It's Always Sunny in the Philippines

Introduction and Holiday Season

0:05 Hey, what's up guys? I am gonna go live. I'll be on for an hour, maybe 45 minutes to an hour. We'll see how things go. My voice is starting to get kind of shot. I've been tutoring a lot lately online. Anyway, yeah, how's everybody doing tonight?

0:30 I've been having a great holiday season. It's been kind of overcast the last few days, but today was really sunny, so that was a nice change of pace. I think hopefully we'll have a sunny New Year's. Should probably clean my glasses as well.

New Year's Eve Plans in Dagupan

1:10 We'll just give it a bit for folks to hop on. It's an atypical time for me to be live streaming. Wow, we already got a few people. Hey, what's up? Feel free to chime in in the chat. If you're watching this on replay, give us a thumbs up. Feel free, guys, to chat, share whatever is on your mind.

1:56 I'm just enjoying the tail end of my weekend. I got plans tomorrow to meet up with some good friends here in town at the coffee shop. That should be a lot of fun. I've got a more cheerful kind of video I'm working on right now. I got the first little part of it done, but today's just been really busy for me, so I'd like to get the rest of it done tomorrow and hopefully get it edited and posted tomorrow night.

2:30 Can you guys hear me? Yeah, I think okay, so it's coming through. It looks like people have dropped off the stream. Hopefully, it's not an audio issue.

3:11 What's everybody up to? I guess it's pretty early morning in the US. Probably not too many people back in the States watching right now, probably more of my subscribers here in Asia.

3:37 Just kind of a slow, chill weekend. I don't have any party plans for next week. I know they're doing some parties in the city for New Year's. I will go out with a buddy of mine on Tuesday night. We're meeting one of my friends tomorrow night for wings. We like to meet up at this wings place, and then Tuesday night, we'll meet up and go down to where everybody in the city likes to meet up, the boulevard, where people get together to have a good time and connect with each other and enjoy the holiday.

4:17 That should be a lot of fun. Ton of fireworks and lights and sounds and sensory overload there. Feel free, guys, to chime in. Anything you want to talk about or anything that's on your mind. With a lot of these streams, I like to just take prompts from you guys to figure out what you want to talk about.

4:40 Hey, Captain Trucker, good to see you. I'm surprised you're on here. I just saw you pop on live. But yeah, it's it should be a lot of fun, lots of fireworks and lots of music. It sounds like it's going to be a real party.

5:00 Last time was in the Philippines for New Year's Eve was in Cagayan de Oro, and it was a little bit more muted. CDO is more of an industrial city compared to Dumaguete, which is more of a college town. So it should have a really wild vibe, and I'm excited to see it. I'll probably see a bunch of people I've met over the last five months and hopefully run into some other friends as well.

5:26 I'm going to be going down to the boulevard here in Dagupan. They have this boulevard called Jose Rizal Boulevard, and it's a really cool place to walk along, almost like a boardwalk. You've got a public park there and vendors, and it's a lot of fun. A lot of people are going to meet up there. I'll probably reach out to a few more friends just to see if any of my other friends are going to be meeting up down there, but I'm really looking forward to it.

5:59 Down at the Boulevard, they'll be doing fireworks displays. Probably a ton of people will be playing music. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited for this New Year's. I think it'll be exciting.

Past New Year's Celebrations

6:13 Last New Year's, I was in Thailand. I was in Chiang Mai, and I went up to the roof of my building to watch fireworks. That was a lot of fun, really beautiful displays, and you could see them up close because I was living in one of the tallest buildings in the city. That building was like 16 stories tall. Beautiful fireworks display, so that was a lot of fun.

6:34 This year will be my second New Year's in the Philippines. I actually celebrated from 2019 to 2020 in the Philippines. So yeah, five years ago. That should be a lot of fun.

6:54 Like I said, I'm not a drinker, but I like to go have fun on these holidays anyway, get together with other people. No judgment for those who do, but I think I am allergic. That could probably be a video in and of itself.

7:14 No big guy, good call out. So it actually had 12 and 12A. Is it raining? It is raining every day in Santa Rosa early in the morning, but after that, it's cloudy. Ah, okay. Santa Rosa says in NorCal, not too far from where I used to live in Berkeley.

7:35 Oh, you mean Santa Rosa city in the Philippines. Okay, wonderful. Big guy is watching from SoCal. Okay, I got those mixed up. I've never been to Santa Rosa city.

7:47 Tell us about a pizza dog. Let me pull it up here. Okay, so you're south of Manila. Very cool. I haven't spent much time in Luzon, but I'm sure you'll get a brilliant fireworks display. I'm not sure if you have plans to go to Manila city or if you'll be watching from there in Santa Rosa, but it should be a lot of fun either way.

8:17 I'm looking forward to it. This is going to have such a community vibe, and there'll be tons and tons of people down there. I'm excited to meet up with my friends. I've got at least one friend down to meet up there, but I'm sure I'll probably run into at least a half dozen, maybe even eight or 10 people down there on the boulevard.

8:37 I know it'll be crowded, I know it'll be packed, but it'll be a worthwhile tradeoff to be able to just get together with people. I'll probably eat before I get down there, just because I imagine the food vendors will be packed and the restaurants will probably be packed as well. So maybe I'll eat like an early dinner or something like that and then head down there.

