ANMA - The Mall is a School Now

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

Good morning, Gus. Grabbing a coffee from Bennu at Highland next to ACC then heading back to the office because of the rain, Gus and Geoff talk about Gus hates brunch, Malls of Austin, Tiny Town, Gus ...went to ACC, The sailboat store, Lucy in Disguise closing, Geoff quit fast food at ACC, Our last retail jobs, and How to fix a beeper. 2 new ANMA shirts on sale at http://www.store.roosterteeth.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 What would you do if you had the freedom to be anyone or to go anywhere without limitations? Start your journey and experience for yourself the feeling of total freedom when you game with Alienware. Alienware is your portal to new worlds where limits don't exist and the only rules are the ones you decide to make. Defy boundaries and start gaming now at Alienware.com. Next-gen gaming is built with Intel Core i9 processors. This is a Ruestur-Teeth production. All right, this is episode 24 of ANMA. Our last episode was at the hideout in Congress. Oh, what a hideout.
Starting point is 00:00:36 And in ProVroom. That was so... I hope that that episode... I hope we conveyed the sense of nostalgia we felt recording that. I felt like it came through. Yeah. I definitely felt like it came through. Yeah. I definitely felt like it came through. It was a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:00:47 I thought about it all weekend. Oh, really? Yeah, just like, how much fun it was sitting in that room on that stage and just like being like physically surrounded by all those memories. It was cool. It was really fun experience. I've been telling people since we recorded about how we went there and the woman went Gus.
Starting point is 00:01:04 And then it was catching up with an old friend. Also, we, this didn't make the episodes we were done recording by then, but we walked out of the hideout, then Jeff and I immediately turned the wrong way. We walked the wrong way. We were walking towards the old garage. We got like halfway down the blocker,
Starting point is 00:01:19 wait a minute, the car's in the other direction. We're not parking at the old garage. We were just on autopilot, heading to the little field parking garage. That was, it was crazy because I didn't have, I don't know anything about the muscle memory. So I just went, why the fuck did we go the wrong way? That was so natural to do. But last time we talked a lot about eating downtown
Starting point is 00:01:37 and how downtown has changed and the dillos and how the mall is back, this time we're around highland. So that's episode 24 is now. We're around a mall that is not coming back. That's right. That's right. Hey, before we get into this area, which by the way, because it's now winter in Texas,
Starting point is 00:01:59 we went to get our coffee and then left and went back to RT. I have a film there's gonna be a lot of conference room, audio texture for the next like four months. Exactly what I was asking when we went over to turn style went like what are we gonna do? I'm gonna check it out. Get some ear mobs. We're fine.
Starting point is 00:02:15 There were benches that we could have sat at. There was wet. There you go. It was raining like episode two. Yeah. And you put us in the conference room when it was still dry and warm. This is it's literally actually raining right now. So it is not raining anymore than it was in the episode where we did.
Starting point is 00:02:30 My my phone just said light rain. Just outside. Yeah, it was outside. It was not raining. Yeah, you call it my phone. We could have. Are you calling Steve Jobs a liar? Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:38 Yes, specifically. Calling him dead. Hey, anyway, before we get into it, Gus said something in the car as an aside that I would like to hear a little bit more about. What is your issue with brunch? I just don't, it's stupid. What's the point of brunch?
Starting point is 00:02:55 Listen, the reason I don't like brunch is when you go to a restaurant and they're like, oh, we don't have the regular menu right now, we have the brunch menu, I don't fucking want that. I want the stuff you serve 95% of the other time. Don't take away the food I want and give me some shitty half breakfast, half lunch, that's a neither.
Starting point is 00:03:12 And this is, if you do, if you're splitting your attention between two things, you're doing neither well. So this is their fault for the one day of the week that's a station brunch. One day, listen dude, during. If it was one day, that would be fine. Oh, you really, you're getting like,
Starting point is 00:03:24 you, this happens, you're on Thursdays? It happens all the fucking time. Oh, you really, you're getting like, you, this happens to you on Thursdays? It happens all the fucking time. Oh, you're still having the Thursday brunch menu. Brunch. Brunch is terrible. Exists so that people can sleep in on Sunday and still eat breakfast.
