day two of straight pumping

The Dark Knight has returned! Aaron is back and ready to talk sports ball. Collin survived New Orleans and has some top travel tips for getting the most out of I-55 and the French Quarter. Brandon is more cultured than previously, and has eaten some amazing food. 

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

new orleans, good, dude, coaching, big, drive, eat, guess, day, wrestling, tournament, thought, field, tucson, walking, move, part, put, minutes, canal street

SPEAKERS

Collin, Aaron, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh brother,

00:07

a podcast of three brothers.

Collin  00:08

Trying to figure it all out. Because your hosts Brandon, Colin, and Aaron. On this week show. Day two of straight pumping a hoist Hawaii Hello. Oh my goodness Who's that? Have we been hacked? I think

00:37

beautiful voice in such a long time. I did not realize that actually longest then I'll suddenly looking at my record and like, oh, the last time you've been on here was here. I'm like, Oh

Brandon  00:52

no, it's all good. Coaching boy. Very hectic lifestyle. Yeah,

00:57

the life of a coach.

Brandon  00:58

What do you what do you do and also the life of a dude, it's about to be married. So that's also all the hectic sprinkles right on top of there.

Aaron  01:07

Yeah, the I guess like kind of like before football season started. I was coaching softball. And then they had me announce all the football games. Like all the home football games was like, number 25. But we're on the tackle.

Brandon  01:25

Did you feel like Coach Madison? Yeah. No, I

Aaron  01:28

was way more energetic. Okay. Things like that. Because when I interviewed my school like a long time ago, that athletic director is like a really nice boy. Like Thank you. Think like, Oh, he's like, when you get closer to football season? Oh, a whole racket like, okay, so I was coaching Fastpitch softball, and then announcing the home football game, which up and down season kind of crazy. And then that football season ended. Quite not abruptly but kind of abruptly and then they're like, Hey, you want to do basketball? I'm like, hard No, I don't do basketball. It I just it does not bode well with me. And there I I will get you. And so doing do some offseason coaching stuff, here and there. And then like, hey, we have a county tournament. We like to do we'll pay you for it all along, like, well, you know, nobody will be gone to do it herself. Yeah, no extra money. Sure. I'll do it. And well, it turns out it was the Soviet nation county tournament. And all of the high representatives of the Muskogee nation tribe were there. And I was announcing all these games just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, having a blast. And it was just, you know, you do the starting lineup. Welcome people. And then I kind of just stayed and we'll be like, number five, pull the ball from downtown. And then just kind of go back and forth and team and announced to do stuff like that. And then the organization's like, Hey, we're gonna call you in the future like, oh, what uh, what on earth did I do? I didn't I didn't expect actually do anything else. So then then transition into baseball season. Ah, then they coaches that were coaching softball were a nice way to put it dismissive duties. And they go to me and the other systems, who was one of the other because we told that at one point, somebody had four coaches for baseball. And they're like, Hey, we needed we were doing a coaching change. Would you be interested in taking over softball for slow pitch and in Oklahoma get fascinated, kind of during the same time as football season and you have slow pitch at the same time as baseball season, which Oklahoma and Missouri are the only two states that do that. That's a little weird. There I did yeah, both that takes place from from baseball, but yeah, sure, we'll do it. And then it's just like so ever since work on the field, because you know, it's essentially winter time and it's always raining. Constantly, there's so much rain. And so we, we had we had rain we had take care of stuff. And my bachelor party recently what I was down in Oklahoma City, we just want to hang out and play games and watch the baseball game. And then it's just an axe to grind. And the last few days, we had, thankfully, not today, but Monday, Tuesday, we had six games.

Brandon  05:17

And I'm sorry,

Aaron  05:19

did you say six? Yes. What the weather's gonna get bad, let's just play a threeway with our school or play a different school, that school play different school, and then we'll play that third school. And it is a little round robin thing that people like, oh, we can, you know, do a time limit on these things. And then the junior high got our first win. So I get my first land under our belt. And then high school is still win list. I'm trying to run like a Twitter page for our softball team. Which I'm like, oh, high school kids. Definitely don't use Twitter anymore. But college coaches love Twitter for some reason. And so I'm kind of trying to balance that and get people in and on. So that's been that's been kind of is a summary of what life has been like, down here for the past for the past while so I get average time of getting home at like, eight o'clock sometimes. Yesterday, I didn't get home till about 10 3011. Monday, I didn't get home till about 1130. And yeah, the week before that was even worse. And we we had a tournament all day. We played now some burdens higher than the nine to drive Oklahoma City. And then work on the field for 1000 hours and grossly covered Ignite. And yeah, there's been a been life life out here for us. Oh, far. So hello. Yeah. Well, that's very exhausting sounding like. So

Collin  07:19

you are so where do you stand now in the season?

Aaron  07:23

The workload that season right now?

Brandon  07:26

Like, did it just start? Or like, is it in the middle? Or like, what?

Aaron  07:29

So it's kind of at the beginning, okay. We've, how many games were one in five, maybe. But there's also been a lot of games that have been canceled, because of like, the weather, or one of the other schools. So it's just, like, went into labor this morning. And they're like, Oh, we wouldn't play anyway. And, like, our fair enough, go to your thing. So, we, we haven't even played a lot of games. You know, everyone in our area is kind of in the same situation or same boat where, like, you take care of the field, you drag it, you get it dry, then oh, here

Brandon  08:15

this has a baby, you know, just how can

Aaron  08:17

five inches of rain, go for it? And it's like, oh, cool. Okay. So if we're, you know, all this kind of down here, on the same thing, where we're trying to get turf school has been, you know, saying that we're still get turf for the last like, while. And by Hey, I had to wear my muck boots every single day to school. Work on the field in the morning, so like to know when we're getting tough. But other than that, any it's, it's usually just, you know, one thing after another, and then we have to wait, we're relatively early in the season so far, of just people getting game started. Baseball season also starts at the same time. So they're also in the same boat of, well, we don't know if we're going to be able to like game because you know, whoever canceled or whatnot. So there's a lot of people who are just doing the kind of things we are right now. That sounds

Brandon  09:30

fun. It's fair. It's also been raining a lot more down there than it has up here. So that is great. upsetting to hear. I'm sorry about that. Saudi softball doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

Collin  09:39

Ooh, sounds a game that's true. Did a whole

Brandon  09:41

different rule set for that? You got it

Aaron  09:45

is awful by like we had all these, you know, if you look at our our field, it's like, you know, a river system, which I told the coach, we didn't have the time class and not here so they can learn about how You know, erosion works and how rivers move, because we will cut, you know, a river could drain the field. And then just by, you know, after so much water moves the dirt around, like, Oh, check this out. And we cry more because of it. But the point is, is that it's nice to see like, Oh, look at this, this river and look how it naturally flows are kind of drain it and hand pump. No electric pump, and pump, like 1000s of gallons of water off our field. Yeah, now if, after our tournament, we got home at like, or back to the field about one ish. And then from about one o'clock to five, we spent and counting and breaking and squeegeeing eg in the field, did to get the water off, played one game that we played two games. And then the next day yesterday, it just so much water on the field, and rain so we're not playing any more games this week. Because we have what is it? What are the calls? Embrace next week. And so we're just gonna let the field we're gonna let it do things right naturally. And then we'll hopefully talk about again. Like you

Brandon  11:30

always have a hairdryer out there for as long as good as doing you. Right? Just like, yeah,

Collin  11:34

yeah. Have you thought about setting up those fans that they put on in flooded buildings, just schedule that

Aaron  11:38

across? Well, that's not a bad idea. But everything else around it is flooded and knowing our luck company will get fired.

Brandon  11:46

I'm on inflatable rafts and just like zoom around on them.

Collin  11:52

I think we call that a hovercraft brand. Yeah,

Brandon  11:54

call me hovercraft.

Collin  11:55

I think what we're learning is to break out an old copy of boys Life magazine.

Brandon  12:00

And just oh my gosh, boys like holy cow. What in the world? Ah, wow.

Collin  12:05

See if you can find the hovercraft made from a vacuum cleaner in the back of that

Brandon  12:09

and imprint memory right there. Boy, he's

Aaron  12:13

gonna make a junkyard award for reference. But yes, also acceptable. Also called dad, it'll come about it like, oh, well, you know, I have

Brandon  12:25

one of the shots. Just get the shot by Billboard.

Aaron  12:27

Billboard. Parks don't you're like, oh, yeah, no, Dad. I did not know that. You had a billboard tarp? Yes, I did. I'm not surprised. I didn't know that. But yeah, I got a few of them. I'll see if I can get down there and see if we can get it work, then, you know, maybe you'll get maybe cover the field a little bit. Like think about it. Why?

Collin  12:56

It's he bought it. It's like has the Spider Man billboard, I think to advertise that they once they take these down and they move on away from the ad campaign. They just sell these tarps that they use to cover billboards. There. It's a full size of Billboard Top. It's massive.

Brandon  13:13

It's amazing. Knowing knowing that it was Yo, this thing is mega cheap. And I could possibly find a use for this camera by that. Why not?

Aaron  13:27

Definitely it is like it has like the Spider Man logo on it. Yeah. over it.

Brandon  13:35

I think yeah, it's like, yeah,

Collin  13:36

this giant you imagine how big a billboard is. And then it's a tarp that they stretch over that to make that work. And then once that campaign is done, where it's like coming this fall or whatever, they throw it away. They don't reuse those.

Aaron  13:53

Oh, yeah, I think it's Spider Man. Yeah,

Brandon  13:56

it's some thing like something, man. Oh, who knows?

Aaron  14:00

Of course that has that. Yes. All right. Yeah.

Brandon  14:03

This is news to me as well. But

Collin  14:06

yeah, surprise. He's using it to currently cover a dirt pile. If you would be surprised by

Aaron  14:12

that at all. Okay, got it. It's a neuter pile. A new Oh, okay.

Collin  14:19

There's always a new dirt pile because there's more places for dirt to go. This is Missouri. I forgot. We got to get where we have no dirt only rocks and clay.

Brandon  14:27

That's true. We only have rocks. So you got the dirt keeps washing away much like a softball field. It just turns out erosion so you guys

Aaron  14:39

have pictures of it? No, no. Well, we're heavy. Take your volunteer in about five seconds. Our super secret texture. Indeed. And this is this is after three hours of pumping it for the thing.