9:04 Hi from Kansas City, Missouri in the Midwest USA. 4:54 a.m. Central Standard Time. It's quite early for you, Edwin, and I think it's late night for Big Guy. I'm surprised to see you guys on here, but I'm thrilled you guys to join me.

9:25 Balut on the barrow? Two of my friends love balut on the port. The girl that I interviewed that makes sandwiches at the mall, Phil in Bestest Mall, she and her sister recently celebrated her birthday on the Boulevard, and they were enjoying the balut a lot. They love to go down there on special occasions and get balut.

9:51 Balut's not my thing, but I can understand the appeal. I just like regular eggs here. The yolks are like orange, beautiful color. So balut's not really my thing, but no judgment to those who enjoy a nice balut from time to time. Nothing wrong with that.

Discussion on Captain Trucker and Vlogging

10:12 Captain Trucker, I wonder what Steven Seagal is doing for New Year's. Hopefully, he's not getting into any hijinks.

10:30 For those guys who don't know, Captain Trucker has a great channel. He talks about his life in the Philippines and also just being a driver in the US. Really an interesting variety of topics that he covers. Recently, he's been talking about Stephen Seagal, the bullshido.

11:03 Stephen Seagal. Love him or hate him, I'm a fan of the idea of people getting into martial arts. Is he perhaps the best example out there? Maybe he's not, but anything or anyone that promotes or encourages martial arts training in the US, I'm generally a fan of. I think if more people practiced martial arts, studied martial arts, society would probably be a bit more peaceful, a bit more respectful.

11:29 Martial arts, I think, teaches you about the consequences of fighting. I learned a lot about those consequences when I trained BJJ in Colorado. I used to train at Rose's gym, if you guys have heard of Thug Rose. She's a former UFC champion in the women's strawweight division.

11:55 Thank you so much, Trucker. I really appreciate your generosity. Everyone, shout out to Captain Trucker. Dude has been very generous and very kind to me and very encouraging of me as a vlogger.

12:11 Wow, devil, that's wild. Yeah, shout out to Captain Trucker, guys. If you haven't already, definitely recommend giving his channel a check out. He's inspired me because he's kind of going in his own direction.

12:26 Some of us guys, we lean on big time bloggers. Some of my friends are very accomplished, like Chad, Mike, and Paul. These are guys with 40, 50, 100K subscribers, very established. Some of the biggest, what I would call, expat vloggers here in the Philippines. Very well known. Most of you guys have probably heard or watched them. Probably many of you have come to my channel from one of their channels.

13:46 It's been helpful for me to learn from them, but what I admire about Trucker is that he's kind of built his channel without leaning as much.

13:59 Without leaning as much, just going to be transparent. He's kind of done his own thing, and it's surprising to me because he's got this kind of cowboy vibe. I don't know how else to explain it. He's doing his own thing, and I think that's so underrated in the vlogging world.

14:19 In the vlogging world, you see a lot of people trying to copy more successful vloggers. Don't get me wrong, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But you know, sometimes I'll see, I watch a number of vloggers with say three to four million subs, especially in the travel niche, and one of those vloggers will go to a place, and then two weeks later, another one of them will go there, and then a week later, another one will go there. So they all kind of cycle through some of the same topics.

14:49 What I like about Trucker is that there's nobody I could really point at that I feel like, 'Oh, this guy's like Trucker,' or 'Trucker's like this guy.' It's just a very unique channel that he's got. If you want to watch somebody that's doing stuff nobody else is doing, which is part of what I try to do, that's part of my goal with this channel: what can I talk about or what could I do that hasn't been done already?

15:13 Not because I'm some original, this and that, but because I think a lot of people do certain topics better than I can. There's really a lot of talented bloggers out there, and a lot of topics have been done really well. It's like, okay, what do I have to add to that discussion?

15:31 I've done a little bit of budget discussion, which should be coming out in the upcoming weeks. But for me, talking about psychology, that's something that a lot of people haven't talked about as much in the past. I think they're starting to get into it now that I'm making very small waves.

15:48 But that's something we don't talk about. You know, a lot of people, they talk about budget, they talk about dating, they talk about travel, they talk about food, they talk about vacation mode. But you know, one of the things that Trucker talks about that I like is that he has these discussions about ethics.

Martial Arts and Filipino Fitness

16:10 Oh, thank you so much, Manny. I really appreciate you joining. Welcome. Are there any BJJ gyms here? Let me check it out really quick because I know that I've seen there are a few.

16:25 So one is called, let's see here. Let me just share my screen here really quick. Okay, because a bunch of stuff just popped up. I'll go ahead and share this here. So we've got, let's see, Tokai Jiu-Jitsu. This looks like it's downtown, or no, no, this is more in the North Point area. We've got Tactical Fitness. This is looks like it's in the Northwest portion of the city.

17:12 And then there's like a boxing gym. So yeah, Manny, if that's something that you're interested in, I think you'll be able to train here. Now, I don't know what the skill level is on. I don't know. I haven't trained after getting a neck injury.

17:29 But you know, more power to people that want to train martial arts. Naturally, there's, you know, the Philippines is probably a growing thing here. I know, of course, everybody knows Manny Pacquiao is the pride of the Philippines, and he's brought a lot of honor and attention to the country in terms of boxing.

17:49 But then there's other martial arts here too. The people are tough. I get the sense when I'm walking around town and I see these dudes that look like somebody that's super into fitness and exercise. I know Captain Trucker can speak to this; there are a lot of really strong Filipinos, a lot of tough-looking dudes.