Starting point is 00:03:34 See, I just, continue to sell breakfast and lunch. I just don't, brunch used to be a thing that made it easy to go do that and now it's a 45 minute wait to eat. It's a 45 minute wait to do anything in Austin. Got it, just go before 10 a.m. it's fine. And then you know what? Breakfast.
Starting point is 00:03:51 Breakfast. Yep. I don't hate brunch the way he does. I just think it serves, it doesn't serve my purpose because I will not wait for breakfast. I'll wait 45 minutes for dinner or whatever. Oh, never. I don't mind, I don't mind waiting for dinner.
Starting point is 00:04:04 I'll never wait for breakfast. I will go somewhere else don't mind. I don't mind waiting for dinner. I'll never wait for breakfast. I will go somewhere else to eat breakfast. I won't wait for any food. What are you... I would... My 10 minutes. That's my max.
Starting point is 00:04:14 We got to a restaurant and they're like, it's a half hour wait, we leave. We waited that long for coffee. We waited 10 minutes at least for coffee. Well, it's different. This is for production. Well, I'm gonna say no. I'm not gonna say no.
Starting point is 00:04:23 So, if the coffee's really high-quality. So, what if I wanted to go get dinner and we were gonna do a production with it, but it was a 45 minute wait? I would be annoyed that you didn't produce better. There's no way in which Jeff is wrong or it has been. No, I'm like, what is it? Well, I wanna go out to dinner because I live in this dipshit town
Starting point is 00:04:38 where everybody lives now. I fucking, I make reservations. We went out to dinner the other night, we had reservations. It's true. We're back in a part of town that's changed a lot. So we picked up coffee at Bennu over by Highland. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:50 And Highland used to be a mall and is now a community college. It's like the biggest Austin community college location that there is. And I think when you say community college, people might have like mental images of what a community college looks like in most places or like wherever it is that they live. A couple of small buildings, you know, but this location of ACC, they took over the mall.
Starting point is 00:05:14 It's like an old mall. And they didn't use the whole thing. I think they tore down parts of it. The Austin Community College organization is a mini-headed hydra. They have, that is a big organization. There are huge campuses all over central Texas and some of them that look like, like the one on Rio Grande looks like a goddamn,
Starting point is 00:05:31 like it looks like Harvard. Yeah, I think that used to be a high school back in like the 40s and they retrofitted it. But it's massive and they've built all of these apartments and retail and everything in the area and it's just such a strange journey for that real estate, for the property of this area. Because I remember back, you know,
Starting point is 00:05:54 when I first moved Austin, and when I was younger, I used to visit Austin all the time, my family up here. It was like, there were two malls in, well, okay, real four malls. There were two malls that we would go to all the time. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:05 It was Highland and Barton Creek mall. There was also North Cross mall, Lakeland and the Arboretum. I don't know how, why do you want to cast your net here? I would say Lakeland and I wouldn't consider the Arboretum a mall. It's like a shopping center. Yeah, shopping center, outdoor shopping center. Not like an indoor mall, you would think there were those fours. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:23 North Cross is pretty much entirely gone. I think it's just the guitar center now. It had a very similar redevelopment cycle to this. I mean, they ended up in very different places, but it became a bunch of different things. I think it still has the ice skating rink is still available. I thought that was gone.
Starting point is 00:06:38 No, a shopper all ice club, I think is still there. I thought they blew Walmart is there. There is like a still there. I don't think the Walmart is there. There is like, there was like a work, what do you call that? Like, work training facility there for a long time. I think that's gone though. But they bulldozed most of North Cross Ball. Like the building is gone.
