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Calvin 0:02
Hello and welcome to the midlife crisis podcast. I’m your host Calvin, also known as ref problems on Instagram. I’m excited to do this talk show with my best friends from high school and college. Steven Mikko, what can you expect on this podcast? Well, I like to call it a talk show for Men of a Certain Age. We’re not quite old. But we’re the kind of guys that have to make sure we don’t miss our alcohol on a night out, you know, we’ll chat about current events and trending topics, and things that we just need to get on our so apbox about knowing us. We’ll be laughing the whole time. And ladies, don’t worry if you ever wanted to know what your husband or boyfriend talks about in the man cave. Stick around. Now, keep in mind, we’re old enough to remember when Parental Advisory stickers went on CDs. You don’t know what CDs are. You’re too young for this podcast. Speaking of which, make sure you have your headphones in. It’s NSFW as these kids say. We’ll be bringing that flavor to your weekly on your way to work while you’re shaving, or just sitting around wondering why your backyard but let’s get this show on the road.

Hello and welcome to midlife crisis Podcast. I am your host, Calvin here with Mikko. No, Steve this week, so we gonne cover for him, as usual going to start it off, but how was your week? Different things that’s going on. And

this week, we’re going to talk about going back to our youth. Would you go back with the information you have in your brain now? interesting topic. We’ll do that. Then we’re going to talk about business there in COVID, how some of these businesses are branching out and doing different things on the side, which are becoming the main stream of income, as usual, get off my lawn. And then of course, our Chris Rock quote of the week. So Mika, what’s up, man? What’s good brother? How are you? You know, hanging in there. We record this on a Sunday. So the folks who don’t know so it’s been a nice weekend. Yesterday was chill. Today we went out to brunch, which was nice. Nice, nice. Uh,

Mikko 1:59
the restaurants are Ron here have some open outside seating, which is great. So just almost starting to feel like normal life again. Yeah, I agree. Um, we did that today, actually, the wife and I went out had a little sushi brunch at a local sushi place where it’s usually all you can eat. But since it’s COVID, they don’t have that a yc option anymore, but they had new menu stuff we ate outside, you get serve fresh air. So it was nice. It was a nice little change of pace, and it does start to feel like it’s normal, sort of.

Calvin 2:28
Yeah, it’s getting there. Some of the things like doing that today. You know, this restaurant is about 20 minutes from us, and that’s one of our favorite spots. So went out that our brunch and then went to Whole Foods when we’re shopping kind of thing. So it felt like a normal weekend again, which is nice, because we haven’t done anything that’s felt normal in advance, you know?

Mikko 2:51
Yeah, understand what to say.

Calvin 2:54
But one thing that’s been going on with us recently is we’ve recently started playing badminton.

Mikko 2:59
Oh, Okay, okay. shuttlecocks and whatnot.

Calvin 3:02
Exactly. sport of kings. It is it is for the kings.

Mikko 3:08
That is legit. That’s what they call it.

Calvin 3:12
So, yeah, we’ve been doing this, we go for a walk in the evening, about a mile and a half from our house. This was school. So we walk up there, they have some nice fields, and we’re playing badminton for, you know, half an hour, 45 minutes, whatever. And come to find out it’s actually a pretty good workout, you’ll burn four or 500 calories in a half an hour, which is Yeah, pretty amazing. And it’s fun. So yeah, we have a good time doing it. So we’ve been pretty consistent with that over the past few weeks. But as a result, you know, you start to feel things at this age, right? So yeah, I got a stretch before we go and like middle of the game, I might have to do a little quad stretches like, Hey, hold on, you know, I can’t reach this one. And you got some ones that are like, dropping a few feet away and your body’s like, no, we’re not doing that. Just go rollover we’ll pick it up and start this one over.

Mikko 4:03
It’s like oh die for No, no

Calvin 4:06
yeah dive. Yeah, that’ll be the end of the game for sure. It’ll be the end of that.

Mikko 4:11
random fact. My friend Darwin plays badminton competitively, in like, okay, leagues, I guess in the Philippines, I had like badminton leagues because it was such a highly sought after sport. And their company like sponsors, badman teams with uniforms and whatnot. And yeah, he said, it’s almost just as good of a workout of swimming, according to him, so, but yeah, Batman is very close to his heart. Yeah,

Calvin 4:36
I can see that because just for me tracking it while we’re playing. And, I mean, believe me, it’s not very intense. But just the, the moving side to side and the swinging. I mean, we’re burning in a half an hour, up to 500 calories so I can see if you’re in shape and you’re playing this competitively running back and forth. For a good amount of time. You’re going to get a good workout. In very surprised

Mikko 5:00
I’m tired just hearing about it to be

mad, badminton. You know what was weird is, you know, you get to this age where you got the aches and pains or whatever. And sometimes you try to front because I’m sitting here like, yo, my elbow kind of hurts. And like I could feel it a little bit after a few days and I was like, Nah, come on man is badminton bro. Like, come on. Why do I need to be ice in myself up after badminton? Like, let’s be real. If you go to the gym, you go play some soccer, basketball, so you could explain that. But back then. Yeah, you tell the homeless. Oh, man, guys, my neck my back my knees. Are we doing? Bad Man? Get the fuck out of here.

Calvin 5:46
Exactly.

Mikko 5:47
Yeah. Now I was like, You know what? I played it. I played it. I know. Me and my friend Kenny Wilson. Shout out to Kenny Wilson. Middle School, seventh grade badminton champions. So I know it’s a tiring sport I mean your quads your neck your back everything aches understanding

Calvin 6:06
it’s a full body workout man but yeah now I got a rug I got a rock the copper sleeve whoo so because I got I got tendinitis in my elbow, but I got these COPPER FIT elbow sleeves so like yeah, I think Allen Iverson but not cool. You know? So I got a rock that I got to put that on I you know, I wear that when I go to the gym. I’m doing push ups and weights and stuff. Again, it feels like that fits. But for badman, I still got to gear up and it’s like, oh,

Mikko 6:35
God is bad. You know, I feel your brother. I mean, it’s we’re just at that age. Now, before I even think about playing basketball. Screw that before I even think about going on to the court. I got an ankle brace on I got a knee brace on I’m rubbing asper cream bengay all over my body like a fucking old man. Just to not feel the pain. I got to take 1000 milligrams of ibuprofen so I don’t feel the pain afterwards. And still, then I might pull something. So I understand. I understand

old age

Unknown Speaker 7:07
play Boston, I

Mikko 7:09
understand.

knew we would get Chris rocking there somewhere

Calvin 7:17
new that is always within the first five minutes, man exactly, though, exactly. But that brings us to our first topic for this week. I saw something interesting when he’s interesting means on social media last week, and the gist of it was, if you could go back to your youth, you can go back to 10 years old, but keep the same mentality you have now. So it’s just you in a younger body. You have all the knowledge and experience and everything. Would that be something you would do?

