Triforce! - Triforce! Mailbag Special #42: Making Bank and Bustin' Noobs
Episode Date: November 20, 2024Triforce Mailbag Special 42! Lewis uncovers his strange money-making scheme in University, we're made aware of the Texan aerial pig hinting company Heli-bacon and Lewis could easily take Zuckerberg in... a game of Civilization! Go to http://auraframes.com/triforce to get up to $30 off Aura’s best-selling frames. Go to http://expressvpn.com/triforce today and get an extra 3 months free on a 1-year package! Support your favourite podcast on Patreon: https://bit.ly/2SMnzk6 Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello everyone, Lewis here.
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Um, let's bag, let's bag. Alright, welcome friends to another, yet another fabulous mailbag
episode.
I am here to read the mail.
Sips and Lewis, you guys here to hear and comment on said mail.
Yes, I am prepared. Very well.
I can't wait.
I will. Let's start with.
Hmm. What should we start with?
How about escaped murderer in my hometown?
Would you like to hear that one?
Oh, that sounds chill. Love. Love to.
Yes. All right. That's the new Netflix show.
ALICE Escape Murderer in My Hometown, that's the name of the show.
They've run out of names of shows.
LIAM They just call it what it is.
Show about an escaped murderer, that's pretty much it.
ALICE In My Hometown.
LIAM In My Hometown.
ALICE Series 2 has been renewed, like, already.
LIAM They didn't catch him, so we get a second season.
ALICE Escape Murdererers still in my hometown.
This is Jake from Bucktown.
Nice.
Was listening to Mailbag 14.
Story of the prison escape in Texas reminded me of when a murderer escaped prison near
my hometown in Pennsylvania last year.
He was able to climb out of prison by walking up two parallel walls that were close enough
together to put his feet on one and hands on the other and just climb out directly in front of a security camera, I might add.
He was on the run for two weeks across Chester County before he was spotted in my actual
town.
He broke into my friend's neighbor's garage and stole a rifle and was actually caught
doing so by the homeowner who shot at him seven times and missed every shot, which I
found pretty embarrassing.
After he stole the gun, the cops closed all the schools in the area and issued a shelter
in place warning.
We had a shelter in place warning.
We had SWAT guys in our backyard looking through our shed and everything.
Two days later, they finally found him sleeping in a pile of wood by a John Deere dealership
about five minutes from my house using a thermal imaging plane.
And they sent the dogs after him.
Afterwards they all took turns posing with him in cuffs for pictures.
Crazy times.
That's crazy.
His name was Danilo Cavalcante, if you want to check out his Wikipedia page.
Sips can add shitty prison guards to his list of disses for Pennsylvania.
There you go.
Yeah, there you go.
So he like Mario leveled his way out of prison.
He did. So if you look it up, there's go. So he like, um, he like Mario leveled his way out of prison. He did.
So, if you look it up, there's a video on Wikipedia, and the walls are close together.
I mean, they're not THAT close together.
This is pretty impressive.
Uh, he puts his feet on the back wall, and then just sort of, it's, imagine if you were
walking normally and had your hands above your head, but instead of being vertical,
he's horizontal.
That's very impressive.
But yeah, fair enough.
He did it very cool.
Walked out crab walking, crab walking crab walking is what they call it.
But I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure.
It's good.
Walk like a crab right out of there.
Just think if you put that skill to use, you know, instead of criminal means.
I know it does feel like a waste when these guys are like really, really, really smart and clever and able to think on their feet and they just use it to be criminals and escape from
prison and then get recaptured. Seems kind of a shame, doesn't it?
Seems kind of a waste. But he did fatally stab his ex-girlfriend.
But he did fatally stab his ex-girlfriend. So maybe he shouldn't be anywhere.
Great stuff.
That's a great one.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And I'm glad that he's back in jail.
There is, like, it's funny though, the Netflix thing.
Because I watched Chaos and it got cancelled immediately.
Oh really?
Yes. Because it didn't hit the millions cancelled immediately. Oh really? Yes.
Because it didn't hit the millions and millions of views that Netflix want.
You know Netflix put out tons of these things and they go on the top ten and they sort of
judge a thing by its click-baity virality kind of thing.
Something they're looking for another squid game or whatever all the time, right?
Yeah.
But not even that.
A lot of stuff that does well is just murder documentaries
and stuff. It's ever since Tiger King, they've kind of, they found that these murdery type,
like really, really lazy to, I mean, chaos, you have to pay Jeff Goldblum, right? And
it's a huge amount of work and computer graphics and Greek gods and all this crap. Whereas
if you're doing a documentary about, you know, murder in your hometown, easy, like you could just pay like two guys.
You just need a couple of, you need a researcher and an editor and you're done.
Basically.
Yeah, exactly.
The research of rings up all the people related books out some little areas for
them to film in, you know, they set up these weird houses and they just get set.
The cameras go and you see them picking their nose, you know, and then sort of cuts to them. They're like, so I had to, I had to kill him. That's like the cold
intro.
Hello, my name is Chud Burtley and I'm a detective for the, uh, Wimanona County Sheriff's Department.
That is it. Yeah. Uh, that's it. Alright.
Yeah.
I had to kill him.
I had to kill him.
I had to kill him.
It was him or me.
I had to kill a man.
Uh, alright.
Uh, this is called Spaces and Living in a Chest of Drawers.
This is a reference to, I read my friend's thesis, if you like, about spaces, void spaces, garden, shed a couple
of weeks ago.
And this is Sam with a follow up.
Very quickly on the subject of spaces, I was sitting rubbing my hands waiting for this
one as soon as chest of drawers was put under the category of houses.
Lewis said, fairly, that houses should have a human element and we can't live in a chest
of drawers.
You responded, how big a chest of drawers are we talking?
But that's the wrong question.
The question should be how small of a person.
My mom was adopted by her uncle as a baby
and her own mom couldn't look after her.
And he wanted to ensure she was raised by family.
As this was an unexpected adoption,
they didn't initially have a bed for her.
And she, as a baby, slept in a chest of drawers
for a crib for the first few months she lived there. Therefore a chest of drawers much like a hobbit
hole is a home to those small enough who dare to dwell within." Very good point Sam. Children
sleeping in the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers is quite an old fashioned concept,
but apparently, you know, within living memory. So there you go.
It is, it is funny. I like it. I, I wonder how many, sometimes you see in pet shops,
they have like shits of drawers of snakes or whatever they're breathing. Right. And
they could, they could like look at the drawer and then pull it out. And there's like a little
snakes in there because they, I, I, I like it. I like what you're coming from. So I guess
it can be a home to something, but then like like, hmm, what are we talking, like a tree hollow?
That's a home to like a bird?
You know, hmm, okay.
Yeah, very difficult.
You've opened up my idea of home.
You've opened my ideas.
You've opened his ideas.
There you go.
What is an egg then?
What is an egg?
Oh my goodness.
Is that a home?
Is it a shed?
I don't know.
It gets very complicated.
See, I don't think we should have living things.
Call your lads.
I'll get the lads on the case.
Get them on it.
It's like the mystery squad.
They can figure it out.
They'll solve it.
All right.
This one is called stop Lewis from wearing barefoot shoes.
We've had a lot of talk about, I've seen a lot of talk about barefoot shoes.
Some supporting, some against.
I'm wearing them right now.
All right.
Well, just listen to these two emails.
Okay. This one says a colleague of mine wore those shoes for a few months and'm wearing them right now. Alright, well, just listen to these two emails.
