science sidequest

Collin is traveling and having lunch. Brandon is starting 4th quarter madness. The boys discuss what it means to build better and be in workshop mode. Plus, there’s talk of Yakuza and hiking in Arkansas.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, hike, year, arkansas, trail, road, plan, flashlights, step, networking, building, big, happening, bit, game, focus, thinking, sitting, fill, day

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Brandon  00:40

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy I am sorry I have some akinesia tea and honey or is it honey with akinesia tea at this point? Who knows? Oh no, you know either one of those things is probably fine that is how T turns out it works.

Collin  01:03

I was traveling about traveling is to the across service areas today and it's it's it's fine it's it's great like this drive is very easy for me now. There are times where I'm like, I wish I wish it was going to someplace like more fun at this point. Like, I hate that sounds weird, but it's like ah, I guess be nice. Why didn't we set up a remote location and I don't know like a Roomba or something like

Brandon  01:35

that can be next but like I feel like that's well that's just that's just happens whenever you get whenever you do this like the same thing over and over and over again. Right? That's where again, this is where I am with school currently, it's just like it's the same Yeah, so it's that end of the year like but so that's, you know, it's just the same drive. You didn't mix it up. Going to Louisiana, but you know, not like a fun way. So that would be it was destination was more interesting. Your journey was worse. So it was

Collin  02:17

nominally it was supposed to be more funner. But

02:24

realistically, it wasn't true. Alright, so yeah, without doing that kind of stuff today did

Collin  02:33

some interviews so my voice is shot. Also had a working lunch with a friend who had not seen since high school graduation. Oh, yeah. Now they reached out to me and they were like you know, I we just started a business and you're really the only one that I'm kind of connected to that has done that same thing. And I was like, Boy howdy. Let me tell you. I don't know if you want to talk to me right now because I'm a bit jaded. But yeah. Buckle up. And so I felt terrible because we went to a restaurant, and we're supposed to meet at 1130 they were running late. It's fine. They show up. Were 15 minutes out from being sat and I have so 1130 I had an in person interview scheduled for one o'clock. Okay, the two locations are seven minutes apart. I should be fine, right? Like, no, yeah. Shortly after we were sat a party of 18 was sat. Oh, with which all of the available. Oh my gosh, my throat sorry. That's when people tune in for all of the available staff was diverted to rightfully so. You have 18 people. You can't lose that to lunch. Yes,

Brandon  03:52

I mean, I guess 11 You're a bigger business working lunch, I suppose.

Collin  03:56

No, this was like a family thing. Like there was it was family coming in. So I was like, Uh huh. So all of this was diverted over there. It took us forever to get ordered. I'm not complaining because they whatever it just all of a sudden, my heart out was 1245 Yeah, it's 1240 I don't have food yet. Oh, no. So I'm like, frantically checking my watch and the person without I was like, you wait, you just need to take this to go and I was like, that's what I think is gonna happen right now. And I didn't even get it plated. I just said I don't know where it is in the process. But could you throw it in a box I need I really have to leave. And they got theirs in the box too. I paid and ran from this. Bit like slid into my interview with a minute to spare. So I was like I'm running behind today. So that's always fun when that happens, but the other

Brandon  05:02

person was like,

05:03

So what do you think of what do you think of networking groups? I was like, I have opinions. I don't know. Like they're they're

Brandon  05:13

Moose Lodge. That's what

Collin  05:17

I have noticed Larry guy. Know this.

Brandon  05:21

The Larry guy right here. Yeah.

Collin  05:26

They opened their own law practice. And so it was like law. Oh, that's a little different. But you know, this is a bit different. Just so that we're all clear on this is i My company walks dogs. You are like, you know, suing people. It's like of the professional professions. It's like way up there. So your your your networking may be more important, but they're like, Yeah, I just don't feel like I get much out of them. And so it's a bunch of wasted money. They're paying for their memberships to that was annoying. I was like you're paying for these memberships. And because there is one out there. I'm just gonna go ahead and name drop this one. Business, networking international BNI. They are a networking group. And they Oh my gosh, they have so many annoying things. It's a paid membership. Plus, you have like you have an attendance policy, where if you don't attend, they will kick you out. But here's why

Brandon  06:23

is it like X number of attendance or like ever is it like every single event is mandatory? Yes, I want to it's like a percentage of thing.

Collin  06:32

It is. And you can send

Brandon  06:38

a designated representative if you cannot be there, but they have to you can't just sit anybody and sit there with you like you they have to be pre documented on the forms that you fill out to sign up. And I understand. I understand this. I know what they're trying to do. However, the mandatory attendance thing is a real killer. And here's why people love being in BNI. It is an exclusionary, I mean, yeah, right. Like it's such that it's such that if, if we were to become members no other petsitting company could become a member of BNI in that chapter in that chapter. So

Collin  07:19

people that like getting in early with a new chapter, and then they never let go.

Brandon  07:26

I feel like this is counterproductive to the networking concept. Right? Like every Yes, you want to you want to meet with people who are like you by Extending everyone else in his life to you you've defeated the whole entire point of the exercise which is which is why I was invited to win these Oh, and you get like, like bonus, Uber gold points or coins or whatever. I don't know if you invite people and they become a member under you right that you see you have to be a sponsored to become a member it kind of thing. And so people are constantly asking, What do you want to come do I go, I went to one because I was sure let me learn about this. It is it is like oh great. I can come in and I can see the plumber or the realtor or a banker it's so not that super unhelpful. Right like and yeah, they all show the same like we bid pyramid Right? Like oh, no, bring your friends and your coins based on how many friends you it's a cult

Collin  08:36

is what it is like it's one of the it's it's like I know what this is. You're a cult.

Brandon  08:43

And he's the guy in charge wearing a strange beaded necklace by any chance because

Collin  08:48

shells maybe? Yeah. So I did it in. It was very unhelpful.

Brandon  08:55

It sounds it sounds like the most unhelpful thing in the history of the world.

Collin  08:59

Because here's what do you do? Okay, after you've attended a one time, who are you networking with? Tell me Yeah, you've,

Brandon  09:08

you've done it all. You've met the guy.

Collin  09:11

I have all of your cards. You have all of mine. I know. Nobody is changing next week. I'm done. Right? Like I will just call you because phones are a thing, right? Like this is just so I explained that like, Oh, they're like, Oh, and there's so so many network groups and it is true. Springfield. I know. It is about that. I was sitting in a coffee shop, getting ready to go to my networking group that we go to there. And there was a lady in a coffee shop talking to a friend about starting a new networking group. But, but it was going to be it was going to be different. It wasn't going to be the same. It's

Brandon  09:49

all they're all going to be different. Right? It's like they're all not like other girls, right?

Collin  09:56

I've been to a restaurant where they're like, We do things a little different around here and you're like No, really, really do you know, just an orangutan coming? I don't think so. Right ordering

Brandon  10:06

food. You bring it to me. I pay for services rendered. Done. That's not different. Like that's

Collin  10:14

literally what everybody else does. So, there is a massive mounting so I was I really encourage them to get in a career or industry specific networking group. If they were looking for something like that, but to instead focus time on on on building out on their

Brandon  10:38

own like whatever their specialty is right Yeah, cuz like lawyers specifically. Usually they will have like, they will specialize in something right now that a lot of them will always they'll do like defense work for people like you know, here and there and whatever and then like or they have to represent people in court on like certain types of cases. So your your best bet really is to decide which ones are your speciality. Since there is like just legal code and laws and stuff is the most confusing network ever. So you can't do all of them.

