What is one item that you hate spending money on now that you're an adult?
Uh, that's a hard one.
Um, I hate spending money on everything.
I used to think that, you know, things that came in the mail were so great,
then you come to find out they're mostly bills,
and now I can't stand the mail and I can't stand paying bills.
Have you ever paid a, I'm gonna have a follow-up question that,
I know that kinda wasn't an answer to your question, but follow-up question.
Have you ever paid a bill by mail?
No, I've never paid a bill by mail because I don't trust that it's gonna get there.
Yeah, me neither. Same.
One thing I hate spending money on is oil changes and haircuts.
And Catlett, I hate spending money on that.
I'm a go-in on oil changes. That thing is a racket, you know.
My thing is, yeah, it seems like it's good and whatever,
but the cheaper you go, the cheaper the oil, right?
And then I've had it before, if you've ever changed your own oil,
there's a bolt that you have to undo, right, to get the oil to come out of the oil pan.
I've seen them put like, Loctite or Super Glue on there
to where only air guns or like, the really high-powered guns can get that off.
And so basically it forces you to take it back.
Have you ever had that happen too?
No, I've never had them do that,
but I do know that they are trying to get you to do that.
But what that oil change place will do is be like,
oh yeah, $29.99 oil change, and then they'll try to upsell you
or be like, oh, you need to replace that.
You need to replace your windshield wipers.
You need to replace. It's like, you know what?
We can do this and that. You really need a fluid flush as what you need.
I hate spending money on that.
Well, I'm Chris. And I'm Micah.
And this is the Donut Box Podcast.
I almost said I'm Micah in the intro.
You know, it is what it is, man. It is what it is.
But hey, I'm Micah and this is the Donut Box Podcast.
We are doing a free flow episode, a fireside chat, if you will.
What are we, FDI?
That's a, that's a, that is a triggering word for me.
And I'll go into that.
What? Fireside chat?
Fireside chat, yes. That is a triggering word for me.
No, no, no. First interview question.
What, why is fireside chat a, I'm legitimately curious now.
We could continue the intro some other time. What's going on?
What's, what's going on with fireside chat?
It has to do with a particular reasoning that I cannot get into and I'll go off the record and I'll get into it later,
but I'm not going on the record of why that's.
But you know what? We're in a free flow episode and here lately,
what we've been doing with these free flow episodes,
we just been interviewing each other and seeing what crazy things and what we think about life,
what we think about things, you know, and see where it goes.
So Chris, we got a few things to ask each other.
What, do you want to start or do you want me to start?
Yeah, I got a couple of questions for you, right?
So kind of asking Mike about who he is and all that.
So I know you maybe have kind of brought it up in other episodes,
but who was your childhood hero?
My childhood hero.
Now, when it comes to football, because that's what my mind has been on,
because I don't know if you heard the NFL preseason game was tonight.
I didn't watch it because it's a bunch of third stringers out there fighting for their jobs.
And it's kind of hard to watch.
But hey, you know, when we're talking about football, believe it or not,
I really like looked up to Peyton Manning.
Like that was the guy. I don't know.
To be honest, now that I'm an adult, I'm kind of not sure because it wasn't,
I mean, his stats were really good, but at the same time,
I guess it was because like the way he talked, the way, I don't know.
It was just one of those things where it's like, yeah,
I want to like grow up, be a quarterback throw, throw like him.
Troy Aikman was another one as a kid, of course, Dallas.
Was it just the way that he carried himself?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
I mean, think about the two that I just said, Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning.
They kind of have that, I don't know, that typical like true blue American, like,
I mean, it's what every little kid dreams to grow up and do and play in a Super Bowl and stuff like that.
Like, I don't know. I think that's what it is.
But then it's interesting because now that you're an adult, it's like,
they're really good at what they do. They can really throw a ball well.
Why else did I look up to them besides, you know, like, ooh, fame and fortune
and throwing a ball around?
Did you have any other non-football people that you looked up to?
Yeah. It's really, really weird.
I don't know if I necessarily looked up to them, but I kind of like,
would you consider falling their career closely, like looking up to them or like kind of,
because I didn't really like model myself after them, but like,
fall their career closely. Does that count?
I don't think so, but you could still expand on that.
There was like this tornado expert that I followed for a bit.
And like, whenever I was a kid, because didn't have that many channels,
the Weather Channel was one and it was, I don't even remember the guy's name,
but I remember like watching a bunch of stuff, like throughout his career until he retired
about like tornadoes and that's where I learned most of the stuff about tornadoes.
Just found it pretty fascinating, but like a lot of the stuff that he did,
he was one of these guys that tried to make those like tornado vehicles that like drive into tornado.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah. I know what you're talking about.
Sorry. Quick question. Have you seen the new movie Twisters?
Is that your kind of movie or not really?
Not really.
Okay. Sorry.
I heard, so I actually thought about going and seeing it, but I read a lot about it.
And apparently, you know, it's mostly a love story, not a lot about weather chasing.
Like if it was, I'm weird, man. I'm a nerd.
If it was mostly about the weather chasing and like how to do it,
like almost get sucked up by a tornado is the drama.
That's great when I'm sure there is some of that, but like love story intermixed, I'm out.
Like I'm kind of dry when it comes to that sort of thing.
Just give me the weather action there.
And if it's a love story, like make it like a side deal, not make it the whole thing.
Cause apparently a lot of what the draw was was the guy, like the ladies love the guy in the movie.
It's a lot of the draw.
Yeah. But realistically, I mean, you can kind of make a movie about a tornado,
but you got to have something to drive it along.
But see, that's, that's the thing.
Maybe this is where I'm weird, but like I can be entertained by something without the side stories as weird as that is.
You're, you're one of those people that enjoys storm chasing.
And I feel like you would really get into that if you have more time and more money, get into that as a hot.
That's, that's something else that's going to come this next year is I'm going to try it and tornado season, April, May timeframe.
Like I do want to take, I'm going to take a week off and I'm going to try to see if I can see one.
I've never, I've never seen a, like I've seen one in real life, but not ever like touchdown.
Like it was trying to touch down, but never did.
I want to, I want to see one.
Like I'm talking like one out in the field.
Like I'm not talking like really close.
I'm not that crazy, but I do want to see one.
But anyways, I could definitely get into it.
I love that you love that.
What did the kids say nowadays?
