BOOM MIC PROBLEMS AND REAL TALK: Living In The Philippines With Ants Cats And No AC

I upgrade my boom mic setup without turning my computer room into a studio, and I end up fighting camera angles, fan noise, and my own perfectionism. 

The gear talk turns into ants, lizards, cat chaos, politics, streaming rants, and a quiet moment about The Truman Show as a metaphor for heaven. 

• Testing a new boom mic stand and struggling with framing 
• Managing heat, broken aircon, fan noise, and noise gate settings 
• Dealing with ants before rainy season and avoiding harsh insect poison 
• Finding a dead skink and blaming the “murder cat” lifestyle 
• Thoughts on strays, roadkill, and animal care realities in the Philippines 
• Reacting to a controversial joke and the temperature of US politics 
• Breaking down security footage from WHCD event and discussing how hard real readiness is 
• Reflecting on military-to-civilian adjustment after years in security work 
• Ranting about Netflix timing and re-watching The Truman Show 
• Wanting to share favorite films with the kids and losing the first watch moment.

Let me know what you think. Should I go back to the way it was or is it good? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Uh you're listening to the objective jerk and I am said jerk. What's going on? Yes. Crap has changed again.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Well, first of all, how you guys all doing, huh? Hope you're doing alright.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

But yeah, so I actually bought Boom Stand, Mike Stan, whatever we call it, you know, the little you can't really see it, but you know, the one you can it's actually for microphones, not a ghetto one made out of a a drum cymbal stand and you know the thing I had PVC pipe. Trying to figure out the best. But anyway, so I bought like a smaller one. I didn't want like a really big one, so I thought I got a smaller one, which I guess it probably is, but my plan was to mount it to my chair so I could sit here and rock, and the mic would stay where it needed to be. You know, somebody had pointed that out, I think, on my last video, guys, you know, giving me shit, you know, like bro. But he was just, you know, doing that, just giving me shit. So, I mean, not a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

But that was kind of my plan was to get so I did.

Heat Noise Gate And Broken AC

SPEAKER_00 1:37

I did I put it on there and I tried it out and it kind of worked, but the thing was, this is not just a podcast. This is my just my you know little computer room, whatever. It's not a studio, it's not anything that's just focused on podcasting. And if it was, I could do it and leave it on there and it would work, you know. But I don't know. I guess any of it's kind of stupid, but so I clamped it to this table right here, and once I did that, my previous angle didn't work, like all you saw was the boom like you couldn't see my face or nothing, and not that I'm you know a good-looking dude, but you gotta kind of see something, right? So I moved the camera all over the place, and this is about the best thing now. It's like none of the stuff I had set up that you could see, you can see. So I don't know. I'll uh I'll probably play around because I always think it's the wrong one. But well, though that's right. So these things right here are mirrors. So, you know, I could put stuff there to kind of show whatever. I don't know. But I don't really care. I'm not trying to do a studio, like I said, I just I'm about podcasting, and my voice is really loud. I'm gonna turn this down just a smidgen. Okay, so I'm just you know, I'm here to bullshit and complain and all that kind of stuff. Gosh, man, my throat is and then so I have the fan over here, but I have it on low. And there's you know, there's I forget what you call it, but it has like noise noise gate kind of setting. So right there when it was quiet, it's nice and quiet. But then when I'm talking, you can kind of hear the fan. So that I never had the fans for that reason, but it gets hot in here, man. The air conditioner in my room has been broken for a couple months. It's like the motherboard we're trying to get it fixed, but it is slow going. So have like a bunch of fans grabbing the cold air from the living room and stuff, and yeah, good times. But yeah, so but I you know, the Buzz Sprout has you know, the they have their little things that you pay extra for magic mastering, mastering magic or whatever it is, and different things to make it sound a little better. So I don't think I need to worry so much. I mean, if I had the fan going on full speed, it'd probably mess it up, but but anyway, I was so I was kind of I wasn't planning on doing a podcast, but I set up the boom, I was kind of getting it set up, and then I did kind of notice that it's been about four days, and that's generally every like four days is when I'll do one. And so I was setting it up, and then there's just like I noticed all these ants all over the place, and to be fair, ants are all over now because rainy season's coming, so the ants are out trying to get whatever, you know. You guys seen the movies, so it's annoying, and there's really not much you can do about it. Like, there's probably huge ant colonies in the foundation of my home or in the ground, but I don't know. I tried like those electronic kind of pulsing things that you put around the house. But for one, you have to turn them on. So if the power goes out, they don't come on on their own. You have to turn them on, which was kind of annoying because I'd kind of forget if the power ever, you know, went off. The power's not bad here, you know. It's a third world country, but the power is always on. But there are and they do scheduled stuff, but there was it did go out the other day though, and unbeknownst to anyone, something happened, but it was only down for like two hours or something, so it wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Why am I talking about this? Electricity, power.