18:09 And they're friendly as could be. I mean, don't get me wrong here, like I've never gotten the sense of a person here wanting to intimidate me, but yeah, a lot of in-shape people here.

Reflections on Loss and Weather's Impact

18:20 Oh, thank you, Trucker. I appreciate that, Edwin CV. It always saddens me to see all the celebrities that passed every year. It is unfortunate when it definitely, like it's kind of a heavy subject or a tough subject to talk about.

18:39 Just briefly, I want to, you know, once again send condolences to anybody that you know has lost a loved one this year. I think it's been a hard year for a lot of people.

18:59 And you know, it's okay to be stressed out or be frustrated or feel down. My last video, you could tell I was not in the best mood. I'm starting to become more attuned to the fact, the ways in which weather impacts me.

19:14 I think that on days that are particularly cloudy, and it's not just like days that are cloudy, but if we get like five in a row, which it seems like we've had five or seven in a row, it definitely seems to accumulate. And on the last couple of days before the clouds break, it definitely kind of weighs my mood down.

19:33 I was trying to think, why do I feel so fantastic today? Because today, and I was like, oh well, today has been a beautiful sunny day. And even though nothing seriously material has changed since yesterday, I just have felt more optimistic and upbeat today.

19:48 And you'll see that in the next video I put out, hopefully tomorrow night, if I can get it finished tomorrow. But yeah, guys, I just want to wrap that up though about Trucker, that like he's just got this, he's doing these topics.

20:06 Oh, I'll get caught up here and get to more of everybody's comments. So, Big Guy, I met Bud Brown three times. I'm hoping to meet Bud in the spring. I don't know if he's still planning to come here or not. I know he mentioned he's planning to come to visit. I hope to see him while he's in town.

20:24 I just like his positive attitude. I like that he's kind of what I would call like a good guy expat, you know, married, children, very, from what I could tell, emotionally stable. Also very generous and has helped out with the community in a lot of ways.

Vlogger Collaboration and Future Plans

20:39 You know, somebody I think a lot of us young guys can aspire to emulate in some ways, right? Not entirely, of course, everybody's different, but I really respect that he sets a good example for a lot of more up-and-coming expats and vloggers.

20:58 And yeah, I think about collaborating sometimes. You know, I think you're more at a point where it would be beneficial, Trucker. Like, Mike is a good friend of mine, and Mike has been very good to me. And Mike told me how he waited until he was at 10K, so he hit 10K subs on his own, and then he felt like, okay, I'm at the level where I have this skill set, I have enough content out on my channel where collaborating is more valuable to the audience, more valuable to my collaboration partners.

21:31 So yeah, I mean, I think you do like interesting and unique enough stuff, Trucker. It would be, there'd be interesting synergies there. I'll say it's a little bit different when I see two guys with, it seems like the same audience collaborating. Not that there's anything wrong with that, like I think any kind of collaboration is cool. I mean, YouTube's a social media platform designed to foster a sense of community, designed to build a sense of community, designed to get people together and introduce people to one another.

22:05 But I think what's equally cool to the collaborations we expect to see, right? Like two or three gentlemen who are retired, is like, you know, Trucker and this guy, just like people doing totally different vlogs. And you could see where things line up and where there are some interesting differences too.

22:29 Matthew McConaughey. Great. Thank you, Manny, for checking out Trucker. It's hard coming up with new material for anyone. I absolutely agree, Trucker. I mean, and you know, too, like if people see somebody do a topic that works, like they're thinking, okay, I want to share my take. I may have a different take on that same topic, and I want to share my opinion or share my thoughts on it.

22:55 And it may not resemble that person's opinion at all. So that's a good point, Trucker. Like it's, it's not easy, and plenty of successful vloggers, you know, copy topics. And I'm not judging at all. I just feel like where can I stand out? And I think psychology topics are a big one for me where I can cover some stuff that needs to be talked about.

23:22 Like analyzing why is it that communities have some of the issues that they have? Is it that they have some synergies? There's so much to go into that subject, and I've got a lot more to cover when it comes to expat psychology, probably enough to last me for the rest of my travels, at least this stint.

Skill Development and Life in the Philippines

23:47 You know, now I'm starting to kind of look at next year, and I've been looking at next year thinking about, maybe going to Indonesia next year, we'll see. And then maybe going back and working for a while, just to kind of add to the money pool. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not broke. I'm not running out of money tomorrow or next month, but at 32 years old, there's always time for me to add money to the pool, do more planning, do more research, grow my skill set.

24:19 Like I found that working in sales has helped me a lot with my channel because it really taught me a lot about how to communicate effectively, how to organize my thoughts, how to focus on the audience as opposed to myself. Figuring out like how to bring value to people, I think is a big part of sales. And whatever skill set you have can bring a lot of value to YouTube.

24:50 I think it's all about combinations, combining like this and that. It's interesting, it's part of the beauty of life. Let's see here. Hey, DJC, welcome. Nice to see you on here. Captain Trucker, there are some tough Filipinos. I absolutely agree. Mark says seasonal attenuation disorder, that vitamin D from the sun makes a big difference. Yeah, I absolutely agree, Mark.

Socializing and Camping

25:18 It makes a huge difference, and it's, you know, I think some people do kind of hide out at home too. Like I notice anyway when the weather is really inclement, I just don't see as many friends out. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like my friends are more likely to stay at home. And when this weather's nice and sunny, I run into people a lot more. So that's something I really like about the sunny weather is just the opportunities to socialize.