Listen, I just love that for you.
Yeah, I love that for you.
All right, man, you ready for, we went off on several tangents there.
I don't know if I ever answered your original question, but hey,
Yeah, you answered my question.
Okay, cool.
You ready for me to ask my first question?
What is the most ridiculous thing you believed as a child?
Oh, that's a really tough question.
And I'm having a rifle through most ridiculous thing that I believe.
And it doesn't have to be like the most ridiculous thing.
Or if you just start remembering some ridiculous things that you thought about or believe.
Kind of going back to the childhood hero thing, I really, really kind of put George W. Bush on a pedestal.
And now looking back as an adult, I'm kind of like, why did I like that man so much?
Yeah, you liked you some G Dub back in the day, man.
I don't know, man.
I'd have to come back to that question because I can't think of one off the top of my head.
I can give you one.
And this is kind of a small example for the longest time.
I thought H&R Block was a haircut place.
I did not think that that was a tax place.
Oh, yeah.
That was a really weird misconception.
And you know what's odd about that one?
I've actually talked to other people and you kind of referenced that and you know, kind of silly me as a kid and they go,
you know what, I thought the same thing for a while until I found out it was a tax place.
So I don't know if they had an ad or something at one point that talked about haircuts or maybe the color.
You know, kind of how they had that like futuristic green design all the time with their logos.
And kind of if you looked at it, especially in the early 2000s, it kind of had that, I don't know,
it probably could be mistaken for a haircut place, but that was one of the weird things that I believed.
Here was something else too.
I can tell you another one of mine.
I believed that like I wasn't going to finish high school.
I thought that like between elementary and middle school that the rapture was going to happen at some point.
And like I wasn't going to finish school.
So a lot of what had happened whenever I was in school was I was kind of apathetic towards it in elementary and middle.
And part of it was because I didn't even believe that I was going to finish it.
Like I thought, oh, like the rapture is going to happen.
We're at the end of the world anyways.
Like why do I even need to, why do I need to even study?
What was your favorite game or your favorite activity as a child?
Game or activity as a child.
Believe it or not, the game of life.
I really like the game of life for some reason.
Not even a game that a child would normally like.
I don't know.
Yeah, no, I would say that's a pretty normal game.
Yeah, that's not weird.
Yeah, I like the game of life because you know, of course it had a lot of money.
I always liked, you know, getting to the end and counting all the money up.
Monopoly was the same way.
I just never really had anybody who played Monopoly.
Like we didn't have Monopoly as the game.
Like I only played it a few times like Friends House and whatnot.
So I wouldn't say it was like great.
Like a really nostalgic one for like kids, kids with shoots and ladders.
Do you ever play shoots and ladders?
Yeah, yeah, that's a frustrating game.
Bro, it is a frustrating game.
But if you, if you, you know, are lucky, it's, it's really good.
And then what was the other one?
Candyland.
I played a lot of Candyland too.
You've played that one.
Who was always the bank?
Not so like if you're talking, because I don't think Candyland, it was,
Candyland wasn't like that.
Banker for life.
It was my parental unit, my paternal parental unit.
And bro, he would always cheat.
Like you would never know how much money he had.
Do you ever play life with him?
I'll tell you this much, bro.
He was always the banker and he would like hide money under the board and
things like that.
So you'd never know how much money he had.
And you never know if he's like slipping some off to the side,
which I'm sure he was.
So it's like, guess who would always win because he was also the banker
and he would hide all this money.
Probably reflects how he played that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then whenever I've played it kind of teenager and as an adult,
I've, everybody chose me as the banker every time, which it's okay.
I'd rather not be the banker to be honest.
I'd just rather, I'd rather just play instead of having to divvy up all the
cash and like always have to do something.
But it's all good.
How about you, man?
I got a follow up.
Was there like any board games or anything that you were big on?
Clue was a big one that we played in our house.
I would say Clue.
And then probably my favorite activity.
I really like baseball, man.
Like I just always loved baseball.
So baseball, like whether it was playing catch or just, I would actually,
whenever this was kind of like my outlet, whenever I was angry, I would
take a, I would take my bike before I had a car.
I would take my bike and I would take a bucket of baseballs and my bat.
And I would go up to the middle school that was right behind my house.
And I would just hit baseballs into a field.
Like I would throw them up and of course hit them.
And that was, that was my way of getting all of my inks out.
I guess free batting cage.
So it's not a big deal.
It's like, yeah, you had to throw it for yourself, but it's free.
So that's always cool.
All right.
This one is kind of an interesting one.
If, if animals could talk, which one do you think would be the most annoying?
Man.
Oh, I feel like a zebra is kind of mean.
Feel like hags would kind of get on my nerves.
Dude, cats would be rude.
Like we love cats now.
We love cats now, but if they could talk, they would be straight up rude.
I think.
Honestly, and I'm not, I don't mean to say this, please don't crucify me.
Dogs bro.
Cause they talk a lot.
They yap.
I think it depends on what kind of small dogs, small dogs, small, like chihuahuas and things like that.
Absolutely.
Oh yeah.
That would get annoying.
Absolutely.
I don't know why this one's really random, but I would, I feel like hippopotamus, like
those guys, I don't know.
Maybe I've seen too many nature documentaries, but those guys are, I want to use a few
explicit words to describe hippopotamus is like from what I've seen on there.
But anyways, that's kind of an interesting one.
I got another question.
This is getting a little bit more into your love for aviation and all that good stuff.
Remember.
Oh, okay.
No, I'm just kidding.
Don't keep, you can talk as long as you want.
We might go down a rabbit hole here.
If you could be a pilot or work in the aviation industry, what do you think you would do to
improve that industry?
That's really tough because a lot of it is broke.
It's broken because of the way a lot of corporate America is broken.
And what's hard about that is how do you tangibly make steps towards fixing that?
What I mean by that is, and I don't want to get into this whole thing of like, and this
is how our country is broken too.
But if you look at it, there's the top 1%, right?
And in a company, that's the C-suite or the upper, upper level management.
And if you look at a lot of these airlines and you look at a lot of these things, a lot
of them are struggling for money and they go through ebbs and flows.
Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's bad, but most of the time it's, how do we make
more money?
But you look at the C-suite, you look at the executives and they're getting paid an exorbitant
amount of money.
And, you know, I'm not saying that these people, they're under a tremendous amount of stress,
right?
