Hi, this is President Micah.
And I'm Co-President Chris.
And this is the 2023 Trash Can Nation State of the Union.
Trash Can OGs.
It's been a great year.
We're closed up season two.
And guess what?
How many states have we had, Chris?
A whopping 26.
How many countries have we had, Chris?
That's a lot of states.
Cross five continents.
20 countries.
That's a lot of countries.
So y'all can pick it up anytime.
We're growing.
We're growing stronger.
We're growing stronger together as OGs across this land.
And season three will be our best one yet.
Because together we can make Trash Can great again.
My motto as well is make Trash Can great again and make Trash Can profitable more than ever.
But what we're going to do for season three is build Trash Can better.
You like how I use those two slogans?
So this has been our state of the union.
And let's open up season three with Micah.
And I'm Chris.
And this is the DonoBox podcast.
So Chris, season three.
It's interesting because what's crazy is that we've been doing this for two years now.
And I feel like we're just finally starting to get some traction.
They say it takes like a good like three to five years to finally like make it big.
Unless you're like a celebrity, like celebrities like Logan Paul or whatever, they just pop
out of podcasts and everybody goes and listens to it.
But if you're just a regular Joe Schmoe like us, you got to start it from the bottom.
Now we're here like Drake said.
Yeah.
And then we go get to the point where it's like we'll have a producer that does it all
and all we get do, you know, we'll get paid to talk and that'll be great.
But that's all in the future.
That's all in the future.
Now before we get started, Micah, I have to ask, should we come out with merch right
now?
Should we do it?
We should not.
We would make all this merch and I know that one person would buy.
But other than that, I don't know who would.
So I don't think it's a good, proper time at the moment.
Probably like our wives and then like that other person.
And probably my mom would buy it and that was probably it.
So we know it would be good and, you know, maybe our listener over at Frankfurt, Germany,
maybe they hop on that because man, they consistent.
But we got a lot of consistent folks, man.
We were looking at the map earlier and there's so many places out there.
Columbus, Ohio was a really big one.
Iowa is always massive.
You guys are all consistent listeners.
But I mean, it's amazing to look at it and look at the, we have what's called the heat
map, right?
We can see where everybody's listening from and just see how vast it gets.
And man, it's always exciting whenever you see new blips.
Like, you know, it's, it's amazing to me.
Even two years in, I get super excited when it's like, oh man, we got a new location and
you know, I've even learned some geography and some locations I didn't even know about.
I'm always like, man, I wonder how these people find us or maybe it just pops up on
their feet and they probably take one listen and they're like, oh, because I've seen a
couple like countries do that.
And then I've seen another was like, oh yeah, I like this.
I'm going to download it every week and I'm going to tell my friends, but hey man, that
just comes with the territory.
So season three is going to be good.
I'm excited for it.
Yeah.
Heck yeah, man.
Well, you know, in season opening and season closing fashion, a lot of the times we like
to free form it.
So in a season opening fashion, we're going to open up season three with a little bit
of get to know your host because listen, you guys know us, but you don't really know some
things and you know, there's even some stuff when we were prepping for this episode that
Chris and I were talking about with each other.
And it's like, oh man, I didn't even know that that happened or I forgot that that happened.
So you know, it's, it's always fun to kind of go through that stuff and you know, you
always can learn things about people that are interesting.
So yeah, man, do you want me to start it?
I'm eager to get into your life.
I understand that you bought your first car with cash and let me tell you, even in the
day and age that we grew up, that kind of wasn't real common.
I mean, how many people, you know, I think their parents, you know, paid for a lot of
it, but Chris, you bought your own car, the Buick, we've talked about it before, but I
don't think we've talked about how you bought it, what you did work wise to get there.
And there was a couple of different jobs, right?
Well, it was mainly because of Chuck E. Cheese.
That's mainly what it was.
I worked at Chuck E. Cheese.
I know you talked about me working at the Masters Golf Tournament, but that was to buy
my plane tickets to come out to Texas.
That's right.
For some reason, I thought that was also to save up for your car.
But no, that's all right.
That's right.
It was to buy the plane tickets for your first trip out to Texas.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I'll go into that in a little bit.
But Chuck E. Cheese, so it was my first job and I was looking around for jobs and I applied
everywhere and I just happened to go to Chuck E. Cheese and was like, let me give it a shot.
And so I applied.
They hired me on as a game room attendant and we've talked a little bit about what that
means, but basically the game room attendant did pretty much everything.
They bus the tables, they fixed all the games, they restocked the games with tickets back
in the days when games would spit out tickets.
Now they have it really easy because they just spit out a card and you can just swipe
it and whenever you play a game, the tickets just get added to your card, which I'm like,
that is absolutely genius.
