BUREAUCRATIC BATTLES AND RACIAL REFLECTIONS: Navigating Document Dilemmas, Confronting Stereotypes, and Embracing Screen Printing Salvation

Ever been caught in a red tape nightmare? That's where you'll find me in our latest episode, as I unravel the annual ordeal of submitting my kids' birth certificates for a tennis tournament. It's a tale that pits the invaluable against the bureaucratic, where the fear of losing original documents looms large, and the lack of trustworthy family stateside turns a paperwork problem into a personal crisis. Join us as we navigate the international administrative labyrinth and discuss the accountability—or lack thereof—of organizations that play fast and loose with our most precious papers.

But our journey doesn't stop at paperwork. We wade into the turbulent waters of racial stereotypes and the media's portrayal of them, triggered by a film title that's as provocative as it is problematic. With memories from the military community as a backdrop, I share anecdotes that cut to the heart of race relations, peeling back layers on a subject that's as delicate as it is profound. From personal brushes with racism to reflections on historical narratives of slavery, we wrestle with the complexities of understanding and challenging prejudice in an ever-evolving society.

Lastly, I turn the spotlight on a hobby that's become my post-retirement salvation: silk screen t-shirt printing. Hear how this hands-on craft is more than just pushing ink through mesh—it's a creative lifeline pulling me from the depths of low moods. I'll take you behind the scenes of my home-based print shop, where the hope of reigniting a spark for life is printed onto every t-shirt. And for those curious about the shirt business, I offer my take on the charm of screen printing versus the digital ease of sublimation. So tune in, and maybe you'll be inspired to find your own beacon of hope in the quiet moments.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

I am so freaking irritated right now. This country, oh my gosh, this is the objective, jerk, and I'm said jerk, uh, been a while, been kind of busy. I'll talk about that more later. Um, but, um, I had a different story I wanted to talk about, or the whole reason, kind of that I wanted to talk, but this just came up. If I have time I'll talk about the other one, but so, basically, all right here.

Speaker 1: 0:51

So I grew up, obviously, in the States, um, so my, I remember when I was in high school or I don't know, somehow my, my birth certificate was lost right At some point. I can't remember exactly how old I was or what, but I want to say it was towards towards the end of high school and there was something that I could not do because I didn't have like an actual um, like I had a copy of a birth certificate, but they needed to see the notarized one, something like that. And sorry, I'm sweating here, oh, I got turned AC on. Sorry, I just have the fan on Um. So you know, my grandfather, who luckily still was alive and lived where I was born, was able to get it, and you know, but since that time, well, that, and being in the army, which the army teaches you to have copies.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Never relinquish an original anything. Only give copies, right, that's a good, it's a good, um, it's good advice. You know what I mean. You don't lend somebody your passport, you don't give them your birth certificate. You give them a copy and if they need to verify that it's in a copy of an original, you can show them here. Look, this is the original, you can see it. Here's the copy. We good, cool, you know what I mean and that's how it goes right.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Well, here in the Philippines, like you have, they have to have the original. They give it back, but they take the original and like so my kids, you know, if they want to play like some kind of sporting thing, I'm probably going to get a phone call from my wife while I'm talking with my phone go, I don't know. Um, I'm kind of, I'm like sweaty, I'm like I'm pissed off. But so my kids are playing tennis and they want to play, like you know, a tournament, not just like at school, but it's part of like whatever, which is cool, which is fine, but every year they have to submit their birth certificate. So we did it last year, which I did not want to do, and she's my wife was like we'll get it back. And I'm like, oh my gosh, fine, whatever, we got it back which is you know but then they got to do it again. It's like every year they have to do it and it's just like you know, one of these times it's going to get lost. And for the kids around here it's no big deal to get a new certificate, but for us my kids come from the States, so we have to reach out to the, to the US, to where they, where they were born, and request the birth certificate, which most likely someone's going to have to do in person. And now I don't have any family that I trust or anything that lives there to do it, so we'd have to probably fly or something you know. So it's not worth the headache.