Mikko 7:47
would be something I would do?

Calvin 7:49
Would you want to be 10 years old now. I have the exact same mentality you have now. So you have all that knowledge and experience that you’ve gained over the years, but now you’re 10 years old again.

Mikko 8:00
I would definitely go back. Okay, there’s just maturity brings brings a lot of information forward right like 10 years ago, I didn’t know as much about money as I do now. I didn’t know as much about starting a business or even running a business as I do now. And if I could go back and give myself a 10 year headstart, I mean, the knowledge that you just gained exponentially it’s mind boggling. I definitely would go back I would go back 10 years I’d go back Should I go back five years if you know there’s that song If I knew back then what I know now like there’s there’s a reason why that songs popular going back in time, and I’m roughly what knowledge you know, you probably would know better than me, brother. I think it is, though. I think it is

Calvin 8:49
the way the Google app but yeah,

Mikko 8:50
we’re gonna have to play that song in the middle producer. Yo,

Dad I’m not singing that’s all

you brother ain’t singing I can do a lot of things singing in one of the

Calvin 9:09
same here bro I mean the audience knows that now too

Mikko 9:12
yeah that was not blessed with the vocals sorry no sorry lady I know better lighting

Calvin 9:17
is off

Mikko 9:18
oh shoot I can I can lip sync my ass off you right but that’s it

the second it sounds

Calvin 9:25
like Bill Eddie Murphy right like just sing it sing singers get all the women

Mikko 9:34
oh he was talking about the Pet Shop Boys or something like that the barber shop boy

yeah like

Calvin 9:40
all those come to my house the fish stop swimming. Yeah.

Mikko 9:46
Go soda pennies on state.

Oh, yeah. Oh Eddie Murphy to I forgot.

Calvin 9:52
Oh, yeah. All the legends, all the legends. But I just wanted to be clear because the actual question wasn’t going Going back 10 years from now. So like 10 years old, is 10 years old. 10 years old with a 40 year old brain. I was still doing it. I’d still

Mikko 10:09
do it, um, knowledge experience with women. That’s a good thing to know. Maybe not a 10. But it’s good to know moving forward.

Calvin 10:19
You go back to the boy, five, six years from now? Yeah,

Mikko 10:24
yeah, yeah, I would. I would you know what, at 10 years old. I know a lot of kids nowadays have online businesses. I know a lot of kids nowadays are like dabbling in the stock market or dabbling in short, Bitcoin. They’re dabbling in social media. Social media alone, that impact Yeah, starting at 10 years old building. Imagine building your brand, at 10 years old and having 10 1520 years to really like kick it off, especially on a new platform. You know, when Instagram was around, or when even like MySpace imagine blowing up on my screen. going towards Facebook being one of the first people on Twitter and Instagram and YouTube. You rolling you rolling, bro. So

Calvin 11:11
that’s a great point. And that’s one of the things I wrote down I’ve definitely would be one of the big benefits of doing it would be from a business standpoint in having the insight and the experience to say, Okay, well, all these kids are on this particular app, how can I monetize that app? and make that work for me as opposed to just be in a 10 year old kid and you’re just playing around with it and not thinking from a business standpoint? I think that’s a huge benefit. And I mean, never mind, going into going to school, going to college and being able to start off all these things. I mean, you you already understand stocks to an extent, more than that, in general. The internet is so many different things and so many avenues that you can do and you’re starting over from such a young age. But I think the biggest one for me, the first thing that came to my head was kind of what we were talking Before for sports reasons, and I think just having the mentality in a younger body is just a killer combination.

Mikko 12:10
When I was able to see plays before it happened like that kind of stuff or like, well, the work ethic stuff,

Calvin 12:16
I was leaning more towards the work ethic stuff, what it takes to actually, okay, really good at any particular sport. I mean, I was a very good soccer player when I was younger, but I didn’t have that work ethic mentality. And that’s not to say, I wouldn’t have done the work. I just didn’t know what it took. I didn’t know how hard you have to practice and look for opportunities to play on like better teams and all this type of stuff. And if I go back now with this knowledge to say, Hey, listen, I’m getting to 10 years old and beaten all these kids in my age bracket. Let me play with the older kids. Let me look for a travel team. Let me work out harder, all these type of things that you know now, and taking care of your body is a whole other part of it, too. Yeah, that’s true. No, that’s true. I’d run a game and then just go straight and play video games didn’t stretch, you didn’t massage and do all that kind of stuff, you know, all these little things, especially now because where we are now in society and with athletics, light years past where things were when I was that age, with the kind of technology and the knowledge you have from a training standpoint, but you brought up a good point too, just kind of having the the more mature mentality on the field also, to kind of see how the game develops and knowing when Alright, listen, guys, we got to slow to play down, slow the game down. As opposed to when you’re that age. Most of us are just going off of adrenaline and just pure athleticism. Right? It’s just not. It’s true. Yeah. So we need to score more we shoot fast and not knowing Hey, listen slow to game though. Played smart.

Mikko 13:51
You know? Yeah, from a basketball standpoint, because I never played soccer because it was just like that’s a lot of running for me, bro. But I’m a basketball stamp. point my varsity coach would always want to play called 95. For those of you who grew up back east, the 95 freeway is the one that doesn’t want to long main all the way down to Florida.

Calvin 14:13
It runs pretty much the whole east coast.

