It's not too bad yet and I fear it will get worse. I'm not at risk. I mean I'm a little bit overweight but I don't have any like underlying health issues. So I'm not and my family's same thing, you know, my family's except they aren't overweight but they don't have any, you know, they don't have asthma, they don't have any conditions. So I'm not really concerned for them. But I work with a lot of elderly people, I don't work at like a nurse, I work in a factory, so there's just a lot of people that have been there for a while that and since it hasn't hit here too hard, since we're rural, a lot of people kind of, they politicized it I guess. Think that oh yeah, this is just, it's an election year, It is what it is. So a lot of people around here think that like it's just being way overblown and I do think the media is overblown it a little bit, but at the same time like there's people dying and you can't really deny that. So it hasn't been too bad here yet. It's we're turning into a small little hotspot in rural Wisconsin, but it hasn't gotten too bad yet,


I was reading a story that said that if you actually compare you know you apples for apples statistics that it is maybe end up being worse than the 1918 pandemic was at least in terms of this country it was like 675,000 dead 1918 pandemic. Now we've had like 170,000 in the country as a total now it was kind of interesting. Um I don't know they're saying cities just tend to be much cleaner now anyway so if you really compare it maybe in some ways worse. So it was a pretty big it's a pretty you know it's nothing to laugh at I guess but people just have to take precautions and try not to let it affect their lives. I think


Yeah, and that's what I've tried to do. I mean,


it's not


it does in a sense that kids can't go to school. Uh we can't, the kids haven't been in a store in a while, me and my wife will kind of take turns, you know, I'm gonna run to the grocery store, I'll get this stuff, I don't see any sense of bringing the kids with. I mean, trying to get our kids are two and seven they aren't going to wear a mask and I mean they're not gonna sneeze in their arm. So we've tried to take precautions so it's affected a little bit but at the same time like I I would rather be safe than sorry I don't want to find out. You know I would rather win this thing is all over and done with. Hopefully sooner than later. I would rather look back and think like well I did what I could not make it worse. I mean if it is blown out of proportion than fine but I just personally feel like I'll take extra steps just just in case it really is and I I think it really is but I don't have a background in virology or any of that crazy nonsense. I barely got my G. D. So I don't you know I can I've read some stories and stuff online too and kind of form my opinion but I don't I can't say definitively one way or another. I don't understand a lot of you know the what the covid really is. So I just I don't see why it's such an issue. Just be safe once we get through this and you know then we can get back to how things were in a sense. But a lot of people around here don't share them views with me. They are not happy as a matter of fact Wisconsin mandated a mass when you're out in public now. And a lot of the sheriff's uh from nearby towns have said we aren't even going to enforce that. It's like well.

right. Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mm


Because they don't have the manpower to enforce that here either. But anywhere you're out in public or you know, there's, I guess where there are people, anywhere you're out in public a store, wherever, well stores kind of private. Um, even if you're on the sidewalk or whatever, you're supposed to wear a mask, but they just don't have the manpower to enforce it. So you're, you know, we're all supposed to be supposed to be taking as many precautions as possible. But I don't, I'm not even sure if they're enforcing it up in the Bay area down in L. A. But certainly here in Bakersfield, no one's going to like, I don't think the public would react well if the police started, you know, really just cracking down on people for what they thought were violations just because of, you know, this community being a little bit more, you know, conservative and the way it is. But yeah, I guess we're we've had like 26,000 people infected so far. So I'm like a couple of 100 deaths. So it's really beginning to hit us here too.


Yeah and it's a bummer. The local police have said that I just basically they're not gonna start like you were saying, they're not gonna start going out and doling out fines, but what they are going to do is they got a bunch of mass. So that way, you know what they see people, they'll just hand out a mask and you know, you've got to put a mask on because it's a mandate and, and I get it, like you said, they don't, I would say that less than 50% of the people here wear masks so that they can't, there's not, it's a smaller town, there's not a lot of crime, but the cops can't be going out to every store in every business and start issuing tickets and giving out mass. But I feel good that at least my city is saying, hey, you know, we're going to take this seriously. You know, if we see it without a mask, we're gonna give you a mask and, and that's fine. I don't think people should be getting


And


fine.


that's what we should be doing is, you know, somebody doesn't have a mask, You give them a mass, somebody is in a store, you ask them, you know, take a mass, not not, you know, like what you see on social media where there because I think, I think in a lot of cases people feel like people who maybe forget to put their mask on the store before going in, they feel like they're being threatened or whatever. I just I I think the police in your area like you're talking about, that's the right attitude is you give someone a mask, you tell them would you please put this on? You know, to my mind,


Yeah. And I've, I've done that. I went in the gas station a couple of weeks ago to grab some beer, grab some beer quick. I figured being and out I went in and saw somebody with a mask and realized, oh, shoot. So they were helping another customer the workers. So I just ran out and grabbed a mass. I mean people forget it. I, and I,


I


I, I would have been pretty upset if


do.


would


have to


have got


go.


fine for that.


Mm. Yeah. I went to an Ace hardware. I had to, uh, I had to get some, uh, wood screws I guess for mike. Yeah. I went without a mask. I had in my pocket forgot and they just said, would you please put on a mask? So I did. But you know, like in the local convenience store around the corner, which is just like 10 ft away from the Ace, the store owners don't even wear masks. So, you know, instead depends on how people are actually going to carry it out in their own lives I guess. I mean, I know we should all be trying to do as best we can, but you know, sometimes you forget.


It's a different time. It's, I'm used to put my shoes on when I get up and go somewhere. I'm not used to having to grab a mass or I mean I'll have to yesterday I went to the grocery store yesterday the day before and I had to run back in. I was just about to leave and realize that you don't have a mask with me. So I mean it's it's hard to get adjusted to, it's different. So what do you do for hobbies down there? Mhm.


Well there's not a lot to do without us being able to really go


a lot. I mean, you know the buses are still running, you got to wear a mask to go on a bus, but it's so hot. Damn it. There's another train. I'm sorry. I'll try


and


to try to go somewhere where you can still hear me. I apologize.


No, that's fine.


I'll see if it's less noisy out here, although, you know, there's a glare from the sun. But uh yeah, myself, I just do a lot of reading uh, do a lot of netflix, watching, you know, whatever I can to try to avoid too much public, Too much being in the public. The movie theaters are still closed. Um, a lot of stores are still closed. You know, that's a apparel stores. I'm sure they're closed in Wisconsin. Sorry about this. I do apologize.


no, it's fine. No worries.


I never quite get used to living by the railroad tracks and


How long have you lived by the railroad?


yeah, well it was my friend who invited me to come live here with him a few years ago. And uh, you know, it's, it's uh, it's sad, but his girlfriend actually died out on this on these tracks. His brother still lives with us. I mean her brother, Joey's girlfriend's brother lives with us, but she died, we think she got like high or something and or maybe just really depressed because she had to have a feeding tube, uh, affected some kind of, some medications that she was wearing and apparently she died out here on the track somewhere, got run over or what have you. And it was, you know, not good. He was really upset. They were both really upset. A couple of months later. I went to live with them try to cheer Joey up but you know I don't know how great I am at that but you know they're both nice people and I needed a place to stay and um but yeah that's that's kind of how I ended up here was you know christian got uh got run over there.


I'm very sorry


So


to hear that. That's tragic.


yeah well that's all right you know it's pretty tragic. Um uh you know if it's difficult for me one that just hearing the noise when it goes by you can imagine how difficult it must be for Joey thinking about that because he's he's actually has asperger's so he's really intelligent and he remembers like almost everything like he has all these memories from years ago that I'm like I just say have no idea. I don't remember that stuff Joey because we've known each other for like 20 years and so he does not forget this stuff. So it's really tough on him.


Well it's good on you


Tell


for showing


you the truth.


up


I


and the okay um


what's that?


Oh you can finish what you're saying.


Oh, I was just going to say, well to tell you the truth, I I kind of have my own mental problems too. I mean not exactly like Joey's, but no, so I know what he goes through, but just listening to him, he just does not forget stuff. And so I know that that memory of being absent that day and coming home and finding out that she was gone really affects him.


Yeah, I couldn't even imagine, but that's good on you for being there for him. I mean I know you know, I I haven't went through anything like that, but everybody deals with a little bit of you know, kind of tragedies throughout life and I know just having somebody there, I mean whether you're perky upbeat patting them on the back, you know, high fiving, whatever, just having a friend there, knowing you have somebody there is to me it's makes a huge difference. So


I hope so. I hope I've been a good friend. I try to be, it's a great place and they're great people. I lived somewhere with horrible roommates before, so it's nice to be here. I've been here for about three years now


are you from California originally then?


actually. I was born here in Bakersfield. My uh my parents, my and my sisters as well were born in new york there from new york when my father became a doctor, he started getting in trouble and leaving. And uh so they left new york. The family went back, went down to florida, went to Louisiana, all these different places where he was trying to practice but I guess I couldn't find a job that was willing to keep them. And they finally ended up here in Bakersfield and we just ended up staying even after they split because he got in some trouble and so they got divorced and he left. But my mother's stage, she's actually has Alzheimer's disease and she's in a nursing home here in town. So I don't want to really leave Bakersfield even if I if I do some time until you know after her passing because I don't want her to be the only person, I don't want her to be left alone in this city, even though I can't really visit her right now and director care because of the whole covid situation.


Yeah, that's, that's an interesting story. What kind of, what kind of doctor was your dad like a regular


You


family


know,


doctor?


I think he I think he was either either a family physician or some kind of oncologist, but I don't actually know that was so many years ago now though, I mean I feel so old, you know, I'm like close to 40 man.


yeah, I'm getting up there, I'm 34 so time just goes by.


Yeah, I know, I know. Uh so you work at like a food processing facility


No,


perhaps?