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be paid a ton, but you look at a lot of the spending
habits, you look at a lot of the behaviors, and it's like a spending spree in the C-level,
you know, I'm going to call it out.
That's one of the biggest problems with Boeing right now.
You look at what they're spending their money on, and it's not on their employees, it's
not on safety, it's on themselves in the C-suite.
And it's them and the upper-level, it's all about the money that they can make up top.
And they've neglected a whole bunch to get there, including employee morale and safety.
So it's, I think that's the biggest thing, but again, how do you tangibly start making
steps towards that?
Besides, I guess, working your way up to a position because there are unions out there,
right?
And each airline, pretty much, you know, they're all a part of, all the pilots are part of
union.
And so they fight with the airlines and just like any union does, right?
And that's why sometimes you'll hear about pilot strikes and things like that, you know,
it's always constant pay contracts.
And, you know, there's even flight attendants right now that aren't getting paid, and they're
striking and all this other good jazz with their union.
You have a lot of those things happen, and I guess maybe get to the point where you're
a high-level union rep or something that could make some sort of power to combat some of
those, you know, things that the airlines are doing.
But a lot of what's happening is, you know, unions are still, the government still has
their hands in the unions, right?
So it's, what's in the government's best interest is to have lots of planes flying.
And so it's in their best interest to cut corners too.
So it's really hard to say tangible steps, but I guess that's probably the best thing
that you can do is get in and work your way all the way up and advocate if possible.
Cool.
I have one more follow-up question to that kind of, if you're a pilot, which airline
are you going to fly for?
Probably nowadays Delta.
They treat their folks really, really well.
15, 20 years ago, probably not.
Used to be American was the premier guys to fly with or even Southwest, but that's changed.
United's not very good.
But yeah, Americans definitely changed.
They have really low morale, like really low morale.
I don't know.
You can always tell a lot of this is from what I've heard internet-wise of pilots who
are currently flying for these airlines.
And then it's also what you see from flying with them.
I don't know.
You've flown American here.
I think it was in the past year, right?
It hasn't been a year yet.
Being American, you can kind of get where, how they feel as employees.
A lot of times they're not very nice flight attendants and gate agents and things like
that flying on Delta.
I've flown them, I think, the last four or five times and haven't had a bad experience
with them at all.
They've always, I mean, knock on wood, right?
I mean, not jinx it, but they've been really, really good.
And I think when your employees are happy, that shows kind of how they're being treated.
I wouldn't want to move to Atlanta, but that's why I would just live here and ferry over
there.
All right.
See, I was brief.
That was pretty brief for me in aviation.
That was pretty brief.
I'm proud of you.
Yeah, we're trying here.
This one's a two-parter.
When no one's watching, do you sometimes either break out a dance move or have a weird noise?
So do you like some sort of weird yelp or something?
You know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, probably both.
But it's more of the dance move.
Okay.
Which in the second part of it is, which dance move are you breaking out when nobody's watching?
I don't know, dude.
I just kind of do my own thing, but more or less, it's not a noise, but I just break out
into character.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah.
I get what you're saying.
Like, hey, I'm workshopping this character.
Like, I'm going to just break out into this character's voice.
I'm going to be Kevin or I'm going to be Glenda the witch or whatever.
Like, you just work in different characters and trying different voices or sometimes,
like I've told you before, Ice Cube is the commentator in my head.
So sometimes I'll just like, if no one's around, like I'll just commentate on like,
what's going on out loud?
There you go.
That's right.
No, I know.
It is what it is.
That's great though.
That's great.
What about you?
So I'm definitely kind of both dance moves are kind of random.
I'm not very good at dancing.
So it's not, it doesn't happen too often, but like sometimes I'll do a little jig.
And then as far as I don't know, bro, I feel like such a teenager sometimes like a 13,
14 year old.
I still do things that I did when I was 13, 14.
Like I'll just be walking around the house and I'll be like, your mom's gay.
I'll just be saying stuff like that.
Or I don't know, what's another good example I'm trying to think.
I don't know.
It'll be just random stuff like that.
Either that or it's just like, it's a boy.
I'll just do stuff like that.
I don't know.
You just do, you just crack out some random stuff.
Especially, so I've got of course a mirror in my bathroom and then I've got another
mirror hanging up.
And so sometimes when I pass that mirror, bro, and I see myself like I can't help but
just crack something out.
I totally get that.
This is why we're friends.
That when I see the mirror, that's the time to work on a character.
Oh yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
See where do I want to go with this?
Okay.
What is your go to karaoke song?
This is going to sound really, really, really weird, but I've only sung one.
I've done karaoke twice and I've only sung one song and that was Hello, Darling by Conway
Twitty.
Is there a certain song that you would sing it on karaoke?
Bro, no.
So I have no confidence when it comes to singing.
The only reason that they got me up there to sing karaoke in the first place, full disclosure,
they fed me a few drinks first.
That's the only reason that I was up there singing.
But really and truly, I have no desire to sing any songs on karaoke.
Mine is Family Tradition by Hank Williams.
Oh, you do?
Yeah.
You know what?
That's what I'm saying.
Maybe, you know, you'd be singing Hank Williams.
I'll be singing Conway.
I don't know.
It'd be an interesting time.
All right.
Let's see here.
So we've kind of talked about this before, but what's the weirdest fashion trend that
you tried per se?
Yeah.
I know a lot of your clothes came from me, but what would you say there was a fashion
trend or like a style at one point that you were like trying out and it didn't work out?
Man, I don't really know.
Because me, you know me.
I'm kind of like a pretty simple guy.
I'm not really in a trendy or fashion trend.
Let me ask you this.
Let me reframe this.
And this might get down kind of more nitty gritty and we might have to explain it a little
bit more to our audience.
Here's where I really saw you kind of have a little bit of a different style is when
we started working at Boot Corral.
Would you say that any of the styles, you know, we really didn't know a ton of style
until we started working retail, right?
Was there any style at Boot Corral that you were like, you know what, I'm going to try
it out and maybe even a pair of boots or something because I had plenty of those experiences
where you try something out and you're like, man, that absolutely does not work for my
Western wear look.
Not really.
I think I just more kind of adapted like I did the best thing and the, you know, the
Ariott shirts and because I couldn't wear a cinch because cinch shirts ran too big on
me.
