airport angst
Collin survives Florida. Brandon survives Mobile Suit Gundam. We think about things.
Collin survived Florida…barely
Brandon watched some anime
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Model_Suit_Gunpla_Builders_Beginning_G
Collin haiku
Engines fall silent
Waiting on the runway
Home feels far away
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI
Collin 0:05
Welcome to Oh Brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts Brandon and Collin on this week's show, Airport Angst.
Brandon 0:19
Ahoy! Ahoy!
Collin 0:20
What's going on?
Brandon 0:22
Not a lot, Collin. How are you, my travel weary brother? How in the world?
Collin 0:28
Travel weary and a half, I think, is what you meant to say. Because, oh my goodness, I was almost not okay.
Brandon 0:39
As we're gonna title this one "Airport Angst, we're gonna
Collin 0:44
all it was. If we're being perfectly honest, I had like this amazing plan that was gonna be flawless. I was gonna be able to do all these things. No, no, no. And you know what? I know I I was even like, oh yeah, I have to. We're gonna. We're totally going to be able to record while I'm out there because that's that's what why now. And we
Brandon 1:08
have done it before. Yeah, except so. Except.
Collin 1:11
Except. Brandon, did I did I did I remember to pack the one adapter that I would need to record?
Brandon 1:19
Of Of course, of course.
Collin 1:23
I was so because, and you
Brandon 1:26
know, no Radio Shacks in sight. Rip Radio Shack, otherwise we've been fine. You know,
Collin 1:32
well, you know, you're just there's things going hither to the ruinion, and I'm like, well, I blah blah blah. Well, I the one time I needed it, I was like, "Well, and so this, this actually, so I was like, "I was supposed to record with you while I was gone, and that just wasn't happening. I was supposed to record with Megan while I was gone, that just wasn't happening. I just, and so listeners, dear listeners, here's what happened. Collin was trying to be, I don't know. I was trying to do something different. Super
Speaker 1 2:02
Collin. That's who he was trying to be. This is
Collin 2:04
real. This was like so me. It wasn't even funny. I booked a like 630 a.m. flight to come home from a conference again. That's fine. That's like people people do that all the time. It's a thing
Speaker 1 2:18
that happens.
Collin 2:19
And so I, I had to get up at four after getting 1233, and a half hours of sleep. Oh my god! Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1 2:33
oh no! The earlier
Collin 2:34
I sleep, great. The but unfortunately, the earlier I have to get up, the more worried I get about missing my flight. Yeah, I think that's
Brandon 2:44
a thing that a lot of people experience, right? This is not a unique to you problem. Hey,
Collin 2:50
finally, finally, an anxiety that is not unique to me. So I ended up getting woke up at four. It's a 35 minute drive up to the airport, so I get there at like 440 because I just like jump up and I go. I then get to the airport plane boards at I get through the security plane boards at six. Supposed to take off at 630. Great, they shut the door, and then it's like, well, we're just we got some weather up north that's kind of delaying us a little bit, so we're just gonna hold tight here for everybody. But just you know, don't worry about it. We'll get pushed back from here in a second. Oh boy! I'm like, it's okay, it's okay. And then they came on board, and they're like, okay, we're gonna get pushed back. So they they like push back. We go out. We start to do like this, like taxi thing, where they turn on the engines, and then we're gonna. They're starting to go, and then this plane kind of like stops going, and then it sits there for like 15 minutes. Oh yeah,
Brandon 3:58
I've done that before. Yeah,
Collin 4:00
and then they come on board, and they're like, I think he actually said, so like I think he said, dear travelers, when we first turned this on at the gate, there was some lights, and we got those cleared, taken care of, had maintenance come look at that. Yeah, they're back on, and so we're just gonna go back to the gate here for. That's fair. So
Speaker 1 4:24
there's more lights, different her lights.
Collin 4:27
I just love the fact that they cleared them at the gate, and then we're like, good, fine, let's go. And then I can imagine them just hitting classic hitting reset like seven times, you know, and be like, okay, good, we'll go. They just like trip
Brandon 4:39
the fuse. No, no, it's fine.
Collin 4:41
They push us back, and they're like, "We got maintenance coming over, but it's not our maintenance, so I don't know how long it's going to take. Like, what? Who was it? Where did these people come from? I don't know, but he literally said, "These aren't American Airlines. Sorry, I. Schmerican Airlines, yeah, Schmeirlines, yeah, Schmear Lines, maintenance rhymes
Brandon 5:06
with Bear Lines, Bear Lines,
Collin 5:09
and if a mermaid, anyway. So we pull back up, and yeah, they said we they don't know when they're going to be here, and I'm like okay. And then after like another 20 minutes, they get there, and then there's some futzing. There's a very grumpy looking person in the cockpit with an iPad, and then we are told, well, something is definitely broken, but they absolutely do not have the part, and they don't know when it's going to get in. So we're we're going to disembark the plane and try and take off at noon, and oh man, ladies and gentlemen, that was that was five and a half hours later than I was supposed to leave. Oh no! I'm like, hmm. So then, of course, it's this mad dash, and everybody's out there, and I was struggling a little bit because I was like, I am really tired. I've not slept well each night that I've been out here. I'm exhausted. I want to be home. I'm supposed to be home at 2o'clock. Like, and that was with me arriving and then driving. Yeah, like I was supposed to be at, so but I'm I'm like, you know what? It doesn't matter. I don't have control over this, so I'm just gonna, just gonna roll with it. Just gonna, just gonna roll with it. I called the little number that they handed out to us, and you know, and I was like, you know, all the flights that you're telling me leave later than 12. Do I? This went through my brain. Do I wait to see if this plane actually takes off at noon, or do I just throw that to the wolves and go on a different plane? Right, like I was really struggling. Yeah, yeah, because it's like if I I'm gonna be so angry if the 4p.m. flight that they put me on, like if I'm if I hear that this plane here at Gate c8 is actually leaving. So anyway, I was like, but then I'm like, but also, how good am I going to feel on a plane that's now like effectively broken twice? Oh yeah. So it will. Spoiler alert for those who are listening. It turned out because I had a friend also on the plane with me, and she was there well past whenever I left, and the plane that we got off never took off. They actually oh they taxied that they pulled that away from the gate into
Brandon 7:30
the hangar. Yeah,
Collin 7:32
be beaten with a sock in a soap. Anyway,
Brandon 7:37
digitally, right? Like
Collin 7:39
Anyway, so I got booked, but the thing was, is they did manage to find. It was weird. The first pass, nothing earlier than noon. That's the earliest one. It's either two or four or eight. What do you want? I'm like, two, yeah. And then I'm sitting there, and then what I did, I called to get my my flight, and then I went got in the line, and I'm waiting to go back up to the counter. I don't know. I'm just like, I don't know. Maybe they can do something different. Turns out he could. He was like, yeah.
Brandon 8:10
It's like the counter person is probably the best place to go, right? At this point, like, yeah.
Collin 8:14
But you had to wait in line with 100 other. Well, yeah, all the other people. Yeah. And so he he's like, oh well, there's an 1130 flight. Do you want that? And I'm like yeah, yeah I do. I do
Brandon 8:26
absolutely. And then that sounds better than 4o'clock. 4o'clock.
Collin 8:29
But at this point, no flights. So I was supposed to go from Jacksonville to Charlotte, Charlotte to Springfield. That that would get me home at noon, and then I had a two-hour drive back. Yeah. Okay. Now I had to go from Jacksonville. This there was no other flight. It was Jacksonville to DFW, and then DFW to Springfield. And the and the earliest that could get me to my house was like 940. If I if because I I land around 737 40 and then I have to drive two hours north, so it was like I went I went from being home at two to being home at nine. Yeah,
Brandon 9:14
slipping away. I'm so
Collin 9:15
angry. I am so angry. So I get to Dallas and then I had a five and a half hour layover at DM. That's rough.