Brandon  14:59

Like a build farm All right, so imagining like one of those ones that looks like a seesaw, your sounds. That's how I'm thinking singing sea shanties better. It was like season better than sea shanties. No. So

Aaron  15:11

it's a PVC pipe, essentially with a little plunger thingy that we call it have a hole.

Brandon  15:17

I know what you're talking about. Yeah.

Aaron  15:21

The baseball players have been using the other pump which are also of crappy quality. And this is this looks like a horse field. Yeah, let me find a better one.

Brandon  15:34

This looks like a barn.

Aaron  15:36

A barn yard.

Brandon  15:36

Some somebody did not build this field correctly. If the water is pulling up like this, yeah.

Collin  15:43

Are you having boat races on here? Like, you know, like, instead of the pinewood derby boat races or cargo, gutter races, gutter races, that's what you have going on here.

Aaron  15:55

Well thought out there, and you have muted myself. And it's true. Oh, well, anyway, listeners.

Brandon  16:07

Imagine a horse barn in a western movie. In the rain. That's what this field looks like, Oh, yes, you're back. You just need a

Aaron  16:18

video of the pump? Because Brandon's not cool. does not get the fantastic. But yeah, I've made the joke with a few of the maintenance people because every time they drive by other gators, there are Oh, how's the swimming pool coming? Like, oh, we're actually you know, getting her softball and having a fishing club come in. We're doing the weights right here. So

Collin  16:45

to put this in perspective, Brandon, what they have done as part of this engineering scheme is if you will note the the river streams that they have carved into that. Those drain into what appears to be a massive pit. On one end. Yeah. And then they stick the hose down in that pit. So

Brandon  17:06

the water yeah, this is what I'm Yeah. topping out. Yeah. And then they pop out from that. Yeah. Out into the a ditch or something. Hopefully. Yes. Yeah. Back onto the field. Just

Aaron  17:19

a little thing that goes but yeah, that was day two, a straight company. And I think the caption on it is when you're brewing coffee, because it's just mud. Oh, yeah, I bet bring into this hole. It's essentially a French drain that we originally had. But doesn't work, obviously. And so we've made a new Frank brain. And then we're just nervous and pumping, getting getting it situated, man. Wow. Yeah, yeah, there's a whole bunch of those that I've unfortunately saved. And because our our admin, our our superintendent who is really supportive, and a lot of things we do, he likes to be updated on on things. And this is coming, like, yep, yes, it is. And we send them things every once in a while of like, I think we posted on one of the tools, social media and on Facebook, it's like, we'd like to thank every person who asked the bond to get curved, every way to that will go into good hands, and we sent them a video about something like the water app. So people be like, Hey, look at all the ice. By AI, we know this, this field. So since we have a large pool of potential coaches, listening to us, you basically need to be taking care of your field year freaking round. You should have been planting, right? Like the moment, you know, before winter hits, like at the tail end the fact that season, but the previous coaches who are no longer employed, due to I don't wanna say scandalous region reasons but interesting reasons. Yeah, you have to take care of your field, like all the time, and they haven't, they didn't. They didn't touch the field at all. And so then we're like, Oh, hey, we're ready for the field. And then it's not playing condition is worse. And we have to like scramble to play and be at work. So thankfully, the school went out of their way and bought us with a term condition or a purpose. And that stuff has, you know, we just spread it in there and drag it. We're getting some crushed bricks to kind of mix in there to solidify these slides. And it's a it's a cornucopia of different minerals that We're just shoved into a softball field. And what we had to not have, we didn't have practice one day, just use child labor to pick these bags up and pour it all over the field.

Brandon  20:16

You mean you mean volunteer services? Services?

Collin  20:21

Character building opportunities?

20:23

Yeah.

Aaron  20:24

Like hey, what do you do for practice today? Like we're going outside? Don't worry, you're not you. And they were really confused. And then we show up and like, alright, rabbit travel. It's, it's

Brandon  20:37

a man. It's like, Just tell him right? We're training but not but more like Rocky for training? Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna chop some wood. We're gonna shovel. gonna carry some bags. Yeah. Put on some montage music gets down.

Aaron  20:57

It was not pretty. And so thankfully, it's, it's been a we thankfully canceled games today. Because I'm like, We are not playing like there's no way. And the other coaches like, hey, no, we understand we we can't play here either. And every coach that we try to call this like, Hey, we're a swamp. Don't bother comment. Right. You know, Fair enough. Fair enough. We can we totally understand. So it's, I mean, it's not just thankfully, it's not just us problem. It's ERBE problem.

Brandon  21:31

And it's true in this

Aaron  21:32

area. Other than that mean, one is wedding planning going good. literally less than fish until that, whatever day that is. Yes, yeah. So that happened. But now it's gone. Good. Tired. Exhausting. We have a cat now, by the way. Ah, yes. Yeah, constantly. Yeah, ended up working but but it's adorable. It's cute. But that's about as far as it goes. And I was in that No, life is I can go down here. Right? Soggy, but good. Dog. Shoo, shoo. You can sell those for softball fundraising. Oh, yeah. That is that is one big thing about like, the administrative part of coaching that's like, oh, I also have to do this.

22:45

Yeah, is like a you have to submit fundraiser ideas. Oh, you have to plan fundraisers? That's like, Oh, the other people do fundraising. How much money do we have? They're like, nope. Like, oh, yeah, nothing.

Brandon  22:59

17. So that's what we found in the locker room.

Aaron  23:07

Oh, thankfully, by they, they have a little bit a little bit more than that. Because like, I were gonna do this, like, JK. Yep. Andre, like, Oh, okay. But the school has been extremely supportive. And I've had to definitely put on my puppy dog eyes. A lot of the things they asked me like, hey, what do you need? Like, well, I need new textures, equipment, and I need new textures met. Like, I'll watch what you need. And I had a very, like, you know, not exhaustive list. And then I had a very, like, good quality, but extensive list. And I'd be like, well, you know, I mean, I guess we can get this one but I just want to be like we will cooler because like it would last longer. Like it's like a little expensive. But like, I mean, if you wanted to have the right okay, like,

Brandon  24:00

get them with the it'll last longer. Right? So you don't have to buy it again. In two years,

Aaron  24:07

right. And I call our color school rep. Like he's calling for change his mind. To number right here. So that's, that's the big that's the big thing and why when coaches call us and it basically how it went down was athletic director came in and let the parents and they're like, Hey, this is bad. Fix it. Like oh, okay. Nice. So ever since I was over a month ago, maybe less. But like when have parents and the superintendent and like other coaches say you guys have done a fantastic job. These kids love you. Parents love you guys keep it up. Because at one point time, we had four In the left on a theme, or point, what happens is problematic. And so they're like, get a team, play a season, and then go into facet, which we're in. So we're like, Ah, okay. So, no, first of all, don't worry, but and then, you know, that's just basically what we're doing and people are like, Hey, you guys have been doing a fantastic job. Please keep doing it. Kind of thing. And just, you know, it's, it's a lot, a lot smoother now. We're, both the other coach and myself are having a blast. It's and I work very well together. We have a lot of fun. He kinda reminds me of dad sometimes it'd be like looking at a cell and like, with his glasses down because like, I can't read this, and I can be his phone. Like old people in Hill hill the like, Dad mannerisms? Like look, look what I don't like. Why did you build this? It is way easier now. There's less headaches. No. Oh, you're good.

Brandon  26:19

Excellent. Glad to hear

26:25

good news. What about the midterm pick it up?

Brandon  26:33

All kinds of exciting things. Really? Sure. It's always exciting. We talked about

Collin  26:42

I survived. We survived our trip to New Orleans. That's good.

Brandon  26:47

You survived highway 55. Did you do your homework and find at least one interesting thing. Okay, in Mississippi,

Collin  26:54

so well. Okay, so a couple things here. Real quick. No,

Brandon  26:57

that's a no, no, he did not. No, I

Collin  26:59

gotta, I gotta, I gotta back up here. This is. Okay. So our, the way we went is we took because we live in between in the city in St. Louis. We drove to i 72. i 70. Over to St. Louis and connected with i 55. In St. Louis. Which means yes, yes, we did, in fact, drive nine and a half hours straight south, and stayed on interest. That was a thing. That was a decision that we made. And we did have a moment when we were in St. Louis, after having driven two and a half hours to get there and went, we should have flown like this was sitting in the restaurant on our phones looking up going if we bought a ticket today, what would that cost? Obviously, we decided to not do that and just drove south up. So my observations of i 55. span from St. Louis, down to where I 55 ends in New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf of Mexico.

Aaron  28:06

Now, I will say this. Most of my interesting things are not in

Collin  28:15

Mississippi

Brandon  28:16

there before Mississippi if you weren't there, yeah, I'm cheating.

Collin  28:20

Here are interesting things that I observed on my way. The most interesting thing to two interesting things. One, one was in Missouri, and it was kind of around like Boot Hill is we're in Boot Hill, Missouri right now, and just about getting out so it's kind of like anyway, if I had seen these one other place in my life, young way, say this, you will I'm sure you will all remember this.

28:44

Instead of placing

Collin  28:47

billboards on the side of the road, we don't place those there. No, we build a plinth. And we back a giant tractor trailer on to it and put some trucks on Yeah. And then we put the billboards on the side of the tractor trailer

Brandon  29:05

with probably your recycled billboard material. Just turn over and paint on the back. Yes.

Collin  29:10

Some some were painted directly onto the side of the trailer. Just big words. So this these are quite fascinating. And I love these. I love these so much. They're just like, really do ingenious. Repurposing, right. Read through is like recycling, recycle lights, what recycle reuse. The other very interesting part about this part of Missouri is obviously new Madryn. This is very fun to write. I really wanted to stop and go to see some of the things they have down there and just, you know, that's very interesting part about that. Yeah, then, then we did a thing. Okay. Oh, okay. So, so, imagine this. Imagine, we're driving and our goal is to get to Jackson. Mississippi, just like Johnny Cash, nine and a half hours away. We don't we don't leave that morning until like

30:08

8am because we

Collin  30:12

stopped for lunch. And then we have to stop like one or two other times for bathroom breaks and gas, snacks and snack. We ended up being on the road for 12 hours. Pull into Jackson until eight at night, which means yes, yes, folks, we were. We drove from Memphis to Jackson completely in the dark, just straight up. Oh, lights. I thought at first, this will make it better. The answer is no. Worse somehow, even worse, somehow. Because also remember, I am not a local I don't drive this road very often. So not only

Aaron  30:49

am I loathing this, but also

Collin  30:53

everybody drives us at 93 miles an hour. It's nonstop, nonstop. Just I'm going 84 And just getting blown out

Brandon  31:03

of the water just blown out by cars. Everyone's trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. Indeed,

Collin  31:09

indeed, the scariest point in time we are driving again, it is now 637 o'clock at night. We go down to one lane and it's going to construction zone. I look in my rearview mirror, I see a car just flying up on my butt. Okay, and it's riding Megan can attest we had many cars who just love the rear end of a GX 460. They just want to see intricate detail of the bumper the door handle the swoop of the eye to admire it but from this car, it comes blitzing up sitting right on our bumper, then guess what they do? Anyone guess? Guess?