Ants Lizards And Avoiding Poisons

Cat Hunting And Stray Animal Reality

Kimmel Joke And Assassination Talk

Security Footage And Training Limits

SPEAKER_00 5:51

There was the power going. Oh, yeah, this the little sonar thing supposed to get rid of critters and insects and mice and stuff. So I bought those, but I don't know if I just bought some crappy ones, or I don't even know if it really works. I need to research it a little more. Because, yeah, we have like spray, but I really don't want to get like the industrial insect spray and just spray the foundation. You know what I mean? You they don't sell like foggers. I can get it on Amazon, but they don't sell it here, which is kind of crazy. You know, you set the can throughout your house and open stuff and let it. But I'm just thinking, like, man, that's just straight up cancer, you know? So it's I kind of like the idea that we don't poison our ground and our air, you know. Yeah, we have ants. And it's kind of annoying, but it's not really that big a deal as long as you put your food away. I mean, even though you don't have food and stuff, they're they're around getting stuff. It's one of the things, dude. If you're if you're skittish with insects or lizards and stuff like that, dude, the Philippines is not for you. Like, there's I was re I was organizing my kitchen, so I moved this piece of furniture and this giant gecko. Like, let's see, I can see it is he was probably about that long with the tail. Big gecko just on the wall, really cool looking. I've seen them before, but it's the little ones though that kind of freak you out because they'll jump on you like if you go through a screen door and open the door and it kind of falls on you, and all of a sudden you're like, what the hell? So so yeah, so those are some things about living here in the Philippines. Oh, I did pretty good. I sounded like it, right? Changing my mic again. Gosh, I can't get this thing. Alright, now it's not in my face so much. Anyway, so there's ants all over. I'm getting ready to record my podcast, and then I see that there's a skink. You know one of those lizards? I think they're called skinks. It's like in this little basket organizer thing I have, and there's ants all over it, so it was dead. And it looked like it kind of tried to go through like the basket weaving its plastic, but it got stuck and it died. Although I think it also died for my cat because my one calico cat, she's just a murderer, and she probably brought it in here, and then as I was kind of cleaning it up, there's feathers all over the floor, so I'm like, oh, cool. So she brought a she brought a bird in here and probably ate it. I mean, I've been in here before, and she's ran in and brought like a mouse and plays with it, you know. Check out what I got and throws it around and shit, which is cool. I like her that she's killing pests and certain things, but man, don't bring that shit in the house. She's a crazy cat. She's weird, she's got one of those funky, crooked tails. She's crazy calico, like half black, orange, just mixed, all kinds of like she's camouflaged as hell, and and she's very loving. What's funny is she just kind of showed up one day. She was like sitting on top of a tire of this quad that I got in the wheel well, and I was walking out the gate, she just kind of came down and started rubbing on me, and I was just like, What the hell? Where the hell did you come from? And I petted her a little bit, and then I just kind of you know, get out of here, and then I left and whatever. But then I came back and she was still there, and then the next day she was still there, so I was like, Okay, I guess you're a part of the family now. So brought her in and she's been a pretty good cat, got her fixed, so so now she just, you know, does her cat thing. But man, I have a cats just don't survive around here, though. I don't know what it is if it's like so many strays getting in I don't know. There's predators, I know there's some bird birds of prey that are around here, owls and some eagles and stuff, but man, I went through a few cats that just didn't show up. One, two were males, so I didn't get them neutered in time, and they probably ran off looking for some pussy, and I don't know. But yeah, that's one thing about here too is if you don't like roadkill, don't come to the Philippines. I was watching a YouTuber and he was recording, and he's like walking, and then he's like, Oh, oh my gosh, oh geez, it's so horrible. And it was like a you know, a dead cat on the side of the road that got hit. And it was kind of like it just stopped all production, just like the one guy recorded this phone. But it was just kind of funny, and I was just thinking, dude, don't go. I don't know if I made a comment, but I was thinking, don't come to the Philippines because there is roadkill all the everywhere, just you know, there's so many strays, and they don't really do much about the strays, they don't have you know animal control or anything like that. They need to. And so people don't spend money on their animals. I mean, some people do, but a lot of people just they get an animal, dog, they keep it around to you know fend off people and guard, and maybe have a cat to get rid of mice, but they don't give them any kind of inoculation or anything, and that animal will get sick or whatever. They don't take it to the vent, it just dies, they bury it, they get another one because they're all over the place. Not not all over, but it's not hard to get a stray puppy or kitten and adopt it and have you know what I mean? So it's kind of it's kind of an issue, but man, I haven't talked about anything I got on my little bullet