Speaker 1 9:27
That's real rough. I don't. I
Collin 9:29
and the thing was is like all the stuff that I wanted to work on, Brandon. I desperately was like I could be recording with Brandon right now. I could. You could have
Speaker 1 9:39
been. Yes, that's true.
Collin 9:41
Did I did I have the connection cord? No, I did not. I did not have the connection cord. I I couldn't record with Megan. I couldn't do any of the audio stuff because I didn't have my freaking adapter, and so I'm. I rode the Skylink a couple times around. I'm reading. I'm doing. Some writing, doing this other stuff, and and then in my desperation, because I did have, I do have, I brought because I thought, okay, maybe at this conference, I do this every single time. I'm like, maybe I'll do like a quick interview or something like at the conference, like you know, live on the live on the floor, and I have these two wireless microphones, and so I I realized I was like I'm I told my guy I was like look we are not recording I'm just going to do a solo episode so I'm going to figure out a way to record a podcast in the airport I I can't use my normal microphone because it's very innovative, right? I have this very, I have this wireless microphone. I'm gonna just figure this out, and then I start. I'm like, okay, can I get into the American Airlines Admiral Club and like pay the daily fee for that? Get access to that, right? So I'm googling, and it's like $84. I was gonna say
Brandon 11:00
probably not, but like,
Collin 11:02
well, they'll sell you a fee. I think it was like $79 plus whatever, and it was like 85 bucks. But all of them were closed to daily things because they were at capacity, so you couldn't. And and I I learned that only a select few have private workspaces, which you have to rent to add an additional fee, and I was like, so I'm I'm literally like going into corners of the airport, and I'm like, again, I got time. I'm around the Skylink in the bathroom, high terminal D again, like I'm going around, and I found there is a place where in DFW they have two of these. They are called Minute Suites.
Brandon 11:50
Yeah, I was gonna say, don't they? Isn't there like a hotel thingy in there?
Collin 11:54
Yes. Yeah. Finally stumbled upon this. You have to rent. I
Brandon 12:00
think there was. Yeah, that's because when we flew to Australia we flew out the FW and I think I passed that was like yeah what
Collin 12:06
yes you rent them by the hour totally legitimate totally not weird okay totally
Brandon 12:13
not like a Law and Order episode right yeah there's a man in like a tank top sweaty tank top at the desk, right? Handing out room keys on a pegboard.
Collin 12:25
It it really had that feeling. I'm not gonna lie. And so I'm brown everywhere. I found it. My my flight boarded. Started boarding at 515, and and I had an hour to use this. Typically, when I record a podcast, I'm doing it from like 30 to 45 minutes. It's in a completely different terminal than where I am, so I've got like legwork to get there.
Speaker 1 12:49
Yeah,
Collin 12:50
I managed to get one that went from 4:15 to 5:15, and I'm
Speaker 1 12:54
like, "Oh, that's kind of like
Collin 12:55
okay. So I'm like hoofing it over there.
Brandon 12:59
Power nap time.
Collin 13:00
I am. I so wanted to sleep. I so wanted to sleep, but I'm waiting. I'm. I'm. And I'm like, I show up about 1015, minutes early, and I come up to the thing. I'm like, Hey, I had a 415, but I don't know. And he's like, Ah, I'll get you in. And I'm like, Oh gosh, okay, thanks. Well, because I just you know I'm trying to record a podcast. I don't know why I'm talking so much to this guy. I'm just like, this is so weird. I'm renting a room by the. Yeah, you don't need to like explain yourself. Just like get it. Yeah, he's like, he goes, oh, that's pretty cool. You probably want a room like closer towards the back, so you're away from all the terminal. And I go, yeah, that'd actually be fantastic. And he takes me to the back, and he goes, "It's typically one of our larger upgrade rooms, but sounds like you're working on something cool. So here you go, bud. And I'm like, "Oh wow,
Brandon 13:51
heck yeah!
Collin 13:52
It turns out that there are two minute suites in DFW. I forget what terminals there; it's completely different terminals, but one of them has shower access and like bathrooms, and the other one like a truck
Brandon 14:06
stop. Yes,
Collin 14:08
and the other one is just for naps. I'm just in the nappy one, but apparently you can also do like you said do overnights at these places, which is just wild to me. But I'm going. Yeah, it is crazy. This would be so nice because Megan and I, when we went, we took a trip to St. Lucia many years ago. Yeah, that was
Brandon 14:28
like that was long time. 12 years ago. Yeah.
Collin 14:31
At the airport, we didn't have a place to stay, so we actually slept in the baggage claim area overnight with like 20 other people, yeah,
Speaker 1 14:42
chilling in four. And
Collin 14:43
then you wake up and you go back. You get security. I'm like, this would be so nice. Yeah, there's a a very a very weird looking day bed. Right, it's the couch that slides into the bed in this room. There's a desk with like an air. They've got they've got. They have a big air filter. They've got a floor fan. They've got a little window that you can like this little raise and lower thing, and the everything is is like sound deadened in the room because that's crazy. It's so wild. So I locked the door, went over, good call. Yup, I'm not gonna be. You're not going to surprise me, creepy desk clerk guy. And I'm like, and go, and I I record it like it did one take. I'm I made sure it's like slamming my laptop down and throwing up my bag. I'm running out, being like, thanks, minute sweet man, and and getting it, getting getting over to the the plane. I arrive just as they're starting to make the first call for like you know the whatever you know the early access people, yeah, and I sit on the plane, and of course, I sit. I sit next to a man, who at first I think is like serious. Well, he's harassing the stewardess. Okay, like he's making comments as she's walking by, and he's like peeking at her through this curtain and stuff. Like I'm going, oh,
Speaker 2 16:18
cool! Oh my gosh,
Collin 16:20
I'm I'm gonna be on TV being like I don't know him. Yeah. Well, it turns out that they were married, and oh okay, all right,
Brandon 16:30
all right. He's just being
Collin 16:33
a guy, right? Okay, all right, all right. He's teasing her, jabbing her, and but the thing was, I got I got to benefit from this because she would walk by and she hated me the bag of first class mixed nuts, but not him, just to take it off. So I'm ah,
Brandon 16:50
this is good news. I know. Look at this. Like, would you like a hot towel, sir? We don't get one buster. Like,
Collin 16:57
pretty much. Yep, yep, yep. I was very much so. I talked. He he was a he was a marine, then he was a cop, and then his sister worked for Southwest, and he was jealous for all the trips that she could take and all this stuff, so he was like, "I got to get me a job like those. So he applied to American Airlines to be in their customer service to basically what he he trained the desk agents at the gate, the ones that give you the cold steely stare to be like, "No, sir, there are no other options. Those are trained by Marines and police officers. That just that makes a lot
Brandon 17:46
more sense now. Like the airports suddenly make a lot more sense.
Speaker 1 17:50
Yes, right. Like I told him that. I said, you
Collin 17:53
know, this makes a lot of sense for my like that trash, brother. Yes. No, thank you.
Speaker 1 17:59
Actually, that's not.
Collin 18:01
Yeah, how dare you? In case y'all are wondering what they're doing to the the little desk agents, you know those like
Brandon 18:09
traumatizing them by for former Marine policemen or their training officer.