25:47 Tomorrow is going to be a great day meeting up with people. I need to reach out because there are a couple of people in town that I just haven't followed up with because I've been so busy with some other obligations that I'd like to meet up with. Doug is one of them, he's a subscriber. I'd like to meet up with Doug. And then there's another gentleman that reached out to me on Facebook, and he's in Valencia, so that should be interesting to meet up with a couple of subscribers.

26:15 It's just been very surprising for me to get recognized as often as I am here in Dumaguete. It's definitely humbling, like I'm shocked that, you know, my modest subscriber base, that people are so kind.

26:37 Trucker says, 'Yeah, I was thinking about doing an interview segment.' Maybe yeah, you talked about working in public access TV, Trucker, that being kind of your introduction to media. I think an interview segment would be interesting, like just how you could, you know, how you could kind of, like, what's the word, ask questions and kind of dig into things. But you're like a personable guy and you kind of joke around in a pleasant way, and so I think you'd be able to establish rapport with a lot of people and really get people to open up and feel comfortable with you.

27:17 Right, like I don't know, sometimes with some interviews, it's hard to kind of build that rapport. I've had mixed success. Some interviews I do go really well, other interviews I do kind of flounder. I think it some of it depends on the subject. Like that's an advantage of interviewing other vloggers is they're not shy on camera. Whereas at times, if I'm interviewing people who aren't vloggers, sometimes they can be a bit shy depending on who it is, depending on the time of day. Maybe I should buy them a couple drinks beforehand.

27:53 And I could, you know, I can relate. Like I was so nervous when I was on camera the first few times. Like, 'Oh, I'm on camera, what's going on? This is scary.' And yeah, it took me a while to kind of adjust to that.

28:10 Edwin, I like to see people who fix up their trucks to go overland camping, boondocking. I'm fixing up my Tacoma with a camper and sleep setup. That's a great idea, Edwin. I've thought about swapping. So back home, I have a Camry, a Toyota Camry. I've thought about swapping to a truck and doing more of that because I missed that. I camped a lot in my mid-20s. I lived in Colorado and I would go out in the woods throughout the summer and in the mountains of Colorado with friends too, and it was just so much fun and refreshing and really good for my mental health.

Nature in the Philippines and Australia

28:50 I love camping, I'm a fan of it. I'm a fan of getting out in nature. That's something that I love about this country, the Philippines. To me, it has some of the most amazing nature of any country I've been to. There are so many places that haven't really gotten on the map yet for people to go discover. I think that'll change, I think tourism will grow in the Philippines, and more and more people will access some of these places. But it's stunning. I mean, there are places that are just jaw-droppingly beautiful in this country that are still kind of getting on the map.

29:28 Hey Buick, good to see you man. Great to see you. For those who don't know, yeah, he's been a very kind supporter of the channel from Adelaide, Australia. I still need to make it to Australia at some point. I have several Australian subscribers. I've never been to Australia, but it was a place that, I don't like to use the word envy, but there's always been part of me that envied Australians a little bit because I always felt like, man, they're in this country that has some similarities to the US, but not quite so many people. Sometimes in the US, I mean, one of the most populated countries in the world, one of the largest economies in the world, or the largest economy in the world, I should say.

30:17 And you know, I see pictures or videos of beaches in Australia, like Filipina P recently went to Bondi Beach, or Bondi Beach, I'm not sure how by the pronunciation. But it looks like, I don't know, it just looks so beautiful. And of course, for those who don't know, I did my 23 and Me test, and I'm actually a descendant of the first Aboriginal man from Australia. So if you go back 40,000 years, I'm related to that guy. So part of me feels like an honorary Australian.

The Network Effect of Vloggers in Dumaguete

30:56 Let's see here. Why are there so many ex-vloggers in Dgte? Mark does a wonderful job of answering that. I call it the network effect. You know, a few vloggers popped up here, Ned, and there was one other gentleman I can't, I always forget the other gentleman's name because I think he was before my time. But these three guys blogged about it, and there was also a Forbes article. And so then you had the next generation guys like Paul, and I think Mark would probably be in that kind of group as well. He was inspired to start by Paul.

31:39 And then you had the more recent, I would say, Chad and also Mike, and the most recent, myself. But you have this network effect where guys will watch those bloggers and then come here because those guys help so many people. They show all the information, the budget, the housing, the restaurants, the transportation, the airport, every single aspect of life in Dgte. They can talk about it, and so people get this really strong sense of what it's like to live here before they come here. I had far fewer surprises in Dgte than when I had traveled before.

32:21 I was watching vlogs. The first time I went to Thailand, I never watched a vlog on Thailand. And that's of course changed now, but you know, in the last five, 10 years, five years really, and especially during COVID and after, so much information is out there. So guys will come here and then they're thinking, 'Well, I've got all this free time, I'm retired,' or even if I'm not retired, 'I've got a chunk of change. What am I going to do to spend my time?'

32:51 I've been to Valencia, I've been diving or snorkeling in Dgte. I've eaten at several restaurants in the city. I've gone on some dates. What do I do with my time? Well, vlogging, you know, is a great, great way to spend time. It's a creative outlet. You really get to meet with other people. Like I've met a ton of people through my vlogs, which has been really, really cool. That's probably been one of the things I've enjoyed most about it is the opportunities to connect with other people, get to know other people, hear about their stories, what brought them here.

