Yeah. Yeah. So 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.


Mhm. Mhm Oh.


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.


Mhm. Yeah.


Um, so I've been doing that for quite a while and it's not enough.


Yeah.


So it's like, um, I'm uh, 10 99 so some months are really busy.


Mhm.


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.


Yeah. Really?


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, 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.


Mm Uh huh Oh.


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.


Mhm I did not know we were that tight with them. I mean I knew that like there was some relationship there, but I had no idea was that extreme.


No.


What, why did you decide to go there to live?


Yeah I 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.


Mhm. Mhm. Yeah.


Um like a real rainforest is just it was very it was very silent. It was nice. But the internet spotty.


Mhm.


That's the problem.


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


Yeah. 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.


Mhm. Mhm.


So yep have you ever been to south America or central America?


Yeah, that checks out, not south America, but I did 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 and I was okay, but you know, I didn't have any of the cultural immersion that you get a lot of like the southern, you know, mainland us because there's just no spanish speakers in Hawaii.


No and mhm Okay. Oh cool. Yeah yeah. Mhm and here yeah my um yeah so we mhm mhm ha ha ha ha Yeah, mm Yeah.


Um So we, it 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 showed up and 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 Mhm.


Uh huh mhm Yeah yeah like you said it could be a good place to get stuck, you know you have to really 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.


Especially now. Yeah. Mhm. Exactly.


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.


Mhm. Yeah. Oh yeah, 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 at all yet.


Oh. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah it's wow.


It was, it was weird like I mean go for what are you saying?


If it if yeah the biggest. Uh no go ahead.


I mean, I was just gonna say like it was a great experience, but like definitely taught me to be way more responsible 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?


Okay you yeah. Uh huh. To speak with your response? Oh yeah.


Yeah.


Oh yeah.


Uh huh.


Yeah 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.


Yeah. Mhm. Mhm Oh.


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.


Mhm.


Those ties down the maximum size they have there is 12 and amazon especially in Panama.


Panama doesn't really have a mailing system.


Oh.


Like the U. S. Postal service there's no such thing as a proposal service.


Mhm. Mhm.


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 practical things.


Yeah. Mhm. That's it. 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 very common and in Asia I just had to be like, okay, these are my shoes while I'm here.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah it's not very fun. Yeah.


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 just like different clothing trends are different, you know, stuff like that.


Yeah but great but uh you know so what?


Like I didn't um like there you can wear basically in Singapore, you can wear like short shorts and slippers and that's fine.


Yeah. Quick for sure. Right.


But if you wear a tank top that shows any cleavage whatsoever.


That that's unprofessional.


Oh yeah.


Even if it's in like a nice, even if it's like a shoulder covered, you know, like nice top.


Mhm.


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.


Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.


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


Singapore, they speak english. Right mm.


Yeah.


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?


Yeah. Actually, um actually wrote my senior thesis about specifically relating to their government policies.


Oh really?


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 it's way too small and the government is so different from ours.


No.


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 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.


Man. Right.


So like truth in your homes don't shoot them public and we're not going to get mad at you.


Uh huh. Yeah.


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?


Mm, mm hmm.


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 drugs, even if it's if it's just marijuana.


Mhm. Yeah. Oh really really strict, Where are they? Well yeah.


Um Someone last year was put to death for importing like a couple of kilos of weed.


Yeah. No way.


Um Yeah which is which I think is like pretty fucked up.


Just weed wow, that blows my mind, that blows my mind apart.


But it's also. I know yeah, no it's it's crazier, especially like coming from Oregon where it's legal.


Yeah.


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?


Mm. Uh huh. Yeah.


And it seems fair to me just because people know the drill.


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


Mhm. 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.


Yeah. Uh huh. Mhm.


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.


Oh yeah.


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.


Uh huh.


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.


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 really low wages and do some of that work.


Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah. No. 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.


Mhm.


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.


Yeah.


Everyone who's mildly socially progressive because it's really how they keep the quality of life so high is that they import these laborers and they have really bad living conditions.


Well no. Uh huh. Right. Yeah.


It's essentially barracks and you get paid like a couple bucks a day to build roads and to, you know, keep things clean and to just keep everything working.


Uh huh. Yeah, you know, keep it clean just Uh huh.


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


Fuck yourself that record.


So is that when the coronavirus, 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 but they didn't increase the quality of living for those people.


Mhm. Yeah, perhaps.


So it just read everywhere because they're living in these barracks right where it's like 20 people to 100 square foot place.


Mhm. Uh mm hmm, mm.


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?


Mhm. Mhm.


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.


Uh huh.


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.


Mhm.


Um So it's really good for a short visit because it has, you know everyone's gonna understand you first of all.


Right, mm hmm.


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?


Oh really?


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.


Mhm. Uh yeah. Right, man.


So 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 actually like you a lot more.


Uh uh because they don't they 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.


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


Okay, you could, yeah, No. Yeah.


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.


Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, google translate.


And the safety and the safety doesn't seem great to me either.


Yeah. All right.


Um Yeah, like Singapore and Thailand I think are probably the best to visit as a tourist because they're safe.


And that's good to know.


People speak english. Yeah. And Thailand, especially if you ever wanted to spend time somewhere in Asia.


Mhm.


Way cheaper, huge expat populations but also like a very clear cultural identity. So it's interesting.


That sounds perfect.