I work at uh work at a foam factory and a lot of what we make is like interior components for like tractors and caterpillar. Uh,


No


so


interesting


like, if you look at a headliner in a car, we'd make a lot of them, just not for


what?


cars, we make a lot of them for, again, like john Deere's and caterpillar and Sienna to make a lot of the headliners and, and if you look inside, it's not necessarily foam in the sense of how you would picture foam, just like in your car, you know, a car. The headliner isn't really foam,


This is


it's more kind of fabric. But then we make a lot of the, if you look at the softer components on the inside of tractors and stuff, a lot of that stuff is what we make, It's interesting.


Mhm. Yeah, I wonder why they they locate the factory out there too, because it's closer to farmland or because is there any given reason why um you know, a tractor component factory would be out there in Wisconsin in that area,


I'm not,


we're just


I'm


kind


not


of


really sure they started and somewhere in the cities, I think like 25 35 years ago. And then they bought this location that I work at now, but a lot, not a lot, but we do do some like international stuff too. So we do ship john Deere parts to like europe, I believe. Uh, and then there's some other customers, but there's like john Deere for instance, there's multiple facilities here in the U. S. So I think there's one or two in Iowa, I want to say there's one in Illinois. Uh but I think a lot of our bigger customers are kind of midwest based bobcat is another big one. We do and I think they're based in like South Dakota or one of the Dakotas. So they're not, I mean they're not close but it's not too far away. So I think a lot of the main plants are kind of located in the midwest. So that might be why they did it, but I'm not 100% sure.


it sounds like a very secure job. There will always be a need for tractor parts for farms.


Yeah, I've been there for a while.


Do you do you do any work for like Mahindra? I mean, that's what I've, I haven't heard that name until like, there was a tractor advertisement or something from Mahindra usa here in town, do you


I don't think so.


do


Doesn't


you do any


sound


work


familiar.


for?


I work in the quality department and I inspect a lot of the new parts that come through and I haven't heard that name before. So I don't think we do any anything for them.


I think there's some kind of indian company, I don't know. Um but that, that sounds like a really secure job, like I was saying, I mean, you, you know, john Deere is supposed to be like a pretty conservative company, right, So that's a pretty safe job,


Yeah, we get a lot of money from january. It's been up and down this year just like everywhere else. I mean with everything going on, businesses have been you know up and down so we've had to take some I haven't got cut but we've lost some of the staff they've cut, somewhere. Hours have been cut. I'm supposed to be at work right now actually but I gotta I had to take the time off because business is kind of slow right now but that's like I said that's pretty much everywhere


What? Right, Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Um I'm glad that I'm glad you didn't get cut and so uh so, wow, but that is, I mean, I always think of Bakersfield is being a small town but it's like you know we've got like 354 100,000 people


All


now, what you're describing of 9000 people that that's like one of the outskirts here in kern County, you know? But this is big farmland to there's all the pistachios that get grown here, there's grim way carrots, the the carrot farmers that send them, you know carrots all over the country and then there was that the onion recall right, the red onions, I think those came from Bakersfield, yeah.


Oh the town I grew up in was actually 1100 people. So this is a big city compared to where I grew up.


Mhm. Yeah All right, we got I think we got like one or two more minutes but it's been good, it's been really good to talk to you. I I appreciate I appreciate you putting up with me because I am so inarticulate, kinda scatterbrained, you know, it was it was good to hear from someone from the, from the midwest, you know, the backbone of kind of the backbone of our country, you know?


Yeah I like it here. I like the rural area. I lived in san Antonio for a little bit and I mean teach their own. I know some people love that hustle and bustle of the big city life, but I I love this small town life. I don't have as much, you know nearby, but it's I like it here and it was nice chatting with you too. Is this your first time doing this?


No, it's actually my fourth. So you can imagine what the first three went through. Which one is this for


This


you?


is number three. And you're all right. I think you're a little hard on yourself. You're fine. I mean,


Yeah, Well, I like to like to be humble. I'd rather be humble than arrogant. So hopefully,


I tip my hat to you for that.


hopefully I'm more harder. Yeah.


All right. It's nice chatting with you. I'm gonna get going.


All right. It was good to talk to you too. Thanks a lot.


Yeah. Thank you.


Take care


of


Yeah. Yeah. Oh okay. Yeah.


Hello? All right


Hey how's it going?


good, how are you?


I'm pretty solid. Yeah it's been I'm up in Portland Oregon right now and it was this morning and now it's significantly left honey so it's been like okay mm.


This time of year in uh in Oregon is it usually is usually pretty ratings. It's sort of like Washington.


this is like the zone in which the day is either beautiful and gorgeous and like 65 out or just miserable and muddy and wet and like 50 out. So it's room it's like in that transition zone. Yeah.


Got


Well


it.


what about you? What's the weather like where you're at?


I'm in Baltimore and


Ooh.


it's uh it's rainy um Today but around this time of the year it's usually pretty good weather. It's usually like 65 sunny most of the time,


How


most of the time


cold does it get down there?


in the winter. You know it doesn't it doesn't get that much snow. Um But to be honest with you I've only been here since february so I


I'll


haven't


break it


full went winter but when I came here in february it was it's not several times in february but then it got pretty warm after that so.


Because I'm looking at I'm applying to law schools right now and I'm looking down and not not in Maryland specifically but in D. C. And Virginia. And I've spent like no time in those regions are I've been there during the summer which is a completely different story. Um I'm assuming the weather is like fairly similar. It's good to know what part


of you


Virginia is pretty expensive.


it's yeah parts of it are but I'm looking at you via in Charlottesville which is like small enough that it's not so


Charlottesville.


bad. Yeah I'm I'm a little more worried about like D. C. Or the cost of living in like the big cities because I've never Portland's biggest city I've lived in and we got a really good deal here. So I'm definitely


You


like


know.


not looking words about potential. Yeah.


uh the


Uh.


D. C. Area we call the D. M. V. Area. Um For D. C. It's like it's like that area that's around D. C. Virginia. Um And that area, my sister lives there and she lives in Arlington and she pays I want to say uh yeah I think like $2400 a month for a one bedroom apartment in Arlington.


that's so much.


And it's not, I mean it's pretty nice place, I mean it's like secure, I mean it's pretty nice so I would say I wouldn't call it a luxury apartment but I would call it like a middle class apartment, you know? Um.


I also I'm I was talking because I am right now my I pay like $750 a month for rent in in a city which is ridiculous. So my


No.


standards have been like you know I'm paid very little bit, my one of my friends is down in the bay area right now in Berkeley for at Berkeley for school and his one bedroom is 3000 month, which I cannot, I can literally like, can't imagine what that's like.


That's crazy. Yeah my brother he's uh he's he lives in the bay Area but he has to have two room. It's you know and uh which is but he doesn't like roommates but he has to, you know just put the rent otherwise you just can't do it. You can have just live in your car. I've


no,


heard of people in that area renting out like office space and living in their office space in


I've heard


the


of that


bay


too.


area.


One of my, one of my friends was talking kind of seriously about trying to get like a storage space, you know, like a storage unit and living in there and I was like, that's where I draw the line, like I can't miserable.


I don't think that would be very good. Uh Air filtration in that area?


I don't think it would be very good at anything.


Mm hmm. Yeah. So what type of lawyer do you want to be


Great question. Um really, I mean the pipe


that


dream would be international


that's


human


not


rights, but they're like zero jobs for that. So it really, it depends


extends.


on, I think what I end up liking in law school because I'm trying, trying to keep my options open since I know the dream job


True


is


job.


so


So


dream, you know. Mhm,


yeah, I was actually just talking to a lawyer yesterday. Um but I already forget the conversation. I did one of these yesterday and the guy was a lawyer and I forget what type of, it was hard, it was hard to keep track in the conversation because he was he was super wasted actually.


great,


Like he was he was like, he was like drunk, he was dropping stuff everywhere on this conversation and I was like, I was like what is going on over there? But um but yeah, he uh here's some lawyer, I forget. Uh so it's not a very good story,


There


it's scripted.


was a, there was a wasted lawyer involved.


Yeah, I think he did you know what he did? He did uh like uh ip law with like


Sparrow.


and like with like counterfeiting, I think


Mm How interesting.


I'm still,


That's I mean that's cool, like way beyond me, but like


because we talked about a case, I saw something in the news the other day about how um what would you guess is Italy's main export?


I've legitimately no idea. I know they do a lot of industrial stuff down the south, but that's like as far as I know.


Well it's like luxury goods and uh wine, you know, and there's a story in the news like yesterday where they busted this counterfeit wine, the operation um super sophisticated, who knew that people


That's


are just counterfeiting


no


wine.


exactly that I just think you're going to say like pan bags or something. But I mean, I feel as someone who is not a wine expert, you could want, you could fool me so


So


easily like if you, I'm


I'm


not going to be, I can tell the difference between like a $5 bottle of wine and like a $20 you know, But anything beyond that is like you could, you could


so


so easily flow me. So I guess that


But


it checks out. Yeah.


oh I want to, I want to be able to tell, I mean especially after the first drink be like okay whatever. Uh Yeah um


Yeah. That's really funny. I'm gonna


what


be thinking


did they say?


about that now. That's funny.


Yeah they said um oh they said the operation had been going on, Oh the wine that they were counterfeiting was the world, it was raided last year is like the world's number one wine. So it's extremely expensive and it was on the east coast of Italy and they were putting some wine from the west coast of India of Italy um into these bottles and they said the bottles matched the perfect weight down to the weight of like a piece of tissue. That's how perfect. It wasn't the only way they only way they got caught was there were one of the they have been doing this for like 10 years and the only way they got caught is one of their truck delivery people was driving and accidentally dropped a case on the side of the road and I guess didn't notice and then some people came and they you know they they caught him just by just by just by a one small act of stupidity.


Yeah. That's crazy.


So who?


