 Hi, guys. I know it's a little bit early, but I'm leaving. I am going to go on my very first ever trip outside Metro Manila in more than two years. So, I don't know if you guys know this, but I haven't left Makati. Well, no naman. I haven't left Metro Manila. I haven't left Metro Manila in over two years. Let me boost my, let me make my face bigger. There we go. So, if you can see in the back, it's my suitcases. Actually, in the end, guys, hardware sugar is actually two brothers, myself and Anton. So, we're not closing down the shop. I'm literally just saying that I'm leaving the Philippines for a while. I'm talking about maybe two months. So, it'll be a very long vacation for me. However, an interesting thing that I want to point out is that I'll actually be producing content while I'm abroad, which will be the first time for me. So, why I wanted to make this stream is sort of like, it's more for me. It's for me to talk about the fact that I've been in this house for like two years. I would of course go to the hardware sugar store to help out when, especially during a time during the start of the pandemic when none of our employees could come in. So, today is actually very monumental for me. Like, this is a very big thing that I'm actually going to get on a plane for the first time in more than two years. It's going to be my first time to get outside of Metro Manila for two years. To be honest, I am medyut takot ako. I mean it's the chances of getting COVID omicron is so high here that it's all going to be like a small miracle that I don't get COVID when I arrive. So, my first destination is New York. So, I'll be flying by a pal and I want to say first I think pal deserves a great job. Can I just say that my experience with pal with respect to flights has been spectacular because usually we all hate pal, we all hate Suba Pacific and stuff like that, but grave. In customer service ng pal during the pandemic at least the past two months has been absolutely stellar. Actually, I don't even know why I'm wearing this headset. I'm not even playing. It's absolutely stellar. Number one, I booked a ticket for Cebu to meet with my, with some of my family members there last December for Christmas, but then we had to cancel because of the, because of, you know, the really horrible storm that wrecked through Cebu. And so, and pal, I had, I refunded my ticket, like just like that, like that. The whole amount was given complete credit. So, thank you pal. Like, you know, Hardware Sugar, we really care about very good, we care about good customer service and I really want to point out when other local businesses also do provide great customer service. So, if ever you buy a ticket from pal, you don't need to worry so much about rebooking costs or, or forfeiting. So, like just briefly lang naman. I bought a ticket for Cebu last December. I couldn't use it. So, I went to the pal office sa Ayala. They gave me a travel voucher for the full credit. So, if I paid 15,000 pesos for my airline ticket to Cebu, it was also 15,000 pesos voucher. And then I decided, you know what? I'm done, you know, like, I want to, I want to see my family and my family has been in the, has been in, has been in the states for maybe around six months because they are there to help take care of my niece. So, I've actually been alone in this house for maybe close to five months. I know like lots of people have a lot of other problems to worry about and my problem is just like, you know, living alone. But, you know, two years of not being able to hang out with your friends in a normal way. Five months being alone in the house. I don't know, man. Like, you know, it kind of gets to you. So, I decided two weeks ago na I'm fed up. Like, I'm getting on a plane and I'm getting out of here. I'm going to get out of here for a while. And one thing that I really want to, one thing I really want to, to share is my epiphany. It's really ridiculous, okay? I have a great room. Like, during the pandemic, our house was being built. And so, this house was a construction site. And so, it wasn't really finished. So, I spent the two years of my time helping Anton build hardware sugar our store as well as our YouTube channel. But also, I decorated my room. I fixed everything that was wrong with the house. I got a new table. I got a new monitor. I have, I have, I have a new microphone. Like, everything. I learned how to, I learned, I learned so many things during COVID that it's so scary that I'm actually going to leave this house for the first time with those skills in mind. Like, it's a, it's a very surreal feeling. And one very important realization I had was all this, all this stuff, okay? All this stuff doesn't really matter for an extended period of time. I know that we are retail, you know? Hardware sugar is there to sell you the best video card and also the most, the well-priced goods. And we're supposed to provide you the best computers. But me, as one of the owners of hardware sugar who runs and supposed to sell you stuff, I can tell you right now that if you don't have, if