Um but it's still easy to get around. Yeah. Would would recommend as someone who wasn't an expert in Thailand.


Right, Well, thanks, thanks for the advice. Well, I think our I think our time's up here.


Well uh laura lee.


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? Okay, well, it was nice to meet you have a great weekend right now.


Yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you. Yeah. You too. Bye.


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


Mhm Yeah.


Yeah I am.


Hi how are you on this?


There you go. Yeah, I'm Stephen okay.


Yeah. Mhm Girl Cheryl good.


Is this carol Cheryl? Okay. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, That's a good way to be.


I just woke up growing up.


Um it's like uh 7:00 here.


Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. I'm on the west coast.


Okay, gotcha in California.


That's for so yes I am. What about you?


All right there, I'm in Atlanta.


Mhm Okay. Well yeah.


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


Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And have you, have you been out to California to visit him yet? Oh that's yeah, I like I just flew over my head completely figure out we're in the middle of a pandemic.


But yeah, so you said you just took a trip?


No. Yeah, no, I haven't.


Oh okay.


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.


Okay. Uh huh.


Um we did that but we haven't really gone to many places recently.


Right. 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.


Yeah. Uh huh, 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 really, it's like half capacity here still.


How are things over there in Atlanta? 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.


Um Yeah I mean everything is open but like the restaurants they have like half the tables like ripped off, remember?


Oh it is. Okay. Yeah.


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 was.


Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Like 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 well I can't speak for other counties, riverside county burke about like an hour east of Philly.


Mhm. Yeah. That's crazy. I would be I'm surprised it's all opened up there especially it's like you think California, California is like the cautious state. What county here again? No, I don't know I probably I probably only know the big ones I guess. Okay.


Mhm.


Gosh. Yeah.


Yeah I think um my 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.


And Okay.


Um Forget what what city it's near.


Okay. Mm.


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 mhm North of L.


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


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


Yeah. Yeah.


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


Uh huh. What 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.


Okay.


I might have to go sometimes.


Yeah Weather is nice.


It is it nice out there? I guess the 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.


Uh huh.


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


What crazy.


Yes, I've been sure. Yeah, yeah um he went he went to schools and engineer, so he's working for a super charter company, it's called Magnuson superchargers.


What is he doing here in Madeira? I don't know. Okay. Oh what is it going to please a supercharger company?


So 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.


Okay. Uh Mhm.


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.


Yeah. Really?


So yeah, he's pretty smart like that. But um yeah, that's cool.


What I did yeah I love it here.


So you grew up in ventura?


It's a great place to be right on the beach systems and engines definitely.


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 there, it sounds really nice, you know? Mhm.


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.


Yeah hopefully.


Put.


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 anyone.


Yeah. Well, 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, so I'm just like pretty much right now, literally you can get everything.


I don't believe it. Like how did he survive? Just like get everything delivered or? So I guess like uh you can get everything online now so.


There's so many apps to do everything and a lot of these delivery apps are doing it free like deliveries.


Yeah.


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 Currently doing I haven't done shipped but everything doing the Uber eats I guess.


Yeah, mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's, it's pretty good until I've used a grubhub and door to hash and mhm.


Um That that's pretty good. You can get a lot of restaurants do that. Yeah 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.


Mhm. Oh yeah.


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.


Right. Mhm, mm.


I was like kind of challenging.


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.


Yeah. Oh, wow.


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.


Yeah. Yeah. Mhm, 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.


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


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


Uh huh. Uh huh.


So you do a lot of these uh prolific things, or is this your first one?


No, um this is actually my second conversation one, but I have been using prolific for a while now.


Okay.


Oh, what about you?


Yeah. 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.


Yeah. Uh huh.


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.


Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Oh um for Yeah.


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.


Uh huh.


So it's a pretty good deal. Um.


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.


Yeah.


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.


Yeah 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.


Cool. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Oh yeah. What do you what do you think the studies about?


It's just yeah 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 like.


It's 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 a fake thing.


Mhm. Yeah. I have about a few of those recently or the ones where like you have to negotiate and stuff, but it's not really anybody there and it immediately.


Yeah mm. Yeah. No that's not the one like the last one I got there was like um do you have to like divide money up or something and then passed back and forth, 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.


What? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


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.


Yeah. Mhm.


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


Yeah. Whoa. Yeah.


So it was kind of cool.


There's no set pattern. I didn't believe it in the background of my brows are like, oh there's some notification sure.


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


But yeah and then when it's slow it's really slow. Yeah. Well that is, yeah.


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. Um 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.


What?


And so he was like a process.


Mhm.


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 be able to do that 1 - one.


There was a lot. Mhm.


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.


Yeah. Yeah.


Like he was cheating on her or whatever, a reason why like.


Yeah, wow. Yeah. Because you have to like literally qualify for whatever like every single about 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. Yeah, they have all of the question.


Like 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 have 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?


Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Uh huh. Mhm, mm hmm.


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.


Mhm. 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 deep there.


So it's like, it would be like 45 minutes.


All right girl.


Then they definitely get, they definitely get there, get there, definitely get their money's worth.


Yeah. With attention tax.


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.


Uh Yeah.


So it's fun to do. It's like kind of fun for beer money or whatever.


Mhm.


So Oh no, I'm not.


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


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.


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


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. So just 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.


Yeah.


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.


Oh. Oh. Uh huh.


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 take that long to them early.


Yeah. Uh huh. I think 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 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.


