  you is how much screen time do your students
• 1:10:37
  have outside of school? Oh, I've got kids who
• 1:10:40
  are massively addicted to their iPads or Nintendo
• 1:10:44
  Switch. And I try to communicate to the parents
• 1:10:49
  constantly about this. they can get addicted
• 1:10:52
  they are already addicted and it will have harmful
• 1:10:55
  effects on them for the rest of their lives and
• 1:10:59
  the longer you leave it the worse it will get
• 1:11:01
  but lots of parents nowadays don't really believe
• 1:11:05
  that or they don't have the time or they're like
• 1:11:08
  oh well it's educational so therefore it's okay
• 1:11:12
  when really i think All screen time is kind of
• 1:11:15
  like bad screen time. I think so too. Why do
• 1:11:18
  you think screen time is bad? He said all screen
• 1:11:20
  time. Well, because it's what the kids are looking
• 1:11:22
  at. Really. It's not really interesting. As long
• 1:11:25
  as you're not saying, in my opinion, as long
• 1:11:28
  as you're not saying the fact that you're looking
• 1:11:30
  at a screen is bad for you because it's damaging
• 1:11:33
  your eyes. No, no, no. Kids on the screen. It's
• 1:11:36
  not about your eyes. It's about your brain. That's
• 1:11:39
  the issue. This is something that I have a problem.
• 1:11:44
  Is that shooting? No. Don't worry about it. Okay,
• 1:11:50
  never mind. I've completely lost my train of
• 1:11:55
  thought. Kids, screen time is not bad. It's just
• 1:12:03
  a game. Kids are just playing. No, this is the
• 1:12:06
  thing I have a problem with. The games that we
• 1:12:08
  used to play when we were growing up. Yeah. are
• 1:12:11
  different to the games that kids are playing
• 1:12:12
  now. Yeah. Because the games that we were playing
• 1:12:17
  were... But I might also be wrong because I don't
• 1:12:21
  think Pokemon falls under this category necessarily.
• 1:12:25
  The games that we were playing taught you indirectly
• 1:12:28
  resource management, mathematics, English, like
• 1:12:32
  a whole bunch of things. Vocabulary that you
• 1:12:35
  weren't familiar with, I think that still happens
• 1:12:37
  here today, but... Yeah. It doesn't happen in
• 1:12:41
  the target language that you often want to because
• 1:12:43
  often parents are complaining, my kid's not learning
• 1:12:46
  English. And a lot of the games are just like
• 1:12:51
  dopamine based instead of skill based. I don't
• 1:12:57
  know what the benefits were when I played video
• 1:13:02
  games as a kid. I played them a lot. So I think
• 1:13:04
  they actually did instill in me a love of reading
• 1:13:08
  because the games I played were... role playing
• 1:13:10
  games for the most part like a lot of role playing
• 1:13:12
  games you always had to read and you know depending
• 1:13:14
  on the creators those games did base a lot of
• 1:13:17
  their ideas on like greater mythology so that's
• 1:13:21
  how i had that like kind of trivial knowledge
• 1:13:22
  of things like greek mythology whatever what
• 1:13:25
  have you so in that respect i learned things
• 1:13:28
  that way um from those games but you know today
• 1:13:32
  with kids it's just like touch touch touch just
• 1:13:35
  coins coins coins coins exactly yeah So when
• 1:13:41
  I was doing my teaching certification I wrote
• 1:13:44
  my thesis about screen addiction in early years
• 1:13:50
  and when I try to go out and find research that
• 1:13:54
  other people had done and find sources it's all
• 1:13:57
  about like teenage boys who get addicted to Call
• 1:14:01
  of Duty. and then the mental effects that has,
• 1:14:04
  such as anger, stress, not being able to hold
• 1:14:09
  a real relationship anymore, and then all the
• 1:14:13
  negative effects that disseminate from this.
• 1:14:16
  No one really has looked into the effects on...