But honestly, dude, probably, oh, I, I tried one of the kanga hats.
Oh, you did?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it didn't look too bad, but I was just like, yeah, this is definitely not me.
I tried like, and again, when I say me, there were other people that had me try these styles.
Oh yeah, I'm sure.
Like, like just the V-neck T-shirts.
I wore those for a while.
And those aren't really like my style.
I mean, I've kind of found my style now is just like jeans and during the summer, during
the summer, it's shorts and a wrestling T-shirt.
And then during the winter, it's flannel and jeans and boots and a baseball cap.
Like that's just my style.
Telling you, we dress like dads without kids.
I don't know what it is.
Hey, it's comfortable.
It's comfortable.
That's the deal.
I'll share one of mine from bootcrow in particular.
So I tried, you know, those really, they're really, really popular at the time.
They were the patchwork boots, not the zombie patchwork boots, but just the regular patchwork
boots.
But they were the Arapaima and they like where the fish, I'll explain all this to the viewers.
Basically, it came in kind of like this diamond pattern.
I don't know if that's, it was kind of like how it wasn't just how the fish skin was,
but they kind of wove it into this diamond pattern.
And it was from this really big fish that comes from South America called Arapaima and
they make this boot out of it.
And I bought the first editions that came out, like they just had come out and nobody
had ever seen this kind of boot before.
Like this was, but I remember the first ones that came out was kind of a lesser brand.
They weren't very, I wouldn't say they weren't reputable, but they were known for putting
out things that maybe aren't great quality wise.
And I remember wearing those and bro, it was the very first day that I wore them and one,
they did not look good.
And then they had the part of the interior ripped like on the very first day, it was
not good, but they just didn't look good on me, man.
There was some of those styles like that to where you would think like, oh man, that's
going to work out because you have other boots or other things that work with, and it just,
it just didn't work.
And you know, that was a big thing for when you're a salesman, you have to, of course,
you got to dress well to sell and so don't lie to them.
Tell them about when you used to wear them.
Miss me jeans.
I'm just playing.
Oh yeah.
Bro, let's, let's talk about when I put the miss me shorts on and almost got fired.
We can talk about that.
Another question for you.
Bro.
And this is a two part question.
What lesson or lessons did you learn from your time while you were playing football?
I definitely learned a lot about teamwork.
I know that sounds, uh, it sounds whatever, but I mean, there was a lot about being a
team and then I learned a lot about, I don't know if this is the right word, but kind of
more discernment of who to listen to, if that makes sense.
You don't want to listen to everybody.
Everybody is not going to help your skills.
They might think that they know what they're talking about, but it really helped me understand
who to look for and who to, you know, how you were talking about kind of role models
earlier, who to take as a role model and who to say, okay, I can listen to this person.
Their strategy is correct and that sort of thing.
Cause I don't know.
There was a few people out there that just were not very, they weren't very good.
Right.
And you kind of have to figure that stuff out.
The other thing that I learned a lot of is, uh, there's a dark side to football.
Like, and I, I hate to say that, but we'll get a little nitty gritty into it.
There's a dark side to it.
And I'm, I know a lot of it's tried to change and whatnot, but at least back when I played
like injuries, especially head injuries, things like that, it was encouraged.
Don't, don't say anything.
Like don't say anything.
And that was the, the big thing.
And if you did, you, I mean, that's how you lose your starting spot.
That's how you get ridiculed.
Like that's how that happens is if you, if you, you know, that's why they've tried to
do things now about like the blue, go over to the blue medical tent where a third party
can assess you and things like that.
Right.
That's where they're trying to pull that stuff in because again, a lot of these coaching
staffs, they'll look at it and be like, well, we need them.
So, you know, and that, you know, a lot of the times they tried to ingrain it into you.
You want to be like a machine.
It doesn't matter because you're going to be hurting all over the place, especially by
the end of the season or mid season, you're going to have injuries all over yourself.
Like most of them are minor.
Some could be, you know, you're having to play through it and it's week by week.
And that's what a lot of people don't talk about.
A lot of people don't talk about kind of that darker side of what people are pushed to do.
Yeah.
It's not that, yeah, it's not that extreme, but at the same time, it's definitely like
the varsity blues.
It's definitely there.
Right.
It's definitely there.
And it's definitely, like there's all sorts of stuff.
Like for instance, there was one kid, I'll never forget, like you see injuries all around
you, right?
But there are certain injuries that you see that make you think about your life and make
you think about what you're doing.
And that's something for somebody at that age.
Think about this.
You're 16, 17 years old.
Most of the time, I mean, heck, even when I was 19, 20, I felt invincible, 21, 22, right?
So normally when you're 16, you feel invincible until certain things happen.
And I remember playing next to this kid and I played offensive line at the time.
And so I was playing at the tackle position, which is the outside and there's a guard position,
which is inside of me.
So he's kind of to my right here.
Pretty much what happens on that front line for those of you who don't know, it's one
side is trying to block forward, one side is trying to get in.
So it's just a clash.
Like the moment that they say go, it is a clash in between there.
And so all sorts of stuff happens.
It's just a pile of bodies all in between there because there's five linemen and sometimes
five other linemen or four other linemen on the other side.
So you're thinking there's nine people all bunched up in that one bit.
And so what ended up happening was one kid got thrown, he got grabbed by the shoulder
pads and he got thrown into this other kid's leg.
And the other kid's knee, I mean, it snapped.
I mean, the whole thing just snapped.
I didn't see it happen.
Like I saw him go down in my peripheral, right?
But when the play was over, I saw him on the ground.
And it was one of those things to where he didn't realize what was going on until he
looked at his leg and he just started screaming.
It was pretty, it was pretty harsh.
And the thing that I'll never forget about that is not that experience, but the fact
that they said, move up 10 yards, we got to keep practicing.
There's this kid screaming on the ground in pain, right?
We're all worried about him.
Like, oh my gosh, he snapped his leg.
Like, because it was visibly out of place.
Like it was gross.
Like it was disgusting bad.
They're just like, move up 10 yards.
We got to keep going.
Can't stop.
It just, it's that feeling of, oh my gosh, that could be me laying on the ground and
they wouldn't care that move up practice 10 yards.
We can go way into depth on that.
I don't know.
But anyways, onto happier notes.