Collin 18:16
Yeah, yep, yep. That little like 63 year old woman who can barely see over the computer. She had a marine train her, and she survived. So you're not getting through her. Like buck up, buddy. You know, that's true. You're not getting a
Brandon 18:29
free upgrade from that lady. Okay, why not get back in line, sit down. Like she'll stare you
Collin 18:33
down, and you will say thank you. Absolutely. He was anyway. So we we I he I talked a lot on the on the flight home, and then he gets up and he comes back. He had to go, you know, use the lavatory. He comes back, and he's like, apparently, there is a storm cell moving through, and if we can't time it right, they're going to have to take us to Kansas City for the night. I went
Brandon 19:02
like, but I don't want to go to Kansas City. I'm sorry. What he goes? Yeah,
Collin 19:05
we'll have to fly past and land in Kansas City, and then they're going to decide if they're going to basically book a book us a flight to go from Kansas City back to Springfield. And I went, couldn't we just like circle around for a little bit? That's
Brandon 19:20
kind of zigzag a bit, right?
Collin 19:23
We can loop through Oklahoma a couple times. We can
Brandon 19:26
fly around Oklahoma once, and then like you know, doesn't take that
Speaker 1 19:29
long.
Collin 19:30
Exactly.
Brandon 19:32
Circle Venita, and then like over here. Yeah,
Collin 19:36
you know what's going to go on. You know. So anyway, I we ended up not having to do that, but it was anyway. Anyway, and we landed, and I bolted off the plane and started driving home.
Brandon 19:55
Run.
Collin 19:57
Yep. So that was my that was my that was my plane ride coming home.
Brandon 20:12
How was the actual thing you were at?
Speaker 1 20:14
Yeah. Was
Brandon 20:15
it less traumatic than the traveling, or was it also a chaotic disaster.
Speaker 1 20:24
Oh, it's the second
Collin 20:25
one. It's the second one. Everybody works. Look at
Brandon 20:30
all these things that happen when you don't bring one cord. Look at how
Collin 20:33
Brandon. When I tell you the number of people who are like, "Oh, I need like the organizers were like, oh, we've done it in the past where we have the conference computer and everybody presents off of it. But what we've found, according to these, is that that creates a lot of confusion by some of the people in the in the group, and so they like to have all of the presenters bring their own computers and just use those. It makes it quote unquote easier. And I'm like, okay, okay, sure, okay. You know, this was being presented at the Jacksonville Humane Society, an amazing building. I have never been oh
Speaker 1 21:19
interesting in
Collin 21:20
a building so nice that having to deal with this, you wouldn't think that, but this was a multi, multi, multi million dollar building built back in 2017, 17, something like that. Dang! Oh, it's it's really cool. They've got all these really neat programs and everything, and everything is very like very pet friendly and focused and and very like keep them doing well, and they've got this amazing multimedia room and conference room that they rent out to the community, and so that's you know what we was doing, and they have this wonderful wireless technology to connect from this to this and they just had a big summer camp the previous week and everything worked flawlessly and
Speaker 1 22:11
ah yes
Collin 22:13
no nothing tale
Brandon 22:14
as old as time yeah it worked yesterday
Collin 22:16
yeah absolutely is exactly the issue here, the wireless never really worked. They said, "Oh, if you have a Mac, it doesn't work. And the number of people at this conference who had a Mac lot. People
Brandon 22:31
named Collin, like Collin, and there were three other
Collin 22:34
presenters. And I'm like, "Dang it! Well, we could just plug it directly in because they've got this adapter. Well, the adapter wouldn't work, and it didn't work. And and I'm like, oh, if I had my adapter, I would trust my adapter. True. One of the guys who, one of the people who spoke at the very last, he was actually he was one of the he was a head lawyer involved when Lehman Brothers went under. He was he was hired on to tease through and go through the bankruptcy with them. Oh, he's a little intense. Yeah, and and he can hang
Brandon 23:07
out with Marine Guy. Yeah, I know they can go on.
Collin 23:10
His entire spiel was on. Anyway, he brought a Mac because he's a lawyer, and yeah, he was like, "Oh, he's like, he said, "Oh, I brought my adapter, plugged it in, boom, worked immediately. And I'm like Collin, you you failed, you failed the entire conference because you didn't bring the one thing that would have saved us. Anyway, but his whole thing was on piercing the corporate veil and breaking contracts because he's a bankruptcy lawyer. So his whole thing is like no breaking
Brandon 23:39
contract. No, I'm kidding. I
Collin 23:41
mean, basically, that's what it it is of like going through, looking at bad contracts, getting out of things, yeah, saying, "Oh, this wasn't legitimate because X, Y, Z, and and that's all he did for the Lehman Brothers thing. Like that's what he his main career is based on, and he's up there telling us how to, uh, how to have good contracts and language to use, and there are people in the audience who are like arguing with him about how no, their contract is actually fine because like their uncle said so, you know.
Speaker 1 24:15
Ah, yes, the classic argument. Nah, expert, you don't know.
Collin 24:22
No, no, I've or or my my favorite, like I've been using it for years and I haven't had a problem, you know. And I'm like, yeah, until this guy haven't had a problem yet. And
Speaker 1 24:36
then you're gonna
Collin 24:36
be you're gonna be crying softly in the middle of the night, as you know, he's tearing everything. Like he said, his whole like his whole thing was to make sure that people walked in wearing the fancy watch, and they were taking it off and putting it on the judge's desk. You know, you know, as they were leaving, as they were, you know, as part of their settlement, kind of thing. Like that's what he did. I'm like. You're really scared. Oh Lord! Okay, but overall, the conference was was really well, really well done. I was there to be an MC, and part of being an MC I have learned is just asking questions, because people people have this idea of of oh yeah, and then we'll just do this, and then this person will come over here, and then we'll just you know we'll just this, and it's my job. At least I take it to be my job. I don't. I'm sure other MCs are just people you know who run these things are just like whatever. I'll just follow what's written on the page for me. I do feel like it is my duty to go. Well, you have lunch from 12 to one, and we're supposed to be eating. And there's you know 60 people here, and that's going to take a while because it's it's self serve food, and that goes slow. And we're also supposed to do a group photo. We're also supposed to do two announcements, and we also need to get this thing involvement. And when is this getting like, or okay, we're supposed to start at 12. When's the food getting here? And it's the oh yeah. Well, the food gets here at noon,
Brandon 26:11
so we can't start at noon because you'll be setting up the food. Yeah. So so really, what I was
Collin 26:17
is I was part MC, part organizer of yeah really what was happening here,
Brandon 26:23
running logistical
Collin 26:25
interference for them, which is okay.
Brandon 26:29
You are UPS now, yeah,
Collin 26:31
and you'll like it. Which again, like it's just it is what it is, and you're never. It's it's okay. You just are gonna. It's what you have to do. I felt like I needed to do this, so I was doing that. Everything else seemed okay. As always, the big thing is keeping people on time, and so I. At first, they said you need to sit right up at the front, and I was said nope. Like well, because then you can you can stand up and and get to the front of the room easier. And I said no. I'm going to sit at the very back so that a I can make sure that we can hear the speaker because all the organizers sit right up at the front. So I'm going to sit at the back. I don't really need to hear a lot of this, but whatever. And
Brandon 27:18
also I can give him the sign. Yeah, wrap it up, sign exactly. Well, five minutes. You
Collin 27:23
mean the sign of at 15 minutes I stand up, and it and at 10 minutes I step over far to the side, and then from 10 minutes to one I'm walking slowly along the outside aisle towards them, pointing at
Brandon 27:37
your watch ominously as you step towards them, glaring,
Collin 27:40
just
Brandon 27:41
tick tick sucker.