The more, you know,


What well what about criminal law?


it's interesting


It's


to me. I just, I feel like I need to know more about it because part


you


of


are


it, part of what


are,


stresses me out is the idea of like of course if I


it.


was always on the morally right side of the case, it would be no problem. Like I think that was cool. But realistically sometimes you're gonna have to be defending someone who you just know is


No.


guilty and like I don't know how well I can handle that if it's something, if it's minor stuff like if this is like divorce court and it's like, you know, that's a much lower. I mean emotionally not great,


but like lower stakes thing. But if it's like we're dealing


But.


with someone that you are like 99% sure killed someone and you're trying to convince people that he didn't like I feel like that would get to me. It was, you know, you know what I mean?


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah now that I think about that especially if it was something like brutal, you know like a rapist or something and you know. Uh


Or like imagine being like the ones like OJ's lawyer, you know like I don't wanna I don't wanna


So.


do that. Like I mean you're going to get famous but like Yeah.


that would be difficult. Yeah you're right, it really does depend on the um the circumstance. Uh you can also I mean I don't know how does being a judge work, do you do you have to be a criminal lawyer first? You know?


I actually,


I'm.


I'm not sure about the exact process. I don't I I know


and


it basically takes like forever and you have to be hyper qualified so that I should probably figure that out The reality. The reality of law school. That's kind of weird is that it's actually completely acceptable to go in and say like I have no idea what I want to do. Which feels weird to me because it's such a like, you know, you're paying so much money to spend three years studying this but it's really common to have no idea what you want to do going in or like how stuff works. Um I hope I figure stuff out. Mhm

okay. Yeah If. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah. You might change your mind to and uh I went to, so I went to medical school not far from Charlottesville in Lynchburg Virginia. And I did uh but I only did, I dropped, I got a biomedical sciences degree and then I did a year medical school and I realized I hated it. And so now I work in technology, which is just completely different. So but um uh but yeah, you should find out soon because those bills can rack


that's and


up.


that's the stresses me out is like I know I mean if you if you did your medical school you know the drill right of like it really builds up and I have so far I have like a good offer from a slightly lowering school and for me it's like do I, the stressful part is I know if you go to a really great great ranks school, it's like okay you're going to have more job offers, you're gonna be able to earn more money but I also do not want to go a quarter of a million dollars in debt to get access to that you know? And it's like if I could get a full ride at a lower rank school like with this with the lack of stress of not being in like soul crushingly deep debt be work that yes, that's definitely something I'm hoping. I'm really hoping to get money from a good school because that would make my life 100 times easier, but who knows? Right.


Or you or you could just gamble and then uh go into debt and then hope some super progressive liberal candidate wipes out all all your expenses.


Really? I mean


That's another


I've


option.


got a dream. Right? Yeah. So what do you do, what do you do now you said you're in technology? Mhm.


I worked for a an agency, they're actually out in new york, but I'm in Baltimore I was before this actually was living in Panama, but because of the coronavirus, I do, I was repatriated. Um, basically said I had to go back to United States, I didn't know where, I didn't know where to go, but my sister was an early 10, which is like 30 minutes away, and I was like, and I know a lot of her friends, I was like, I'll just, I'll just come back into this area. Um, we basically, we we we create software that helps for like corporate training, um, mainly around how to make ID E eight and stuff come up with new ideas and, um, uh, mainly around like customer experience and how, how users, uh, you know, interact with their, with their products. Um, so I've been doing that for quite a while and it's not enough. So it's like, um, I'm uh, 10 99 so some months are really busy. Some months aren't, which is the flexibility even before coronavirus was great because I can work anywhere. I mean, I was, I was in Panama brazil and talk about rent. I mean you can get like, uh, even in Panama City, which is probably the most expensive place. I was in South America. Um, you know, you can get a luxury apartment there, like a luxury high rise with cleaning because most of the places they're cleaning because they, they want to sort of check up on you, make sure you're not trashing the apartment, but you get like a luxury one for like 415 months probably.

Mhm Oh. Mhm. Mhm Oh. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Really? Mhm, mm. Mhm


That's crazy. Okay, that's good. That's good to know what?


Yeah. But my Panama city was actually the most expensive because Kansas city is actually, it's a, it's a, it's actually like a first world city in a third world country. It's very tied to America. Actually the official currency in Panama is the US dollar. They do have a balboa but it's they accept both. It's tied. It's one on one because we helped them with the Panama Canal and so are like our diplomatic relations are like deep with them.


I did not know we were that tight with them. I mean


No.


I knew that like there was some relationship there, but I had no idea was that extreme. What, why did you decide to go there to


I


live?


was just hopping around um you know I was with a buddy of mine and we he was he was a programmer and we're just hopping around splitting places and then I ended up staying there liked it. Um uh I really like the um this area called Gambo which is like a rain forest area. Um like a real rainforest is just it was very it was very silent. It was nice. But the internet spotty. That's the problem.


Yeah, but that makes sense for someone in tech that seems not that ideal.


Yeah. Yeah. So really what you have to do is have to uh you know I have to call ahead of time before you book a place like an Airbnb or you get an apartment and to have them test the internet and you have to do you know you have to go through a process and then also make sure that you have backup options. So yep


that checks out,


have you ever been to south America or central America?


not south


No


America, but I did


and


a summer program in Mexico, which was really, I'm from Hawaii originally, so I did not know any, I had taken one year of spanish um


Mhm


and I was okay,


but you know, I didn't


here


have any of the cultural immersion that you get a lot of like the southern, you know, mainland us


my


because there's just no spanish speakers in Hawaii. Um So


so


we, it


we


was in the, not Mexico city and it was in kenya to which is like a smaller state where it's really not touristy and it kind, I mean it was amazing experience, but like my spanish was so bad when I


ha


showed up


no


one speaks english there because it's not a lot of tourists. And you find like in my host family, the dad was the only one who was like, okay, I think it was never home, so it was definitely a like, okay, I'm gonna have to sink or swim here, but it was, I mean it was amazing, like I um I've been one of my friends is there right now and I don't think I'm going to go right, because I just I mean it seems like a good way to get stuck somewhere right now, the border closes, but I was, before everything happened, I was considering you're trying to move and like do basically working out like you were um because it was it's I mean it's a great, great place, but


yeah like you said it could be a good place to get stuck, you know


Especially


you have to


now. Yeah.


you know you have to have a really you have to have a lot of things sort of lined up um also because you know what if you lose a job and you're in Mexico and then you know and then you got to fly back and you know so you you have to have like a lot of things going on and you have to be prepared. Like expats are usually like pretty prepared with that stuff you know multiple forms of couple banks you know have all the cards, paypal Venmo all that stuff you know.


when I was, I was in Singapore all the way across the world for about half a year and it was, I had no idea what goes into because even for half a year, you know, which is not a crazy amount of time, just the amount of stuff you need to be aware of basically in case anything goes wrong, you know, like okay, I have my, my money in my drawer and I have my one card that works with, you know, the certain certain places


it's


at all yet. It was,


If it


it was weird like I


the


mean go for


what are you saying?


go ahead.


I mean, I was just gonna say like it was a great


you


experience, but like definitely taught me to be way


To speak


more


with


responsible


your response?


for myself, not even in like in a maturity way, just like, you know, realistic, like what stuff do you keep on you at all times? Yeah. Uh


Yeah


huh.


the uh the thing that I screwed up on the most, well I thought I was prepared for everything but the thing that I screwed up the most was I'm pretty tall guy. I'm I'm six ft seven and my my my shoe size is 14.5 and they don't sell that size down there. Those ties down the maximum size they have there is 12 and amazon especially in Panama. Panama doesn't really have a mailing system. Like the U. S. Postal service there's no such thing as a proposal service. Um and there you can order something from amazon for the United States but it takes like three months and then like the odds of it even coming to you are I mean it's up in the air even when you're using like ups and stuff so those are the things you have to think about

Yeah. Mhm. Mhm Oh. Mhm. Yeah. Oh. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm.


That's


practical


it.


things.


Um I actually had a similar, I don't have big feet, but my feet are wide um


which is in America, not, I mean even in America for women's feet, right, it's like not a, it's not


it's


very common


not very fun.


and in Asia I just had to be like, okay, these are my shoes while I'm here. Like I guess I'm not getting shoes that fit every time. Yeah, it was not, you know, it's the little things that you don't realize they're


but


just like different


great


clothing


trends are different, you know,


you


stuff


know so


like that. Like I didn't um like


what?


there you can wear basically


Quick


in Singapore, you can


for


wear like short shorts and slippers and that's fine. But if you wear a tank top that shows any cleavage whatsoever. That that's unprofessional. Even if it's in like a nice, even if it's like a shoulder covered, you know, like nice top. So it was definitely a weird thing to realize like okay, we're gonna have to like it's only T shirts here where whatever you want from the waist down. But

sure. Right. Mhm. Oh yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.


Singapore, they speak english. Right


yeah, they do well, they technically a four official languages, but pretty much everyone speaks english. Yeah.


mm. There what's what's your thought on their government there? Because like I don't know a lot about it but I understand they're pretty strict but also it's a good thing in some ways but in other ways it's bad. What's your opinion on there?


Actually, um actually wrote my senior thesis about specifically relating to their government policies. I really like it. Actually. I think my reasoning is that I think there's no way it could translate to the U. S. Because


No.


it's way too small and the government is so different from ours. Um, but they're a really authoritarian country, but they genuinely have their citizens interest in mind, which I think, which is pretty unusual, right? Like


Man.


you hear authoritarian, you're thinking like a lot of corruption, a lot of exploitation, but there's things like, okay, you guys know the rules like don't don't chew gum in public because you were cramming up that you're like making everything gross. So like truth in your homes don't shoot them public and we're not going to get mad at you. It's like, you know like there's an actual enforceable fine for littering where you like if you if people see you littering, you'll probably have to pay like 50 50 bucks where it's just it's tough words, reasonable rules, you know? And some of them they're very strict though. Um So it's it's a system that works I think only works because they have a small population and because everyone gets the kind of gets what's going on. Um It's the people like, especially people who come and try to import drugs illegally, they still, they have an active death penalty that they use and it's used barely, especially if you're importing

Right. Uh huh. Yeah. Mm, mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Oh really really strict,


Where are


drugs,


they?


even


Well


if it's if it's just marijuana. Um Someone last year was put to death for importing like a couple of kilos of weed.