11:15

Well, no. Your

Brandon  11:19

your niche, right. People don't think about that, right? Like when you go to a doctor, right? You do have to go to like an orthodontist, or podiatrist, right? It's not the same doctor for law stuff. It's similar, right for like family court issues. It's a guy and a lot of times for like personal injury, or like, worker's comp or whatever. It's a different guy. Right? For like trusts and like wills and stuff. It's often a third guy. So yeah, it's I think that is lost because there's, you know, we know about personal injury attorneys because there's those commercials on television. Although ask your friend to do some digging into Beadle and Musgrave. What happened to the other two

12:11

Where did they go?

Brandon  12:12

Oh, those guys Mr. Probably written they probably retired but

12:17

practice overdue. But, Mr. Industry,

Brandon  12:22

MC and Musgrave. What happened to them. I don't know,

Collin  12:25

man, that that. Okay. That was like a plumbing of the depths of like my memory when you said of like, right. Oh, my shrimps beetle a Musgrave. Wow, you were watching

Brandon  12:34

TV of the day. And they had two of those guys are still there.

Collin  12:44

Yeah, this is what I recommend. I recommend it because because people will come to them and go, do you do defense or I got a car accident. Can you help me you're an lawyer. That's what people do. That is exactly people and you have to go, No, you go over here. So you have to go find other people in that industry. So that when they come with because you know people are coming to them and going do you do the tax law, employment law do you do what law they're gonna go? No, but I know this person who does? Yeah, exactly. I told him that's what you have to focus on is getting plugged into that network and stop trying to go to business networking groups with a banker, and somebody who owns a weird franchise and somebody who's actually, you know, like, they sell glass earrings and pendants kind of stuff like those people are not that they're not wonderful people and it's not worth your time to get to know them, but it's just not helpful

Brandon  13:41

for you to do business. Right? It's weird a business that's a different networking. That's like a social networking thing. Yes. Right. Where you trying to like meet new people, because there is like, there is a validity in that prospect, right? Certain things. This is what I was thinking about this week, right? There are certain times where it's very important to draw inspiration from the wider field around you. And like, even if it's not directly associated with what you're doing, there are things that other people do or things you'll see or whatever that will inspire you to be like, Oh, that gives me an idea. I could incorporate this in some way into my life, right. So that's important. You don't want to narrow your focus so much that you're only thinking about like the one exact thing that you do because then you're then you're also missing out on a lot of other opportunities. I think, well, that's just how my brain works, right? I'm a very like broad knit type of person. And so, like I have trouble, pinpoint focusing on like,

Collin  14:53

it is it is hard to know how to direct your attention like that. That is very true. And it is one of those things that you struggle with. I know I personally struggle with as well is going okay, how not just what do I focus on today, but how do I know what to focus on today? And I view the networking as very different things of am I like the ones where it's just a cornucopia of variation of people from backgrounds and businesses. I view that kind of networking as more direct marketing to them, like that person going there, so that they maybe they will use my services. I don't expect the banker to be my number one referral source for my services. I just don't I don't think that that's going to drive a whole lot. But that's what that's gonna that's going to, those are fewer seeds sown there.

Brandon  15:40

The real estate agent, however, is a wonderful idea.

Collin  15:47

That is who I who I would focus on but like also getting connected with just other people in the industry. They're actually going to drive a higher percentage of my referrals to back to me, because naturally when people are at the groomer, they're going to ask about a pet sitter or what to do with their dog when they travel naturally right or naturally when they're at the the the the, the trainer that's going to come up so as a lawyer or whatever the industry is, you have the people that are that are bringing that kind of connected to you in some tangential way. Tangential way of there's some reference back to you and you can refer out to them. In an easier manner other than like, like nobody comes to me a pet sitter and goes Do you have a good banker?

Brandon  16:35

Yeah. Well, the inverse is gonna be true with you or like whenever you are sitting a pet and someone's like, Man, I haven't got his hair cut the person I know quit. Do you know anybody that cuts does like pet grooming. And you'd be like, Well, why? Yes, I do. Right? Like,

Collin  16:51

yes, exactly. So it builds a lot of community a lot faster than just going to these really broad disparate kind of networking community events. And, again, not that those aren't important. You know, I think that it's still good to be viewed as a member of your community, just even as just as a person of going, Hey, here's the here's a parade like I want to go be in a parade. I'm going to wave to random people, I'm going to do this kind of stuff. But I also am going to have think of it as like, Okay, that's a broad event of like where a lot of people going, but we all have our own favorite like shops are places that we frequent that we have a tighter connection to that there's more familiarity there. So kind of picking and choosing those communities within your community. You do have to be strategic about that. In some sense. You can't be everywhere all at once, but you can invest a little bit in them and you're gonna get differential returns from them as well.

Brandon  17:43

Yeah, and I was also not meaning that a person should focus exclusively on broader things right, there is such a thing as shifting your focus, right so as a new, we're gonna stick with lawyer. You do need to focus much more acutely. Right now. It's

18:07

smaller sphere,

Brandon  18:10

right? And then I feel like as you do things and as you become established, then you can cast that net, slightly wider and just look at be kind of aware of other things not even like necessarily engage with him directly, but just sort of like be aware of what there are so that you can inspiration come from many places on know

Collin  18:36

it's important. You know, one of the things I'll get we have one group that we attend, when I can tell 1 Million Cups I've talked about it before. I like it because it is a it's approximately the number of cups of coffee you drink per day, per day. That's why that's what actually does. There's no There's no membership fee, but you do have to prove with receipts, literal receipts, how many coffees, okay, now, I like them a lot because it is a very giving community. Nobody is there that it is. It's actually written in the meeting. And repeated multiple times of like, You're not here to sales pitch yourself. If you're giving a talk. It is not You're not pitching your services to each other. You're actually coming with either a problem or something you need help with, or to celebrate something that you've done to talk to the group about and I love that kind of atmosphere that is so much fun to be a part of. And you do sit there and go wow, like I was actually looking at some notes today. Of a talk I heard given by a lady who wants to start up a mobile smoothie bar in Springfield, and the kinds of questions that she had the kind of answers that were given how do you market that kind of thing in this context where like the one of the things that they also talked about was like, Where do you go to get demographics data to see if that would even be a good idea to mark to prove your concept for the market. And one lady was like, Oh, I actually in the head librarian of the library system, and we have this great software, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you can come in it. It plugs into all of the census data and you can slice it 10 ways to Sunday and I was like, I'm writing that down right now. Like I didn't say that like that, that exposed and just you have but in order to get there you do have to position yourself to like okay, now I'm ready to be a little bit broader in how I approach this, because you can't come with that approach right from the get go because you'll be doing everything right.

Brandon  20:41

That's true. It's a little overwhelming that way because you have to choose what to focus on like, in order, right? There's like, yes, you can't just be like, Oh, everything so so yes, but it is helpful to eventually be working towards that goal of like ah, what else is there? What else can I do? What are some of the things that are interesting?

Collin  21:06

Yeah, you have to do that process of okay, who like who am I? just in life in general to going Who am I right? About myself first before I start figuring out what's going on or how I interact with a broader community or group of people. Right, that's, that's something that everybody everybody goes through.

Brandon  21:26

Yeah. So it's very helpful. I was thinking about some of that recently, because it's that time of year also is fourth quarter now. So now I'm like yeah, I have to start thinking about like, what do I do next year, right? Like, it's more of like a, like a refining process. Like what is something that I need to do to focus on for like, just like my next year's like goals and stuff? Like what should I be thinking about? What should I be doing? In that kinds of so that's, that's where I trade from currently with this broader net. I'm looking at like all kinds of things we like, what about know what's over there? What's nice

Collin  22:08

is that in the context of things that didn't work that you're trying to change, or just you personally going, what can I Okay, I did this lesson. What What could I do differently or what didn't work or what?