you're not around family or friends for more than two years, shit. This stuff doesn't matter. I mean, I'm thankful that I can afford to get this. I'm thankful that I have a great-looking desk, which by the way, I made a video about, I mean two videos about my desk setup. Like, I bought Philips U Lights. Like, like, oh, I bought a stream deck. Like, many of these things I bought so that maaper occupy ako. So I wouldn't need to worry about the fact na socially, I'm not growing. Like, I'm not going out with my friends. You know, the sad thing is that I have a lot of friends because I had to go to different schools. So I had a different grade school. I had a different high school. I had a different college. And then I went to law school. So I have like four barcadas. And I have a core group in all of them. But to be honest, I couldn't see them for two years. And it was also my choice. Like, it is the smart thing to do during COVID, not to be a dumb ass. Okay? Because I lived with my parents for most of the COVID period, until at least five months ago. And so yung priority ko, especially since senior citizens sila, is my priority was to make sure that I don't carry COVID to them. In fact, na, may just trick to ako sa bahay. So nabi gusto na nila, nabawa sila ako nung obas. Asin minagalitin ko nga sila na yun na, bahay ka lang maalabas. Ano yung kailangan ka ng supermarket ako na lang. Like, before, we didn't even know how to order stuff online. Ngayon, lat online. But ako yun yun, sacrificial lamb na po po tadon sa supermarket. And then like, I'd bring suit cases to the supermarket so that I would load up groceries good for one month. Kasi it, to-to-to-to lang. Natatakot din ako magagalitin to be outside. This was like early on pandemic. And so I personally, I grew to really fear COVID, even though fully vaccinated naman ako, alaman naman yung Omicron, malang pa kay, kung anin, kung nakabuster ka or fully vaccinated. The important thing is that you get the vaccine so that you don't get too sick. But you don't know it. You don't know who you can pass it to and you might kill someone. So that's my fear. And one of the mental problems I was dealing with was the fact na parang unfair ng buhay, no? Like, it's unfair in the sense na here I am trying to be responsible for two years. And I'm not gonna go out meet my friends even though they invite me. I'm not gonna go out drinking at my friends even though they invite me. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go to family occasions even though I'm invited. Because in my mind I'm like the smart thing to do is not expose myself so that I don't expose the people I love. But there's a saying that I grew up with. If you follow all the rules and you miss out on all the fun. And there's a lot of wisdom there, which is that if you just keep something, I guess there's a thrill in being rebellious. But at this point, parang it's not even rebellious. Now it's more about like mental survival. The difference between Anton and me, my Anton is my older brother who I, ah, I'm Maverick Joseph. Hi Revenjan. Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna be gone for too long, just two months na man. In fact na, I'll be working on the, I'll be making videos for hardware sugar. I just made a dramatic title na man. I'm leaving the Philippines, which is kind of true. But yung na, I mean, I made a dramatic because this for me is dramatic. Like, I don't know. All my friends who I know of have left Metro Manila at least to go somewhere. Like they went to Patangas or they went to Gaitay. I haven't gone to the Gaitay, haven't gone to Patangas. I haven't, I literally, the furthest I ever got was maybe Alabang and then I went back. So this for me on a personal level is very big. And I'm also excited because I finally get to travel again. But menjo extremes eh, like from not going anywhere to going to New York and then hopefully to Singapore. Menjo, it's a, it's a bit of a mentally, it's a, it's a re-taxing for me personally. In fact my flight is at 8 p.m. tonight and so that's why I figured na I would stream now. Actually I'm still in my pambahay. I'm going to dress up. I have some serious COVID gear. Wait, let me, let me show you my bag. I have a fanny pack. This is what I'm going to be wearing around my body later this afternoon when I go to the airport. In the first pocket, oh by the way, to Ken's cast, thank you for lending me your Uniqlo bag because this is going to be super helpful. So I have stuff, I have what do you call it? These wipes. This is what I'm going to use to wipe down like my glasses with alcohol. So I have like, I have alcohol and I marked alcohol. I have four bottles of alcohol. I hope they allow that. And then I have 7k and 95 masks here. And I have tissue so that I can wipe down the seat, the seat on the plane. And then I have several mask titaners. So I have no idea if, I'm just literally, I, na tako to ko talaga at to be honest kasi I'm just going to assume that like 80% of the people at the airport have COVID and they're spreading it. So parang it's