Mikko 14:15
Yeah, the whole east coast. So basically what that triggers for us is when he calls 95 It’s a full court press and it’s fast breaking all game long 48 minutes non stop and there was like, no strategy involved. There’s no oh, let’s slow the game down. We’re up by 44 up by 40 my coach wanted us to run even harder and get it up to 60 but if I had the mentality that I know now that I could just tell him Hey, you know, kill clock you know, let’s hold the possession a little bit longer. Why even give them a chance to even come back? You know, kill the clock. The clock is our friend. Now we’re up by 40 Let’s make the clock a little bit but now he was just like, no Run. Run these fools off the court. That was always his mentality. run these fools off the court.

Calvin 14:56
Yeah, and go into basketball. If for some reason, I wasn’t That was a decent basketball player, but I was never as confident as I was on a soccer field. And it’s full drop threes all day long. Don’t let them tell you that.

Mikko 15:07
There’s full rainbow threes all day long. Don’t get it twisted, you need to three give the ball the cowling and fire that thing up. Don’t get it twisted. Don’t get it,

Calvin 15:17
but that’s when you knew me that was in college. So I started to break out of my shell a bit. Okay, and I’m okay with a lot more confidence in high school. I was very timid, and I would defer a lot and I let guys kind of take me out of my game, you know, real easy. So my teammates I even thought about the team. You know, you’d let me be like, Oh, don’t don’t don’t shoot it. I’m like, Okay, fine. I’m gonna shoot. You know not fuck you. This should is going up.

Mikko 15:42
Right, you know, and don’t talk back to

Unknown Speaker 15:44
Calvin. Ooh, what’s that?

Mikko 15:47
Don’t talk trash to Calvin,

Calvin 15:49
man. No, no, no, no. Big that’s a big mistake. And man should tell this story now then. We should tell. Now because we might. We should. We got a lot of good baskets. Both stories from the shore. We do and for those of you new listeners be in Mikko went to college together at the University of Maryland eastern shore. Go hos go hosta five calcified if those walls good tough

Mikko 16:15
man but x rayed

Calvin 16:16
we don’t even we had a nice we had a nice crew you know me me go we had my boy be from Philly Kev from Jersey we had a nice yeah, a nice squad Kevin was the point guard. I have never seen this dude get stripped ever, ever. Not a single time. I don’t remember a single time somebody took the ball off in his head. Probably the most fundamental dude I’ve ever played basketball with. Period 100% he wasn’t flashy, but everything got done. Yep, everything got done. And then B was our he was just the most athletic freak. I mean, this guy was like six three could jump out of the building. But he wanted to shoot threes a lot, but he liked that. jumper but he was just throw that ball up anywhere around the rim you were getting banged on. Yeah, then I like call myself I was kind of a low budget Scottie Pippen did a little bit. Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t undersell yourself brought that don’t do that. I’m not gonna compare myself to Pippin wasn’t that good?

Mikko 17:20
But I would compare you to pick you did everything offense defense, you know, lock people down. You didn’t let people back you down at all. You are Pippin, bro. You’ll pick it.

Calvin 17:28
I’ll take it. I you know, I’ll take it. I appreciate that, bro. I’ll take it. And then Mika was like the two slash three. And that’s the thing me and you could both fill those positions. So you were the hardest to guard. We could take you into pain or shoot through on you. Yes. And we could both pass and Mikko I have never met anybody who could finish at the rim like you do. Dude, you will you swear somebody is like now he getting blocked on this one. he’d find a way to contort your body and spin it up, put some backspin on the ball and hit it off the glass and you’d be like Yo, it was really funny to watch. It would be really funny to watch the guys on the other team get pissed, because they’re like, oh, now you got him. No way he should. Yeah. And it’s like fuck. And we laugh because we’re like, yo, he makes that every week.

Mikko 18:16
Yeah, can they think they think it’s like a lucky shot and I told him I practiced this. I practiced this all day long up and unders whoopty Woo. You know, jump from the left side, swing the ball down, scoop it up, toss it off the backboard on the right hand side. Hi, so you can get it. I practice that on all the lotto winners. Oh, Lucky, lucky, lucky. All right, for me do it again. You know, we do it again. And again, then it’s like, Ah, this guy’s tripping. You know, and we never got to respect not until, I think not until after like, a third year is when people really just started like, kind of like wanting to test us because in the beginning, would you like Who are these bumps? You know, step one a quarter with these bumps and when we blow them out by like, six to seven to eight point and it’s like, Okay, all right.

Calvin 18:58
Yeah, because we noticed together and their role, but what gets them fucked up is they’ll see B and be like, Yeah, he’s,

Unknown Speaker 19:07
you know, he’s the one you know, he’s the one they see you

Calvin 19:10
as like this Filipino okay? Yeah, he’s gotta play ball. So they ain’t worried about you. Me. I was like real thin. I was about a buck 50 at that point, I didn’t look like I could play. So they were like, yeah, whatever him, Kev, they probably didn’t think anything until he started playing. So, B was from Philly. So he had his friends. You know, everybody kind of would mingle with the people from their hometown. So he had his friends from Philly. And what 1.1 his friend says, Hey, you know what? Yo, we should play Philly cats versus you and your boys. So we said, Yeah, fine. Then the conversation evolved into Yo, we should put some money up the plate is 21 or whatever it was. I think everybody had to put up 50 bucks and whoever wins keep the cash. Yeah, it was something like that. Yeah, something like that. Well, but yeah, well, we set it up to play For money we had like, people started talking about it, you know, everybody bringing their girls and their friends and we were playing all the way the court although in the back of campus It was like behind a dorm so like people could look out their dorm room and see the game to like in full court. So the night before be in whoever was the captain on other side, they decided, listen, this is not play for money, because that could get a little too crazy. Let’s just let’s just play for fun. So we’re like I no big deal is fine. Nobody needs anything to escalate unnecessarily, right? So we get warmed up for the game and one of the dudes on the other side says, oh, man, I can’t believe you’re not playing for money just playing for pride. So I

Mikko 20:42
say that, uh, that little medium sized cat would like the little shave low low haircut. I remember him.

Calvin 20:48
Yeah. dark skinned cat. Yeah, yeah. Well, he No, he was there. He was the one who ended up hyping it up. It was the light skinned dude on their team. He’s about my height.

