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