Brandon  31:50

Do they try to pass you on the shoulder.

Aaron  31:54

And you have guessed that a plaque their life and Honk if you like over and over again.

Collin  32:00

Even more terrifying. They turned off their lights it's just straight up, lights off

Brandon  32:10

a plan.

32:11

The car

Collin  32:12

disappeared. I don't dare like, you know, stop. Because I don't know like slow down because I don't want to hit me. Also. Now Megan and I are freaking out being like, what is what is this? Do we die on i 55 in between Memphis and Jackson because this is the sign and they're gonna you know, because there's nobody in front of us. But there's a car that was behind me that has no disappeared because they turn and this and I'm in a construction zone. So this was mild panic set in and I by my mild I mean, quite extensive that set in during this time. And eventually, like two miles later, they just turned the lights back on. And they're like way behind me at this point. And I don't I don't know what was going on. But this was this was not fun. That was really that was that was less fun. We pulled to Jackson fun fact about Jackson is lost 25% of its population over the last 30 years. So a lot of fun stuff going on. Oh,

Brandon  33:12

wow. What a fun back.

Collin  33:17

Then the rest of the drive from South Jackson to New Orleans. less fun again. This is where it gets real bad.

33:26

Ah, the

33:28

creepy no lights guy. Yeah. Well, that was just boring. Or fun. And, and earlier we had commented, I think we haven't had a conversation about how they're hiding rice behind the lines. Yes. Additionally, what they're also doing is they're hiding the tree farms. Right. So we have whole slows slews of clear cut forests that then regrow and spout plants for and trees for timber. Okay. So rice and timber are the two big agricultural processes through this part of the country. Those are not

Brandon  34:02

things that I would think would be planted near each other because one needs just a you know, enormous ton of water and the other one is a tree. So that is interesting that they're they coexist so close together.

Collin  34:15

It is very interesting variant. But indeed you can look through and see where they've clear cut. And then there'll be another one will be a little thin veneer of trees and right behind them their trees and they're all the same. The height, yeah, all of them. And it rose. Just kind of fun. In Jackson, there is a giant obelisk, which I was like, Whoa, I wonder how old that thing is? Oh, no, it's just dedicating to like a little mall thing. And so 12 years old. Yeah. And then we did then we hit the really, really, again, this fun part of the geography of this area of when you get closer to New Orleans. You reach the part where the ground just disappears, right? Yeah, you got on stilts, right? Yeah. Still on an elevated highway for me. miles and miles and miles.

Brandon  35:02

You don't run over the crocodiles, right alligators, to. To to, to, to draw. Yeah, forgot about the noise though.

Collin  35:10

75 miles an hour just to. But it's very pretty. This is a very pretty part of the driver. This the best part of the drive I 55 Right before it is beautiful. It's amazing. annoying to be driving on a bike, a lot of fun. So we parked our car, as we're pulling into the parking lot that I paid for and reserved. We see grown man relieving himself in between two vehicles. And I went, welcome. Welcome to yeah, yes,

35:43

perfect.

Collin  35:45

We the conference was in the business district, the Conference Center was I had not wanted to pay conference hotel prices. So I optimized for walking distance from hotel from Conference Center, which is fine, right? That's how to optimize for walking distance. The problem is, is that the business district is divided by the Canal Street, which after Canal Street is French Quarter. Yes. I had thought that our little Airbnb was more business district than French Quarter.

Aaron  36:16

Oh, I was wrong about oh, as making code fast.

Collin  36:22

That's just so you optimize

Brandon  36:25

for walking distance to bas though? That's important.

Collin  36:30

No, I was. I was four minutes from my conference hotel from the Conference Center, which is great. I was 15 minutes from then. Yes. Oh, that's That's right. But no, no, no. Plus, the little Airbnb that we had. We're on the fifth floor. Five stories away from everything. I genuinely thought all of the windows were open that was I thought the windows their original to the building their single pane. I don't think there's an ounce of insulation of deer anywhere like there was no barrier between the setting the loud blaring music, the sirens, horns, the screaming, the street noise and our bedroom. It was just an unadulterated, straight, raw sound coming through the walls of the city. Like learn shuts down at 4am Right? That's when little cop cars come through and go whoop up and they send everybody home. And then you're like ah silence

Brandon  37:36

I have some time for people to get awakened go to Oh,

Collin  37:39

no, no, no, no. conference starts at 830 I've got some time It's four o'clock. I can get a couple hours sleep will be fine. No, no what happens? Garbage trucks. They're banging their clanging, they're moving things around. And then you're like, Okay, finally No. Street Sweepers, street sweepers come through and they're bang and beep and honking yelling people move things around. And then yes, sweet wonderful bliss between the hours of 530 and 730 your life okay, because then then people start to wake up going about their day.

Brandon  38:13

And this turns out those conference center hotel prices is actually just for double pane glass and soundproofing right that's really what it

Collin  38:22

Bly and blinds we just had no no blinds or curtains. We just had little slat blinds which basically said it was daylight in our room all night long. Like it was

Aaron  38:34

people use people wait, just blinds

Brandon  38:37

with no corrosion. Yes. What sort of Barbary is this? What like barbarianism was happening here like what

Collin  38:43

I know best part about this thing was it was literally we come down our stairs come down that come down the elevator, we'd walk from our door straight across the one way street and into breakfast. There was a little breakfast place right across the way best that was best part about this. We We then went out on Canal Street. There's a restaurant over there. And we got to watch

39:10

this another part of the culture is when you do a weddings. You do of course everything in New Orleans. You have a parade. So parade Yes, we got to watch a wedding procession on Canal Street, the whole thing shut down just so that they could do. Wow. And then we also got to watch again. I have seen Tiktok videos of this, but the quad bikes doing the wheelies and doing all the tricks and stuff. They they reside on Canal Street and they just I guess fill up on one end and then drive until they run out of gas and then fill up again so

Brandon  39:46

wide right? You know, so

Collin  39:49

they just happen like and they're doing this I thought okay, you know, okay cop cars, they'll move away. No, like they're going around cop cars like right next to cop cars in front of them. Like they're just the cop was just like okay, if that's all you're gonna do I guess do a four do a wheelie on a quad bike on a on a sidewalk or near sidewalk I guess that's fine. Well that that's whatever. And so each each night it was like okay, well we're done eating we're gonna go back and try and get some sleep so the next night we basically just turned my phone's sleep noises on as loud as it could and held it nearly close to our face so that I can sleep in it. It's one word

Brandon  40:34

to like hang stuff over the window like a blanket.

Collin  40:37

Big windows. They're big. It's like a big like, has it kind of industrial window thing like that. Okay, yeah, I got you. It's not small and quaint. And it's not you know, I'm sitting here going like I know what we paid for this little Airbnb there are breast There are hotels over here that are like, really ritzy. I'd be super annoyed and they're like in historic buildings to like, I guess maybe you pay for curtains at that point, like mature

Aaron  41:03

they might like upgraded the windows I guess.

Collin  41:06

Or maybe provided a noise machine or something. Maybe they

Aaron  41:10

just like spray foam them

Collin  41:14

Look at that. Probably is only did and then put more like soundboard over everything that painted this is probably what they needed to do. But yeah, it was it was good. Our talk went really well. And just Yeah, New Orleans, not not really our seat at least for sleeping. And that will. That's one of those things if you're walking around, it's like I'm trying to like be interested in history and history and stuff. And then it's like, oh, here's like a pile of vomit. I have to step over. Yeah. If you were interested in remembering what the world was like in the 70s and 80s, where a good chunk of people smoked. Just go go walk around New Orleans. Oh, you're like, This is what cigarette smoke smell like. And that's, that's,

42:05

that's what the world was like.

Collin  42:08

45 years ago,

Brandon  42:10

an airplane in 1967.

Collin  42:11

I guess. This is amazing. There's so many memories of just public cigarette smoke, like you just it's just like, Oh, right. That's something I take for granted. Like I don't have to like as I'm walking past places, because there's not cigarette smoke everywhere. Just so many people just chain smoking on corners, or whatever. It's fine. Guess just move on to a thing. Oh,

Aaron  42:35

my goodness. It was

Collin  42:38

that was our time in New Orleans. Folks, and then we drove home. Stayed in West Memphis is not Memphis it's west of Memphis. It's not in Tennessee. It's an Arkansas. Yeah. And that sleepy little town. Amazing night's sleep. They're just beautiful. Done. Beautifully done.

Brandon  42:59

A lot less. street sweeping. Probably. So that's good.

Collin  43:02

letlet street sweeping? No quad bikes as it turns out. Surprise. Yeah. I mean, it was to the point. Do you guys remember what's it called? On Top Gear? They did the track car. Is old Top Gear not old but not old old Top Gear but like BBC trio, where they did the track cars where Hammond had the three wheeler. Morgan made of wood. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Clarkson had like a crossbow or whatever. Yeah. Okay. I found out that they make those with speakers. And if you're wondering, yes, in fact, they are 100% treble there's no bass in these but people drive around them on the streets with them all the way turned up. All

Brandon  43:56

plan because yes, that's the leaders is that the new is that the new thing for 2023 like subwoofers are out tweeter in only two highest pitch noise. You can match it.