• 1:14:20
  really little kids but actually it could be more
• 1:14:23
  profound because their brains are incredibly
• 1:14:26
  plastic and they will adapt to their environment
• 1:14:30
  much more. So when I have kids who are like five
• 1:14:34
  years old and already addicted to like Pikmin
• 1:14:38
  or Luigi's Mansion and then like I tell them
• 1:14:44
  to do art in class or we do a project and they're
• 1:14:47
  like, oh, I can't do this. I only want iPads
• 1:14:50
  or I only want my Switch or Nintendo or whatever.
• 1:14:54
  Then it starts to become really, really difficult.
• 1:14:57
  And especially after the pandemic where we normalised
• 1:15:01
  a lot of screen time and online education, because
• 1:15:05
  we kind of had to at the time. The kids really
• 1:15:09
  do have like much more profound symptoms of stress,
• 1:15:13
  anxiety, not being able to focus on a task for
• 1:15:17
  a long time. And this is like, we want to break
• 1:15:22
  that habit. We want to get kids to try and read
• 1:15:25
  a book instead of reading on Epic, which is really,
• 1:15:29
  really challenging. You're like, read the book.
• 1:15:31
  Oh, no. Read on Epic. Oh, yeah, I can do that.
• 1:15:36
  Why should that be the case? Do you not have
• 1:15:39
  Epic in your school? No, we don't. Epic is like
• 1:15:43
  an online reading platform for kids and it has
• 1:15:47
  like 10 ,000 books but it's just like on your
• 1:15:50
  iPad. So kids would be happy to read on their
• 1:15:54
  iPads, but not read in real life. It's weird,
• 1:15:57
  eh? There's this weird fetishization of technology.
• 1:16:00
  If it's technical, if it's technology, it's somehow
• 1:16:03
  fun. Is it a game of fine as well? No, I don't
• 1:16:06
  think it is. Yeah, they get points and they could
• 1:16:09
  get badges for reading books. Oh, really? Ah.
• 1:16:11
  So every time we read a book, that one goes up.
• 1:16:14
  I don't know how they're reading that. How do
• 1:16:15
  we know that they've finished reading the book?
• 1:16:17
  Yeah. seriously it doesn't you could just like
• 1:16:20
  skip through the pages and i know it's still
• 1:16:22
  giving me they're junkies do you know marx and
• 1:16:31
  spencer uh yeah is it a it's like yeah it's like
• 1:16:35
  a british supermarket yeah i was gonna say grocery
• 1:16:37
  store brand yeah yeah i know yeah and you you
• 1:16:41
  can't get it in china like the closest place
• 1:16:43
  is hong kong they have one in malaysia and i
• 1:16:46
  went there and i bought like all the really expensive
• 1:16:49
  British candies and chocolates and then like
• 1:16:51
  in one of my hotels which was like a jungle hut
• 1:16:54
  like a fucking rat broken and started eating
• 1:16:57
  my expensive British chocolate and I was like
• 1:17:01
  you fucking asshole like there was like fresh
• 1:17:04
  fruit out of the bowl I was like I don't want
• 1:17:06
  the fresh fruit I'm gonna steal your fucking
• 1:17:08
  international candy you know The candy was expensive.
• 1:17:18
  Wait, it was Malaysia, you said? Yeah, but you
• 1:17:21
  go to Marks and Spencer, it's all imported from
• 1:17:23
  the UK. There's still a lot of money there. I
• 1:17:26
  always imagine just like imports in China are
• 1:17:28
  just stupidly expensive. I never imagine they
• 1:17:30
  are expensive anywhere else. I always imagine
• 1:17:33
  they're reasonable. Well, it's just because it's
• 1:17:34
  like Marks and Spencer's, which is sort of like
• 1:17:37
  a posh, high -class supermarket, so it's already
• 1:17:41
  kind of expensive. Anyway, that rat destroys
• 1:17:45
  it like about like... 70 quies worth of, uh,
• 1:17:49
  cookies. I was pissed off with it. Are you a
• 1:17:53
  rat? Yeah, I know. It's like, uh, anytime I go
• 1:17:56
  past an M &S, I need to get some stuff because
• 1:17:59
  you just can't get it in China, so I have to
• 1:18:04
  gorge myself. Reasonable. Mm -hmm. Whatever it
• 1:18:09
  may be. I know, he's bought me hot chocolate
• 1:18:11
  from... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, anyway... Little
• 1:18:14
  kids are all addicted to their iPads. It's really
• 1:18:17
  bad. And modern teaching practices are like glorifying
• 1:18:23
  like the use of AI. Because I think teachers
• 1:18:27
  realize AI is here to stay. So all the recent
• 1:18:31
  teaching training is like, how do you use AI?