Starting point is 00:06:57 The building is gone. I think the guitar center was part of North Cross Ball if I'm remembering right? And that might be like one of the only parts that's left. I think you're right. But Highland Mall, they kept most of it. A little bit of it was demolished and they redeveloped it. So it's weird because I had been going to Highland Mall
Starting point is 00:07:14 for decades. And then, you know, God, when did it close down? It probably closed down. Oh six. Somewhere there. Somewhere on there. I mean, it did that same thing where it was a mall and then it was an empty mall and then there were like four open stores and then there was like, I don't know, like an old Navy moved in for it wasn't an old maybe but something like that moves in for a little while and then then it's like a salon college for a little bit and then yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like when you were slowly watching it. Wither away. Yeah, I'm just like less and less stores and less and less people like you see you draw the line out, you were slowly watching it with her away. Yeah. And just like less and less stores and less and less people.
Starting point is 00:07:47 And you're like, you see, you draw the line out. You know, it's not sustainable. And I don't know who at ACC or who broke with that deal or who thought to redevelop it in this way. It seemed insane at the time, but sitting here and now we're sitting close to it now in 2022, it was a really smart move. It was really, really a great idea.
Starting point is 00:08:08 The whole area is really benefited from the redevelopment. Well, and it's like following this trend in Austin of these cool little capsule communities, right? Like obviously where RT is is the biggest one. What is that called? Mueller? Mueller is the biggest one. Absolutely. Then there's that the one over at the grove over there,
Starting point is 00:08:29 the actual creek. That's not done yet, but it's close. Then there's this guy. Then there was actually where St. Edward's University used to be, not St. Edward's, sorry, Concordia University used to be right there on 35 and like 38th and half street. That was supposed to be one of these as well. And then that started to develop during 2008 and then they lost funding, and that com crash, and it sat empty for many, many years. Yeah, they moved the university, that moved,
Starting point is 00:08:54 but then like the redevelopment, they just opened up an apartment complex there in the past couple of months. Like that's a very scaled back version of what was supposed to be built there. I like this trend though, I really do. It seems like they're maximizing space, you know? And it creates, I think, these awesome little mini hubs
Starting point is 00:09:14 where you can like, I guess, soon if you live here, you go down to a Royal Blue Grocery. I haven't seen one here, but there's one of those at every one of these developments. And there's like three different restaurants in a Pilates place, and it's all, I don't know, it's like a little mini town. Yeah, it's a little,
Starting point is 00:09:28 well, the coffee shop we went to is packed, but I think this there will be a little empty right now because of the holiday. So that has to be, I mean, you're talking about capsule communities. A lot of that is, you know, people live around here, whatever. That had to all be students, right?
Starting point is 00:09:40 Like all of the, those were all students. You would think they're all on vacation, like we're recording this right before Thanksgiving. Ah, well maybe, no, because I saw people, no, maybe you're right. Yeah, they would've gone by now. Yeah, you're right. That's just their off.
Starting point is 00:09:52 So that's just here in the area. But that's the thing with that ACC area now. Like all of those apartments, what the fuck? So many. Who is living there and going to ACC? That's crazy, too. Well, I mean, I think a good portion of it is that, but a good portion is also just people looking for a place
Starting point is 00:10:09 to live around here. And we've repeatedly talked about how tough it has been to fight housing. It was. What is apartment occupancy at in Austin right now? Let me look that up. Probably. Yeah, it's a static release.
Starting point is 00:10:20 That's a static release. That seems like you guys flipped. How is that not a gust thing that he's looking up right now and how is it you? That's backwards. And I mean, it's because I don't trust a lot of these numbers. You have to look at who's putting them out. Like there's no official city of Austin residency
Starting point is 00:10:36 or occupancy number. You're going to look up like, what does Zillow say our occupancy is? It's from apartmentdata.com. I don't trust him. This is from Jeff Goldblum. I'm not gonna find Austin says. He's gonna find you in a department.
Starting point is 00:10:46 Right, that's the guy. That's the guy. No, it's just like, it's crazy that Larry David was right about crypto and they made a commercial about it. Occupancy in Austin is at 91.3%. Low, it's low for Austin. Yeah, interesting.
