0:00 I think God came back into my life when I was ready. How was that presented or how did you receive that? Surprisingly, it was Tik Tok. Tik Tok. Yeah. Yeah. Was he making a [Music] Well, welcome to another very soft episode of the Careful Boys, where we're extremely careful and we are with our good friends here above the influence. We're also very careful. We learned our lessons. Dude, you should just like literally watch all the dumb stuff that we do and then not do it. That's like the whole point. I feel like we just do it, too. So, I tell you, that's why we're friends. I'm not scared anymore. That's good. Wow. That's very from Vendetta. We just talked about not scared anymore. This is good. You've never seen that movie. I don't think I've ever been scared to be honest, which is I think that's my problem. He's too not scared. He needs to be a little more scared. It's it's
0:50 I've the way I view social media and how I always is is I've spent too much time alone hating myself and working on myself for random mother on the internet that don't know me when I know the true nature of my soul and intentions. I don't care what you say. Yeah. So that but now now I'm reaching that level it's like perception. I don't maybe I don't care about my like how people perceive me but I have people around me that might. So now I'm toning it down just a tad bit for for the people I care about. That's growth. That is growth. That's maturity. That's tight. So you mentioned earlier that like when you guys started your UTI journey to like where you are now, you've evolved and become different people. And one of the things that you highlighted was that we found God. I mean find God. Yeah. We all found God. I mean he was always religious but I wasn't. And
1:40 then I am now. Yeah. Actually, I think I was the only person that started it like religious and believing in God and then like Jeremy now work you know you guys know Johnny Chang like that's the that's what he does now is he works with Johnny Chang like he's like locked in. He loves it. Dope. Wow. So like how how was that journey for you? Um I I would say cuz I I was raised Catholic but due to family life and like personally my dad uh viewing the things he did and then trying to say like oh you know just I couldn't grasp the concept of humans can do whatever they like and they would still get um forgiven. I I I I didn't understand the true nature of that and I also didn't like it um until I learned more about Christianity. And I would say I never walked away from God. I would classify
2:32 almost like I turned my back away from God out of spite, but I never truly like stopped walking with God cuz at at my core like I've always cared about being a good person, living with good intentions, living the right way, doing the right things, you know? And um yeah, it was just a few years of just harboring anger and hatred of the world, of Christianity, of of a a lot of things. And the more I healed and the more I grew and the more I learned, um I think God found me, I didn't find God again. I think God came back into my life when I was ready. Mhm. And then um how how was that presented or how did you receive that? Surprisingly, it was Tik Tok. Tik Tok? Yeah. Yeah. Was he making a I that's how people dress. Jesus was like straight up. It was um and I've said this before. I found you. I think Johnny I think Johnny Chang
3:22 Well, honestly, the first thing that really really did it was this man right here when I even at my my most like stubbornness of like I don't believe in God and I probably never will again, right? He would one he didn't do it in a way that pushed me further away. Um, it was just more like, well, I believe in God and this is how and I just told him this recently actually is there was one thing he said that that really stuck with me even though I never reacted to it. I never gave attention to it. It was when I first met him. He was like, and we we argue about God. He was like, "It's not that I'm trying to push Christianity on to you. It's the belief that one day I will be saved and I love you so much that when that day comes, I want you to be with me." Right? And I never said anything to him. And I don't think he truly understood how much that hit me. And maybe I didn't even understand how much that hit me. But yeah. Yeah. So he he was a large factor
4:14 of that. And then going down the road, Johnny Chang was another factor. I'm actually the one that reached out to Johnny. Um and then Cliff was I think the final this this old white guy that explains the Bible very well on TikTok. And this is why I say Tik Tok. Uh, I kept seeing uh clips of Cliff explaining Christianity in a way that was very easy to digest and easy to uh relate to and not in a way that was damning or or telling people that you shouldn't be this and this and this. It was more preaching of like it's okay that you are this. Jesus will still love you. God will still love you. And um I al I also think it was I reached a a maturity level where I was just so sick and tired of you know when when as life has been so good. No matter how many friends I had, no matter how much money, no matter everything I had, I was just always
5:04 empty. At the end of the day, when all my friends went to sleep, I felt alone. Still in that in that in that like dark room in my soul, you know. And you think now finding God you feel full? Like it just feels fuller? I think I still have a very long walk and I think my testimony is still not fully complete but um yeah I mean that that was my journey. Mhm. And um it's it's been a beautiful one. You changed a lot like you grew a lot. If you see like the beginning of UTI and then the end it's so different. That's why I wish we still had the videos because it's such a beautiful journey. What's some of the hack the account and then save the stuff like Yeah. I wish I could. What's what's some of the differences that in what way did you change? Like did your lifestyle change? Like I think my lifestyle changed a lot actually. But it's also like with that comes or with age comes
5:56 that too. So I've been I joined when I was like 20 21 22 I think. Wow. No 23 I think. It was like a year after I moved to LA. Yeah. Um, and the year I turned 25, you know that cliche of like you turn 25, your mental or your frontal lobe develops. It's honestly true. At at 25, I still notice it to this day is like I'll view um just every situation differently. Whereas it used to be like if I if something minuscule went wrong, my like my world would just collapse. But I think mine was 35. Still waiting for mine. Still waiting. Yeah. You have the extended release. Mine's still buffering. ████ Mine's a little damaged. Everything I used to say, well, not everything, but a lot of the ████ like I used to not care about the gym is a is a a very large factor
6:48 was like I love the gym now. I I I feel wrong if I don't go to the gym. Um, and I never thought I would be that type of man. I love God. And if you had asked me even a year ago, I was like, ah, God is whatever cool to people who believe in him. That's cool. But not for me. He when I first met him, he had this very dark energy around him and he was very angry at the world, but now he's just way brighter. They'll tell you when when they first met me, it was um obviously I'm I'm always kind of like who I am, right? But there were moments where no one no one would talk or whatever and suddenly I would just break down, like burst out in tears. Uh there was one time we were coming back from a trip and I was in the backseat of the car and I don't remember what triggered it but out of nowhere I couldn't control it. Broke down blah blah blah. It was a lot of soul healing. I had to heal my soul.