If there was only, we've talked about this before, but if there was only one food that
you could eat for the rest of your life, like one food, the entire rest of your life, it
doesn't necessarily have to be a restaurant.
It could be a flavor of food, but what are you doing?
And if you say Chick-fil-A, my God.
No, American food, pizza, probably.
Burgers, I could eat burgers all the time.
You just, you're just good on American fare.
How are you with like seafood and fish?
Like would you, would you have like fish for life?
Oh yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
I like fish.
I like shrimp more than like fish.
Like fish is all right, but I don't think I could eat fish all the time.
You don't think you eat fish all the time?
I could probably do both.
I could probably do fish, shrimp.
I don't know.
Here's, here's another one.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I think I could do those forever.
I don't know.
Oh, no, thank you.
Well, you're not big on PB and J. Fine for like a couple meals, but every day.
That's the only thing I know.
Just can't do it.
No, thank you.
I understand.
Is one thing that you're hoping you'll be remembered?
Making people laugh.
Like I'm hoping that, or I guess more making people joyful, right?
Like I don't want to be just the funny guy, but at the same time, I want to leave a legacy
of, you know, he was always fun to talk to, you know, always had that awesome aura about
him.
If that makes sense.
You know what I mean?
There's, there's people that you know in your life and that you talk to and, and, you know,
may have a relationship with, whether it's, you know, kind of an acquaintance level or
a friend level or even more in depth, they end up, they give you that kind of, I don't
know how to describe it.
You know what I'm saying?
Probably what I would want to be remembered for, and I'm given the typical past or answer.
Okay.
So that I, that I love Jesus and I loved other people and that I was authentic about it.
Like I was just real and authentic and I genuinely loved people for who they are, regardless
of their mistakes, regardless of what they did.
But I always talked about Jesus and love Jesus and love people very well.
And that's one thing that I want to be remembered.
What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you in public?
Oh, I think I've shared the, this a couple of times, but I'll share, well, I'll share
the most recent one.
Not a whole bunch of people saw it, but I kind of fell off the stage during baby dedication
Sunday.
I, what, I didn't fall.
I was kind of pushed.
So during the baby dedication, there was like 12 families.
So the stage was pretty crowded and get up there.
And of course the kids are all wiggly and they got the wiggles and the pastor's wife's
praying, well, the whole time while she's talking and even before she starts praying,
there's one little girl who keeps getting away from her mom and she's like running towards
the edge of the stage.
And so like each time the mom comes and grabs her and I'm like, oh, like, I gotta be watching
for this kid.
So the pastor's wife is praying and this kid like gets away from her mom and she's like
bolting towards the edge of the stage.
So I'm like running kind of like to catch her before she goes and me and another dad
are going at the same time.
And we kind of like, there wasn't enough room on the stage.
So I kind of got forced off the stage.
So that was kind of embarrassing.
But also too, I accidentally, well, I was a waiter.
I accidentally spilled orange juice on this lady's white pants just because I was clumsy.
Oh, yeah.
That was pretty embarrassing.
This is the first time I think I've shared this story on the podcast.
My most embarrassing public story.
I was a senior in high school and I got asked by my parental unit to dress up as an alien
for some event at his work.
Oh, yeah.
I forgot about this.
So it was like a, and this was like a, one of those skin tight alien body suits.
If you know what I'm talking about, like the, like the, like tight type.
And so I got asked to do this.
And so for me, I was like, yeah, I'll get out of school and like, you know, dad's going
to get me out of school.
It's going to be great.
And so I ended up going to the hospital and it was for like their senior leadership and
like executive people, like the senior level executive for the high, for the, for the whole
hospital and whatnot, along with, you know, the heads of nursing and all these other people.
And so I get dressed and I didn't notice it at the time.
And I think I was young and naive, but we didn't prepare any bottoms for this at all.
And so I was quite exposed.
And so my parental unit in his good judgment said, Oh no, it's fine.
Like we, you can't even notice like nobody'll even notice.
You didn't even put no shorts on underneath or nothing.
Okay.
I had boxes on underneath, but it did not help at all.
Like it did not help.
Anyway, it was that it was tight.
Like it was so skin tight.
Anyways, so I walked in there, bro.
And I kid you not, like everybody was, it was like giggling, like little kids, like,
thank God this like covered my face, right?
For the most part.
And so, but I mean, they took me everywhere.
They took me to the children's wing and like I saw children, bro.
Yes.
And they were like, they're like, they're like, Oh, it would be great to, you know,
whatever.
And I just, I didn't realize why everybody was like laughing at the freaking time.
So a few years later, right?
Like I, all that goes away.
A few years later, I go to work for the same hospital, bro.
Somebody sent those pictures around in an email.
I was, I was mortified because after looking at the pictures, I was like, Oh my God.
It was pretty bad.
Like it was really bad.
So there you go.
The time that everybody saw my junk at the hospital.
Okay.
Uh, moving on.
Um, is there a culture different from your own?
I've got a few ends of the spectrum here.
So the answer is yes.
Scandinavian culture is very interesting, like Norway, Sweden, Finland.
They're all very different up there, like in a good way.
But you got to think these are, this is like the land of the Vikings, but at the same time,
they're all very, uh, tolerant and they're known for kind of being a little more demure
and whatnot.
But then they do things like, um, they'll leave their babies outside in the cold, like
just leave them out there for a little bit.
And it's like, Oh, it's good for them.
You know, they'll leave them bundled up and everything, but it's just, if you walk by
and there's a baby stroller out in the middle of the road or not in the middle of the road,
but in the middle of the sidewalk, it's not a big deal.
I mean, that's what they do.
It's just kind of interesting on that front.
And then on the other opposite end, not that I want to go or anything, but, um, I find,
uh, North Korea to be really fascinating in that society.
Kermit Kingdom, we've talked about this a little bit more in depth in previous episodes,
but it's just really interesting to me.
And the main question that I'm always trying to figure out, are they that brainwashed or
are they just that much in fear to where they have to go along with it?
Or is it a combination of both?
Where is it?
And I know that's different person to person, but, um, one of the very interesting things
is watching the interviews of people who have made it out and them talking about what their
day to day lives were.
It's similar, but it's different.
And it's just, it's interesting to hear that sort of thing.
Their society really fascinates me because it's, it runs so much differently.
But again, it's nothing that I want to, it's like, oh yeah, let me go to her.