like, it's a weird feeling knowing that you're going to go in, like I'm volunteering myself to go into an oven so that in the end I'll be able to stay in a better oven because you know, New York isn't actually the safest, the safest either. So it's crazy. Like I'm going to go from one hot bed manila to New York which is also a hot bed. But mind you, I think what you call, I think we can all agree here naman Metro Manila is a lot worse off right now than New York. But I just need to make, I just need to survive. It's a 15 hour and a half flight. And you know, to be honest, I don't like flying even though I'm sort of, I travel a lot but I'd never like flying. I don't like turbulence. So I have to now deal with the anxiety of you know, turbulence and COVID. And then like, how am I supposed to eat? Like how does this work? As Casey Boyos, hello. Sir Anton will live in your house? I don't know. I guess he might because I recall that my pool, he might enjoy, he's invited, he's invited anytime naman. But we have and then I have what do you call that? I have people watching over the house naman. Hey David Goh, if more than that it should be checked in. I learned that the hard way from Singapore 100 ml. Let me check now what 100 ml looks like because I think I have brought more too much. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you know, it's easy to say, yeah, I'm ready. And then after that, you're just over preparing. And I'm like, you know, it's like anything, it's like, like this whole thing for me, it feels like I'm about, it's like, it's like going on your first date with the crush that you like. Now you, you're always thinking that I'm preparing. Do I have enough? Am I ready? Do I, do I, do I have all the paperwork? I say ma grabe, grabe. The paperwork talaga man, the PCR testing and stuff. Uh, pet jamina, random question. Do you practice law? Yes, I do. Um, uh, over during the pandemic, lots of people kept asking me for a law questions, law advice. I charge very minimal. Um, but no, I don't go to court and stuff because I don't want to get COVID. So, uh, thank you, Patrick Tim Timan. Uh, oh yeah. Thank you for noticing my gopit inter. Holy shit. Si Kakarot. Hello. My Lolo came from the States and he works for NVIDIA. He gave me a GTX 1660Ti NA RTX 3070. Sanaol. Wow. And your Lolo? Man, your Lolo works at NVIDIA. But good for him. Geez. Uh, I'm Averick Joseph. No, I cannot reconsider because I'm not going to New York for the fun of it. I'm going there because my family is there. My parents, my sister, and my niece. I want to see my niece. I haven't met my niece yet. She was born. I have two nieces, one from Montoy and one from my older sister. I, they were born during COVID. So, I haven't met them yet. It's already going to go two years. I'm going crazy. I already met one. I want to meet the other one. So, this New York trip isn't a, isn't sightseeing. For me, it's family and to be able to socialize again. And Jesus, you know, I'm sorry. But I'm also fed up din just staying here. And I'm curious what the situation is like over there. Like, I just want to be able to see, you know, I want to be able to, I like working out now. So, I like to, I want to like run without having to wear a mask, okay? Because I know you can work out out there without having to wear a mask. And that's, that that guy, that's great. Of course, it's going to be, it's going to be cold. Kakarot. He's been working there ever since he went to the States in the 90s. Wow. Kakarot, maybe Indian? I'd love to Indian. I'd love to interview your lolo. If you could drop us, if you could drop us an email, you know, if it, he would be interested in us interviewing him. We would really love to interview someone like that, especially, you know, Pinoy, Pinoy Power. Oh, hey Nicholas, you had the same feeling and you had one family break at NMIC. It was the best break for a while. Yeah, you know what? You know, shit, I think I'm actually, I want to do this because I think I need to rejuvenate because, you know, in order to create videos, I make a script and then I shoot the videos and then after that, I edit it. It, there's a lot of creative processes goes in there, but then mentally, if I'm like, you know, if I'm burdened by other things, masasoffer din yung contente. And I, uh, yun. The difference between Anton and I is at least, you know, Anton's married and he has a wife, he has a kid, you know, he has a, he has family. He may, he's already made his family there. Me, I'm still, I'm still what you call, I'm unmarried and then I have it in. I have, I used to live with my parents, but then my parents are there taking care of my niece. So, it's time. And I guess one of the reasons why I wanted to make this stream is because I also wanted to let our viewers know that even though we sell all this hardware and we're telling you to buy hardware, please also don't forget to call a friend, don't forget to schedule an invite to hang out with somebody in person. I don't like zoom calls anymore. I'm tired of WhatsApp video calls. I'm tired of FaceTime videos. I