Brandon  22:24

Not so, not so micro as in like individual lessons, necessarily. That's more of like a in the moment, type thing, right, like, type situation. Like this year I did a lot of focusing on looking at my like, doing a lot better job of like comparing, comparing, like my assessment data, and like monitoring it and like looking at the progress we were making throughout the year. And, like, how I could tell if people were meeting the goals that we talked about and that kind of stuff, right? And so I have like these very like, like this built up layers. Right? So like the first so where was the starting base for all of this was like the very first year of teaching. I was like, we're just gonna go for it and see what happens. Right? That's sort of what it was. Like, I was like, we're just gonna do it. Sure. And then, because when I when I started teaching science, they were like, the, the end of the year before they were like, hey, next year, you're teaching science, and I was like, Oh, okay. So it was throwing things at the wall year, right. And then the next year after that was focusing on like, okay, picking out all the important things and sort of building on that like coming up with your like, Keystone like standards and stuff like that and like, okay, these are the ones that we're really going to focus on and like aligning them with the seventh eighth grade and all that stuff. And then like, then it was like, this year and last year, last year, I spent a lot of time like building better assessments like quizzes and things like that, right? Like actually building them, rewriting some of them doing things like that. Because I also have on my list, like I have certain, like assignments and stuff where like, I need to redo this because it's like, I've either bought a resource from somewhere and it's just like, not what I want, like it's it's almost what I want, but not quite. So I need to fix it to make it fit, what I needed to do so I have a small list of like, oh, fix this, do this, blah, blah. And then also along with that, like, better progress monitoring. So this year was more like progress monitoring, like looking at my stuff and being like, Okay, here's all my data. Here's my numbers. I can look and see. Here's what everybody scored on their thing, right? Yeah. So I just have to still refine a little bit of that. Get it kind of going on there and then But then I'm looking for like, Okay, I've done all that stuff. So what are you next, right, like within what you know, so

Collin  25:27

yeah, that process of of going okay. Not quite as granular because you said like, that's more in the moment, but these big bucket things if you just going okay, well, how, what's what's the shape of my current assessments, like all of that and then doing a review of those and going okay, what's this current state of all of my, I don't know. Like PowerPoints or whatever, like work or processes for these like, those. Those are some of the ones that I would say, are often more valuable than the individual lessons or like individual like day to day. Oh,

Brandon  26:02

yeah, cuz that's that because that stuff can change and you can be like that's the stuff where I'm like, Oh, no idea today we're doing that instead of throwing out all that like I had this ready for labor we'll do that later. Right now. We're doing this so yeah, I need to get I need to I do need to go back and fix some my because I sort of do this thing where like, up until like Christmas, like all my stuff is like, great. Right? And then some of my third quarters. That's like, yeah, because I lose because when you focus on something for that longer period of time, I like as the year goes on, I lose motivation. To do it. Because I've been doing it so much. Yeah, like I have all these like very good things and like, checks and stuff for the first part and then then there's a point where I'm like, I kind of lose steam, so I have to kind of fix some of that stuff. But other than that, I'm thinking about what What's something else I could add or what can I do or what can I focus on or whatever for for next year. So that is my current goal is trying to figure out what on earth I'm going to do. Right? So I have been doing that kind of thing as well.

27:26

Oh, fun. Well, here's

Brandon  27:28

my here's my current. Here's my current idea. Oh, this is still in workshop mode. Okay, so here's the current plan. We're gonna see how this goes. Right? Because not only they're changing my schedule again next year, probably they'll do something weird. But anyway, I have a lot of times in the classroom where there's like seven minutes, where I have nothing to do which is not a matter of time that I can do anything. Right. So like I'll because of the way that I've decided to break down a lot of my stuff like today we're just doing this part and some days we'll do like we'll start a thing because I know that the next day will be like a big, like, introduce something at the end and then the next day can be like the whole explanation or whatever. But some days I'm like, Okay, we're done with this part. We've done our assignment we've done our nodes we've had a discussion I have seven minutes dang it. Sometimes we can play like a review game from like old lessons just to keep that stuff like in your mind, which I should probably do more of that fourth quarter. I think about it. Like little review games from old stuff. Just to be like Hey, remember this. What I am going to attempt to make some like long form projects where it's like, I'm going to introduce them at the beginning of the month and say this is due on the 20 Somethings and I'm gonna make a big thing on the board. And I'm gonna give them all the outline and I'm gonna say have to do it by then. Anytime before you can do it before then. But it has to be done by then. Just so that they'll have like something to be doing right there's there will be less time to like well I don't have anything to do. Yet do though, because this thing on the board says my plan so we're going to alternate maybe between some sort of like research based thing, right? So I have to decide if I have to calendar this out. This is where my weaknesses come in. Like I have to look at a calendar and and see like planning what I want to do here I know planning is hard. So some months are going to be research based now I don't know if I want to make it like science current events and make it like just very broad so they could pick anything cuz there's always something weird happening right like crazy or if I need to make it more like sort of about the unit that we're on. I don't know yet.

30:25

Oh, yeah, that's that's tough.

Brandon  30:29

I mean, it could I could do one, you know, one one time. Yeah, that that

Collin  30:33

makes it spike. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz they do have access to the iPads and stuff. So you could current events would be that wouldn't be that hard. And

Brandon  30:43

there's lots of websites that are like, like sciency news, and it's geared towards like middle grade readers. Because that is the other problem with science. Current Events is like it's either reported on like Yahoo. And it's just like, What is this even sentence? I don't even understand what's happening. Did anybody proofread this? Or it's in like, it's no, it's in like live science and it's just like the most technical thing ever. Right and so like a sixth grader is not gonna be able to parse. Yes. Right. Like, what in the world is happening?

Collin  31:24

Yeah, that's that would be really hard. And what I like about this and I want to circle I want to come back to the workshop mode thing that you said earlier, but like what I like about this is it's just enough time to go do a little bit more, right like that. And that Yeah, I think I think this is really important is not just for filling time and like classroom management, but just like life skills right now.

Brandon  31:48

I mean, that's what I was thinking about. When I was talking to some of the other science teachers about this. I was like, here's my plan. Tell me how feasible this even is what do you think

Collin  31:59

it's I think it's really great because I How often in your own life when you're working in like a time slot where you're like, Well, man, there's a lot on my to do list. What do I slot into this very short amount of time that either I can quickly accomplish or be take another small chunk out of and that because otherwise I know for me, like a lot of times I'll try and wait till I have all of the time to just finish a project. Some projects like that's necessary to do because like, like, it's kind of like cooking. Like if I took seven minutes a day to cook a cake or bake a cake. Like it wasn't gonna work. I can't just turn the oven on and off each time I step in. So you didn't need that but then there are other ones where it's like, oh, I have a blog coming out tomorrow. If I work on that a little bit every day that's not you know, for the last three days then I I'm that much more head by the time I get to when it's actually do.

Brandon  32:58

Yeah, exactly. So that's what I'm thinking about. And I don't know how the workshopping mode. I don't know, the format. I'm envisioning this being something like I really so I have a several assignments that are it's basically in sign of a slideshow, right where there's just like, some and I've made some of these too, and it's like, there's like some information and then there's like, whole slides with text boxes that you fill in the blank. stuff. Right? And I'm envisioning something like this to sort of like guide the process through the final steps, right. Sort of like a some sort of like, you know, in language arts when you do like your, your outline stuff when you're like writing a research paper, you'd have to like fill in your outline and you like put your find a place there's like a spot where you like, copy your sources in there and stuff like that, that I'm envisioning something like that, but like light light version. Oh, yeah. Right. Where it's like, it's very self like all the directions. And everything that you need is just there. So that you can just fill in the information that that is there and then like the last thing could be like a final thing, right? Like, then you'd have like a slide for like, what is the thing behind this? What is your opinion on this like, is that you know, that kind of stuff. You can have like different things so they can work on a little bit here a little bit there a little bit. They like break it down into like chunks.