33:25 I meet somebody probably every other day in town recognizes me, sometimes multiple people in a day. And it kind of throws me off because I'm not used to it. So sometimes if you run into me, I might scrunch up my face like I'm nervous about it, but really it's just totally shocking to me. I mean, I was shocked when I got 10 subscribers. So to know that like that many people will find value in what I have to talk about, what I have to say, really means a lot to me. I appreciate it.

33:59 But yeah, there's that network effect. So you can come and learn. For me, I've learned so much. Aside from the friendship aspect, because I try to respect my friends' privacy, that's part of why I don't talk a lot about my friends that are vloggers is I don't want to be spreading their business around town. You know, I look at it like they've got their platforms. If there's something that they want to share with people, more power to them. They have the capacity to share with people their information.

34:30 As far as from a learning perspective, not everybody that's a vlogger here is nice. I'm not going to go further than that, but you're likely, if you come here, to connect with at least one blogger that is open to teaching and sharing information and learning from you as well.

34:51 Mr. Beast talked about it, and he said, 'What's great about being around like 10 or 20,' hey, have a good one, Mark. Thanks so much for joining us. Enjoy your dinner tonight. Mr. Beast said, 'What's great about it is if I get together with 10 other vloggers, we can each tell each other our mistakes.' And now, instead of having to make those 10 mistakes, I can learn from those 10 mistakes. And so that's what's been helpful for me is I tell my vlogger friends, 'Hey, I messed up here, here, and here. This is what I did wrong.' Oh wow, I didn't realize that was a mistake. Yeah, so these were my mistakes.

35:26 And that way, I'm helping them too. And so it's this virtuous cycle where you're telling them your mistakes, they're telling you their mistakes, and you're telling them what's working for you, and they're telling you what's working for them, and it just keeps on going from there. And there's so much insight that I never would have figured out on my own. There's so much to be said about an alumni network. It's why, you know, the film industry is in Hollywood, tech is in the Bay Area, finances in Wall Street.

36:00 You just have these, you know, oil and gas is in Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, Texas. Aerospace in Seattle. You have these hubs of industry. It just, yeah, I mean, it just makes a lot of sense from a learning and development perspective, and also.

Vlogging as a Creative Outlet and Community

36:19 Development perspective and also friendship. I mean, other YouTubers that I'm friends with are kind of like co-workers to some extent. But yeah, I know I gave you a mouthful there, but I hope that's helpful.

36:41 This round is on me with my special guest today. Yeah, I agree, that's a great point. But yeah, guys, feel free to comment down below. I don't know if I'm just a little bit delayed here on the comments. They sometimes pour in like 10 in a row, and sometimes they get a little bit backtracked. But yeah, we'll probably go for another 20 minutes or so.

37:21 What is everybody getting into this weekend, or what did everybody get into this weekend, I should say?

37:39 I would push back a little bit on the inflation factor only because, you know, for a number of the guys that I know, and this will be a window into their life, I'll contradict what I said. It's a way for them to help set their girls up with income. If they're able to teach their girlfriend about vlogging and producing content, that's a great way for a Filipino or Filipina to earn money here in the Philippines. They're totally authorized to do so. They're local, they're living here, they know a lot of information that us foreigners don't know. They're able to do business, and so there's many, many benefits to vlogging and sharing information.

38:31 Vlogging has given me more than I put into it. I try to put a lot into it, but the relationships have been life-changing for me. Yeah, I like I said, I want to respect my friend's privacy, but this platform has just changed my life. I mean, the time I've had here in Dumaguete has been incredibly validating.

39:01 Yeah, have you been to Samar? I haven't been to Samar. Speaking of interview videos, I've seen a couple where the person being interviewed was so polarizing, so bad in fact, I was surprised that they posted the video. Any thoughts?

39:20 Well, I think being polarizing, you know, it does get clicks, it does generate attention, it does rile people up. I don't love that style. I look at it like we come over here a lot of us to relax, to slow down, to calm down, to take our foot off the gas. I don't want to be riled up about it. To me, that's not good for my heart. Heart disease runs in my family, and I don't have strong opinions, but I hold them very loosely. So if somebody comes along to me and has a better understanding or a better way of doing things, tells me, hey, you need to change, I'm flexible. I'm not a genius, I don't have everything figured out, and I have so much to learn. I'm still in the early days.

40:15 I know some people say, oh, you deserve a lot more subs, and I appreciate that. But I want to build an audience of people with whom I share values and with whom I can really connect. And I don't find that black and white thinking is always very helpful in understanding a situation. You know, a common topic I will cover eventually is the topic of single moms. I'm not going to come on and say, oh, this and that, like, you know best, worst thing ever. Just bring nuance to the conversation. I don't think there's enough nuance in the conversation, and any of these hard questions are hard questions because they are hard questions. There's validity on either side.

41:00 I'm not saying I don't have values, I'm not saying I'm a fence-sitter, rather that like my opinion doesn't matter. I'd rather people not as much as your opinion, and I'd rather people figure out how they believe and how they think about something and come to their own conclusions more so than for me to say, this is the way it is.

41:22 That's the way it is. I am happy to discuss risk. I think that risk is often not discussed enough when it comes to international travel, and I'm probably going to keep discussing risk. Some people call me judgmental when I talk about risk, and I'm saying, if I'm called judgmental for talking about risk, that's fine. I could be the most judgmental person ever, but we ought to discuss risk.