points over here. Oh, I guess I did ants. Yeah, so ants are just everywhere right now before rainy season, so it's one of those things. Let's see, so what's going on? What's going on? Okay, so frown years. Okay, yeah, so you know, there's big uproar, like right before I guess the nitwit that tr tried to shoot some people at the correspondence dinner. What's his name? Do I got his name on here? Alan Cole, I think his name is You know, so like what's his nuts? Jimmy Kimmel made a joke, and it was a joke and this and that, but it was it was kind of distasteful in the sense because you know, he's Trump had already had two attempts on his life. So when you're making jokes about Melania being, you know, a widow or whatever, it's just kind of like, what the hell, man? You know, again, it's a joke. I'm not like saying he should, you know, whatever, but it's just it just adds a more fuel to the fire of why I don't like him. And I think he's got TDS. But the thing that just bugs me though is like, you know, so people are there are people on the right or whatever that are upset about it, and they're sharing their opinions on it, and then the left are like, oh my god, it's just a joke, it's just a joke. And it's like, okay, well, you know, they spent the last how many years getting all pissed off and angry over trans jokes or you know, pronoun misgendering, all those kind of jokes, and like, oh my god. But you know, making jokes about the president, you know, being killed or whatever, uh like days before there's an attempt. Now, would the guy have gotten to Trump, even if he'd k no, you know, um, but if he happened to, you know, step in front of him, I'm sure he would have took the shot, you know. Um, but now they they recently released the video of you know that guy, because before it was like a really crappy, it was like an eye, I don't know, it was just a horrible, and it just kind of shows the guy run down the hall really quick, and then people kind of whatever it you know doesn't really show too much, other than the fact that he looks like he can run pretty damn fast. But so they got an actual camera and it shows the people and it shows the mishandling or misjudgment of you know the law enforcement, security, secret service, whoever it is, you know, he had a dog handler, and it appeared that his dog was trying to be like, dude, something ain't right here, something ain't right here, but he wasn't, he was like, Oh, let's go. And then that's when the guy comes running out with the rifle. Nobody's really paying attention. There's one individual who you know, right in line of sight, so he sees the individual coming with a rifle, and he, you know, he gets his pistol and unholsters it pretty quick, and he takes some shots at him, misses them, but it's amazing that he did not shoot anybody behind him because there was all kinds of people, security and whatnot, behind this guy, and it's it's it's uh it's it's a miracle that nobody else got shot. So, you know, good on the guy for seeing the the threat and reacting, but he kind of you know almost shot other people. So, but you know, to be fair, security and law enforcement, especially security, is it's a difficult job because you don't do anything. I mean, you yeah, you can be a little proactive and you can do whatever, but you're just waiting for something to happen. And for a lot of people, nothing ever happens, you know. You train and you try and, but it's hard not to get into that that mindset of nothing's gonna happen, and you kind of, you know, and that's clearly what happened with some of these people, you know. But it's like, how are you how do you train? How do you train for that? You can't really train without knowing it's training, you know what I mean? Like I've done many, oh, hey, we're gonna do an active shooter drill and this and that, and you know, you don't know where and when exactly, but it's happening today, you know what I mean? Stuff like that. And you're not gonna do that during a you know, White House correspondence dinner, but even if you know you wanted to have somebody, it's just it's hard. It's hard to really train for that job. I mean, you can try it's not hard to train, but it's hard to really, you know, when your brain knows it's training and then when it's real, and it's it's a hard job, you know, and people don't, you know, it's it's a crappy job too. And my I I don't know, I got really tired of it, but I kind of realized though, that me getting out of the army, I became a civilian, but I worked for the army and I worked as a police officer and then security, and then yeah, I would go back and forth. It was always law enforcement and security, different places and whatever. And I always had to pass a PT test once a year. I had to shave, you know, there's certain things so it felt very like I was in the military still. You know, I was at work, I was armed and went through all the training and all that kind of stuff. So I never really, I never really became civilian, or I never made that adjustment like that a lot of military individuals, veterans have to when they adjust from military life to civilian life. It's hard. Especially depending on what you experienced in the military, you know. But even you know, somebody who didn't go anywhere and just worked in an office, there's still lots of differences, you know. But there was a couple times where I did work for a straight-up civilian and it just didn't work. I didn't I didn't work very long, I didn't like it. And yeah, so then I kind of realized that I never really made the switch from military to civilian, not completely, because I still was it still felt like I was in the military.