Collin  34:39

Yeah, well, that what that does is that helps them see what I like about that idea of basically handing them a template of like, yeah, so this is everything that you need. Because for me, I was just talking to Megan about this the other day of like when I like I really like cooking because cooking is a process of looking at. You have to read the instructions from start to finish. And there's a stage there's an order, but when you get like familiar with it, sometimes you can do this, you can prep for step seven on step two, because you're already kind of like doing this stuff. So it allows you to kind of have the self directed. Once you get comfortable with it. Like in the beginning. I'm sure everyone's just gonna go okay, I do step two, step two, but as they start working through that, you know, oh, I can actually take some information right now I've got the book or I'm on the website and start filling out this ladder depart and I have this idea and it really is like okay, here's a template but everybody can use the template differently. And yeah, so cool.

Brandon  35:38

So that's that's what we're going to see how this works. I don't really know. This is my goal. I don't really know if it's gonna like we'll see how it goes. But it was my goal. See, but

Collin  35:53

so, so you said that word workshop mode I assume that that another version of that is like production mode or whatever, like, not necessarily that but like, what does what does a workshop mode look like to you? And how is that different from other other things?

Brandon  36:11

Well, I don't know. I use that term very broadly. To think like, I don't like so when I'm thinking about things like this. Like, I don't think like this is it? This is exactly how it's going to work. Boom done, because I don't I am not foolhardy enough to believe that I can foresee any and all outcomes from the beginning. Right? And say, like, this is the be all end all this is exactly what they should be. Right? So I always take the approach of okay, we're gonna try it out. And then we're gonna see how it goes. And then we're gonna see what we need to do from there. Right, Mike? We're going to give it a test run and we're going to see it because like, I can think about this all day long. And I can always I can sit and think about like, oh, this makes sense to me. But then when you give it to a 12 year old, does it make sense to them? Nothing makes sense to them to be honest. So we need to fair. So it's about like, just being able to be like, Okay, I need to it's sort of it's just the mindset of being like to be able to look at something and go, Okay, I need to change something about this to make it more effective. Right, that's what that sort of phrase means to me. Because I know some people will be like, they come with a thing and they do it and then like, that's just it forever. No. And so I do like to at least, think that I go back and look at stuff and be like, I need to change this because it didn't work out like I wanted it to. Or why didn't it work out like I want it to is it my fault was I unclear? Was it too big, right? Like stuff like that so

Collin  38:03

well, what I what I like about that is it is very intentionally a mindset for yourself. Right? Like that's what I hear about that is going you're giving yourself permission to go. Things can change right now. Right? I am not locking self anything. We're open to possibilities and we are just trying there's no wrong or right way to do this. Right. It's like it's really Yeah, setting that setting that I am very much the kind of person who's like well, I have to design a new onboarding process. So the one that I'm about to write on this paper is the be one end all be all version that will live forever. So I will never write that because I TOS terrified to start putting into pity. Right, like, yeah, exactly what my brain does. Instead of being like, it's not the final one. It's okay, like, do something wrong and just try kind of thing.

Brandon  38:57

Yeah, that's sort of my approach to teaching in general and I don't know how common that is. That's not what a lot of teachers eat like teachers that I work with, right like they don't that doesn't, that doesn't really compute, right? Like the whole like, a lot of teachers that I know this is not all teachers in the world obviously. They really like to have like everything like very meticulously planned out before it happens. Right? Yeah, no, I don't. Not I don't really care about a lot of the minutiae. Sometimes it's sort of like the big milestones or things for me if like, oh, we'll do this, we'll do this blah, blah, filling the other stuff later. We'll see how it goes. Oh, we're gonna add this here. We're gonna do this because I do that right with my lessons. Right. Like I said, the first year, that's all I was doing. The whole first year was like, Alright, here's my plan. I'm just gonna see what happens. Right. And then, you know, you go through it and you go, Okay. I need to add some stuff here and there because it would it's, you know, not enough we got to do something else. We got to add little things around and blah, blah, but you know, so it's it's always changing a little bit. But that's just how I don't know it's just how I think about things. I don't really know why that is. But it's always just like, Yeah, I'm just gonna do this. Oh, we're gonna do this. We're gonna do this blah, blah. Oh, no. Not doing that ever again. That was terrible. Burn that and get that out.

Collin  40:48

I know what some people they have that they have an idea of? No, you must commit to something. And I do get the. It's like, okay, so when, when the kids were little, we had a lot of things come up or they're like, Well, I don't know what the problem is. But you need sleep training. Okay. This is my favorite example. Where they go, okay, sleep training. Here's the thing. There's no one way to do it. Every baby is different. Also, it may change with the baby's age depending on you try and do this. So what you need to do is you need to experiment with sleep training methods, but also, you need to be consistent with how you sleep, train them, and make sure they give enough time to see if it's going to work, but don't be afraid to change it because there's a variation of sleep training techniques. It's just like this big circular thing of like, Yeah, time but also change it up because it's not going to work for everybody. Like you just

Brandon  41:47

worded poorly. Right circling Oh, it's Oh bad. I feel like that's poor wording on their part, right? Because, I mean, I the way I really approach this right whenever I think about this is like I am a science teacher. So I mean, this is just how science works.

42:11

Yeah, yeah, a thing

Brandon  42:13

and then go I didn't work. What about this day? Right. Still no? Okay. Yeah, third thing now, right. Like, sort of that just like, continuous integration process, right. It's a very, you know, it is terrifying because I know that a lot of people don't like that. Right. A lot of people really like to have a plan before they start. And this is why teacher meetings, board meetings, no end because they just sit around and they all talk about how to make the plan before they start. And I'm like we started already. Can we do it?

Collin  43:01

Yes, I did frustrated as well. And I like to I like to have some general guidance or some general like, into point or goal to work forward and then we'll just kind of fill in the rest. Yeah, for that. I do appreciate that. And I do I do respect people who need a lot of the fill in the gap kind of things and we have been I've had to get better at communicating that especially now that we are bringing on staff of like, I am going to focus on the end goal and then like the middle part, just like bear it out. But some people cannot operate like that. And it's frustrating to me because I know what they want to know is okay, what's the first step? And then what is the second step Not, not what could be a second step or what other the possibility of steps what one might follow that first one, they don't want to know that they want to know the actual step. Yeah, I I can't give that to you know, like, it's not because I'm trying to withhold any information. It's that I,

Brandon  44:14

I don't know.

Collin  44:15

I actually have no clue right now. We're gonna, when I say we're gonna figure it out, I'm not just trying to buy time or be elusive. I'm literally, this is actually what's going on in my life right now. Like, we have no idea. And I know people don't like that some people don't.

Brandon  44:34

They don't I know I know a certain person that I live with that likes step. 1234. All the way to the end. That's what they want. They

44:46

figured out and that would be a mystery. For your safety, we'll move on.

Brandon  44:54

Yeah. Oh, I didn't tell you about the second half of my plan. So Oh, sorry. Yeah, that's okay. That was so here's the to augment, augment dependent research mode. The other a lot of times are basically just think about these in terms of months. It probably won't take all month, right? I don't I'm not envisioning that but like, whatever. They are going to be interspersed with some sort of like, small building thing challenge, right, like, a box of stuff. You have to make a thing to test by this day. Good luck.