have an M1 iPad Pro which I bought. I have the S21 Ultra. I have an RTX 2080 Ti. You know, lots of people will be like, why would you get bored if you have the best gear? And you know, to be honest, I tell myself that also. I'm like, you know what, Rafael, you know, I'm talking to myself, you don't have the right to be bored or sad because you have all the best gear. This is what everyone wants. And you know, for a time, that is true. I mean, like, you know, these are really great distractions, but when it comes right down to it, the more important things in life are the ones that you don't need to pay for. And so, you know, let's go. You know, what do you call that? Take care of your mental health. Take care of relationships. Don't, I guess, oh, this is more for my mantra. Don't let COVID dictate things. And I guess I'm breaking the very rule that I promise I'd never break, which is don't take unnecessary risks during COVID. This is an illogical risk, okay? Getting on a plane now, going to Naia by itself is stupid. Going on a 15 hour and a half flight with Omicron here and Omicron there is stupid. This trip does not make any logical sense other than the fact that mentally I just want to get out na. And I think a lot of people like to talk about mental health. And to be honest, you know, I was like, like, you know, itong languishing were like, because at the New York Times released like this article about languishing and shit, like a couple, maybe like a year ago and everyone was like, oh, I'm languishing. And so, to be honest, hindi ako nag-languish. Like, like for the most part of the pandemic, I slept like a baby, okay? Like slept like a baby for the most part. Hasl, I mean, there are a lot of problems sometimes that came up during Hardware Sugar. Like, I mean, like we became popular because of the pandemic. So, by the way, we're thankful for the pandemic that we got now, you know, YouTube noticed us and all of you guys noticed us. Vladimir Ribas, when will I come back? The thing is, I have no idea. Like, I have a return trip. But because of COVID, it's so fluid. Like, supposedly I'm supposed to be back in a month and a half. But if I get, sana naman hindi, but if I get COVID, then I wouldn't need to quarantine for 10 days. I need to cancel my flight. I don't know, it's a messy thing. I really don't know. But ay kakarot, my dad is a pilot. The airplane inside is filtered and recirculated the whole time. You don't have to worry about contracting on an airplane. I watched, actually a niyan, inside edition has a really good video on how the air is cleaned every, parang a niyan, it's new air every three minutes. And then I have to use the little fan thing on a top. That one apparently gives out the best oxygen. However, the biggest concern on the plane is when you take out your mask to eat. So, I don't know how I'm going to do this. Parang saing pa kain kong hindi ko kainin. Pero plan ako mamaya, maybe what I'll do is I'll just hide the food and then after that, I'll be like, I'll check. Tapos na ba sila kong main? I'll say ako na. Yun ang plan ako. I don't know how it works. I don't know how it will work. Like, you know, this is all theoretical. Maybe I'll just be like, tako na pa? Let's go. Wala pang five minutes. I don't know. It's out of that or I decide not to eat na lang. I don't know. It's a very, it's a really fucked up situation. You know, I mean, like, I just can't believe I have to think about these kinds of things. And to be honest, I have no idea what's waiting for me at, I have no idea what's waiting for me at, you know, at, at na iya, like, sobrang damit ako ba? I get anxiety thinking about what the hell is gonna go on over there. Like, is there a long line? Are we, is there no social distancing? Now is not the time to get mad at people. That's in my mind. Because if you get mad at people, hindi ko, you know, I'm breathing in more. You know, my heart's pumping. And then the more I breathe in, the more the higher the chance that I get, you know, it's the one I think about so much. Is Anton going to for family reunion? No, Efrem, I'm going by myself. Anton will stay here. Anton is locked in. Anton is locked in, in what you call it, in Metro Manila for the next, like, two years easily. So don't worry. You'll still have his streams, which by the way, you know, I'm not the guy who does the Bitcoin streams, but shit, grabbing Bitcoin as like plummeted, like crazy plummeted. Like it's down 50% from its high last year, grab it. Mind your GPU. Good idea. I was thinking about that also. And you know, hey, New York, you know, burgers and you call that, falafels and shit. Yeah. So yeah, actually, you know what? Time to buy the dip. Oh, we know. We know what you're using with your GPU. So my plan is I'll go to New York and then maybe I head over to Washington, D.C. and have family in both places. And I'm familiar with both cities, so it won't be difficult to get around. However, I'm planning not to take the subway as much as possible because I don't know, it's crazy. I know the city. I know how to get around, but