Collin  44:09

If you want to be on the IT Crowd. Just rip out the subwoofers and replace them with a giant cluster of serve tweeters

Brandon  44:20

are imagining instead of a box with like too big like 12 inches or whatever. It's like a box that just has like 20 of those little like orange

Collin  44:30

it's a compound insect I right that is focused out and up. Oh my gosh. And how, what I mean, you're standing there and Canal Street is not a small street. It's a four lane with a massive median because that's where the cable car trolls goes right? We were on the complete opposite side with other cars passing between us. I could not carry on a conversation with the person next to me because this person crossbow thing was just shredding itself and sending I don't know resonant frequencies throughout the area to crumble eardrums and in schools and like it was hilarious you just could not could not hear and compositions you just had to stop talking until they they laughed but here's the thing it's the drive the strip so they're going to come back in

Brandon  45:26

like five minutes. Oh hey there again

Collin  45:28

wrap up the story real quick before they come back.

45:31

Oh man that's rough.

Collin  45:35

So Adam amazing a to Fe. Oh, pretty much and then basically everything it's like oh, you want you know? alfredo pasta?

Aaron  45:52

What if it was also had like

Brandon  45:55

sugary seafood imaginable it

Collin  45:58

right like oh, here's here's shrimp. And here's crabcakes Yes, we'll just throw crabcakes into this and you're like, okay, okay, well, I think I know what I'm and then for breakfast they were you know, they're like, like, Okay, we'll get the biscuits and gravy with crab cakes. And put instead of sausage gravy. It's crabcake gravy. Oh, girls. No, no, no, it is it wasn't like that. But it's like also, obviously then you'd have to get your fried green tomatoes on the side and all of that. So it was very my favorite part of New Orleans.

Brandon  46:40

How much grits Did you eat? That's

Collin  46:41

the real question a lot. So my hidden part of New Orleans is like brunch. New Orleans is what I've discovered like that. You're sitting out on the outsides outdoor seating sun coming through the alleyways and cigarette smoke wafting through the right less less cigarette smoke while here's what we're going through. It's a lot to ask for none. But that's why we live it's less than nine o'clock New Orleans. Okay, that's fine. 9pm New Orleans very different smoke levels than 9am in New Orleans smoke level way up there. Yeah. And we then packed up and headed out made it into Memphis on that last day drove the rest of the way in. So that's, that was our events. I have nothing else in my notebook. So to answer your question, is there anything interesting? Is there any sign that says exhibit must see world's biggest world's only largest this sign on? I 55 through the SciPy. I am here to report that the answer is no. No, no,

Brandon  48:00

I kind of suspected

48:01

because mid

Brandon  48:03

Mississippi is firmly out of the Midwest sphere of influence, right?

Aaron  48:07

Yes. And so

Collin  48:09

and so? Because we're this isn't a this is a podcast of top tips. If if you wish to travel to New Orleans on I 55 to get the best experience out of this

48:21

fly.

Brandon  48:26

Fly to brunch, right? That's the that's the chip. have brunch, leave. trade off. Get

Aaron  48:32

out of MBAs, coffee crabcakes. Fleet you guys

Collin  48:38

to be fine. Like I just and then when you're down there. And we were we weren't even there during Mardi Gras. And like, this is this. This is still literally a hangover from Mardi Gras season. There's just like throngs of people there because it's a city of almost half a million people or almost 400,000 People now. It was half a million before Katrina that bumped down then.

Brandon  49:00

There's only 400,000 people there.

Aaron  49:01

Yeah, that doesn't seem Are you serious? Yeah, you're right. Yeah. No, it

Collin  49:08

is. Yeah, it's I think it's less than 4000 people. Yeah. Really? That small? Yes. Yeah. New Orleans. Back in? Yeah, I'm looking at cash. look this up. New Orleans in 2005 had fought for 450,000 Now they're at 377,000.

Aaron  49:26

How does New Orleans

Brandon  49:29

have a smaller population than Springfield, Missouri.

Collin  49:33

That No, no, no, no. 370,000

Aaron  49:38

Okay. Still, no, no.

Collin  49:41

Yeah, so Yeah, cuz Springfield has 100 and What 40,000 50,000

Brandon  49:45

Wow, that's true. But I guess if you think about surrounding area, it's like enormous. You think like Republic Nixa Ozark but Right. Exactly.

Collin  49:53

Exactly. So metropolitan area. So this doesn't include like, obviously, you know, Baton Rouge is kind of getting gets lumped into New Orleans sometimes that's either that was further away. It is further away but sometimes people because it's just coastal. Here's the thing. Yeah, New Orleans proper just has 400 or 400 or 380,000 people just say prior to Katrina it had 450,000 The thing that blew me away seriously

Brandon  50:22

is that a number just seems way too small. Like

Collin  50:25

it really does. It really is. The thing that blew me away is that Jackson, Mississippi the capital has has fewer people then for about the roughly the same size as Springfield. And yeah, it's massive. Is the show there's like so spread out right. Yeah. And eight lanes of interstate traveling through it. Because New Orleans itself the city is is weirdly shaped it? Yeah, it doesn't include like, like we drove through Matera and Gretna is further to the south. That's not New Orleans proper. So there's still these more suburbs that gathered together. It the population blows up

Aaron  51:11

pretty big. But like, you know, it's

Collin  51:16

like Jefferson Parish, I think is to the

51:18

west, as though there Yes.

Collin  51:21

And it's it's a whole different ball of wax. But like to be in there with, let's just say there's just sail that whole area of half a million, half a million and yeah, you know, like, it's a lot. It's really oppressive. And we didn't we did almost. Okay, we did almost get hustled. We were walking to Jackson Square, and some very nice looking. Monks approached us. Yes. You know, they had like the robe, the garb thing. And they had little satchels, and they fire chalk

Brandon  51:55

monks like, yeah,

Collin  51:57

yeah. And they like, we're holding up some things. And we saw them pass out bracelets to somebody else. And then we just held her hand and put the bracelets on. And then they start to pull out a pen. And a paper is like pointing to a price. And it's like, no,

Brandon  52:14

yeah, no. Can't do that. Don't take things because that means you bought it right.

Collin  52:21

And then we ran away. And it was not fun.

Brandon  52:23

And we're

Aaron  52:24

down and ran. And so yeah, wait to

Collin  52:31

Jackson Square, and did our little walk around and then we retreated back to the hotel did not go that way to get

Brandon  52:38

to not sleep

Collin  52:40

for two nights. We had someone who was there that first day, Friday, and we're like, where are you staying? And they're like, Oh, we're down the Garden District and it's like a 20 minute trolley in and I was like,

52:54

man, we're weird.

Collin  52:56

Four minutes away walk. I'm so happy we did that. Well now the next morning I was like Garden District next time. Take the trolley. Ride. Come

Brandon  53:04

on start. Start your morning with a trolley ride. How exciting would that be?

Collin  53:09

Who wouldn't like that? Ding ding Who wouldn't like trolley ride to the latest ride pass

Brandon  53:14

all the crossbow dude. And are we the boys? Right? So cruise with them

Aaron  53:19

down the road? As you know they're not up that early. Isaac. Okay, good. Wow. So, yes,

Collin  53:26

we we did survive.

Aaron  53:28

So and so it was Shelby myself over like, right after Christmas. We went down to Arizona. You Yeah. And so I thought like, you know, you're gonna go into Arizona when we're younger. So they're clearly dual the SEC very well. So it started off not very well, because I had both sides. I had booked the wrong. I didn't realize that. Phoenix was so big. Oh, man. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, so we flew into Phoenix and at first was like, oh, what's his driver? They're like, Wow. 16 hours may fly. So he's applying. So I didn't I mean, I didn't realize that Phoenix was massive. And so I bought a car rental from the and I'm gonna get some like something like the Phoenix Mesa airport or a Phoenix Sky Harbor. So a little tiny airport, get out the plane, walking the runway. And of course, we must Oklahoma and I was like 20 degrees, fly in flight 75. Beautiful. And they're like, Oh, hey, actually, your car is that other airport like Phoenix. Two airports is like it has three. So take an Uber, like 45 minutes to the other airport, get our car. And so if Wanna start off? Great, and then we drive to Tucson? Which is good. That's pretty far. Yeah, that's, like two hours ish. Yeah. So I, I'm completely turned around at this point, because I'm thinking, Oh, hey, we're like in the middle of the state. Bla bla bla bla bla No. to sound like, oh, it's like two hours from Mexico border. Yeah. And so we got under for weighing and showing us in the wedding. And I'm just, you know, driving around Tucson, which I received to this really? This weird Airbnb, like, it was really nice. But like, you're in Tucson, and then you set the foot outside of Tucson, and it's desert. Oh, yeah. And I didn't realize like, how desert the desert it was. Because we're like, Phoenix, you know, big city. And then boom, like, there's a there's a plateau. There's a mesa there's axises everywhere. Cacti everywhere. And yeah, like we stayed in the Airbnb, and it's like, Oh, hey, you need to close the gate at night because we get tired. And Salinas. Yeah. Oh, Lita. So it's this little,

Brandon  56:24

a little angry pig.

Aaron  56:27

Angry hog. And tell me what you're running one morning. And like I said, they're texting her like Googling, like, what these things are and what they do. It's like these things bark. And they're beat. They're like territorial NPC one to approach it. And of course, like, he's running and there's like, a whole like part of them. And naturally, so they're like, yeah, just, you know, close the gate at night does have a lien as an iosr have been known to, like, get in on the property. And there's like Road Runners stuff out there. But they're like me. I said, meet me. Little as little lightning cities and then the roads. And then the moment you step out of the out of the city, it's like dirt roads. Or sand roads. I don't know exactly what they were but they're like dollies nice houses. like nothing's paid. And so it's just like, weird. And then like downtown Tucson, like 10 minutes away. And so like, there's like a whole bustling of like downtown like restaurants, bars, you know, bands playing and then like you go another block over. And there's University of Arizona campus, which was beautiful. The one takeaway that I have is that every place that Tucson, Arizona is that you have to pay for parking. I spent so much money just on parking, I spent more money in parking than I did. You know, the experience like it didn't feel like it was beautiful, like Temperature wise, like, Oh, this is great. And it's like, oh, five bucks, or, you know, 30 minute parking. But why? Why do you why do you do this? And then and then we flew back the next day. And of course it was like 30 degrees when we flew in. But like, oh man, you know Tucson, Arizona, you know, Arizona is gonna be great. And then like, yeah, you're like two hours away from the Mexican border, bro. And then oh, here's all this parking and then oh, don't get well the weird part is we have a lot

Brandon  58:39

of fun. The weird part is like Arizona is just a big giant empty state with nothing in it. So like the fact that most of us just dirt. Like why can't just park in the dirt? Right like What do you mean you gotta pay for it What are you talking about?