Military Mindset To Civilian Life

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I wanted to, but it just wouldn't work. Son sent me a photo or something. Let me see. I just gotta make sure it's nothing kind of what the hell? Somebody took a picture of me at the mall the other day. I think that was from his friend. Yeah, hold on a second. So I was at the mall. Well, I was at the mall with my wife. Kareem Abdul. That's his name, Abdul. I always have to remember. Oh, I just closed my bullets.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

So I was at the mall and I was getting some some stuff. Just my wife was at the grocery store and I was doing some other stuff. And as I was walking, uh, somebody came up to me and they were holding a folder and they were trying to talk to me. And I thought it was somebody trying to sell me something, and then I look, and it's one of my son's friends, this guy who's like he's like half black, and but his dad's from I want to say like Nigeria or something, but he's half black, half Filipino, tall, obviously dark. And uh, but he's he seems to be a pretty cool kid. But yeah, so it's him. I was like, oh hey, what's up? We bullshitted a little bit, you know. So my son just sent me a picture from that, and it was from that from that kid. Anyway, all right, so yeah, so I never really I never really you know left the military, the mindset of it, I guess. And then I was doing law enforcement security all the way up until almost the very end there, and then I worked for the VA at a dentist office. I probably talked about this before, and if you've heard it before, I apologize, but sucking egg. No, I never understood that reference, but anyway. But I man, I just didn't do well because most there were veterans, obviously, and I got the job easily because I'm a veteran, purple heart, so I get thrown up to the top of the list, you know, makes it easy. It's kind of unfair. Well, it's fair and it's unfair. I don't know, I get it, but I don't at the same time. And but there were still people that were civilians, and it was just kind of like, man. So I was either I was dealing well with veterans who I admired or whatever, I was dealing with civilians that I admired, but I also dealed with civilians that I didn't like, and then we dealt with patients who were veterans who were just fucking cocksuckers, and I could not stand with it, almost got a couple fights. Anyway, so it wasn't working for me. So that was one of the reasons. Oh, the mic think keeps hitting the mic stand, huh?

SPEAKER_02 21:58

And it's stretched all the way out. I can't I'll just hold it like this, I guess. I just noticed that. Sorry for that, my little cord for my headphones was like hitting the mic stand. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

So yeah, then that was one of the catalysts, I guess, for me coming here. At least for me personally. You know, my wife was wanting to kind of we came to visit, and I I thought it was pretty cool. And but I you know I was like, you know what, we probably will retire here, but I you know I was thinking it was at least another ten years or something, roughly. But it it happened as it happened, I guess. So what are you gonna do? Yeah, so so many people back to the Alan Cole shooter guy, liberals just going saying the you know, I don't know. Just they they're all about acceptance and all this, but they're all about violence too. It's like I love you if you have the same beliefs as me. If not, I think you should die. They're almost like, you know, radical Islamists or you know Muslim, radical and Muslims or whatever, you know? Like it's insane. When Biden, yeah, we we hated Biden, you know, but we didn't like you know, cheer for it's like it's just the left there they are just evil, disgusting people. The liberalism liberalism is a mental disorder, needs to be trending again, man. It's just insane. They're just so upset about the assassin in the field, and it's like, wow, man. And it's like, how stupid are you though? Because if Trump was assassinated, then who gets in office? It's JD Vance, and then that's just gonna Democrats are gonna get elected for a long ass time. So you wanting Trump to, you know, be shot is you're stupid.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Wanting anybody dead, I don't know.