Mikko 20:58
Yeah, you guys were the same height. I remember.

Calvin 21:00
Yeah, so we ended up guarding each other and he was the one who said that and I swear to God, you know me, honestly never start the shit talk ever. Right? All I said was like, Well, look, I mean, it’s not like it was guaranteed Yeah, we’re gonna win the money. And I didn’t say it as as shit talk. But then the other dude the guy you were talking about not he went, Oh, shit, da da da so then now he getting his boy gassed up. And he’s like, I will see you on the court. And I’m like, yo, you nobody talking shit. I’m just saying it’s not like Show some respect. It was not like I was guaranteed to walk home with that money you could have been out of pocket. So now he do all that. And if there’s one thing I could relate to Jordan about was y’all seen the last dance if there’s one thing I could relate, I really felt him when he’s like, and then it got personal.

Yeah, I that’s true. I took that personally. I was like, I know you want to talk shit. You are

Mikko 21:56
extra motivated that game I remember.

Calvin 21:58
Oh my god, dude. I honestly You think I scored the first 16 points all from behind the arc?

Mikko 22:03
Yeah, you arraign in three left and right, because they were just leaving you alone. And there was just like, talking and leaving you alone. So you were just like stepping up three and then like, That’s nothing. Three and I’m thinking after your third three of like, you’re gonna guard this fool or what did you keep letting them shoot? They kept backing up. All right, and we kept passing you the bucket. That’s how we played right? You give the ball to the hot.

I think you hit Yeah, for I think four out of your first five. You hit it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Calvin 22:31
Yeah, that’s what you call pride kids.

Because they were talking shit. And I didn’t look like a baller in their mind, I guess. And they said, This guy can’t be good. So I started raining down threes on them, but they didn’t want to start now. Show me the respect by defending me because then that would make them look stupid. Right? Exactly. As opposed to looking stupid that way. They look stupid by getting the fucking ask and ran off the court.

And then at the end of the game number

you Then at the end of the game, the little kid you were talking about is like, Oh, yeah, that was luck. I was like, yeah, lucky. Oh yeah. No fucking defense. Exactly. You seriously Dude, I hit six threes this game and I had like three assists. And I had to tap in over that kid who started to shit talk. And of course had to let him know about it. And you talk about luck I mean, I scored 80% of the points. Exactly.

Mikko 23:24
And when I remember I remember I was frustrated with because he had the shortest guy on the court guarding him posting him up. I love you be but I think it’s because your your boys that you didn’t really like play the way he normally played because I think out of those points if you had scored 16 I think I scored the other five. Because I hit it three and then I remember the last play. I spun the ball wrapped it around my back look in the past and they just left it wide open so I just loved it up to the backboard tapped in myself, because it’s like they were trying to guard me. You know, like Okay, I’ll just pass it to myself and scored and then they were like, Oh, you guys got lucky bullshit. Yeah, no, we know how to play and then you pissed us off.

Calvin 24:08
Exactly. Which is the worst fucking thing you could do. And that’s what being you had in common. And I think it was probably it was because we always got disrespected like you look at Kevin, he was cut to like, he looked athletic. Yeah. I don’t know how good he is. But he looked like he could probably play be against six three athletic freak. You’re gonna you’re gonna give him his respect me and Nico didn’t look like much to these guys. So we had that chip on our shoulder. You know? Yeah. Okay, that’s true. We were skinny. We were unassuming. I think that’s where that’s that’s the key where we were assuming, like, these guys skinny, light skin because they didn’t know what the fuck I was. Is he black

Mikko 24:44
and white If

Unknown Speaker 24:49
you ain’t black.

Mikko 24:51
I know you can’t hope and then that’s what I think. Especially for me. I had to prove that I can play ball. I mean, I went into every game. bawling because I felt like the second I don’t ball than the stereotype is true. And I didn’t want that. So I mean, I bought about every time we stepped on the court, I wanted to be like, Oh, if I’m Asian, in this black, African American University, you guys are gonna say I’m the best Asian ballplayer you guys have ever played with. I went to every game with that mentality.

Calvin 25:21
It was the boy Deontay Wilder to this day to this

plaque outside close to five best Asian basketball player to ever step foot on that campus come get some

Mikko 25:34
facts

and get some in the room is low enough for bet down low enough. I might catch it on you. Don’t get it twisted.

Calvin 25:43
Yeah, I never had hops. So I stayed out on the outskirts rain threes anyways.

Mikko 25:49
Yeah, that was my saving grace. I could jump a little bit that wasn’t the only saving grace that I had. That’s

Calvin 25:54
why I’m

Mikko 25:56
yeah, that’s what I got like to be able to like contort and twist and People like oh look, I’m gonna do it again.

Calvin 26:04
And that was the thing with you, you say, you know, having that chip on your shoulder being a minority at a minority college, which is exactly. I was really timid in high school like, believe it or not, I had coaches and teammates used to call me silent cow. I never said a word who I’d never heard that before. Do tell, Do tell. I never said a word man. Like, I was really quiet. I was very, I was very timid. I didn’t come out of my shell until I came to college. And you’ve seen what that looks like. Yeah, that’s when I just released I stopped giving a fuck. It was like, Okay, wait, hold on. I can say whatever I want, do whatever I want. And really, nobody’s going to do anything about it. The worst is going to happen is maybe they try to fight you. But I’ma swing back. You know what I mean? What’s the worst like you want to talk? I’m gonna talk. And I just I wasn’t worried about reps in high school was always worried about I might get sent out at a game you know your parents. understands watch and you don’t want to embarrass them all this kind of dumb shit that you really shouldn’t care about. That affected the way I played. So, yeah, when it was time for college man, like, that’s when I really just started to grow in that sense. And that helped me play a hell of a lot better. And that’s what I discovered about myself. It was like, Listen, if you just be yourself, that’s when I played well if I ever tried to curb that. It wasn’t gonna work the kids picture Draymond Green. Okay, what a jump shot, right? That was me.

Mikko 27:32
That’s this. That’s not a bad person to be though.

Calvin 27:35
No, no, not at all. Not at all. I mean, we might be my Pippin. They might not know what the fuck Scottie Pippen is.

Mikko 27:40
Yeah, great dream on Dream on. Yeah.

