Latest / He's Hot but Something's Off... / HHBSO 26: Taiwan Pride

Transcript

HHBSO 26: Taiwan Pride · He's Hot but Something's Off...

0:01
Hello, welcome to Heat Hop. But something's off with me.
0:03
Just Joey T Fall has officially descended on Los Angeles.
0:10
It's it was in the low 80s today, but definitely it's gone
0:15
quite a bit cooler overnight and I run cold most of the time.
0:24
So the ideal temperature for me if I'm not exercising or running
0:29
around or whatever is like high 70s.
0:32
And for a lot of people sitting around in your house where it's
0:37
7778 degrees that's warm, no one sets their thermostat to that
0:43
well. They actually recommend, I
0:44
think, for energy saving for people to set their AC
0:49
thermostat to 78 in the summertime if you live somewhere
0:54
warm, because I think that's where most people will feel just
0:59
uncomfortable enough where they they'll notice how warm it is,
1:05
but not so uncomfortable that they feel like they're melting.
1:11
A lot of people, I know white people will set the thermostat
1:14
to 71 in the summer and it's and it's freezing.
1:19
So if I visit someone, some white person's house and they
1:23
have AC and I, you know I'm inside, after a while I get cold
1:27
That where I come from. In Hong Kong they have this
1:29
concept of an air conditioning jacket where when it's warm,
1:35
which is most of the time over there, the weather is quite warm
1:38
most of the time and it's also humid.
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Most indoor places have every indoor place.
1:43
I say see like 100%. And basically you're going from
1:47
such warm weather outside and when you go inside the AC is
1:52
always so cranked up that sometimes you have a light
1:55
jacket you bring with you because it's so cold inside.
1:58
I'm thinking why don't they just not crank the AC up so much,
2:01
just dial it down a couple notches?
2:04
But I run cold usually, so in warm weather I do.
2:09
Well, literally there are, unless it's really, really warm
2:12
outside, like it's in the 90s or like 100 or something.
2:16
That's where I'll have AC. But if I'm in the house and it's
2:19
73 degrees and I'm not doing it, but in the house, you're just
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sitting there. I'm.
2:22
I'm not exercising. If it's 73 degrees in the house,
2:25
I'm cold and I'll put on a jacket.
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So that's the kind of weather we're in.
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That's how I know it's fall when I wake up in the morning and I'm
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cold. I need to wear sweatpants.
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I need to wear a jacket, a hoodie, something like that.
2:40
But in the winter time, that's where I'm freezing all the time.
2:44
And I'm also cheap now. When I was growing up, I always
2:48
remember thinking or not understanding when you're a kid,
2:52
why is mom not turning the heat on?
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I just visited my parents a few weeks ago, my mom and it she's
3:01
in Vancouver and it's not winter yet, so it's not that cold.
3:06
It's, I don't know, in like it's low 70s.
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It's the high 70 ish maybe for the high and then overnight it's
3:16
maybe dipping down into like the high 50s or something like that.
3:20
So she doesn't have the heat on, but she's very like thrifty and
3:25
penny pinching and things like that, like a lot of mums are,
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you know, I'm trying to take care of her family when they're
3:30
growing up, right? So mom never liked turning up
3:32
the heat, but I feel cold all the time.
3:34
Like why are we not turning up the heat?
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And nowadays I now that I'm paying the utility bills and you
3:41
know, inflation, all that stuff, electricity is not cheap.
3:45
So now I understand and I do the same thing now where let's just
3:50
put on an put on like a thicker jacket in the house instead of
3:54
cranking up the heat so that we're not, you know, running the
3:56
bills up. But anyways, I am going to tell
4:00
you all about my trip to Taiwan Pride.
4:04
That will be the main topic today for this podcast.
4:08
I'm going to spill all the tea. Well, most of the tea.
4:11
I don't think I can take every single thing I did over there,
4:15
but I was over there for three full days.
4:18
I got in there Thursday night and then I left Monday morning.
4:23
So I usually fly United and I flew United for this trip,
4:27
connecting in San Francisco, connected in San Francisco.
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And that's nice because there's like a nice lounge that I I like
4:36
in San Francisco where the United terminal is.
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And whenever I go there, they always have chicken.
4:43
Very, very juicy, very flavorful, tasty chicken breast.
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Most restaurants, when you get chicken, it's all dry.
4:50
This airport lounge, they always have chicken breast, it's always
4:54
cooked the same way and it's always very fresh and juicy.
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So when I go there, I eat tons of their chicken and I basically
5:00
eat as much food as I can comfortably stomach.
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When I go to this lounge, I feel like I need to get my money's
5:05
worth out of the the pass for this lounge.