• 1:18:33
  How can your students use more AI in the classroom
• 1:18:35
  safely? And I think screen addiction will get
• 1:18:40
  worse. do away with homework if it has to if
• 1:18:45
  ai's an issue here's here's what i i think that
• 1:18:49
  i've said it before all after school activities
• 1:18:53
  should just be completely nullified they shouldn't
• 1:18:56
  exist unless the child expresses extreme interest
• 1:19:00
  in doing something like sport clubs and stuff
• 1:19:03
  sports clubs sports clubs are fine but like after
• 1:19:05
  school english lessons after school any lessons
• 1:19:08
  in some kind we don't do that should just be
• 1:19:11
  illegal No, I think lessons are fine. I think
• 1:19:14
  it's just don't give homework cuz they're just
• 1:19:16
  gonna blow up. And homework shouldn't exist.
• 1:19:18
  Unless you're gonna have parents that are going
• 1:19:20
  to... But homework has never been useful. Never.
• 1:19:24
  I mean, that's the argument. I don't know. I
• 1:19:26
  don't know the data. I mean, I did homework.
• 1:19:28
  I don't know if it helped me. I just had to do
• 1:19:30
  homework cuz I was... On the scale of how much
• 1:19:33
  it helps, homework is negligible. Okay. Well,
• 1:19:36
  then there you go. That's the answer. Then why
• 1:19:37
  does school still... push for home. Because it's
• 1:19:40
  a, it's a society instilled idea of something.
• 1:19:44
  Yeah. Maybe. Like, China made it the law that
• 1:19:48
  you cannot give five -year -olds written homework
• 1:19:51
  anymore. So legally, iCards give homework. Parents
• 1:19:55
  still, parents still ask me, like every single
• 1:19:59
  parent -teacher meeting, they're like, Oh, can
• 1:20:01
  you give more homework? I'm like, no, legally
• 1:20:03
  iCards, no. They want their kids to suffer. Same
• 1:20:10
  thing with training centers. We're finishing
• 1:20:13
  up AI. I think we have pretty different opinions.
• 1:20:18
  I think our opinions are similar. I don't think
• 1:20:22
  that screen time in and of itself is necessarily
• 1:20:28
  a problem. I think the applications that are
• 1:20:30
  being used are the problem. Now we're talking
• 1:20:34
  about screen time though, not AI. the use of
• 1:20:37
  AI yeah okay and then for AI I think there is
• 1:20:41
  an easy there is a solution yeah what I what
• 1:20:45
  I what I guess what I'm trying to argue is that
• 1:20:47
  we should not essentially secede to AI and try
• 1:20:51
  and find you know better solutions that accept
• 1:20:54
  the the kind of like sinister use of AI So for
• 1:20:59
  example, oh, have the kids go home and use AI
• 1:21:02
  to write an essay and then come to class and
• 1:21:04
  have the kids critique that essay. Well, what
• 1:21:07
  what's the point of that? Hey, how about we just
• 1:21:08
  have them write the essay in class? Yeah, it
• 1:21:11
  should be that that scenario should be swapped
• 1:21:13
  around. Yeah, like don't give your don't give
• 1:21:15
  your students a homework that has them rely on
• 1:21:18
  AI. Yes, you can do it. You can use AI to do
• 1:21:22
  everything, but don't give them something that's
• 1:21:24
  so overwhelming. They have to go to AI. That's
• 1:21:27
  just all there is to it. That's it. Rather than
• 1:21:29
  homework, give them like study hall hours, like
• 1:21:34
  after school classes, be like there's a study
• 1:21:36
  hall where you can use the school computers that
• 1:21:38
  have like AI applications blocked. So you can
• 1:21:42
  do like research and time to write your essays,
• 1:21:44
  which is more difficult to organize but would
• 1:21:47
  solve the problem, maybe. It depends on the space,
• 1:21:50
  it depends on the school. Yeah, like poor schools