7:39 Yeah. Um but yeah, that's cool. I'm glad you found that pathway, dude. Finding it. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's really inspiring. That's why it's like going back to everything like I don't really care about what people on the internet or or people that don't truly even in real life people that don't know who I am. I've never really cared about their impressions of me because like I spent way too much time, way too much time not like isolating trying to figure out what my heart is, what my soul is, and who I am. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. It's like no one could beat me up harder than I beat myself. You said that because I've said multiple times like no one could hate me as much as I've hated myself. There's there's moments I've woken up thousands of times where I look in the mirror, no one can hate me as much as I used to hate myself due to
8:30 wanting to be better, wishing I could be better. Also, the people that spew like the most hate on the internet and judge you, I feel like they also have some healing to do. Healed people don't really go on the internet judging other people and leave negative comments, so it makes them feel better. Yeah. Like don't take criticism from someone that you wouldn't want to trade places with. Oh, I never have. That's why when I argue about them, it's never been I hope you heal. It's I'm better than you, ████ Shut up. It always goes like, I'm better than you. Shut up. I'm Christian. Oh, no. I I would never say I don't think I'm better than anyone just because I found God. I to this day like I I still argue with some of my friends that are Christian and use it almost as a like an excuse to hate on people or condemn people. I I don't believe like I don't like I think they're like the
9:20 least Christian. They're only Christian by like paper, but they don't follow the rules of God. That's what pushed me away from the church is there was so much hypocrisy, so much like and they compete a lot at church like who's got the nicest car and I'm like that's like the most materialistic anti- especially like full Asian churches too cuz that's where I grew up competition comparing and I'm like dude I find more godly people outside of the church and I was like dude I don't know but have you guys been seeing like a resurgence in like so many people openly talking about religion or specifically Christianity and like being more divided out. I feel like something happened during like co there's a movement for sure. Yeah. If they're going in harder now for whether it's Christianity or or Islam like people are going harder into all this stuff when before I think everyone was casually or
10:11 like whatever. I don't know what's going on. Well, do you think it's just mainly social media though? I feel like they were already doing it. It's just like now with the platform leaning towards that type of content creation. I know. I think it's more open like people are down to talk about it openly now. Well, that's the thing. I feel like it's also become like content. It's cool to be religious. You know what I mean? I think I think I feel like also Johnny did something where now even like his friends, they didn't like ████ with religion, but they see him and they're like, you know what, it's actually kind of cool to be religious. Like he kind of makes it cool, too, you know? And and I think in that way I also think I also think society was just moving like in the early 2000s it's like everything is just like a cycle right like you know that meme of like weak men create uh
11:01 like or like weak men create hard times hard times create strong men that cycle that like history is so like just cyclical and where it's like we were pushing like dgen behavior was cool right like every movie that came out of like the '90s early 2000s like the cool guys the guys that got all the girls and did all the things you want to do were doing drugs, disrespecting their parents, like doing all these bad things. And I think that like created a society where everyone that was cool or wanted to be counterculture was like that. But then that got so popular that that's what everyone's like. So now the counter everyone has like a desire to rebel. I think especially like there's like rebels in every society. And I think the rebels of nowadays are like, yo, that ████ is not that cool. It's empty. It's like meaningless. Like and they're looking for purpose. And then obviously uh divine purpose kind of like beats everything else in my opinion. So I think it's just swinging back because
11:51 people are kind of fed up with like the degeneracy. Yeah. Also like the economy has just turned to ████ since you know co there's a lot of like health scares and I think when people suffer they're kind of they start looking for like a higher being or purpose. So maybe that's very true. I see Christianity 2.0 coming cuz uh 2.0 You know, it's only been around for like 2,000 years. Yeah. This is maybe 5 5.8, right? Internet J. I hope that when my kid gets to his like adult years, the cool for him is to have a good life. Cuz you know, like you'll be like you'll see like uh one generation of parents, they're like all these white collar people, then their kids are like either punk rock or they're like some sort of anti society. the opposite. Then these