This one says, a colleague of mine wore those shoes for a few months and fucked her back
right up. It's been a couple of years since she threw them out, but her back hasn't gotten
unfucked. That's from Gear.
Watch out for your back guys, it is protected. It's one of those things that...
Because...
Respect your body and don't overdo it. Don't, you're not an Olympic weightlifter. Don't
do anything.
Yes I am.
Indeed. Well here's one from Adam to further add to the barefoot shoe debark.
So that was just an anecdote from his friend.
That was just one, but this one is from a physiotherapist. As a physiotherapist I figured
it was my time to chime in. The whole thing of barefoot shoes Lewis was talking about
is complete bullshit. It all comes from a book 15 years ago that made up a bunch of things which have since
been proven wrong.
One, the running style does not need to change when running barefoot.
The book used a specific area slash tribe in Africa as an example of how barefoot running
changes your technique and is more quote natural, but it was just that specific handpicked area
that ran that way.
In other regions, the majority of people run with the same technique barefoot as we do
with shoes.
The people who grew up mostly barefoot have differently shaped feet than us.
Switching to barefoot later in life will not change your feet to look like theirs.
It's too late to adapt.
Will not cause any improvements to your feet.
It might actually be harmful as your feet aren't shaped for it.
Right.
What if I go barefoot but I gallop like a horse?
You can try that or run like a gorilla with your hands on the ground, maybe.
People who run barefoot or with barefoot shoes have as many injuries as people who
run with shoes. Only they get theirs in a slightly different location as the load is
different. I don't want to scuff up my hands because then I won't be comfortable using
my mouse and keyboard. There you go.
No health benefit has been observed from using that type of shoe at all.
And finally, the company Vibram, who started the whole barefoot
running trend and who also sponsored the book, claimed health benefits
from using their shoes earlier this year.
They settled a class action lawsuit due to their false claims of said health benefits.
They are now barred from making any health claims at all regarding their shoes.
Wow.
Now, it's also worth mentioning there's nothing inherently bad about these shoes apart from
them making you look like a twat.
So if you find them comfy, by all means keep using them.
Here you go.
Yeah.
Your response.
From my point of view, I always used to wear skate shoes anyway, right?
Like flat vans and stuff like this.
And for my whole life. So I've kind
of switched over to barefoot shoes, his basically the same. It's not like I was wearing very
cushioned or very weirdly shaped trainers for a long time. So for me, I think I've been
wearing them for like four months now every day and I'm often in the office anyway, right?
It's not like I'm wearing them. Maybe it's time for you to get some Reebok pumps or some, some big Nike Airs.
Yes.
I need some like, some ones with the glowing, the lights on.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, God, they were, I never got those.
My parents never got me those.
No.
I wanted them so bad.
The flashing lights, trainers.
But no, I don't know. I'm getting on fine with
them. I haven't had any problems. But again, I think just, again, just be careful with
yourself. Like don't, your body is, you only get one, you know, look after it. Respect
what your limits are and listen to it. You know? And don't try and like push through
if it's something's hurting. I think that's like one of the worst bits of advice ever.
It's like, oh, it's hurting. Just keep going.
It's like, that's not, that's not good advice.
Another bit of advice, take it or leave it.
It's up to you, but eventually no matter how well you treat your body, it will
betray you.
So get in there first and, uh, strike, strike first, get all fucked up and then,
you know, before it betrays you, you fucking betray it.
Yeah.
You fuck it before it fucks you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Swallow in those hot dogs.
That's right.
Just get them down.
It's waiting.
It's biting its time to fuck you over.
It wants to fuck you over so bad.
You do it.
You act first.
You fuck them first.
Okay.
That's great advice.
Yeah.
All right. This is, this is from Dylan.
This is, hello from California.
This is, this is, there's two emails about the same subject here and I'm doing this one
first and then the follow up.
Okay.
So Dylan says, I would like to preface this email or is it preface by saying that I do
not intend to glamorize or promote gambling.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact your local gambling hotline.
If you gamble, you will lose.
That's the setting that Dylan is saying.
Mason- Yes. Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is going in, anyone, and most people know this
already, the house always wins. It's on purpose. It's mathematically impossible to beat the
odds over time.
Jason- However...
Mason- Unless you're some sort of Harvard MIT graduate.
Jason- Well, exactly. Now, I am a third year electrical engineering student and pay 100% of my tuition and living
expenses as a professional gambler. The amount of gambling I actually do is near zero. Everything
I do is carefully calculated so that I will statistically come out profitable in the long run.
While I can't guarantee a win every time, I can rely on the law of large numbers to ensure
profitability over time. I don't believe in luck, but some people still attribute my success to being a lucky player.
While this may sound thrilling, it isn't exactly like a crazy night in Vegas as some might imagine.
In reality, it quickly becomes incredibly monotonous and repetitive.
Because of the relatively low profit margins I work with, I have to rely on volume of play to make any significant money.
This year alone, I'll have played through
well over a million dollars in total bets spread over various casinos. In doing so,
I end up recycling through the same money hundreds or even thousands of times.
Please note, even though I've played through this much, only a small percentage is actual profit.
Whenever people ask me what I do for work, I have two options. One, I can sound like an absolute
degenerate, as most people won't be able to understand
what I do without a great deal of explanation.
Or two, I can lie and say that I'm a risk analyst at a small company.
If they probe further, which is so wanky.
Yeah, if they probe further, which is rare, I tell them it's more like a low level
internship until I finish school.
Since casinos really don't enjoy a player consistently making money,
I have been banned from several casinos and expect to be banned for more as time goes on. My goal is to keep this going until I finish my degree
and I can enter my actual field of work. Anyway, thought you might find this interesting. What are
some strange or unconventional ways that you or someone you know made money while at university?
Well, I did exactly that.
You played poker.
What he did. I know back in the day when I was at uni, there was this way where, got legacy was quite new, you signed up, you put in a hundred pounds and they gave you like a hundred
pound joining bonus, right? So you suddenly had 200 pounds. Now what you could do is you couldn't
withdraw immediately the 200 pounds, but what you could do is gamble that extra free 100 pounds over
and over again. And you had to basically make a thousand pounds
of bets with it. So basically if you bet £1 a thousand times, okay. And then you would
be able to withdraw it. And usually mathematically you would lose 3% of games. And so that £100
after a hundred bets, you'd lose £3 after a thousand bets, you'd lose £30 or whatever.
So you'd lose £300. Anyway, you'd end up losing, on average, you'd lose 30 pounds or whatever. Right. So you'd lose 300 pounds.
Anyway, you'd end up losing, on average, you'd end up losing that a hundred pounds away again.
Right. But what, but they would let you withdraw your a hundred pounds.
So you basically had an opportunity to get lucky or roll it over and over and over with some very
safe bets and take out a hundred and fifty pounds. Right. So you'd be able to make 50 pounds. Right. And
what I would do is I would, what exactly what this guy's doing, look for deals, look for
bonuses, look for emails, look for promotions and put a bit of money in that I knew I could
get back out and then play with the free money. Right. Until I was able to win. And I ended
up, you know, again, making about five or six grand
over the course of six months doing it. It wasn't a lot. And I had to like sign up to
new credit cards to make, you know, I had to use my parents address. Cause you know,
you could only make, you know, you can only make account, new accounts on your own credit
card once. I ended up using a few of my friends' accounts, you know, to do it and gave them
a cut. And it also, like the guy said, was a huge amount of my friends' accounts to do it and gave them a cut.
And it also, like the guy said, was a huge amount of work.
Because I had to play a thousand hands of poker to make fifty quid.