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So I kind of like connecting in San Francisco sometimes for that
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reason. So I did that, flew out
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Wednesday morning from LA to San Francisco, had had ton of food
5:20
at the lounge, and then I boarded the flight from San
5:23
Francisco to Taipei. So this is like the Trans
5:27
Pacific. The long portion of the flights
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I think worked out to be 13 hours something like that was
5:32
the was the flight time and was in economy.
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But I was able to pick a exit row seat.
5:40
So I was on the window on the left side of the plane and there
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there are two other seats beside me.
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There's a middle seat and then the aisle seat.
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There was a emergency exit door right in front of us.
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So you know we just like a ton of leg room.
5:53
And I got on board pretty early, settled down.
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I I have a procedure, I have a little bag, little like tiny bag
6:03
that's the size of like, I don't know, it's like a three inch by
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three inch little bag. It came with like some toiletry,
6:11
some toiletry kit that I got before and I called my airplane
6:15
Survival kit and it's always in the backpack that I travel with.
6:19
So it's got earplugs, it's got an eye mask, it's got a little
6:25
tiny travel toothbrush with a tiny little itchy tube of a
6:29
travel toothpaste. I've got some melatonin, some
6:33
sleeping pills in there, Chapstick.
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So basic things like that, where if I needed to get some rest on
6:42
the flight, just with everything in that this one tiny bag that
6:46
is small enough to fit into my pocket, I take that out of the
6:50
backpack and I keep it with me at the seat so I always have
6:52
access to that stuff. This is going to be a longer
6:54
flight. I was going to nap for part of
6:56
it, so that that got unpacked out of my luggage and I just
7:01
kind of stashed it around the seat.
7:03
I always have a water bottle that I fill up at the airport
7:07
before I hop onto the flight, so I have a full bottle of water.
7:11
I always have my iPad with me. So those are kind of the three
7:14
things where once I get to my seat on the plane and before I
7:18
put all my luggage away into the overhead, I will usually take
7:22
those three things out. So I've got water, my iPad, oh,
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and also earphones. I usually put the earphones on
7:27
before I even get on the plane. And then also this little
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airplane Survival kit with all that stuff in it.
7:34
So I was like all settled in and then eventually the two people
7:39
next to me arrived and then they sat down and they were getting
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settled and the person next to me was just figuring out the
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seat. And then he asked me, oh, how do
7:50
you unfold the TV monitor? Because on the exit rows, you
7:54
don't have a scene in front of you.
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So the TV monitor is not in front of you.
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It's actually, it folds away and it's kind of between the seats.
8:01
You have to swing it up from the base of the seat.
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And then it kind of clicks into place.
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But it's not obvious how to actually do it.
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It's some tiny little lever the size of, like a grain of rice
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that you have to press. And there's like a weird way to
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like, swing it up. And then there's like another
8:16
weird way to like swing it back down.
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I'm travel all the time. I'm familiar with the planes.
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I know all this stuff. So I just showed him like, oh,
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it's like this tiny little thing you press and just how you swing
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it out. And then he was like, OK, oh,
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thank you, blah, blah, blah. And then as we were like, I
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think getting ready, about to get ready to take off and
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everyone's boarded and everything, the those two guys
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beside me, they both spoke manager and it's a fight to
8:39
Taipei. I don't really know, Imagine.
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But I when I hear other people speaking, I know that they're
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speaking management and not like Korean or Japanese, right?
8:48
I have my headphones on. I'm watching something on my
8:51
iPad, I think, or I'm doing something.
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And then they're kind of sort of like chatting, which is fine, I
8:57
don't care. And then I I noticed that they
9:01
had kind of stopped talking. And then the guy in the middle
9:04
seat kind of sort of tries to initiate conversation with me
9:09
and I'm in my head, I'm thinking, and this is where I
9:12
draw the fucking line. I'm not going to chat with you
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for the next 13 hours on this long ass flight.
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So he say something like I forgot what he said, but he say
9:22
something to like try to break the ice to like initiate small
9:27
talk. And my first thought in my head
9:31
was like I was doing something So I was like a little
9:33
distracted. So I wasn't like and I had my
9:35
headphones in. So I didn't hear exactly what he
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said, but he said English like some kind of like light hearted
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line to like kind of sort of like start conversation or
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something. And I don't know, I don't know
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exactly what I said. I didn't say anything.
9:48
I think I said like I just like smile and nodded or something
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like that. But I was not having it.
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Like I'm the kind of person where I I I don't want to make
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small talk with you, OK, I will make small talk with the flight
10:03
attendant. So on this particular flight,
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actually I was on board pretty early.
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So I was like one of that was one of the first passengers that
10:13
this particular flight attendant that was near the back emergency
10:17
exit was saw that, you know, all around me was just all empty
10:22
seats. So I was one of the first
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passengers that she saw on board and then she said, oh, are you
10:27
Mr.? So and So.