And so I would also have to bus the tables and then at night, I would have to wipe down
all 100 games, bus all 100 tables, fill all the cheeses, all the napkins, sweep under
the tables, refill all the games with tickets and then I'd have to vacuum the whole store
and then I'd have to mop.
And it was like pretty big and it was only like one person that did it at night.
And so it was a lot and I worked there for, I think it was 10 months and I just saved
up all my money and I remember like a lot of people would be like, hey, like let's go
out to E or let's go do this thing.
So a lot of people, they would want to go out and I'd be like, no, man, I'm trying to
save money for my car.
So when it was time to buy the car, I remember I looked in like the newspaper and all that
good stuff and there was like this huge car lot.
And so we went up there and it was this 96 Buick.
My test drove it and it was like right in my price range.
And I, that's when I learned about tax tag and title because the sticker price is what's
on the sticker, but they also have to charge you for your taxes, your title and your like
licenses and stuff.
So that's usually an extra like 200 to $400.
So I learned that real quick.
But I remember like my grandpa went and checked out the car and they were like, yeah, this
car was like pretty in pretty good shape and I only have one previous owner.
And so I bought the car cash and yeah, man, I picked Mike up.
I think it was before he got his truck.
And so I was his ride for a while and then when he got his truck, he could drive on his
own, but yeah, it was, it was cool to have your own car, man.
Now my parents paid for the insurance, but I bought the car and I paid for the gas.
So I mean, it was like, I guess it was a fair deal.
I would say.
And I think if I remember correctly, it wasn't like $2,500, something like that.
I think it's how much it was.
It was $2,500 with a tax tag and title.
So I bought it straight up cash.
So that was, that's kind of, I'm not proud of a whole lot of things in my life.
I mean, there are a couple of things that I'm proud of, but like that's one that I'm
really proud of.
But yeah, so yeah, enough about me.
We'll ask some more questions about me later.
But Micah, we've talked about your love of planes, man.
Where did that stem from and what have you always wanted to be when you, when you grow
up?
I was a kid off as a kid.
I grew up part of my life in Germany because my dad was in the military and so was over
there and there was an airport over there in Frankfurt, big massive airport.
And you know, I don't know.
I saw a lot of where we were living.
There was planes flying over the house and things like that.
So got to see that quite a bit.
But the 747, the big jumbo jet, you know, the four engine, double deck or son of a gun.
I don't know.
It was just, it was just massive.
And at the time, this was like pre-911.
So you know, there was like an observation deck and I just remember you'd go out on the
observation deck and you could see everything they were doing.
And it's just such a, they were just such massive machines and all these people and you
know, I don't know, it was a glamorous looking life.
And so I wanted to be a pilot, like a commercial pilot when I grew up.
But I'll tell you this much, I kind of got into that world a little bit.
I actually went to a flight school that was geared towards getting you to be a commercial
pilot.
And man, I did not like the lifestyle actually.
I mean, a lot changed.
So it kind of weirded to go back, right?
So being in a military kid, you know, my parents weren't exactly there a ton, right?
Especially my daddy wasn't there a ton.
And you know, a lot of what I had, I'll have a lot of friends who were pilots and things
like that.
And that's the biggest thing is, you know, they really don't get to see their family
a ton, especially right now because there's a big pilot shortage.
They don't get to see their family a ton.
They're on the road all the time.
And you know, they missed those moments like the holidays are coming up, right?
Like we talked about Thanksgiving, Christmas, like, you know, you won't be able to see them,
things like that.
And so I don't know, there was that and there's, it's different when it's a job at a business,
right?
And so it's fun, your own is fun when you fly and you're on somebody else's schedule
and on somebody else's time.
It's a job and a business, right?
And so it just kind of turns you off after a while.
So priorities change a little bit.
But now I still love planes, love planes of all kind.
But and here's the thing about Michael.
Michael can just look at a plane and Michael can even like close his eyes and he can hear
a plane and he can tell what kind of plane it is.
Is that true?
That's that's true, right?
Yeah, for for most things.
Now, a lot of people, whenever I say planes, they're like, Oh, military stuff, military
stuff.
I know like basic stuff, but really not much.
I'm kind of a different guy.
I like commercial aviation a ton.
But yeah, it's, it's a lot of that.
And I guess over time, it's gotten kind of easier just because, you know, I think we've
talked about cars and stuff like that on here and how there's kind of just general, you
know, a few different makes and models and just kind of all the same, but a little different
per manufacturer.
It's kind of the same thing with planes now.
They're all pretty much the same in design, except for a few little nuances.
But there's a lot less of them and they're a lot more just kind of generic now.
So it's a little easier now.
Used to be it was a little harder.
Funny thing about Micah is that I'm never flying.
Like I'll tell him like where I'm going and stuff.
And he'll be like, yeah, I'm tracking your flight right now.
He's like, you're going to be flying on this plane.
And this plane is pretty cool because it'll give you like the history of it and be like,
oh yeah, these are, these are not made that anymore.