Speaker 1: 4:11

It always better to keep the original, and I'm trying to. I mean, my wife understands it, but at the same time she's just like she's not as adamant about it as I am and they're like, oh no, they got to have. I'm like, why do they have to have the original? Why they can see the person taking it in. They can do like a little after David, a little note saying was I viewed the original. This is a copy of the original, whatever, I don't know. Or they can make a copy of it themselves if they want to. But we brought them a copy. Here's the original. Look at it, okay. And there you go. And now it's like oh, no, they have to. It's like no, I'm not doing it anymore, I'm not doing this every year because it's going to get lost one of these days, and then I will be pissed.

Speaker 1: 5:01

And so I told my wife I was like you know what, tell them to write a letter and I want, like the principal or whatever somebody in charge of the school, to say or I don't know if it's a school, necessarily, or if it's like the, the, what do you call it? They have the schools, but the schools are part of a district. There we go. So if they go to like the district or whatever it is, and they saying okay, if we have accepted the original document, if we lose it, we will pay the amount it takes to replace it, which might requires the fly, which is expensive. So you know it's, if they agree to that, then okay, I can. I can maybe live with it, but it's just like it's just, it's annoying. It's so annoying like it doesn't make any sense. Why do you have the original? Why? Anyway, that's enough of that.

Speaker 1: 6:14

What I wanted to talk about was the. I Guess the. What would you call it? I guess the. It's now okay For us to say Negro, but we can say Negro, negroes. Okay, I Don't know if I mean maybe still calling people a Negro may not be, but you can still say the word.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Because there's a movie that is out that I don't know the title exactly, but I know it has magical Negroes in the title. So and I haven't watched the trailer, but I've watched clips and it's the most racist shit I've seen and it's doing horribly, which I totally I'm not surprised, but I'm like, what I am surprised about is that the somebody okay this and thought this was a good idea to release. You know, now I Think the movie could have worked if this group of magical Negroes, if it Ended up being like a racist group and they in you know the character and had them figure that out. It's like dude, white people are not evil. People can be evil, all races, all everything. You know what I mean. And if they kind of okay, you know, did something like that, then it would have worked. And if they would have kind of Showed that a little like the possibility in the trailer, I think it could have worked.

Speaker 1: 7:55

But this retarded woke you know white people are the devil stuff is just as ridiculous. You know, and you know, yes, there are racist white people out there. You know how? I know, because this movie was made and there's a shitload of black racist people that are open about it. So there's got to be some white people that are. That's the thing now is like White people that are racist and I guess do it Are covert, and then black people are open about it. I don't know. I've met I Mean actually Asians are pretty racist. I've met white people that are racist. I remember, you know, people saying stuff when I was younger or here and like you know Whatever Racist people say and but like not really thinking too much about it and and then. But I experienced Racist black people to towards me.

Speaker 1: 9:19

You know, I think I talked about it before, but you know I grew up Primarily in Washington, in an area that was close to Fort Lewis that you know as a military installation, so there was a hodgepodge of everybody around there, and so I remember, you know, having friends with a Filipino and he had, and he was friends. I mean, we were all friends with everybody. You know, when you're a kid you don't have to be a kid. We were all friends with everybody. You know, when you're a kid you don't you don't really Notice it, I don't know, but anyway, so I was like I used to hang out, mainly with him, and then I started and then he had his friends, so then I would end up hanging out with you know, and it was like I was the only white guy. There was an Asian dude who was he might have been half white maybe and Then you know some black dudes and this and that, and I just remember hanging out with them and I used to get shit, so much and I just was like I don't know, I Just kind of.

Speaker 1: 10:33

I don't know what I thought really, but I took a lot of shit. But I think the last time I was like you know what I'm done with this crap was when the older brother of one of the kids was trying to get us to fight, like they wanted to see me get my ass kicked because I'm a white dude. So this was like fifth grade. So I remember after that is like okay, I'm not, I stopped hanging out, you know, and. But it's like I don't you know hate or I'm not racist towards, you know, asian and and blacks because of it. You know, I have. I mean, I live in an Asian country. You know, the only kind of racism I did was I assumed that all black people like tip-hop and did not like like metal in a rock. That was kind of, you know.