Starting point is 00:11:00 That's a rental occupancy. Houston is at 90.7% Sandy one, San Diego. What? San Antonio. There you go. It is also at 91.3% cost a bank at Tonya around here. And that's what we do called spanking,
Starting point is 00:11:14 and then Dallas is actually 92.5. So it's a little low. Yeah. But you know, it's because they built so many fucking apartments here by Highland. I say it's low. It's still like if you moved to Austin nine out of ten apartments are unavailable to you. When I first moved to Austin as an adult back in January and 98, I didn't have a job and had no prospects.
Starting point is 00:11:36 Didn't know what I was going to do. I was living sleeping on the floor of a friend of a high school friend's studio apartment off a river side. And that floor was not even. That floor was not even. That floor had tons of roaches. It was not great. So I didn't know what to do. So I grew up in a small town out in the border. I'd gone to college for a year in Houston. But when you go to college, it's not really like living life.
Starting point is 00:11:58 You're still kind of sheltered like in a university setting. So this is my first time like striking out on my own coming to Austin. I had no idea what I was doing. I probably did the same thing you did like, open up the one ads. You know, it's the 90s. There's really not much job search. I guess monster dog comm existed, but it was still like a new thing.
Starting point is 00:12:12 Anyway, didn't know what to do for a job. You know, open up the one ads and then I was like, fuck it. I'm just going to go to the mall and apply it every store. And so I came here to Highland Mall. So Highland Mall is on you at the time. Highland Mall is the one I went to. Yeah. And I tried to apply every came here to Highland Mall. So Highland Mall's the one you went to. Highland Mall's the one I went to. Yeah, and I tried to apply every fucking store in Highland Mall.
Starting point is 00:12:28 Guess how many job offers I got? I'm gonna guess zero. Zero. Did not end up working at the mall. Dude, can I just say, not to exchange subjects? That's how really, I like your jacket. Thanks, Brian. It's a really cool jacket.
Starting point is 00:12:41 It is. Isn't that nice jacket? I think it's a great t-shirt. Oh, it's a good t-shirt, too. And the podcast. If you could put that logo on that jacket, we could sell the shit out of it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:49 Yeah. That's like, when I moved to Austin, I did the same thing, but I didn't carpet bomb. I just went and applied it every place that was open. But, man, I'm wondering if there were a lot of places open here. I was trying to like, for sure. For sure.
Starting point is 00:13:06 I wonder if that's something that's lost in my daughter's generation. If they won't, like that kind of rejection. Like I thought I was guaranteed to get a job working at the porn store. Workin' the cat like, because I was like, I'm like 23, I just got out of the army. I'm not scared to getting robbed or having like,
Starting point is 00:13:26 somebody pointed gun at me at this point in my life. Like I feel invincible. Like I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be weirded out by that. And I'm not Prudish, so like I'm not gonna, kink shame people for buying weird shit. And they were like, no fuck you. Like you're not, you're not porn store material. I wasn't a dealer's material, which is I think worse.
Starting point is 00:13:47 So, boy, we're talking about dealers a lot today. On and off. This is a dealer's. You know why dealers coming up so much? Oh, why is that? Well, because the mall's back, first of all. Right, and I went to the mall last week, which I think we covered it in the hideout,
Starting point is 00:14:01 in the hideout episode maybe. But I went to dealers and in that and in that Dillard's, guess what they had? Clothes. They have fucking tiny town. They have my department's 56 Christmas Village stuff. So when he says, 90 town, do you know what that means?
Starting point is 00:14:15 I don't, okay. That's a funny story. So here's a funny, it's not so much funny as it is long and pointless. When Emily got into this department 56 shit, making the little Christmas villages, she kept calling it Tiny Town. And I thought that's what it was called.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Apparently that is a reference to an episode of a rest of development I did not see. And so for like a year, I went around to stores asking if they carried Tiny Town. And nobody knew what I was talking about. Jack and I went to Disney, and we were assured that they had a partnership with Disney. We went to every store in Disney,
Starting point is 00:14:51 in Disney Springs and in Disney World, world. And that is just for guests. Thank you. And asked for Tiny Town, and people to locked we were fucking crazy. And when I finally got home and I was talking Emily about it, and I'm like, I'm like, yeah, nobody has tiny town. And I think it was her dad said, is he talking about the rest of the woman thing?