There's not that many more of these.
So enjoy this flight.
And so you recently took that flight on one of the, I guess it was the last remaining
plane of its kind or something.
And so to me, man, I'm like, I want a plane like it flies as long as it flies.
Like I don't care about Micah.
Like he loves planes.
Now let me ask you, so do you think at this point, like knowing what you know, would you
just rather flying be like a hobby?
Like you want to get your pilot's license and you would just like do it as a hobby or
would you still want to be like a private pilot or?
I would love for it to just be a hobby.
Have my own plane, go out and do my own thing.
Like, you know, in the morning go burn a little fuel, that sort of thing.
Really and truly, if I had to do it for a job and a career, I think I would want to be
more of the instructor route.
I like to teach and so it'd be nice.
And that way you still get to be home a lot.
Yeah.
Tell them about the game that you have played about planes.
I mean, it's not really a game, but yeah.
Flight simulator.
Poor, poor Chris.
I'll tell you this much.
Whenever we shared a room together, how, how many hours do you think I put in?
Yeah, it was playing.
Here's the thing about flight sim.
You would even before we had to share a room, like even when we lived back in Georgia, you
be like, yeah, I'm flying to Brazil right now or I'm flying to some, some, but like
you, like it's like in real time.
So you would just kind of like once you got in the air and all that stuff, like you would
just kind of let it fly.
And then you'd be like, hold on, bro, we got to pause our game because I got to land this
plane because it's about time for me to land.
But like he would be, he would, he would like nowhere he was at and he'd be like, yeah,
bro, we got to stop real quick.
Yeah, we got to stop playing basketball because I got to go play in this plane.
So yeah, that's my wife has to deal with that.
So she also got really, really mad because on the, you know, more modern flights.
So like even in that flight simulator, you could pause it, but now you could pause it
like midair and you do whatever you need to do.
I just don't like doing that.
I like keeping it real time and everything going like it should and things like that.
So it's just funny because she gets kind of agitated about it.
Sometimes like, you know, you could pause it was like, Oh, I know, but like, we're, you
know, we got to fly this approach right now.
You know, that's actually, that's actually a weird fact.
I don't think really anybody knows about me.
We're divulging this on the donut box podcast.
So flight simulators actually how I learned how to fly more complex systems.
Like, you know, most people, like what I flight train on in real life or Cessna is the small
like single prop planes, but you know, flight simulators, you could fly all the way up to
the airliners and that's always what I've been interested in.
I had no idea how autopilot worked or, you know, any of the radio frequencies and things.
Honestly, it was like trial and error over the years and then come to find out you start
putting two and two together.
And then finally I found how to do autopilot.
That made my life a lot easier.
A lot of people talk mess, especially on flight simulator of like, Oh, you know, oh, you turn
on the autopilot, you're not really flying.
For me, where you're honing your skills, like, yes, there are skills and just regular flying
or you hone your skills or take off and landing because those are the most critical points,
especially landings.
And that's always my favorite is, you know, getting to do that.
But you know, 33,000 feet maintaining yourself.
It's boring.
You know, you can let the autopilot do that in my mind.
Yeah.
I got two more things I'm going to say that we'll get off this, but number one, our friend
Aaron, he's actually a pretty successful YouTuber and that's a lot of what he makes on his channel
is a flight sim videos.
And so they're actually pretty good and he's actually pretty entertaining.
So yeah, he's got great content actually.
So shout out to Aaron.
If you're listening, he's a cool guy.
He's actually, I was just going to say, go look him up.
Yeah.
Aaron Reins, go look him up for sure.
And then number two, my question was, now, some of y'all have never seen this movie.
But Soul Plane, how do you feel about that movie?
How do you get like upset about some of the things about the plane and Soul Plane?
No, because it's a comedy movie.
So you know, it's going to be really inaccurate.
I mean, you can't have spinners on there and whatnot or hydraulics or any, you know, some
of the features that the plane had there.
No.
And what I do get mad is sometimes in TV and movies, they, what they'll use is they'll
use stock footage of like a plane taking off or landing, right?
And the hard part for me is there are some basics.
Like, I know this is to people who don't care, right?
And they're just watching TV.
It doesn't matter.
But for me, it's like they'll show a DC three, which is like this little prop plane, right?
And then the inside is the, this main, you know, cabin, huge passenger airline and you're
going, okay, yeah, right.
That thing sits six people.
How is there 18 in a first class and a business class cabin that don't make no sense?
Like, that's the stuff that pisses me off.
I'm like, see the logistics just, it doesn't work out.
So your senior year of high school, we've talked about it a little bit before, but it
was kind of a tumultuous time.
I don't know, most people senior year is a little interesting, but you know, part of
your senior year, you knew that you were moving to Texas.
So kind of how did that go?
Like what do you mean about me moving to Texas and how my attitude was?