All right. Mhm Okay.


Um 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.


Yeah. Uh huh I'm pretty familiar.


But 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.


Uh Yeah.


I would, I would get disqualified from almost every survey. But like they would have you answer like 20 questions before they disqualify you.


Mhm mhm.


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.


Mhm.


But they will ask you the same stupid questions like you know what what's your age like over and over again, 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.


All right. Oh.


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.


Oh yeah.


Probably if you really savvy with it. Um You could get the to get to the right ones or whatever.


Yeah. Okay.


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.


Yeah. Really? Just yeah, it sounds like I'm suck.


I was I didn't I didn't feel like two days. I was like yeah just completely stupid. Just like quit it. But two. Yeah. So it's really time way.


Yeah.


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.


Oh, mm.


It was just a bunch of annoying. I think it's mostly like companies to do those two. So it's just like um trying to like advertise to you make it through this thing.


Well, yeah, I don't similar like before prolific as well.


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.


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, like yeah, like clicking like Oh, cool.


Oh yeah. Cliquey. 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.


Right. Yeah. Mhm.


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.


Mhm Yeah, definitely. Um I haven't really run into anything so uh yeah, well, so I'm actually finishing medical school, but I'm applying for for the past right now.


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


So in the meantime I am doing contact tracing, yep, I've just done so much like well yes, I am.


Like covid. Okay. That's cool. It's gonna be a doctor. Oh wow, that's awesome. Any type of specialty or is it like just general practitioner?


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


I found this to be a general practitioner.


Exactly.


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.


Yeah. Yeah. So do you go to like actual classes or is online now are you done?


I'm pretty much finished. I'm just doing like my yeah my last exam and I'm applying for the next so we have to do like residency which is further training.


Okay. Okay. Um Yeah.


That's what I'm trying to.


Yeah I don't no every all the details. But yeah you have to do residents of like two years right For 3-5 years.


It's anywhere from 3 to 5 years but it's about three years.


Okay.


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.


Mhm.


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.


Right. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm mm.


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 No, it wasn't.


Okay. You weren't you weren't originally worked from home? Is I just, Yeah.


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.


Yes.


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.


All right. Oh yeah.


There is no like Teladoc residency or anything, right?


Oh yeah. No there is not.


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


Oh no. Uh huh. Uh Early I think we're our time is pretty much I don't even know what we started.


Mhm. 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.


Oh well.


Yeah, it's like 7727. So anyway, I'll let you I'll let you get on to your your surveys.


Right. Nice meeting. So yeah.


Good to meet you. Yes. Yeah.


Bye.


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 yeah.


Can you hear me? Yes, be still fucking, I can hear you now.


Hello? Hello? Can you hear me Okay? Cool I can hear you yeah chris right same name basically.


Oh yeah, I'm Christi, what's your name? A lot should be easy to remember. Yeah, good excuse.


Mhm. How's it going wow mm.


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 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.


Yeah. So you go ahead.


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


Uh huh. Oh, just crazy.


Oh yeah, pretty good.


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


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.


Okay. Oh what?


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 you know, so what what area are you in?


Yeah, Yeah, 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 is that right?


No, probably. We were a Chicago band um 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.


Mm Well tell me about your south by southwest experience.


Yeah it was really cool.


Yeah.


We had a great time. We had, it was when our second record came out. And uh, you know, our label wanted us to go do it.


This, Yeah.


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 over like three o'clock in the afternoon and going somewhere else and playing.


No.


And so it was unique. We definitely never did anything like that before. It was exhausting though.


I mean, yeah, I wore me out.


Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that was the first casualty of Covid was south.


Yeah, wow, wow.


Uh huh 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?


Yeah. Yeah, definitely.


But for the record executives and for the musicians that want to get seen it's a great thing.


Oh yeah, definitely. It's 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.


What? Oh yeah.


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.


Yeah. Yeah.


Think I'd be too old to go now probably.


Yeah.


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.


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.


Um Yeah. Oh, cool.


I love them.


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.


Uh huh.


So they had to stop early, which was a bomber.


Nice.


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.


Cool.


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.


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 huh. Yeah. 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 on a lark went along with it, we did it for a couple of years.


No, what?


Uh It was fun. You know sometimes there are more people on stage and in the audience, but you know it's easy to be an abandoned Austin.


Yeah, I've been there.


It's hard to get paid to be in a band in Austin, everybody's you know.


Yeah, I can see that. 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.


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.


Yeah, we're in a place called Winter Garden.


So what part of florida are you in?


It's a really cool little area. It's just outside of Orlando so it's like probably like 20 minutes from where like Universal Studios is.


Yeah. No, I true. Right.


But it's cool. It's, you wouldn't think you were near the tourist stuff.


Yeah.


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.


A Yeah, that's been my favorite things.


Uh huh. Yeah, I would love you know I love Austin but I missed the beach beaches. My voice.


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.


Mm. What?


I mean I never wanted to go there.


So you've got these pristine beaches here.


Hey.


It's beautiful. I mean we're like right in the middle of all of them.


Okay.


So we got like Clearwater ST Augustine, we've got Daytona cocoa, we could get to any of them like in under an hour.


Uh huh.


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.


Right. 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 that's a heat wave.


Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right okay.


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.


Yeah. Yeah.


Um It's nice though.


Help.


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.


Yeah.


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.


Okay. 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.