41:49 I mean, there's been a number of people that run into situations abroad this year and in years prior that if they were more thoughtful, maybe they could have reduced or eliminated some of those risks.

Collaborations and Critiquing Expat Culture

42:12 It's good that you're open-minded about collaborating with different people. Yeah, I'm open to collaborating with most people, with some exceptions. There are some exceptions where if I, there's a number of vloggers here I won't collaborate with. I'm just not inspired. That should be part of the collaboration process. Each of the guys I've collaborated with today, I'm like, heck yes, on their content. I'm like, their content's awesome. I've been watching Mark and Mike since not long after he got started. I've been watching Paul for like five or six years now. These guys are super creative and they've helped a lot of people.

42:58 Watching some content, one blogger said, Cebu is too busy, Dumaguete is better. Could you describe Dumaguete? Is it a slower pace suited for retirees with less dating options?

43:05 Yeah, I think Cebu is faster-paced. I think that's a fair point. That applies to Cebu and Manila and Davao as well. I haven't been to Davao, but I could speak from personal experience. Cebu is a faster pace, it's more of a metropolitan area. It's the gateway to the country. A lot of people come into the Philippines either through Manila or through Cebu, and you're going to find a faster pace there. It's just a more densely populated city. It's like three or four million people in the metro area, so a very busy big city vibe.

43:41 Dumaguete is a slower pace. I look at it like people are moving to Cebu to work. Most people are moving to Dumaguete to retire. So Cebu is a place people go to make money. Dumaguete is more of a place people go to relax, to spend money. It's just a different vibe in general. It's a smaller city, the traffic's not as significant as Cebu. I've sat in Cebu traffic for two hours to go 10 kilometers. I've never had that experience in Dumaguete. The longest I could get from one side of Dumaguete to the other, max like 45 minutes, and that's like stopping and starting on public transit.

44:32 It's uh dating, you know, I have mixed feelings about dating here. I don't think it's the optimum city to date. I think dating is going to be better in a big city because you just have more options. You have more people coming there from other parts of the country. More people come to Dumaguete from other parts of this island, whereas people go to Cebu from all over the Philippines. So it's a, you've got more variety in terms of people's backgrounds, more variety in the kind of stories people have. Like when I was in Cebu, I dated a woman from Bohol, different from when I was in Cagayan de Oro and all the women I dated were from Cagayan de Oro. So the big capitals are going to have just a wider kind of spread of people, if that makes any sense.

45:26 Or it's very rare for me to meet somebody here in Dumaguete that isn't from the province or the city proper.

45:36 Do you feel like you have to walk on a fine line if you're critiquing expat versus Filipino culture? Yeah, I think that's a good point. I tend not to critique the culture because I look at it like a few things. One, I generally get along really well with the people here. The people here have been very kind to me, very sweet to me, very welcoming to me. I feel a special connection with the people here. I look at the vast majority, like 99.9% of the people I meet here in Dumaguete that are Filipinos, as potential friends. I joke around with people all the time. We have some overlap in sense of humor.

46:30 And I also look at it like I want to be respectful. To me, it would be kind of like I talked about with a friend. I was like, you know, we as Americans, we don't like it when people come to America from other countries and start critiquing American culture. We don't like it when somebody says, oh, America's bad, this and that. You know, I got flak on one of my recent videos talking about some issues when I talk about my issues in America. I try to focus on my personal issues. It's not me slandering America, it's not me saying America's terrible. I'm saying I've had some bad experiences here. It's not saying, oh, this is the worst place ever. But there are people that have legitimately had bad experiences in the US that are American, that's where they're from, and so they're speaking about their experience. And I say, more power to you if you're speaking about your struggle or your difficult experience.

47:32 I'd rather hear what Filipinos have to say. I'd rather listen more as far as their critiques. I think it comes across as, I don't know, like not the most considerate, right? Like, oh, he's coming from the US, it's so easy for him to, you know, with his work opportunities, he can say these impolite things, then he goes back and, you know, he can feel superior or something like that. So I focus on, I will critique expat culture because I feel like those are my people. It's an expat, those are my people, and I feel more comfortable critiquing my own people, much more so than I'd feel about critiquing other groups.

Expat Choices and Filipino Opportunities

48:24 And I also think like as expats, we have so much flexibility. You know, we have many different choices. Like, right now, for the Filipino person, they can live in the Philippines, and many are OFWs. So many will move to Australia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, United States for work opportunities. And you know, for us expats, especially as Americans...

48:53 Expats, especially as Americans, we're so fortunate to have US passports. With the US passport, we could expat in a lot of different places, right? So if we felt like, 'Hey, you know what, the Philippines isn't the right fit for me,' I like Peru a lot. I've talked about it a lot. Peru is awesome. If I found out tomorrow I've got to go to Peru, not a problem.

49:13 A friend of mine actually invited me to go to Peru next fall to hang out with him and spend some time down there. Now, I'm not sure if I'll make it, but like Peru is awesome. If I found out tomorrow, like I said, I had to go there, I'd be thrilled. Not that I'm not happy here, but I'm happy here, and I'm happy in Thailand, and I'm happy in Peru, and I'm happy in Malaysia.

49:38 You know, I think where you live is the most important decision you'll make, right? So, like, it affects your relationships, it affects your health, it affects your food, it affects your access to healthcare, to job opportunities. And so, each person should figure out, 'Hey, is the Philippines a good fit for me as an expat, or is there another opportunity out there that for me personally may be a better fit?'