Collin  45:40

Another great open ended. It also gives them time to

Brandon  45:47

get more research time, like make it much more deliberate. And this would be also a company with some sort of, like, template, a guideline a thing of like, write your plan. Right, attach you know, like, here's a sketch your ideas on this paper that you're going to just handed to me later, right like, just like you'd see what you're doing like have some steps to follow not just like go by see you later. Right. So some sort of steps to follow of like research in design stage. Right, planning stage and then build it now. Like now you can start like basically like have like approval steps, you know, for like, you know, like r&d projects have that for like, do your thing show me. I look at it. And I'm I because I am me. I'm envisioning just like a checklist, right? Where I see, just like, everybody moving to completion of all the checklists, right, like just columns that they're meeting. Right. Right. And I would this would probably be a group project, I would imagine, because this sounds more groovy. But like it's just like these like four stages of design, right? Like, have you done this one? Boom, okay. You may now proceed. Have you done that? Okay, now, you may go to the next one.

Collin  47:21

Well, that's a good to have Yes, in in some industries, there are deliverables that you just have to show of like, yep, here's the step that I've met or like, here's the thing that I'm working on. And yep, now we're going to move on the details of what are in what's in that aren't really all that important, but it's a great place to just check in. I used to do this with my boss when they were like, Okay, I need you to write priority watershed, like, like 20 year plan, given the data that we have, and here are some points where I want you to bring something to me and was like, first off, that's great because that helps me break it down into something that's much more manageable.

Brandon  48:00

Oh, yeah, exactly. Right. It sounds less terrifying that way, instead of like, build a rubberband car right out of this box of scrap material. Like yeah, looking at this stuff, draw a picture. Uh huh. Okay. I can do

Collin  48:18

draw photo print is give one like source that you read about what these these things just to prove really, that they are doing something? Yeah, yes. Yeah. It's really what you're what you're trying to do with that. And that's, um, I think that's really important to do.

Brandon  48:39

Yeah, so we will see how well this all works out. But this is the plan in the idea stage.

48:47

Going forward. Sounds sounds perfect.

Brandon  48:51

So I mean, it'd be right. This The reason I was thinking about well, thinking broadly, this was actually inspired by a video game I was playing.

49:02

Okay. what

Brandon  49:08

So what So you go, what? So as the game I'm playing, so I've been playing through the Yakuza series games, right. They go fun times. I'm on. I played through Yakuza zero, which is like the prequel. Really fun, and I'm on like the first game it's a remake of the first game came out like oh, it's a remake of the first game. Anyway.

Collin  49:34

Do you want a new Okay, are you on? Okay, I'm looking at I'm on I'm playing Yakuza Kiwami Kiwami. Okay, so I'm looking at a chronological ordering of according to release date. Okay.

Brandon  49:45

Yeah. So that is a little confusing. Yes. Because your Kusa released in like it was a PlayStation two game and then they remade it much later. So I'm playing Kiwami which is like, I played zero, which if you go in the timeline of the games is the beginning.

Collin  50:09

Yes, but it was one that was released the one before use yours you just played Yeah, it's fine. This came up original released in 2006. Yeah. Oh, geez. They did the Yakuza. Then they did. 234 dead souls five then they did zero. Yeah.

Brandon  50:29

Dead Souls doesn't count. Most people don't play that zombie spin off. No one cares.

50:34

That we don't care about that.

Brandon  50:36

Yeah. Yeah. So then they Yeah, they did zero and then they did like six. And then they did seven, which is not called Yakuza anymore. And then there's also two spinoff games that are like about like, just a different dude altogether. And they're coming out with a brand new one next year, allegedly. And there's also a second rerelease of a spin off that came out only in Japan a few years ago. That actually is really weird, because it is like all the character models, but it's not the characters and it's set in like feudal Japan with Samurais and stuff. It's really weird. I don't know. Yeah, it's okay. It's whatever. Gotcha. Anyway. Yakuza zero and Yakuza Kiwami both feature a very robust slot car racing mini game in which Yeah, it's really weird. The tone. The tone shifts very, like super mellow, dramatic like crime drama a lot. Interspersed with slot car racing minigames on the side, right. But cool. These are like, series of things where you have to like, you can like find parts as rewards. And then you just like continually add and build up your car and stuff in order to continually make it faster to win more and more races to accomplish whatever goal

52:05

right Chocobo racing. Yeah, triple racing.

Brandon  52:09

Same concept, right? I think one of the spin off games have drone racing, which is actually kind of sick, right? But that idea of like, okay, you have this thing, and you just have to work on it. Like in the background. Yeah. And like occasionally it comes up and you do a thing. Right? That is the thought process that is fired my thinking about this what to do with these like seven minute chunks of time in my science. Feed once a terrifying insight on how my brain functions. I was thinking like, Oh, that's a really cool idea because like, you know, if it was something like that, where he was like, imagine it was like a some sort of car design thing, right? Where it was like you would continually iterate on the thing that you did, right over and over again, to like, continue to make it better. That'd be really cool. But then I thought that's not really practical. And I don't have room for stuff like that. Like, what am I gonna do, like, get a pinewood derby track and put up my classroom now that's not really gonna work out right? That would be neat, but not gonna fit. So I need something else. So I thought about these like smaller scale projects, where it's like, it's like side quests material, right? You're doing side quests, you have the main goal for class things, you have classwork, you have blah, blah, blah. But this is your side quests. And you have to do by a certain time or, you know, whatever, but it's like the side quest materials. So

Collin  53:50

they go they're very important for gaining XP. Yeah, right. Because they Yeah,

Brandon  53:58

yeah. So they go

Collin  54:01

now I really liked I liked that general concept of because there are things that will come up I mean, just just that even that idea of going okay, you need to mentally keep track of this as well. Like yes, you're gonna have the template and yes, we're gonna have this we're gonna have this dedicated time but there are things like up to you. You're gonna have to remember where you were the last time and what the plan was in, working the plan and obviously not being afraid to change the plan and everything because anything could happen in those in that interim space where you don't have seven minutes ago, you know, before

Brandon  54:40

Yeah, not not every day Do we have that? You know, like, someday we don't have that anytime. We have like a minute and a half. Okay. So you don't have any class time today to work on that but like you can still be like thinking about it. Right? Like, oh, hey, I need to plan this. I can do this. Blah, blah, blah. So it's just that like, running in the background thing.

55:02

CO processing.

Brandon  55:04

Yeah. Yeah. So side quests. I like it. Maybe I'll call it science side quest. Boom. I'd be Well,

Collin  55:11

okay. I'm okay. What? Cool. That's that's perfect. Well, I guess I kind of went on a side quest. This past weekend. exploring Northern Arkansas. Oh, right.

Brandon  55:38

Nice weather.

Collin  55:40

Got that. So I think I realized afterwards I was like, Oh, we were going to just be doing like, day hikes not like overnight camping, like out and back kind of stuff. So I did not have to like I cuz I remember like, I was talking with you. And I was like, Oh yeah, hot, my back's really gonna hurt but that my back just hurts when I sneeze weirdly these days. So

Brandon  56:03

So yeah, you did give the impression that you were like, camping in the wilderness. I said you said things like, camping with them.

