LEARING CATHOLIC TRADITIONS ONE GOOD FRIDAY AT A TIME: Social Media Is The Anxiety Machine

Holy Week pushes me to look at my faith habits honestly, from finishing the Bible to figuring out what Catholic traditions actually mean to me. I also bounce from Good Friday reflections to AI, movies, and social media, trying to make sense of what deserves my attention and what is just noise. 

• Trying to finish the Bible and debating audiobooks for retention 
• Learning Good Friday and Holy Week meaning while still new to Catholic life 
• Watching the veneration of the cross and deciding what feels right 
• Joining a bike and pray ride and dealing with Filipino's lack of punctuality. 
• Using PodMatch again while avoiding debate-driven podcasts 
• Getting hooked on AI cast ageing videos and feeling old 
• Reacting to Paula White comparing Trump to Jesus 
• What if tech will let us erase movie memories so we can watch them for the     first time again?
• Talking about violence stories and what gets ignored 
• Arguing social media overload damages mental health 
• Struggling, (AGAIN) to enjoy newer movies and shows due to messaging 

Leave a comment, let me know your thoughts.

Transcript

Holy Week And Bible Progress

SPEAKER_00 0:08

You're listening to the objective jerk.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

And I'm said jerk.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What's going on? What you know, good. How's everybody doing? Hope everybody's well. Those that celebrate it, hope you're having a wonderful holy week. Ow. It's a good Friday for lots of people as I record this.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Just had Good Friday here because it is Saturday morning for me.

Good Friday Meaning And Questions

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So yeah, year ago, I was baptized Catholic, but been going to the church for probably like a year and a half, the Catholic Church. And you know, I've been reading up on Jesus for two, almost three years, I want to say now. And sadly, I'm still not done with the Bible, man. So I started from the very beginning. My friend said, dude, why? And I kind of get what he's saying. But I'm so close. I'm so close to the end. But I still I wanted to read it all the way through once. So and I'm just not always in the mood to just absorb knowledge, you know. I'm not always in the mood to read stuff. And they're like, we'll do audio. I'm like, yeah, I guess maybe. Maybe I could actually. I don't know. Maybe that's what I should do. Because like when I do when I'm doing tasks, I either listen to music or a podcast. Maybe I've never really listened. I have listened to one book, I want to say. But I don't know. I don't know if I'll absorb it as much. But I can absorb it more than not reading it all. I don't know. What do you think? Do you do you guys you guys do audiobooks? It's not really my thing. I know some people do, but how much of it do you actually retain? You know? I guess only one way to find out. Just go and do it, I guess. But but yeah, so I'm sucking at getting dumb with the Bible. And I have all these other books about the church. I've read a couple and then I started one, but then I'm like, okay, you know what? I need to finish the Bible first. So I'm like, I have all these books that I've bought that I want to read, but I'm not letting myself read them until I finish the Bible, which is right here. Always looking at me. I read a little bit here and there, but I don't know. I don't know. Hopefully, hopefully, you know, get the the gumption to just finish it. I'm so close, man. Like I'm in, I'm right at the end. I'm reading Rome. What am I reading? I'm in Yeah, Romans. So almost done. But so yeah, it's Holy Week.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

And then here are yesterday for Good Friday.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

So that's the day that Jesus was crucified, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

And then today he's in the he's in the tomb. And then tomorrow he'll be born. Resurrected. I don't know what's the word I'm looking for. Yeah, I guess resurrected, right? Is there another word I'm trying to think of?

Veneration Of The Cross Tradition

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Anyway, so here I think it's it's probably like that for a lot of places and stuff, but I'm very I'm kind of I'm finding myself to be like a traditional Catholic, more so. Like I'm and the church here is not so much, it's not like crazy Norvisoto, like it's almost like a little between traditional and I don't know if it's just because where we're at here in the Philippines or whatever. But there's also traditions that you know Catholics do that aren't, you know, basically you should I mean know the Bible, read the Bible, believe in Jesus and all that stuff, go to Mass, attend Mass, receive communion, you know, ask for give forgiveness, confess your sins, and repent, you know, those are the things that you you have to do. Everything else is kind of like just added to it, sorta, you know. So we went to Mass yesterday for Good Friday, and it was the the oh man, what's it called? The re the revealing of the crucifix. So it's like, you know, because that's when Jesus was crucified. I'm I wanna look it up. I know I kind of oh it's something something.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

I'm trying to be a little so good. Where's it at veneration of the cross?