Collin 27:43
Yes, right of the telltale heart. Just you know, walking. You just hold
Brandon 27:52
up your microphone to a ticking sound to a ticking watch, like just start humming the Jeopardy theme song. Oh
Collin 28:04
no, no, I was I was humming. I was trying to do the the theme song for Peter Pan whenever the the clock is ticking in the alligator. Oh yeah, I'm thinking
Brandon 28:15
of alternative things you could do. Oh no, the guy got
Collin 28:20
this. goodness. Anyway, I did all that fun stuff, and only I think I kept it pretty good. Man, I but I would you know conference it starts at nine, so I tried to be there at eight, and then it goes to five, and then at five you're like I am exhausted. People want to go out to dinner at six, so you really and a lot of these places. I learned Brandon. What is the largest state by what is the largest city by land area in the lower 48?
Speaker 1 28:57
By land area?
Collin 28:59
Yeah,
Brandon 29:00
would be I don't know. My first guess would be Houston.
Speaker 1 29:04
Okay,
Brandon 29:05
but I bet you're gonna tell me it's Jacksonville, Florida.
Collin 29:07
I'm gonna tell you it is Jacksonville, Florida. Okay,
Brandon 29:12
I mean, there's nothing else in Florida, so they just spread out, right? Like, yeah, you can't build up too high because you know gets a little windy there from time to time. So you got
Collin 29:21
to build
Brandon 29:23
out
Collin 29:23
874 square miles. Holy smoly! What the heck? I know. I thought Houston was big, Brandon. Houston is a measly 640. In case you wanted to know,
Brandon 29:38
yeah, most of that's parking lot. So like that.
Collin 29:41
Now I did, I did have to to look this up because I the largest city in the U.S. Any guesses in the U.S. I did have to look this up while I was there, but in like
Brandon 29:56
large like by land mass or by land by
Collin 29:58
land area. Okay,
Brandon 30:00
not landmass. Yeah, land area. I don't know.
Collin 30:03
Okay, it is Sitka, Alaska.
Brandon 30:07
Okay, that does that kind of make sense by area. They also spread out a lot. Yeah. Okay,
Collin 30:12
the top four are all in Alaska. Sitka, Alaska, at 2800 square miles. Yeah, but like,
Brandon 30:21
how many people can like eight people live there? That's there's four. Weird part, like yeah,
Collin 30:25
I know. Oh, okay, man. Is all
Brandon 30:29
that just airstrip because they just fly everywhere? I think
Collin 30:31
that's all it is. It's just area for the planes. Then there's Juneau at 2700, Wrangell at 25, and Anchorage at a measly 1700. Other than that, Jacksonville 874. That's
Speaker 1 30:44
wild,
Collin 30:46
absolutely insane. And so everywhere that's like, oh, we'll just pop over. Like we are driving 35 minutes, 40 minutes to get places for dinner. So conference ends at five, dinner's at six. It's 10 minutes back to the hotel. I'm. That's
Brandon 31:05
crazy. Like, if I drive 45 minutes, not to dox myself here, but like, I could be in Republic. Like, that's insanity. That's like what? That's like five cities away.
Collin 31:18
Makes sense. This does not. And so this is another thing where I'm like, oh, no wonder all these pet sitters are like there are 45 dog walkers and pet sitters around me, and we don't even overlap an area. This whole time I've been like, how, how is that humanly possible? Because it's eight. Turns out they're all in dex. Where are miles? They they don't even see each other like you can't see their boundary lines from where they are. I mean, because I was just like, oh right, like I serve a 12 square mile service area, and this is 800. Just like this is insane, insane to me. Like you could fit almost 71 businesses like mine in that area, and without touching, right? Like that's where I'm like, holy smokes! Like this kind of changes. So,
Brandon 32:13
well, I mean, you could technically, but like, how much of that? I don't know about. I don't know how much Jacksonville has like Industrial area, right? Right. So, like, surely some of that's taken up with like factories or something. No, right? Surely it's not all like okay.
Collin 32:30
Yeah. No, you're right. It's not all habitable. We
Brandon 32:33
have to have some sort of industrial zones. Like, surely.
Collin 32:37
Yes.
Brandon 32:38
Surely they produce something in Florida. Surely,
Collin 32:42
it's all just a. It's all. I'm not gonna bet
Brandon 32:44
on it, but like bedroom. You know, they might. That's
Collin 32:47
all it is. Yeah. So that's where I was going. Well, okay. Like this is all again making a mucho senso por. Like okay. Yeah. So anyway, and then you go to dinner, and it's a dinner of 15 people on a Thursday and Friday night in Jacksonville, and dinner takes two and a half or three hours to get wrapped up. You drive back to the hotel. It's 930, 10 o'clock, and I'm like, I haven't done anything all day, and I'm so tired. So
Speaker 1 33:26
that's wild.
Collin 33:28
It was like that's it. And and this is the one I did leave them a review. I did review the conference. I just went up to the organizers and said and said coffee, and they're like, "What? And I said, "There is the
Brandon 33:48
correct review. Yes,
Collin 33:49
there is no coffee in this room or accessible to anyone here
Brandon 33:56
or adjacent to this room.
Collin 33:58
Oh, oh well, yeah, we had water and we had some sodas and we had some tea, and I said coffee. It's not available to anyone in this room, and I don't care if no one else drinks it. Me, I will drink all of it for
Brandon 34:17
you. Yeah, right. Like, come on, like,
Collin 34:20
come on, people! I don't know what is happening, but this is not okay. So, anyway, that is a
Brandon 34:28
scathing review here from Collin. Scathing.
Collin 34:33
Just need to just a correct when so. Oh, and someone's like, "Well, you know, sometimes it's hard to keep it warm. I'm like that has been solved. I don't know if you have you
Brandon 34:43
been to a Waffle House. They understand
Collin 34:47
how it works. They know how to do these things, like right. Like, well, you know, it's hard. It's hard to keep it warm. It's not
Brandon 34:55
hard to keep it warm.
Collin 34:57
No, Collin,
Brandon 34:58
Collin is so not hard to. I forgot to tell you a couple weeks ago about the most important discovery about when I went antiquing in Bolivar with Dusty. Right? Oh, the antique mall has a full snack bar and free coffee.
Collin 35:16
No. Oh. Repeat that
Brandon 35:19
again. Full snack bar, maybe not full. There is a snack bar. There's like chips and candies and like things that you can purchase to snack upon. They have all the old like 50s diner tables just set up that people can sit at, and there's dudes doing their crossword puzzles and all that stuff, and people are talking and hanging out, and there is free coffee at the counter in a massive machine. There's two different coffees available for free. What in the Bolivarian teapot? What on earth is
Collin 35:54
this?
Brandon 35:56
So, so just in case they thought it's too hard.
Collin 36:01
It's too hard to keep some liquid, brown liquid, warm. No, no, this is. Yeah, yeah. I forgot
Brandon 36:07
to tell you the most important part. As soon as we got off, I was like, I forgot to tell you. Most important thing. I'm
Collin 36:13
so angry right now.
Brandon 36:15
I just I walked around the corner and I just saw a big sign that said free coffee and a massive coffee machine, like a diner coffee machine. I was like, "This may be the greatest thing I've ever seen. They had little paper cups there, and a big trash can, and each free coffee. I was like, "This is too good to be true.
Collin 36:38
I'm. This is the
Brandon 36:39
most beautiful sign I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm blown
Collin 36:42
away. This is exactly what I needed.
Brandon 36:45
It was amazing,
Collin 36:47
and the fact that like more people. Oh, what is this? I'm not happy. It's nuts. Wow! It was so
Speaker 1 36:59
wonderful.