And it's a pain in the arse.
And so I was just doing it, like, three of them on the go at once.
Like while I was watching telly, while I was in lessons, while I was doing other stuff.
And it was a grind.
But it was a shitty little loophole that you could use to make
money. And yeah, I think that if you work it out and there is no way to lose in gambling,
and you've found a little hole, go for it. But very rarely do these things come along.
And certainly after people found out about it, it largely got shut down and it's hard, it became harder and harder to do.
They got wise to it, didn't they?
Because everyone will share this stuff as well. They'll be like, I'm doing this. And
they'll post on forums about it, they'll post on Reddit about it. And these things spread
like wildfire, you know, little hacks. And before you know it, you know, the company
figures out what's going on and shuts it down. Very few people stay quiet about their money-making schemes.
I don't know why, but yeah.
It's, I don't know, I haven't really done many other, I haven't really found many other
things like that.
Like get rich quick schemes or like, I don't know, like, have you guys ever like tried
to do anything weird for money?
I mean, crack makes a lot of money.
Yeah, crack is very profitable.
But yeah, I used to play a lot of online poker when I worked in poker TV and stuff, you know,
you watch poker all day and you want to go home and play.
And I found cash poker to be very boring and grindy. So I played tournament poker, which is
more my cup of tea anyway. A much simpler game than cash poker because a lot of the decisions
are made for you by the bets and the chip stacks and where you are in the tournament.
And also tournament poker is a lot slower to lose money, right? You pay a 25 quid pie and it takes
three hours to do a tournament. Whereas if you're a cash table, 25 quid, you could lose it in seconds.
Yeah. Because of the whole, luck, if you want to call it that, does tend to come in streaks.
So you'll have a session, any poker player will know this feeling, your aces get cracked
like five times in a row. Like you're're all in preflop against like Ace Jack and
Or a pair of tens or whatever it is and you're like you're getting your money in good
And it doesn't end that way and it keeps happening and you can lose
That's why bankroll management is a big thing for any professional
gambler or poker player
Because that you have these streaks of bad variants
And when you have the streaks of bad variants. And when you have the streaks of good variants, it covers it. But in general, if you're playing good poker, you'll make money. But again,
like the like the previous email said, it's not a huge margin. Like you're not doubling your money
every session. Over the course of a year, you might be making, you
know, a percentage on your bankroll. But if your bankroll is big enough, you're playing
a big enough stakes, you can earn a living from it. But the tournament poker is where
you suddenly win a fortune. And that can be a massive bonus. But the variance in tournaments,
you're very unlikely to win loads of tournaments in a year. But the payoff when you do is so much bigger. And like you said,
you only have to pay the entrance fee. You're not, there's no chance of losing more, but
there's also no chance of breaking. There's less chance of just breaking even if you play
lots of tournaments, because a lot of the time you have to make tournament plays and
then you go bust and you're like, well, that was
unfortunate, but you're out.
You don't get a chance to buy back and win your money back.
But anyway, I think a lot of this stuff, you really, really, really need to, uh,
I wouldn't even say enjoy it.
You need to be obsessed with it because it just becomes your whole life.
I guess it does.
I mean, I think it's really just be, It really will just be, yeah, but with a job, you can, there's, there's, there's safety
mechanisms in a job where you can, you know, you can, you, you can go home and switch off
after a time, you know, it doesn't have to follow you home. And for some people it does,
of course, but for most people they can go in, do a job and then
have like a separate life outside of a job or whatever.
With something like this, you're doing it all the time.
And it's like you're standing in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal at one o'clock in
the morning and you're playing like four different gambling games online at the same time because
like Lewis said, you just have to grind it and grind it and grind it. Like all of these, all of these things where there's a way to make money
are very, very consuming. And, and I think the people that do them have some sort of
like, uh, you know, like beautiful mind obsession with it sort of thing, you know, like they
will just occupy every minute of their day doing it sort of thing. And if it works for
them and they get a lot of money, great, I guess.
But for the average person, I wouldn't say that that's at all sustained.
No, no, I think you need a particular.
Yeah. So we need to be very driven.
You need to be able to focus for long periods of time, because when you when you
if you stop playing optimally because you're tired or you're not paying attention,
you're going to lose.
And that's that's almost like just losing income.
That's like your boss just stops paying you like everyone.
I know that played poker professionally was playing multiple screens,
multiple tables at once, cash games all day.
And they know that they're just very slightly better than the other people.
The average people at the table with them.
So they're making better bets or they're using a better HUD, which is like a heads up display
that you have over everyone at the table that gives statistical probability about what they're
doing. And you have data mining and hand histories, thousands and thousands of hands are just
played and people in those hand histories sell it. They sell their hand histories online, like 50,000 hands at this, at the one to,
you know, on, on poker stars or whatever.
Here's the hands and you download them and you put them into your poker hard and
all your statistical things.
And when you play against someone, it's got data on them that you wouldn't have
had otherwise.
And so you look and say, Oh, this guy is really aggressive player.
So I'm going to widen my range when I come to call his bets and so on. So it's
like that kind of thing. But for some people, look, I don't even think that it's like a
beautiful mind thing. I think it's a way to make money. You're in control completely,
or you certainly feel like you are. And some people are just massive nerds for things like
this. It's almost like mathematics more than gaming.
Yeah.
Poker you're playing against other people and winning money off other people.
Less so these days.
Rather than winning off the house.
You're generally playing against bots.
And yes the house does take up a percent.
And yeah, bots.
I mean, I think it's the same sort of thing with even things like the stock market, right?
Like, for example, I got into the new WoW expansion in the last couple of months and I finished
the quests and all the normal stuff and I had fun and it was fine.
And then I sort of found myself quite enjoying doing a bit of crafting and then selling stuff
on the auction house and I ended up going onto the WoW economy subreddit and there's
a couple of discords and a bunch of goblins there.
I love that side of the game, but I just did not get anywhere near it with this expansion.
Like it's...
Well, I know, but it's kind of its own sub game of trying to be an auction house baron
and trying to be rich in the game.
Yeah, it's fun.
I used to love doing that.
And it's kind of weird, because obviously, if you do play it really well, the big problem
with it, I found, was that three or four times
Blizzard would make some sort of hotfix.
Some sort of change.
And the people who were able to either see that, not see it coming, but like, get their
heads up.
Realise the implications and figure out a way to capitalise.
The people who got like a ping on their phone when Blizzard do a hotfix, they log in and
they you know, dump all their money.
Yeah.
I gotta dump all my titanium ore.
Now's the time.
It's kind of frustrating because that's really how to make money in the game.
It's to play off Blizzard's decisions.
It's true at a certain level in real life as well, right?
Like investment banks and commodities and all that kind of stuff.
It's the same
sort of shit. You have to have a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. You have to know a lot
of people who are similar minded and then you can, you know, at a certain level, you
know, you're talking, you know, for the average person, you know, oh yeah, I spent 500 pounds
on some stocks and I'm hoping that, you know, I'm going to, you know, oh yeah, I spent 500 pounds on some stocks and I'm
hoping that, you know, I'm going to make a thousand. But like when you have millions or billions to
throw around and stuff, it's different. Yeah. You just press a button and you buy a million
pounds worth of this thing. And then the announcement comes out. and then you sell it 10 minutes later
for two million.
You know, it's like, well there's my job done for the year.
You sound like a US politician.
That's what we do.
There was a thing about how they all massively outperform the stock market average.
Of course.
Because they all have insider information.
They all fucking do it.
Like they all fucking do it.
It's a disgrace.