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And then I'm like, yeah, and she knew my name because I've got
10:33
like status with United. And have you noticed lately with
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United the last four flights I've boarded or four or five
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flights that I've boarded on my last two or so trips, they, the
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flight attendants, have gone out of their way to address me by
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Mr. So and so, whereas before they didn't know who I was.
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Like if they looked on their phone or iPad or their whatever
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thing then they would know. Usually if I business class or
11:04
first class or something and you have if you find business or
11:07
first class even if you don't have status.
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Usually when a flight attendant comes by they'll know your name
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anyways, but that's just what they usually do in business
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class or first class. I'm pretty much every airline
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because usually they'll come by to welcome you.
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They'll come by to take your meal order.
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This is even before boarding ends.
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They'll be like, oh Mr. So and so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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What meal would you like? Do you want a drink before we
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take off all that kind of stuff? Because that's what you get in
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first class and business class. But most of the time when I
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find, you know, that I'm flying economy, including on this
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flight, and then they must have updated their training or
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stepped up the game, There's got to be something going on where,
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yeah, the last four flights say all of us, like, they went out
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of the way to say like, hello, Mr. Blah, blah, blah, thank you
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for a loyalty. And I was like, oh, I've noticed
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that that was new. But anyways, she was like, oh,
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are you Mr. Whoever, besides taking that seat.
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So I guess she studied up where I was gonna sit and I'm like,
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yes. And then she was like, oh, thank
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you for your loyalty, blah, blah, blah.
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So it's kind of like I made some small talk with her because I've
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got friends that are flight attendants.
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And I have, like, I guess the appreciation that it's like, not
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the easiest job in the world when you've got, I don't know,
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300 people on a plane and you're trying to serve all of them.
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And some passengers are just, like, nasty.
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And I know that if I make small talk with her, she's not going
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to try to make small talk with me for the rest of the 13 hours
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like I would if I started chatting with this guy.
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That's beside me, right? He's just bored.
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Like, he just look at the past time, like, I'm not here for
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your entertainment, OK. But the flight attendant, if I'm
12:44
nice to her, she might give me like, extra food or something.
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So I was nice to her. She's serving as, like, she's
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working the plane, you know? So I did make small talk with
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her, but and the flight was actually pretty good.
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Had a lot of leg room, got to Taipei, everything was on time
13:00
and I booked a random hotel this time.
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I usually stay with the Marriott hotels.
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I didn't for reasons I'm not going to bore you with, but it
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was. I went to stay close, ish to
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kind of where all the gay bars and stuff are, even though I
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didn't end up going to any of the gay bars.
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But. And I want to be like super far
13:21
away from the action and I want it to be close to the metro
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because they've got a good metro system in Taipei.
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And I also want it to be close to a McDonald's, which I'll I'll
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get into later. So this particular hotel, it was
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also like a newer hotel. Here's my trick.
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If you want like a nicer hotel without having to pay the nicer
13:44
price, you don't have to get like a super high end hotel.
13:47
Just try to look up a hotel that's newer.
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But the newer the hotel is, the nicer it is.
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Even if it's like a DoubleTree or like a Holiday Inn or
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whatever. As long as it's recently
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renovated or like newly built in like the last three, five, you
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know, years or whatever, everything will be kind of new
14:05
and shiny and it will feel nicer than it actually is.
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If you go to like a AA1 year old Holiday Inn versus like a 20
14:11
year old Holiday Inn, the difference is like night and
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day. So that's what I've been doing
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and that's like been pretty successful for me for getting
14:19
like a nicer hotel without paying like the higher prices,
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right. I don't need to be at the West
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or like the Ritz Carlton or whatever.
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I just want nicer, newer finishing.
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So this place just happened to fit the bill.
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Especially a nice hotel than I thought actually it was it was
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really new hotel. Everything was really nice.
14:41
I didn't I'd forgotten that I had booked a room that has 2
14:48
double beds like two small beds instead of like one regular
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larger size bed. Until I walked into the room and
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I was like, oh, did I book this? And I looked at my e-mail, It's
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like, oh, I guess that's what I booked.
15:00
Maybe that's all they had. And I went back to the front
15:03
desk and they unfortunately didn't have like a queen or king
15:07
size bed. Any rooms with just one single
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large bed. It's just rooms with two small
15:13
beds. So for the whole trip I had two
15:14
beds. So I had one bed that I kind of
15:18
hung out on and the other bed was like the sleeping bed, like
15:21
it was fine, I guess, but it's a little weird to have a room all
15:25
to myself, but there were like 2 beds in it.
15:28
But it was a really nice room with a pretty decent view, Not
15:33
that I knew what I was looking at.
15:35
And a really nice bathroom. It was a it was, yeah, the
15:38
bathroom that had a really nice tub and a shower.