No way. Just weed wow,


which is which I think is like pretty fucked up. But


that


it's


blows


also.


my mind, that blows my mind apart.


I know yeah, no it's it's crazier, especially like coming from Oregon where it's legal. Um But the thing I do give the reason I'm like okay I kind of get it is that this is just they've always done this and it's never it's not like a you know well you're kind of allowed to but these other people and it's like no if we catch you you're going down so I don't love it, but I get it, you know? And it seems fair to me just because people know the drill. Mhm.


they usually have, I mean I guess the good side is they're pretty wealthy country, right?


Oh yeah it's the when I was first there, I mean you're, you're in Baltimore, so I'm sure you've seen like large homeless populations just in any big city. Um there when I first my first week or two, they were like, oh, you should come to this um, this program we're doing. It's a speech talk on how to solve the homeless problem in Singapore. I was like, oh, how bad is it here? They're like, oh well we have a few homeless people. I was like, that's the extent of the problem. It's like they're like under 100 homeless people, you know, like some like ridiculously small amount. It's just a very well supported wealthy country. So the problems are all they exist, but there's so much smaller than anything else, You know, Like I didn't see any, there's no such thing as like a homeless encampment there or like anything like that.

Yeah. Uh huh. Mhm. Oh yeah. Uh huh. Mhm. Yeah


I heard um not to think about and I think I know more about Singapore than I thought but I I I thought I didn't know much about it but I thought I thought I read something a few months ago that they have a like a high population of people from like Malaysia and countries like that who worked there as almost sort of like slave labor in a way, like a


No.


really low wages and do some of that work.


Yeah, you do, you do know a lot more than, yeah, they have a really large migrant worker population. A lot of them are actually from India as well. Um, they come up for a distance and that's part, that is probably the part of the country that everyone has the most issues with. Everyone who's mildly socially progressive because it's really how they keep the quality of life so high


Well no.


is that they import these laborers and they have really bad living conditions. It's essentially barracks and you get paid like a couple bucks a day to build roads and to, you know, keep


you know,


things


keep


clean


it clean


and to


just


just keep everything working. Um, a lot of people, the reason it got so much attention in the past year.


Fuck


So


yourself


is that when the coronavirus,


that record. Mhm.


the report was doing really amazing, you know, they closed off, they basically had no new cases and then they restarted their migrant worker program


perhaps.


but they didn't increase the quality of living for those people. So it just read everywhere because they're living in these barracks right where it's like 20 people to 100 square foot place. Yeah. And that's what drew a lot of international attention was the country's been doing so well. And then for a while it had like the highest increase in cases in Asia because of that. Just. Yeah.


But with that, would you say Singapore is a place to like, because I've never I've traveled to never places, but I've actually I've never been anywhere in Asia, the farthest east, I've been as Russia, but I've never been anywhere in Asia and I'd like to go sometime um it's Singapore, like a place that people vacation at or is it more just like a more of like a financial place for people, you know, what would you say? Is it is it is it tourist destination?


It's kind of both. I would recommend if you go to Singapore plan planet either living there for a while or only spending two days there because it's interesting the public transit is great and the food is super cheap, but the cost of living is fairly expensive. You know, renting a place there is a little bit cheaper than in the U. S. But not by such a big amount that it's like you know you're not you're not saving a ton of money. Um So it's really good for a short visit because it has, you know everyone's gonna understand you first of all. Um The really nice thing about being in Southeast Asia that I didn't realize that generally is an american is that we have a better reputation traveling there than Europeans because a lot of, yeah because the thing what I didn't realize is that it's pretty expensive to get over there from America right? So the people usually get there either people who tip well or kind of non kind of harmless like you know the nomad travellers right who don't we're kind of obnoxious but don't do anything bad, The Europeans who show up it's cheaper. So

Uh huh. Mhm. Right, mm hmm. Oh really? Mhm. Uh yeah. Right,


man.


it's all the like the party people who show up and trash the area and a rude and don't tip your american, they


because


actually


they


like


don't


you a lot


more.


don't know, they're there and some of those european countries, they don't even they don't have the concept of tipping, so yeah.


And they don't, it's not like a bad thing if you don't tip in Southeast Asia, it's just like, oh you're not like actively trashing our country and you gave me like an extra buck


you


could,


okay, you know you and you immediately like go to the


No.


top of the top of the pool so people and you get, it's a very polite country which I appreciate it like you can uh it's a good place to be a visitor. Um I'd say the same thing for Thailand in a different way where it's really easy to visit. Um Some of the countries like I'm a little bit nervous about ever going to china just because I know it's, unless you're in the really big cities if you don't speak any mandarin or Cantonese like can't really do much. And


google


the safety and the safety doesn't seem great to me either. Um Yeah, like Singapore and Thailand I think are probably the best to visit as a tourist because they're


And


safe. People speak english.


that's good to know.


Yeah. And Thailand, especially if you ever wanted to spend time somewhere in Asia. Way cheaper, huge expat populations but also like a very clear cultural identity. So it's interesting. Um


That sounds


but


perfect.


it's still easy to get around. Yeah. Would would recommend as


Well,


someone


thanks,


who wasn't an expert


thanks for


in


the


Thailand.


advice. Well, I think our


Well


I think our time's up here. What? I don't think you got your name. My name is ted not like we'll probably never see each other again. What was your name?


laura lee. Yeah,


well, it was nice to meet you have


meet you.


a great weekend


Yeah. You too. Bye.


Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Yeah


Hi


I am.


how are you


There you go.


on this? Yeah. Mhm


I'm Stephen okay.


Girl


Is this carol


Cheryl


Cheryl? Okay. Hey, how's it going?


good. I just woke up growing up.


That's a good way to be. Um it's like uh 7:00 here.


Okay. I'm on the west coast. That's for so


gotcha in California.


yes I am. What


All


about you?


there, I'm in Atlanta. So yeah, no, actually my brothers island California working on a job, he just started maybe like uh I don't know, a couple of months ago so

Mhm Okay. Well yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.


And have you, have you been out to California to visit him yet?


No, no, no, it's coronavirus going on and everything.


Oh that's yeah, I


But


like I just flew over my head completely figure out we're in the middle of a pandemic. No.


so you said you just took a trip?


Yeah, no, I haven't. I mean where I mean, I'm just like I completely forgot about that. Yeah.


Yeah, he's been traveling a bit but I think he said he's going to come back for thanksgiving so that's good but we haven't really done much traveling, went to the beach this summer. Um we did that but we haven't really gone to many places recently.


Yeah, I really have any there. So it just, I just completely forgot we're in the middle of a pandemic. I've just been pretty much staying at home. How are things over there in Atlanta?


that's pretty good. I mean I work from home right now so I haven't had really do too much, so when we go out wear our masks and stuff but I only do too much, you know you get a restaurant, it's usually like off night or something, it's not like friday saturday so it's not too too busy

Yeah. Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mhm.


Okay. Yeah like here in in in my county it was just like a few weeks ago they just voted to reopen everything so most restaurants and or whatever like gyms and stuff have been reopened the last two weeks to full capacity and I'm just like I have not even in the restaurant yet or really bloom so I don't know, kind of skeptical.


it's like half capacity here still. Um


Oh it is. Okay. Yeah.


I mean everything is open but like the restaurants they have like half the tables like ripped off, remember? So um if you want to go like on a friday or saturday or sometimes that like you have a long time just it's like only half the seating or less or whatever so we usually just take stuff to go or get stuff delivered or whatever so too bad or not but I


Like


was.


being that out like, like we went from like only outdoor dining or take out to just full on capacity. So I don't know how that happened. Just there was no like medium


Yeah. That's crazy. I would be I'm surprised it's all opened up there especially


well


it's like you think California,


I


California is like the cautious state.


can't speak for other counties,


What county here again?


riverside county


No, I don't know


burke


I probably I probably only know the big ones I guess.


about like an hour east of Philly. Mhm.


Gosh. Yeah.


Mhm.


Yeah I think um my


And


brother I think you said it's um I forget what he said it was I think I think it's like a little bit north ability. Um Forget what what city it's near. Look it up I guess. But let's see what he told me.


Yeah, I'm originally from like like about an hour north of L. A. In ventura um completely


It might be would be venture. Let me see what what what it is. It's um I forget.


North of L. A. Would be like ventura, santa, barbara san luis Obispo unless it's like really north of like san Francisco. Mhm.


Yeah I'm trying to see um I can find it but venture sounds familiar.


have you been up to California?


No I haven't really been uh that much um been to the airport that's about it, flying flying different places. Um So I haven't really been to California really. I might have to go sometimes. It is it nice out there? I guess the weather is nice.


Weather is nice. Yeah. I definitely think it's about 70 and I were still in the 70's. I still sleep people at the beach.


Yeah that's great. Yeah, he's in so he's in ventura.


What


Yes, I've been sure. Yeah, yeah


crazy. What is he doing here in Madeira?


um he went he went to schools and engineer, so he's working


I don't


for


know.


a super charter company, it's called Magnuson superchargers. So


what is it going to please a supercharger company?


um it's like uh I guess you're running the cars, it's like uh you put you put on your car it makes it go faster, it's like aftermarket like part it's kind of like kind of like a turbocharger but works a little differently. But yeah, I mean it's it's like he's a mechanical engineer so you can have to be like a uh get a math and all that to deal with that I guess. So yeah, he's pretty smart like that. But


um yeah, that's cool. So you grew up in ventura?


