This week on Thoughts Off The Stem, Justin Barone breaks down a Swiss Chalet dinner that went completely off the rails — and then takes it further with the most stomach churning restaurant horror stories the internet has ever produced.
There are restaurants that try to do everything and fail at most of it. And then there’s Swiss Chalet — a place that built its entire identity around one thing. Chicken. Just the chicken. Cook it properly and everything else more or less takes care of itself.
So how do you serve it raw?
The Swiss Chalet Experience
It started with a simple plan. Justin and his girlfriend head out for the two can dine deal — nothing fancy, just a reliable chicken dinner at a familiar spot. What they got instead was a masterclass in how not to run a restaurant.
The host was nowhere to be found. One exhausted waitress was running the entire floor. The tables were sticky. And when the food finally arrived the chicken looked wrong before it was even cut into. The kind of wrong you notice immediately but convince yourself to ignore — right up until you cut into the middle and find it completely undercooked.
The bright spot? The waitress. Who was somehow still apologizing professionally while clearly holding the entire establishment together on her own.
TheDude For Real: Restaurant Horror Stories
If the Swiss Chalet story wasn’t enough to put you off eating out, the Dude For Real segment finishes the job. Real stories from real people — coleslaw with shrimp tails scraped from other people’s plates, a restaurant mouse that the server knew by name, a bandaid in the taco lettuce, cockroaches in the coleslaw, and things so bad they don’t need to be described twice.
The restaurant industry has some explaining to do.
In the spirit of cooking at home — which after this episode seems like the only reasonable option — this week’s Weed Facts breaks down how to make cannabutter from scratch. Stovetop method, slow cooker method, decarboxylation, straining, and everything you need to turn your flower into an ingredient worth cooking with.
Because at least you know what went into your own food.
New tech is cool. I genuinely love it. That is, if you’re willing to give a big F**k you to privacy with gadgets like meta glasses. Don’t get me wrong innovation is amazing and the fact that we live in a world where you can walk around with a computer on your face like you’re in Minority Report swiping through files and checking your messages while you grab a coffee, is pretty cool.
But here’s the question nobody seems to be asking.
Do the people building this stuff actually think about what happens when real humans use it in the real world? And do we — the consumers — think about the potential consequences before we hand over our money and our data and apparently our most private moments?
I’m not so sure we do.
Welcome to Thoughts Off The Stem. I’m Justin Barone and this week we need to talk about Meta glasses, Tesla batteries, wearable tech privacy and the fundamental disconnect between building something cool and thinking it all the way through.
Meta Glasses: Cool Concept, Terrifying Reality
Meta glasses are genuinely impressive technology. Wearable, stylish, functional — the most recent incarnation of a concept that’s been trying to work for years. And now they actually kind of do work which is both exciting and deeply concerning.
Here’s what nobody thought about.
When they’re on, they’re on. And they see everything.
If you’re wearing them while shaving your balls — that’s on file. If you forget to take them off before you head off to handle some personal business — congratulations, you just made POV content and it’s sitting on Meta’s servers right now.
If you’re recording with your face, you’d think — you’d think about that.
Apparently not.
I’ll be honest — when I was a kid I had to wear a heart monitor from time to time as part of my yearly checkups for a heart condition. And even then, as a kid, I was worried about what it would tell the doctors. Like why is your heart rate spiking at 10:30 at night? That’s nobody’s business.
Now imagine that same energy but it’s a camera. On your face. Connected to Meta’s servers. Worn by millions of people who didn’t fully read the terms and conditions.
What Meta Workers Are Actually Seeing
Here’s where it stops being funny and starts being genuinely disturbing.
Meta workers — specifically Kenyan subcontractor employees — have blown the whistle on what they’ve actually seen while reviewing footage captured through users smart glasses. And the Dude For Real segment this week pulled directly from their accounts.