15:41
And then the water closet, which is like the toilet was separate
15:44
and the water closet had like a separate sink for you to wash
15:48
your hands. So it's like a really nice set
15:50
up. So the hotel was really nice.
15:53
There was a Starbucks that was like attached to the hotel
15:58
basically. And I don't know what how I
16:02
booked this thing. I booked it not in the
16:05
traditional way, but it's usually I'm on like the Marriott
16:07
website to book a Marriott chain hotel and this was like a Hilton
16:10
chain hotel. So I forgot how I booked it
16:13
because it was months ago. But when I checked in, the chick
16:16
said you've got hotel credits at the Starbucks that's attached to
16:20
the hotel and like, this is how much you have.
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And I don't know the conversion rates for anything when I travel
16:26
to any foreign country and they're like, oh, this is like
16:29
how many pesos or how many yen or whatever.
16:32
I have no idea what that means. And I don't know the conversion
16:37
rate for anything in my head. So I have to go into Google, be
16:39
like, OK, 1000 Taiwanese dollars, how much is that in
16:44
U.S. dollars? Right.
16:46
So she showed me like, oh, this is how much credit you have and
16:49
just how you use it. And I was like, OK, this is like
16:52
meaningless numbers to me in my head.
16:54
I'll look it up later. And it turns out I have $70.00
16:57
of food credit at the Starbucks to spend.
17:01
And at first I'm thinking over three days to spend $70.00 at a
17:06
Starbucks. Like, how much coffee can I get?
17:09
Like, there's not that much coffee, right?
17:11
But when I visit the Starbucks, this is a really nice Starbucks
17:15
that had way more food options than any Starbucks you would get
17:19
in the US. So they had tons of different
17:21
pastries and desserts and sandwiches and paninis and that
17:26
kind of stuff. So there was like a lot of stuff
17:29
that you could eat there. And the prices for things there
17:32
is not as expensive as in like the US So they had this like,
17:36
chicken, vegetable Panini. I think it works out to be $3,
17:42
three U.S. dollars, something like that in the US If they sold
17:45
that, it would be like 10 or $12.00.
17:48
So I didn't use up all the credit, but it was also a really
17:54
nice Starbucks in the sense that it was pretty large.
17:57
There was a lot of seating, There were a lot of people that
17:59
a lot of college students that just went in there and were just
18:03
studying or doing whatever. So a lot of locals and I guess
18:07
like hotel people were hanging out there.
18:08
So it's always like kind of happening.
18:10
It seemed like a really nice place to hang out, actually,
18:12
like a really nice Starbucks, nice decor and everything.
18:15
But like I said, I wanted to find a place that was closest to
18:20
a McDonald's because I I secretly like eating at
18:26
McDonald's when I'm not at home, when I'm traveling.
18:30
So it's a little bit of like a guilty pleasure, if you will,
18:33
but I think I might have mentioned this.
18:35
But when I travel especially to a place that to a foreign
18:39
country where they don't necessarily speak English, there
18:42
is comfort to me to going to like a chain restaurant or like
18:46
a fast food place that like McDonald's where OK, I know that
18:51
is dependable and there's reliable and I can just get some
18:55
food, any food, without a lot of fuss.
18:58
So having a Starbucks in the building and the credits, the
19:01
McDonald's was literally next door to this place.
19:04
It was literally next door and it was like it was a pretty nice
19:08
McDonald's. And then they have the those
19:12
kiosks where you can order, which is like the best thing
19:15
because one, I like talking to people even if it wasn't in a
19:17
foreign country. And the second thing is I can
19:19
just order the thing and then just bring it out.
19:21
They just read your number and then you're good to go.
19:24
I ate every meal at the Starbucks or at the McDonald's,
19:28
and this sounds gross to a lot of people, but I don't care.
19:33
I I like eating McDonald's. They had this one burger that
19:36
was like some sort of Angus beef burger.
19:40
They don't have this in the US This not McDonald's menu is very
19:45
dependent on the country that you're in.
19:47
David Lamb knows this was. David Lamb goes to McDonald's
19:49
just everywhere that he goes, a little bit like me.
19:52
I don't go to the level that he does, but that this Angus beef
19:56
burger, that was, I'm not going to lie, it was delicious.
20:01
And the way they do the extra value meals over there, you can
20:05
get fries and chicken Nuggets both at the same time.
20:10
It's just like an option. You can do both.
20:11
So I was like, Oh my God, I'm doing both.
20:15
So I had McDonald's I think like five or six times and one of the
20:19
days based on the jet lag, I got a really early I think it was.
20:26
It was like Friday or Saturday morning.
20:27
I forgot. I remember which day.
20:29
But I couldn't, like really go to.
20:32
I couldn't sleep the full 8 hours.
20:33
And I just naturally got up at like 5:00 or 6:00 AM and I was
20:39
just up and I had like nothing to do.