Well there's no way to, you know, prove a lot of this stuff. You know, it's, it's figuring
out people chatting up the pub with someone. It's like, it's, and also like, it's not,
it's just sort of, it's hard to prove, I guess, that they got.
I would suggest that it's easier to prove than you think.
Well, it's, it's obviously, it's rampant, right?
And it obviously has gone on forever in some way.
Doing insider trading, that's the way to make money for sure.
But what counts as insider trading?
Right?
I think a lot of people-
If you have prior information from a source connected with the companies and buy stocks
or sell them based on that information.
I think that covers it.
Yeah, I think it's like a perfectly timed concerted effort to make things aligned.
I mean, yeah, if you do it once, maybe you got lucky, right?
Yeah.
area is less maybe you got lucky right? Yeah.
But if you do it every time and your average is like way higher than like even a good
bank or whatever, probably worth investigating. Should we follow there's another casino email? This is another one. This is I work for the largest
casino in my area as one of the behind the scenes techies. So I wanted to put this in
because obviously talking about how someone's paying for university by gambling, some people might think, well,
that sounds interesting. Just listen to this. All right. While we have no gaming table,
there have been many attempts to modernize gaming table. They don't think we have no gaming table.
They've been attempts to modernize as fewer young people are gambling. There are screens everywhere
and few dealers in comparison.
Digital horse races, digital card machines,
anything that can be hooked up to bright lights
and loud sounds to trick your brain into an addictive cycle.
A majority of the people who come in are old folks
using the fruit machines to blow away the little money they get from their retirement funds.
They often arrive early in the morning and sit at a single machine for hours.
There are rooms and rooms of these fruit machines and they take up the majority of the gaming
floors.
The card tables are often empty aside from Fridays and weekends and in the evening.
There are no windows in the fruit machine areas and it's entirely walled in.
There are no clocks or any indication of time to keep people playing for longer.
The word gambling is practically a slur among staff and not to be said.
Instead you have to say playing or gaming.
The biggest draw for young people are shows and concerts with expensive tickets,
ridiculously priced themed cocktails and an uptick in dinner
reservations before or after the event.
Drinks that cost three to five dollars to make are often charged
up to 20 plus dollars for customers.
While all this pays my income, I want to make the PSA do not go to concede casinos. If you do have a set amount to lose and get the fuck out
after that and never, never use the fruit machines. I know many people who will put
their entire paycheck through them and lose it all within hours.
Yeah, that's I mean, I think like we've said this time and time again, but if you if you
go to a casino and you have 50 bucks and you're going with some friends and you just want to have
fun and you lose your 50 bucks, you've gone out. It's like, it's,
it's basically kind of like a night out, right? You've,
you've probably had a good time. You've socialized,
you've done a couple of bits and pieces.
If you're taking your entire paycheck and losing it and then you're crying and
living in a ditch after, that's not very
good. You should not be doing that at a casino. Treat it like-
You're not using the right strategy, mate. You're going to the cinema for the evening.
You wouldn't spend your entire paycheck at a cinema.
What you want to do is you want to watch other people putting money in, then when they walk
away, that machine's loaded, it's ready to pay out. Then you go up to that one, mate.
That's what you do.
That's why they sit at them all day, these old farts. Because they're like, they know
how much they put in this machine, and they'll be damned if they're going to share it with
anyone else. I mean, the amazing thing to me is, of all the things to put your money
into at a casino, you have no edge at all on the fruit machines. None.
No, it tells you how much the payout percentage is on the side of the fucking machine.
It's like it's like 50 or 60.
It's like, but it's I feel like there's more to it than just going to the fruit machine.
Right. Like I think people, the people must find some comfort in the simplicity of it.
The surroundings, you know,
maybe you're going there and you're doing that for a couple of hours,
but you might be meeting some people there or you have your dinner there,
or you just basically live there. I've known people like that as well,
but there's got to be more to it than just I'm obsessed with playing the fruit
machines or I'm obsessed with playing the slot machines. All right. You know what I mean? There's gotta be,
there's gotta be more.
I mean, I'm sure that if you're a lonely older person with literally nothing
better to do, uh, and this is fun, I, you know,
I can see why they do it. I mean, they're not doing it as an investment. No,
I think they, they quite like the highs of having a good day. Yeah.
It's probably if they've got nothing better to do with their time and apparently they
don't.
Yeah.
But sit there and pump all their money into these machines.
I mean, it's incredibly predatory, but it is.
But I mean, they are adults.
You'd think like so many things nowadays.
I mean, you know, there's a lot of that seeping into gaming, which is, you know,
everything's going to shit.
It's, it's pretty bad too.
And these are, I guess it's, it's kind of the same.
You've got people who don't have anything else better to do or whatever
sitting around gaming and stuff.
But then you've got this notion of whales, you know, people who, who spend a lot
of money and, and companies preying on them to prop up a game, you know, with
like through skins, cosmetics, or even like pay to win stuff.
I reckon these guys, these old folks just need to get it like the grandma.
They need to get into Skyrim.
I think that would just do it.
They just want flashy lights and colors and, and, but I also think they want community,
right?
They want to be in places where other people are.
I think the casinos are there.
I think the staff are always very nice, you know, cause they're paid to be, you know,
there's it's, it's warm.
It's cozy.
It's nice.
Something that you like to do for the lights.
Right.
I think it feels exhilarating.
It feels like you're doing something.
It feels like you've got your oxygen machine and you've got your credit card attached to
a lanyard and on your name.
Here's a question.
Given that you're I mean, the the the emailer has said who is requested to remain anonymous,
obviously, the emailer said that the casino doesn't it doesn't seem like a nice environment.
It's incredibly loud.
It's flashing lights.
There's no windows.
There's no it's designed to just keep you no windows, there's no... it's designed
to just keep you in a state where the only thing that you're doing is going cha-ching
cha-ching and pulling the lever or whatever, or mashing buttons.
That doesn't say community, and fun, and pleasant surroundings.
That's like a hot house.
ALICE But it's the same thing as being with...
Community doesn't mean necessarily being actively face to face interaction with
other people.
It means where other people are around you.
Yeah.
I mean, like, your average pub is not a nice place to be in, but if you're used to it,
and you're used to all the people there, it's probably fine, right?
I think pubs are...
I think pubs are...
Depends which pub, I mean.
Well, again, again...
Of course it depends which one. And the thing is your pub, the one that you've gone to forever might be a shitty
pub, but you don't think it's shitty because you're used to it.
Right.
I wouldn't go to a shitty pub.
I know, but you know what I mean?
It's fucking horrible.
Yeah.
But yeah, because that's somebody else's shitty pub that they're used to,
whatever, but I mean, there's, there's shitty pubs everywhere and they're still
going because people obviously still go to them for whatever reason. I think it's just the same as a casino.
I don't think it has to be perfect. It just has to be familiar and comfortable for you to sit there
and plug away. Yeah.
Mason- I think in response to the incident and some of these other things, especially like COVID, I think people are demanding communality or the idea of living with other people. Certainly as
the cost of living rises and cost of rent rises, more people have been living together or coming up
with ways to live in community things. And I don't know if we're going to see, I don't really know enough already about some non-expert or anything, but I always feel like communes and
hippie lifestyles were a thing that's kind of looked down upon or frowned upon as this kind of
alternative way of living. And it's certainly communism was demonised, certainly for a long
time during the Cold War. And's kind of still seen as something
which is a failed experiment. The idea of living together in a commune with other people
is almost like, the idea is I think it's destined to fail. Partly because I think it breathes
resentment due to eventually the idea that certain people aren't pulling their weight
or other people are contributing more. And that kind of sometimes, I think unless it's very well controlled, either with some
sort of religious cult leader, which is often a terrible fucking outcome, or everyone is
on the same mindset, which is not always the case because people change and everything. These resentments
can fester. And so unless you're either regularly very engaged within that community, I think
it can fall apart very easily. Certainly, you know what it's like living with your friends.