Calvin 27:43
But like from an attitude perspective. That was that’s about the best analogy I could get. Because if you told Dre my Hey, listen, you shut the hell up. Don’t get no text and just relax. He won’t be dreamin. He won’t be grandma. No, he can’t play that way. And that’s he’s one of those people. That’s kind of By his emotions and that’s how I was. You know, those were good times. That was the best story. We’re not gonna give you all the stories on this episode because I know I got more. I’m sure Mikko got more. I got

Mikko 28:10
everything I’m leaving with. Emily, one note. Just to your credit. I talked to Kevin a lot when we were in college, especially before he had transferred out and to us. We didn’t know how shy and timid you are. This is like the first time I’ve ever heard about that. But to Kevin, I like you would like the embodiment of a a New York dude. Honestly, because you know, how you felt? You didn’t give a fuck about anything else. When someone talk trash to you. It like lit something inside you like like a New York dude. Huh? no interest like, oh man, Cal is like the embodiment of someone from New York. And that’s how we saw you and to hear that you were shy and timid. That’s news to me.

Calvin 28:52
That’s interesting. You know, it’s funny, like you never really know how you’re viewed by other people. If you guys met people that knew me in high school, they’d be like, I’ll talk about the same guy, you know, because that never happened in high school ever, especially on basketball. I mean, maybe soccer because I was, again, a little bit more confident in that arena. So I might have talk some smack back. But basketball, barely ever said a word. I remember one time I got a technical phone because the ref made a call. I was like, Oh, that was a bad call. Who got upset by that for some reason? And he glared at me. And then when he was just like, you know, you say anything else, you’re gonna get a tick. I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t actually say a word. I just kind of shrugged. Like, okay. And then he gives me a technical foul. And I heard my code scream, and he was like, how did he get a tech? He never says a word. So it’s gonna say that this guy? Yeah, exactly. It’s interesting that you guys had that image of me, which I mean, obviously, everything you said is correct. You know, that’s who I was there. But that was a new me. That was me. You know,

Mikko 29:56
we all invent ourselves in college because honestly, in high school, it’s kind of like you Like I didn’t want to mess up, you know, I ran plays that the coach designed to perfection, and right to the detriment of the team sometimes because like, I want to run the play as it’s designed, not realizing like they passed the ball underneath the basket wide open. And I’m just like, I’m gonna go pass it back up, because I’m not supposed to get the ball down here. And they’re just like, wide open, shooting on like, Oh, you know, I just wanted to run the play correctly, because I didn’t want to get in trouble. So you know, we all invent ourselves in college and in college is like, you know, you’re the man in college. You know, you got out of high school, invent yourself, no one knows you. So, you know, in college, you’re the man but I always knew I was good. But when it came down to like, you know, we’d rest in an organized ball. Like, I never wanted to get a file. I never wanted to get to that game. Like, you know, I played that way timid in high school, too. So I feel,

Calvin 30:49
yeah, it’s so true. All the stuff you’re saying is 100% true. Like, I wouldn’t go for blocks and my coach would be like, why didn’t you challenge him? Like, I don’t want to get out. He’s like, you have no files. Like if you get one, it’s fine. But challenge the damn shot, you know? And yeah, it is funny. Like I was talking like this now realize this is why we used to cook these guys because we have very similar backgrounds and it was kind of like I sleep if you want.

Mikko 31:13
Yeah, take the frustrations out on them was like how I viewed is like okay, you’re going to talk trash to me You don’t know me and I have all this pent up frustration and I have this newfound freedom. I’m gonna cook you. I’m gonna cook you right now and just prove it to you. So now. Yeah, high school cats might be like, yeah, Mikko, he rode the bench. You know, he was good, but never did anything with it college. Mick was a baller. We could play you know, and I think you’re painting for you like people just gonna say Oh, man, cow, cow cook.

Calvin 31:39
Does that the boy can hoop a little bit? Yeah, we had some good times submit him stories. I sit back now with my gut on my couch. And I’m like, yeah, you know, what, if there was a such thing as GoPros back then, oh, yeah, dude. Yeah, I would have seen some shit.

Mikko 31:56
Yeah, I wish we recorded everything. You know. I wish you really didn’t record everything because we didn’t really dabble with that until later on. But if we would have recorded a basketball game, there would have been like fun to watch around. We’re like way off topic now.

Calvin 32:09
Yeah. So let’s get back to the script. Right.

Now we’re talking about business during COVID. And this came up because we’ve noticed this week that certain businesses are making more from their, what you would call a side angle, or like a non primary revenue stream is becoming the primary and an example is Disney plus is now Yes, a larger revenue generator than anything else Disney is doing, or Uber Eats is the same. Yes. What kinds of things? Have you seen Mikko in your experience? Or how do you feel about the way things are changing?

Mikko 32:45
I see a lot of specially like, the fast food and the food delivery service. Since like, I’m kind of into that realm. Like that has grown tremendously. I mean, you’re talking grubhub Uber Eats Postmates and there’s probably like another handful of other food delivery services that just, I mean, people want to stay home, or people are scared to go out. So what do they do? You know, either you cook at home, but if you’re too lazy or if it’s just like out of convenience, everybody’s ordering I mean, in my neighborhood alone, we get food delivery all the time. And I know my neighbors do because sometimes I see the same drivers. Like hey, it’s you guys all not for you. It’s for people upstairs. Oh, okay, why bad? You know? And it’s like, everywhere you go. Now, Uber drivers stopped Obering because you No One No one’s going anywhere. But they turned themselves into Uber Eats drivers and they’re making a killing. I’m talking about people that are like leaving nine to five jobs. And saying that they make more money doing Uber they did working for like a big conglomerate that we have. Disney plus I can understand because Disney shut down. Disney World I’m pretty sure in Orlando shut down. But here in California Disneyland is shut down has been shut down since like March. So we’re season passholders we go to Disneyland but we did a couple of times a month but you know that place has an open in a long time. So of course, Disney plus is ramping up their services to have I think a deal with Verizon because I know when I bought my Verizon phone not too while back Disney plus came with it. And then you know, you got the ongoing subscription. And they just had a thing like the Beyonce concert or whatever on Disney plus exclusively. So people were like, hopping on just to watch that because you know, the beyhive Bay everyone loves Beyonce. So I’m pretty sure they got a couple of billion or gazillion or millions of dollars just based off of having beyond sales like concert right on there. So it’s a smart move, I think smart move. Yeah.