20:41
Nothing was really open, right. So I was like just watching some
20:45
TV, doing something in my room. And eventually I was like, you
20:47
know what? I can go get breakfast at
20:50
McDonald's. And usually I'm never up when
20:54
it's breakfast time at McDonald's.
20:55
I was like, this is really exciting because I like
20:57
breakfast at McDonald's. And it's very rare that I'm up
21:00
doing the breakfast hours. They run into like 10 or 10:30
21:02
or something. So one of the mornings I went to
21:04
McDonald's and had breakfast. So there you go.
21:08
OK, we're moving on from. We're moving on from Starbucks
21:12
and McDonald's because I don't think that's what most of you
21:14
came here to hear about. But events, parties.
21:19
So I did a party super hard. I was only there for three days
21:22
and I don't need to go to every party these days anyways.
21:24
But I did go to the Formosa Circuit party that was on Friday
21:29
night and I ran into like a bunch of people throughout the
21:34
night that I some of them I knew they were going to Taipei for
21:39
pride and some of whom I just have no idea.
21:42
And there were some people that I know of, those people like, I
21:45
see some people. And I was like, oh, yeah, I've
21:47
seen you around at like different circuit parties or
21:49
from the US or from wherever. So yeah, that was a, it was a
21:53
really fun party. It's actually pretty good.
21:55
So did that on Friday night. The Asian guys there were all
21:59
like very hot categorically, like, just not hot for Asian
22:04
because they were just hot. Like, I I don't really like this
22:09
thing where like, Oh yeah, like you're hot for an Asian guy.
22:12
Oh my God, that that is annoying.
22:15
Like in in Western cultures, if some is like some white guy or
22:20
like a non Asian guy goes to an Asian guy and says oh you're
22:23
you're a car for an Asian guy, that's don't say that, OK, don't
22:30
say that to an Asian guy. Don't walk on the guy and be
22:32
like Oh yeah, har. For an Asian guy it's like a
22:33
slap in the face. It's it's it's like a very
22:35
backhanded compliment. Like don't say that so but, but,
22:39
but these guys are just hot yet. Most of the people that are
22:42
Asian because we're in Taiwan, so like 9598% of the guys are
22:47
Asian guys but like they were just the the caliber of hotness
22:52
was like off the charts. Seriously.
22:55
So it was like it was a good party ran to a bunch of people
22:59
that I knew. So it's good to see them.
23:01
And then on Saturday morning we went to the Pride parade.
23:05
And usually I don't do parades, You know, I don't this is not
23:09
really like my type of a thing. But I had a friend that I was
23:13
meeting up with Saturday morning, flew Saturday morning
23:16
from Hong Kong, and we have plans to go to the parade
23:19
together. And then I found out a little
23:21
later on before the parade though, But I found out that and
23:25
like in the US where you can't really March with the parade, if
23:29
you go to a parade Park parade in the US, unless you have been
23:33
specifically signed up to go March, be on a foot, will be
23:37
with a float and you know in some way shape or form, you're
23:41
not marching. You are behind the rails or
23:45
behind the fence. You're on the sidewalk and
23:48
you're observing. You're not really walking
23:51
anywhere. You're just like standing there
23:53
and then you're just watching floats go by.
23:56
So you can do that for the Taipei, Taiwan Pride Parade, but
24:01
I've heard that it's very popular to just kind of walk
24:04
with it, and they allow that. So we got there a little bit
24:08
late. So we were near kind of sort of
24:11
the end of it, about 50 feet. Behind us were like the police
24:14
cars. That was like crawling the end
24:16
of the line, but it was fine. And we were in between, like we
24:20
were actually walking with the folks that they let you do that
24:23
in the USI think it would have been like a safety hazard or
24:26
they would have deemed it a safety hazard.
24:28
I walked with the San Francisco High parade before a couple
24:32
years with with some companies that I was working for and were
24:37
able to like actually be with the float.
24:40
And there are a lot of specific rules about what you can and
24:44
cannot do when you're marching in the parade.
24:47
For example, they said you cannot throw things into the
24:51
crowd, even if it's like a very soft plush toy or something like
24:57
that. This is popular for floats to
25:01
like expert companies that have a pride float in the parade, for
25:04
them to like give away swag for like advertising basically,
25:07
right. Like a a rubber bracelet or like
25:10
a kitch or whatever. So but you're not allowed to
25:12
throw anything, even if it's like the softest, lightest
25:15
thing. They have this like no tolerance
25:17
policy for that kind of stuff. So in the US that's kind of the
25:21
culture, right? But with the in in Taiwan with
25:24
that pride parade, like you can just walk with all the floats
25:27
and it was like it was a pretty enjoyable time.
25:30
So they have two routes, they have a N route and a S route and
25:36
they just, they have, they just have two routes.