Speaker 1: 11:31

And I remember the first time I already talk about it, I think I have talked about this but it's not available anymore. So but I remember the first time I was hanging out with a schoolmate, a friend, her older brother, who was like a senior in high school or he was in high school. He was driving in a car and we were I was in ninth or tenth grade or something, I can't remember exactly, but I remember I don't know how the hell got in a car with him and hung out with him a little bit, but and then he had all the CDs of like all the music I liked and I was like whoa, I was like surprise, you know, like you like this. He liked everything he still does. He was a cool dude. He is a cool dude. I have not seen or spoken to him in forever, but I remember after high school and hanging out with him and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 12:22

And then it was in the army. It was on SRT and we had a new guy come in and he was this black dude. He looked like Wesley Snipes, I think. I don't know. I know I've talked about this, but we used to call him blade or whatever because he wore sunglasses and you know he just looked like blade and so he, you know, he was like I hate familiars and it's just I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Good times, it was funny and so we were, we were patrolling together or we were, we were doing like a stake out thing. I'm not going to go into all that stuff unless you want me to. If you want me to go into my military police SRT stuff, then let me know. But we were, maybe we were just going to lunch or something. I can't remember.

Speaker 1: 13:13

I just remember sitting in a car and he puts in a CD. I don't remember what it was, but it was like. It was like more aggressive than what I like. It was like metal, it was just like you know, and I thought he was like making a joke. I was like, are you fucking with me right now? And he's like what? Oh man, this is badass. You know like, so he loved. You know what I mean. So it was, it was a surprise to me, so that's, that's about the as far as racism goes for me. And then you know, and I've always, I've always been more attracted to non-white women. You know what I mean. I mean I'm married to Filipino. I mean I think all women can be sexy, redheads, lawns. I just was never. It's just, you know, asian, black, mexican, mixed. You know, whatever was always like. I remember when some of hi-hat, when I saw Desperado in theaters, it was like what, 95? Dude. I was in love, I mean, a lot of people were, but she was like dude. So yeah, so I mean, and it's.

Speaker 1: 14:26

You know there are racist people and I think it's okay to make some jokes about some certain things. You know like there's some comedians that make jokes about themselves that are black and they make jokes about white. You know the whole. You know there's lots of you know, and they're they're like innocent fun. I mean they're a little racist, but it's not like. It's not like hurtful or anything, and a lot of times it's true, you know, but the shit that's coming out now is just, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 14:57

And and the people that are wanting like all this money because their ancestors were slaved, well, it's like you know what your ancestors, people enslaved them, captured them and sent them over here. You know what I mean? Hi, I don't know, I just don't. They think they act like white America invented slavery. You know what I mean? And the thing is too I've talked about before is like the people coming over here, the people, the slaves who were already slaves, they were captured. It wasn't like white people went out and found these people, Ooh, I'm going to capture them and bring them here and make them do the work. No, what it was was when the I guess pioneers or whatever you want to call them, not pilgrims, it was after that.

Speaker 1: 15:52

But when the 13 colonies were here and they down south, they were trying to start up crops and everything, people kept getting sick from I'm malaria, but they were getting sick, mosquitoes and whatever. See, I'm horrible, but there wasn't malaria. No, it's not malaria, anyway. So people kept getting sick, all the white English people that were coming over and they were farming. They would get sick, they would die. And then pretty soon nobody wanted to. They were sitting there offering hey, if you come and work this land, or you work some land for a year or whatever, you'll get a free 25 acres or whatever. They were doing stuff like that to get people to come over here to work the tobacco fields and the cotton fields and all that kind of shit. But people kept getting sick and people kept dying. So they're like no, so work was slowing down.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Well, word had got out that the dark skin Negroes from Africa, which is the sickle cell thing, that they have, prevented them from getting sick. So there was a guy down south, near a port or whatever. He had heard that, and so he knew that a ship was coming in with these Negro individuals that were I'm going to say it a lot because we're allowed to now we're on the ship. So he goes down, buys I don't know how many, brings them to his field and they start working and there's no problems. And then all of a sudden, word catches on oh crap. And then they start.