What Meta Workers Reported
The Reality
Users going to the toilet or getting undressed on camera
People wearing the glasses without realizing they’re recording
A man leaving glasses on a bedside table — wife undresses in frame
Accidental recording of private moments without consent
“We see everything — from living rooms to naked bodies”
Meta has this content in its databases right now
Workers told not to question what they see or they’ll be fired
No accountability for what’s being stored or reviewed
Two US citizens filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against Meta
False advertising and disregarding privacy laws
Meta being investigated by multiple governments
The pervert glasses problem is now an international issue
Two US citizens have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco accusing Meta of false advertising and disregarding privacy laws. Multiple governments are now investigating. And somewhere in Meta’s servers there is content that people recorded without having any idea they were recording it.
They’re calling them the pervert glasses now. Which honestly feels about right.
Tesla Batteries and the $25,000 Surprise
Meta glasses aren’t the only example of consumers not thinking things through. Let’s talk about Tesla for a second.
A few years ago first generation Tesla owners started showing up at dealerships and getting hit with a $25,000 repair bill for battery replacement. And a lot of them were genuinely shocked.
Here’s my take — that’s on the consumer.
When I buy a car there are a few things I want to know. What does the service maintenance plan look like? How long will this car last? Should I worry about mechanical issues including the engine?
When you buy a Tesla you are buying an electronic device. A very expensive, very large electronic device. And the most basic question you ask when buying any electronic device is — what happens when the battery dies?
People didn’t ask that question. And then they were blindsided by a bill the size of a used car.
The Disconnect: Developers vs Consumers
Here’s the pattern I keep seeing and it applies to Meta glasses, Tesla batteries, and honestly most technology that causes problems after launch.
What They’re Great At
What They Generally Suck At
Developers
Building cool innovative technology
Thinking about real world human use beyond the tech goal
Consumers
Fixating on new shiny things
Thinking about real world consequences before buying
Developers are brilliant at solving technical problems. They are generally not great at asking “but what happens when a regular person uses this in their bedroom at 11pm without thinking about it?”
Consumers are great at wanting the newest thing first. They are generally not great at asking “but what are the actual long term implications of this purchase?”
The result is Meta glasses on Meta servers and $25,000 battery bills and a lawsuit in San Francisco and a bunch of very uncomfortable Kenyan subcontractors who have seen things they cannot unsee.
Weed Facts: Can Technology Actually Detect Cannabis Impairment?
Since we’re talking about tech this week the Weed Facts segment goes there too — because there’s actually some genuinely impressive new technology being developed specifically to detect cannabis impairment. And it’s more accurate than you might think.
The challenge with cannabis impairment testing has always been that THC doesn’t work like alcohol. The amount of THC in your body is not directly correlated with impairment — THC and its metabolites can stay in your system for an extended period, making it impossible to tell from a blood test whether someone is currently impaired or just consumed cannabis days ago.
Enter Gaize.
The Problem
The Gaize Solution
THC levels in blood don’t indicate current impairment
Eye movement tests detect real time impairment regardless of when cannabis was consumed
Human drug recognition officers are subjective — 60-85% accuracy
Automated VR headset testing removes human error
Traditional tests can’t distinguish past use from current impairment
Pupillary reflex and ocular motion analysis detects active impairment only
No portable rapid testing solution existed
Gaize is rapid, portable and automated
Officers can be wrong
Gaize boasts 98% accuracy
Gaize runs the same eye tests that police officers use — high precision ocular motion and pupillary reflex analysis — through a VR headset using Tobii eye tracking technology. It measures subtle changes in eye movement that indicate impairment with 98% accuracy.
Your eyes tell on you every time. Apparently even when your glasses are recording things they shouldn’t be.
Think Before You Wear It
Here’s the bottom line.
Technology is going to keep advancing faster than our ability to think through all the consequences. That’s not going to change. But the gap between what developers build and what consumers actually do with it in the real world is a gap that’s causing real problems — privacy violations, lawsuits, $25,000 repair bills and a lot of footage on Meta’s servers that nobody consented to share.
Think before you buy. Read the terms and conditions. Ask what happens when the battery dies. And for the love of everything — if you’re going to wear a camera on your face, think about where that camera is pointing.
If you’re recording with your face you’d think — you’d think about that.
Those are my thoughts off the stem. 🍃
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🎙 Listen to the Full Episode
Give A Big F**k You to Privacy with Meta Glasses is out now on Spotify and YouTube.