25:38
I don't know why. So we just went the north route
25:41
just randomly and we were kind of like walking and kind of in
25:44
between the floats basically or like with the floats.
25:47
So it's actually a really fun time.
25:50
It was overcast and I was lucky that it wasn't raining because I
25:55
was looking at the forecast a couple days before the trip and
25:58
it said it was going to be raining Friday, Saturday and
25:59
Sunday, which were like the three full days I was going to
26:01
be there, but there wasn't that much rain when I got there.
26:05
There are some days where it's cloudy, a few sprinkles here and
26:08
there, but it wasn't really raining at any time when I was
26:11
out and about, so that was fine, yeah.
26:13
So we walked through the parade. It was a really fun time.
26:17
People were very enthusiastic and energetic, especially the
26:23
people that are like on the float, you know, it's very
26:25
similar honestly, the energy to any of the pie parades that you
26:28
get in the US. So it's really fun time.
26:30
So we walked the whole thing and then Saturday night I kind of
26:36
wanted to go to the Formosa circuit party for that Saturday
26:41
night, which is kind of like the main event.
26:42
It's going to be the most popular night, but by the time I
26:45
have made-up my mind to go to Taiwan like three or four months
26:50
ago, they had already sold out of the tickets for Saturday
26:54
night. There was a good period of time
26:56
where I could have gone tickets for Saturday or like or for the
27:01
whole weekend. A lineup of the of the circuit
27:04
parties, but I had not committed to going yet and by the time I
27:08
committed, it was too late to get those tickets.
27:10
You could get tickets at the door, but I chose to just not
27:16
party that night instead of I'm potentially waiting like an hour
27:20
and a half or two hours for tickets.
27:22
And after having gone on Friday, I feel like, you know what?
27:26
I went on Friday. It's gonna be the exact same
27:28
venue. It's probably gonna be mostly
27:31
the same people. I'm sure there's gonna be more
27:33
people and some new boys I haven't seen.
27:34
But, you know, I I'm not. I'm not usually the type to go
27:38
to a circuit party to like meet new people.
27:40
And there wasn't like a group of friends I was traveling with.
27:43
There were people I know that were going and I kind of sort of
27:45
hung out with them. But I was like, I don't really
27:48
wanna have to wait in line to maybe possibly not even get a
27:52
ticket and I have to go really really early to get the door
27:56
tickets anyways. So I decided not to go save a
28:00
little bit money and I actually just, I just stayed in on
28:05
Saturday night. I think if I had I I would go to
28:10
Pride in Taiwan again for sure. But I think I would want to go
28:15
with some friends, travel with them and stay at the same hotel
28:19
together and kind of hang out together and kind of go as a
28:22
group, which is what I always do for White Party Bangkok for New
28:26
Year's, for example, which I'm going again this year.
28:28
And just a group of us that we kind of we, we're all flying in
28:33
from different places. A lot of them are living in
28:35
Australia, for example, and I meet up with them, but we're
28:37
staying in the same place together.
28:39
We'll go to the parties together and that is just more fun for a
28:43
lot of those types of events. For this one, I kind of flew
28:48
there alone, so I ended up deciding not to go there on
28:52
Saturday night, which is completely fine.
28:55
On Sunday I had some collabs lined up.
29:00
If you know about me, I am a professional content creator, so
29:05
I have some collabs lined up for those of you that know where the
29:09
videos are. Those videos will be up
29:11
eventually. But if you know, you know, so it
29:15
doesn't collabs on Sunday. And I also want to send it to
29:18
just be just to like wind down a little bit.
29:21
Really fun to do the Friday night circuit party.
29:24
It's really, it was really fun to like be in the parade and I
29:27
knew I wasn't going to be in Taiwan for that long.
29:31
You know, it's just three full days and my flight, I needed to
29:34
leave the hotel at like 6:30 AM Monday morning.
29:39
And I was more concerned about just beating the jet lag for
29:44
coming back so that I can kind of get back to the gym and get
29:47
back to like regular things once I was back here in LA.
29:51
So yeah, did some collapse on Sunday, rested up a little bit,
29:56
and then I was looking kind of forward to coming back.
30:00
Not that I didn't have a good time there, but I think the way
30:06
I had planned everything, it felt it.
30:10
It felt I was, it felt like I was doing a lot of stuff.
30:12
It didn't sound like I I was doing a lot.
30:15
But you know, I was meeting up with like various people.
30:18
I had, you know, friends that I met it with, the collabs I had,
30:22
the events I was going to. And between all of that, I felt
30:26
like, you know, it was like a good amount of fun, but I didn't
30:30
have like a whole ton of downtime.
30:32
It wasn't like a relaxing time. It was like a kind of sort of
30:35
like a fun party type of a thing.
30:37
But there was also, it also felt a little bit like work, so I was
30:41
kind of glad to be to take the flight home.