What? Oh yes, traffic killed me.


Uh Right.


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.


Mm.


I mean there's, it's just you and your stress level. I mean, I don't handle traffic well yeah, I'm flying off the church immediately.


No, me neither.


Um So we definitely, I work in DME so durable medical equipment, like oxygen machines and yes, it's cool.


What do you do? Oh right.


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 sales now after covid things changed a lot.


What?


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 Yeah.


Yeah. Now for your we begin for theirs. Uh My mom is uh just turned 85 she's batshit crazy.


Oh man.


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.


Yeah. Yeah they get stubborn sometimes at that age.


Uh huh. Uh huh.


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?


Mhm wow.


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.


Uh huh. Right. Yeah that well yeah not to get into politics, my mom gets all her medical information from Fox News was not a big fan of right our home.


Mhm. Yeah. Same same exact same. 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 yell 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.


Yeah, I mean there's been good good news last week.


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


I mean with two vaccines which is promising. But even then it's going to take time for the rollout. So 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.


Right, what do you have I brought?


She's german shepherd and rot. Mix, total money this one too.


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


She's £70 and thinks she's a little problem.


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


Oh Jack Russells are great, they're wild man.


Yeah. Oh well I got him kind of middle age.


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


They were wild when my parents first got him Toyland. Yeah 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.


Uh huh.


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.


Right? Mhm.


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.


Yeah.


It's hopefully someone brings them, you know, up on that soon.


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


I mean, I know people have tried to, but it hasn't made much leeway, but yeah, yeah, 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 task, work contractors, that's the word, It was eluding me.


Yeah. Oh. Mhm contractors.


But yeah, it was.


And get away with you know, all kind of murder on it.


Mhm.


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. Help.


Yeah, I like it.


This yeah, here are down here.


You would meet people well.


I like traffic because we don't really hit much traffic. It's definitely not like Chicago. You know, 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. 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 Disney World and the adults too.


Oh yeah, that's rough.


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 it was like a you know a mini version.


Oh cool. How was that?


But uh my boyfriend at the time had never been on a roller coaster before and went on the Matterhorn.


Yeah. Yeah.


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, right?


Just tell him to close his eyes.


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 I can handle those with the big big ones.


How Yeah.


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.


Oh, 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?


Like I can go upset out like three times but don't put me upset at like nine times because Okay. Yeah. Yeah.


Right?


Oh like the zipper.


Yeah, stuff way would not be legal now, wow.


Yeah. They think. Yeah. Yeah. 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.


Yeah.


Uh But yeah, it's uh I think when I was younger I can handle those things.


Oh, 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, yeah, you know, they were, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they had a small world little ride that we went on, we went on the teacups, you can handle that.


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. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. 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 one 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 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 spinning.


Oh uh yeah, uh he was from paris, so he was really excited about going, you know?


Oh yeah, that's awesome.


But he'd never been to an amusement park. So once we got there, you have a lot more fun.


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.


Oh 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. 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 Yeah, yeah, yeah, we would just share a room five of us.


Uh huh Oh, in the band? Yeah, I bet.


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.


Oh, now, no wonder band is like being a chef.


It's a yeah, it was so much fun.


Ege, for the young uh yeah, I'm a patient.


That's where I was.


Oh cool, that's awesome.


Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Well, you get keep your mom entertained.


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 a lot of them. 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.


Yeah.


I don't even know if I let my mom come to the shows anymore.


Uh huh.


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


That's what have you got to bend your mom from your shows for being too rambunctious, Right? No no you can't bend, I can't bend my mother.


But 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 in the back and do whatever you want back there like the back of the crowd, you know, like, yeah, don't be right in my face pointing at me and you know, doing anything like that.


Thanks. Yeah don't forget me.


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.


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


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. 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.


Yeah. Yeah.


Had some rough singers in my day. They, you know, they get to pre Madonna thing going.


Oh 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?


Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah yeah.


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.


Yeah 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 for sure.


Yeah I was always like having four girlfriend especially when we would have to drive together.


Uh huh.


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.


Yeah.


It's like, oh my God, the badged ones have descended upon us again, wow.


Yeah. 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.


Yes.


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.


Yeah. Yeah.


And and so it's kind of an off season for the quarter, nobody was really traveling, so we're not many tourists.


Oh wow.


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, I've seen him here at at stubbs.


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


Yeah, but that's good to know.


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


Yeah, like roller coasters.


Yeah, it's great.


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.


Right?


I was coughing up blood balls by the end.


Oh man.


It was terrible. I was like, oh no, that's it part Oh, oh no, that's the hardest part.


Yeah. Yeah, 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 like, oh yeah and nobody at the festivals like it's said that they were not fair to hear the band.


O the knees are so bad now from all that standing.


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.


Yeah.


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.


Mhm. Right. 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, they sold out in seconds.


Two.


But he uh he sent several shows here in smaller venues where I think you kind of testing material and stuff.


Yeah. He always knows quick.


I hope I saw him at uh uh Yeah.


Oh nice.


Oh paramount anyway, it's it's a smaller then you and he was one of his hilarious uh Yeah Austin you know Austin is the liberal central of texas.


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.


So everybody here is very cognizant of like the when the governor opened all the bars, Travis County did not open up.


Okay.


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 at 25% capacity.


Yeah, we're here.


Which okay, how's the bargain to survive on that?


Yeah. 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.


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


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


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.