Yeah, like, I know that senior ride is definitely kicked in, but it was, it was an interesting
time for Chris.
We're just going to divulge this a little bit too.
We've talked about it, but to put it in full picture here, you know, he started dating
this particular gal.
We've talked about her in the past and then at the same time he had his car too.
And not just that, but he was a part of the police explored program.
And about that point was like, yeah, kind of stepped away from church and the youth group
kind of thing at the time.
So like, tell us about what was going on with, I guess, dark side Chris over here.
What was going on?
Oh, if we have to, that is not a proud moment in my life.
It was basically looking back on it, I'm like, yeah, man, I just squandered that senior year,
but I had been not bullied, but just kind of treated poorly by a lot of people I knew,
not Michael, but like it was like, man, I tried to reach out and have friends and just
didn't really feel like I fit in.
Except when I started the police internship program, that's when I started having friends.
And bro, once I found out that I was moving to Texas mentally, I was like giving the middle
finger to everybody, I would just like, you know what, I'm moving to Texas, I'm going
to burn all the bridges I have right now.
I was like, I never go see none of y'all fools again.
And so I remember, so the girl that I was dating, she broke up with me in January.
And of course me, I was like, still trying to hold on and like still trying to be the
friend and she was like kind of using that.
And like as soon as I found out I got accepted into Texas, I just came over there and was
like, yeah, bro, I'm moving to Texas by sorry about you.
I don't care.
And she was like, but, but, but like what about this and that?
And I was like, yeah, bro, I don't care.
I'm moving to Texas.
Even with the youth group leaders, bro, that's the time that we pepper sprayed each other
in the parking lot.
Or I got pepper sprayed in the parking lot.
And yeah, and so then the youth leaders were trying to say stuff to me and I was like,
yeah, bro, I don't really care.
Like I just, I didn't really care.
I was in a bad spot that whole year, man.
Just cause I was like kind of tired of doing like the good, goody two shoes thing.
It wasn't, I was like going out and partying or, you know, cussing people out or anything
like that.
I just was making a lot of decisions that weren't me.
And I think I was doing it out of a lot of pain.
And I was just kind of frustrated with things that were going on at home and mostly between
like me and my dad.
And so I was just like ready to get out.
Like I was just ready to leave the house.
I was ready to be done with Augusta, Georgia.
And so I just had a really bad attitude and like looking back on it, man, I wish I would
have cherished like those moments and would have, because if I couldn't go back, I'd do
my senior year way differently.
Like I goofed off.
I skipped school a lot and I was just like, yeah, man, like just forget this.
So it was not a good time for good old Christopher.
That was, that's not a problem moment in his life.
Now, now as negative as that was, we'll talk about this.
Where would, where would Christopher senior year go and skip school?
Like if you, if you skip school, what was it?
Oh, so here's the thing.
And my mom is going to totally be upset when she hears this because my mom doesn't even
know.
So I'm going to confess this on the doughnut box.
I told you, I told you, season three were going to be edgy.
Basically what I would just really do is I would like go to my home room and I'd go
to my first period class and then I would like fake sick and then I would just go home.
That's really what I would do.
I would go home and watch TV and I even remember like all my birthday.
I pretended to go to school, but then after like my parents left for work, I just came
right back home and I watched TV.
So like I skipped school, like not to go anywhere, but like I just skip school just
so I could stay at home and watch TV.
Yeah.
I didn't like go out to lunch.
I never skipped school with anybody.
And it's not like we have like a day to go to the same school.
So it's not like we would go and hang out.
You know, I think that was probably for the best.
You and I would have gotten in a lot of trouble if we went to the same school.
So wouldn't it be?
So I just was like, yeah, I'm just not going to go to school today.
Like, and in my mind, I was like, oh yeah, I got like this many unexcused absences before
I graduate or before they start calling my parents.
So I was, I was, I was calculating.
I was like, yeah, it was bad.
And you think about that stuff.
And then you also think about, uh, I have this many unexcused absences before I can't
exempt in some of my exams at the end of the semester.
Oh yeah, man.
You think about all the little requirements and then you work around that side note.
I actually, one time I skipped school and this is my junior year, but I just remember,
I don't know, this, it was perfect because this guy had his girlfriend's house like right
outside the high school and we had a class that was right outside and they would allow
you to walk outside between, you know, different parts of the school.
So we conjured up this plan.
We were like, yeah, it was like me and three other guys were like, yeah.
So what we're going to do, he had his car parked right over there.
We're like, we're just going to walk over there.
There's a little fence.
We're going to jump the fence.
We're going to get in the car and go and we'll be back before the next period.
Man, we, we got out there.
We start driving.
We're like, okay.
So what do we do?
We were like, so it was almost like prisoners in a prison break.
Like, but once we actually got out, we were like, okay, what are we going to do?