Bike And Pray Around Town

PodMatch And Guest Planning

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So that so what they do is so mass is a little different than normal, and then they bring out everything's covered up, all the statues and everything are all covered up until tomorrow, Easter. And then, but they had a big crucifix like come down, and then they uncovered it, so it's like okay, God is or not God, but Jesus was crucified. So then they let everybody get in line almost like communion, and then you get to touch a lot of people, like wipe the wounds, you know, Jesus, and it's like it's it's just like of a it's like a I don't know, it's kind of it's like you don't have to do it, it doesn't it's like it's people don't believe like that's Jesus, it's just it's it's a it's a I don't know, there's a word that's not coming to me, but it's just it's a way to sh I don't know, show some love to Jesus and so you know people do that and they're in line and it the line is long, but like I did it last year and I felt weird. Like I felt weird. I didn't know what to do. You can go up to a statue, it's a statue. I mean, I know it's it's it's it's like oh man, what the hell, dude. I remember thinking it yesterday while we were sitting there, but it's you know, it's just it's not saying that people believe it's Jesus and they're whatever, it's just it's a show of respect, but it's something else too. I can't think of what the word is. But so people go up and they, you know, whatever. Thank you, Jesus. What and you know they put money in the offering and stuff, and but so I remember last year I just I kind of felt odd. So I didn't, I was like, nah, I'm not gonna do it. Because it's not, dude, I love Jesus, I believe in Jesus, and you know, but I don't know, it's just that's just something that to me, I don't think it's bad, and I'm not like degrading it or saying that people do it are weird, but just for me, it just you know, and so we didn't, but man, it took forever because so many people come in just to do that. Like, there's a lot of people that aren't really they don't go to church or whatever, so they come in just so they can do the that like maybe they think that they're good as long as they do that, I guess. But I was there, I was like, no, I want communion, you know, that's the important part, and so you know, we just sat there and we waited, took forever, and then we received communion, and then we went on with our day. They did a like parade, I forget what they call it, walk around, hold candles. This is like the third or fourth year that we've done it. Again, it's like a tradition. And but that night, when we were all kind of done, we went and ate and did all this kind of stuff. We went back to the church, and they had like another Jesus like laying down, and you could go up and and do like what people were doing earlier in the day. That and so that's you know, I just touched his foot, said thank you, Jesus, and put the money in there. And you know, did I have to? Did I need to? Did I want to? Not really, but I was like, well, there's no one here, there's no line, you know, can't hurt, doesn't hurt. But you know, it's just like a show of respect, sort of, I guess. Anyway, so that was yesterday. That was good Friday for me. But like like I said, as I'm talking, now people, if you listen to this as it comes out, you're gonna be like, oh, it's good Friday for me. Or you're you know, people that are not Catholic are like, what? What's Good Friday? But I'm still learning everything, man. So anyway, and then well, yesterday morning though, we went on bike and pray thing, which is like the sixth year that they've done it. So the church sets up little stations around the city, and I think people put in for it, people that are maybe have a sick loved one, or I don't know, just want some prayers. So they'll set up a little bannel, a banner, there's crucifix and candles and stuff like that. We have like a police escort in the front, like we started early, and when you ride around, you stop there, and you do a prayer, and then you ride, you know what I mean? So I like to mountain bike, but it was all basically road. But the when I first saw the advertisement for it, I was gonna do it last year, but I decided not to. But so this year I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do it. So you submit for it, you get a shirt, and they make it seem like it's a race. And it's like first place is you get you can win a bike, and then you can get some money in this can. So I was like, man, so it's like a race. I was like, is some of it gonna be trail? Because that's what I like to do. I like to do trail riding. And I don't like to ride my bike on the pavement to I don't like to I like to preserve my tires just for the trail. And but so I was just like, and my son, I registered my son, and we packed trail mix, we did all this kind of stuff, like just went overboard, and they're like, hey, you need to be there at 3.30, and then the thing starts at 4 or 4:30 or something. So I was up at 2 o'clock, getting everything ready, woke my son at 2.30, whatever. We made sure we were there at 3:30, and no one is there because I live in the Philippines, so 3 30 means 4 o'clock. That's the thing I'm like constantly trying to learn and teach myself about living here because it irritates the hell out of me. Being in the army made me very punctual, so you know, if you're if you're on time, you're late. You know, if you're early, you're on time, if you're on time, you're late. And so, you know, not a huge deal, but it does kind of irritate me a little bit, and then once I get irritated, I can be in a shit mood, and I'm I'm really trying to like fix that. But so it's just that's one of those things that whenever around here they give a time, it's generally like a half hour later is when it actually begins. I don't know why. I just I know that, but I still like okay, we gotta be there at 3 30. I don't know, just something. But it was fun, I enjoyed it. Met somebody new that rides mountain bikes, so I added him to my little group GC. So I'm gonna trail riding and stuff like that. But anyway, so that was yesterday for me. How was your day yesterday? What'd you do? Leave a comment anyway. Oh, real quick too. I man, I got a list of stuff, but I'm just kind of so I've been my podcast has grown a little bit, nothing, you know. Thank you for you know, it's it's fine. It's like it's it's just for fun for me to do, to talk, to bullshit. But you know, it is growing slowly. So I figured, you know, I would do the pod match again. I tried pod match a couple years ago. So what it is is like it, it's a pro it's a it's uh website where you are registered and you can be matched up with somebody to be a guest on a podcast or have somebody as a guest. And I did it like a couple times, but it was the hours were because of where I live, so I was getting up butt crack early, and then just this schedule of it was just like stressing me out, and I was like, oh my gosh, I don't just kind of like the bike ride. It was just like I was you know thinking too much into it, and then like a couple people I could tell were trying to get me to get on like more of a political and like start a debate. And I'm like, I don't want to debate. I'm not I can't debate, I'm not a good debater, so I just want to like BS with somebody about whatever, you know, stuff just going on. So I gotta find. So I was really what it does is it sends you like three matches, possible matches for you, and you can read like what they're about, and you can say pass, or you know, maybe later, or you could try and schedule something with them. And I was really like, oh man, you know, wanting to be, but this time around, or okay, I never finished my senses. I was really wanting to kind of be open to being on multiple, whatever. I didn't care, you know. That was not good. So this time I'm being much more selective and trying to find individuals who may not have the same views as me, but basically have the same type of podcast. So that's what I'm working on doing. I had to make a little video that showed represents, you know, my recording, you know, my my sound and how my video looks and all this kind of stuff. And I didn't write no script or nothing, I just started it and like, hey, this is you know, blah blah blah. So but you know, that's it is what it is, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