Yeah. Right. 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 never die.


Mm I am no. Yeah, I was having that same conversation in my twenties that's going on.


That's not me.


I probably would be out there to you know, but and authorities now I'm a little more mm.


I was just welcome. Yeah.


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.


Oh yeah.


That's I mean you don't worry about it. I'm bringing it home to grandma.


Yeah. Yeah.


I mean, yeah, don't be selfish.


Yeah.


I guess you could say that if you're gonna go out and party just simple.


Yeah. 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.


Yeah, I mean I definitely how.


The people who actually just turned thank you.


Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. You look young as far as I can tell on you know the webcam. But yeah, I would've guessed forties, you know.


Thank you.


Yeah. I just don't know these kids today. We're definitely getting home when you start saying stuff like that.


Yeah. Get off my line.


Before we uh we bought a house last year here in winter garden. But our first couple years living down here, we lived basically on a college campus in an apartment building. And because we didn't know where to move, we were coming from Chicago, we didn't know the area well. So we found this area called Winter Park and it's really great reviews and everybody loves it. Great restaurants. But it has like four colleges in it. So we were living in an apartment complex with just all college kids, 24 7.


Partying garbage everywhere. I mean I was definitely like get off my lawn.


Uh huh.


Mhm.


Yeah. When I was at that party both days, you know, two years ago.


Mhm. Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah, it was rough, but now we're on a nice block with quiet people and families so I'm a lot more comfortable.


Yeah. Well that's cool. Well for more time you still I hope so.


But yeah, it was great talking to you. I'm gonna take care of yourself, Stay safe and maybe I'll see out there in Austin sometimes.


I hope so. By nearest 2020.


Yeah, definitely take care right.


Bye.


these five years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey fellas party. I'm sure that Yeah, I have a Yeah. Well that's not gonna work. Yes. Okay. Yeah. You know randi ready? Yeah. I really want to come in and see it for himself by pushing down. Okay. Yeah. Uh huh. Thank you. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Far 15 20 minutes to get in my car. But I knew I had to do whatever to stop, ran before he killed somebody. And I wasn't the only one before. While it was also about I should have guessed that mass destruction the only lead to one place, frankly, I just wanted to randy. What's happening? You got all of his toys except you want nothing stuff this month so far there was one thing he was even though the Sharp really? I think they take it over his race. There was still one thing that can get through the old randy cry bully child. Especially since this on he was pulling Oh my God. But when I came around that corner, all I saw was a juiced up. Maybe I can't drive for a kid. Sorry buddy. You've turned into a monster but it wasn't your fault though. I push you to be a tough guy and stand up to join, but you're not a tough guy, you're sweet, gentle, sensitive guy. I see pushing to make you change. Being sweet and sensitive is a good thing. Ready. Randy didn't hear me since his brain was kind of swollen time. My work did have a professional stumbles. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you've been since. I mean I'm ashamed of the back when we get so I'm sorry molly. I should have never played that out of you. Something about what I said, maybe while they realized that you might be able to change how you look on the outside, get you who you are on the inside no matter how the all the main cell Rachelle changed sweet in his inside. He was around, definitely Wally was finally great to embrace both of them. Speak bodybuilder. And a and like five black finally came out came the person he was, that's serious, serious. Uh Hello, how are you?


Hello. I'm good, how are you?


Well, thank you.


Very good.


Okay, so Michelle, I'm Jason nice to meet you.


I'm Michel. Hi Jason, good to meet you.


Yeah. Mhm.


So have you had these conversations before?


Yes. Uh I had one on friday and then had one a couple months ago and they've been phenomenal each time has just been a really nice night.


Okay.


So, uh, when I saw this, when I was really happy, um, I was supposed to have one yesterday and I just forgot about it and had to email and go, oh yeah, I forgot about it.


Yeah. Very good. Uh huh.


And they're like, what would you be willing to do tonight? Sure.


Yeah, that happened to me. Well, I almost forgot.


Yeah.


So I had one scheduled for thursday night and I almost forgot until like 7 45 until I showed up.


Mhm Sure.


But then the other person didn't show up. So yeah, so I really get outside. Yeah, it was one of those, I think before, I'm trying to think before, it was not on days where I was working.


No.


So it wasn't like, it was like on my radar and thursday I just got so consumed with like working and eating dinner and then I'm like, what? It's already time.


Mhm.


So yeah.


Are you, I'm in Arizona, are you on the east coast or?


Oh, I'm in Wisconsin, so uh Yeah.


Oh, johnson. Yeah. Yeah, I figured, I figured since, I mean, I'm like, well it's four here, so, but, but you had said right tonight, so I figured it was probably probably not not out this way.


Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah.


Welcome. What part of Wisconsin?


Uh Milwaukee. So actually we're in Green Dill, which is right on the cusp of it, so Yeah.


Well, okay. Yeah, my, one of my bucket list items is to make it to all 50 states, and Wisconsin is one of the states. I have not yet been too, so.


Mhm. Sure. Well, once this covid situation is done, there's some awful things to do up here.


Okay.


Um you know, like for example, summerfest is the world's largest music festival, and they have bands from all over, you know, and like headliners, like red hot chili peppers and things like that, and then, you know, so it used to be 14 straight days.


Uh Oh, okay.


Now, it's uh for this year because of Kobe, they were going to do three weekends in a row, but but of course there's the state fair where you can get fried everything.