And he's just like, I don't know.
And then one person was like, you want to go to cracker barrel?
It's like, sure.
But then there was a bunch of 16 year olds who went to cracker barrel and then toys are
us and then went back for our next period.
So what a wild time.
It is like, it is like prison.
And that's the difference like between high school and college.
Cause once you go to college, like you feel so free.
You feel like you can come and go as you please.
You don't feel like you're stuck there.
And so yeah, I totally get it, man.
I totally get it 100%.
But yeah.
Sorry mom.
If you're listening, which I know she is.
I was skipping school senior year.
Like I said, not a great time for Christopher.
I was skipping school and I was part of the police internship program.
So you do the math of how that worked out morally.
Hey, it worked out.
It worked out.
You're a great person now.
But speaking of bad times on myself.
Yeah.
Is there any time you want to ask me about that maybe, I don't know that you remember
that was interesting times for me.
Interesting times for you, man.
I know that because I was going to bring up the fact that you skipped football practice
to go go to work.
But we won't.
We won't divulge that story.
But yeah, I think it was, I think whenever this was kind of when our friendship was like
on the rocks and I was not in a good place and you were dating that girl, you know, who
I'm talking about.
And that.
Yeah.
And you just kind of seem like just miserable.
You were working at the airport.
You were like working really, really hard.
And you bro, you were just 16 hours.
16 hour days, bro.
And like I hardly ever saw you just because you were like, you were exhausted, man.
You kind of, you kind of just seemed like you were just, you were just surviving at
that point.
So how is that time for you?
Tell us, tell us a little bit.
You don't have to divulge all those secrets.
So it was actually interesting times.
So that particular, I guess you kind of have your first, your first major relationship or
your first like love, love that you have.
And that was her for me.
And you know, it was also one of those relationships to where you blow past a lot of red flags
and you try to make the puzzle piece fit even though it doesn't.
We've all had those relationships, right?
But I definitely have.
I'll be the first to raise both my hands for that.
Yeah.
It's just like, you see all the red flags.
I mean, there was so many red flags for her from the very beginning.
Honestly, she didn't even want to date me.
And she told me that straight up from the beginning, but I wanted to date her.
And you know, anytime you put yourself in a situation where it's like they don't want
to and you try to force the issue.
I wouldn't say like they have the upper hand, but the kind of person that she was, she used
that to her advantage.
So that wasn't good.
But I'll just say this, man, it was a real toxic relationship.
And she was a very broken person.
And what's really hard about dating broken people is you want to try to fix them, right?
And you think, oh man, like nobody else can fix them, but I can because we have the special
connection and all this other stuff.
What that ended up getting me to was I ended up actually living with her.
And this was, I mean, I was fresh out of high school.
Like I had graduated in, when people graduate high school, May, I guess was where my graduation
was.
And I was, I guess, living with her and her family by September, October, something like
that.
And I technically like I was living and that's the reason Chris wouldn't see me a lot is
because pretty much what happened is that family knew that I was working long hours.
They lived kind of right around the corner where our house was or where Chris and I were
living was about 30 minutes away from the airport.
So it was a little bit of a drive.
And most of the time I would get off at 12, one in the morning.
So they were just like, you know what, why don't you just come over here?
And so what had happened is, of course, I moved a bunch of my stuff over there.
So I was essentially living there, right?
What ends up happening is this was a very traditional Mexican home.
And basically, you know, the man brings in the money and the women take care of the rest.
And so pretty much that was my job.
And you put the money into the pool with the rest of the family.
So pretty much that's what happened was my paycheck went towards the family and paying
bills.
And so it was a real, you know, I was a part of the family for the most part.
Well, her stepfather, oh, by the way, guys, if you can hear a cat meowing in the background,
that is, yeah, we're fostering a cat right now and they're being very vocal.
So bear with us.
You get to hear them wanting to talk on the podcast.
But pretty much her stepfather actually, like the other man in the family pretty much passed
away unexpectedly.
And so that kind of fell to me and was working, was working, you know, 16 hours trying to
try to make that money.
And I'll tell you what, man, that was a that's a hard time for a 19 year old.
I wasn't expecting all that.
Nothing really prepares you for that.
Especially, you know, most 19 year olds, they go out on their own, you know, get an apartment
first.
And but it was full on, you know, taking care of a whole family.
So that's pretty crazy.
But yeah, man, so that was a crazy part of my life.
But I tell you what, man, we've also had some some great times as well.
And one that I want to talk about, and it's fairly recent, I wouldn't say fairly recent,
it's been over a year now.
But you know, Chris went from one business to another one industry to another, and actually
found his dream role, speaking of dream jobs, you know, in the dream profession that he wants
to be a part of.
Chris, I want you to talk about that a little bit, because, you know, that's awesome.
And especially anyways, I'll let you explain.
Oh, yeah.