Aaron  58:58

There's all this stuff like this free and I didn't again I didn't realize that because like growing up going to no vacations whatnot. Like we went through like moderately populated ish areas. And some of them it just like oh, hey, is driving just from Phoenix, Tucson. Like, oh, there's nothing out here. It's just empty. So Colin was making me relive some trauma from Tucson. Was it like as crazy chaotic, but like I peaceable like I would be driving like five miles over the speed limit. And I've never been flipped off more times in my life than in Tucson, Arizona. Like, I don't know if it's because I had a rental car that was that had photos placed on it by the light would immediately go from red to green. And when the moment I pushed like on the gas pedal Hey. And then by Sunday before the the bird from behind me like, I'm driving like the light just change. And then like I got coffee one morning and I pulled out because I had the right away. And the dude who was on the other side was no blinker on lay on his horn and lift me off and like, What makes you think you rose apparently. And then it just didn't rain like every day, just because and then it'd be like I was done after seven days. That's crazy. And so like it was it was a blast. But it was, yeah, it was an experience that I'm like, Well, I would I would go back, but I don't know if it goes live kind of thing. Also, my, my boss would like to know that everyone's getting better for taxes, and all into the people going on Friday.

Collin  1:01:09

This is a whole story, by the way. So I went and gotten measured. And I just walked into the the suit shop. So I did get it measured. And I get called him and I got measured. And I went up. I said I get measured for a text and they said, Okay, great. Give me my measurements. I called the lady. She said, Okay, what are your measurements? I gave her all my measurements. And there's a really long pause. And she went,

Aaron  1:01:37

are your arms that long?

Collin  1:01:39

And I went, Yes. And she went, but like, what like what kind of shirt do you wear? And I was like, well, like a large is not long enough sleeves. But like, an extra large is also not long enough sleeves. It's also really bigger on my my chest. So if I had like a large tall, it'd be really great. Then she kept saying, Okay, well, you're a

Aaron  1:02:02

38 or whatever.

Collin  1:02:03

I was like, 38. And what? And she was like, well, that's your jacket size. I said, Yeah. 38. What? And she goes,

Brandon  1:02:10

I'll leave links. That wouldn't be

Collin  1:02:12

No, yeah, 30 I don't remember what she said. And I was like, oh, and then she said, What are your jacket measurements? And I said, well, that?

1:02:20

I don't know.

Collin  1:02:21

I said, these are my measurements. And she goes, What are these for your shirt or your jacket measurements? And I went,

1:02:26

Yes,

Brandon  1:02:27

these are my measurements.

Collin  1:02:30

Well, if I were you, if I was measuring you, I would have gotten different measurements. And I went, that's really good to know now do you need different to what she said? No, I can think I can make this work or your arms really that long? So I don't know. Like, I think she just like I'm this weird, like homunculus of a human. And I have no idea how this is going.

Brandon  1:02:51

Did you just like clear in on how tall you were like just like a little like, Hey, by the way? That's because, yeah, I mean enormous, like spoilers. The Iron Giant is based off of me.

Collin  1:03:05

I think it's because like, I've got these like ridiculously long arms and legs and my torso is anybody and I don't have a big chest. But again, it kind of got like a little gut now. And so like, I don't know what she's envisioning for, like how I proportioned but yeah, it's pretty like a task mixture of a human

Brandon  1:03:25

centered selfie. Here's me.

Collin  1:03:28

Well, that's, that's like two I take a picture of myself. Like no, look, I am weird. Like, this is these are my, like, they drag the floor. I'm sorry. Yeah. Like grundle. Like, it's okay. Like, don't worry about it. It's good. So, yes, those are in and confirmed. And then oh, and then she said, she said, What is your shoe size? I said, Well, what kind of shoes and she said standard, and I went and those would be as she said, round tip leather. So I said, okay, cool. Do they run small or large? And she said, Well, I've never had anybody complained about the fit. And I went, Okay,

Brandon  1:04:14

an ever ope ever, like, really? Ever.

Collin  1:04:18

And it's it okay, just give it a 12 and we'll be good

Brandon  1:04:21

to go. I mean, yeah, it's Oh, damn, yeah.

Collin  1:04:25

She asked.

Aaron  1:04:26

She said, What's your what?

Collin  1:04:29

Why did she ask, Oh, she asked me this thing. She said. Oh, she said, and so your shirt size is what? After I had gone through like the XL and I had said well like I wear larges and I just always cuff the sleeves and she goes, No, what did the shirt measurement

Brandon  1:04:44

dress shirt like? Yeah,

Collin  1:04:47

I said, I said, I said, gotta be honest. The last time I did this was 11 years ago when I myself got married and I haven't bought a dress shirt since Durbin fitted for anything else. I said this is what Old to me and all of my shirts say

Brandon  1:05:02

petsitter. So I don't really know why

Collin  1:05:07

I wear I wear my own shirt. It's a large it's it's petsitter and I put a flannel on top of it. Honestly, like that's, that's my jam. So like, I'm really struggling here we really try and leave like really like think it's so sorry, like I just so braided top tip, get a suit, get a jacket

Brandon  1:05:28

measurement to I feel like I'm just gonna go to the I finally found a place it's like Malik mega far away from me that she'll have to go to and we're gonna figure it out. It was fine. Shall fawn over. So maybe I'll just like maybe I'll just call the lady first and handle any of the tape measure phones eight, here this is for you and then just

Aaron  1:05:45

stand there that because one of my one of my other guys. He just like emailed it to him and I'm like, Why did you do that? He's gonna have questions for you. So basically, we're calling things that. Due to him. The complicated price of all of this just jacked up is what I'm basically fitting like, just one of your rooms like super complicated calls, like I'm

Collin  1:06:12

proud of me. It's me. Sorry. When she when she says that it's me.

Aaron  1:06:18

As long as as long as you think because at the same time, it's also like, prom season. So it's like, well, we always do like this stuff first. But like, we just want to make sure that like everything is in

Collin  1:06:30

Oh, right. Then she said, she said, Well, it's fine. When you come in to try it on, we'll be able to make adjustments to it. I said, I'm sure it sounds great. And that usually works. I can't do that. And she was like, she's like, oh, you can't and as a no like, these are being picked up and taken to a far off place in another part of mystical, magical Oklahoma, to which I will also arrive at that same place and then put this upon and adorn my body. I am not able to be fitted again for this. So she asked a couple more clarifying questions after that. And I think we got it all lined out.

Aaron  1:07:15

Okay, good. Wait, I bet. So,

Collin  1:07:18

I told Megan, I said I'm either going to be like, it's either going to dwarf me like a poncho, because he's just or like, or like I'm gonna be wearing you know, like knee highs and shit like a short you know, like a riding crop or whatever like I don't know like

Brandon  1:07:37

it's gonna be true maybe fire

Aaron  1:07:40

I'll be all right now apparently I can't wear any of my coaching gear. Liga which are sponsored by Under Armour. So I got stuff like my school and like softball, or armor and I was like so this and then I I've seen Shelley give me the death player that's on them like once or twice and weirdly, there was the last time was when I said that, so I can't I guess I can't wear any of that. I mean, for the ceremony? Oh, yeah.

Brandon  1:08:16

Like after after the ceremony like, oh, yeah, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick. We're back and we're greatly appreciative man

Aaron  1:08:30

I mean, I think I think everybody else got everyone's all fitted. So I think we all need to get a go though.

Collin  1:08:37

Yeah, Brandon.

Brandon  1:08:38

Listen, there's no they they closed down the store that used to do it here. So there's no place

Collin  1:08:54

measure it yourself. guesstimate? You know, do measure your fingers. Make sure you know it's nine and a half inches from pinky to thumb and then just lock it up. They go Go for it. Yeah. What what's new with you, Brendan? Well,

Aaron  1:09:09

I have been cultured like a cheese

Brandon  1:09:16

there was no cheese balls. Okay. So i i My big exciting going on is I attended a chin Cultural Festival, or chin said the 75th Chin National

Aaron  1:09:31

Day. That's what I did. Great. God bless. Yes,

Collin  1:09:37

I unpack that.

Brandon  1:09:40

Yeah, right. So that is a lot right. So

Aaron  1:09:45

I have some students that our chin right so chin is like

Brandon  1:09:55

us it's a state in the country of Myanmar slash Burma.

1:10:00

right here.

Brandon  1:10:03

It is the like very North West top corner that borders India. Right. So this is the Qin state. This is where the Qin people are from one of the traditional tribes, I guess, kind of the area and like one of the founding members of the union of Burmese states that became when the Burma consolidated. Right, under British rule. Right. So it's a cultural group that lives there. And extremely, extremely repressed by the government of Myanmar currently, who are nice people.

Aaron  1:10:42

Right, the

Brandon  1:10:44

dictatorship that took back over if you're unaware of the situation in Myanmar ladies, gentlemen. Basically, for a while they had they so for a long time, they had a military dictatorship. Right. And then they had they started some, like, free elections and stuff for a long time. And there was a president lady, right. For a lot of the last person was a lady. Right. And then during the 2020 elections, when the military lost a huge number of seats in the Congress in the parliament, basically, right after the elections, there were like, one of elections, just and they arrested the president and several other prominent people and reestablished a military dictatorship. And they do not like the Qin people. The at all right,

Collin  1:11:45

is that is this for cultural historic? Did they say like, what is what reason? Or is it just so I close knit cleansing? Yeah, kind of that right?

Brandon  1:11:57

Because they are

Aaron  1:11:59

like, a separate group.

Brandon  1:12:04

Right. They identify as a separate group other than Burmese, they are branded other. And they like put a lot of heavy repressions on things and they like really heavily repressed their, like religious practices and stuff. Because the chin are like primarily Baptist. Right? Do you do some missionary work back in the day? Right. So interesting. They are like pretty heavily repressed for there. So I have kids whose like families, they don't get to talk to them very much. Because there's like, no, they like blacked out the internet. Right? They can't get phone calls out they have to do they do a lot of like, stuff. They're like fighting the government in some sort of actions. And then the government will just like randomly bomb them, you know, fun, fun times. So, so went to a celebration of a Qin National Day, because like I said, I have several students who are chin, right. And so they one of them invited me. Like, I guess I didn't know she was like, serious, because when I showed up, she was like, Oh, my gosh, you're here. And so I don't really know why you're surprised. Those people I talked to a guy for a long time. named his name was

Aaron  1:13:24

Dr. Benjamin. Right? He's kind of like, the regional dude, to kind of like, works with

Brandon  1:13:35

the immigrant population in this area, right? He used to live in Iowa. Because they are very agricultural. They love farming. They do they live they want to farm right, they farm back home. So they want to come to United States and they want to set up in farming communities.