Collin 37:00
Like I did, I couldn't believe it. They did not. I could not believe it. I'm very. Yeah,
Speaker 1 37:08
that's unfortunate, man. That's rough stuff. I'm sorry.
Collin 37:14
So you know, there's that. But other than that, it was great. A thing that I I like to look for is how many people have are there for the first time, right? I think that's a really important thing to have, and like oh yeah yeah 80% of the room is there for the first time, which is exciting. I think that's really good. Oh wow, yeah, I know. I was like, okay, like let's go. This is good, and of course it's Florida, so they have to. And they asked me to be there, so I just I have to mock them mercilessly.
Speaker 1 37:56
Yeah,
Collin 37:56
they just have to enjoy it. I told them, I said, look, I was going to complain about the heat today because it is 11 billion degrees and I'm I'm very hot, but you can't complain about heat to a Floridian because they'll just laugh at you. So instead, I'm going to complain. Plus, it's probably it
Brandon 38:14
may have been hotter in Missouri on that day. Oh my gosh, it was been horrible. It was not good.
Collin 38:18
It was not good. So I said I was going to complain about the heat, but you can't do that. So instead, I'll complain. I tried to take a shortcut through the grass, and my feet were consumed by ants from hell because that's they have a lot of fire ants down there. So I'm going to complain about that, and everyone went, "Oh yeah, you know that's fair. Actually, no, good on ya.
Brandon 38:40
It's so distressing that fires can survive hurricanes in like 18 feet of flood stage water. That is doesn't seem right. Like it doesn't.
Collin 38:51
I know. So anyway, I I did survive and am to tell to tell the tale. That's why
Speaker 1 39:06
I'm back. I know.
Collin 39:07
Yeah. What about Danielle? What about you?
Brandon 39:18
Well, Collin, I embarked on a bit of a journey, and I may have melted my brain. This may have been motivated partially because I am in denial about having to go back to school and having to go to teachers' meetings and things, right? And so I think I was looking for a way to occupy my brain. Okay, you planted in my mind this idea, right? Because you were talking about how you watch. Yeah, you were talking about how you like Nausicaa, right? How you watch Nosica, and I was like, wait a minute, this has been the sci-fi summer. We've talked about all kinds of things. There is an aspect that I forgot. To think about, and that is, of course, sci-fi anime,
Collin 40:04
right? And
Speaker 3 40:07
so
Brandon 40:08
I thought, wait a minute, wait a minute, there is one genre of sci-fi the anime has a lot of, right? So I I need to explore this, right? So I was like, I was like, what genre of sci-fi does anime have a lot of call? That's the mecha genre, right? Giant robots, the mech, all over the place, right? Yeah, the mech anime, yeah. So I. I thought, right, be prepared over the next several weeks to have a slight recurring segment of Brandon watches random mech anime, but I had to start off. There's only one way to start this, Collin. I went back and I found Free online, the classic mecha anime from my childhood-not my childhood, but my youth rather-I remember this was on TV a lot. The most popular mecha anime in North America for a very long time. Collin, I watched every single episode of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. She's a lot.
Collin 41:25
I knew where you were going with that, and I'm still so happy. I think like we were talking because like there's only one option. Like you obviously have to watch Mobile Suit Gundam. I have oh my gosh. Yes, I obviously I have so many fond memories of this show growing up, I this has there are things planted in my brain. I can't tell you a single thing about the story about what was going on, but like the swan suit, like come on, and like wasn't that that and the oh yeah, like the big
Brandon 42:02
white one, the big tall geese suit. Yes, the tall geese.
Collin 42:04
Yeah, the tall geese one. Yeah, but then of course we had tall geese. Yeah, yeah. We had the um, the it was the the one the kind of I don't know star of the show or whatever. He had the red shield with the big gun where they all had the big gun, but like he was red and blue, isn't that right? Like yeah, Wing Zero, Wing Zero, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Brandon 42:22
He's got his very primary color, yeah.
Collin 42:25
Very like we had an action figure, yeah, and just this. When did this come out? I'll let sorry. I'll let you style stop. Okay, so
Brandon 42:35
it it it it was originally aired in Japan in 1995, but in like 2000, it was on Cartoon Network's Toonami, right? Okay, and this was like a big giant, like aha moment for the entirety of North America. Sure, it's one of the because like Gundam as a series, I've been doing some research on it. Like it, the original like mobile suit Gundam thing was from like 1979, right? And apparently the Gundam universe is very confusing. It's kind of like the Marvel situation where we have like tons of like alternate timeline things happening, right? And it's very convoluted, and there's like a billion different series.
Collin 43:26
Oh, okay. But
Brandon 43:28
like Gundam Wing is like self-contained, all alone, all by itself-a big, long, giant standalone thing. Okay, right. So like that's what was on Cartoon Network was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, right? And so when you said, "I don't remember a lot about the story, that is because this is the most convoluted story.
Collin 43:53
Oh, okay, good. All it's not just
Brandon 43:57
Molly. The I did not like whenever I was a kid, right? Whenever we were kids watching it, because I know that I watched it with Aaron, and I thought you were there too, watching this with us, but I couldn't remember. But um, like, you know, it's just like, oh, look at these robots fighting and all this cool stuff, right, Rala? This is actually a gigantic political intrigue rebellion anti-war story, really? Yeah. So I'm not going to really do a big plot point situation because I could never find so convoluted. But like, basically, it's like
Collin 44:38
next podcast idea where we watch and review each of the mobile suit Gundam. Oh my gosh! One at a time. Oh my gosh!
Brandon 44:44
So long. We have content for years. But like the basic theme is like Earth has like a big, like federation. Like the Earth Alliance is in charge of like everything, right? And it's this big bureaucratic. Organization, and they're like, uh, kind of trying to subjugate the space colonies, right? And the space colonies are like, bro, we just leave us alone. And the Earth Alliance is like, no, you will be folded into our sphere of influence. And there's the backstory gets there's a whole bunch of weird stuff that happens like before the show I guess and like they kind of set the stage and basically the colonies are like separated they're not really talking to each other because the communications have been cut off and they're the Earth Alliance is trying to control them right and so the some scientists sort of independently all build these mobile suits and send them to Earth as guerrilla fighters to fight against the Earth Alliance.
Collin 45:46
Yes,
Brandon 45:48
that's the start of the thing.
Collin 45:49
Okay,
Brandon 45:50
right, and all the pilots are like kids; they're all like teenagers, right? And they all have very tragic backstories and all these things. But like, then it turns into this big like shifting alliance thing because like factions start to form within the Earth Alliance, and they like splinter and people change allegiances and like then there's like the colonies start to like you know they don't want to fight back, but then there's like a splinter rebellion that's bleeding based on all this other stuff, and they're gonna do like some. They want to fight back against Earth, and then like it's a whole like alliances and allegiances change and are very like swirly, and for a long time it takes a distressingly long time for all of the pilots to be in the same place at the same time. I didn't remember that.
Collin 46:47
You know what? Actually, after you mention that, I do have this feeling, kind of like in Dragon Ball Z, everybody was always getting there.
Brandon 46:54
Yeah, it's kind of like that, or or like these two guys are together. We haven't seen this guy in a long time, right? This guy's over here, and this other dude is over here. Like that's kind of like these two episodes are these two guys, and then we go over here to this guy. Like have their own arcs
Collin 47:11
and stories that they got. Yeah, yeah.