So I saw it's actually kind of stepping back into that dream role.
Because so like before my divorce and everything, I was in ministry, I was a kid's pastor, then
going through the divorce and everything had to step out of it for a while, just to kind
of heal and, you know, get everything back on the right track.
Right.
So it was it was it was definitely tough because walking through divorce was a hard season.
But man, man, it's going on two years almost, going back into ministry, man.
And I love it.
I get to teach kids about Jesus every day.
But more than that, I get to help other people who want to do that.
So I've been doing kids ministry for going on seven years now as staff and as like volunteers.
So I've been doing it for a while so I can help other people who want to do it.
But before that, I did like prison and youth ministry.
So not youth that are in prison, but I did youth ministry and prison ministry.
I went to Bible school, got all my Jedi powers so I can marry people and perform funerals.
But yeah, man, it's great.
I get to enjoy what I do every single day.
I get to help other people who are wanting to do the same thing, kind of help them get
to an elevated level, man.
And so it's really cool.
Never thought I'd get paid for doing something that I love, but you know, it's great.
Kids are awesome.
I get to be myself.
I get to tell awesome jokes.
And the cool thing about working with kids, sometimes it's better than working with adults
because kids like they get it and they don't have so many blocks and you can be fun and
goofy.
But at the still same time, like people underestimate kids and how smart they are.
So it's really cool, man.
But yeah, so that's a little bit about me stepping into my dream role.
I had one thing, one fun fact that people don't know about Micah is that Micah loves
to cook.
So Micah, when did your like love for cooking start?
I don't even know.
I kind of do remember as a kid even, and you know, maybe this was a different time.
Do you remember that, you know, like cable, prime time cable, there used to be like cooking
shows like that?
That's not a thing anymore for sure.
But you remember the Emeril Lagassee, like I remember he was a big one, be like 8pm,
like it would just be like on a prime time thing and he would like have his own cooking
show and stuff like that, or even like Rachel Ray at the time.
And you know, that's more like on food network stuff.
But I just remember watching that and even like Iron Chef, I don't know if you've ever
seen that before where it's like a competition show from the 90s where they have to cook
something from a secret ingredient and stuff.
And that's pretty cool.
But it wasn't until I moved out on my own.
And you know, you got to start cooking for yourself.
And I don't know.
Here's what's dumb, man.
I don't know if you were like this, but when I first got out on my own, I thought for whatever
reason, okay, you do what college kids do and eat ramen every meal.
And that's about how that's going to go.
And you know, I started doing that.
And I started actually having some health problems.
Like I wouldn't say health problems, but like minor health problems, right?
Like kind of blurred vision, some weird stuff going on, went to the doctor.
You know, the doctor tells me, yeah, it's because you can't eat ramen every freaking
meal.
It's full of salt and you have no meat protein.
Like there's nothing there really.
MSG, yeah.
And so it's like you're really not getting nourished at all.
And so I just remember that doctor saying, you know, if you're going to eat ramen, you
have to doctor it up or at least add some meat or protein or something to it.
And that's kind of how it weirdly started was, and you know, even whenever I was a kid,
summertime, I was a what they call a latchkey kid, right?
You had to stay inside and wasn't allowed to go outside.
And so sometimes I would start doctoring up some stuff.
And one thing that I would doctor up with seasoning was ramen, but I never like added anything
else to it.
So I already kind of knew how to tweak with some seasoning because of the back then.
And then I started adding like sausage or something like that to it, right?
Like you can go buy a pack of sausage real cheap.
So I cut some of that up, put it in there.
And it kind of became that way.
And then it became, okay, how can I make this?
And basically it became, how can I make this cheap food, not be cheap food or not feel like
cheap food, right?
And that's kind of how it started, you know, even like Chef Boyardy ravioli, there's some
things you could do to Chef Boyardy ravioli that makes it like, oh, shoot, that's, that's,
you know, you can't even really tell that comes from a can stuff.
And that's kind of just where it started.
And then after a while, what one of my main dishes that I really like to make is schnitzel
like German schnitzel, like it's pork and it's, yeah, our listener from Frankfurt is
probably like, oh yeah.
But it's really good.
My grandmother has a recipe.
And believe it or not, I didn't even ask her about it.
Literally I just, I had just seen her do it for years.
And I figured one day I bet I could replicate that.
And we had all the ingredients on hand.
So I replicate it.
And I tell you, my wife devoured it, loved it.
And pretty much why I love cooking is, I don't know, it's a lot of times what I have issues
with in life is a lack of control.
I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that is, but cooking, you can control a lot of
aspects, right?
You can, you can control how fast you cook it, how slow you cook it, you can control
how big you dice the onions that are going to go.
I mean, you could scale up, scale down, you could micro manage the crap out of it, or
you can just enjoy yourself and be like, I don't really, you know, we're going to have
fun with it.