50:01 Just as the Filipinos are thinking, 'Okay, is the Philippines a good fit for me, or do I want to support my family in a different way? Is it going to make more sense for me as an individual to, you know, go to like Saudi Arabia or Australia where I'm not living in the Philippines, but I can help to support my family?'

Relationship Dynamics and Life Choices

50:27 It's all about the risk, probability, and consequences. Yeah, that's a good point, DJC. There's a spreadsheet on some website with a list of over 500 vloggers in the Philippines, I believe it, trucker. I believe it.

50:45 And Cobra, like, you know, I think that applies anywhere. People have to find the right person for them. Like, some guys in relationships, they're seeking more of a support partner, right? A partner that's going to help to support them. You see this with some of the older expats. Mike has talked a lot about this. I give him a lot of credit. He says, 'You know, with my wife, she's going to move from being a partner into more of a caretaker role.' And there's nothing wrong with that.

51:20 I love his honesty. I mean, I think he is such an honest man, and there's so much to learn from an honest man. He talks about how, 'You know, for me personally, I'm needing a partner that's going to help to look after my needs, right? That's going to help to handle certain errands, if I need to, you know, see a doctor, somebody that can help take me to treatment, that kind of thing.'

51:49 So it depends on the individual, right? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with dating the more, what you could call, professional Filipina or the healthcare Filipina. There's nothing wrong with that. For some guys, they want to go back to the West. The West is very expensive. It takes two incomes to survive in most western cities.

52:10 And that's where it may make more sense for that type of person to be looking for the professional Filipina, right? The Filipina that's not as much of a support role for the guy who's not in need of that type of support. Neither one is wrong. I will never say, 'Um, this is absolute.' You know, that's why I don't do advice on this channel. I don't believe in telling people about their life.

52:37 Now, you know, do I do consults? Sure, I do. Like, people can feel free to reach out via email, but those look more like me asking questions. I think it's much more helpful for me to just ask people questions and help them figure out their answer than for me to sit there and say, 'Do this, do that, do this, do that.' I'd rather ask questions people haven't really thought about and then see what they come up with and figure out, 'Oh, this is what works for me.'

53:00 Right? Like, I'm not here to tell everybody, 'Move to the Philippines.' Move to the Philippines. When I made a video talking about 'A bad day in the Philippines is better than a good day in the US,' for me personally, I meant it. A bad day for me here in the Philippines, I've been reflecting. What are some bad days I've had here? Oh man, there was a brownout, or like the store was out of stock. There's never these, 'Oh no, everything is just going to heck.' It's just very kind of minor things that aren't the end of the world.

53:32 A bad day in the US for me was like, I don't even want to get into it. That, you know, that's just a rabbit hole to get into. And, um, Parabola, yes, I get it. Totally. Parabola, my wife and I are moving as soon as our youngest graduates in five years. Thailand or Vietnam? God will.

53:58 Um, hey, you know what? If you feel that you'd be happier in Thailand or Vietnam, like, more power to you. Parabola, you know, I think everybody, like I said, should sort out the best place for them. And there are many options for people in the modern era. Like, I love Thailand. People ask me, 'Why did you leave Thailand?' I explained, well, my visa was expiring. I could have extended, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to make it up. I went to Vietnam. Wasn't my jam. And then I went on to, um, and it may have been the location I chose, right? It may have been the timing. It may have been my mindset at the time. It may have been that I didn't try hard enough. Could have been any number of reasons.

54:43 And then, uh, yeah, and then I came over here to the Philippines, and it's gone beautifully. But next year is a new year, and I am looking at Indonesia because I haven't been to Indonesia, right? Like, there's, it's not that I'm running away. It's not that something terrible has happened. It's just like, ah, you know what? There are so many cool options, and I'm more in exploration and discovery mode.

55:12 And Cobra, we'll just have to agree to disagree. Um, I, I don't, to me, a high-value guy is kind of like it's a status game thing, and I'm not, I'm not real big on playing status games. Um, to me, a high-value guy, you ask 10 different people what a high-value guy is, you're gonna get 10 different answers. If a high-value guy is just, um, you know, yeah, I, it's called, I just don't, I don't like to play status games because I don't think it's super helpful. 'Oh, this is a high-value guy. No, this is a high-value guy.' There's, there's other ways to evaluate humans beyond just status.

56:01 Um, the status tends to be a zero-sum game, right? Like, so I used to work at a company, the CEO was worth probably $100 million. Now he's a high-value guy compared to all of us. But if he sat at the table with Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett and Elon Musk, he would be some nobody. Um, and so it's, you know, and I met, living in like the Bay Area, you meet so many guys that would call themselves high-value guys, but also are limited in terms of social skills, don't really connect well with other people.

56:44 You also meet people with interpersonal issues. Like, I was reading this story from a lawyer, and he met, he finally had this conversation with the partner in his law firm, and he said, 'Man, I'm envious of you.' And the partner said, 'Why are you envious of me?' He said, 'Well, you're the partner, you're making a million dollars a year.' He's like, 'Yeah, well, I also pay child support on three kids, and I have a big mortgage. You take home more money than I do, even though you're just the associate and I'm the partner, because of my decision-making when I was younger, when I was your age.'