Starting point is 00:15:10 And I, wait, what is that? And that's when I found out it was, it's never been called tiny town. It's department 56. Anyway, fucking Dillard's carries it. And the Dillard's, the Dillard's at the mall has a better selection than the Dillard's at the domain house. Great. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:24 Did you stock up? I bought a big tree for like a town, like a town center tree. Uh-huh. And that's guy glitter on the stuff. Have you built it? No, it starts Thursday. Okay, I was like, that's when I asked the timer. So the Halloween village is gone.
Starting point is 00:15:38 We had this text chain last night. Halloween, spoiler for the list. Yeah. Yeah. It's spontaneous here. Now you know great. Halloween happens after the last trick, this is how it goes down to my house. After the last trick or treat or leaves,
Starting point is 00:15:52 say about like nine or 10 PM when it's clear nobody else is coming, Emily starts taking shit down. You don't even wait till the next day. No, no, no, that is still Halloween. Emily starts taking shit down and it just ends up on the table. And then in the morning, I got up, she went to work
Starting point is 00:16:05 and I put it all in boxes and I was like, I'm gonna just do like, I'm gonna do like a nice thing because she puts a lot of work into set. No, I mean, I help too, but she's the creative genius behind all the decorations. And so I packaged up, it's a fucking nightmare to get rid of Department 56. Let me tell you.
Starting point is 00:16:22 The tiny town itself. Tiny town is a lot of fucking nightmare. Everything has a specific place you go in to get rid of department 56. Let me tell you. The tiny town itself. Tiny town is a lot of stuff. It's a fucking nightmare. Everything goes, everything has a specific place you go in and I am in a relationship with a woman who would leave me if I ever threw a package away. Like the things go back in the box that you bought them in forever and so you have that box forever.
Starting point is 00:16:39 And so yeah, it was like a half a day of just packaging up Tiny Town and fighting with Styrofoam, just like, I know you fit. I know you fucking fit. I took you out of this thing. So you're saying like, Chris, like, the Christmas doesn't go up until Thanksgiving, but as soon as Halloween is over, fuck Halloween. Yeah, like everything that's scary leaves
Starting point is 00:17:01 and everything that's harvest stays. So like pumpkins without faces on them, they stick around. Pumpkins with faces go. Pumpkins with faces go. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, you draw lines somewhere. Yeah, you draw lines somewhere. Like, uh, bales of hay, they stick around.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Bales of hay with corns on them? Corn stocks are good. Corn stocks with smiley faces stay. Unless corn stocks are scary faces. Yeah, I got you. I know. That's ours how I see the system. I get it. Oh my god.
Starting point is 00:17:28 Yeah, and then without a system, it's anarchy. Exactly right. Well, that's that is that is Gus to the core. Well, that is system. There's anarchy. Well, I'm learning a lot about tiny town, but I should probably be learning about ACC. And if you guys ever went to this school
Starting point is 00:17:42 or did anything at this place. I never went to ACC. I used to go to the small lot. When I was in the army, this was the most convenient mall to get to from Colleen. Barton Springs was like on the other side of Austin, Lakeways up way northeast. And so this and North Cross were the two most accessible malls
Starting point is 00:18:01 and this one's right up the interstate. So I spent, this was my mall. What happened? What happened to this mall? Why is it as cool? I think it's just that timeframe where like a lot of commerce moved online and the mall started dying, you know, in the early 2000s.
Starting point is 00:18:17 Early 2000s. Yeah, and it just kind of withered away. It kind of became a thing where there was no point in going there. It also had in town, it had like a bad reputation. People would say it was like the scary mall or the bad mall. I never understood what that was. It was fine. It was totally fine, but you were right. This was like the sketchy mall. I don't, which I totally didn't get. I never understood. I came to this mall many, many
Starting point is 00:18:42 times. It was fine. There was nothing wrong with it. And I think once that reputation built up, like people were less inclined to go there for some reason. Yeah. It was fine. I don't get it. I don't understand. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:57 I mean, it was like, like most malls at that time too. It was like seven foot actions and three ribs. And that was pretty much it. Yeah, there was a lift. And then like a store for like stationary and shit. But you know, I did go to ACC briefly, going to jump me back to ACC. Did you really?