You know, they're allowing more Americans to go in now and more Canadians.
And I'm like, yeah, y'all are, y'all are crazy.
I wouldn't want to do that.
I think the, uh, Israeli culture obviously is very fascinating.
I also think the Australian culture is really fascinating.
I want to see, I want to hang out with them, dude.
See what, see what it's like, bro.
See what they're, they're doing.
Dude, Australians are cool, but they're, they're pretty crazy.
For me, they have to be.
Because I mean, think about it, like all the deadliest stuff in the world is all around
you, even in the oceans.
It's like, you know, everything is trying to kill you.
So you kind of have to be a little crazy to hang around.
But yeah, they all seem like pretty cool people.
They all seem like pretty cool.
I've never met an Australian who's not like, who's a mean person.
Like they've all seen nice and fun loving, wild, but nice and fun loving.
All right.
How many more do we want to do?
We can keep going.
I'd say probably two or three more.
If there was one celebrity that you could swap lives with for the day, who would it
be and what would you do?
Cody Rhodes, obviously, just so I could be the WWE champ.
You know what?
I'm going to correct that.
I'm going to be Hulk Hogan so I can go around and apologize for all the lies that I've pulled
over the years and just write the record, write the wrongs.
That's what I'm going to do because that man, that man is you're going to be Chelsea
Sullenberger.
That's who you're going to be.
No, you know who I'm going to be.
I'm going to be James Brown for the day and I'm going to, doesn't matter.
He's coming back to life for the day and it's going to be me and put on a crazy sweaty performance.
Believe it or not, that's actually one person that I would have wanted to see a performance
by because it's interesting to watch him do his thing.
That's one thing you're really proud of or one moment in your life that you're really
proud of.
I passed a really, really hard IT certification test a few years ago and that was a really
big highlight of my life because I had taken a lesser test three times and I had failed
it and ended up taking this one and passing it.
I've always had some sort of trouble.
I've never been formally diagnosed with anything, but I've always had a lot of trouble with
studying being focused on things.
Studying for something that was that hard, accomplishing it and passing it as well as
I did, that felt really good because I've always had bad test taking skills.
I feel like it's not necessarily like I didn't know the material, but I feel like some people
just are bad at tests.
That's true.
That's very true.
They just struggle with tests and it doesn't mean they're dumb or stupid.
They just have a hard time with tests.
For me, I can tell you on my end what a lot of it is.
For me in tests, I get in there and I overthink it.
A lot of the times, I'm always trying to look for the hidden, where are they trying to trip
you up in this?
A lot of times what ends up happening, things are trying to be straightforward, then you
answer some questions and you're going, why did I answer that?
That was pretty easy.
It was a pretty softball question, but you overthink it.
There's a lot of things that I'll overthink, either that or a lot of trends.
A lot of the trend, what would end up happening was the first 20 minutes of a test, I would
overthink the mess out of the questions.
Then I would find myself in a time crunch the rest of the time, which then left me susceptible
to reading the questions too fast and then missing things in between and then answering
the questions wrong because now I'm rushing because I don't have the time anymore.
I've seen that a lot.
Obviously, because I've identified, I've been able to work on it, but it's just, sometimes
it's hard.
Sometimes it's hard.
Pull it, get that.
How about you?
Do you have a moment where you're like, yeah, I did a real good.
Yeah, probably kind of same as you when I got my ordination.
Nowadays you could just go online and pay 50 bucks to get ordained, but I did all the
classes.
I got my reference letters.
It was a notable achievement for me.
I would say definitely this year at Easter.
That was something I was really proud of.
Our church building is smaller than the Easter attendance that we were going to have and
we were going to have to have six services.
We decided to run out our local performing arts center and they were like, hey, you're
going to have to come up with a children's program all on your own and plan it.
That's where I got to be really creative and plan it.
Then I wrote the script and then Mike got to come on and be my co-host.
If you want to hear the rest of the story, you can listen to it.
If you want to hear the rest of the story, you can listen next week on the Dona Bucks
podcast.
Oh, I was like, are we pleased?
You don't want me to share that whole story?
I was like, listen, we could share it next week.
That could be our... To that.
It was a time where I just felt like I was in my groove and I was doing what I was made
to do and doing what I loved and I had so much fun doing it.
I got to do it with my best friend.
That's what I was really proud of, that I not only got to do this, but I planned it and
prepped it and organized it and I worked really hard on it.
It was, I would say, successful.
Oh, it was wildly successful, I would say, despite some of the obstacles that tried to
come up.
But again, next week on the Dona Bucks podcast, if you can master any skill or talent, what
would you pick?
Because I'm not that great of a cook.
My wife will be the first one to tell you that.
I'm probably cooking just because... Yeah, that is true.
Every time we go camping, I'm the camp cook.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not great at it.
I'm really not.
You do not want me cooking food for you.
I'm not great at it.
I think also too, just being able to... And this is common with this older generation.
They just see something and they're like, oh, I can build you that.
And I'm like, I have the idea in my mind of what I want this to look like.
But as far as executing it, I don't know how to build what I'm envisioning.
For myself, I think a lot of it would be... I'd want to be able to make music.
I have a musical ear as far as I enjoy it, but as far as being good at it, I could probably
get good at it, but I'm just not very good at music.
I'm just not very good at lyrics.
I'm not very good at... Again, I think it's if you honed your craft in.
Some people are just music prodigies.
I have an uncle who... You could play him a tune on the piano or you can play him a
tune on the guitar and he could mimic the tune.
He can't read chute music, but he's just got that musical ear.
Some people have that.
I absolutely do not.
I have whatever the opposite of that is.
And so if I could master music... Because I would love to be able to... Again, kind
of like what Chris was saying.
Musically, I have these ideas in my head of if I were to make a song, I would like to
make it like this, or if I was making this same song, here's how I would do it differently,
things like that, but I have zero idea of how I can execute that.
Again, I'm sure that you can refine that and figure it out, but that's a lot of time
that I don't have right now.
So if I could wing a magic wand and make it happen, that'd be cool, but it's all good.
I got you.
All right.
I got two more questions left.
We've kind of talked about this a little bit.
We've alluded to it over our podcast tenure, but if you could have a do-over in life, what
would you change or do differently?
So one, when I was coming out to Texas, I think I talked about this before, but I had
the chance to be a fullback as a position, and I was like, nah, I don't want to do that.