It's great for a while, but then you start to see the cracks as you realise this person's
a slob and this person's doing this and you
get arguments and you can't help it. It's inevitable that people will fall out. And
at least more people are becoming vegan and eating healthy. More people are trying to
do things like grow their own vegetables, grow their own food. It certainly feels like
people are moving out to the countryside more. I know obviously still lots of people come
to cities for the jobs, but certainly some people feel like, oh, I could work remotely and not live in the city.
It definitely feels like there's this sort of different process going, simmering away
in the background that feels like maybe everyone is trying to be eco-friendly.
And even if that's not done by big business, because it's still very capitalistly driven,
I think that generally people are keen to do things that are sustainable and, you know, maybe not eat things that have come
from New Zealand. I think there is a desire for locally grown food, you know, and communities
working together. Would you live on a commune? Would you? Would I live on a commune? Absolutely
fucking not.
What if it's got good internet?
Even then, like...
What if you get to be the cult leader?
Ooh, okay, now we're talking.
Every man has a price.
I don't know, like I'm interested in that and I haven't really thought about it too
much.
Well, here you go.
If anyone out there has experience of living on a commune, email in, tell us what it was
like.
What were the pitfalls?
What were the pros and cons?
Let us know.
That would be good.
Let's try this one.
This is from Danny.
This is a complete change of pace.
I compete in a sport called Strongman.
Nice.
Unlike most strength sports, Strongman is fairly non-standardized with competitions usually
consisting of five or six events ranging from deadlifting cars.
Yes.
Pressing a log over your head or simply picking up the biggest rock.
They're always on TV.
They're the championships always on TV between Christmas and new years.
You always see those guys pulling dump trucks and stuff.
Be careful.
Every competition is different and there are dozens of different events
you might end up doing with organizers often using whatever crap
they have laying around in their gym.
See this guy, this guy knows what's up.
He's fucking his body before his body fucks him.
He's getting in there early.
Next year, I'll be competing at England's strongest natural man.
This isn't as impressive as it sounds.
There's no qualifying system, so anybody can sign up.
My goal is simply to not come last.
The competition has to specify natural in the title because in strongman, athletes are
permitted to take steroids as the default and non-steroid users have to either compete
at a disadvantage or resign themselves to the less popular natural competitions.
Personally, I think strongman is one of the best true measures of a person's strength.
It's one thing picking up a lot of weight in a strict motion you've done thousands of times
and another thing to shimmy a 120 kilo sandbag onto your shoulder and sprint with it.
With all this being said, what do you guys think is the most definitive way to measure whether
someone is strong?
For me, it has to be picking up a big rock.
Picking up a big rock is pretty it's pretty tough.
Yeah, I mean, you're not really going to you're not you're not really going to get a better measure than that, I don't think.
If somebody can pick up a really big rock, well, they're probably strong.
I think things that aren't designed to be picked up, like
when you see them picking up huge kettlebells or something
with a handle or, like he said, like huge weights, that's
kind of designed ergonomically for you to be able to pick it
up. When you see them with the rock having to pick up a giant
boulder, they've got to it's awkward to get their arms
around it. And it's like, it's it's it's misshapen and is
digging into them. So I think being able to pick up a very, very heavy rock probably is a great, great...
Because you've got to use so much.
Your grip has to be good.
You need to have a good sort of strength throughout your arms and your shoulders.
Then to pick it up, you need strength through your core.
And then to stand up and lift, you need to have power all through your legs.
So I think it's a total body usage for the picking up of the rock.
Oh, and I think that's so much healthier. I think if you have trained to do one specific kind of
weight lift, you're obviously going to be really good at that thing. But, yeah, I think going and
picking up a rock, it does feel like it's something which you're going to have to, otherwise you're going to injure yourself.
I think like I'm scared because I guess a lot of these events are about trying to get
eyes on them, right?
And try to get viral clicks and try to do new stuff.
It's like, Oh, pull a truck.
You know, I'm going to make this guy lift up an airplane.
I'm going to make this guy, you know, lift a rock while jumping out of an airplaneoplane. There's all dumb, you know, they're constantly like one-upping themselves,
right? And I think that anything that leads to, like you said, P-Flex, like whole body
strength where you can take on a variety of challenges feels a lot healthier as a thing
to promote.
Counterpoint, you're fucking more parts of your body all at the same time.
This is true. And also, I think it's just so dangerous, God, like picking up that slippery
rock, drop it on your floor. Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Yeah. But you never see them dancing away like a little girl, do you? They're always
just like... It just slams down the floor, right next to them, and they just don't react
at all.
Those lads are so big though, that they sort of have to T-pose all the time. They look like
they've just spawned in as an NPC. Like, they're armed sort of out to the side because they
literally can't put them down by their side. They're just like, they turn like a big sort of
Frankenstein's monster. But yes, I do love a bit of Strongman.
Lewis, have you ever heard of a data broker?
No.
Well, they're the middlemen, collecting and selling all those digital footprints that you
leave online. They can stitch together detailed profiles which include your browsing history,
online searches, and location data. The data broker then sells your profile off to a company
who delivers you a really targeted
ad.
Well, that's no big deal, right?
Maybe you want some targeted ads.
Well, you might be surprised to learn that these same data brokers are also selling your
information to the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS, if you're an American.
I for one don't want the tax man showing up at my door because of some search I did
on my phone.
So, to mask my digital footprints, I protect myself with ExpressVPN. Fantastic. One of the easiest ways for data brokers to track you is through your
device's unique IP address, which also reveals your location information. With ExpressVPN,
your IP address is hidden, making it much more difficult for people to track, monitor, and
monetize your private online activity. ExpressVPN encrypts 100% of your network traffic
and works on all your devices.
You've been away in the last couple of weeks
on hotel wifi.
In fact, I'm sure you've used ExpressVPN to stay private.
Oh, well, you know I have.
I don't want reception knowing what I'm up to in my room.
Thank you very much.
And I'm using a borrowed PC.
That's the other thing.
It's not my PC.
So I pop ExpressVPN to
further conceal what I've been up to. Yes, expressvpn.com slash triforce.
And you can get an extra four months for free with the 12 month plan or six months free if you get
a 24 month plan. Expressvpn.com slash triforce. Check it out.
Like a lot of people, my mum is terrible when it comes to technology.
She's the opposite of tech savvy.
So it seems kind of weird for me to get her a sort of techie gift.
But Aura's digital frame is actually perfect.
That's because, yes, it's tech.
But it is so easy.
I gave her an Aura frame.
I can upload pictures to it automagically.
It's like, it is literally like
magic. It just appears on the screen as she messaged me and said, oh, new photos have arrived.
It's, you don't even need to let them do it. You can do it. You can take control yourself and give
all those pictures of your holidays and your kids and even yourself straight onto your your parents'
frames and then they get the grandparent experience. They suddenly get pictures of the kids popping up.
It's fantastic. It's very easy to get started and once you do, it's much, they suddenly get pictures of the kids popping up. It's fantastic.
It's very easy to get started.
And once you do, it's very easy to use,
incredibly easy to maintain.
You just upload pictures, bam, straight off your phone.