Speaker 1: 17:42

You know, and it was just you know, it was like back then, dude, it was a normal thing. There was people that had slaves throughout the world and it was just like it was. It was almost like I don't know, I'm not saying that like it was right, but it was just, it was normal then you know. But I mean the way that slaves were treated a lot of them, and not all of them were. You know some people. Some of them were treated as good as a slave could be. I guess I don't know how good a slave being a slave is. But you know, there was a lot of people, the horror stories that you hear, which were true and did happen, but it wasn't. It wasn't like every single plantation owner. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 18:32

But you know, hindsight's, always you look back and you're like, oh, okay, yeah, I mean, look at, like the stuff in Nazi Germany, and you know what I mean, the crap that was going on with the Jews. Everybody was like, you know it was fine, oh, oh, oh, my neighbors are Jews, just so you know. Oh, they're bad, they shouldn't do what. You know what I mean. Like at the time it was like, oh, I guess this is what's. You know, jews are bad and this and that. And you know, looking back now or even after the war, you know a lot of German people were like what the crap, dude? How you know that was horrible, how did people? Or how did we even think that? Or whatever. And what's even sad about that is it's happening now that same kind of crap. They're trying to.

Speaker 1: 19:18

You know you got people going to jail for the dumbest things, like just recently. Like there was a table taken out of the Capitol building during January 6. And so now people that did that are being arrested and going to prison. Like what? Find them, give them a ticket, put them on probation or something you know, but you're going to put them in prison. Does that make sense for that? And when you look at the charges, it's like all the charges are the same shit that, like the pro Palestine they went into the Capitol did and you know what I mean. Yes, there were some damage done, but it was some windows. I mean, if you watch the videos, it was I don't know. It's insane. I just the people that think that January 6 was an insurrection are just psychos, tds psychos and they're woke and they're unhappy with their lives, because now it's proven that wokeness. Generally individuals are unhealthy, unhappy and depressed and hate themselves, and so they want to make everyone else miserable Sounds fun, huh.

Speaker 1: 20:39

I wish to talk about something else. I got a few minutes just to kind of stop with my rant when my wife didn't call me back. I'm kind of curious how that went with the birth certificate. Oh, okay, so well, the reason I haven't been podcasting, really I just, I don't know, didn't have much to say, but I've been kind of working on doing a little side hustle. I guess I'm trying to, I think I don't know. I think I talked about a little bit, but I always say that I've been.

Speaker 1: 21:12

Since I've been here, I've been trying to find a hobby for me to do that kind of keeps my interest and keeps me moving a little bit, especially when I'm in my shit low moods, if I know it's like, oh crap, I don't want to do nothing, but God, I got to get this done. So then you know, get me up and it'll go and I'll get it done. You know, because being retired is not all it's cracked up to be man, you got to have some kind of purpose, and so that's what I've been trying to find as a purpose. Right, that's what this podcast started as, and it helps a little bit. But when I'm in my shit moods. If I don't want to talk, I won't. You know, there's nothing to pull me towards, you know, unless I had like tons and tons of subscribers and people messaging me hey, well, when you can, you know, or something like that. But you know, I don't and I'm fine with that. So it's like I've been.

Speaker 1: 22:16

I did mountain biking, which I love, the mountain bike, but my lower back it, I don't know, it kind of doesn't work great for me. I should maybe just get a street bike, but man, riding your bike on the road here is so dangerous, so I did that. What else, dude? There's like a ton of things that I've. I've started like a graphic novel, but then when I'm in my shit mood, I just don't care to do it, like all these little hobbies I just when I'm in my shit mood. Nothing really gets me out to do anything. So what I think?