Brandon 47:13
And there's like a bajillion side characters that come and go, and like they just show up randomly, and everybody kind of has their own motivation, and they slowly start to realize that they want the same thing. So, the pilots, some of the pilots, like slowly start to like realize their original mission is not really the best thing to do, and we have to fight for this instead. And they like kind of Understand the what they're doing, and like it. It comes to this big like. There's a lot of like anti-war sentiment where like one of the characters even like he is just going to fight anybody who is like wielding too much power over other people. He was like, if you're doing that, you're the bad guy, right? You're oppressing people, so you're the back. Okay, and so there is this also big conversation about like there's a group of people on Earth who like they just want peace, right? And then the Earth Alliance, they're like, we want peace too, but it it kind of are looking at the the ideas of what is peace versus what is order, right? Because the alliance wants order. Interesting. They want everybody to listen because they're constantly surrounded by giant military robots, right? And so this is how everyone will obey us. Like it's not, it's you know, it's peace because everyone stopped fighting, but only because we're so aggressive.
Collin 48:52
Yeah,
Brandon 48:52
right. So you have that theme. Like, can you have peace without fighting for it, like what, like what are the where's the line here, right? Like what's happening? Because like some of the pilots defend this lady who's like, oh yeah, we are a pacifist and we want to be pacifists. We want peace, and they kind of get steamrolled by the Federation, and so they show up and they're like, we're gonna fight. You don't have to fight, but we're gonna fight for you because you can't just sit back and be subjugated. Yeah, that's not peace, right? They're imposing their order upon you, which is not like peaceful, right? Like that's not what that is. So there's like that subplot, and then the other big like theme and subplot they have is like the alliance people, and then like another group they get a hold of it. They start creating soldiers that are they call them the dolls, right? And so they're unmanned robot pilot mechs, right? So there's like robots now, and so it's like there's a lot of talking critically about like what does war mean, and what are you even fighting for if you are not willing to do the fighting, right? Like one of the guys, the Federation guys, who's like the subgroup is called Oz. They're like a one of the factions in the alliance. Like they're the military arm, basically. But the guy's like, if you're not even willing to fight for what you believe in, what are you fighting for? Like, what are you doing? Like that's dumb. Like this will never stop fighting. There is no end if you just keep throwing giant robots at each other, the only people that are dying are the civilians. Like, what is that? Like, that's dumb. Like, and then everyone's like, actually, yes, that is dumb. Why would you do that? So there's like also a lot of like very weird like examinations, like the cost of war is well, right? So there's a lot of like, it's weirdly Hemingway esque because like a lot of the ideas that people espouse about war is that like war is noble and it's good to fight, right? It's very World War One ideals from the bad guys from the foundation, and when you see how they're dressed, you're like, oh, yes, they're dressed like old European aristocracy, right, with their ruffly collars and their cape and their epauletted shoulders, right? You're like, ah, okay, got it. Wow, you would. That is a person that would say that right there. You know, there we go. Yeah, so so that there's a lot of craziness that happens in this show. There's a lot of really insane things that happen. Also, some of the things that like at the beginning, right? It's kind of annoying because they're like, oh man, like they'll be a side character. They'll meet one of the Gundam pilots for like two seconds, and then they're like, "I believe in this person. I trust them. I will follow them forever. Like, wait a minute.
Collin 52:15
You just kind of got here.
Brandon 52:17
Yeah, they're just like, "Oh, I can just tell right now by their demeanor, I'm completely devoted to them from now on. You're like, what? He didn't even say anything. Wow.
Collin 52:34
Yeah. Well, I mean, have you seen him? Have you seen the ruffles? That's true.
Brandon 52:40
That's true. He's
Collin 52:41
pretty. I was talking about
Brandon 52:42
like the Gundam pilots. Like, oh, this kid, he's so bold and stoic. I will be on his side. You're like,
Collin 52:50
forever.
Brandon 52:51
He doesn't even know what he's doing. What do you mean you're gonna be on his side? He just tried to blow himself up again. Like, what do you mean?
Collin 52:57
Just an angsty teen. Could you not? Like, that's there's a lot of
Brandon 53:01
angst in this show. That is 100 for sure. So, but it's very cool. There's a lot in there. So I watched all of Gund and Wing and Endless Waltz, which is like the three-part OVA movie that goes to the end of it. That I think is what we definitely watched several times. Yeah.
Collin 53:18
No. So is that you said OVA. Is that is that the that's like the overarching like total summary like kind of shorter condensed version? Well, it's
Brandon 53:27
like the the so endless waltz is like what happens like right after the whole anime series, right? Oh, I learned a term. I learned a new term, the OVA. This is this is code for original video animation.
Collin 53:39
Okay, so because I I've seen I've watched a few OVAs over the years, but I've never understood. I always thought they were like the summary of the longer ones, or like no. So usually,
Brandon 53:50
what this means, based on my cursory research from earlier, is that it's usually something that was like the anime is like the aired on television series, and OVA a lot of times sometimes it's like sold directly to video, or like directly. So it's like it's almost like a movie type thing. So a lot of times, like the animation and the quality and everything is like much higher on those, right? Because it's like straight to production and and like that. So this is what I've learned. That sort of means. I
Collin 54:25
see.
Brandon 54:26
Yeah, but Endless Waltz is like it takes place right after, or like it's like one year after the conclusion of the Gundam Wing animated series, right?
Collin 54:39
I see.
Brandon 54:40
Yeah, and it's like three. It's like a three-part thing, which is you can. They a lot of times it's online. It's just like in one big movie thing, right? And it's like very extra dramatic. They crank all that drama up to 11 for the finale, right? Because like the endless walls. Is the cycle of, of you know, war and peace and revolution and war and peace and revolution and they're trying to break the cycle, right? They're trying to break out and they're trying to achieve true peace through like all these things and so that's the waltz they're trying to break, right? And they're, it's very dramatic. The main character, well, the main character Hero, like he's like extra dramatic in this part, right? Like where he's like screaming about like how do we stop it? He's like, I don't want to fight anymore, like yelling. Oh, he actually says he actually says like zero won't show me anymore, which is a a weird thing because like his mobile suit that he starts piloting halfway through like has this like super advanced computational system that feeds all probable outcomes of the battle into your brain while you're fighting, and so like most people cannot pilot this because they will go insane
Collin 56:00
Sure.
Brandon 56:01
While they're
Collin 56:03
yeah, the first time
Brandon 56:05
he pilots it, it doesn't go well. So it's like feeding back like every statistical probability outcome directly back to you as you're doing that stuff. And so when he says zero won't show me the way, like there. He's like saying, "There, I don't see how to stop this, so I'm gonna do this, like super drastic thing.
Collin 56:32
Fair,
Brandon 56:34
and like in the animated series, that's sort of the culmination, like builds up to where one of the guys like he's like this is how we're gonna end war, you know how we're gonna end war? I'm gonna do something so horrible, everybody will see the true cost of war, and they'll never want to fight again. So his goal, they want to crash one of the colonies onto Earth. He's like, that's what we'll do. This huge giant space collin. He's like, we're just gonna ram it, right? And then that doesn't work. So he's like, now this big battleship I built. We're just gonna drop it onto the planet, and it will be so devastating that no one will ever even think about fighting war again. And everyone else is like, ah, bro, we there's a we don't have to do that. That's a it's a
Speaker 4 57:20
bit much,
Brandon 57:21
yeah. Like that's a little intense. Wow. So yeah, that that is what I did. I watched a lot of Gundam win. I love it with all the animated series and the endless waltz. That would be 52 episodes.
Collin 57:42
That's that may be a bit much. They're only like
Brandon 57:44
20 minutes long, so like that does make it better when you when you go past the like two minute summary at the beginning and little theme song. Like you can pass through, but that this has been happening over the course of several weeks. I did not watch all of them like this weekend. That did not happen.