I did yeah I love it here. It's a great place to be right on the beach


Yeah, he said it's around the beaches like uh I think a beach bungalow, I think it's like a little older or something but still like kind of jealous being out


systems


there, it


and


sounds


engines


really nice, you know?


definitely. I mean if he's supposed to be out there for a while you definitely need to go out and visit ventura.


Yes you can check it out. I mean I think hopefully maybe like uh well about that a little while and maybe next year I can make a trip out there I think but then hopefully will be safe to travel or feel comfortable on the plane or whatever. Put.


hopefully. I mean like I did here like like Fauci saying that there there was another another vaccine that was supposed to be um the like had a pretty good results and um ready to go out and by the end of the month by the end of the year. So I don't know, I just want the pandemic to be over. I want to go out.


Yeah are you uh an introvert or an extrovert?


I don't know, I don't I don't really think I'm an extrovert. I think I'm more introverted, but I don't know, I guess I'm I'm feeling pretty chatty today.


So it doesn't it doesn't bother you to be kicked up then maybe even if you're an introvert and you don't need to be okay staying at home if you're an extra where you wanna go out and then uh try, it bothers


Well,


anyone.


I mean like I really haven't been out at all since february. No, March, it was March, March. I haven't been out since March,


I


so I'm just like


don't believe it. Like how did he survive? Just like get everything delivered or?


pretty much


So I guess like uh you can get everything online now so.


literally you can get everything. There's so many apps to do everything and a lot of these delivery apps are doing it free like deliveries. Yeah. There's always, I always feel like promo codes for like shopping, you know, like they have like, you know, have, have you heard of shipped an instant car? They do like your groceries and stuff.


Yeah I've done I've done it's a cart um


Mhm.


Currently doing I haven't done shipped but everything doing the Uber eats I guess. Um That that's pretty good. You can get a lot of restaurants do that.


yeah, it's, it's pretty good until I've used a grubhub and door to hash and


you must have been that much so it's like a lot. Yeah I mean like that's that's a move been going up there I think but I mean I think you know like you know delivery is good like um but we did like the pick up where you go to the store and then they put it in your car so that works pretty well too. But then you still you still have to like drive somewhere so it's not as good as maybe getting delivered. But um where we are like a lot of times like you couldn't get deliveries for a while like when it first started like amazon and stuff is like all the slots were filled up and everything so you can like get a get a time slot now, it's pretty easy to get a time slot for awhile. I was like kind of challenging.

mhm. Mhm. Oh yeah. Right. Mhm, mm. Right.


Amazon delivers food? Yeah.


it's like there's this thing called amazon now and like it as like grocery and the like even bringing like whole foods stuff. Um I don't know if it's everywhere but it's in it's in our area at least but you can get like your grocery store amazon. Uh huh.


I had no. Is that just whole foods or is it?


It's like amazon and whole foods like some of the stuff comes from, hopefully some of the stuff comes from amazon, it just kinda depends what it is. But it's pretty it's pretty good but like we we have been doing it just to like supplement stuff like you forget how we need to buy this or whatever and then like that was good because it saves a trip of the store, like you might still go make your normal run to the store whatever, but like you need something, it's a convenient way of getting it, but like when all this happened like they all the time slots filled up and you couldn't get the deliveries for like a couple of months I think now it's back but um you know it's just like using it and I guess they wanted so many delivered people so it just fills up.


wow, I'd have to, I have to look into that then amazon now. Okay.


Yeah you can try uh try and see if it's in your, I assume they have everything in California but I don't know. Okay


yeah, I'm sure, I just, I don't know.


they got to have you guys have more than that we have here in Atlanta I'm sure, but


Uh huh. Uh huh.


pretty good. So you do a lot of these uh prolific


No,


things, or is this your first one?


um this is actually my second conversation one, but I have been using prolific for a while now. Oh, what


Yeah.


about you?


Um I started doing it um it was probably like, I don't know, and probably like in May or something like that, like in terms of prolific, like I was just looking at things to do was at home like during all this and like it seems like you want to make some extra money. So um been doing it like I've done a couple of these, I don't know how many have done, but like some of the time people don't, no one shows up and then it's kind of like, it's too bad because then like I forget, I wish they'd give you if no one shows up, but it's like a very small amount of money. Uh Yeah, like it's like they give you a couple cents, you know? No, just you wait like five or 10 minutes and then just when you get like you're you're like 20 cents or something Saturday. So you feel like you waste your time. But some issues up until you get, it's kind of worth it sudden chat a bit and you get paid. So it's a pretty good deal. Um.

Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Oh um for Yeah. Uh huh.


Yeah, definitely. I mean that like prolific is pretty like, you know, like whatever I'm like in between. Like I also work from home, so like in between like whatever, like when I'm bored, I like pull it up, it just reminds me like ever like an undergrad, like you know everyone had to take psychology and if you took psychology you had to sign up for these studies as part of like your credit. So it's just like, like there's a lot of similar studies that I remember doing an underground, I'm just like, oh but I get paid for it. Cool.


so you probably if I understand what they're trying to get at with these like like sometimes it's like have you ever done the ones where they they're like at the end of it there like actually we lied about all this stuff and um it wasn't nothing we said at the beginning is true and we're just trying to see how your reaction.


What


It's just


do you what do you think the studies about?


it's usually well it's usually like the ones like that usually it's um you have a partner and it's like ends up being like a just a computer thing, like an algorithm or something I guess.


Oh you mean


It's


like.


like like you're being paired with the partners, they're going to play a game with you and like okay and then it's like it always ends up being like


I have about a few


fake


of those


thing.


recently or the ones where like you have to negotiate and stuff, but it's not really anybody there and


No


it


that's


immediately.


not the one like the last one I got there was like um do


What?


you have to like divide money up or something and then passed back and forth,


Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


See how you would do if you keep the money if you share it or like how you put into that and it's just like fakes, you're like okay whatever. It doesn't matter but it's kind of neat. I mean I just I'm working rooms, I just do it like as I have spare time or if I'm on like a a boring call or something I'll go and like doing real quick or whatever but you know like you know get them time to time. Some days I'll get like a ton and then some days it's like I don't get any set. Only know why that is, but It just kind of depends on the day and sometimes they'll just be one after another, you'll get like 10


Whoa.


in a row and sometimes they'll just be a drought. So


There's no set pattern.


it was kind of


I didn't


I get,


believe it in the background of my brows are like, oh there's some notification sure. But yeah and then when it's slow it's really slow.


yeah, I don't think I've done that made this week at me like a couple.


Well


I forget exactly when you have done total, but I probably got like £400 or something like that of total. It's pretty good for a couple months.


that is, yeah.


But I talked to a guy um and he claimed actually I think it was the first conversation on this I had he claimed that he was able to get like that much in a month and I was like, but he said he was on like online 24 7 was like, like it was just full time job to


do surveys. And so he was like a process. He was saying he's getting like that much a month, but he must have been hitting every single one because as far as I can tell, that's like a lot, a lot To


There


be able to do


was


that 1 - one. But yeah, it's so kind of surprised. Like he was literally that was his full time job to do service.


Well maybe he had multiple accounts.


Yeah. I don't know. I didn't ask him where he probably don't want to tell me being recorded. Like he was cheating on her or whatever,


Yeah. Because you have to like literally qualify for whatever like every single about


why like.


me uh whatever. Check. What do they ask you? Like they ask you like, oh, what's your income? And do you have any pre existing conditions?


Yeah, they have


Like


all of the question.


I don't think for a lot of that.


Yeah, I have the little um browser extensions that just goes off whenever there is one and then all click the a lot of times like at least I'm as slow as I am. Like a lot of times you go the time I get there it's very full so so you


Me


have


too.


to be really quick to click on it and then when you get one like yes god and then you're like oh how much does this how long does this take? And then like sometimes like I can't believe I started doing this like we have started to get to finish it and it's like you know like I kind of begrudgingly do and it's like a little amount and it's like some of them some of them take a lot longer than they claim. They're like this only takes like two minutes two minutes and 10 minutes later like clicking and just like but you know I don't know depends some of them really short but it's kind of cool thing.


Yeah, definitely. Uh Yeah, I like there's I mean I can definitely relate to that. There was like a few long ones. I haven't had one in a while thankfully where it's like, oh cool. £3. All right. And it's like, oh my God, it's like taking forever. Just really


So it's


deep


like, it would


there.


be like 45 minutes. Then they definitely


With attention


get,


tax.


they definitely get there, get there, definitely get their money's worth. I feel like, so that's, that is that is one thing I'm like, you're definitely getting your money sorted through with me. So it's fun to do. It's like kind of fun for beer money or whatever. So


Yeah. Your money. Are you and read it? Is that how you came across that?


Oh no, I'm not. But yeah, I've seen like, uh I think there's like a post about that and now I do read read it from time to time, but it's like a good, that's probably the best um place on there. If you just want to like understand, understand what normal people's opinions are on something going and read on there because it's just like whatever the unvarnished truth of everything.


I'm


So


just


there for the comments like I learned so much just like reading like you know other people's thoughts.


yeah, the comments songwriter definitely invest. I think that's like, probably it's the probably most real part of the internet. It just, it just seems like you can go and just read and it's just like whatever, whatever. People just tell you straight up what they think, you know? So, but that's pretty, it's pretty cool. Um but yeah, you definitely, um, you definitely get like some interesting ones, but recently it's been a lot of like just politics and things, you know, some of that and there's aren't that really interesting. I think like psychology ones or more interesting are the ones you play a game or I actually like the ones where you do like evaluations of stuff, they're like, hey, is this product you buy this product or those are kind of fun. But um, I don't know, you just get like, I usually do them also at least unless I'm busy, I'll do them all. But you know, I guess I should be like more selectively like okay now I'm only gonna do uh the high value ones but it's kind of kind of about all the same amount per hour I think as you know like about evens out the short ones are you know that don't

Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Oh. Oh. Uh huh. Yeah. Uh huh.