if I don't want to take public transport, I'll probably walk everywhere, which is going to kill me, but like at least I'd rather, I'd rather my legs hurt, lele nyan, than I get COVID. I'll be releasing a video on my journey. I know it's not really tech-related, but it's fun. Like, I have, like, I'm going to release a video on what's in my bag. I don't, I love watching YouTube videos about what's in my bag. You know, cable management stuff inside the bag. This is the first time I'm bringing, I'm bringing, sorry, sorry, I didn't do, to the hardware server team. I'm bringing the DS, I'm bringing the mirrorless camera. I'm bringing the Fuji from XS10. Yes, where's my Oreos? I read, I saw that. Somebody just got pushed off in front of the train. Yeah, and that person got convicted. I believe it might have been, it might have been, the victim might have been Filipina, I think. Besides, I know I was a woman. But yeah, I, what was I saying? I'll still be joining, by the way, I'll still be joining that pwede magtanong stream. So next month, and in February, see, Anton will be the one hosting it, but I'll join in from my iPad. And how I'll be editing videos is actually interesting. This is my first time editing videos on an iPad. So apparently they bought the M1 iPad Pro precisely because I knew it is a editing machine. Like, it can super, no problem edit 4K or 1080p stuff. So I'm going to learn how to video edit on an iPad. That's new, definitely. And I'm bringing actually all my B-roll in a hard drive. And I have no idea how this is going to go out. Like, I'm going to learn how to mark Santa's new desk setup. I'll show you my desk setup there in New York. I mean, I won't be there for long. I'll be moving around like New York, D.C., and then hopefully Singapore. And it'll be fun to see how it'll be fun to see how things are so different. You know, it's one thing to see on the news how people are acting in the other countries. Like, they don't wear masks and stuff. And it's another thing to be there. Again, I just want to highlight that I'm going to be bringing a lot of stuff. And I'm going to be documenting it. And mind you that the paperwork involved for going to New York and going but most importantly going to Singapore is extravagant. Like, I really honestly felt like I was studying for the bar examinations all over again. Like, the list of requirements and the restrictions are so lengthy that what I did was I read through every single word and then I made a separate note on the side. So I made a separate outline just like how I used to back in the good old days when I was in law school. Okay, so this is what the law says. Let me reinterpret it so that in my mind I can better organize it. And so I have a very strict schedule to follow if I want to be able to go to Singapore from New York. There are specific flights that I can only take. There's a time frame that I must do it in. I need to apply for something within a specific amount of time. If I get COVID in Singapore, the Singapore government might pick me up from the hotel and bring me to a quarantine area and then my whole hotel thing becomes forfeit. There is so much to worry about. Nevertheless, though, I still think that this is going to be worth it. Like, the whole adventure about it all, it really gets me, you know, excited to be honest. Ephraim Luzah, I will actually make a video about the paperwork. It's crazy. You know, the thing is that Singapore makes it very hard. They make it very hard for us to go there from the Philippines. You can only go to Singapore from the, yeah, you can only get to Singapore if you are on a vaccine travel plane. And so I think they only have an agreement with 12 countries. Indonesia included, Malaysia I think also, and the United States, but we're not included there. So I need to stay, if I want to go to Singapore, I need to stay a minimum of 14 days in the States before I'm allowed to fly. So I'm spending like 20 nights in what you call in the States in order to qualify. But then even before that, I need to actually apply to go to Singapore when I'm there in the States. So there's still uncertainty. Like, I'm not even sure if I'll be allowed to go. But you know what, none of this really makes very much logical sense. But all I care about right now is just getting out, getting on an adventure. And then, hey, I'll be able to produce good content out of it because it's really, it is really something for me. And oh, and by the way, just let me know also what you guys want. What you guys want us to, what if you have anything in preference you want us to take note of when we're there. Like, if you want us to go to a Best Buy to look up graphics card prices, I'm going to do that. I'm going to see what they have available. Maybe Anton will finally upgrade his computer. Maverick Joseph got family in Singapore just to visit. No, just visiting. I always wanted to check out the Razor headquarters and other tech stuff in Singapore. Yeah, there's a lot of equipment in Singapore. And panang I feel safer in Singapore as opposed to in Indian