We'll see how it goes.

The AI Videos I Cannot Skip

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Well, yeah, I'm not trying to like be a host yet. I would rather be on somebody else's podcast because I don't know how to record other people. I have to get like I have to get more stuff, and I just you know I don't have the capabilities right now. So on to my bullet points, right? Is anybody else so AI drives me nuts? You know, when AI first kind of was, you know, two years ago, whatever, people were making pictures, and it was like, oh man, that's cool, you know, whatever this and that. But it got kind of old fast, and now it's like there's just videos and all kinds of stuff, and it's like so I kind of avoid it. But there is this new AI video niche or whatever you want to call it that's on YouTube or whatever that I can't not watch, and it's it's basically it takes like okay, the Terminator film, right? Which I haven't seen that one. I don't know if there is one, but it takes all the casts and it's all AI, and it shows like cast members how they looked during the filming, and then they walk up to their you know, other self now, and they take a selfie together, and then it shows like their ages, and you can see the difference in how they look. And so it goes through and does that with all the cast members. There's a couple of them that do it. There's one that does it pretty good, I think, but it's it looks pretty good, you know. You know, it's AI, obviously, but it's just kind of interesting to know how old people are because it makes me feel old. I'm like, dang man, that's all they like. I was watching the Braveheart one and the grandpa, who was the grandpa or the father of Seamus, the big, you know, what's his face?

SPEAKER_01 16:43

I think his name was Seamus, wasn't it?

Faith Talk Meets US Politics

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Anyway, Mel Gibson, William Wallace's best friend through rocks, the redhead guy, his father, who was like this this badass old man, he was like my age when they filmed that. I mean, obviously they you know make up and add some stuff, but they might have made him look older than he was, but man, still, it was like, dude, what? So anyway, so yeah, it's just I don't know. I you know, I'll be on YouTube and I'll see. And it's I don't watch them all, but like my favorite movies, like Tremors. What else was there? I think there's a Robocop, which I haven't watched yet, but all those are I cannot like, I'm like, okay, let me watch it. You know, it's like I don't know. I hate it because I'm supporting AI, you know. And then which is kind of hypocritical of me because I do use AI for my podcast, as far as helping me with titles and doing like my subject breakdown for my podcast, which I use for my videos, but I you know, I I gotta edit it and change some stuff like that, so I don't hundred percent avoid AI, but anyway, let's see. So Paula White, some evangelistic religious person was at the where at the White House, she compared Trump to Jesus and stuff, and I didn't like that. I like Trump, I like Jesus, but yeah, I don't like Pentecostal Yeah, I don't know. They female, you're not supposed to I don't know. It's just all of that, you know, what's the word? Gosh, dude, I wish I could remember what this is why I don't debate Protestant, basically.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

So you got you know Yeah, they kind of just it's not good.