I


take that


think


long to them


those part, most of like the studies are pretty interesting. Like I remember one like in the last few weeks where I had to grocery shopping had to fill up my cart with whatever. It was


early.


like Yeah, it was like a like an online shopping store. Like it was a grocery store but I had I could choose whatever I wanted. I just had to be a minimum like $30 and whatever it was, majority was like vegetables and fruits and I was just like, I don't know what else to get. And he said that if like you are chosen, you could possibly actually get everything that was in your shopping cart. I don't actually like, I thought that was really interesting.


That's funny. Yeah, I think I do want somewhere that I don't know if it was like exactly the same one, but I've done ones like that where you pick it, pick the items you want or whatever. Um


Okay.


I think one of my dad that was like you're you'll get you'll get this if you're chosen to win the contest will get this product sent to you. But then and then they're like well we can actually do that sort of give you the money for the product. I'm like actually that's but really just have the money for so or is worked


out.


pretty


But


familiar.


yeah, those are pretty, it's pretty cool. I like it a lot. I wish there was like another one that was like as good, but I haven't really found any other other sites that is good.


Yeah, I have not either.


I did. Um There's something called like Swag Books and I tried that like um it was extremely annoying because like You would get disqualified least. I would, I would get disqualified from almost every survey. But like they would have you answer like 20 questions before they disqualify you. And of course like you're some kind of burning up for your time not doing anything productive. And like it's like you answer, you know or you put a profile together or whatever you say, okay here's my information. But they will ask you the same stupid questions like you know what what's your age like over and over again,


All


it's like, oh and then you don't qualify, it's like okay and then they give you like basically equivalent of like a penny uh if you don't qualify. So it's like okay, I just burned five minutes and then so you have to do like I figured it out like I had to do probably five or six of those before I got one that I got something on. Um So it really wasn't that fishing, but it's like all gift cards to is the other thing. So it's kind of useful but it's also like just the amount that you can earn is like really minimal. Probably if you really savvy with it. Um You could get the to get to the right ones or whatever. But it was kind of weird because like the the service don't even have like titles set to like just as like Survey one and has the points. You just run of like quick society. I was I didn't I didn't feel like two days. I was like yeah just completely stupid. Just like quit it. But

right. Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Really? Just yeah,


it


two.


sounds like I'm suck.


Yeah. So it's really time way. So I think I learned uh $5 or something. Yeah. It's like completely like voice that time. So it wasn't really that fun. It was just a bunch of annoying. I think it's mostly like companies to do those two. So it's just like um


Well,


trying to like advertise to you make it through this thing. It's not really a survey. It's not like an academic survey, anything real. So it's kind of a scam I'd say borderline.


I don't similar like before prolific as well. It was like an app though, I don't even remember what it's called and it was fine. Like that was back back, you know, like before they actually had attention checks, like a few 100 before they're like, hey, I don't think you're really like,


Cliquey.


like yeah, like clicking like Oh, cool.


Yeah. I think like if you're really good with computers you can set up like a boat to do it, but with all these attention checks, I don't know if the, but could we would have to be really smart but to figure out all these different things um that they have in there, but some of them are really like, just like deceptive. Like it's, it's almost like they're trying to trick you and then some of it's just like paying attention like this, but like sometimes it's like really convoluted the checks. But um yeah, I usually get paid for most of it, I think one or two here that I miss out or whatever, but usually they actually pay, which is pretty good.


Yeah, definitely. Um I haven't really run into anything so uh yeah,


It's a good, good thing. What line of work are even


well, so I'm actually finishing medical school, but I'm applying for for the past right now. So in the meantime I am doing contact tracing,


for? Like covid. Okay. That's cool.


I've just done so much like


It's gonna be a doctor.


well yes, I am.


Oh wow, that's awesome. Any type of specialty or is it like just general practitioner?


That's exactly, I wanted to want to do family medicine, so


I found


I want


this


to


do


be a general practitioner. Okay. Now pediatrics?


You see I really like pediatrics and OBI but I just can't really decide between the two and I just, you know, like if even if I went into that, like I don't want to, you know, forget the full scope of practice that, you know, I went through medical school. So I would like to go through like I want to retain all that. So I think either like full practice or general practice is probably better because I can still do both of those and retain everything, you know, want to everybody.


So do you go to like actual classes or is online now


I'm pretty much finished. I'm just doing


are you


like


done?


my yeah


Okay.


my last exam and I'm applying for the next so we have to do like residency which is further training. That's what I'm trying to.


Yeah. Yeah I don't no every all the details. But yeah you have to do residents of like two years right


It's anywhere from 3 to 5 years but


For 3-5 years. Okay.


it's about three years. Yeah.


Okay. Yeah I had a girlfriend that was doing it at one point time but like we're dating, she she was in that part, so she was just this data or whatever but yeah. Okay. Cool.


What about you? What line of work are you in?


I'm an I. T. So um basically work on technology projects and uh kind of um basically some manager of technology, I don't do any coding or anything but basically just manage developers and um make sure that project gets done and everything and the goals are met and everything like that. So that's pretty good role. I like uh like the work I do, but it's definitely has its ups and downs. Like definitely when stuff goes wrong then you're not happy that you're in it. But usually like it's going well then it's like a good time. So. And right now being able to work from home is kind of cool. So um


You weren't you weren't originally worked from home?


No,


Is I just,


it wasn't. Yeah, I just started with Covid but like I mean it was like four days a week in the office and then like Fridays we usually Brooke mom or or whatever, but now it's like full time and like some of the people I work with, they're like, I'm not going back. Like I'm just going to find a new job then we can go back. I don't know if I'm to that extreme, but it would be nice to have a little bit of time working home. Um You know, like partial. So um but if you're a figure if you're like a the doctor you'd be like, well I guess that Teladoc now, but for for residency you definitely have to be. There is no like Teladoc residency or anything, right?


yeah. No there is not.


So but I mean you're going to be like Making the big


no.


bucks, but that's like it's worth the 3-5 years or whatever, I guess sort the sort of the time, so let's go.


Early I think we're our time is pretty much I don't even know what we started.


I'm assuming we started like 7:00, so we're probably good. I had a little like timer but I think I click to the I like click to the next like screen, so I'm assuming. Yeah,


well.


it's like 7727. So anyway, I'll let


meeting.


you I'll let you get on to your your surveys.


So


Good to meet you. Yes. Yeah.


Mhm. Yeah. Shit yeah Yeah. Mhm mm. Yeah Yeah mm. Okay. Okay. Yeah Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah Yeah. Mhm. Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah that's all yeah Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Period. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. Yeah. Okay I think it was mhm. Okay thank you. Yeah I can't mhm. If you yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah mm. Yeah. Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Mhm. Thank you. Right okay. Oh different because


Can you hear me? Yes, be still fucking,


Hello? Can you hear me


I can hear you now.


Okay? Cool I can hear you


Oh yeah, I'm Christi, what's your name?


chris


A lot should be easy to remember.


same name basically. Mhm. How's it going


good excuse. I'm, I'm Covid no makeup. Just barely made it to the computers. How many you'd still be there? How are you?


Yeah you just caught me. I was well it says wait five minutes so this is about five minutes I was you know I wanted something else but I heard you so it's cool. Uh huh.


you go ahead.


No. Oh no go ahead. I was just saying how is going? Oh


just crazy. Uh, you know, life Covid like Covid, how about two hours ago with you?


pretty good. Um You know just same thing I guess that we're all kinda in right now, we're just kind of dealing with you know all the covid stuff but you know way eight months in now. So I guess I'm getting used to it. So it's not like it was you know, february march when it first started out, it was like just super depressing and I think I'm in like a groove now with it. So I guess


what?


you know, so what what area are you in?


I'm in Austin texas y'all?


Oh cool, cool. I went there years ago with my band to play South by Southwest. It's like 10, 15 years ago probably.


Yeah, A band I would have heard of or


No, probably. We were a Chicago band um


is that


mainly note. No, I'm in florida now. I left Chicago three years ago to come down here and get out of the cold weather.


Well tell me about your south by southwest experience. Yeah.


it was really cool. We had a great time. We had, it was when our second record came out. And uh,


This,


you know, our label wanted us to go do it. So we had fun. We stayed, I think about five days. We played maybe like 89 shows. Um, it was cool because you're playing all


No.


over like three o'clock in the afternoon and going somewhere else and playing. And so it was unique. We definitely never did anything like that before. It was exhausting though. I mean, yeah, I wore me out.


Yeah. And that was the first casualty of Covid was south. Uh huh


wow,


I've been a few times. Uh, mostly to some, you know, they have some to arrest terrestrial festivals. Uh, for those who make south by, because I live in Austin, why am I going to pay that much money to go see live bands? They have live bands at the grocery store you know? But for the record executives and for the musicians that want to get seen it's a great thing.


Oh yeah, definitely. It's


What?


great exposure and you can get all those people in one city at the same time, you know, so they can link up, come see each other. And so that's definitely, you can see the appeal. Um, yeah, it was great. I mean, it was, I'm glad I got to go at least once, you know, and not so much just play, but to actually see and experience it because it really is a unique cool event. Think I'd be too old to go now probably. I mean, I think it would wear me out. I mean it wore me out then and that was a long time ago. So


Yeah. I used to go with all the free food. All free there. You know what? I would rather buy the beer by the food, stay home. You know they stream a lot of the stuff now so like the Alabama pics were here a couple of years ago and they stream them. I love them.

yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um Yeah. Oh, cool.


Yeah, they're good. I saw them once at Lollapalooza. It was probably like eight years ago and it started a huge rainstorm right in the middle though. So they had to stop early, which was a bomber. But she's great. She's got a great voice.