Collin  56:11

Okay, well, if I said that, that was that was a mistake. We did stay in like a tiny house cabin on a hill in art North Arkansas. So like, kind of quasi accounting. Okay, I

Brandon  56:27

guess sounds much better than Yes. In a forest in the freezing. Last week. It was literally negative degrees. And

Collin  56:35

it was it was not fun. I it was snowing for a little bit up where we were like not didn't stick anywhere. But yes, it was. It was like freezing, freezing drizzle. And up there. The roads are obviously not conducive to this because we're a lot of gravel. That's what we we were out right at the precipice of diving down into the buffalo National River. That entire river way and I had forgotten. It was the actual cliff that falls off of Yes, right. It was just driving and all of a sudden weird. You see, you see a sign it just says 11% grade and that is definitely under shooting some of these things where it's like this is the like the road just goes down like straight down the mountain. I

Brandon  57:26

have memories of hiking down on that Buffalo River somewhere. Yeah, right. And like looking up and there's just like this giant vertical cliff face with the waterfall. Like where did that come from? What is yeah, what is that? Why is that in Arkansas?

57:43

With some of the road cuts

Brandon  57:45

so weird. It just literally plummets down and there's like huge thing like

Collin  57:50

the geography down there is insane. roads. The roads they were like this they basically were like there's not enough dynamite in the world to make a road cut through this. We're just laying the road on top of this hill Down you go Good luck. Hope you have breaks like that is

Brandon  58:09

and you know what you did?

Collin  58:13

Next year is that you go down into the valley for the for the river, and it is just both sides. And yes, we were going up one and I looked down and yes, those shear bluffs, just hundreds of feet tall, just straight up. And then a nice rolling hillside right alongside it and you're like you came out was like where did this come from? How so this was

Brandon  58:37

you know, call it the natural state for nothing, right?

Collin  58:42

So what was really funny is we had selected the spot and all three of Kim Kyla myself I sat down and we like we had Airbnb pulled up. We were finding places where like we need to go places that are far away from each other from other people and blah, blah, we want to go hiking. Okay, that's fine. And

Brandon  58:59

you don't want to go too far away from other people in Arkansas because it gets real, like terrifying.

Collin  59:05

Right so which is why we focused on this place because it's like 30 minutes from Harrison. It's like, and we start we started and it's like it's

Brandon  59:13

it but you go much further south than that and you're in the middle of nothing, literally where it's like a huge chunk of Arkansas. Map is like in the

Collin  59:25

desert, like wilderness like areas. For people who don't understand. National Parks are one thing, state parks or another like a true wilderness area is a whole other level of desolate, nothing this. Yeah, like it is. It is. It is almost like if for the unprepared and for people who just stumble into that and think it's a typical hike, like, those are areas where you actually need to be worried about oh yeah, thanks.

Brandon  59:58

There's like nothing like literal, nothing. Yeah. It's crazy. was at the St. Francis forest or whatever down there. Yeah, yeah, I pulled up the map.

Collin  1:00:08

Okay. Yeah. So we were north of that still, but like, Yeah, but I mean, that's

Brandon  1:00:12

like, when you look at Google Maps, like right below Harrison is just this giant swath of like, dark green was like, oh, that's natural. And there's nothing there.

Collin  1:00:25

So we were we're staying on the outskirts of this. And what here's the funny part of We Are we plan LIS, we selected the spot and we're like, Yeah, that's great. Well, we'll figure out some trails later, right. That's fine. We'll figure out trails there's, there's trails galore, right. And so a week before we're supposed to depart, we're like, Okay, everyone, we haven't done any of them right now. We said we said everyone needs to go out and find five trails, and we're gonna discuss what which ones we're gonna hike when we get there. I'm looking at you.

Brandon  1:00:55

Did you encounter like, oh, sorry. Go ahead. I'll say My question for you.

Collin  1:01:00

I'm looking at trails and our goal was not to spend plus the weather was really crazy. Like we didn't, we didn't. We didn't know. Yeah, like I didn't want to get up at 7am to have to go hike all day through like 14 miles or whatever to was supposed to be enjoyable. So I was trying to pick short things like my goal is to find a couple that were maybe three miles and under that we could do maybe one or two in a day, right? That would be much more enjoyable than trying to really have it through and spent 12 hours on a trailer. It wasn't it was not doing that right. Now, finding all these little ones, and I see this one, and I'm like, ha, oh, that sounds really familiar.

1:01:46

Why is it sounds so familiar? I start looking at photos and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I've hiked this trail like 11 times in my life. And one of them was with Kevin and Kyle.

Brandon  1:02:00

So now it's gonna be two of them.

Collin  1:02:04

And what was so funny is, I didn't say anything about this, okay. I didn't say anything. And then I waited till we were met everyone in Springfield, and we're driving south. And I'm like, you know, as I said, did you guys learn anything about where we're headed? And they're like, No, why would you say that? I'm like, I have literally driven both of you to this location.

1:02:26

It was a it was 1516 years ago, maybe 17 years ago.

Collin  1:02:31

We all put power in the jeep. Yeah, some of the hills that we were going, Kevin looked at me and went, did we really do this in your Jeep? And I said, God, I have no idea how he made that.

Brandon  1:02:42

I don't know how we lived. I

Collin  1:02:45

got the foggiest idea how we didn't die or end up on the side of a road because that thing didn't have brakes. It was kind of underpowered with its larger tires, like

Brandon  1:02:54

okay, it was not kind of underpowered. It was very underpowered. Brakes ish though it's fine.

Collin  1:03:00

Yeah, we went to we went to last Valley, which lamb I was like, so mad at myself because I'm like Compton PANCA what I then it was only when I start to look at the road. It did my brain start to from a map did my brain start to put together some of the curves and the thing?

Brandon  1:03:22

Well, the word PANCA is not the first thing that I would have remembered right like that would have been like a very much later thing. Like what?

Collin  1:03:31

What is this? What's happening? No, I remember because I remember because you come through PANCA and you either go to Baxter or you going to Jasper and we always went to Baxter right to the right. Always look to the right because your pocket little tiny town right there at the bottom of a massive again like 15% Road Yeah, like you just bought them out into this thing. And then you come to this little sleepy tiny town and then you hook to the right and then the river and the floodplains over on your left and then you turn into the driveway to go to last Valley. And so we pull up to this thing. And on one hand, it was like exactly what I remember. I don't know if you've ever had the situation of like, it was exactly how I remembered it. But it was all new to some extent. Like, okay, yeah, me having visited there so many times, did not impact anything that I experienced there. It was, I mean, I I had a ridiculous grin on my face the entire time we were hiking because it was I just could not it was so enjoyable. Like I was a little worried of like, Oh, we've been here before like, okay, like maybe we should find someplace else to go or go hike someplace different or bla bla

Brandon  1:04:56

bla very long time ago. So

Collin  1:05:00

yeah, I am so glad we didn't. It was so much fun. Everything was also like, exactly like I remembered it but I enjoyed it like it was for the first time. And I it was great. It was we went through the little like that little pool area. One of those first and you have to it's got the through cut, and you hike up like over the moss and get up into the hole and you hike back through the hole that takes you on the other side of little hill and you scramble up the the the riverbed

Brandon  1:05:31

Yeah, I mean when you sent me that picture I knew immediately I don't know how from like a boulder full of water but I was like, Hey, I know where that is.

Collin  1:05:44

Right? Like everything was so at the same time, so familiar. And I was so happy to be there. While also every corner I was like like what is it like what is around this corner if I wasn't and then coming up and there was water everywhere. So the sound was gorgeous. And also, the trail was crazy busy. I think there was like 20 cars in the parking lot. Which is insane. Because it's kind of insane. Yeah. There was a guy from California pulled up and his Range Rover jumped out and with his five kids and was doing stuff and all it was like what was going on? There was a big school group and all sorts of stuff going on. So the worst. Oh, I know. I was like I was like, I'm here. There is no cell phone coverage. The best cell phone in the world. There's no coverage here. Oh no, like none. So it's like it's super remote. And I just don't I just don't think of this being like the hiking place but also I was like it's also really cool to hike so great. Glad we're all out here. Plus if my outer shape but falls down a crevice at least I can holler and somebody will hear me.