• 1:21:53
  can't do that. The socioeconomic status of the
• 1:21:55
  students. I mean, there might be a benefit you
• 1:21:58
  know the kids who can't afford the irony might
• 1:22:01
  be that kids who can't afford you know let's
• 1:22:04
  say computers can't use AI and then they have
• 1:22:07
  to think by themselves and they might surpass
• 1:22:10
  those more privileged kids who can say but I
• 1:22:13
  just yeah I have to say I hate the this this
• 1:22:16
  kowtowing to AI I think it's just absurd yeah
• 1:22:20
  like lots of people keep on coming up with like
• 1:22:23
  ideas on how to incorporate it but not all of
• 1:22:26
  them are very good like very few of them are
• 1:22:29
  like good and like none of them strike at the
• 1:22:31
  issue of like can you get a kid to write a thousand
• 1:22:34
  words essay anymore because you get them to write
• 1:22:36
  five sides of a four just with their own pure
• 1:22:40
  thoughts and no okay maybe maybe we can make
• 1:22:45
  this analogy maybe i can make several silly analogies
• 1:22:49
  um You know, you want to get muscles, but you
• 1:22:52
  don't want to put in the work. So you don't do
• 1:22:54
  the weightlifting, what does? The steroids? Maybe.
• 1:22:56
  Yeah, I agree. I get what you're saying. I'll
• 1:23:00
  just get that guy to lift weights for me. How
• 1:23:03
  do you do it, you know? You pay the doctor to
• 1:23:05
  put the oil in your... You like those guys in
• 1:23:08
  South America who have... Synth oil. Synth oil?
• 1:23:12
  Synth oil? Is that what it is? Synth oil. It's
• 1:23:14
  like that. Yeah, so like, there we go. Same thing.
• 1:23:20
  I declare it's the same thing. Anyway, yeah.
• 1:23:23
  What do you think, Tom? Uh, I agree. We should,
• 1:23:25
  like, nuke AI from orbit. No, no, no. Don't go
• 1:23:29
  that far. We need it. It's helpful. I think that
• 1:23:32
  was not an agreement. Okay, I know. Now I feel
• 1:23:35
  like I'm a big hypocrite. Like, we get up to
• 1:23:37
  nukes and suddenly everyone gets scared. But
• 1:23:40
  come on, like... The copywriters need their jobs
• 1:23:43
  back. The digital artists, they want their jobs
• 1:23:47
  back. AI will come for us soon. They will try
• 1:23:52
  to replace teachers with AI. It will suck, but
• 1:23:56
  it will be good enough for them to accept it.
• 1:23:59
  AI doesn't need to be good, it just needs to
• 1:24:01
  be good enough to justify the plaguing. replacing
• 1:24:04
  a human yeah yeah you're yeah fair like you can
• 1:24:07
  use ai to make let's say like assessments tests
• 1:24:10
  but you also have to scrutinize the answers the
• 1:24:13
  ai gives you because it really doesn't know ai
• 1:24:15
  reaches into the corpus of the internet and just
• 1:24:18
  it's not it's not sentient it just looks for
• 1:24:21
  things yeah and makes camera comparison that's
• 1:24:24
  right and just like makes a bricolage and says
• 1:24:27
  here you go but it doesn't really think i've
• 1:24:30
  I think so, but I don't think a lot of people
• 1:24:32
  know that really they don't really try and they
• 1:24:35
  don't pay attention but that's why that's why
• 1:24:37
  the way that you use AI the way that you articulate
• 1:24:40
  your questions yeah and the way that you set
• 1:24:42
  forth your expectation is so important even when
• 1:24:46
  you think you do it well though AI still kind
• 1:24:47
  of messes up yeah and I always find myself shouting
• 1:24:50
  at AI be like how do you not understand me which
• 1:24:53
  is really silly because I should know better
• 1:24:55
  anyway so what I've been doing lately is I'm
• 1:24:59
  using AI for multiple aspects of my daily life
• 1:25:02
  right now. Okay. I'm paying for chat GPT. Yeah.