Straight from my phone just with a click.
You just select a bunch of them, upload,
and they'll leave them paired photos together.
I don't know how the hell it knows,
but it knows, same person, same day, side by side.
It's amazing.
No memory cards, no USB.
There's a reason that Wirecutter named it
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And for a limited time, if you go to AuraFrames.com, you get $45 off their best-selling
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Now, this is one for you, Sipsy boy.
I'm ready. Hit me.
OK, there have been several times now that Sips has talked about the show.
How clean is your house?
Yeah. With Kim and Aggie.
And he always brings up that Aggie does another show where she looks at people's shit.
Uh-huh. And he always brings up that Aggie does another show where she looks at people's shit
Me crazy because I used to watch both of these shows all the time Okay
The other show he is talking about is called you are what you eat and it's hosted by Jillian McKeith
Not Aggie. Aggie is the one is the is the blonde lady with who's always got the gloves and
Jillian is the one with the, with the
glasses who also gets the gloves, but is obsessed with the poop.
Right.
But again, she is not from how clean is your house?
Jillian McKeith is a different person from Kim and Aggie.
I know this is a show.
Oh, sorry.
My bad.
She looks vaguely similar.
Yes.
Oh yeah.
That's not, you're right.
Yeah. That's the poop lady. Yeah. Yes. Oh yeah, that's not, you're right, yeah, that's the poop lady.
Yeah.
That is a p-
Okay, good.
Gillian.
And, uh-
Right, yes.
So, Haley says, yeah, she does make people shit in a little Tupperware container, which
she then opens and smells in front of them and their family.
Yes.
That's Haley from California, thank you, Haley.
Holy crap, sorry, I got my wires crossed there.
It's like, God, he's confused.
I know, I know.
I get an email in.
I know.
I'm sorry.
But it's similar because the one on Kim and Aggie used to do the poop in the container
stuff as well, right?
But Jillian also does.
I don't think they did.
I don't think Kim and Aggie ever did the poop.
I'm sorry. I think you're mistaken the fact that they would often clean a toilet
and complain about how disgusting the toilet was. I'm sure there was a segment where they were like,
let's see how healthy you are, shit in this container. No, that's Jillian McKee.
Oh, maybe. Haley, don't email in again. We tried. All right, we tried.
Sorry, it's been so long.
I mean, I it's not like I watched these shows yesterday.
I mean, I watched like 20 years ago.
Plus, this is this one's called Helly Bacon.
That's the name of the email.
This is a website.
You can look this up if you guys want Helly Bacon dot com.
And it's like helicopter.
But instead of copter, it says bacon.
This company offers the opportunity to fly above Texas in a helicopter
and fire machine guns down at hordes of wild pigs.
Oh my God.
They even have a mini gun.
It's the most American thing I've ever heard of and thought you'd find their concept entertaining.
Uh, personally, I just imagined that this is that poor pigs Vietnam.
They're being blasted with fortunate sun as a Huey flies overhead,
and they're being peppered with fortunate sun as a Huey flies overhead
and they're being peppered with machine gun fire.
Sort of funny in a macabre way.
Thank you, Dan.
That's horrifying. I don't know why these are apparently
these pigs are invasive. Right.
They're not just pigs that are chilling. Right.
They need to be culled.
These are like invasive pigs. Yeah.
I mean, I would hope that.
Helicopter hunting trips in Texas. Yeah. I mean, I would hope that helicopter hunting trips in Texas.
Yeah. Look, look at the cost.
It's about five to six grand per person.
Do you want to eradicate herds of hogs from the air?
Never, never.
I never thought I would be asked that one.
Can you read this?
The Texas accent before you want to buzz droves of hogs
15 feet off the ground at highway speeds?
Texas is the place to be.
We'll supply the machine guns, you bring the trigger finger.
The experience begins before dawn with a thorough safety course covering techniques and methods
for safely operating firearms in and around an aircraft.
The hunt starts bright and early with a lift off at sunrise.
Every hunter is outfitted with a semi-automatic AR-15 equipped with a holographic red dot
sight and ammunition.
For those looking to kick it up a notch, upgrade to a fully automatic machine gun and get the
full Texas experience.
One day breaks.
It's game on!
God almighty.
Good God.
Count me out.
Helly bacon.
Helly bacon duck.
Oh my God. No me out. Helly bacon. Helly bacon duck.
Oh my God.
No Texas hunting license required to shoot feral hogs.
Feral hogs.
You can go, you can go at nighttime and there's a night vision version where you're shooting
them in the dark.
God.
Oh, that's insane.
I mean, they say that-
Wonder if they eat pork.
That's what I'm saying.
I mean, do they go out and collect them?
Is wild hog just like pork?
I mean, can you just cook it up?
Because if you end the day with a hog roast, I'm just saying, this is a fucking banger
of a day out if you don't mind shooting wild hogs.
Wild hogs.
Oh dear.
Fucking unbelievable.
I wonder what the-
It's the most American thing ever, isn't it?
It really is. Honestly.
Like when they hear the chopper, they're like, incoming and they like scatter.
I think pigs generally stick in groups. So it must be pretty easy. You kind of
just hosing down a group of pigs. Oh, those poor things. All right.
This is about cruise ship micro apartments. We talked about this in episode 298.
This is about cruise ship micro apartments. We talked about this in episode 298. This is during this is after TI and Sips' semi-annual hodge to centrebox.
Yes.
The hodge of course is the pilgrimage in which you discussed old people selling their
belongings to purchase a condo on a cruise ship.
Yeah.
For the last year and a half, I've been living in a 200 square foot micro apartment.
Yeah.
Which also happens to be the cheapest possible location I could have chosen to live in my
city.
This is this.
We talked about a 200 square foot.
That is really small.
It is.
I think for one person, though, you can make small work.
But if you have a partner and of course, if you have other people that you've created,
200 square feet
feels very, very, very, very small.
I don't think you would live there with a family for sure.
So contrary to your guesses, there's a surprising amount of space that can be used for storage
without it feeling too cramped.
I have two full bookshelves, a dresser, a closet,
as well as a good number of cabinets for food and cooking stuff.
Most of the kitchen storage is unused because of other issues with the building,
but I digress. Any extra clothes from the dresser live in big storage bins in the closet.
The main issue with an apartment this small is obviously the bed.
There's only room for a twin bed and the layout of my apartment means there's less than a meter of
space between the open side of the bed and the bathroom wall. It felt a bit tight at first,
but one gets used to these things.
The bathroom is big enough for a good sized shower, unlike the Yogg Tower's one, you can
bend down in it.
What's that a reference to?
Um, is it got like a slanted roof or something?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Oh, maybe that's a reference to me having a shower in the Yogg Tower's shower.
You did that?
Have you talked about that?
Man, you lived like five minutes away, you would just go home, no?
If I lived as close to the office as you did, I would go and do shit and everything.
Oh, my boiler was out.
But the shower is so small you can't bend down it.
Yeah, well it's obviously like a really really tight shower, you can't really bend down it.
And then the actual changing area outside is again, the same small tight shower. You can't really bend down. And then the actual
changing area outside is again, the same small, so small, you can't really bend down.
I see.
And so it's kind of like, you're just like, you go in there vertically, take your clothes
off like vertically, get in the shower, have a wash vertically.
Like try dry off vertically. It's very strange, but it's fun. Fun. It wouldn't be great if
you were claustrophobic. This is like, I've just found a YouTube video with a 200 square foot house.
It's basically one room.
The fact that he's got a twin bed in there is impressive because I think most people
would have like a sofa bed.