Collin 58:01
Sure, you didn't. It's been
Brandon 58:04
brewing in the background.
Collin 58:07
How many? How many total were there? Did you know? Did you? Did you try and count at all? What? How many total episodes or things?
Brandon 58:15
49 anime episodes, and then the Endless Waltz is a three part. Okay,
Collin 58:20
okay.
Brandon 58:21
So it's like 52 total.
Collin 58:23
Okay, sorry. Yeah, things that I watched. That's
Brandon 58:25
all right. That's a lot, though.
Collin 58:27
That's really cool. I I gotta say, like, ah, this this is this makes me very excited, and I think to tell you that the number of times I have started to to like track down all of these or like watch one or two over the past several years, and then I'm like, I that says this is too many. This is I can't actually do all of this, and I back out because it's a lot.
Brandon 58:57
I'll send you the playlist. Thank you, because there is like an official channel that they're just on.
Collin 59:03
Really?
Brandon 59:04
Yeah. On YouTube, I found them on there. It's the Japanese version, but it's subtitled. So
Collin 59:11
okay.
Brandon 59:12
I'll
Collin 59:13
do. I'll
Brandon 59:14
do. Collin, I was so excited to be reliving this part of my youth that I actually, I accidentally became motivated to dip my toe into a side activity for Gundam fans.
Collin 59:30
Did you did you buy a mobile suit, not action figure but model, and yes, I did put it together.
Brandon 59:39
I built it. I built. I built a a mobile suit model.
Collin 59:46
This is this is perfect. This is great. This is well done.
Brandon 59:49
Here he is. Here he is. And you'll know what this is when I send it to you. I think.
Collin 59:53
Okay.
Brandon 59:53
Bam. All done. They come through. Oh yeah. Oh,
Collin 1:00:00
there it is! There it is! Where is? What is going on here? Sorry, was it? Oh yes, I built the
Brandon 1:00:07
death scythe.
Collin 1:00:08
You built the death scythe.
Brandon 1:00:10
Yeah, because duo is the best.
Collin 1:00:12
This is perfect. I know
Brandon 1:00:13
duo is the best because I met him for two seconds, and his actions led me to be hopelessly devoted to him for the rest of my life. But I,
Collin 1:00:20
as is again, obviously, obviously, the duo is by far my favorite.
Brandon 1:00:28
And I remember the Death Site being like super awesome for non-gender. I was like, I'm building this. I'm doing
Collin 1:00:33
it.
Brandon 1:00:34
I'm going go crazy. And I learned that apparently watching Gundam and building Gundam, not the same hobby. Two different universes, and based on the fact that I searched up Gundam models in the in the in the hobby con in the in circles, they call it Gunpla, which stands for Gundam Plastic Model. They
Collin 1:01:02
call it Gunpla.
Brandon 1:01:04
Yeah, which is not great, but you know, that is short for Gundam Plastic Model. Whatever. Um, this is wow. I learned. I learned that there is a lot of very intense people doing this, hobby.
Collin 1:01:22
Sure.
Brandon 1:01:23
There's massive Gundam kids. I'm not even thinking about some of those things. They're enormous. They're like a foot tall. Oh my god! And then the
Collin 1:01:38
other other thing that happens is. they do you put them together and they have then you have to paint them, right? That's okay.
Brandon 1:01:51
So now here is what I wanted to talk about. Like the this is a very different experience from any modeling building that I have done in the past, right? So in my youth, I did dabble in the classic car and airplane models, right? This kit requires no painting to complete.
Collin 1:02:13
Oh,
Brandon 1:02:14
all of these parts are cast in that color on the runner sets.
Collin 1:02:19
Oh, that's nice.
Brandon 1:02:20
As it is, yes. So there are no toxic fumes involved in this because I do remember like sitting at the kitchen counter, like building my hot rod model, like having to have the windows open. Well,
Collin 1:02:32
well, especially with some of the glue. The glue is.
Brandon 1:02:34
This also requires zero glue. It is all snap form together.
Collin 1:02:42
Oh, that's nice.
Brandon 1:02:43
Which is very interesting, right? And so the engineering internally in this is like super interesting because one of the cool things that I, from an engineering standpoint, like is the way that the joints on this are made. So you have the normal hard plastic outer piece, right? Now, some of the bigger model kits apparently have like internal skeletal structures that you have to put together, and then you affix the outer armor bits too, right? Some of the like big expensive ones, from what I looked at online, they have like an internal skeletal structure. This does not have that, right? But what this has is there'll be two like, let's say you have a an inner and an outer hard normal plastic model piece. When you when you squeeze them together, you will insert in between them a soft rubber piece, and when it squeezes together, it makes the socket joint.
Collin 1:03:51
Oh, interesting! Oh, that
Brandon 1:03:53
you then put a hard ball joint into from something else. Oh,
Collin 1:03:57
right! Interesting.
Brandon 1:03:58
And so it's like a rubber thing. So it like is that's what makes it like able to be moved and posed and then stay in one place.
Collin 1:04:08
Yeah.
Brandon 1:04:09
So like engineering, it's very interesting how it's like put together in there. There's like these like really soft plastic pieces, like almost rubber, that are sandwiched in between the hard plastic that allow things to be attached to them and then be poseable within the structure, which I thought was cool.
Collin 1:04:34
Well, and also I know there's always that struggle of the more you make it self securing, the bold. things tend to be
Brandon 1:04:45
yeah great. So then
Collin 1:04:46
it makes it more less sleek and less nice. But sounds like they've the technology here is really it
Brandon 1:04:55
has it come a long way from snap together models. I remember from my youth. Right when I was a kid, right, like I'm old now, listeners, so don't be offended. Okay, some of you may know, but like when I was a kid, like models that snapped together, kind of not cool, right?
Collin 1:05:12
Oh right, no,
Brandon 1:05:13
it's like easy mode, you know?
Collin 1:05:16
Yeah,
Brandon 1:05:16
you got to use the the like nostril bleeding, not model glue. You know, the little orange and white tube, right? Gotta use that.
Collin 1:05:27
Of course. You know,
Brandon 1:05:28
if you're not getting high off fumes, you're not really building models, bro. You're
Collin 1:05:32
not hearing colors. You
Brandon 1:05:34
have to crazy. You have to have like these insane model paints and like paint thinners and acetones to like do that. No, no, no. Like, like when I was a kid, it was all water slide decal. Oh my god, cannot tell you how much I hate water slide decal. But like, this has like stickers, like little stickers. I bought some tweezers because I watched a video, and the guy was like, "No, bro, seriously, get tweezers. Thank me later, and yes, thank you, man, on the internet because the stickers on this thing are so small.
Collin 1:06:07
Thank you, internet. Oh
Brandon 1:06:09
my gosh, nice. But other than that, like it is a very like chill, like enjoyable experience, right? Like it is pretty cool. Like the parts on here, some of these parts are so tiny. Like it is definitely not easy mode, right? Even like this is not like one of the complicated ones, right? This is like apparently they come in tiers, right? There's like a tier delineation about how complex the models are.
Collin 1:06:48
Right, that's okay.
Brandon 1:06:49
It's very intense. There's a lot. Right. This is like one of the lower ones, even though it's called high grade. You know, that's not actually the high grade. There's like three grades higher than that.
Speaker 1 1:07:06
Oh,
Brandon 1:07:06
everything's fine, and this makes total sense. But those are like master grade, like perfect grade, something real grade, real grade. That stands for real hard, based on what I saw on the internet.
Collin 1:07:24
Don't actually do this.