Mhm. Yeah, I'm sure.


Yeah, I am. My uh my uncle went to college, you went to college in Wisconsin. Um He went he went to multiple, I was going to say he had, he had a PhD, I remember where he went, I know you want to overland for his uh for his undergrad, but I think he went to, or maybe he taught at Wisconsin, I don't know one of the University of Wisconsin, I think at Madison, I think it's very, so very cool.


Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. I know. Arizona is the brewers triple A. All right, Excuse me, cactus lee, the brewers come down and Okay.


Yeah. Yeah, we do, we have a lot of, yeah, I live pretty close to where all the spring training uh spring training events are. So it's always always an adventure because sometimes for me it's just like I did in habits and then I'm like, oh wait, I shouldn't have driven this way because spring training traffic is now difficult. But yeah, this year was weird though just because like Covid could happen right in the middle of it.


Yeah, mm hmm.


So it just kind of was just strange. But yeah, usually usually it's a, I sometimes go to, I don't don't go too much to spring training games, but so I grew up in SAn Diego and I am a podcast and so they do their spring training here.


Mhm. Yeah. Okay.


So sometimes I try to go, yeah, we have, we have, trying to think.


So the ones that are closest to me are the the indians and the reds playing the Goodyear ballpark, which is just on the way and then the Dodgers and the white sox are close Padres and the Mariners are a little bit farther.


But a lot of those I think are the six teams on the close to me and the other teams play on the other side of phoenix, so.


Okay, well that's very neat.


Yeah. Right.


Uh well the Padres are one of my favorite teams growing up because you know with the brewers, they were awful for many years, so I always like Tony Gwynn and then his son actually played for the brewers, so oh, that's a neat connection because yeah, I wanted the Padres, the win the World Series, so many just because I hated the Dodgers, which, but you know, to have a national league because the brewers were american league up until 10, 15 years ago.


Yeah. Ah yeah, that's right, I had forgotten about that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.


And so for the Padres and cheer for the brewers, Oh yeah, that would be good, you know, and sure, wow.


Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. This year I don't know it was close but I was gonna say I also have a not necessarily fond feelings for the Dodgers, so currently I have to have it on you. But I was watching the Dodgers game because I'm I'm kind of, I told them, I told a friend of mine like kind of rooting for them to win, hoping that then that like you get like the year after World series like hangover and then maybe the Padres will have a better chance. Mm uh Well I don't know they're going to have to not only win this game, but win one more game so to even get to the World Series.


For me it's pretty much anybody but Houston.


Yeah. You know All right. I don't know when everything came out. I'm like, oh we should just give them a chance. And now I'm just like, no, they cannot win. So like come on raise. You have you have you have a three nothing lead and now they were three. So yeah, like mhm Really interesting. They are okay. I I will I will pretty much for the last 14 anybody, but it's probably probably my my feeling as well so we'll see.


Yeah.


Who knows. So now are you a big sports fan?


Yes, I love sports and I always share it with my students at school and you know, it's kind of neat.


Um I love hockey because the admirals are in town and then um and uh what's interesting is phoenix has my a player with my last name on it, so it's it's kind of neat.


Um I followed him since he was in Manitoba and all this, so so it's kind of um but yeah, I love hockey, I love baseball, love basketball.


Okay. Very cool. Yeah.


Um The only problem is is the only team that was good this year with the bucks and you know, and then or bubble, it was awful, it was so awful because you know, I thought for sure they were going to do well, but you know, they were there built for a season that ended in november, not not a season that ended in, you know, october, but I am both my wife and our teachers, I teach middle school, um She elementary and uh it's nice.


Yeah. And then they like imploded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was good. Yeah. But so you said your students, are you a teacher? Right. Mm. Okay.


Um what's interesting is she goes five days and I do virtual because our school district by us said, nope, you're going to stay virtual.


Okay.


But my wife who lives, who teaches in a more affluent district was like, no, all the kids have to be here. So it's a whole different thing.


Oh wow.


Like she'll come home and she's exhausted because she has to wear a mask and she's moving around all the protocols and all that.


And for me, I'm exhausted because I sit at my kitchen table with a computer here, a computer here and a monitor over here.


Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because I, I asked in part because I am also a teacher, but I teach community college and we're doing it virtually and it is exhausting and I'm just like, I feel like it shouldn't be this tiring just sit in front of a computer all day, but it is, yeah.


Okay. Okay. Mhm. Okay. Well, and the hardest thing with, and people, people are not, are not educators don't get it. They're like, well, you just sit in front. Well, no, because as you're, you know, working with the students, you're doing things over here, your phone's going emails going off. And it, the biggest thing that I don't think people realize is the destruction of your home life or your work home balance.


Yeah. Yeah.


Like at least you know, now I'd stay late, I'd stay until five or six at night grading papers and helping kids.


Yes. Yeah.


But when I left at whatever time I left at on my way home, I could like break away from school.


Yeah.


But this I mean, you know, kids will call well now they can zoom in because we we have district so they can like zoom in on me.


Yeah. Yeah. Yes.


I'm on my computer all sudden I have to go in at seven o'clock at night.


Uh uh huh.


Yeah, I really need help with, you know, that could have been done three hours ago when you were in school. Uh and you know, the parents and emails and stuff like that.


Right. Um, yeah.