Calvin 34:49
Yeah, for sure. What I’ve seen is more in the fitness industry. So I do I do CrossFit and my local gym obviously has been closed down to Since probably mid April, and at no point up until then, had they ever done virtual classes, which is something they started doing during quarantine, and I’ve been participating and now I’m getting more value out of my membership than I ever have. Because I have no excuses, I’d be nice to do is just flip on my computer and I can work out. So it’s been great and I never cancelled my membership. But then for that reason, I was like, Well, I’m still using the service and now because money is tied for everybody and things are, you know, people losing jobs and stuff, it’s like, well, if you’re gonna pay for it, then you need to be using it. So I’ve been consistent for the past few months and this is something now as a business model for them that’s going to remain and may become a primary way for them to earn income and I think is kind of helping them stay afloat. Luckily, they’re still open a lot of gyms here in New York where this is mid August. And gyms are still not really allowed to be open and they may be shut down. Even even at this point completely, so and that sucks. Yeah, it really does suck. But I’m glad for them that they’ve been able to do that and utilize this as a way to get creative and do different kinds of workouts. And I’ve heard some other clients that have moved in the past, they moved away and like physically didn’t make sense to go to this gym, but they told the owner that, hey, you know, if you had been doing this, if this had been something you offered, I would have kept my membership. So Wow. So going forward, I think that this is something they need to do and they will and will become a very big part of what they do as a business, which is great. And hopefully it works out for them. But that’s just one of the things I’ve seen. Another thing similar to what you were talking about with food and takeout and stuff like that. You’re seeing restaurants, high end restaurants, doing takeout.

Mikko 36:51
Yeah.

Calvin 36:53
Yeah, it’s crazy. Yeah, there’s a restaurant nearby where we live called the in by jG JOHN George, who is a Michelin star chef, he’s one of the top chefs on the planet. And he has this restaurant up there and a couple of months ago they reopened and they’re doing takeout like you can get while grout to go.

It’s

crazy. Yeah, no, it’s crazy stuff. I mean, you can get a grilled lobster and I mean really high end, five star Michelin starred cuisine. You can just drive and pick it up. And this I mean, a chef like that would never never allow something like that. It’s just because it kind of devalues their their cuisine and their work and everything. Yeah,

Mikko 37:43
cuz stuff. Experience right like like the whole chef sitting at a five star restaurant. It’s the ambience is the experience is being served food table. directly from the kitchen, you know that. The second you put that in a styrofoam bag and bring it up to your apartment or to your house. It kind of defeats the purpose of even calling yourself like a five star restaurant but I guess

Calvin 38:04
you got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do now Yeah, and that’s it’s just an interesting thing to to see happen. That’s been one of the eye opening things for me. But speaking of eye opening, what I have heard about our drive thru strip clubs.

Mikko 38:19
Whoo, whoa, okay that I’ve heard of a virtual lap dance using a cash app and Venmo but never really explained the concept for me, sir.

Calvin 38:33
So apparently, the way this works is there’s a drive thru strip club where you can order a burger and beer. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

You got it. You got to keep your energy up man. At a nasty Yeah,

Mikko 38:49
strip club. And

don’t make it easy.

I digress. My bet that

Calvin 39:06
it was there. Let’s go. Well, this rock line is welcome on this podcast and it’s necessary actually. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 39:14
so you get food, okay, you order a burger, okay?

Calvin 39:17
Our performers dance with mass on behind a barricade while you’re enjoying a meal in your car from a safe socially distance away. I hate it all rarely. There’s a few of these joints in Portland, Oregon, called the lucky devil lounge for those of you who are interested and vivid gentleman’s club in Houston are supplying such services.

Mikko 39:42
Okay, so you go in, you order your food, you parking eat, and someone performs behind the barricade a dance basically it’s not even a lap dance. It’s a dance.

Calvin 39:55
Yeah, yes not

Mikko 39:57
chow down on some fine cuisine. And watch young lady undress herself in front of you. Exactly. Yeah, I hate it. I hate it I’ve never been big on strip clubs but if I were to go to a strip club I’m not dare to sit on the wall and watch. You got to get a lap dance right you got to get something even the ones that’s like no touch the non alcoholic ones I guess. Huh? It’s on your hands and stuff but it’s still there. You know there’s there’s still body parts there for you to just watch it. I mean, I could go on Netflix or go on my laptop and see something better? I think. I don’t know. How do you feel about it?

Calvin 40:49
Yeah, I don’t get it either. I you know, my strip club days are long gone, but I don’t I don’t see the appeal in that. I don’t end like a Get me on this podcast this episode we’ve been talking about going back in time, right? So let’s just say I was back in that age bracket where I was doing this stuff. I don’t know about this.

Mikko 41:11
I don’t know what it does. You’re right.

Calvin 41:14
Even in those days, I had the good old scramble box where you could steal cable. I remember though, you remember them? Yeah. You can still you know steal the Playboy channel. And do the same thing at home Go to White Castle, get some burgers. Go home. crack open you crave case.

Mikko 41:36
Yeah, they don’t know what that is like a 10 piece.

Calvin 41:39
No, no. Oh, my bad. Y’all know about the Crieff case. This might be a New York thing. So you guys know White Castle, the White Castle burgers a very tiny like they’re all slider size. Yeah. And if you wanted to crave case, it was like a suitcase of these burgers. There’s like 30 of them.

Mikko 41:54
And oh, dance

Calvin 41:56
is like 30 of those of those burgers in a box. So and you’d hold They’ve kind of like like a briefcase, when you open it up, it opens up actually opens up just like a briefcase. He’s slept down on the table, and then it opens flips up. And you’ve got 30 of these burgers in there and wide cast. So I don’t know where people are or if you even have them, but they’re tiny. They’re just picture a slider. They were like the first sliders.