as opposed to the States when it comes to COVID because no offense them Americans. But I think us Asians restrict it when it comes to mask wearing and stuff like that. So, oh, so I'm also sad to see my dog go here. Let me see if I can show you. Oh, you see there? You see that? See this? That's my dog's paw. Yeah, so Bagel will be alone for a month and a half with my kasambahay. But, you know, she used to be used to that. But this will be the first time in a very long time that will be separated from each other. So, I feel bad for my dog. Is there a micro center in New York? I don't know. See, Anton is a big fan of micro center. I'll check it out. Why not just put up your hardware sugar branch in New York and venit. Ayaw ako? What do you call that? There's so much growth here in the Philippines. So, I go over there pa. Okay, let me check out the comments here. What do you call it? Vacations? Sorry, just got to the Jiro Alvarez. Yeah, it's a vacation. Maverick Joseph says, better go to Naia like three hours before a flight. Check in then go back outside or stay outside because days of my friends experience is super damit tau. Even night flights. Okay Maverick, I got it. Actually, I'm going to be there four hours beforehand. Pero magalingin ngayong DNA yan. Get out of the terminal. That makes sense. Actually, naka-check in na ako. Naka-check in na ako. Okay, go to Kakarol. I'm sure pal as protocols. If you're in economy, he's arranged 22322 but they removed every other seed just to make sure. Oh, by the way, you know, can I just say that one of the two, I want to say two things about pal. Number one, they're very approachable when it comes to getting a refund and giving you a cash voucher for the full amount of what you're of the plane ticket in case you want to cancel your flight. And second, they are really, really, really cool about the fact that they PCR test. Like if you want to go to the States, you need to have a PCR test 24 hours before the flight. And that means not 24 hours. It means a day before. So if my flight's at 8pm on Wednesday night, I can have a PCR test yesterday, Tuesday, anytime. So what I did was I went to the pal PCR test center in Gate 3 at exactly 12.05am yesterday. So it was officially I got it one day before. And I got the results in five hours. I was very impressed. It's really nice because this pal PCR test center, they only test pal employees and pal passengers. So you don't need to worry about your test results. So like, you're prioritized. Like they put that up precisely so that you don't need to ever worry about missing your flight. And when I got there at 12.05am, there was only one other car there getting tested. And I felt very safe. There was no parking lot. And it was cheap also. Like I think the PCR test was only 2300 pesos. By the way, yesterday was also my first ever PCR test ever in my life. I've never, thank God, I've never had to actually have a PCR test because I've always been healthy throughout the whole COVID period. So it was also, yeah, I felt like yesterday was the beginning of my journey in a way. So guys, I don't have much else to say. I don't want to take up too much of your time because it is a, it is a Wednesday working afternoon. I have to go get ready for the plane. I just want to say thank you for, thank you everyone for all your well wishes. And the fact that I'm actually going to go there with the idea of making content while I'm there, something, a skill I didn't have last time I traveled. So I feel like even though I'm traveling there again, I feel like I'm not the same person I was before. Like so much so now because now there's so many things that I can do now because of the skills that I learned. And well, it's going to be an interesting time and I'll let you know if I get there safely. And theoretically, I'll only know if I got COVID maybe three days after I arrive or two days after I arrive. So actually the first five days, my family is in prisoning me in an air BNB. So I'm not allowed to see the family. So it's just, so it's like going from one cell to a smaller cell there. But I understand the, I understand the manlo, you call it, na kailangan kawin. But yeah, this is my way of saying don't avoid friend as much as possible try and find the way to socialize and don't use COVID all the time as an excuse not to. You will reach a point in time when di mo na din kakayanin. So please do yourself a favor, don't let it get to that point. Brian, Kua, you're going to be like Dora then, safe travels. Thanks, Brian. Si Brian Kua, you and I, we go back way back where you call it lost school days. And so si Brian knows na you call that like during an injury during school breaks, I would go, I would fly out to like Geneva or something and then I'd come home with chocolate sometimes for like for my classmates. But yeah, this is the longest I've ever been not traveling and this is also the longest time that I've been not leaving the city, Jesus. So anyway, I'll see you guys next time di magtanang show. And don't worry, I'll be releasing more videos. Stay safe.