So, I mean, yeah.
So, I mean, you can see that that is...
If you look on YouTube and you just, the the title is is a 200 square foot tiny home
livable. There is a shot of the room. It's got one window. The door opens straight into
the what I guess is the main room. He's got room here for a single bed. A TV is on the
wall above the bed. Then there's a gap, a little coffee table, a little sofa and a little bookshelf. And he's got a bedside table. So if you imagine that, I think the floor
plan for this email is mail, Peter is obviously slightly different because he has the separate
bathroom, the beds lined up in such a way that when you get out of the bed, you're facing the
bathroom wall. Although so Peter says, my experience definitely isn't typical.
My apartment is on the property of the landlord, maybe four meters from her
house, built on the detached garage.
I think it was originally meant as a guest apartment for the homeowner, but I have no idea.
That being said, for a bachelor like me who doesn't have any friends in the area,
it's a pretty sweet deal.
Yeah, that's not bad.
Some old person on a perpetual cruise who doesn't have to worry about food or laundry would probably love the downsides of it anyway.
I mean, that's the thing. If you're living in the 200 square foot cruise ship room, you
only, you don't need a kitchen. So that's a huge amount of space taken out. I guess
it's probably cheaper than living in a, in a residential home as well. And honestly,
I don't think it's worse than living in like a, a fan or like a boat.
You know, by a lot of people like downsize into, you know, they'll sell their house and
everything after they've retired and they'll just buy a big RV and just go, go around.
It's much cheaper to, to, to hire a spot in an RV park and like in North
America, especially, Oh my God, there's so many of them. It drives straight off the cliff.
There are a lot. There's so many RV parks and the nice thing is, is your mobile. So
if you get sick of one, you just go to another one, you know, you might want to be in like
a more wooded area or maybe one in the desert or whatever, you know, like there's, you got options and you can drive.
My parents, uh, did that for a bit.
They, uh, well, they didn't sell their house, but they got really big into, uh, into the RV life.
And they had a trailer like for their RV.
They could pull their car behind so that when they would get somewhere and stay somewhere for
months at a time, instead of having to just drive the RV everywhere they went, you know, they'd have their little car with them and
stuff. It's fucking crazy actually. But like the, the inside of the place was like, it
was just like a really nice apartment, you know, like when they parked it up, the whole
thing would like open up and expand and they had, you know, like a little living room and
a kitchen and I don't know,
I think they just went to places where they could just sit outside a lot and stuff.
Yeah. I always find it funny when they show like all this cool stuff in their van and it's like,
ah, if you lift up the chair, it's a toilet. And if you lift up the toilet, it's a washing machine.
And if you, and then they're like, under the shower, you have to go around here and put a plastic bag on the back of the van. It's like, okay, cool.
And I love those old videos from the 90s where it would be like, Coolio's tour van or whatever.
He's like, yeah, come back here. It's like a little bunk bed with like a Sega Genesis.
But at the time that was just like, oh my God, this guy's got a bunk bed in a Sega Genesis.
I bet he could play Sega Genesis all the fucking time in that thing.
Very specific memory there.
Classic MTV.
Sega Genesis.
Coolio's tour bus.
I'm sure that was like a, before MTV cribs, it was like, you know, the kind of like behind
the scenes sort of, you know, this is how the stars live and this is how they tour and
stuff.
I mean, you look at it now and you think, geez, he lives in a van essentially.
Yeah.
Like sleeps on a bunk bed.
It's not very glamorous being on tour is every band that goes on tour talks about like how
fucking it's just shitty.
Yeah, it is. It shitty. It is. Yeah. It is a good grind.
Yeah. Some some bands love it, but some bands really hate it.
I guess the ones that do loads of drugs and get loads of groupies is quite fun for a while.
Yeah. Yeah. This is worst Airbnb experience.
This is this is I have an Airbnb experience from hell
that I was reminded about when listening to one of the last Triforces.
Back in 2021, just after Covid, me and some friends decided to book a little weekend away
in Ontario.
We found a good look at Airbnb and booked it.
It was a farm-style house and when we got there, it was a little odd, slightly dirty
and stuff everywhere.
But we aren't a picky group so we thought it was okay.
A couple of drinks and many hours later we started to get all set for bed.
In one of my rooms, my friend and his partner pulled back the sheets to find either a puke
or piss-soaked bed.
Then minutes later, a mouse runs past.
At that point, we started to realize
just how off this place was.
Feathers and old food left everywhere,
weird locks on the outside of doors,
just not the place we wanted to be.
We tried calling Airbnb, but they were useless.
And then we called the host.
And oh boy, it was a disaster. She started to threaten us, told us she was calling the cops,
gave us a story that we did it all. When we said we just wanted another bed or something for the
night, she said there was an air mattress under the sofa. We got to, we go to get it and there
was a mound of old trash and the air mattress was full of holes. Needless to say, we all got the
fuck out of there. Airbnb refused to give us our money back,
and my buddy now has a negative Airbnb rating.
Sorry to hear that, Craig.
That's a terrible, terrible fucking Airbnb.
Yeah, who would have thought that staying at somebody's random house
would come with problems and issues?
There's a bunch of fucking insane people out there, by the way.
I don't think Airbnb is vetting them either.
You know, any old weirdo can just put their house up.
Oh, by the way, I live here in the closet while you're staying here.
Sorry. And you know what I mean?
Like fucking hell.
I mean, generally, I go for places that have got a decent number of ratings.
Yeah.
Because the way I see it, if you've got a highly rated Airbnb,
you probably haven't fucked up. If a place is brand new, sometimes you think, well, way I see it, if you've got a highly rated Airbnb, you probably haven't fucked up.
If a place is brand new, sometimes you think, well, I'll chance it.
And I have done it.
And a couple of times I've been really sort of pleasantly surprised.
But you are rolling the dice.
Yeah. Hotel is definitely I would rather know exactly what you're going to get.
Yeah. Yeah, I know it's not it's not economical for everybody
to just stay at a hotel.
But I mean, there's there's it's cheaper, it's not economical for everybody to just stay at a hotel, but I mean, there's, there's, it's cheaper.
There's scales as well, right?
Like I like, like I premier in is pretty, pretty cheap and much cheaper staying at a
hotel.
Yeah.
A lot of Airbnb's are way over the premier in that we stayed at in, uh, in stains, it
was fine.
It was totally fine.
Like there was, it was just, you know, it was, it was basic, but it was fine. It was totally fine. It was basic, but it was clean. It was fairly new. It felt
fairly new. It didn't feel dated or old or anything. It was honestly fine. And cheap
as well compared to some of the places. I don't know.
We're going to finish with two quick emails, okay? This is from Joe.
I was just listening to episode 299 and Lewis brought up a spammy approach the yogs had
received from a Joe Barron at Amstrad Digital.
I absolutely cannot vouch to that being a real email from the real Joe Barron, but I
immediately recognized the name.
Joe Barron is my second cousin once removed.
Thanks Google.
And a quick search shows that he is indeed something to do with Amstrad Digital.
What makes this more interesting is that his dad is one Mark Barron,
who's married to Alan Sugar's daughter and was in fact the front man for the late 90s band Another Level,
responsible for such hits as Freak Me. Unlike Joe, I've actually met Mark Barron, and he's a nice chap.
This is a source of enormous pride in my family, although the band broke up in 2000,
and Alan Sugar has since beaten the art out of Mark, who as I understand it was folded
into the company shortly afterwards. Amstrad ceased to exist in 2007 after it was gobbled up
by Sky, but it sounds like the zombie Amstrad name has been revived explicitly as a gift for
the young Joe Barron, like an ancient pharaoh raising a legion of terrifying
skeletal soldiers to protect their dynasty only massively shitter." ALICE So Joe Barron is Lord Sugar's grandson.