Aaron  1:13:49

So you know, 1000s, Missouri, good, Iowa. Good, right. These are

Brandon  1:13:55

these are where he wants to go for that. So he came down from Springfield and I was talking to him for a while. It's really interesting guy. He was talking about come their fundraising goals. And he was talking he like went on a relief mission where he like, you know, went they're not gonna out him any more than that, but like he did that. Tell us more details later, I guess. But he did there. He went there to bring like aid and medical supplies and stuff to to the people in the Qin state not too long ago. So he's talking about that, which was crazy. And then so it's just sort of like a, like a celebration, or like a bunch of the regional people come together and

Aaron  1:14:40

just sort of celebrate stuff. Right. So it's really cool. And super interesting.

Brandon  1:14:50

Everybody was really friendly. Like it was really cool. They were really nice. Like they went out so so I guess we'll take you through the day right show up. I learned that when they say it starts at this time, that kind of means like me, you know,

Collin  1:15:07

like, gotcha, yeah. Hey, you know, was around

Brandon  1:15:11

here. So we were hanging out, and they were started making, like, they made some breakfast stuff, right. So they were selling all this food, which is very exciting. So they had some like fried rice stuff for breakfast. It's very similar to like Indian fried rice that they eat for breakfast. I don't know what the name of that is. But like Indian, a lot of places in India beds, like fried rice and a couple of veggies and like, That's breakfast, right? It's really good. I've had it before, so I didn't eat it here. I ate some sort of fried bread thing.

Aaron  1:15:46

I don't remember what it was called. Because, you know, I didn't have any idea what was happening.

Brandon  1:15:53

I just gotten there and met like one person. And so I was like, okay. Yeah, there's a lot going on. It's very overwhelming. Right? Because it you know, I you know, my Spanish is not good. My chin dialect is non existent. So I Rusty is it a bit rusty? Right. It is kind of like a it's in this. It's a similar language family to a lot of the ones in Southeast Asia. So it sounds like vaguely Thai at times. But like I don't speak Thai either. I just know what it sounds like. It was clear. I've watched starring Tony job. Okay, that's the extent of my Thai knowledge. But I I've watched on block. Okay, I know what's up. I

Collin  1:16:35

love how you said it sounds a lot like, but I don't speak that either. Anyway, it sounds

Brandon  1:16:39

like it right. It sounds it's reminiscent of the way that it sounds right. That's perfect. It's in the same kind of language family is some of that stuff. Yeah. Anyway, so we're hanging out hanging out talking to these ladies are serving food. And the other thing I eat, they're like, Oh, you gotta eat this. This is like thing that we do all the time. Like, okay, what is it? And they told me a name. I don't

Aaron  1:16:58

remember. But it's like,

Brandon  1:17:01

it's like a rice thing. Okay. And it's the stickiest thing you've ever held in your hand in your life? Right? So it's like rice, it's been boiled to oblivion. Right. And it's I think it's mixed with something else. And then they kind of sweetened this one. And it's like a really, really, it. It has the consistency of like, playdough almost put it stick. Oh, it's real sticky.

Aaron  1:17:30

It's wild. So this other lady

Brandon  1:17:33

I was talking to her. And she gave me the pro tip on how to eat this right? And it turns out she was like the master of ceremonies or the day and she liked the dimension that part right but whenever my my buddy Gracie, hello, Shadow Gracie, what's up?

Aaron  1:17:47

So nice. So we were

Brandon  1:17:51

like they wrap it in, like banana leaves, I guess when they cook it. So it's all tied in the end with string. So she's like, Yeah, what you do? Just take the string off and you use the string to just like it's chocolate, right? Ah,

Collin  1:18:05

I've seen I didn't there's an episode of Netflix's street food where a lady makes us and wraps it in banana leaf is that it's okay, I think possibly something like that.

Brandon  1:18:17

So that worked a treat. You cut it up in little pieces and just eat it. It was great. And then I look over at the table across from me and this old lady just had grabbed it. She's just like, peel the bananas leaves back like a banana and was just like chowing down on the thing. All right. So this is a very handy Yeah, and so the little fried bread things were delicious. And this rice thing was great. It was like just a little bit sweet. Right? And it was very it was very dense though. I can see why you this you did not need to eat for a while after you ate this sucker man like it was Susan I split one obviously, because it was like a big huge, massive, like a size of a hotdog with a bun Right? Like a big it's ambiguous. Ah, sir, hanging out, talking to people ate some breakfast and then the program began. Okay, so there was like a whole program thing. Right. And so there was like,

Aaron  1:19:12

a Miss Shin contest. kind of situation. Right? Like pageanty thing. Okay, so they did like a pad they had like a

Brandon  1:19:26

they started out with the pageant thing. And then they they would do like a round of paginating. So they came out and like wearing like traditional. These ladies, these girls, I guess they're probably they're probably high school aged girls. I think they're all wearing like traditional attire. It's amazing. Right, like super detailed, like needlework clothes, like the most complicated belts I've ever seen in my life, right? Like getting saying things like that means everywhere. Really cool headdresses. Yeah, they do that And then they do like a pageanty interview thing. Apparently, their interests were quite humorous because the crowd was laughing uproariously. So.

Aaron  1:20:08

They did good with that.

Brandon  1:20:10

So like between rounds of pageants, they would have like other stuff. So there was like, several rounds of like, dances like traditional, like dancing things, right?

Aaron  1:20:22

That were really cool. And then they did like

Brandon  1:20:28

one of them was like the farm. So they were like, like other people came out and like traditional clothes, right. And then later they came out and they did like, it was like, they were like hybridizing, like, traditional dress material with like,

Aaron  1:20:45

Western fashion. And that was really cool, right? They

Brandon  1:20:49

do like, we're just like mismatching a lot of stuff up and like boys and girls, right, coming out and showing off this stuff. And just kind of like some of that. Some, there were some talking, which I don't know what was happening, right? It's more pageanty and then dancing. So they would do some dancing, like a group of people would go up and do like this dance thing. And then they did all that. And then the last dance was the craziest thing in the world. Okay, so skipping ahead a bit. So it was that was basically pageants, fashion show, talking,

Aaron  1:21:26

dancing. Last Dance was what my

Brandon  1:21:31

forest like she was in my class couple years ago. That's what she was doing and what I was invited to see. And her mom like, choreograph the whole thing. It's the traditional Bamboo Dance.

Aaron  1:21:43

Yo, okay. All right. So do you remember?

Brandon  1:21:48

In PE in elementary school, did you do that one dance thing from the Philippines where they did that you had like the PVC pipes, and moving back and forth?

Aaron  1:22:00

Yes. Okay. So it's like, you know,

Brandon  1:22:03

I'm talking about Aaron. Yeah, because I thought we did a Boy Scout, too. We might have. But we also did that PE, I think for a PA. So, so that that was kind of like jump rope, right? Where you have two people on each end, and you jump in between? Yeah, I want

Aaron  1:22:20

you to imagine eight people in a square that

Brandon  1:22:26

ankles without moving these bamboo poles. Right? I've done so across. So like, a square with two dudes sitting on the floor on each side.

Aaron  1:22:40

Right, though, so was that four sets of poles,

Brandon  1:22:46

criss crossing, like the world's scariest tic tac toe board.

Aaron  1:22:50

Oh my gosh. And then they start moving them in and out. Boom, boom, click, click, boom, boom,

Brandon  1:22:58

right, together, apart, together apart. And there's like a song playing behind it. It's really loud, too, because it's like, it's actual bamboo. They were using actual bamboo pieces. I have no idea where they got it. They're like, they're like 12 feet long. And then. And then the girls come out. And there's like a line of like, 10 of them. And as the music starts going, they start just like hopping and skipping around through all the squares, right? In rhythm and their hairline. Like they're holding, they're in like traditional dress, right? Well, the traditional favorite color of the chain apparently is red, by the way. Some all this like really bright red, and everything and they're holding white handkerchiefs, and they're just dancing through hopping through the bamboo.

Collin  1:23:47

Ankle crushers.

Brandon  1:23:48

Yeah, and they did this for six and a half minutes know why? I talked to her I talked to my student afterwards, like, are you alive? Sick, I'm dying. My feet hurts. So I can because barefoot to write obviously, and they

Aaron  1:24:04

just Yeah, it was insane. Like it was it was the coolest thing ever. So cool.

Brandon  1:24:14

It was so cool. And one of the funny parts was her mom was up there and her mom again was the one that taught them. But like they were jumping and hopping so much that random parts of their jewelry was falling off. And so she was like scurrying out there just like grabbing it. But she is also in full traditional dress and high heels. So I don't really know how she was managing this either. That was also impressive. She's like,

Aaron  1:24:40

that's a spiral in and of itself.

Brandon  1:24:42

Your hair clips are falling out like some girls lost part of her belt like things would fade. But there's so much rhythmic like bouncing and jumping in. It was in same

Aaron  1:24:53

was really really cool.

Brandon  1:24:56

So we did the traditional dancing Basho stuff Right. There's some lunchtime. Right I found a bunch more of my children who are that are former students that were like, What do you guys do in here? Like, we took pictures, there's pictures and there's a heck of a big banner, like chin National Day banner.

Aaron  1:25:13

Right. Cool. And then

Brandon  1:25:19

the wrestling tournament began

Collin  1:25:25

Gaby didn't expect that would coming out, you know?

Aaron  1:25:32

Traditional wrestling tournaments. Wild dough.

Brandon  1:25:37

This was slightly embarrassing, because they had a in the gym, at the school here, right? And so we go in there were kind of we were talking and stuff, we're milling around. And we were contemplating whether or not we were going to eat lunch yet or wait for a little bit because that big rice thing was very potent. However, I will say I didn't see them preparing noodles in a pot in this pot. I swear it was a meter across, right.