30:44
Also I got upgraded to business class for the flight home, which
30:48
is really nice. Always look forward to the rare
30:50
times where I get bumped up to business class and I knew that a
30:55
few days before I even flew to Taiwan, I knew that that emailed
30:58
me to say oh for your return flight you got bumped to
31:01
business class. So that was a really, really
31:02
nice the. So that was basically Taiwan in
31:07
a nutshell. I definitely wanna go back, but
31:10
I think I would really love to spend.
31:13
Two things I would do differently is I would try to go
31:17
with like a group of friends, like stay together with some
31:19
friends and go to the parade and go to events and go do stuff
31:22
together. I would wanna maybe stay one day
31:28
longer, maybe two days longer, but it just depends on how much
31:32
time I have to be away for. So I think those are the only
31:36
two things I would change next time.
31:38
But I would definitely wanna go back eventually, maybe not every
31:40
year, but whenever I can get some friends to travel with from
31:46
the US or just meet me there. I think that would be a lot of
31:48
fun for the flight back again. I was trying to adjust to like
31:53
the the jet lag, you know, because it is quite a big time
31:58
change between, you know, Taiwan and the West Coast in the US.
32:02
So I plan to basically sleep the entire flight back.
32:07
The flight back was like 11 or 12 hours and they serve you a
32:12
meal shortly after takeoff, like a full meal, and then they serve
32:16
you a breakfast about like an hour, hour and a half before you
32:20
land. So basically in between the meal
32:22
service you have about 7:00-ish hours where you could sleep.
32:27
And because this business class, they come and take your food,
32:31
order, your dinner order while everyone is boarding.
32:34
I was just asking the flight attendant, She was super nice
32:39
about the food options, blah blah blah blah blah.
32:42
And in United business class for the for the international
32:47
flights, they have this dessert cart and one of the signature
32:50
things they have are the Sundays.
32:53
So they have these Sundays that are on on the cart and they have
32:58
all these different toppings that you can add on to it.
33:00
And I was looking forward to that because I wanted to ask
33:03
her, oh, I plan on sleeping most of the flight.
33:06
Could you just bring me all the food?
33:07
They have this express dining option.
33:09
It's on the menu. You could ask them for it.
33:12
You just bring me everything at the beginning and then I can
33:15
just go to sleep right after. And I was talking to her about
33:17
that, but she said you don't get the dessert that way, but it's
33:21
the dessert has to come on the card.
33:22
And it's not ready to, like, just give to you.
33:26
If you just want to do the express dining where they just
33:28
bring you all, all your food all at once, you won't get the
33:31
dessert that way. And I was like, wow, what the
33:33
goddamn Sunday. So the dinner, like the main
33:39
course of the appetizer, all that stuff that came and that
33:41
was fine and I remember that. But after I got home, like back
33:47
in the USI was like in the bathroom, I was washing my face
33:50
and taking a shower, doing something and I thought I didn't
33:53
get the sundae. I I wanted to eat the sundae.
33:57
But I end up not getting the Sunday for some reason.
34:00
I think. I I think I just went to bed
34:03
before they even served the Sunday.
34:05
So I was like, oh, like that was a waste.
34:08
I I wanted I should have just done the express dining thing
34:10
where they just brought me all the food earlier all at once.
34:13
But I ended up not doing the express dining and then not
34:16
getting the Sunday. And then I was on my phone a
34:19
little bit later and I was like I was gonna upload a photo or do
34:23
a post or something. And then I saw in my photo album
34:27
a photo. Two photos.
34:28
These are the two newest photos in my phone.
34:31
The newest photo was an ice cream sundae on my tray table in
34:36
my seat. The second newest photo was me
34:39
taking a photo of the dessert cart.
34:41
I was thinking, I have no recollection of either of those
34:49
two things happening. I did not remember at all seeing
34:52
this dessert cart. I do not remember ordering or
34:56
talk to anyone about May I have to Sunday off the cart please,
35:01
because you have to tell them what you want.
35:02
But to have other types of desserts and they have like a
35:04
cheese plate or other things, you have to tell them what you
35:06
want when the cart comes by. And I'm no recollection
35:09
whatsoever of eating that sundae.
35:15
I do remember getting the the entree like the main course
35:19
before that, and I remember that what happened before I went to
35:24
bed, because you can ask for them to give you this mattress
35:30
pad thing. When you convert your bed into
35:34
for your seat into a bed, it comes with like blankets and
35:37
stuff and a pillow. But if you want you can ask a
35:40
flight attendant for like a mattress pad to put onto the
35:43
seat to make it more comfortable.
35:44
And I remember having that conversation and I remember
35:47
putting the bed down and I remember like getting into bed
35:51
and getting ready to go to bed, like or getting ready to go to
35:54
sleep. Yes, I remember everything that
35:55
was before the dessert. I remember everything that was
35:58
after the dessert. And I'm like, there's no way I
36:04
would have not remembered eating dessert.