Oh no kidding. I used to be in a band but you know it's the loss. I've been Austin long enough you have to be in a band or you have to have a band. Uh Somebody that's in a band live on your couch for a while. Uh huh. Yeah.


the same thing in my twenties, there's always someone on the couch, you know, for weeks at a time you sing or play something.


Uh Well I play saxophone but and the band I just sang thing back up with, it was my friend's band and his girlfriend really wanted to be a backup singer. And so you wanna you know


No,


on a lark went


what?


along with it, we did it for a couple of years. Uh It was fun. You know sometimes there are more people on stage and in the audience, but you


I've been


know


there.


it's easy to be an abandoned Austin. It's hard to get paid to be in a band in Austin, everybody's you


I can see that.


know.


Yeah. I have a friend who used to be in a band, I used to play with Illinois that moved us in a couple of years ago and he does he barks and somewhere but he does band stuff there and he really likes it. But you know, he said it's a lot, you know everyone's in a band, they're pretty much,


Yeah and well like my friends that I was in the band with have now moved closer to san Marcus because you know you can't live in Austin. Nice addition salary. It's kind of ridiculous. So what part of florida are you in?


we're in a place called Winter Garden. It's a really cool little area. It's just outside of Orlando so it's like probably


like 20 minutes


I


from where like Universal


true.


Studios is. But it's cool. It's, you wouldn't think you were near the tourist stuff. It's a really cool old florida kind of feel. They've got like a really nice downtown and strip of bars, pretty neat.


Sorry, she took Fiona and my dog off. Uh huh. Yeah, I would love you know I love Austin but I missed the beach beaches. My voice.


that's been my favorite things. It's coming down here because you know, we didn't have then Chicago. I mean you've got lake michigan but that beaches are small and nasty.


What?


I mean I never wanted to go there. So you've


Hey.


got these pristine beaches here. It's beautiful. I mean we're like right in the middle of all of them. So we got like Clearwater ST Augustine, we've got Daytona cocoa, we could get to any of them like in under an hour. So it's kind of just pick your, take your beach when you want to go.


That sounds awesome.


Yeah it's been my favorite thing being down here. Um The weather is nice. I mean we went out yesterday, it's 84 degrees so you're able to you know in Chicago it's 30 already so you get nice weather by you to those so.


Yeah it was in the eighties. It got down to the fifties I think last night. But you know that's texas cold for it, you know


Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.


that's a heat wave. Uh In the north.


Yeah we get we had fifties at night I think in january and february and that's about it. Maybe high four years a couple of times. But other than that it doesn't get much lower than that. Um It's


Help.


nice though. I mean I just got tired of Chicago. You know I lived there my whole life, I was born in Louisiana but we moved to Chicago and I was like five. So basically my whole life and just say you get sick of it, you're in traffic your whole life. I mean I've never spent a day where I wasn't in traffic at least an hour and a half, two hours. Um Everybody lives on top of each other, you spend a half hour looking for a parking spot afterwards. So you got to add that onto your day. I mean you know such a grind.


My. Yeah I hear you. Oh I'm one of my few like my parents moved out of boston, my brother moved out of you know a lot of my friends have because the city has just gotten so big that the traffic stupid


you know. Uh


traffic killed me. I couldn't take anymore. I'm like how much my life in my waist And I was trying to like ended up in a year and it was like a crazy amount was like weeks and weeks, like just driving to and from work. I mean there's, it's just you and your stress level. I mean, I don't handle traffic well


No, me neither.


yeah, I'm flying off the church immediately. Um So


What do you do?


we definitely, I work in DME so durable medical equipment, like oxygen machines and yes, it's cool. You know, I used to work on the patient side of it. So as a technician, I'm going out to homes and setting this stuff up, but I'm in


What?


sales now after covid things changed a lot. I went full time like stay at home on the sales side, so it's nice. Um I miss going to the people's houses, but I wouldn't want to be doing that right now anyway, I don't think, you know, it's


for your we begin for theirs. Uh My mom is uh just turned 85 she's batshit crazy. She's my french. But but he's in assisted living facility so you know they keep her locked up, they take care of her you know to make sure she didn't wander out too much. Uh huh.


they get stubborn sometimes at that age. Like my mom she's in her seventies and she's legally blind and she's still freaking going out every weekend and she lives down in Daytona area but like she acts like a 19 year old like we see around facebook all the time and her and her husband are like at a bar like what the hell are you guys doing? Like me and my girlfriend are like way younger and you know pretty decent health and we're staying home and you guys are out there tearing up bars and so stubborn.


Yeah that well yeah not to get into politics, my mom gets all her medical information from Fox News


Yeah. Same same exact


was


same.


not a big fan of


No. Yeah me neither. And it's the same same story um You know they they all everything is just coming from the trump side for them medical lives and that's why I think they don't you know listen but are you gonna do you know, I could


our


yell


home.


at them once a week and let it go from there.


Yeah. Yeah you know mom's trying to make thanksgiving plans and I'm trying to tell her she goes surely by christmas I'm like no mom that's it's not the way it works. Oh


I mean there's been good good news last week. I mean with two vaccines which is promising. But even then it's going to take time for the rollout. So


yeah even uh even if they push it it's going to be another 456 months at least.


they said probably like Fauci said so I actually listen to him but he was saying like probably april where like someone like me or you could probably walk into Cbs and get a shot but definitely not christmas and unfortunately we're just we're planning on staying in and we always go up to michigan for christmas but this year it's going to be just hanging out here with the dog.


what do you have


She's german shepherd and rot. Mix,


I


total money


brought? I loved that dog, he thought he was a lapdog.


this one too. She's


What?


£70 and thinks she's a little problem.


But when my father passed mom went to the rest home, I inherited their dogs. So I have two little Jack Russells, right?


Russells are great, they're wild man. Yeah,


well I got him kind of middle age. They were wild when my parents first got him


they


Toyland.


are hyper Jack Russells, they're great dogs and they're firecrackers.


they are, they're hilarious. Uh So anyway I'm glad I ended up with them. There are a lot of comfort, you know since we're all spending so much time like I'm happy, they're paying me to talk to somebody, right, you know?


Yeah, yeah, it's nice. I mean, I've always kind of done this kind of stuff in my time off, just use it for like vacation fund and stuff, but you know, I definitely been leaning on it more because the first few months my hours were cut way down, so I was like, yeah, I mean it was nice to jump behind and be able to get paid to do things like this.


Yeah. Mhm I've been through a whole series of jobs in the last few years but I started doing more and more online work and so prolific was just one of the revenue streams. You know I had several different jobs because you know they like left and Uber, they don't want to give you full time hours because then they have to pay benefits.


Yeah, yeah, that's your loophole. It's


And


hopefully someone brings them, you know, up on that soon. I mean, I know people have tried to, but it hasn't made much leeway, but


well it's not going to win the Republican led atmosphere. Yeah.


yeah,


Oh.


it's a bummer because they get away with so much like if I just calling people, you know, what are they self employed, A


contractors.


task, work contractors, that's the word, It was eluding me. But yeah, it was. And get away with you know, all kind of murder on it. I thought about doing that here because it's a really busy area. Um So maybe when this all kind of clears up, I would do it a couple of nights a week just to go out and drive. Yeah, I like it. This


You would meet people


yeah, here are down here. I like traffic because we don't really hit much traffic. It's definitely not like Chicago. You know,


well.


you couldn't go anywhere would be nice down here. You get all vacation people so you know they're in a good mood and you hope, I'm sure some of them aren't. But you get happy people on their way to Disney World and stuff. So yeah.


Uh huh. Kids having a meltdown, are we there yet?


Oh, they are the ones you got to take back to the airport are probably rough ones picking them up at


yeah, that's rough.


Disney World and the adults too. I'm sure that's probably get them under crabby days.


Oh yeah. I've never been to uh florida or California Disney world, but I went to Disneyland paris what


How was that?


it was like a you know a mini version. But uh my boyfriend at the time had never been on a roller coaster before and went on the Matterhorn. Is that the one that goes in the dark?


Oh yeah. The bobsled kind of warrant. Yeah.


Uh Yeah, but he thought that was so cool. Oh let's do it again, let's do it again some sudden line again and then we went on a different small roller coaster. But he could see and it's like I'm not getting more of those again.


Oh yeah. That's the dark help. Huh. Uh huh.


Yeah. He was a lot more courageous when he couldn't see what's going on,


Just tell him to close his eyes.


right? It screams like a girl.


Yeah. It's fun. I you know, I I can't do like the crazy big ones but I like like the middle tier roller coaster type stuff and uh


How


I can handle those with the big big ones. Like they've got the incredible hulk one here. Like I can't do I can't get out net like but I can do like some of the medium tier ones. Like I can go upset out like three times but don't put me upset at like nine times because


when I was a kid, my mom said I would go on anything that would turn me upside down and shaking, you know, even the, the Barnum and bailey's little rinky dink, you know? Right?


Oh like the zipper. Yeah. They think.


stuff way would not be legal now, wow.


They got away with some stuff like that.


Yeah. Well we survived.


Yeah, definitely. I mean I went on those things all the time and you know, I'm fine. Uh But yeah, it's uh I think when I was younger I can handle those things. But I realized, I think about 78 years if I went on some roller coaster at Seaworld and it just jacked me up and I realized at that point now I didn't really start thinking about what I get on these days.


I know, that's a sad point in your life or for me when I realized, you know, I'd always hit all the roller coasters a couple times and now it's a bit of your height so it's more a fear of falling, just, it hurts a lot more, but I'm all so far, but


Yeah. The heights thing gets me a tiny bit too, but it's more of the Jack and me around, you know, I wouldn't, you know those ones they got now where you just hang and there's nothing below you. You're not even in a seat. Like yeah, that's the


you


one


know,


I went on at Seaworld and I was like the whole time going up, I'm just like this thing like unclip licks or I don't know how that happens, but if it on clicks, I'm like 20 stories up, like that's it, it's over


they were, it's yeah,


because I mean it's just you think about it when you're up there. Um it's you know, I still go on some of the stuff we get, when you live here, you can pass this to everything for like really cheap. So on a saturday or sunday we'll go do like a lap around one of the parts and go on one or two things to go home. And I like the little stuff like I like the haunted mansion and that kind of stuff. That's more my speed


yeah, they had a small world little ride that we went on, we went on the teacups, you can handle that.


spinning.