Speaker 1: 22:58

I think I found the thing for me to do and it's basically just to make t-shirts, silk screen t-shirts. You know, that was what I did. I didn't do shirts, but I did silk screen printing for vinyl and everything, and I dabbled a little bit with the t-shirts, but I think it was just a friend of mine. He worked at a t-shirt place and you, let me do a little bit or something. It's basically the same. I mean, it's you print the same. You know, with the squeegee and the ink you flood it and then you lay down and you push it through the mesh and there has to be a gap, you know. So all that's the same. But you know there are a lot of differences with the shirts and the inks and how you do stuff. So that kind of stuff I've been researching and I built myself a little ink table, just a single ink table, a shirt print table with a little palette, and I made welded some stuff.

Speaker 1: 23:52

So I got it's all ready to go. I got some screens. I have everything I need except shirts. Plus I want to get a few other little things. So next, you know, I only have like a little budget for me to spend on myself, on whatever. So I spent that already for the stuff. I'm going to wait until next month and then I'll buy. I'm going to buy some more screens and some shirts and then I've already got some designs and some mockups and stuff like that and so yeah, so I'll start printing those. I'll just give them to some friends and family and this and that, and you know see where it goes.

Speaker 1: 24:31

I'm kind of hoping to get orders, not like not trying to be like the next Balenciaga or something like that, but just just enough to get me. You know, if I have like an order of five shirts or something and I'm like, oh crap, I got to do those shirts, it'll get me out of my bed and out of my whatever and I'll get them done and it'll get me moving and, do you know, and get me out of my funk, that that depression funk. So I think this will work for me. It's just, you know, it's I. I know, I know how to make screens and I did all that stuff. You know coding screens and burning screens and doing all that stuff. So that's not the problem. The only thing that's going to be a problem is like kind of marketing kind of stuff, like because you got to kind of you know, when I'm in my shit mood I don't get on my computer much or nothing, so but if I'm hoping to kind of get the word out and just get things started, so when my shit mood does come around, I don't have a choice but to make some shirts because people ordered. You know, I mean that's what I'm hoping, that's my plan, that's my goal and you know I enjoy doing that, you know. So it's something fun. I can maybe make a little extra cash, but I mean it'll just be, I'll turn it right back into the shirt, whatever, I don't know. But that's kind of what's going on with me.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Anybody listen to this is I'm not doing any objective jerk stuff right now. It's just it's like a whole separate thing. I'm sure I'll probably print some objective stuff eventually, but right now I'm just I'm just focusing on like kind of simple designs and single color, you know. And then once I kind of get my groove back and I'm in them, I'm having no issues and because you know I'm saying, yes, I have a lot of experience doing it, but it's been a while. So I got to kind of get that groove back, you know. And then, once I do, I'll start doing multicolors and stuff, and then that's. That'll probably be the first thing I try maybe is like one of my objective jerk logos things, because it's like three colors. But anyway, if you are anybody listening, this is as interested.

Speaker 1: 26:41

I do have a Facebook. I'm working on the website, which I don't know. I don't know, I think a website is kind of an overkill right now, but so I have a Facebook page and I have a few mockups on there. So I mean, it's just starting, so but check it out if you want. It's called Colbo Inc. Kalbo, that's Filipino word for bald, so that's my name. I think I'm going to change it to Colbo prints or something like that. I don't know, but you can only change your name. Like every I don't know, you have to wait 60 days or something.

Speaker 1: 27:17

So I thought ink was cool because I, you know screen printing ink because because they use a lot of I mean, there's silk screen printing in the Philippines there's lots of people that have shirt, but locally though I don't, I don't know too many they're all what's it called? Got they printed on an inkjet and then they transferred to like or they I don't know. I don't know how they do it really, but I can't think of what it's called, but there's a different. There's a few different shirt processing processes, and so there's a lot of them around.

Speaker 1: 27:53

Sublimation there we go. It's called sublimation, so that's pretty popular and people do that here, but I I don't want to mess with a computer and a printer too much. I like screens. I was really good at coating screens and making screens, and so I don't know that's what appeals to me. So anyway, check it out, colbo Inc, and let me know. All right, I think that's it. Yeah, one way past my time. So thanks for listening to me gripe. Check out the shirt business and I'll see you next time. All right, bye.