Mikko 42:20
Exactly. Yes,

Calvin 42:20
you can, you can grab that. And that was our spot after we would go to these gentleman’s clubs. Right? Go you spend your night Have you drinks, enjoy yourself, grab a crave case, eat in the car, go home and fall asleep. Right? Yeah. Sounds like if it was a good drive thru, we could just do that at home.

Mikko 42:41
I don’t see the value in getting all the way up to that club to get food and then just to just watch, you know, one you got your windshield or your window to to have another barricade up. What’s the point like I don’t I don’t understand. If you’re a visual person I guess like a lot of people are, I can see you see a young lady, you know, doing what it is that she has to do for tips and money. But for me, it does nothing for me. I’m looking at them just like I would rather do like what you just said, just watch it on TV if that was the case,

Calvin 43:15
right? Right. So sorry, strippers and sorry, you know, to these workers who are trying to make a buck during the pandemic, like all of us, but that’s not something I’m gonna be doing for a lot of reasons why

Mikko 43:30
virtual though, we didn’t talk virtual though. Yeah, porn on your phone that’s a little bit different. I guess it’s the same thing. So you think it’s like an app or a site. And it’s just basically like a webcam. It’s webcaming basically, is what it is, and you’re just tipping through Venmo or your cash app, which is leave go straight to their bank account or whatever. So there’s no like a middleman in between. and you like make requests to whatever they say. Do you like, hey, to do this, it’s x dollar amount and you send it to them and they perform such acts as requested. And that’s how we go then it’s more of a, I think more of like a one on one intimate experience, where it’s just you and the girl, the cameras that facing the girl. And I think you can even do like a face to face like, FaceTime, you can FaceTime and so it’s like a live experience so she can see your reactions to whatever it is that she’s doing. You see what she’s doing. And it’s like a community type thing.

Unknown Speaker 44:32
intimate.

Mikko 44:33
Yes. intimate. Exactly. But even then that still does nothing for me.

Calvin 44:39
guy likes what he likes.

Mikko 44:41
Exactly what I take.

Yeah,

all right. We like grad school progress.

Calvin 44:49
No. Right. So we wrapped up that segment pretty well. I think that was a very well rounded, no pun intended conversation. So now it’s time For everybody’s favorite segment, get off my lawn.

Mikko 45:06
Okay, what is bothering us, middle aged men about anything. Um, you know what, for me, this goes back to COVID. It goes back to work. It’s just going back to what I witnessed Personally, I see people using COVID. And going online and googling symptoms of COVID calling their doctors and primary care providers or nurse advice lines and saying, Oh, I have this, I have this. I have this to get off of work. And it’s like, you’re not sick. There’s nothing wrong with you. And it’s the people that have chronic call out patterns that are doing this. So it’s not like little Suzy who has perfect attendance. That’s all of a sudden popping up with like a two week doctor’s note because she has to quarantine for two weeks. It’s the pls is that call out all the time? Yeah, they use the symptoms and the google it up and they just say, Hey, we have this, we have this, we think we have the virus, you know, can we get a doctor’s note and before doctors would just give them the note. And then now doctors are getting smarter. Because if you’re not having a fever, if you’re not having symptoms, if you’re asymptomatic, meaning you don’t have symptoms, and you call the doctor saying you want to be put off for two weeks, doctors are now not letting you off. Because it’s been abused system wide. You know, people just can’t say, Oh, I have a cough my chest certain doctors would be like, hey, two weeks off, you possibly might have COVID we’re not going to test you to self quarantine yourself. And people take advantage to the point where I think businesses shut down for lack of workers, you know what I mean? So now they’re a little bit more strict. You have to have some sort of symptoms, you know, feverish or coming close contact with someone that became positive, or that was positive and then we might write you off. But even with testing that speeding up, you know, 24 or 48 hours now they’re just saying, Oh, wait, you’re not sick you back to work on Monday. But no people took advantage of that. And that thing was like pissing me off because it’s like, not just at my place of work, you know, but in other places where I know, workers were not sick, but they just found a way to be like, okay, COVID, let’s take advantage of unemployment, get this extra $600 a week paycheck on top of our salary, not work. Our company’s going to go down, but it doesn’t matter because we’re going to live off of government assistance.

Calvin 47:32
Yeah, that’s unfortunate. And that’s always the bad thing about public assistance, because there’s always this percentage of people that are going to try to take advantage of it. You want to do right by people. I think those of us that have should help people that are less fortunate, and not in an extreme sense. I’m not Bernie Sanders, but I think those that have should do for those that don’t But what happens with these kind of government assistance programs is you’re gonna have the people who do exactly what you’re talking about and just try to fuck the system and just try to take advantage and you know, like shameless, like that show.

Mikko 48:14
You know exactly. And I’ve lived through that. I don’t know if you remember in college, I had a girl that I rented a room with. And she drove like a Lexus. She had like two kids. The government pay for her foods. Her housing was only like, $46 a month and she drove Alexis shit. You know what I mean? it? Yeah, that’s a grad school. I was right in grad school, right before you graduated. That’s what I was doing. Yeah. And we’re running Alexis and you know, paid $46 for her rent. And I was like, This is crazy. So you’re right. People shouldn’t abuse it. My bad clap.

Calvin 48:50
No, no, it’s fine. And what you see a lot floating around. There’s especially the quote about Jeff Bezos right and how he’s how much more money he’s made. made during this quarantine, and people like to say that, well, hey, if he spent 25% of his network, he could end homelessness around the world. And I think he should do something I don’t know a whole lot about him. I don’t know what what kind of charities he donates to, if at all. But what happens in a situation like that is people assume that those who are homeless are somehow a victim, and there’s people who want to be homeless, then that might be hard for people to believe. But there’s people out there who have been given opportunities to not be homeless and given opportunities to work, and they don’t take it. And I’ll give you an example. I think there was a show my wife and I were watching where this guy lives in a beach community. And this woman went with her child, and this guy helped the child make a sandcastle, and it was like beautiful artwork. I mean, things that you would just not think People could do with sand, you know. And the mother was very impressed, went to this homeless guy and said, Hey, listen, you know, we’re going to be here on vacation all week, I’ll pay you to help my child do this on a daily basis, because this is wonderful. Yes, such a great time, etc, etc. The homeless person said, You know what? No, thank you. Because I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow. I don’t want to be tied down to do anything. And you have people out there who are like that, who they’re homeless, because that’s how they want to live life because they just, they don’t want to have any responsibilities or something to have to wake up to do tomorrow, and this was a paying job. You want nothing like that. And if you get someone like Jeff Bezos to pay for everybody to not be homeless anymore, you know what, in a certain amount of time, they will be homeless people again, because you have people out there like that. Again, I want to be clear, I’m not saying he shouldn’t do things to help if he did that. And ended homelessness for like three years, and those that went and got fucked up again, then let them you know, I mean, at least we would have done something and we solved the problem for a while, and then you really know those people. They just don’t deserve it. But to sit here and tell other people what they need to be doing with their money, I think is wrong because everybody’s not a victim. All these people who are we think, are victims. They’re not.