We go deeper on the Meta privacy lawsuit, the Tesla battery disaster, Gaize impairment technology and the full Dude For Real breakdown of what Meta workers have actually seen through users smart glasses.
New episodes drop every Friday at 4:20PM. Subscribe so the sesh comes straight to you — we’re pushing to 1,000 followers on Spotify and every follow counts.
Looksmaxxing and incel culture have produced some truly unhinged ideas over the years — but hitting yourself in the face with a hammer to get dates might be the one that finally broke me. There are grown men doing this. On purpose. With an actual hammer. And they have hundreds of thousands of followers cheering them on.
I’ll let that sink in for a second.
Welcome to the world of looksmaxxing — the incel community’s full-send obsession with optimizing your physical appearance at all costs. And I mean ALL costs. We’re talking steroids at 14, crystal meth to hollow your cheeks, and a daily hammer session to your jaw because apparently that’s a thing people do now.
I’m Justin Barone. I’m 44 years old, I’m 260 lbs, and I used to be fit back in my 30s when I was about 185. Somewhere between Doritos and laziness I became what these kids would probably classify as some kind of ogre. But you know what? I still figured out that personality is the move. These kids apparently haven’t gotten that memo yet.
Let’s get into it.
What Is Looksmaxxing and Incel Culture?
Looksmaxxing is the practice of maximizing your physical attractiveness — and it started in incel culture. Incel, if you don’t know, stands for involuntarily celibate. These are dudes who can’t get a date and have decided that the reason is entirely their bone structure.
Looksmaxxing and incel culture are more connected than most people realize — the whole movement was born on incel message boards before it jumped to TikTok.
The movement got a massive boost from a 19-year-old content creator named Clavicular — and yes, that’s his actual name, or at least his online name. Braden. His name is Braden. I don’t know what we expected.
At 14 years old this kid started taking testosterone, using steroids, and by his own admission on camera — meth. Why meth? Because he thought it was basically just street Adderall. One derivative away, he says. He also took a hammer to his face every single day.
Not to bits and pieces. Just until it got red and puffy. Because he believed it would create micro fractures in his jaw that would heal into a sharper, more square jawline.
You know what else gives you a sharper jawline? Puberty. Which he was going through at the time. But he couldn’t wait.
This guy is now 19, has hundreds of thousands of followers, and allegedly earns over $100,000 a month teaching other young men how to do what he did. And somehow we as a society have decided this is acceptable.
I take partial blame. Not personally. But as a generation? Yeah. We dropped the ball.
Where Did We Go Wrong?
The looksmaxxing community and incel culture didn’t create these insecurities in young men — but it weaponized them.
When I was a teenager and I wasn’t getting invited to parties — and I wasn’t always, I was a chunky kid with a belly from eating too many Doritos — I didn’t smash my face with a hammer. Instead I went outside. Mingling with actual humans and correcting my personality in real time through real interaction was how you figured things out back then.
These kids don’t have to do that anymore. They can find a corner of the internet that validates whatever insane thing they’re thinking, and that corner will attach itself to them and grow. Before you know it you’ve got a 19-year-old doing meth for his skincare routine and an audience of young boys watching him do it.
I asked my kids about looksmaxxing. You know what they did? They rolled their eyes. Both of them. “Can you believe it, dad?” No. No I cannot. But I went deep on this one so you don’t have to.
The Weed Facts: Does Cannabis Actually Affect How You Look?
Since we’re talking about looks this week I figured we’d pivot to something actually relevant — what does weed do to your skin? Because if you’re going to take a hammer to your face you should probably know what your edibles are doing to your collagen first.