WILL I believe so.
ALICE And he's been given...
The fuck, he's 21, and he's heading up the cool hip new arm of Amstrad.
WILL Which doesn't exist anymore.
It's going to go for a new generation.
So Alan Sugar laid on a new job for him.
Layed on a new job for him.
Layed on Amstrad for him.
Let's pick a new hip title for 2024.
How about Amstrad Digital?
I wonder if he has to, I wonder if he's allowed to do any remote working because Alan Sugar
very, very vocally
against remote working.
Yeah, he's a old boomer boss, isn't he?
I mean, of course he's going to be against it.
Yeah, but do you think he makes allowances for his blood relations?
No, he's like every self-made man like that.
He's incredibly egotistical and thinks that if you don't do it the way he did it, you're
a fucking idiot.
And I didn't get no days off selling CDs and electrical crap down the market, so why should
you? Like, I think that's his attitude. I don't think he's a cool boss at all. I think
he's probably an absolute cunt to work for. But hey, what do I know? I'm going purely
off what I've seen on Twitter and The Apprentice.
All right, let's finish with a little bit of Greg Wallace. That's what we like to round
out the mailbag with. Zoe has tried to character of Greg Wallace. That's what we like to round out the mailbag with.
Zoe has tried to characterize Greg Wallace. Let me know if you agree with this sentence.
Greg Wallace is the type of man to steal a pie cooling on a windowsill
and eat it whilst licking his lips with glee while the old lady
who was baking the pie for her grandson who just got back from the war cries.
Yes. And then and then it pans over to Greg Wallace's and his shit eating grin.
He says, sorry, love.
I'll be better.
Yeah. So and Zoe has also attached a screenshot of a tweet, quite a famous tweet.
Guy called Nick Holder tweeted at Greg A.
Wallace. Hi, Greg.
I'm cycling just over 180 miles in two days
from Macmillan Cancer Support.
Any chance of a retweet?
And Greg Wallace responded, correcting his spelling of Greg,
because Nick Holder's original tweet says, hi, Greg, with one G.
And Greg Wallace just replies with, Greg, with two G's
and a question mark.
And Nick then replies, Greg, no worries, mate.
It's only people with cancer.
You worry about your extra G, master twat.
Oh my goodness.
Pretty good.
Wow, the turnaround on that.
Well, I mean, fucking, how are you complaining about someone spelling your name wrong?
That's the only reply Greg Wallace has to it.
Fucking dick.
Greg?
Yeah.
That's funny. I mean, have a normally spelled name, Greg, you to it. Greg? Yeah. That's funny.
Have a normally spelled name, Greg, you cunt.
What the?
Greg as a name anymore.
It's really falling out of...
I know Greg.
Yeah, I know.
You probably know Greg.
The Greg you know is probably in between the age of 40 and 50 years old, right?
Incorrect, sir.
Right.
He's in his early 20s.
You know, a Greg in there in his early 20s. Yeah. Yeah.
Did he step out of some sort of time capsule from the 1970s or
I'll ask you, this is not a popular name anymore that I,
not that I know of anyway. Uh, it's not up there with like Khaleesi and, uh,
and uh, SZA and all sorts a cool names that people use now.
So I'm surprised.
Yeah. He's a, he's a Greg.
Young, young Gregory.
That was like six years ago that happened.
But that, that tweet sure.
Maybe he was having a bad day.
Maybe he lost the campaign against the Mesopotamians or something, you know, you
know, the, like, Oh, just having a really bad, did you know? You know? Like, just having a really bad...
Did you see? I don't know whether this is Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to become human.
Some sort of marketing guy's got this going. But Mark Zuckerberg has said that he reckons
he's like a grand master of Civ. Now he didn't say which one. He didn't say Civ V or Civ
VI, he just said Civilization. He said he's played a thousand hours of it or something.
He looks like an android, but he looks like an android from like a 1960s movie.
You know, without all the...
Well they just painted them slightly silvery faced.
Yeah.
He looks like data.
He's kind of like data.
He's very data-rich.
He does look like data.
Yeah.
And obviously he's defeated the AI in a few Civ games and now he thinks he can crush everyone
on the internet.
We've dealt with these people before in our Civ games.
We've had someone come in and say, I've played a thousand hours of Civ and they come into
a multiplayer game and they don't know what the fuck they're doing.
And they just lose in terrible form.
You should challenge them to a 1v1.
Well exactly. Well no. him to a 1v1. Well exactly.
Well, no.
Well, I'd crush them.
What if he did it though?
The fact that he didn't specify which Civ game is concerning.
I assume he's playing Civ 6.
What if he did a whole bunch of forbidden training under the radar that you didn't know
about?
What if he got like, who's really good at Civ at sieve in the, in the aux other than you
but take whiskey.
What if he got, yeah, he got like secret, uh, training, you know, from, uh, that, that
guy and you, uh, you weren't ready for it.
You know, you thought it was going to be a walkover, but then he turned around and he
turns around and owes you and then he owns you and then you've got egg on your face.
What, what then?
Yeah, that's true.
You got zucked, baby!
I got, do you know what, I'd be happy with that if that did happen.
I feel like, um...
Zuck on it!
It is weird that he, but his other anecdote was that he got accepted, when he found out
that he was accepted for
Harvard he was playing Civ.
That was his other...
I would have been like Civ 3 then I guess.
Maybe Civ 4 actually.
Yeah, it's weird that he's not specifying the numbers.
So he is 40.
So Civ 4 came out in 2005.
So I think it must have been Civ 3 if he was at Harvard.
So Civ 3 came out, which is a classic, by the way, that came out in 2001.
So I suspect it was Civ 3 that he was playing,
which is the one that my dad still plays.
Wow. Maybe he should.
He might. I think it's either three or it might even be two.
It might even be safe to that my dad still plays.
He's like, there's a lot of good mods for it on the Internet.
He just he just rushes catapults and owns everybody.
He never gets to the space age.
He just always goes domination victory gets.
I said I might be safe. He does always goes domination victory gets. So I might be Civ
Civ. He does still play Civ one. I know. Yeah. He's fucking obsessed with Civ, but like
the old Civ doesn't, doesn't have any, no truck with the newer ones. Anyway, I would
watch that game. Who wants to watch this game? All right. Well, there you go. Let's see if
we can set up if someone here works for Facebook, preferably at a level where you are on first name terms with Mark Zuckerberg.
Yeah. Let's set it up.
Let's do a one v one Lewis versus the Zuck.
Yeah. And we'll see who comes up on top.
Yeah, let's. I think it's time.
Make it happen. It'd be a pretty hot vid.
Yeah. Revive. I think it would be a close run thing.
Yeah. All right. Well, let's do it.
Although, as Lewis has said, I would own that noob. Yeah.
Yeah. All right. Well, let's do it. Although, as Lewis has said, I would own that new. Yeah.
Like the words right out of the goal.
It would be such an interesting clash, wouldn't it?
I would watch it would be huge. I would watch it.
I would definitely watch that.
All right. Well, that's this week's mail bag.
Thank you so much for all the mails.
Thank you. Keep them coming.
Some really good ones this week.
And I look forward to reading more of them over the coming week.
Oh, yeah. And we should do another Mailbag next week.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
Thank you one and all.
Goodbye.
Goodbye now.
Goodbye.