57:16 It doesn't matter that I make a million dollars a year because I see less of that million per year than you see of your 250 per year. So, um, there's so much nuance to life. And, and I, uh, I'm not also not in a rush. Like, I dated so much when I was younger. I'm not one of these guys that like has to be in a relationship. Um, that offends and bothers some people, I'm sure out there. Not speaking about you, Cobra, but just in general. But like, I did everything I wanted to do dating-wise when I was in my, uh, 20s. And so now it's like, okay, there's nothing that's really going to just blow me over the moon. It's more like, if it happens, it happens. It's awesome.

People Watching and Friends

58:03 Um, and MJ, oh, hey, good to see you. Let's do the Philippines. MJ, I'm chilling outside with my Filipina, just watching the people. People watching is so much fun here. Um, MJ, and it's, uh, there's so many interesting people and so many interesting street scenes. I'm excited. I'm going to be doing a lot of, uh, people watching here in a couple of days.

58:30 Will be New Year's Eve. Any New Year's plans, MJ? Do you have any plans to celebrate, get together with friends, or go out into the city?

59:17 Oh, okay, got it. You're gonna, you're gonna visit Barry.

59:21 Barry. Um, let's see here. Let me pull that up.

59:38 Um, that sounds great. Um, I bet you guys are gonna have a good time. Uh, is he? I've subscribed to him, but I haven't seen his vlogs pop up on my channel. And I'll check out more of his stuff, but he looks like an interesting character. I like his attire. He's always got these interesting outfits and hats. Looks like a real creative guy.

1:00:04 Um, what are your plans with, uh, for the visit? Is he American? Um, MJ, by the way, guys, check out Let's Do the Philippines. He's another good friend of mine, also a supporter of this channel through channel membership. He, uh, he and I have lived in the same city, and we have a lot of interesting shared experiences, and I just like his vibe. He does really fun streams, really relaxed.

Stream Wrap-up and Gratitude

1:00:35 Oh, he's from Texas. Okay, cool. Yeah, okay. That's immediately like, I like the Texas guys a lot. I get along great with a lot of different people from Texas. Great state, Texas is. Um, a lot of interesting characters from down there. Guys, I'll probably go for another five minutes because I've got some work to do for the next couple hours. But, um, yeah, feel free to chime in with any thoughts or anything that's on your mind.

1:01:11 It's been a really, I've been thrilled at how many people have jumped on tonight. It's been really cool. I wasn't expecting this because it's kind of an atypical hour for me to do a stream, but yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's, um, I'm looking forward to...

1:01:24 It's a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to a wonderful New Year's and I wish I could do live streams down there, but I worry about copyright music or otherwise. I'd love to live stream New Year's Eve and show everybody what that looks like. Maybe I can take my camera down there and still vlog it. Maybe I could just mute it in the edit and tag music on top.

1:01:51 Thanks so much, Trucker. Thank you for the support. Everybody check out Captain Trucker if you get a chance. He's a great content creator. Thank you so much, DJC. I appreciate it.

1:02:00 Yeah, we'll go for a few more minutes and then just wind down here. Thank you so much, MJ. I'll holler at you if I come up to Cabanatuan. Who knows, I may have to because I'm doing my passport renewal and there's a service that they'll take it up to Manila and transfer the stamp for me. But if that's not going to work, then maybe I'll go up to Manila myself.

1:02:21 If I come up to Manila, I'd love to come down to Cabanatuan and get together and hang out and shake hands and meet up and have some good times together. It's been a wonderful day in the Philippines.

Future Videos and Closing Remarks

1:02:53 I'm happy that I came and I'm so grateful for the times that I've had here. I appreciate all of you for watching and for supporting the channel. It's really a blessing.

1:03:09 For all of those who have watched, that's actually going to be my next video: talking about my blessings here in the Philippines. Sometimes I don't always have good days. Sometimes my days aren't optimum. I do my best, but this is a video that I'm excited to make.

1:03:28 Talking about my blessings here, what I'm thankful for, what I express gratitude about. I've gotten the first point down, I just need to get the other four filmed, but there's so much to be grateful for.

1:03:45 Manny, what do you think about places outside of Cebu or like Talis or San Fernando? I notice the rent is lower.

1:04:00 Yeah, that's the challenge, Manny. If you're outside the city, you can take a lot of time going back and forth. That's why a lot of people prefer to stay in the IT Park area. They feel like they're going to spend a lot of time going back and forth, and that transportation gets costly.

1:04:15 If I stay in Cebu, I prefer to be around IT Park, kind of more of the downtown area, just based on what I like to do. That's what I think is a better fit for me personally. But you know, each person has their own kind of thoughts on it.

1:04:32 Thank you so much, everybody. I'm going to go ahead and wrap up here. I appreciate everybody watching. Thank you so much, MJ and Manny, for supporting the channel through membership. Not a requirement, everybody, but I always appreciate it.

1:04:47 I need to do more stuff for you guys. I've had members mention to me, 'Hey, we just want to support the channel, we just want to encourage you.' But I do think it's only fair that if you're providing me extra value, then I return the favor.

1:05:00 Dave, I like people from Texas. They tend to be very expressive. Once they get past, 'Oh, you're from California,' very true, Dave. I could appreciate that.

1:05:09 Well, thanks so much, guys. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend. And if I don't see you before then, I hope you all have a Happy New Year. And we'll see you soon.

1:05:20 Bye-bye. Oh, I forgot, if you haven't already, you're watching this on replay, subscribe to the channel down below and comment what you think. Comment about anything. Comment about your New Year's plans. That's a good one.

1:05:33 All right, good night, everybody. Or good morning, too.