• 1:25:05
  I have seven different projects that are standard
• 1:25:10
  and daily chats. So those are, and you can have
• 1:25:14
  more projects, but the thing is because of this,
• 1:25:17
  I've been doing this for about three months and
• 1:25:19
  I kind of chat GPT. has a good idea of who I
• 1:25:23
  am, because of all of these different aspects.
• 1:25:27
  And when I want something for myself, I wouldn't
• 1:25:30
  recommend ever using this to give to someone,
• 1:25:33
  like to say, write me this and it purely to give
• 1:25:38
  to someone. Like if you do that, it would be
• 1:25:40
  a draft and then you read through it and then
• 1:25:42
  you change it. Right. But a lot of the procedural
• 1:25:44
  stuff that you do, I can tell, hey, write me
• 1:25:50
  up. write me a bio specifically for this website
• 1:25:54
  based on your memory of me and then the thing
• 1:25:57
  that it gives me is I'm like yeah sure you you
• 1:26:01
  carry I change one or two things yeah and then
• 1:26:03
  it's then it's on point yeah because it's using
• 1:26:06
  a corpus not of the internet it's using a corpus
• 1:26:08
  of my feedback yeah that's true that's a good
• 1:26:12
  point yeah I mean yeah I mean I'm not saying
• 1:26:15
  it's like not useful I'm just saying that Once
• 1:26:19
  people start to rely on it too much, it's going
• 1:26:22
  to become a problem. Agreed. Yeah, there's no
• 1:26:26
  doubt about it. I mean, there's so many, there's
• 1:26:28
  a myriad of things we can discuss revolving around
• 1:26:32
  AI and its issues. It will come up again. Yeah,
• 1:26:35
  but today the topic is students and homework
• 1:26:38
  in AI. Like back in the 1800s. I think, no, the
• 1:26:44
  answer is no. Back in the 1800s. Yeah. Sorry.
• 1:26:49
  Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to interrupt you,
• 1:26:51
  Tom. Here's what I think AI should be used for,
• 1:26:52
  for children. Okay. Here's your homework tax,
• 1:26:55
  kids. You come to class, guess what? I'm not
• 1:26:57
  teaching you squat. Your homework today is ask
• 1:27:00
  AI to teach you how to do whatever. Teach you
• 1:27:04
  how to do algebra. And then tomorrow I'm going
• 1:27:05
  to test you. Wouldn't that be like an interesting
• 1:27:09
  thing to do? I think that is cool. That's really
• 1:27:12
  cool. I'm going to try that with my students.
• 1:27:14
  I'm going to see if that works. That'd be great.
• 1:27:16
  That's the only good thing I think you could
• 1:27:17
  do with AI. Get it to do your job for you. Let's
• 1:27:21
  see how badly it does it. Don't worry, Tom. They're
• 1:27:24
  not going to come for us. We're going to come
• 1:27:25
  for ourselves, apparently. And you're not. Don't
• 1:27:27
  worry about you, Tom, because you teach, you
• 1:27:29
  know, little babies. He's making himself obsolete.
• 1:27:33
  OK. Ask AI. Go ask AI how to write an essay and
• 1:27:37
  then write an essay. It's giving planned obsolescence
• 1:27:39
  a whole new meaning. True. That is actually really
• 1:27:43
  good. You know, I think I will try that, though.
• 1:27:45
  Yes to one class see the results i get go try
• 1:27:48
  and see how it teaches you and then the next
• 1:27:50
  class i'm going to say okay do it actually that's
• 1:27:53
  a that's a class that's a classified teacher
• 1:27:55
  role you're becoming the facilitator yeah yeah
• 1:27:58
  and the monitor yeah there we cracked it case
• 1:28:02
  closed change the role of teachers from from
• 1:28:07
  from from the previous how many roles are there
• 1:28:09
  five to only to look inside don't ask me i just
• 1:28:13
  i just work here anyway i think i think that
• 1:28:16
  i think the answer yeah to conclude this is no
• 1:28:20
  right answer yet yeah i don't know yeah there
• 1:28:22
  is a really really interesting video on youtube
• 1:28:27
  by a famous guy called cgp gray have you seen
• 1:28:31
  cgp gray before ruby has about 10 it was about
• 1:28:34
  10 years ago now he made a video about robots
• 1:28:37
  and is a 30 -minute long video. It's really interesting.