Brandon 1:07:26
It's actually much bigger with much smaller pieces. So I think I'm out on that one. That's fair. But yeah, I was just I was sort of inspired, like after watching all this, I was like, "Yo, I got. And this was this is what I wanted. What I was like, apparently, like when I said, apparently, these are two different hobbies. Watching and enjoying Gundam and building Gundam are not the same because, like, I looked at all these kits and were like, "Well, I have to build the Death Side. He's my favorite. Like, he's the coolest one, right? Like, and there's other ones from Gunwink too. Like, you know, there's you could build the toggies, which that may happen in the future. Let's not lie to ourselves here, because now that I'm started and I bought tweezers and I bought little nipper pliers, so like, I'm basically in there, you know. So like,
Collin 1:08:18
and you joined the forums apparently. So, oh yeah,
Brandon 1:08:21
I'm on Reddit, right? No, I'm just kidding. Like, so now that I, you know, I made a very small investment in tools, so obviously I'll build another one at some point. I know, but it was like very fun, right? And I definitely would build it again just because it's very, I've built it yesterday, right? Just kind of took all day, chilled out, built my mod, took a break every once a while because my eyes were straining to look at some of the small pieces slightly, right?
Speaker 1 1:08:52
The
Brandon 1:08:52
way that my desk is set up, right? Like I have like there's like a lot of stuff on it, and I realize like when I look at that model runner, and then I can see other papers behind it. My depth of field goes insane, and my eyes are like, "Oh
Collin 1:09:08
no, yeah. So I need,
Brandon 1:09:12
I need like a, I need like hold it up to the curtain or the wall to be like, okay, have a solid background behind this as I'm trying to read this number and look at this tiny part.
Collin 1:09:22
So I don't
Brandon 1:09:24
don't
Collin 1:09:25
break my eyes. Yeah,
Brandon 1:09:26
don't hold it over all of the other model pieces.
Collin 1:09:30
Yeah, or the box. Oh my gosh, it's like trying to put together a box of Lego with Lego background and Lego carpet and being like, yeah, it was
Brandon 1:09:37
mistakes were made. My eyes were hurting. Yeah, I took a break, right? But like, it was very chill to be like, I'm just gonna hang out. I'm gonna build parts of this. I'm gonna do like the head and the torso, and I'm gonna like I'm gonna go take a break, do some laundry, do whatever, and I'll come back and build some arms. You know, like totally
Collin 1:09:58
fine. That's kind
Brandon 1:09:59
of how I went about. Like I didn't sit down and go. I have to do all the sitting in one sitting. Yeah, right. I just thought about like this is what I'm gonna do today. It's gonna be chill vibes. I'm gonna do a little bit of stuff, and it was very fun, right? So, so there you go, there you go, Gundam Gun Gunpla Builders out there. I get it. Okay, I get it. I might do another one. May do another one. Right, it's fine. We'll see. We'll see what it is. But in the future, may give you an update if I get another one some point. Not like tomorrow, but like you know, always not like a.
Collin 1:10:33
I figured you already had 50, you know, 30 of these headed over your way.
Brandon 1:10:39
Yo, look, this is the other kind of crazy thing about some of these dudes. Like they have like a like, I saw pictures of like walls of just boxes that had they were they hadn't built yet, and I was like, what is happening?
Collin 1:10:56
Oh my goodness!
Brandon 1:10:59
Like the Guntur backlog is kind of an insane thing, and I don't know how I feel about that.
Collin 1:11:05
Oh no! I
Brandon 1:11:07
know. I know. Part of it is like if you if you're at an actual hobby store and they actually have something you want, like you got to get it right now because like
Collin 1:11:15
yeah,
Brandon 1:11:16
they're not gonna have it next week. You know, they're only getting in a couple of these things at a time, you know. If you don't get it now, you're gonna miss it, right? So, like, I know that that is a very real thing, probably in the model building world. But, guys, holy schmoly,
Collin 1:11:35
it's too much.
Brandon 1:11:36
It is too much. And also, like, I don't know if I would have been attracted to building something like this, if I didn't have a favorite character from the show, or like if I didn't like the characters from the show, like if you just look at all of them, like if you're a person that likes to build things, like that's kind of a different vibe. You're gonna have a different connection with that. Like if this is something that you do, if you like build other models of things, and then you see a gun to them, you you might be like, you know,
Collin 1:12:03
that's a really good point. Of there, there's there's the model builder aspect to this, but then there is the fan aspect to this. Yeah, yeah, and those people are
Brandon 1:12:14
not necessarily the same people.
Collin 1:12:15
Oh no, right?
Brandon 1:12:19
Because you know some of them, some of them are cool looking, but like I personally, just like my personal experiences, like I would, I don't feel drawn to like build something like that if I don't even know who that is, right? Like with with Duo and the Death Sight here, I now after rewatching all of this, like I have a very good understanding of who this is, you know, and so like for me, that's why I wanted to build this, cause like I like Duo. My man's is crazy, but like I like Duo a lot, right? The Death Site is cool. I like it's always my favorite one, right? So that's like I thought it'd be a good like first time. Like if I'm gonna build one first. It's gotta be this one. You know what I mean? Like, because you you like
Collin 1:13:04
it, right? And you're you're incentivized to see it through. Yeah. You're like, oh, this isn't even all that cool anyway. I don't like this. Yeah, because that's what I would do. I'd be like, everything is awesome, and this is gonna be great. And then I go, hmm.
Brandon 1:13:17
And you start building that head. Let me tell you, Holy!
Speaker 5 1:13:22
It's a lot
Brandon 1:13:23
less great for a few minutes there. Trying to get that helmet squeezed together with that little piece stuck in there. Right. Yeah.
Collin 1:13:33
Don't need this right now.
Brandon 1:13:34
It's like, dude, it's a good thing I like you. Doesn't happen. Otherwise, I'd be mad right now.
Collin 1:13:44
A little
Brandon 1:13:46
little stressful in there, but otherwise, other than that, that's good. It's good. But yeah, that's what that's the other thing I thought was interesting because there are two sides. There is the I'm a model building enthusiast side, and then there is also the like I am a Gundam fan side, right? And those are kind of those can be different people, which is just interesting. They both do the same thing, right? I thought that was kind of an interesting thing that was happening because, like, but like you know, I was looking at some of the sites and was like, "That one's cool, but I don't even know who that is. Like, I feel drawn to that thing because I don't even know.
Collin 1:14:19
Yeah, and what do you do? I don't
Brandon 1:14:20
even know about it, you know. So maybe I'll watch more Gundam later. I don't know. In the ongoing saga of Brandon watches mecha anime, which is part, which is subgenre of the ongoing genre of genre, the saga of segment of rather Brandon watches anime because he doesn't. So we revisiting Gundam, building Gundam models, hanging out, getting ready to go back to work. Boo his boo. More next time on that.
Collin 1:14:56
Yeah, we will dive into that for sure. Oh well, well yeah, I I like this, and I want to see where this goes, and I think I need to crack open a Gundam here soon too. You may
Speaker 1 1:15:12
need to.
Collin 1:15:14
I need to do this. Sounds fine. Good. Well, I I can end us with haiku. No, please do. Okay, okay. This is guess what inspired this. Is it airport related? Engines fall silent. Waiting on the runway. Home feels far away. Dang. Dang! Dang! Slipping through my fingers. That's rough. Oh man! It's so far away. Oh my God! No! But I made it. I made it home. So, which is great news. Yes. So, well, we will do this again soon. All right. On a day time that works best. Okay. Tell me. Let me know. Okay. All right. Love you.
Brandon 1:16:16
Love you too.
Collin 1:16:17
Bye.
Speaker 6 1:16:18
Bye.