I don't know.
That's kind of what I like about it.
They said that if you work with your mind that you should rest with your hands.
And so like you, you do a lot of like, I would consider what you do working with your mind,
right?
You're not physically like doing a construction job.
So like cooking, you're able to physically prepare something with your hands and you're
able to have like a finished product.
And so you're like, Oh yeah, I can physically and tangibly see the results of the work that
I've done and you feel accomplished.
So I totally get it, man.
That's pretty cool.
Other than the schnitzel, are there any other favorite things that you like to cook?
Other things that I like to cook, I make a really good pasta.
I mean, pasta is super easy, right?
But that's one of those other ones that you find out you pull some pasta.
You can make sauces really out of anything and you know, go with it.
Schnitzel is the main bit, man.
Actually, you know, I just made some tonight for my wife and myself, but I can do a really
good potato soup too.
I love doing potato soup.
So yeah, there's quite a bit of stuff, man.
Like I probably, I'll probably think of a bunch more after we get off the podcast, right?
Be like, Oh yeah, I should have said that.
Well, that's great because I cannot like cook to save my life, bro.
I can cook like chicken and mac and cheese and I can cook a little bit, but man, the
basics do, but like if it were up to me, I'd starve and my poor wife, whenever she met
me, bro, I was eating the Totino's pizzas.
I was eating the chef boy already.
I was eating the bachelor food and dude, I cannot eat chef boy already anymore.
Like I just, I've eaten so much of it that I just can't.
But yeah, just makes you sick.
Yeah.
My brother actually went to culinary school and so he could cook phenomenally, but like
my gift is not cooking.
Every time I watch Hell's Kitchen, I'm like, man, if I was on that show, I would die.
I was like, that is not my gift, but I enjoy watching people cook and I enjoy that.
It's not fun for me.
I will clean, so I have no problem washing the dishes.
So that's kind of our deal.
If my wife cooks nine times out of 10, I'll wash the dishes.
So that's like my contribution to that.
But heck, man, even camping, it's like, I'm camp chef.
You can't be washing the dishes afterwards.
Yeah, bro.
I don't care.
Like, I would like, dude, I'll wash the dishes.
Like, I don't care.
You cook.
So, but yeah, man, it's pretty cool.
So kind of shifting gears a little bit, talking about season two, we just capped it.
What are some of your favorite things about season two?
Or you're like, man, we really improved on this.
I think, honestly, we, something was different about the flow each time that I listened from
last season to this season or like the beginning of season two to now.
I feel like we're a lot smoother in what we're saying.
I feel like we're getting a lot.
I know this sounds dumb because even a year in, we were a lot more comfortable than when
we started, but still getting very, very comfortable in the flows and what we do and what we do
well.
And I really think that we're honing in some of those things that we're doing well.
You know, what I like about it is because of course we listen to each week as well.
But from my personal opinion and tell me if you think differently, there are some weeks,
we're all human, right?
There are some weeks where we have better weeks than others.
And I feel like we've gotten to the point now where even between clever editing from
Chris and kind of where we are, I can't really tell too much anymore.
Oh, that was when I was having a bad week.
Like sometimes you can, but not really anymore.
And used to, I feel like in the first season, parts of the second season, like early on,
I felt like that was something that you could really see.
Or I can definitely tell like, yeah, I was off this weekend or I was off this week, you
know what I mean?
Yeah, for sure, man.
I, again, I feel like going back and listening to it, I can definitely tell that there was
like a lid on myself and you because we're like very careful what we're going to say
and how are people going to perceive this, but I feel like this season, like they've
gotten to know more of us.
And so we've gotten to, we've gotten to just be able to flow and groove.
One thing that we did find our groove on the donut hole, I have been enjoying the quizzes
and I feel like those have been a good thing that kind of helped beef up the show and adding
segments like the Taiyo shoes, could you trip in or the your fired segment?
I think those have been great segments, man.
So changing it up, keeping it fresh in certain ways, in certain areas, you know, that's been
really fun.
Even with like the free flowing, I've enjoyed that.
It's been good.
I've enjoyed it so much.
The one thing I do like more about season one, I do enjoy the intros more from season
one and I do enjoy like the stories because those are some of our like best stories are
in season one, just with like the camping trip and like maybe, maybe season towards the end
of season three or season four won't go back and retell those stories because not everybody
has heard them, but I definitely enjoy those.
But like it was so cool thinking up like the Valentine's Day or the Christmas episode.
That was like one of our first ones.
And I, I know that like this past one was good, but I hands down still one of my favorite
episodes of all time is the first Christmas one.
My all time favorite episode though is the first Valentine's Day one from beginning to
end.
Yeah, that was hard to tell.
Like it's, it's like from beginning to end, it's just such a solid episode.
It makes me laugh so hard, especially so hands down, I would say that's probably the best
intro that we did.