Erasing Movies To Rewatch Fresh

Violence Stories And Media Silence

SPEAKER_00 18:42

You can't just be making up saying stuff, it just makes they need to stick with Catholicism, man. But then, you know, Catholics don't got everything right either, the people, because it's it's you know, people always complain about oh, you know, like the raping of children and and you know things the Catholic Church has done things that were not cool. It's not the things that a lot of people think they did, you know what I mean? Like they're they don't know all the information, but they the thing is is they they cop to it and they admit it and they they repent, you know. And but the thing is those are men, those are men that have free will. So, you know, hating Catholicism because of some priest or a pope is like hating a type of car because you got some bad gas in your car and it made your car run like crap. So you put gas in your car, which you love, makes it run like crap, and then oh, this car sucks. And you get you know what I mean? Like that's the same kind of mentality. It's like that's I don't know, but anyway, Catholicism, baby. Alright, and I was sitting here, I had this, so this is a segue, not really, but I was sitting here thinking about it. You know, there's all these reboots, and there's all these there's nothing new really coming out. I mean, there are some, but for the most part, everything is everything's been done, you know. And I keep seeing people saying, like, man, I wish I could watch this movie for the first time again. And I was like, oh man, you know what? That's probably what's gonna be in the future. It's gonna be kind of like a mash between Total Recall and Men in Black, where they can erase your memory of a film, so then you can watch it and enjoy it for the first time. And depending on how popular that film is, so it's like a subscription kind of, you know, you're like, ooh, I want to I want to forget this movie. Well, that's a popular movie that's gonna cost you. But if you want to watch something like B-rated Steven Seagull movie, it's gonna be a little cheaper, you know what I mean? But if it ever is, you know, happens, I could see that that'd be a good thing for a movie. Somebody's gonna steal it. Use it for a sci-fi plot or something. I mean, it's kind of like a yeah, I mean, a cross between well, not really minority report, I guess, but but yeah, if you could just think about it, think of your favorite movies, and if you could erase the memory of it, but maybe know that you, you know, this is a good movie, and then watch it again for the first time, would you do it? I think a lot of people probably would. Shows? Think of watching Sopranos for the first time, or I guess Game of Thrones, which I didn't watch, but I can see it happening. I can see it happening. Let's see, and then more and more people, dude. You know, I'm not trying to be, you know, racist, but man, black woman shoots and kills old white lady for liking Trump. This happened in Michigan. Nobody reports on it. Like only the one local station reported on it. They were like co-workers. The one lady was a Trump supporter. I guess the black lady was supposedly trans, and the Trump supporter wasn't calling her by her pronouns or whatever, so they didn't they had beef at work. White lady comes into work and she just gets shot in the back by this black chick. And it's just like nothing. Nothing in the news. If the races were switched, you know, it'd be all over the place. It's just kind of annoying, man.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Even black folks, people who are reasonable, they're Getting tired of the ghetto black people. The spring break. You know what I mean?

Social Media And Mental Health Spiral

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Like it's just it's getting out of control, man. And then so what's up with this trend of pushing people in front of trains and killing them? And again, I don't mean to be sound racist, but it's all like black people. Or I think there was like a Middle Eastern guy that was a an immigrant or something. But that it's like you'll see someone standing waiting for a train, and it's a white person, and they just go and they push the guy and boom, they get ran over and killed. Like I've seen like two or three videos recently. And then there was another one in Washington State, go figure, where a guy, you can see him, there's a there's a guy standing by a pillar on his phone. That's why you gotta keep you gotta get off your phones, people. But he's waiting for a train, and then you see a young black teenager or young man, and he's sitting there peeking, waiting for the train. And as soon as the train comes up, he goes to try and push the guy. Luckily, the guy was able to retain his balance and didn't go, and then the you know the kid takes off. But it's like, dude, what when did this become a thing? You know, this is insane. It's just, I don't know. It's just crazy. And then I guess I'll end it with Theo Vaughn, I guess, was on. I haven't watched it, I've just seen clips, but he's just kind of looking like he's having a nervous breakdown about everything going on. And you know, it when you're on social media 24-7, it does kind of feel like the world is ending and shit's gonna, you know. But yes, things are different, but they're not. You know, the same kind of stuff was going on in the 90s and the 80s, you know, there's always Cuban Missile Crisis, there's, you know, there's a Gulf War, there was, you know, there's always some stuff going on. The difference is everybody kind of knows what's going on because they're on their social media and they're seeing it and they're just like bombarded. When most of those people wouldn't even know or care about what's going on because they wouldn't watch the news, they don't read the paper. You know, they just stayed out of it. And that's kind of a healthy, I mean, it's not you can't, you know, it's good to be a little informed about what's going on, but when it's when it's in your face nonstop, 24-7, it's gonna make you, you know, crash out, I guess is that they say it now.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