Mikko 51:23
Yeah, that’s true. My wife sees that all the time, when she used to work on the floors, a lot of these homeless people, you know, they would try to like, help out or put into shelters or whatever, and they don’t want to do that, because a lot of them to be honest, and I’m not shitting on a lot of the homeless people, but a lot of them want to just be free, like you said, do their own thing, be responsible for whatever the fuck they want to be responsible for. And for them, that’s the freedom that they have. And then they want to do that, you know, maybe it’s doing drugs, maybe it’s just not being tied down to responsibilities, like you said, and they have the right to so I agree with you, they do have the right to do whatever it is that they want to do. And if Bezos decides, hey, I want to eradicate homelessness forever. He could do that. It doesn’t just have to be him, he can get all of the power heads or heads of state, whatever, and they can end up but you know what, it’s their money, right? They have the right to do whatever they want with their money. So I agree with you. We can’t tell these people, how did you spend their money, even though if they really wanted to, they could help a big deal.

Calvin 52:24
Exactly make a huge impact. So mine for this week is also COVID related. It’s a tiny bit more lighthearted, but it’s one of those where you kind of just got a laugh because people are just being so stupid. And it just goes into as simple as wearing a mask. Ah,

Mikko 52:41
yes, go ahead.

Calvin 52:42
You still see people out there and not wearing a mask we are. I don’t know how many days months into this thing. And people still walking around like, it doesn’t matter. But what was interesting about my interaction with someone this week is a guy that I know from the neighborhood and I know that he owns salon a couple barber shops. And I approached him to discuss, you know, maybe working with him on the social media side as business and that kind of thing. And he goes into a rant about how bad businesses and you know two of his shops are dependent on colleges and the students that come into school. The schools don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know if they’re going to be open three days a week or no days a week or everything virtual and he’s like very passionate about this. And the whole time he and his girlfriend are not wearing a mask. Oh, wow. And I’m like, so you don’t see the correlation here but your business is fucked up because this pandemic but it’s because of people like you who are eight months into this thing or whatever the fuck it is six months, not wearing a mask. You get that right like this. Somehow you didn’t put two and two together. I just couldn’t help but be bemused by this whole situation is like

Mikko 53:55
Wow. It’s prevalent though, even here in California. I think because we have We have a lot of Republicans here as well as you know, Democrats and liberals and they always just say, oh, if you’re wearing a mask, you’re just liberal idiot who just like follows the rules and you’re a follower of everything that the government tells you to do. And you know, you need to just do whatever is you want to do and they’re going around now wearing a mask and it’s just like, what if your mom got sick? What if your wife or your child or whoever it is that Gothic, like would you believe in it then like, Is it a liberal disease at that point? Is it fake? Then? Are you still going to be blind to the fact that you know someone’s needing a respirator? Is it fake then like, are you just that crazy? But there are, there’s people where we’re masking is like, you don’t need that? I’m like, Yeah, okay, buddy. But yeah, let’s see the otic

Calvin 54:47
No, it really isn’t. That is that’s a whole episodes worth. Oh, yeah. Well,

so we’re going to ended up on a lighter note, because we don’t like to leave y’all upset. We just take

You know,

take you down a negative road so of course now we end with our Chris Rock quote of the week.

The one I’m going to go with because I have a nice conversation went you got one job as a debt.

Unknown Speaker 55:16
It keep keep off the pole.

Mikko 55:19
Keep your daughter off the pole up a dog off

Calvin 55:21
the pole. If she dances on a pole you fucked up. Yeah. And I’m

going to add on especially during a pandemic, right? If your daughter is dancing on a pole right now socially distance with a mask on.

Mikko 55:37
You fucked up. You fucked up as a parent. Facts. Straight facts. That’s That’s how do I top that one? Damn. So yours is good cuz you tied it up to the episode. That’s good right there. I always had something clever for the episode. I’m just gonna go in mind. Mine was I take care of my kids. You’re supposed to what are you bragging about? I’ve never been to jail you’re not supposed to go to jail you low expectation haven’t motherfuck

brag about something you’re supposed to do.

Calvin 56:12
Oh man that’s a classic that is Yeah. And again we don’t

put it out there the universe Chris Rock you welcome on the podcast anytime. And yes, please

Mikko 56:22
come do US Justice because what we can’t do to voice the timing isn’t there we need your expertise. Please join us.

Unknown Speaker 56:31
So that wraps up

Calvin 56:32
this week’s episode. I think we had a great Convo we went into the youth, we bogged down with some basketball stories, but I hope that gives you kids some inspiration of what you can do when you set your mind to it. Don’t let nobody talk No shit. And don’t let nobody tell you you can do some and right definitely don’t judge a book by its cover. Let that be a lesson everybody. We’ll wrap it up with the shout outs. You know me guys In catch me on ref problems on ag I got too many brands to name travels, we got growth self development, catch everything at WWW dot ref problems calm and catch me outside

Mikko 57:15
and this is Mikko Miller. I am well known as Mikko eats on Instagram Mikko underscore eats and if you want to see how a midlife crisis happens in a 40 year old Filipino come check out Mikko the Filipino where I showcase my shoes and supreme because I’m 40 years old, and now I’m just like catching on to all that stuff.

So they’re

Calvin 57:41
good and of course, follow midlife crisis podcast on Instagram for your weekly clips and to see what the gang is up to Until the next episode. See ya. Peace. Lesko.