But they just don't, they forget though, that, you know, that home life balance, if you can't maintain that, it just burns you out and then we'll zoom when there's 50 faces looking at you, you're like, oh, am I touching my folds?


Yeah, I know.


And is there something up?


It's just very, it's very, very weird. Um, and yeah, it's just, it's hard and I think managing or trying to think about like, like keeping them engaged.


This is so different. Are they doing okay and checking on them? It's just, it's just been a challenge. So what, what subject do you teach?


Well, I teach at risk. So I deal with the students, you know, are academically behind uh, high school for 13 years and then I switched to middle school because I always love the middle school teachers because they're always like, wild and crazy.


Okay. Okay.


And I was like, I want to be wild and crazy because at the high school level, you know, it's the whole different world, especially being at risk.


Yeah, that was cool. Yeah.


I did a lot of juniors and seniors. So I prepped him for college and try to get him to finish high school.


Yeah. Yeah.


And it was a transactional experience a lot of times, you know, with the kids like you need these credits here, let me help you.


Mm. Yeah. Yeah.


Whereas in middle school, it's kind of like, uh, what's the show Drew Carey?


Yeah.


Whose line is it? Anyway?


Oh yeah.


The point don't matter. And you know, no one's counting.


Um, because the grades don't kid can fail everything. They're going to ninth grade. It doesn't matter. So what I tell mike, I go, yeah, it doesn't matter what goes on at home. It doesn't matter the different things we will get through it that, you know, no matter what.


And then with my middle schoolers because their kids, they just, they have that just innocence that the high school kids didn't and, and I loved high school. I, the reason I switched the middle school was my wife's an elementary teacher and I've done high school for so long. I was like, you know, I want to try this and you know, I love it.


You know, the kids, they get to be wild and crazy, but you know, it also makes me very sad because we see at risk in high school you can kind of, you can, you can rationalize it with, these are near adults, you got an 11 year old that has the trauma at home and the mental health issues and you're dealing with an 11 year old, that's like, you know, like my co teacher, no joke had to say this, don't put that in any one of your holes.


Yeah. Mm. Right.


She was a kid like, well in his ears and, and I was like, no, keep it where I can see it, you know, and you think to yourself, you're like, oh God, that's an 11 year old, this, this is going to be a wide well, um you know, but it's, it's the good work, you know, I have done college.


Oh wow. Yeah. Uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


I taught probably about eight years ago because I have a master's in educational leadership. So I, I taught a couple of classes at one of the, uh, colleges by us, cardinal stritch.


Okay.


And uh, I did a couple classes and what I found was adults are great because they'll do anything you want. But it's like, okay, I need you to gradually release here and kind of use your head here.


Uh huh.


Like I don't want a 65 page paper.


I want a five page paper.


Yeah. Mhm.


I don't know how in the world you thought it was supposed to be 64.


Uh huh. Yeah, it's hard for me as I teach math.


Oh, okay.


Um and I chose community college in part uh part because I didn't want to deal with, I I was worried I wouldn't deal well with like behavioral issues and I kind of wanted to see like students want to be there, but I also wanted to make uh I wanted to make a difference because I think so many people get to college and they are afraid of math and they're just kind of like well I don't know if I can actually do the degree that I want because I can't pass my math class.


Yeah.


Um but at the same time like a lot of them come in um and they don't want to think, they're like I just want to copy what you do and it can be, it's always interesting, so I I t and I teach a range of classes, so some of them I get uh that are right out of high school. Um And come with it kind of sometimes an interesting mentality or just not knowing what to expect because I teach at a community college, so a lot of them are first generation college students or their parents did never go to college, they just don't know what to expect.


So it's it's interesting and then some of my classes I have those that are at the end of their two years so that they've been there been there a while, so it's always it's like all over the place but it's just it's kind of interesting and this semester um I usually try to connect with my students this semester, I've been trying to do more of a people first, math second, you know because it's just so hard for everybody me included.


Oh yeah, sure.


Um And and so it's funny that so I have some classes that way because that just ended and some of them were like but we're not maybe next week and I'm like no class is over, we're not getting any more, but a lot of them are just so used to getting to see people, so it's kind of interesting.


Yeah. Yeah.


I don't know, I'm like I'll kind of miss them but at the same time not having to sit on zoom for because they're 2.5 hour classes, so not having to sit for 2.5 hours, I mean I get the breaks and stuff but still 2.5 hours is long, so it's uh I don't know, it's just it's been such a it's just such a weird experience and I don't even, I don't even know and then we're doing it again in the spring, so we've already decided that it's gonna be virtual um in the spring.


Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.


So you are you all on a like a day by day, you kind of decided coming there.


Well, it's interesting with ours because, um, with us we have it where the metrics have to be the number of cases in Milwaukee County, which, you know, Milwaukee County is the largest in the state. So, um, you know that we have that we have hospitalizations and then we have um, staff utilization because right now we can't get a substitute save our lives. Like if you're say either your friends are covering your classes or kids not taught, like it's just, I haven't missed a day in like 14 years.


So it's not that's not a problem for me, but for some of my coworkers, like we had a one of our younger teachers just get married and she's like, I need days off and we're all like, and you know, and the principles like, okay, I know there's some of you that have prep, not all of you, but some of you do, would you be willing to give it up to help?


Yeah, wow. Yeah, wow.


And the problem is a lot of the staff there still burned out, like for me, because I don't normally I would have my own classroom and I would pull kids and I would just, you know, work with about 15 at a time where right, I'm bouncing between zoom.