And I was like, one of my favorite NFL players of all time was Mike Allston.
I was like, I could have been Mike Allston on that team, and I had the opportunity to
do so.
And they picked some other schmuck, and it's like, I probably could have done better than
it.
So if I could have done that a little differently, that would have been cool, because it would
have been my senior year, and I wonder how that would have turned out.
But at the same time, it is what it is.
And then I think kind of what we were talking about before, I don't know if I necessarily
would have went to Tech or would have went to college, but if I could have skipped a
certain relationship back in the day, and the same would have happened with you, and
just like had an apartment and spent early 20 or late teens, early 20s, just kind of
hanging out, chilling, and doing whatever you want for a little bit, because I know
both of us were pretty locked down and had a lot of responsibility for that age.
Oh, yeah.
And that was kind of one thing that I would want to do over just enjoy being a 20-year-old,
18, 19, 20-year-old.
And we talked about that.
Obviously, the obvious one not being that relationship.
But going back earlier, I don't think in high school, if I wasn't so hung up on one particular
person, I feel like that would have given me more opportunities to kind of like, I don't
know, like go out with different girls.
And I don't know.
You know what I mean?
No, I get that.
I get that.
I feel like that broke out a lot when we went out to Texas, though, because of me.
Oh, yeah.
But then I like got hung up on another girl.
Yeah.
And I guess I was pretty quick.
I was like, I'm gonna go for another locked in for another eight years.
So didn't really get a chance to like explore who Christopher was and be free and have fun.
All that stuff.
I probably would have lightened up more and been more fun.
That's my thing is I think I would just, and the other thing is I wouldn't have taken
things, situations, and people so seriously, especially some jobs and some of these bosses
that I took seriously.
And it was like, oh my gosh, I should really, you know, make sure I cleaned up my acronym.
You know, it's probably not good, but you know, it's like, if I could have gone back
and I whatever, bro, I'm just going to do my job and collect my check.
Yeah.
Like I definitely had a different attitude.
We were both raised to be so like, Hey, like you want to give your best at this job.
And, you know, and at that age, you like, you're like, Oh, like, I don't want to make
the boss mad because I don't want to lose this job.
So my next one, what is the most ridiculous thing you've ever done on a dare?
And I think I know where you're going with this.
And I think we might have talked about it last week, but what do you, what do you think?
And what I don't know specifically on a dare, I don't know.
For me is the NOS experience because I think that was on a dare or like, Oh yeah, I can
I considered a dare because it was like, I bet you won't kind of thing.
Anything like that is a dare to me.
Like, Oh, you dare me to.
I mean, definitely drinking different stuff or eating different stuff.
I mean, I can't think of one specifically where I would just like, Oh, I'm going to
do this because, you know, they dared me to do it, but I'm not sure.
Oh, the pepper spray thing.
Getting pepper spray in the face.
That was kind of a dare.
I felt like, Oh, it was.
Yeah, for sure.
Would you say that I dared you to do that?
Or who, who is the one?
I think I kind of dared myself.
I don't know.
We probably dared each other.
I don't know.
You know how we were at that age.
We were just kind of hyping each other out.
It was just like, listen, I bet you won't like you spray me and I'll spray you.
Yeah, I just remember it being one of those things and telling you, well, you're going
to have to get sprayed anyways at the Academy might as well go through it now to figure
figure what it's like.
That's why I was like, Yeah, you're right.
I might as well.
I might as well spray, get sprayed.
It's great.
One last question.
Okay.
We've talked about what advice would you give to your teenage self, but you being your age
now, what advice would you give to teenage Christopher?
Oh, okay.
At that age, what advice would you give?
First one was if and when we moved to Texas, because the hard part is you feel like if
you're giving advice and you give like glimpses into the future, things might change.
But I think that's the, if the paradox doesn't work like that and everything still goes the
normal path, it's like, when you see, oh girl, let me first get the Lubbock.
That ain't the one.
Trust me.
And it's going to, it's going to, you and Micah's friendship go capoe for a little bit.
Now it's going to be all right.
But at the same time, you don't want to have that happen.
The other thing that I would say is you're too timid.
You got to get out there a little bit more.
Like it's like, not in a bad way.
Like you're, you're, you're a cool guy.
Like you, you don't, you limit yourself so much.
And that's what I would tell them is just like, you're a cool dude.
A lot of people would love you just for the way that you are.
And you know, don't limit yourself, get yourself out there.
And you know, the first way is to try to be more comfortable with yourself because you
were very uncomfortable with yourself.
A lot of, especially teenage years, you weren't really comfortable.
I'm still uncomfortable with myself sometimes.
Me too, man.
Me too.
And it's a lot easier said than done.
But I think, you know, back then you were, you were quiet.
I wouldn't say rigid, but it was definitely like, rigid and timid.
Rigid and timid.
And so, and so it was just one of those things to where it's like, I think I would tell you
that and, you know, cause like you were saying, if you were able to open yourself up at that
time a lot more, man, I think it would have been, you know, there would have been a lot
of cool experiences instead of being tied down, you know?
Yeah.
No, I agree with you 100% and you hit all the nails on the head.
I mean, I was rigid and timid and I think going back to like me just not being comfortable
with myself.
That's why I kind of like didn't open up.
So like people didn't really get to know like the real me when I was in high school.
Like you knew the real me.
But not a lot of people did.
Right.
But the only time you would, yeah, the only time you would really open up is if you, you
had to be really comfortable with the situation.
Like you had to be really comfortable with the situation because even things that we
did week to week, like church, there was even some settings, most settings within church
that you wouldn't even show your true self.
Like most of the time you wouldn't.
It would only be if like we were at church and we were in a room with like you, me and
one or two other people that we know that you can, I guess, let your guard down or let
your true self out.
But most of the time you really wouldn't show yourself out even then with people you knew
all the time.
I'm still that way a little bit.
Not as bad as it used to be, but I can still get that way a little bit.
And yeah, I completely understand.
How about you for me?
I got to hear this.
Oh, are you ready bro?
Are you ready?
Yeah, bro.
Do it.
I'm going to just, the first thing I want to say is bro, relax.
Like calm down.
Like you ain't got to try so hard bro.
You ain't got to talk so much.
Tree, tree.
I've been like, I've been like, bro, like you ain't got to try this hard for attention
dog.