Brandon  1:07:07

Are there other people here so that's good

1:07:09

for Ray somebody can help Kevin and Kyle rescue me

Brandon  1:07:16

so perfect.

Collin  1:07:17

Yeah. So, you know, we try I tried to be in the moment and just experienced that and but found out taking all sorts of photos and videos and all sorts of stuff. And then we got to the the cave and I was like well we have to go back and cave like we have to go back Lee in the cave. And I turned and I say okay guys, pull out your flashlights and Kyle's like I have my phone and I'm like, Kevin's like I didn't bring a flashlight. And I'm like, Oh, well, I'm glad you bought a Boy Scout alarm because I have flashlights for everybody.

Brandon  1:08:00

So he's boss.

Collin  1:08:02

But I wasn't even trying to go into the I didn't even know of cave right because we're gonna decide where we're going but I was like, we're gonna be in the middle Arkansas Of course I'm gonna need flashlights like flashlights in Arkansas. That's true.

1:08:13

See myself plus now I'm like, little if I get up in the middle of the night I might want a flashlight to make sure it's still my toe on a dresser.

Brandon  1:08:21

There's no like giant Arkansas spiders and then we're down there like,

Collin  1:08:25

exactly. Or if I have to run to the car, it does something like I don't want to be eaten by an bear. So we, we went through and it's one of those feelings of it's one of those like just it's so engrained in my brain of getting of sitting down in the back and turning off the light. And just like experiencing that darkness the deafening thunderous sound waterfall right there. Yeah, it this it just rained considerably the night before. So there was roaring through there a lot so hard that when you first enter the cave back into that cavern, it took you a little while to figure out how to breathe with the immense change of air pressure, as it was like it was like thumping against your chest and literally, it was like trying to breathe until you could bring it under control. And just like the overwhelming sense of like, the ground is vibrating the air is getting knocked out of me sprays going everywhere. It's a sensory so once like such a sensory overload but also like, you can't help but sense everything going on in that moment. And that was so fun and hiked out. And the other thing that I noticed about this hike have when you first start walking, the trail is really like civilized it's very, it's they have gravel out there in the parking lot. You come in, and then the way route we take where you don't stay on the trail for very long, right, you go up to that little pool and we'll hold it was like being teleported into another world, right? Because you crawl up through that thing. And you come out on the other side and it's just a boulder field and you're scrambling over boulders, there's water coming around, it completely transforms and then on your way back down. It's like you've just experienced this, this like I don't like this biblical level of of wad of violence from the water crashing and the sounds coming in and you leave that you're like well, everything else is gonna seem kind of boring, right? Yeah. And then within because it's like the hike is only like point seven miles in like it's not that far. And you very quickly descend or at a rapid rate, and then you're back on a gravel road, and then you're in a parking lot and you're like, What the heck did I just explain? Experience like it's just yeah, it's wild, right? Like it just oh, it was

Brandon  1:11:17

river is like that kind of right like down here. So like there's a couple of the trails that are like they're much more well kept in like Tralee, right? And then like, the one like the fire tower one like a big long one. It's just like once you get back there, it's like where I'm just in the middle of woods like I there's what in the world happening? Yeah. Like even to start that would you like scramble up this like huge like, rock face? You're like, what who put Why'd whatever like what was this conducive to walking? What who decided this was the place to go? That's funny. Well, I'm glad you didn't get stuck in a cave also.

Collin  1:12:09

Yeah, I know. It's one of those like, I don't think I'm gonna get stuck in a cave. And then like when you're going through this really skinny passages. You're like, I'm also gonna get like, those intrusive thoughts like you just can't help but have those. I am a second okay, like I am like, a rock is gonna fall behind me or in front of me or like me like what? Oh, no. So those are fun. And then we we wrap that up and we had time for one more hike. I sorry for listeners. I don't remember the name of where this thing was because

Brandon  1:12:46

the phone didn't work clearly. Talks at work. Central Arkansas. No goes down.

Collin  1:12:52

We had we had a paper map and we had marked out these places where we were going to go because we knew once we descended from the cabin into the the area we weren't going to get anything. But we found it and I don't know that. This is why this is why I had brought your shortwave

Brandon  1:13:09

radio dad could have guided you in from the barn. You want to

Collin  1:13:15

be one of love that I but the reason I don't remember the name of this place is because the moment I heard the name, my brain switched it to Herxheimer falls which is from the sleep book by Dr. Seuss, where the hammer falls where the great river rushes and crashes down Craig's and great garden Ling gushes like that yes, what my braids in the dam was like Franken Meyer or Frankfurter or something like that. But my brain said Herxheimer and so I only know this location is Horkheimer and is this not Herkimer? Herkimer her come here hold on, let me I mean, what is it like right I

Brandon  1:13:56

guess you are anyway, sorry. I didn't

Collin  1:13:59

know you have any question yet. Maybe hurtin Meyer. If I go to the sleep book here, well, I'm not googling anything. I am in fact, looking at the sleep book,

Brandon  1:14:08

which is right around.

Collin  1:14:11

grabbed it. It's your notes. Not that yet. Here. It is. Very flipping the pages. It's in the beginning, is it? It is? No it's Herxheimer H E R K hyphen, h e i m. R Herxheimer.

Brandon  1:14:29

I couldn't remember. Anyway. So mysterious waterfall and

Collin  1:14:34

Sargon. So So here's, here's how this trail goes. You park on the opposite side of the road in a gravel pull out and you're on a blind curve and you have to run across

Brandon  1:14:46

this very Arkansas thing to do this happens a lot. Yes.

Collin  1:14:52

When you run across in the start of the trailhead, it looks like a dirt two lane dirt track.

Brandon  1:14:58

This is how this is how the devil's backbone thing is, right. It's like state highway state highway State Highway, like teeny tiny, single track. Path turn off. That's the trailhead. Like you're like if you don't, you're gonna miss it like

Collin  1:15:14

yes, but this one you can't turn down the dirt track because that is it's there's no vehicles allowed. You have to know not only is this teeny tiny dirt track on the left, not a turn but it is the start of the trailhead. The only place to park for the next mile and a half on this road is on my right immediately right now. I have to turn and so parked cars towed out, sprinted across the road got on the track and it's like the backside of somebody's property like you know the parks the parks were like we need to have a lease with you like someone operating agreement that we have access here. You hiked down this you go across your block through a power line cut and underneath it, you hit and a spring and then it looks like you're supposed to go forward, but you you don't. You're not actually supposed to go the way that looks like you're supposed to go you're supposed to turn left and hike the spring and you go down the spring and up until this point you're going over like grassy knolls and everything as soon as you hit the spring. You notice boulders everywhere, small boulders everywhere throughout this thing, but there's all there. It's all old. So there's moss and there's giant trees growing up through them. It looks it looks like it's out of a painting. It looks magical. Like it was like there are fairies in here like I know there aren't like this is where they would go that's the pool they would drink from like I know this and you walk in this thing. It just goes down a

Brandon  1:16:40

vision you walking like spinning in circles looking for the bears like knocking on rocks where you have your bell. We did have a bell and I was talking very loudly as I wouldn't want to do hey go and you walk this and you walk in this little path. It was very different than the last Valley one Where's like, Oh, I think like one person comes down this place. A year like this like I am pushing away branches from the trail maintenance guy. That's because yes, he does it all. He doesn't maintenance anything. He just looks at it and goes and walks away still here. All right, that's better. And you