36:06
I'm thinking what could it be? And I think this what happened.
36:10
I took some melatonin and I took some sleeping pills over the
36:15
counter. Sleeping pills like the Benadryl
36:17
or something or whatever you call it.
36:19
I took that before, right before the meal service because that's
36:25
what I usually do if I have to sleep on a plane is before the
36:28
meal starts, I'll take a sleeping pill to make myself
36:34
sleepy, and by the time the meal is over in like 30 or 45
36:39
minutes, I'll be sleepy, Like the pills will kick in and then
36:42
I just go to bed. So the only reason I can think
36:45
of for just having zero Absolutely 0 recollection of the
36:49
desert portion of the fight, which I was looking forward to,
36:53
was maybe it's like a side effect of like, the sleeping
36:57
pill that like, I don't know it, Yeah, I don't know.
37:01
But it's so weird that I don't remember the desert.
37:04
I remember what it was. I remember the entree.
37:06
I remember. I remember even, like, putting
37:09
the olive oil onto the salad. I remember, like, they have this
37:14
like cold, thin sliced beef, like second entree thing.
37:19
That was good. I remember the steak that I got,
37:22
what was, was really delicious. I even remember putting the
37:24
butter onto the bread. I remember everything about the
37:27
entree. And I remember making the bed
37:30
because I remember I was putting the comforter down, thinking
37:33
that was like maybe the mattress pad and then kind of sort of
37:38
looking around for a flight attendant and asking them, oh,
37:42
is there a mattress pad? Do you guys who have the
37:45
mattress pad to on request like you usually do in the business
37:49
class on flights before? And she said, yeah, I'll get you
37:51
one. So I remember everything before
37:53
the dessert and everything after the dessert.
37:55
And I don't remember the dessert.
37:56
And this Sunday is, it's a very good Sunday.
38:00
And usually the Sundays you get in United business class, it's
38:04
like a little too cold because they it's like frozen when they
38:08
load it onto the plane. And usually it's still mostly
38:13
frozen when they serve it to you.
38:16
So one or two things happened. You remember how rock hard it is
38:20
when you're eating it or you remember how it's not rock hard.
38:24
So it's a very memorable experience, but it's usually too
38:28
icy is rock hard, or you're pleasantly surprised that it's
38:32
not as rock hard and icy as it usually is.
38:36
I remember neither of those things.
38:38
I have no idea what I ordered for the toppings, except I have
38:40
this photo to prove that I think I got almost everything on it,
38:44
so it was really weird. So I'm chalking up to a side
38:49
effect of these over the counter Benadryls.
38:54
Maybe it was like a little expired.
38:55
I didn't notice and has like some weird memory loss thing,
39:00
but I did sleep pretty well though on the fight at the
39:02
minute when I got back. Yeah, I kind of sort of beat the
39:07
jet lag pretty successfully. So the sleeping pills worked,
39:13
except you guys got to watch those side effects.
39:15
I guess so yeah, that's my trip report for Taipei Pride.
39:20
What are the trouble that I've got coming up?
39:21
I've got a day trip to San Francisco to take care of, like
39:26
a thing. It's not like for fun art of
39:27
parties or anything. I'm going to go back to
39:30
Vancouver one more time because Mom's birthday is in December.
39:34
So I'll go visit for Mom's birthday.
39:36
And I've got a friend who's turning 40 and he lives in
39:39
Austin and he's making a thing of it.
39:42
That's also in December. And then before you know it,
39:46
it's New Year's. The New Year's going to come up
39:48
super fast. It's just going to creep up on
39:49
us for New Year's Eve. Like I said, we're going to go
39:52
to Bangkok again for White Party like we do every single year.
39:58
But yeah, the. Yeah, it's just crazy how it's
40:01
almost the end of the year. Yeah.
40:05
So a few more trips to go and just.
40:08
A couple more months left in 2023, so quick reminder.
40:13
As always, the video version of the podcast is available on my
40:16
YouTube channel, Just Joey T and also on Spotify.
40:19
I'm wearing a zip up hoodie that I don't usually wear.
40:24
I don't think I've ever worn this out of the house because
40:25
we're very comfortable. So if you want to know what I'm
40:29
wearing for I'm. I was at the gym today but I
40:32
didn't do my hair. But it's like I said last time,
40:34
I'm too lazy. So yeah, I'm wearing a hat and
40:37
I'm wearing this pink, very nice piece.
40:39
It's just like, it's not silk. It's like polyester.
40:42
It feels a little like silk. But yeah, if you're watching the
40:44
version, the video version of this podcast, and you know what
40:47
I wear every time I record an episode.
40:51
But until next time, bye.