12:43 then the the parents that become that were former like rockers and skaters all of a sudden their kids like school again and like it's like that cycle. Exactly. Hopefully like somehow Well, with you as his dad, I feel like that's a guarantee, right? Like No, with him as his dad, he's going to be a ████ He's going to be a doctor. Be weak, dude. You're going to give him too good of a time. Good times create weak men. I know. That's the ████ problem. You got to You got to make it tough times create strong men. I know, dude. You got a DJ toy. I ain't got that forever. That is what I'm worried about too. I'm like ████ girl taking him camping and ████ quality stuff. You say things like I love you. That's crazy. No trauma. You're like it's okay. No trauma. You like don't believe in like hating image. This guy's literally got a piece of tissue paper. He's not going to be able to vibe out with other Asian kids like when they talk about getting their ass
13:34 beat. He can't relate. No matter what I do that's wrong. Exercise. Yeah. He's gonna have no friends. And then he'll start to learn that tough times create strong men. I know. He comes home. I hate you, Dad. You love me too much. He's gonna hate me no matter what. Can't win. Do it. Start drinking or something. Yeah. We were like I was taking him back home from school. We ride our little ebikes and I was like, "Hey, you have homework today?" He goes, "Yeah, I hate homework." I'm like, "Dude, I ████ hated homework, too, dude." That ████ sucks. That's your hard times you're putting on them. And he goes, "For real?" I'm like, "Yeah." I'm like, and then uh, "Dad, you ate homework, too?" I was like, "Dad, I hate homework, too." She was so boring. I'm like, "Why do we got to do same things did in class at home?" He goes, "See, I'm like, you're too relatable. You have to not do it's like, see, this is why I got kicked around all all the
14:24 schools. I I went to six high schools." Hey, didn't you guys start praying though with Ta at night? So, we How you going to pray when you're not even Christian? I just pretend. and who you prayed to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, my my wife my wife grew up Catholic. Um I guess I grew up Buddhist, but I'm not really religious. We knew we wanted some sort of spirituality at home. Um cuz it it feels like it's healthier to know that you're like part of like a greater purpose. So, we just kind of pray to a god, not really naming the god or the religion. Um and when we pray at night, we mainly pray about the things. At first we would pray and he'd be like, "I hope I get like a box of Pokemon cards." Like it's not a genie. You don't ask for rules. You either talk about we we go through like what you're
15:14 grateful for for that day. So you're always grateful and a grateful mindset. And then if you want to pray or ask for things, it has to be for other people. So someone else is like sick or someone else is going through a hard time and you you ask for blessings for other people. And we do that every night. Um which is pretty cool. Ta's like, "God, please allow my dad to receive Pokemon cards when I It's a good loophole. Loophole loophole. I'd be proud if that was my son." Like, he found an angle. I put him into business or law right away. This might work. I don't know. I guess I I love seeing your videos with Ta though. Oh, thank you, man. Bonding. He's so cute. Does he think you're a cool dad? Does he think I'm a cool dad? No, dude. got more stripes on his belt than you do. I think I think right now just
16:05 because of his age he thinks I'm cool cuz I'll try to do things to try to embarrass him in front of his friends and it doesn't work yet. Do you guys know what the Oh, you know ████ greedy or whatever. Is that like a dance? Oh, you mean the TR grey? Whatever. Oh, the gritty gritty. The ████ the ████ gritty whatever. So, every time I pick him up from school, he'll be the right foot three foot and I'm like, "Oh, yeah." And I'm just like right in front of the I just do it right in front of him. And then it's just me and him dancing like that with ████ 200 other kids and other parents. That's so cute. And he thinks it's the coolest thing ever. Or now at school he's like, "Can I get a h?" And he goes for a parent teacher conference. He's like interrupting everybody and he's like cool with it. But I was hoping it's going to be like I go, "Huh?" Yeah. And he's like, "F███, stop it." You're hoping maybe one day.
16:57 Just thinking about the other 199 other kids are looking at you like, I wish my father was like that. And they're all going to be strong men. The rest of them will be strong men. Even the women. Even the women. This is so crazy. Yeah. I try to like um I think be his friend, but also know that at home there's boundaries and I set those boundaries up. But like I feel like I don't I try not to have to put the I'm I'm your dad, so you have to listen to me law, you know? I mean, hat on, you know. Do you like fear of the day? He's going to one day look at you and be like, "Grow up, dad." That'd be a dagger, bro. That hurt my feelings. That probably I'll probably kill me. Like, one day I show up to school in like a Spider-Man onesie. What the ████ Oh, I just say he's a senior in high
17:49 school. Funny way. He's like his prom. He's like, "Hey, dude. What's up? He goes through puberty. He finally has a girlfriend. This guy comes out. Can I get out of here? Remember remember we used to do this granny by himself. This is our thing. It's already old. It'll happen. It will happen.
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