So I have three computer self watching this and you know, and it's just, but I don't I don't do a prep because you know, I need to be in the classroom because you know what I mean?


Uh huh. Ah Yeah.


You know, for example, uh the funniest thing that's happened so far was the math teacher goes, uh she had annotation on and I messaged her in the chat and I go, hey, you know, you have annotation and you turn it off, you know, it's gonna, and she's, you know, a younger teacher who thinks I'm stupid and it was, you know, I think it's fine, you know? And she, so she blasted me on with the kids and I was like, okay, whatever. And then one of the, one of the kids, not my kid, thankfully, um, big phallic symbol up on the screen and, and then she looks at me and I go, that's why you turn off annotation.


Yeah. Um, but you know, at any given day, I'm in three different classrooms at once, so I'm just making sure, and then all of my kids, because some of my kids have mental health challenges where, and then, um, you know, in some of our behavioral, like, you know, some, like in normal classrooms, they can be jags, well, you know, on zoom, they can, they can hide themselves because they can turn off their screen and be like, I didn't say that.


Uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


So that's certainly, but we don't know about, I mean, for us, the good thing is, is unlike a lot of the districts by us where they're either back or they're like, well, you know, at any time you can switch for us, we have it where as soon as the metrics go green, which is what we need, then we go to the next phase and the next phase, there's a week lead time between phases so that at least gives us a week to make an accommodation.


Yeah, I was gonna say I can only imagine it's even more challenging for that man for you with this kind of environment because Yeah. Okay and yeah.


Now, you know, on the books, were probably going to jail for a while off the books. I know for a fact, the superintendents get a lot of heat. I know the board is getting on the heat, they're gonna crack.


Um Oh yeah.


I mean the, they're going to go in and go, oh well when we said Milwaukee County, what we meant was, so it's it's a matter of time and it's because you know, the safe and safe and wellness of the staff and the kids will be affected if you get more together, especially we know when the weather gets crappy, people congregate more and then are, you know like, you know, I was talking to one of the teachers on a zoom and she has kids at our school and her kids in the background, okay, mom going over to this guy's house and I'm like, you really shouldn't be doing that.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah right now. Oh yeah, because.


And he was like, and she, she's a staff member in the building and she's like, well, you know, I'm just, I'm just resigned in the fact that I'm like, but you shouldn't be like this Wisconsin is like one of the worst in the country, like why but Okay.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Arizona, we're the we're the same way, I mean it's it's crazy, I live by a community park so I have a dog and we walk and um, and so as soon as we walk by the park and he likes going to the park because he has all the smells, but like when I know it's busy, I'm like, we're staying away, but there are times sometimes we go and I'm like, okay, there's more people than I thought they were here and sometimes they're like people that are clearly not living in the same household, playing basketball with no masks in each other's faces and playing volleyball.


Yeah.


And I'm like, what are you doing?


Uh most of them are not like adults, their kids. And I'm like, well, somebody's parents are, I mean it's just, it just boggles my mind. I'm like, and this is why and this week again, we, we went over one day, we had over 1000 new cases in Maricopa County I like, and this is why I keep, because for a while we got really low, like in the almost 50 but like in the low like 102 100 day, which I think is sadly the lowest we've gotten.


And okay.


And then all of a sudden it started climbing again and now it's like up north near 1000, I'm like, we're never going to get them to other people. But the hard part is the lower it gets. I think the board complacent people get and people are tired just not going out and then it just gets worse.


Mhm.


So yeah, it's just scary.


Yeah. For us we opened up an emergency hospital at state fair, which is in the community and when it first opened up in, I think like early august they're like, oh we're going to take it down, we're not gonna need it.


Oh.


And now it's start like the Fox Valley which is over by Appleton is getting cases where their hospitals are full and it area because I mean now where we live in Milwaukee County, I mean there's hospitals, there's tons of them.


Oh, man.


But the scary thing is is, you know, we haven't even hit the seasonal flu, we pneumonia season, we haven't hit respiratory season.


Right. Exactly. Yeah.


I mean, yeah, it's, you know, and what I was explaining to one of my friends who lives in Korea actually I got up at three in the morning today and I'll stop because I just couldn't sleep.


Yeah. Oh, wow. Mm.


You know this milieu everything the stress is just, yeah, we're talking to him and he's like, he's like, Jason, I don't think you understand.


Yeah. Yeah, I hear you.


Like I'm watching this on the news and you'd swear Wisconsin's Arkansas. Like he would swear that this is like backwoods country.


Oh yeah.


He goes, I've lived there, there's no way how is this happening? And, and I just told them, I was like, it's surreal. But what we were talking about was the idea that with the virus, people, you know, people assume like, well it's just going to become propagated everywhere. And, but what they forget is viruses mutate. And you know the way a virus manifests today might not be the way it manifests in 20 years. Like think about shingles virus.


Yeah.


It's the chicken pox virus, 30 years later, shingles happens.


We don't know if something like this is, you know, because that's why they call it a nouvelle virus, we don't know.


Right. Mm hmm. Yeah.


And um, just, you know, the fact that you know, I've seen ranges like my friend who's a police officer got it and you know, he lost his sense of smell, sense of taste for like two weeks and then he was back on the forest like he was because he was young, he was 25 he's back at it.


Yeah. But wow. Yeah, wow, wow.