Aaron  1:26:02

That's amazing. It was enormous. But anyway,

Brandon  1:26:07

so wrestling tournament, we're standing there. And they have the bleachers on the side, right. And then they had brought in a bunch of folding chairs and kind of put them around the mat in a circle. And we were standing in the back, you know, trying to be,

Aaron  1:26:26

you know, just out of the way.

Brandon  1:26:30

And one of the official organizer dudes was like, Where are you sitting? Like, well, we're just gonna sit back here. And he goes, No, no, no, no, come on. And he starts walking towards the front. And he just grabs two random chairs and slams him down right in the front is like they go. That's where you sit today. Like,

1:26:47

no, nice.

Brandon  1:26:49

Dude, that was a little embarrassing. So the people were laughing at us was fine.

1:26:52

They were cool with it. Good.

Brandon  1:26:56

So that was weird, like front row and the wrestling. So that was cool that they start off with like small children wrestling, right. So one of the first I had also talked to some other pastor guy, when I was out in the lobby, and I was when I started the the wrestling got up he came tapped me on the shoulder. He's like, That's my son was like, Yeah, let's go.

Collin  1:27:20

I know who to root for.

Brandon  1:27:21

And I'd refer now, today. It's okay, so they start with little kids. And then they kind of like, it's just like, a tournament, and they just do. Whoever wants to go. Anybody in the building? can wrestle. Oh, that's perfect. And it's, it's a Last Man Standing tournament. Oh,

1:27:44

that's the

Brandon  1:27:45

so they start with a little kids that kind of pair them off by size and just like they're kind of match them up and then do that. And then it moves on to like, middle and high school aged kids. And then it gets real. Right, then it starts like getting serious.

Collin  1:28:00

Any particular style or

Aaron  1:28:05

is a form of belt wrestling. Okay, so

Brandon  1:28:09

Okay, so what they do is you go to people, and they tie this big long belt around you.

Aaron  1:28:18

Okay, um, and

Brandon  1:28:22

you, you each start off kneeling, and you, you each are holding on to each other's belt. And I a little shaky on the rules. I should have asked somebody a little more detail, I'll tell you about who I should have asked specifically

Aaron  1:28:35

later. But

Brandon  1:28:39

it appears to be the rules that I gathered from this are it's a two out of three falls situation. You have to make the other person land on their back to win the pinfall. Right? Kind of like Greco Roman wrestling a little bit, right. But you have to always hold on to the belt. So there is some intense like swinging about, like leg hooking happening, because you got you each are holding on to basically each other's waist. And you don't let go of the belt. And you have to get the other person on their back.

Aaron  1:29:18

Oh, yeah. It's crazy. So the little kids

Brandon  1:29:24

are fine, right? It's funny. It's cute. It's adorable. Right? The guy son, one match or two is cool. And then we start getting into older kids. You know, one of the other kids from our school, wrestled. He's in like high school, right? He was wrestling out this week. Whenever he was wrestling, his mom came and sat by us. So we talked to her again. It's the same mother of the girl that was like it my classical years ago. So it's that family, right? And so, so the kids wrestled for a long time. And so we went out and got some food. So we had a food break. And then I had sort of lunch. So we had some, like soupy stuff.

Aaron  1:30:07

Dude, I was tell you,

Brandon  1:30:09

it was amazing. So that their mom was like, you gotta come eat. Yes, you're right. We do have the she's like, You need chin food like, yes, you're right. How could we be so silly as to not think about that. So they had two different like soup things that we each bought one. I had something that I don't, it was just like a really small noodle II soup situation with like eggs and some, like, spices and like some other stuff in there. And it was delicious. Right? It was amazing. And Susan ate some. It's called soba tea, I think is the official name. It's kind of like,

Aaron  1:30:50

it's corn broth with meat, I think is what that officially means. It's kind of like beans, like ham and beans. But it's corn and beef. Right. And it's super,

Brandon  1:31:08

it's super delicious. It's really good. Because I they told me what I had researched a little bit about food before we went. And they said the name and I was like you have to eat that. Because Susan loves corn like very much. I was like that's you. You have to eat this. You like you need that in your life. And she took a bite. She was like, oh my Yes, I do.

Aaron  1:31:31

It need a lot more fish. So we took a break we ate

Brandon  1:31:36

accidentally. They were like, Oh, here's some onions and stuff. You can just put in the soup. Alright, okay, well, like when you're, they serve you the food. And then there's like some condiments and stuff you put on top of it did not tell me that the onions and everything was sauteed and chili oil. out of it a very important information. Oh, because I just dumped it in my soup. And I took a big bite and

Aaron  1:31:58

oh no, I had to sort of like mix it up. And then it was fine, right. But

Brandon  1:32:08

that first bite was like just a whole bunch of chili seeds. And it was exciting. It was very, like, Oh, my nose is not stuffy anymore. Look at that.

1:32:16

It's amazing.

Brandon  1:32:22

So anyway, we were out in the lobby, we talked with her several more people and took pictures of some of the kids. And then we went in, we ate with this lady, even family. And then we went back to watch some more wrestling. And it was getting real. Okay, now like I said, Last Man Standing tournament. So it progresses, right kind of at the beginning, it's pretty quick. There's like a line of people ready to go. Right? But as it goes on and on, like less and less people are volunteering. And so they set a timer and they say two minutes, who's next? And then everyone kind of waits till about 30 seconds. And then somebody says, wow. And then they come down. Right? Okay, so it's just so there's this really weird strategy of like, when do you want to go? Because, right, because you don't like once you're in the ring. You stay there until you lose? Oh, yeah. And it's. So you have to decide. And you can see some groups of people in the stands like talking with each other. Or being like, it looked like some of them were like telling their buddies like now. Now's the best time to go right? I'm sure it's like really talked about. And there was it was, once it gets up there it starts get you get to really see just how intense this wrestling is. It's brutal. Right? I can't there was several pretty nasty looking injuries right like shoulder obviously, somebody who'd like slams down on your, in your on your shoulder real bad. Like a lot of people got up just like really like, circle and doing the shoulder circle, you know. And a lot of people like me, one guy like really messes me up, I think somehow. And another guy who looks like I mean, he was I don't know how old this guy was. But he definitely like wrestles it he like wrestled in high school or he was still in high school or something because he was ribs. But he took a guy down and like when the guy landed his knee hit him in the thigh. Oh, and then he was just done right? He couldn't stand. He tried to get back there. And you could just tell it was just like he was basically to try and do it on one leg. And it was it was so bad and like

Aaron  1:34:42

so wow, this just kept going and go the hours. It's lasted for ever. Right? And now we have controversy, right? Because at the end, this dude comes out of the audience.

Brandon  1:34:57

And he's he doesn't even go Change into shorts and a T shirt right? Everybody likes had a secret bag of shorts and a T shirt somewhere. I don't really, because they would just like you could see him walking out towards the bathroom and they would come in like five minutes later wearing shorts a t shirt. Like they knew, right? They knew they were just trying. Yeah, they were just prepared. This dude, just like rolls up his pants. And like, rolls up the sleeves on his dress shirt, and walks into the rain. I'm intimidated, just, like really lean, like really like muscley lean, you know what I mean? Like that. And he was in there and he took out several dudes, right? And he was older guy too, right? And then that he was the second to last dude in there. And I want some justice for a dress shirt guy. Because the guy that beat dress shirt guy was enormous. Number one, and

Aaron  1:35:54

competed in the second

Brandon  1:35:56

round of the wrestling tournament, which was for like the professional dudes. Oh, oh, I want justice for dress shirt guy dress shirt guy did not deserve to be done. Like, I talked to one of my kids. They're like, No, that's not that weird. But all the girls sitting behind me. They also want justice for dress shirt guy. They didn't think that was very cool. So dress shirt guy.

Aaron  1:36:17

You're the real champion. Okay, you're the so they do this.

Brandon  1:36:23

They do think they can actually give them a belt. Right? Like a wrestling belt thing out right as well. And then they say, dude comes up and they say something and they like tapped me on the shoulder and like Hey 10 minutes and then the heavyweights start playing.

Aaron  1:36:41

Okay, well

Brandon  1:36:43

I'm definitely staying for that. We were talking like retired How long is this gonna go? Because somebody told us like this could potentially lasted like 1030 We're like

Aaron  1:36:53

no, I don't

Brandon  1:36:55

know. That's not

Collin  1:36:57

that's that's why they brought out the guy to end t shirt guy so that could maybe

Brandon  1:37:04

maybe we got to move on right. So so the over on the back row for like a long time like somewhere in the middle this tournament these all these dudes walked in. And like the second day walked in the door, Susan, I brought with her leg. Oh. Oh, they're they're here to wrestle to pit different for sure. Those guys are different, right? Like took it up a notch. You could tell the way they walked in the room.

Aaron  1:37:32

They had like entourage.

Brandon  1:37:37

Right. They had like a group like a camp right? Like, boxers traveled like a trainer and like stuff like they had like those dudes. Right? Oh, and like, some of the trainers were like, ripped, like, Oh my God, I don't want to mess with that guy. Like, one of the trainers were like, man, when's he gonna wrestle because that dudes gonna tear somebody up. He was like, just, his forearms were just eaten, like Popeye over here. Right? Like, like, they were quietly sitting in the corner. And when wrestling got like, really intense, or the math got really good. They would all kind of stand up and look, because they were in the back. Or they would stand up. And they'd watch. And they'd be like, good cheer. Give it like, yeah, right. And then it's like, down, you know,

1:38:20

I kind of was

Brandon  1:38:23

I walked by one of them when I went to the bathroom and dude was big, right? Like that

Aaron  1:38:28

guy. Anyway, Heavyweight Championship starts, right? They

Brandon  1:38:37

also as they, they they go and they change and they come in, they start to warm up in the back. And like, then all of a sudden, all these people are going over and taking pictures with them.

Aaron  1:38:47

And so you know, like, Oh, those dudes aren't for real a big deal.

Collin  1:38:53

Right? Like they're attracting a crowd. Every

Brandon  1:38:57

crowd that two of them in particular, but a lot of them will take your shoes, you know, every once a while they everybody gets through, but there was two of them in particular that were like, those dudes are getting pictures taken with

Aaron  1:39:06

everybody. Which is, so you're like, okay,

Brandon  1:39:11

okay, that's, that's the real deal right

Aaron  1:39:13

there. So they do that.