Oh uh yeah, uh he was from paris, so he was really excited about going, you know? But he'd never been to an amusement park. So once we got there, you have a lot more fun.


yeah, that's awesome. I I've never been to paris, I'm half french, so I hope to go one day. But you know, that's gonna obviously cost some money, but you know what I always say when I'm a little bit older people say for those things.


yeah, yeah. Well, the travel bug hit me when I turned 30 and I was single. I travel really cheap, you know, on my own. I don't, you know, I'll get a B and B or whatever. I don't need anything fancy just saying, you know, if you're taking your significant other, you probably have to spend a little bit more.


Yeah. Yeah, I'd imagine trying to get hotel rooms you see, I used to do hospitals all the time in my twenties, mostly around, not around here, but you know, I just go to California a lot and always just get a hospital room and


in the band? Yeah, I bet.


Yeah, yeah, yeah, we would just share a room five of us. I mean, you know, sleeping cars sometimes until like five in the morning so we can check in and get two nights kind of, you know, be two nights then um Yeah, a lot of that stuff back then, but I don't know if I can do it now.


now,


It's


no wonder band is like being a chef. Ege, for the young uh


yeah, it was so much fun.


I'm a patient. That's where I was. Yeah,


that's awesome. Yeah, I'm gonna do it again here, but it's going to be local shows. I'm not gonna tour anymore to travel, you know? I'll do shows here. I mean Tunnel Work for bands in this area because as you can imagine, I mean


Well, you get


lot of them.


keep your mom entertained.


Yeah. Well, yeah, it's um there's a ton of gigs out that way, but even this way they saw the bars and breweries. I don't even know if I let my mom come to the shows anymore. She's always come to the shows in Chicago back in the day and she was like, shut up with her friends and they were like the worst ones there. I was like, you guys are like the oldest ones here and you you act like stupid and everybody else


That's


and


what have


like


you got to bend your mom from your shows for being too rambunctious,


I would tell them not to come sometimes, they would still show up so I couldn't even ban them.


No


But


no you can't bend, I can't bend my mother.


no. Yeah, well, my grandmother was the best she would come to shows when she was still alive And uh, I mean we go out and one in the morning should be hanging out there at the bars and you know, waiting for us to play and she was always a good time because she knew how to behave. But then you got, my mom and her friends are way too rowdy.


Let me get through the woo girls.


Yeah. Yeah. I would tell them though, you got to stay


Thanks.


in the back and do whatever you want back there like the back of the crowd, you know,


Yeah don't


like,


forget me.


yeah, don't be right in my face pointing at me and you know, doing anything like that. Just staying back and like idiots as long as I can't see it. But yeah, they were the wars and the yellers and her husband one time through a glow stick at the stage. I'm like, man, it's not a Phish concert. You can't get away with that here because security grabbed them and they were talking about and then he name dropped me. I'm like, you just made it worse then. And I'm like, no, that's he's my stepson is the bass player. I was like, don't tell them that because now I look like an idiot.


you're a player, my friend is a bass player so you know. Yeah.


Yeah, I love it. I started out a guitar player. But um you know, I realized when I would read the classified, every band was looking for a bass player and nobody was looking for a guitar player because there's like a million of them. So I bought a base and just switched over.


Yeah and then you know everybody always needs a drummer because they're crazy.


Yeah. Yeah. They're usually nightmares.


Yeah. Every drummer we ever had imploded eventually. Eventually.


Yeah, like spinal tap, it was find a way to blow up or um singers too serious to be pretty difficult. Had some rough singers in my day. They, you know, they get to pre Madonna thing going. Yeah. Yeah.


Ethan was it was his band, he was the bass player, he wrote songs uh we did a couple of covers but like manu chao you know nothing you really here on the right? Oh uh so yeah he would have conflicts with members of the band and just stop talking to them. That's how here the same.


it's rough I always just say it's like having four girlfriends because you've got to be on good terms with all of them all the time. You know you can't have any kind of bad energy. It's not like with a regular friend where if you have a disagreement you could just not talk to him for a while. I mean the band you're still gonna have to be together that weekend. Yeah I was always like having four girlfriend especially when we would have to drive together. Some really moody guys man these guys were but I wouldn't take it back for anything. It was a great time.


Yeah. Yeah that was definitely, especially living in Austin that was a good experience.


Yeah that's fun. It's a fun city. I'm definitely gonna go back at some point. See it in non south by Southwest times. Um You know just to get the other side of it.


I would highly recommend that. Yeah, the people who live here totally avoid downtown during a cl south by uh you know, any of those big festivals because you're likely to run over somebody with a badge because they're walking into the street texting someone not looking where they're going. It's like, oh my God, the badged ones have descended upon us again, wow.


It's got to be stressful with the driving and so I think it's the same thing with new Orleans at Mardi gras. Like the locals, they have their own little Mardi grass out satellite Mardi gras is kind of, but they don't go into the court.


Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Yeah. The corner is all the tourists I need.


Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um you know, I'll go through the corner but then eventually make my way. One of the other ones where you know where you had a little more fun typically with the locals. But yeah the quarters, you know that's all the college kids. They probably don't want me walking through there anymore either probably.


I went to New Orleans uh september 28 2001 now, remember? September 11th? Yeah, so as my birthday and so ticket prices I think I got a round trip ticket for under $200. And and so it's kind of an off season for the quarter, nobody was really traveling, so we're not many tourists. But yeah, I enjoyed myself on the quarter.


Yeah it's fine.


Uh I did make it to the House of Blues. Yes, I know, I saw trombone shorty when I was there,


Oh yeah he's great. You were big fans him.


I've seen him here at at stubbs. Yeah,


Yeah. I know stops. Yeah. That's awesome. He's great.


but


We uh we had a trip planned before this all started up. We're going to go to french quarter fest in april and then Covid you know, kicked at and obviously that didn't happen but that's their local music fest. Um It's all just local bands and local restaurants and uh if you want to do like a festival there, but you don't want to do one of the touristy ones, That's definitely the one to look at.


that's good to know. Yeah,


Yeah, it's great.


like roller coasters. I just don't do festivals, like I used to volunteer at a CFS for the first few years and then we went through the Dust bowl one where we went in, they said it was really bad because of all the wind and the dust, and I was like, yeah, it's not that bad. I was coughing up blood balls by the end. It was terrible. I was like, oh no, that's it part


we do, I don't know if, you know riot fest, it's a Chicago fist, it's like a punk rock metal fist. Every september we do that every year and we still drive up for it now being florida residents. But the last one we went to was last year I guess, so a year ago in september and me and my girlfriend both were like, I don't think we can come back next year, like I can't stand up for three days anymore. And you know, it's


no,


like,


that's the hardest part. O the knees are so bad now from all that standing.


oh yeah and nobody at the festivals like it's said that they were not fair to hear the band. So like we were trying to watch nine inch nails and we could not find a spot where we could listen to them without everybody around was just like a talking the whole time. I was like nobody is here to see the fricking bands except for the people in the first like Ted Rose who are like dying right now anyway. So it's yeah, I got super annoying. We couldn't like we tried probably 30 different spots and still couldn't hear the band. So I'm like no more just gonna go see shows in small clubs and stuff like that.


Yes. Yes. Uh Dave chappelle is doing three shows in Austin at Antone's.


Oh cool. That'd be fun.


I don't know, 100 people maybe. Yeah,


Two.


they sold out in seconds. But


He always knows quick.


he uh he sent several shows here in smaller venues where I think you kind of testing material and stuff. I hope I saw him at uh uh Yeah. Oh paramount anyway, it's it's a smaller then you and he was one of his hilarious


Yeah. Yeah, he is good. Um It's cool that some people are still able to go out and do some shows right now. Uh you know, working with regulations and stuff, but it's nice to have those things to look forward to.


uh Yeah Austin you know Austin is the liberal central of texas. So everybody here is very cognizant of like the when the governor opened all the bars, Travis County did not open up. Uh You basically you had uh uh become a restaurant like 50% of your cells have to be in food or you have a food truck out front and then they could out


we're here.


at 25% capacity. Which okay, how's the bargain to survive on that?


Yeah, they can't, that's the same thing they did here, you have to have food and it was like 20% capacity and uh they open them up and the most of the virus just chose not to because we can't pay staff and we're gonna make it, they're not gonna make any money like the bartenders are.


we're gonna spend all this money to open up and then month like you're gonna set us down again.


Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what happened here. They shut them down again um shortly


Important.


after opening, but they're back open again now, which


Yeah. Because it was a stupid idea to open them in the first place.


yeah, I mean unless you've got a huge outdoor patio, which you can do something out there, but otherwise, I mean you can't have people cramming in like Halloween was a mess here. I mean you had to know it was going to be uh but these kids did not give a crap, they were just standing on top of each other out in the street because you know the bars weren't letting them in.


Uh You know, I really question, I probably would have been stupid enough to be down there with them at that age because you think you're


I


never


am


die. That's


not


was


me.


having that same conversation in my twenties that's going on. I probably would be out there to you know, but and


I was


authorities


just welcome.


now I'm a little more mm. Yeah, that's you know, they, the way I look at it, they're out there getting it and hopefully there's little risk and they're not spreading it to anybody. That's I mean you don't worry about it. I'm bringing it home to grandma. I mean, yeah, don't be selfish. I guess you could say that if you're gonna go out and party just simple.


The problem, I don't care if you get it, but don't give it to my immuno compromise mother or I know, I know I didn't know old people, old people were 40. No offense.