That's why social media sucks, man.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

I I try. I am kind of on YouTube a lot, watching videos, and they end up kind of being, you know, I'll be scrolling and I'll see something. Okay, what's going on here? And then it's like, oh, this is going on, you know, the the what do you call it? Where they get you with the clickbait, you know, and then you watch the video and you're like, well, that's not really what the title, okay, whatever, you know. And people that I watch and like do that still sometimes, you know, so it's like, what the crap, dude. But yeah, I try to not be on, usually it's like in the morning drinking my coffee. I'll see kind of what's going on, headlines and stuff like that. But I'm trying to like, if there's nothing breaking craziness going on, I just I skip it, you know, try not to look at it. You know, like I just try and keep updated with, you know, Trump fired Pam Bondy, which she needed to. She was an idiot, sorry, but I don't know what the heck. See, what's you you get Trump puts these women in in in power and they're just retarded and they can't I mean sound like a misogynist, but like, man, then I heard Tulsi Gabbard. I don't know anything of what she was doing wrong. I like Tulsi Gabbard. But supposedly she might be getting canned too. But I don't know, I haven't looked too much into that. But I think, well, and then what's his face? Cash Patel, he's a dumbass too. He's a male, right? Yeah, he probably should go. Man, what is it with the FBI, right? They just can't they need to just flush out the FBI. They need to just like Eisenhower did after World War II, just get rid of what whatever it was that be eventually became the CIA. I can't remember what they were called, but yeah, they should probably just get rid of the FBI completely and then start over.

Movies Now Feel Hard To Enjoy

SPEAKER_01 27:20

I don't know, man. I don't know how you do that. I mean, it's a lot of jobs and what do you I don't know. It's crazy. But anyway, yeah, that's kind of it. Just kinda chilling. Wanting to share some stuff. But uh yeah, what do you think? Social media, man. It's it is, it's it's screwing people's mental health, dude.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

You know, people are seeing the repetitiveness and over and over again, and then people like, oh my god, the World War III, civil war, ah and they're stressing out, and they go to their doctor, oh my god, they give them you know antidepressants, and it's just you know, you just gotta get away, man. Get away from social media, get off of it, and you know, but it's hard when like film, I mean for me, it's hard because like movies suck, man. So it's like I'm watching older movies, you know. I guess the new Super Mario movie is doing pretty good. I'm not I'm done with theaters though. I don't go to theaters anymore. I am excited about He-Man. It doesn't look like, oh my gosh, the most glorious thing in the world, but it looks good, you know, so I'm gonna give it a chance. But I'll wait until it's on streaming or I'll buy it. But yeah, just nothing really. Like I watched a movie that I never watched before. Came out in 2004, Suspect Zero.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Kind of a murder mystery FBI kind of whatever. Yeah, it was alright. But I don't know. Yeah, it's tough to get into anything.

Final Thoughts And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Like, I'm trying to watch Bones, and I just see so much liberal talking points and so much stuff that they're trying to like, you know, oh my gosh, but that's so, you know, it's like, dude, shut up. Just let's focus on the murder. Quit trying to pedal your mental illness to everybody. But at least then it wasn't so on the nose. You know what I mean? Or it wasn't maybe a lot of it was, but it's just like, but people are noticing it now. Like me, I just I see it is immediately, and I'm like, oh. Like I'll sit and watch a movie with my wife, and or we'll try and watch a show, and then I can already see it, and I'm just like, I can't watch this. Because it just it pulls me out, man. Because I get like, I'm like, this is stupid, and whatever, and then okay, I'll try and get back into it. And like that show I watched Bodden, Bodkin or something. It's like a it's a on Netflix, takes place in Ireland. It's got What's His Face from SNL. He's like a podcaster. They're doing like true crime. The woman in that is so unlikable. The main person is just it's like usually, you know, you have a character who starts off kind of unlikable and kind of a bitch, but then she kind of grows on you, or you she kind of this one doesn't, man. She just the whole time, it's just like she annoys me. But it's just see, and that's the kind of the you know, putting the woman, and she's obviously the better of everybody, the other guy, you know what I mean? And it's just like, but she's so unlikable. I don't know. Bodkin, I think it's called. It was a pretty good show, I guess. At least it was entertaining, it was new, and it wasn't overly, you know, woke, I guess you would say, but I don't know. Anyway, that's it. Thanks for hanging out. Appreciate your time. God bless, and I'll see you next time. All right, bye.