Brandon  1:39:18

They had this Oh, yeah. So before they start, they had somebody come out and they were like, they sang the song. This singer lady came out. And she's saying earlier in the day, as well, during them, like between some of the fashion show part in like the beginning. And so during this intermission time, she came out and she sang like a song. And like, she was really good. And then whenever she came out the end, she was singing a song and like, everybody in the crowd was singing along with her.

Aaron  1:39:47

So I was like, Wait a minute.

Brandon  1:39:49

This doesn't sound like a traditional song. This. This lady is a big deal, too, right? Like she's like secretly. I'm in the presence of an important person and nobody He told me so, one of my students confirmed with me the next day or the next day I want to go back to school the next week that yes, this lady is like a huge deal.

Aaron  1:40:13

So I was in the presence and net, one Genovese suite and apparent sensation in the chain community.

1:40:23

She's a great singer. She's amazing. But nobody told me while I was there, like, super famous person they're holding this information after I

Collin  1:40:35

you know, see it see that on a bulletin or something?

Aaron  1:40:38

Yeah, yeah.

Brandon  1:40:40

So yeah, I got to meet Genevieve. Sweet. That's cool. And hear her perform a couple times.

Aaron  1:40:47

She's really good. Amazing singer. So then,

Brandon  1:40:52

so then the real tournament, then the big boy tournament wrestling tournament starts. And it's a it this one is seated. So there's eight dudes. And it's a single elimination. Seated tournament, right? Actually, there were seven dudes. So one of them got by, but they they like just put numbers in a cup. And like roll them up on piece paper and dump them on the ground. And they just picked up. You know, one, verse one, two, verse two, and then bigeye, right? So they start going. And this This is like a whole different level of intensity. This is some like serious business wrestling, right? So we watched this, and it was really good, really intense, really hardcore. These dudes are immensely strong and slightly terrifying. Really good matches, there was one that was like controversial, they couldn't decide like, when they when they when he got him down, like it the beginning they were talking about, like there's a boundary, right. And you can't they can't go down outside the boundary. Right? Because that doesn't count. So there was some controversy on like, did he land on the line? Was he on this side? Was he on the other side that there was some of that there's like judges on all the corners in the ring to anyway, championship match comes down, right? And these two, the two deeds that are like enormous

Aaron  1:42:16

are in the final match. And

Brandon  1:42:21

so they have theirs have the final match. One of the guys wins is really good, right? So we're curaleaf and I, one of the wrestlers like we're getting rid of, we're talking to some of the families and stuff. And he comes up and starts talking to me. He's like, what you think? I was like, that was amazing. So he starts telling me the guy that got second place.

Aaron  1:42:39

Right? He starts telling me that. Yeah, this is like,

Brandon  1:42:45

you know, really, you know, we we try to come to as many of these we can, because there's not like a lot of opportunities for this wrestling, but like we do it professionally. So, you know, we have to do as much as we can. Last year I was in India for the World Championships. I was like, what? Hold up. So he's been to like Europe, and India and all these places all around the world doing this like at a extremely high level.

Aaron  1:43:16

Right. So again,

Brandon  1:43:21

I was clued in by the pictures, but nobody told me that this guy is like, actually world champion wrestler. Like, I found a picture of him later. And he has just like all these belts. So I met and talk to you. His name is Jung Sang, right? And he is apparently a huge deal. Like really, really good, world famous world champion. And the nicest stinking dude ever, right? He was so great. You're so cool. He's just wanted to come and talk and hang out. And he lived they live in like Indiana, like Indianapolis. And I traveled around and they they go to the thing, right. And I talked to several of his like, like, on our way out. I talked to some of his like, Camp guys, right? Like some of the dudes that are with him. And they were all super nice. And they were talking to me about stuff and yeah, they're talking about their schedule and like all this stuff that they're going to do and like before he left he like came up to me he's like shook my hands like man take care of Massey later. Isn't literally the nicest dude ever. And he's like a monstrous world champion belt wrestling. So there you go. So who do I met? I met this like, world famous dude. Just like hanging out.

1:44:48

Hey, what's up? How's it go?

Collin  1:44:52

That's crazy. So this, so to put so this festival is this one that is held It just isn't a traveling festival is held in multiple cities.

Brandon  1:45:06

I think I think this festival is it's they just, they hold it, from what I understand. This is a festival, Christian National Day is like February 20. I want to say, I might got that wrong. Sorry. But like just all over the country, there are festivals like this. Just around. Right. So this one was like, like, kind of like a southwest Missouri regional thing. Because a lot of people were from either our, our immediate area, or closer to Springfield or Joplin or kind of is a, it was kind of at this larger area was feeding to here.

Collin  1:45:53

Okay, because that was my other question was, was it here? Because there is a particular population? Yeah. Is there just kind of just regionally to attract across country?

Brandon  1:46:08

I think it's there's a, there's when I was talking to Dr. Benjamin, you're saying that, like the population, this area is increasing, right? Because just people are moving here to be with near family, right? You know, and so the population is sort of increasing. And they want to hold it to keep people together and also to educate, been reached out to the community and say, like, Oh, hey, yeah, this is what we're about, and that kind of stuff. This is who we are, and this kind of thing. So, I think that's why he was glad that we were there because we were like, you know, just some random people

Collin  1:46:44

in the aforementioned community. Yeah,

Brandon  1:46:47

that's me. That's me. Hello.

Aaron  1:46:50

Hello. I am of the community. Right. So

Brandon  1:46:55

yeah, cuz when he found out I was a teacher, he was like, Oh, okay. That's great. Like, that's great. Right. So that I think that he realized what I why I was there, right. Yeah, so it's kind of like a to get together and celebrate, like, get people that are kind of near but like, kind of spread out and it kind of different areas, bring them together in a central location to celebrate is dandy and do all that

Aaron  1:47:20

stuff. So that's what I think it's well, again, they probably said, but I don't know.

Collin  1:47:30

It's, again, also don't Yeah,

Aaron  1:47:34

yeah. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Well, that's,

Brandon  1:47:39

and that's super good. I did also buy a sweet traditional hat for a fundraiser. It's amazing. I'll send you a picture later. It's really cool. Everybody had one? So I was like, why don't you see obviously, you need one to be fit in to be cool. I did. I did also have this random thought when I was sitting there. Because I was like, very engrossed in the wrestling tournament, right? And so I was doing that thing where I sit in my chair, and I kind of lean back and I have my arms crossed across my chest, right? And I'm, like, very focused on things. And I thought I had this thought to myself, like, oh, man, I wonder.

Aaron  1:48:17

I wonder if this looks like not like I'm having fun,

Brandon  1:48:24

right? You're disinterested

Collin  1:48:26

in not,

Brandon  1:48:27

do I look disinterested? Because I leaned back had like, my ankles crossed. You know, you sit in the chair, you have your ankles, cross, your lean back, you got your arms crossed, just kind of looking. Like do I look disinterested? I had this like, moment of self consciousness, where I thought like, oh, man, am I am I projecting like hostility? You know, because all these people have been super nice to me. I don't want to be like that. And then I quickly glanced around the ring, and every single old Asian dude was sitting exactly like that was call that validation. Yeah, I was like, Okay, it's perfect. Fine. Everything's good. I'm fine.

Collin  1:49:01

Yeah, I can resume right. Okay, I'll

Brandon  1:49:04

just keep going. I'm saying like,

1:49:07

that's perfect. Like one of the big

Brandon  1:49:09

President dudes or whatever, have like a regional association was sitting across and he was saying that way. I'm probably I'm not appearing disenchanted or angry. Or smiling and cheering at the wrestling. But yeah, that was my very adventurous adventurous

Aaron  1:49:27

Saturday. Right. Very exciting.

Brandon  1:49:30

So yeah, we did the wrestling tournament finally got over at like 738 o'clock, right. That's when I left. That was a good 10 hours of festival.

Aaron  1:49:41

That's a lot. It is a lot. But it's fun. You know, it was fun. It's all good. Yeah,

Brandon  1:49:51

that was my big exciting. My big exciting event. Right? Yeah.

Aaron  1:49:56

We'll say that is I definitely say, I really like that

Collin  1:50:04

a lot. I'm glad you're able to go to that. Because it sounds like that's a great a lot of hardships in relationships and can support your students in that way to be a former but also, you know, be there for that. And you is that something that I do hope to do every year? I gotta think

Brandon  1:50:20

I think they do every year because I like she invited me last year, but I something I for some reason I couldn't go because we were going to be somewhere else. I don't know where we would have gone, but we don't really do things. You know. We weren't busy that weekend. And so she asked me getting this year and so yeah, so maybe, hopefully, we weren't too like horrible and they'll invite us back. You know, we'll see. Hopefully,

Collin  1:50:45

or and yet another opportunity for a brother live podcast. Or mid floor. Chin festival. Live wrestling broadcasts.

Brandon  1:50:57

Here. Go, please there. Yeah, thanks.

Collin  1:51:01

I that's really cool. Well, great. Well, we've had a fun

Brandon  1:51:05

tiring defusing, but fun.

Collin  1:51:10

Also from pumping water to driving on Interstate and being tired and eating good food. Sounds like it's been eventful. Last week. My goodness

Brandon  1:51:21

was yeah, it was good.

Collin  1:51:26

Well, on. Good. Well, on that on that bombshell. And Aaron, thanks for joining. And we missed you terribly good. missed you terribly. See you next week. That's guaranteed. Ah, all right. I'm including links to all sorts of stuff I'm trying to. That's the I could not find the singer. So thank you for sending over that link. Because I was like, I really want to add this. So yeah. links and show notes for wrestler and singer.

Brandon  1:51:56

Did you find him I'm going to try to did did because I

Collin  1:51:59

you could send a photo of him before I scrolled up and I grabbed a couple news articles to go in there as well. So that again, yeah, I got that. Right. So we're gonna listen to some of the songs. I think that's what I'm interested in. Yeah,

Brandon  1:52:22

well, she's gonna be really confused when she shows up in that tag and that what?

Collin  1:52:29

This guy what happened? Fine, everything's fine. It's fine. Yes. You gents enjoy the rest of your fine evening. And you as well. We'll do this again. I'll ride. Yeah. Okay.

Brandon  1:52:44

Love you. Love you too. Bye. Bye.