Collin  1:17:19

keep the same thing over on your right. And then all of a sudden you start to hear trip more like heavier water and you're like oh, so then then the the drops from the little waterfall start to get bigger and that starts to spread out a little bit. And then you hear a waterfall and I'm not kidding. Bring it this thing. It's perfectly level and like dropping little by little by little very low. But then it plummets like 60 feet, just straight down the that's not how it works. It's so weird. And then it plummets. And you look down and it just continues trickling on at a normal rate just off that way. Yeah. This Gorge is just there, right? Like, and you're like, Where Where did this come from? Like and you could walk on either side of it and like turn and look back at this but it's like just a massive drop off and I tried to find this place on a Google map. But the thing is, it's so heavily forested you can't see this from Yeah,

Brandon  1:18:25

probably not right like

Collin  1:18:27

it's crazy because this thing this river stream, it's not that big like it's really not there a huge overgrowth and I was like surely you'll be able to see the massive drop off point. No, totally covered completely from the air. Just from the area. You had no idea this this thing existed. And yet it's gorgeous. And it's just out there no nowhere and it makes you think of like gosh like if if this is here, like what? What else is still what else is out there sitting on somebody's back? 40 right that they they know they've known Oh yeah. Right. It's just Oh my gosh, it's so so great. And then we went back and again, the both of these hikes. Each of them were under this one was like half a mile in like that's all of this. It was it was just like the trail takes you to the waterfall and then you just turn around and walk back but it's like, Okay, sweet.

Brandon  1:19:23

There's nuts. It's okay. Yeah.

1:19:27

Yep. So we survived.

Brandon  1:19:34

Being the probably Scott being prepared. All the things,

Collin  1:19:37

right. Yeah. It was like I bet none of you how many of you which one of you has your field for? packed and ready? None of you. I presume the answer was none. None. So I had to was like, Well, I have enough supplies for if one of us dies, so hopefully it's not the one who knows how to use this.

Brandon  1:19:56

Yeah, have you gone hiking in Arkansas, you need some first aid. Like it's just like, it's thorns and like a boulder fields and like you just it's good to have oh, yeah, I seem to recall the time that I one time we were in Boy Scouts when we were hiking in the Buffalo River. Somebody's like, Oh, I know exactly what it was. They shall rename remain nameless on the air but I'll tell you later, they'd like lacerated their hand with their knife like something ridiculous and like they it was so bad. That like they put they had a hard time walking out they cut their hands so bad. So they had to do the thing where we people actually were taking turns like porting their bag for them like they couldn't carry their stuff out. Because they they kept the hand so bad. And they like lost so much blood. Yeah. Quarter that like they either like carried it out like on the stick between some people right or like the tech cap tech. buzz words. It's hard today folks. took turns, like carrying it for for a while. It was it was crazy. So

Collin  1:21:13

yeah, like these little things like not little things. But all of a sudden a minor even like a minor like twisted ankle all of a sudden they're like, oh, what? sheer cliffs of Central Arkansas. Right. Right like how what is this? So that was another reason why we were like short. Like this is not our ready for like are prepared like physically or whatever for like wilderness.

Brandon  1:21:43

Because like it's well so see. Here's the other thing is hikes like this in Arkansas. It's It's deceptive because you also have to you have to take into account a lot of vertical feet. Yes. Right. So like, oh, I only hiked half a mile horizontally.

1:22:02

Vertically though. Oh, yes. Oh, boy. That is that's a good point. Really

Brandon  1:22:07

long as your time because you got to go up and down and all kinds of stuff. So it's there's some not insignificant climbing down there.

Collin  1:22:16

Yes. Yeah. So again, we were like, what this easy like, this isn't going to be strenuous. Like I would like to do something like that eventually, but like, given what we were prepared for. It was like, definitely you're going to be really sure.

Brandon  1:22:31

Is it the boys didn't even bring a flashlight, right?

Collin  1:22:35

Well, I'm sitting here like, Okay, how much is a satellite phone because that's in that? Can I get a satellite phone and just like activate it for the short time, like, how does this kind

Brandon  1:22:49

of work? I don't think that's how that works. I think it's a longer commitment than I think so three days, right?

Collin  1:22:54

I think so. But it's like, you know, I was going through and because I knew we weren't gonna have any service. I did the thing. Pro tip for anybody who uses Google Maps, go to Google Maps. In the upper left hand corner, hit the hamburger menu. Drop it down, there's a little menu that says Offline Maps on your phone. Click this and you can select a geographic area to download offline map data to your phone. So you can still get turn by turn directions. Even if you don't have cell data. This is very handy. i Yes. It's great. It'll even save like some like locations or like restaurants or things like that. So you can even search a little bit in there. I strongly recommend anybody who's traveling like this was one thing that I think traveling overseas or just traveling to places like in North Arkansas, where there's no cell service. So overseas overseas. Like I went, and I found a couple free trials of like, back country, hiking apps of like, Oh great. Like these are good. Like these are good trail topo maps like this is imperfect, like downloading those offline data, all that stuff, because you just don't know what and even then like, you can't prepare for everything but like, God, I need to be able to get somewhere at the end of the day. So it was good. Next to our cabin was a donkey named Pedro and horse named slide, Sly, something like that. So something like that. They say they said hi, a lot. So very nice. Yeah, yeah. And the road to pro kidding to our cabin is one of those like, we're driving in our SUV and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad to have this thing because it was like also raining and it's just red mud. And rocks everywhere. And like, oh, yeah, like really like rocking and rolling and a few things things

Brandon  1:24:59

passed

Collin  1:25:00

by this house towards like, not at the top of this thing that we just climbed up and I feel like we just scratched our way all the way up here this thing and look over it. There's this like, like, trapped out. Ford Focus. sitting there like, like with a body kit and I'm like how Where did you come from?

Brandon  1:25:30

It is pretty mysterious. I don't know. I have no idea. Right? It's just teleport like, I don't know. Like I'm so confused. No, yes. Great. I like

Collin  1:25:46

it's so funny. It was so so yes on our next our next band, our family gathering next is going to be so late because we're gonna make we're gonna have we're gonna have homemade pasta. We're gonna we're gonna be cooking stuff we're going to be we're all going to go hike at last Valley together. I've decided by Fiat

Brandon  1:26:07

over there are two very, very far away from where the pasta making will happen. I know.

Collin  1:26:15

That's one day pasta makings the other day. It's not the sauce. Okay. Because it Yeah, it's still like an hour and 45 minutes south of Springfield. So let's admit it to get there. Yeah, it's a bit it's a bit far but like Yeah, well, let's just all it's I've it's already planned out. It's fine. Man.

Brandon  1:26:30

I definitely don't own hiking boots anymore. So this will be oh,

Collin  1:26:37

well, yeah. And I was like, Well, I've got to get hiking boots for the kids and whatever. So we can go back to the cave and I'm excited. Maybe

Brandon  1:26:44

we'll do Adidas. Running Shoes work.

Collin  1:26:48

Yeah, just have another pair.

Brandon  1:26:49

Okay. Okay. I have this pair

Collin  1:26:54

of shoes. Let's have another maybe get some flip flops for the no All right back.

Brandon  1:27:00

Oh maybe forget soggy I guess that's

1:27:06

yes, that's that was the adventure survived.

Brandon  1:27:11

Interest adventure. So

1:27:13

good. Good stuff. You go. Well

Brandon  1:27:23

that's all I got. Yeah, sounds good.

Collin  1:27:25

Okay, well, until next time. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Yeah, yes. Love you.

Brandon  1:27:31

Love you. Bye. Bye.