• 1:28:43
  It basically says robots already came for manual
• 1:28:46
  labor jobs. Yes. But people did not get more
• 1:28:50
  wealthy. It's the horse thing, right? There are
• 1:28:53
  still horses working, which is a lot fewer. Cars
• 1:28:57
  do not make life better for horses, you know.
• 1:29:00
  Isn't the word robot, I'm gonna check on my phone,
• 1:29:04
  like a check word for slave or something? It
• 1:29:06
  is, yes. Something sinister like that. um and
• 1:29:09
  now robots will come for white collar jobs or
• 1:29:12
  intellectual jobs and then what will be left
• 1:29:16
  like what will the economy look like when everyone
• 1:29:19
  is just doing things with robots but i think
• 1:29:22
  and there's the singularity the takeaway from
• 1:29:25
  that video is that we need to rethink the way
• 1:29:28
  that our economy works instead of because we're
• 1:29:31
  not going to be able to horses weren't able to
• 1:29:33
  stop cars and we're not going to be able to stop
• 1:29:35
  ai it is coming yeah So we need to figure out
• 1:29:39
  how to deal with it before it kills us. But the
• 1:29:44
  millionaires and billionaires who own the AI
• 1:29:46
  don't have the same problems as us. Yeah. They
• 1:29:54
  do not need to worry about rent. Yes, but they
• 1:29:58
  do need to worry about who can buy their products
• 1:30:00
  so they can stay millionaires. So I do think
• 1:30:03
  there is a... Elon Musk is not rich in a vacuum.
• 1:30:10
  That's my point. My conspiracy theory is Elon
• 1:30:16
  Musk really has no money and as soon as America
• 1:30:20
  is tired of him, he'll be a poor man in the street.
• 1:30:23
  As soon as Twitter fails and banks come a calling,
• 1:30:26
  he's in deep shit. Well, he's probably not very
• 1:30:30
  happy about what's been happening this week.
• 1:30:33
  You mean getting pwned? In terms of international
• 1:30:36
  trade. All the sucking up he's been doing to
• 1:30:39
  Chinese government for the last few years to
• 1:30:42
  try and sell his cars here. And well, this has
• 1:30:45
  happened. So are they not, is Tesla doing bad
• 1:30:48
  in China now? I hear it's doing bad in America
• 1:30:51
  and places like Canada, but it's still doing
• 1:30:53
  great here. I'm not sure. I mean, in China they
• 1:30:57
  need to compete with all the other electric car
• 1:31:00
  brands. Yeah, and they're doing well. their thing
• 1:31:02
  was like they were luxury importers brands for
• 1:31:05
  like rich people um but but now goes get like
• 1:31:09
  over twice as expensive yeah they're really not
• 1:31:12
  doing well you mean tesla's not yeah i know that
• 1:31:14
  i mean the the chinese uh e -cars are doing well
• 1:31:18
  the chinese cars are doing well yeah like dyk
• 1:31:22
  like tesla's i think this is still tesla's biggest
• 1:31:25
  market uh -oh What do the locals feel after they
• 1:31:28
  bought all those Teslas though? They must feel
• 1:31:30
  really sick. Well, man, if you look at our school,
• 1:31:31
  there are so many new Model Ys, it's ridiculous.
• 1:31:35
  Yeah. Really? Yeah. Oh. Inundated the streets,
• 1:31:38
  and now people come to pick us up. The new Model
• 1:31:41
  Y looks like the car that the SS wanted to drive.
• 1:31:45
  Hi there. We're going to close off the episode
• 1:31:49
  there. I really hope that you enjoyed this diverse
• 1:31:52
  range of topics. If you like this episode, don't
• 1:31:57
  forget to like and subscribe. Leave a comment
• 1:32:00
  down in the comment section. And yeah, I'll see
• 1:32:06
  you in the next one. Love ya.