And for those of you who don't remember it, it's the intro where it was the radio show
and it's oral expressions and we're talking about if you've never heard Sunday slow jams.
That's what we were going for with that.
And man, I think every time I, every time I listen back to it, I just, I just crack
up because it's just such a great, it was, you know, every Sunday, it was like every
Sunday you could tune in and you would hear it and it's just, it was so dead on.
The Christian radio one was pretty good intro wise.
And then there was another one that I was like, I think when we did gangsters paradise,
I thought that one was pretty good for last, we did that for last Christmas.
I don't know why we did that for last Christmas, but it was still pretty good.
Well, and think about this.
We also made our first animated video this year, kind of jumping over to, you know, YouTube
and what we've done kind of in our other work over here.
You know, think about it, that's, that's, we've had our first content that we've done
together put out this year, you know, since, since a long time, you know, we haven't put
content in a very long time.
Yeah, since 2012.
Since 2012, I think.
Or 2011.
That was like our last time that we actually made an official video together.
No, it was 2012 because that's when we made the cops video.
Yeah, it was 2012.
Which you can find all that on TV trash can.com.
But you know, it's just amazing how, how much we've done.
I mean, trash can travel, that section of YouTube is really blown up with, with a lot
of views.
If we have any listeners from there, welcome from that, from that area.
Plane Lovers Unite, I'm sure that's why you're here.
You're probably disappointed because I don't talk about planes on here at all very much
besides Donut Holds.
We're gonna like, I don't know, have one episode where you just talk about planes the whole
time.
It can be like a.
Oh man, you heard it here first.
We're gonna have the plane episode.
It will be a bonus episode.
It won't be like a regular Donut Box podcast episode.
It can just be like a bonus episode.
It's like an optional, an optional if you want to listen to an episode, I guess.
Yeah, I think we should do that, bro.
Sounds good.
We get, we can do it for, for that fan base.
So heck yeah, but you know, something that I'm super excited for talking about the future
in season three.
You know, kind of what I was alluding to before and how, you know, each season we've
kind of gotten more in our groove and how you've talked about, you know, how we have
gotten looser and how we've talked about more things.
And I'm really thinking season three, man.
I've already started working on some content for the next episode.
And I don't know when I say edgy, I'm not talking about being like super weird and out
there, but at the same time, like cussing, those things that we found off limits before
maybe they're not off limits.
Yeah, we're not talking about cussing like a sailor or anything like that, but you are
going to get to know the dark side, not just kidding, not the dark sides, but like the
dark side.
We're not serial killers, but pulling back the layers, man, pulling back the layers.
Like there was a period in our friendship that we were not friends that we did not speak
to each other for a while.
So you guys will probably get to hear about that.
So the nitty gritty, the real life, true crime.
Just kidding.
There is no true crime.
There was no crime in that one.
Besides we weren't friends for a little bit.
There was a crime, but it is what it is.
So of course you'll have to find that out on a future episode.
But but yeah, we'll talk about a lot of that stuff.
We'll talk about, you know, for me too, I was thinking about what fries my donuts.
And you know, Chris, we have a we have beef with a lot of things and there are some topics
that we stay away from, but at the same time, it's like, you know what, if we have beef
about it and fries our donuts, maybe we should go into it.
Not going to get too crazy, but you know what I mean?
So look forward to that as well.
And can I add can I talk about family?
Yeah, your family.
I'm just kidding.
Yeah, let's divulge it.
Let's go out.
Season three, we're going to deval.
No, I'm joking.
Um, no, see, season three, season three, instead of what fries my donuts is going to be, I'm
a puff, puff up and pop off.
I'll be pop off Tuesday.
I'm just kidding.
Pop off Tuesday.
Sometimes, sometimes I'll just pop off sometimes at work, like not in a real way, but like
I'll just go on comedic.
I call them comedic tirades where I pop off about something that's like not really that
big of a deal like Halloween.
Like I'll pop off about it and people find it funny.
I don't know why they do, but they find it funny.
Oh yeah.
But sorry.
Another, another side note, but anyways, I totally get you.
I'm the same way.
Um, yeah, that's, that's why we're friends because we go on comedic tirades about, about
Halloween's Danville spark day.
Anyways.
Stuff like that.
But yeah, man.
So I'm totally good with wrapping this thing up.
We got the past, the ghost of the past and the present and the future.
We've talked about all of them.
And, uh, you know, I think trash can nation has a good idea of where we're at and where
we're going.
But man, it's exciting times.
I can't believe that we've made it to this point.
We've made it past 100 episodes this past season and, uh, we're, you know, episode 105
we're sitting at right now and it's crazy.
Well, let's take this donut box podcast out to the trash.
All right.
I'm Michael and I'm Chris and this has been the donor box.
The words of tiny Tim God bless us.
Everyone.
Good night.
jo.