This segment’s facts come from Cosmopolitan, who spoke with dermatologist Dr. Karan Lal, MD. Here’s the breakdown:
Factor
What Cannabis Does
The Verdict
Testosterone & Acne
THC may slightly increase testosterone, which spikes oil production
Could cause breakouts in some people
Appetite & Glycemic Index
Munchies + carbs = higher glycemic index
Associated with increased acne
Anti-inflammatory Effects
THC is anti-inflammatory, may calm inflammatory pimples
Could actually help some skin issues
Stress & Cortisol
Weed can reduce anxiety, lowering cortisol
Less stress = less oil = less acne
Skin Picking
THC may reduce itch and irritation
Could help chronic skin pickers relax
Edibles & Sugar
Gummies contain sugar that causes glycation — stiffening collagen and elastin
Could contribute to sagging and wrinkles
Smoking & Skin
Smoke sits on your skin and can irritate it
External irritant regardless of strain
Dirty Equipment
Unwashed pipes and bongs spread bacteria
Can cause acne around your mouth
The honest takeaway? It’s not really the weed. It’s what you put in your body and how you take care of yourself. Clean your bong. Watch the sugar in your gummies. Manage your stress. That’s basically your cannabis skincare routine right there.
Oh, and I’ll say this — I’ve been smoking pretty regularly for years and I still get the occasional pimple along my hat line. I think it has more to do with cleaning your skin than anything else.
Dude For Real: The Looksmaxxing Terminology You Need to Know
This stuff comes straight from the looksmaxxing community and I genuinely couldn’t believe some of these are real terms that people use with a straight face. This week’s Dude For Real comes from Buzzfeed’s looksmaxxing explainer and dude — for real.
Term
What It Means
Mogging
Displaying physical superiority over someone nearby
Softmaxxing
Improving looks through skincare, diet, exercise, grooming
Hardmaxxing
Extreme methods — surgery, steroids, bone smashing
Bone Smashing
Hitting your face with a hammer to create micro fractures that reshape your jaw
Ascending
Significantly improving your physical attractiveness. The looksmaxxing version of a glow up
Mewing
Resting your tongue on the roof of your mouth to sharpen your jawline
The PSL Scale
A scoring system for facial attractiveness based on harmony, symmetry, and sexual dimorphism
Chad / Stacey
Highly attractive man or woman. Top of the PSL scale
Subhuman
The lowest PSL score. The most unattractive. Literally called subhuman
Sub 5
Anyone ranking below a 5 on the PSL scale — considered unattractive
Lookism
The belief that your value and place in the world are determined entirely by your looks
Gesture Maxxing
Using humor to attract women rather than appearance
Femoid / Foid
A dehumanizing term for women. Short for female humanoid
Hunter Eyes
Almond-shaped, deep-set eyes with low brows — considered highly attractive
The system literally calls people subhuman based on their face. That’s not self improvement. That’s a cult with better lighting.
Looksmaxxing, Incel Culture and Why Personality Is the Real Move
If you’re not getting invited to parties — and I say this with love — it’s probably not your jawline. It’s probably your personality.
You can change everything about how you look. Get the surgery. Smash your face. Chew the gum. But when the mask comes off — and it always does — if your personality is garbage, people are going to figure that out. As a result they’re going to walk away every single time.
I’ve seen the ugliest people with the most friends because most people genuinely do not care what you look like. Instead they care whether you’re fun to be around, whether you make them laugh, and whether you’re loyal. That’s it. That’s the whole list.
Be that person. That’s the move. Not the hammer.
That’s the real problem with looksmaxxing and incel culture — it sells young men the idea that their value is their face, and there’s nothing they can do about it except suffer or smash.
As for Clavicular — I watched a bunch of his content researching this episode. He’s shallow, uninformed, and has a massive platform teaching young boys that their value is their face. That’s a failure. And it’s on us as the older generation to push back on that wherever we can.
If your kid is watching this stuff, talk to them. Ask questions and be present. Because we can’t leave them to figure this out on the internet.
Use a hammer if you want.
Those are my thoughts off the stem.
🎙 Listen to the Full Episode
This week’s full seshisode — Looks Maxxing: Guys Who Smash Their Face With Hammers to Get Dates — is live now.
We go deeper on Clavicular, the full Dude For Real terminology breakdown, and the complete weed facts science on cannabis and your skin.
New episodes drop every Friday at 4:20PM. So subscribe now so the sesh comes straight to you — because we’re pushing to 1,000 followers on Spotify and every single follow counts.
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