Like it's okay.
But on a serious note, I would probably be like, because looking back on it now, I think
a lot of that was, was because you weren't maybe comfortable with yourself.
So you, you kind of, where I like closed off, maybe you went like the other way and were
like, I'm going to just, I would say so.
Yeah.
And that's not a bad thing.
I'm not knocking you or judging you or anything.
But I think, I think I would definitely tell you about your parental units and be like,
hey, like they're gassing you up bro.
Like they're, they're pumping you up full of ideas that it's not right.
And probably kind of the same thing too.
I'd be like, just be yourself, dude.
Like people, people like you for the way you are.
I would say, I would probably say, hey, like your buddy Chris is going to need you to tell
him the truth and be honest with him to help save him from some of the bad stuff that's
coming down the pipeline.
If he don't change his ways, like just kind of like a warning to you to be like, hey bro,
you're like, help your buddy Chris out.
And that's, and that's good.
No, that's good.
I like that a lot because it was one of those things to where even though I was really outgoing
and I would talk a lot and talk a lot for attention, there wouldn't have been a whole
lot.
I didn't say a whole lot to you about like, yeah, I kind of beat around the bush that
I didn't like the, the person you were with right at the time.
And I did say some things, but when did I ever sit down with you and have a meaningful conversation
and say like, Hey man, I just don't like the road that you're going down.
Like it was always kind of, I wouldn't say passive aggressive, but it kind of wasn't
ever fully direct.
But let's be honest, even if you did, do you think I would have listened at that age?
Probably not.
Like probably not.
But maybe if it would have came from you, maybe I don't know.
Maybe I would have, if you would have sat down and like spell out the facts, maybe I would
have, who knows, but I was pretty, I mean, I was pretty immature and prideful at that
time of my life.
So I would probably be like, you can't tell me no.
And I think I wouldn't have been able to do the things that I have, I was doing at the
time, like some of the things that, because, and you know, I applaud you for this.
You've always had a very strong moral compass, sometimes even too strong to where it was
too tight, right?
To where it was like, okay, you can loosen up just a little bit and it'll be okay.
Yeah.
Like my, like my, I'm not going to kiss anybody until I get married.
Right.
Yeah.
That sort of stuff, right?
Like it's like, it's okay to loosen up a little bit, right?
And so I think that there was a lot of things that I was also doing at that time that I
would have had to stop doing and have that conversation.
There would have had to be a lot of that, right?
To where you would have, because I don't even think that you would have trusted what I was
saying because where you were at and who you were with, it's like, well, look at how
he's livid and how he's doing.
So how, you know, why would I listen to what he's saying?
Cause I don't think that he knows what he's doing right now anyways.
So I don't know.
There's no telling if it would have worked or not, but at the same time, you know, it
all happened for a reason, but it's just, uh, no, it's interesting.
It's interesting here in the perspective.
Yeah.
I'd be like, bro, you ain't got, you ain't got to talk so much, bro.
I would be like, you, it's okay, bro.
Nah.
I'm just kidding though.
Cool deal.
You got, you got one more you want to end with?
Yeah.
I got one more I want to end with here.
So if you had a theme song that every time you walked in a room, it played, what would
be your theme song?
Can you guess what it is without me saying it?
I put on for my city.
That's right.
I put on for my city by GZ.
That would be my theme song every time I walked in, every time.
It was hard because I was like, it's either that one or it'd be amazing.
I could see that one from young GZ too.
Nah, like, I like that song, but that's put on definitely or crank that soldier boy.
That's my entrance music.
Yeah.
I got to love, got to love.
Would you do turn my swag on?
Would you do that?
Kind of.
That used to be my alarm, but that used to be my alarm clock too.
What about you?
What song, what song when you walk into a place is your entrance music?
I thought about put on to Motley Crue kickstart my heart, you know, with the guitar at the
beginning, right?
That would be pretty cool.
What about headbuses?
I thought about that too.
That's like my fight intro music.
We said, hey, buses.
Yeah, I love little scrappy.
Now, I have a question like since I'm thinking entrance, would you have Pyro in your entrance
everywhere that you absolutely if I had the option for Pyro for sure?
Why not?
It's like, it's like the, it's, you know, a regular entrance with just music.
It's like being at the Mexican food place and you get nice enchiladas with beans and
rice.
Now you have pyrotechnics.
That's like you got the fajitas.
Everybody gonna be looking right as it sizzles all the way down.
Well, it's been a great episode, man.
We're already in the August, so it's, it's nuts that we're trucking along.
On month number eight, man.
That's crazy.
We're working towards, we're working towards season four and we got, we got big news coming
for season four.
So stay tuned for that.
That's going to be, season four is going to be different, bro.
Season four is going to be different.
It's going to be different in the best of ways.
It's going to be good.
So go and like us and follow us on the trash can network and the aviator society on Instagram
and YouTube and all the good stuff for all your trash can and yeah.
Cause, you know, as you can tell Chris is such an av nerd, av geek.
He loves planes like he loves planes.
Yes I do.
You don't even know anything about planes.
My God.
I have to constantly tell them and educate them about what planes are in the sky.
He doesn't know a difference between an MD80 and a Gemini Airbus.
See I don't even know the difference.
He has to school me all the time on the differences.
Well I figured, I figured I'd, I'd plug the, plug the aviator society.
Well I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
And it's a, it's steadily growing over there man.
You know what's, what's crazy.
I just, we'll give a shout out to, to all of our listeners internationally, but the trash
can network, our, our YouTube channel there man, it hit over a hundred thousand views
in the last six months, which is pretty wild to think about that our content's been seen
over a hundred thousand times.
It's pretty, pretty crazy.
So it's continuing over there.
And it's not just aviation stuff on the trash can network.
It's a whole bunch of different stuff.
And you know what, the secret's out, even from when we had our website and had our
free streaming services, guess what?
All the playlist from the free streaming service are still on our YouTube page.
So if you want to check those out, all the ifer and I, the cops, the cheaters, all that
stuff is still on there too.
So you can see that.
And Chris and I's funny hijinks from back in the day.
We've got all those videos on there too.
There's all sorts of stuff you can see on the trash can network.
So go check that out.
I got to love it.
Well, it's about time for the Starship to sign us out.
I'm Chris and I'm Michael and this is...
We Built This City.