Politics Stress And Friendships

Netflix Regret And Movie Rewatch

Truman Show Heaven Metaphor

Kids Movies TikTok And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Like I, you know, if Biden would have been assassinated, I kind of would have been pissed though. It's like, oh man, now you're making us look bad. Like I wouldn't, you know, I mean he wasn't even president anyway. So whatever. But it's just, you know, they're just dumb. And what sucks is like my my friend who I've been talking to, he was thinking about moving here, but I don't think he is. But he's liberal. He very I don't know if he's got TDS, but he doesn't like Trump, that's for sure. Haven't talked to him much lately, and then I did message him, I didn't get nothing back, so I'm kind of thinking he's just like not wanting to talk to me because I, you know, still support Trump and everything that's going on. And, you know, whatever. It's like, dude, I don't know. It's like I I I love the guy, I respect him, and this and that. I think he's retarded if he thought Kamala was gonna be a good president, but I'm not gonna like disown and hate the guy over it, you know. Just politics has just gotten crazy and ruined everything, man. And then let's see, let's see, let's see. Dude, Netflix fucking sucks. Netflix sucks. Because every time there's like some show or movie that I'm like, man, you know what? I really would like to watch this movie or whatever. It's not on Netflix, it never on there, so finally I just pull the trigger and buy it on Amazon, and then a week, month, a couple months later, it's on Netflix. Like Falling Skies is coming on Netflix, and I watched that show years ago, and I was like, oh man, it's a pretty good show. I liked it, and I was like, always looking for it. I mean, I'm not on every social platform or every you know streaming platform. I just Amazon and Netflix, Amazon because I pay Amazon, you know, premium or whatever to have the shipping and stuff like that. I mean, it's not the same here as it is in the States, but still, it's nice. Don't use Amazon music anymore. Use YouTube music because I pay YouTube premium. I kind of want to get rid of that. But anyway, so Netflix and Amazon, that's it. So never ever ever see Falling Skies. I bought the series a couple months ago and now it's coming out. It's just like, oh my gosh, dude. Every time, it happens every single time. What was it? Like there was something out, like it just it does, it happens every time. It's just kind of annoying. I don't know. I understand there's rights and they only get so much time and this and that. I get all that, but it's just it's just the timing of it, it's just so annoying. I watched This is the end. Oh damn, I'm at 27 minutes. But anyway, whatever. I watched the Truman Show again for it's been a while since I've seen it, but it was on Netflix, and I just I don't know. It's a great movie that I kind of forgot how good it is. But I remember watching that. I didn't watch it in theaters, but I watched it when it first was available on tape when you could rent it. Yeah, it's pretty pretty great film, you know, and it kind of when I watched it this time, it kind of reminds me of like how I see our life here on Earth, and then the next step, which is you know, heaven, right? So Earth is like the little isolated town that Truman lives in, and then when he leaves, he goes even to like a bigger, greater, you know, world that he could never imagine, right? Think of the shock that was on him, you know, when he saw the real world, you know what I mean? But that's kind of like a metaphor for going to heaven. It's just like giving birth, you know, when you're a baby and you're in the womb, man. That's the best place in the world. You're warm, you're fed, you're good to go. Can't get any better in this. And then you get then you're born, and you're born into this world. It's the same kind of thing. People are like, oh my god, heaven, wait, wait, wait. It's like, I don't know. That's how I look at it. But anyway, so Truman, yeah, it's a good show. I hope they don't remake that. What'd they do? Man on fire. Oh my god, I'm not watching that. But as I was watching it though, I was like, oh man, you know what? My kids would probably like this. I'm gonna watch this with my kids. And then I, you know, was talking to them and like, oh yeah, we already watched it. And I'm like, what? When did you watch it? You know, like I don't know. You know, it's just like, oh, trying to experience those, you know, my favorite, or I mean, I don't know, Truman's my favorite, but it's one of you know the great films that I, you know, seen growing up, and it's like I like to watch them with my children and experience, you know, for them to experience the film. Like that's you know, it's it's an enjoyment I get. You know, I had my son watch rounders, my oldest, you know, we watch movies all the time. And but yeah, so I was kind of pissed that they watched it. I was like, what the hell, man? But what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Right? That's the thing or two, is like, you know, when they're on TikTok or whatnot, you know, they'll see clips from movies and they and it's showing that like, oh, it looks cool, and then they'll research it, and then they'll they'll either watch it or they'll ask me to watch it. Like my middle son, who's not a big film, he doesn't like watching movies very often. He did like the Anaconda, the new one with Jack Black or whatever. He thought that was funny, but like he wants to watch Shawshank Redemption, which is dude, that's one of my favorites. That's one of the all-time greats, right? Did I talk about this already? Probably some people like, dude, you're a retard, man. You say the same shit every episode. My bad. But yeah, he wants to see it, he wants to watch it, and I'm like, man, it's not really the movie for your like he's ADD on another level, I swear. I told him, I was like, it's slow, but it's good. It's not boring, but it's slow. I don't think you're gonna. I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully, he'll still want to, but I gotta do that. But anyway, that's it. Just uh trying out the new boom stand, the boom mic, and the new camera angle, which is horrible. Like I like my other angle. I don't know. Let me know what you think. Should I go back to the way it was or is it good? Anyway, appreciate your feedback and look forward to your feedback. I hope everybody's doing well, and thanks for hanging out. I'll talk to you later. All right, God bless. All right bye.