Starting point is 00:19:14 Yeah, when I first moved here, I took a couple classes at ACC. So you went from rice to ACC. Yeah, I went down to that real grand campus, which actually they've done a lot of development there too. They have that huge parking garage there now. When I went back in 98, there was no parking garage. There was just like one level of street, like surface parking.
Starting point is 00:19:32 And the lot was way too small for the size of that campus. Really? Yeah, and it's like you'd have to show up early to try to find a spot in circle. And then you had to walk up, because it was like the parking lot was down kind of behind where Austin, London, Cadillus, like just a little east of there, kind of by where they built the park.
Starting point is 00:19:50 So it was a skate park, is it? Yeah, so you would park there, and then you had to walk up a ton of fucking stairs, because the campus was uphill from there to go get to the actual campus. It only took like two classes, I think. Two, it was like, I can't fuck this. So did you complete your semester?
Starting point is 00:20:04 Yeah, I completed one semester, and that was- So you have grades at ACC? I do, I think. Two, it's like half like this. So did you complete your semester? Yeah, I completed one semester and that was it. So you have grades at ACC. I do, I never thought about that. What classes did you take, do you remember? Fuck, I don't remember. I really don't. It's been 24 years. I don't know what you remember.
Starting point is 00:20:18 Do you think you did well? I think so, I think I tried. Better than rice, probably. Yeah, it was, it was, it didn't calculate, it was at ACC. I think I tried. Better than rice, probably. Yeah, yeah. It was the, it wasn't in calculus at AACC. My course load was a lot lighter, a lot easier. But yeah, it was fine. I enjoyed my time there.
Starting point is 00:20:34 It was, I think ACC is a real gem. Yeah. And I think a lot of people in Austin appreciate, and I think people here understand what a value ACC provides to the community. If you live here, like the rates are unbelievably good to take classes, because you're paying for in taxes, which is fine.
Starting point is 00:20:53 Yeah. And you can do really well. If you don't get a degree there, you can transfer to another college if you want. But I mean, it's totally a great place. And I think they have a lot of stuff going on there. I totally agree. A lot of great, continuing education there too. And a lot of varied and interesting courses and stuff. It kind of reminds me of like our little localized version of SUNY schools up in
Starting point is 00:21:15 New York. It's just such a great state run school system. Yeah, I'm a big fan of ACC. And they have a ton of campuses. And some of their campuses are kind of weird. I remember when I first moved here back in 1998, like I said, I took like one semester classes. I was living off a riverside. And I didn't understand that there were many, many campuses. And some of them were very far away from me. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:37 So I just like, back then, you, I don't think you could register online. It was like, you would get like a printed catalog. You would flip through. And then you would call the number and then register like based on codes that were associated with the courses. And I didn't understand that in the codes it told you what campus it was at. So I registered for classes at the Rio Grande one. I registered for some like way up at the north one that's close to Round Rock. There's that one way out Southwest. And a rich, all-ass building. And a tentacle, which is like almost all the way
Starting point is 00:22:07 out to the fucking Salt Lake. It's like going to Fredericksburg. I drove to that one once and I was like, no, fuck this, I gotta drop this glass. I'm not driving out here. That is such a weird building out there by itself in the middle of nowhere. It's like one tall building where like,
Starting point is 00:22:23 two 90 splits off with whatever that road is that goes out to driftwood Is that two night? I don't know whatever the fuck that wrote that is. Yeah, I think it is too many like near the Y Yeah, whatever I Yeah, I can't say that I ever went to to ACC um, I I had intended to I had the army GI Bill and that was part of why I went was the or the Army College Fund Part of why join went with the Ortega Army College Fund. It's part of why I joined the Army and then, then Rischstein happened. And then I didn't see a point in going back to college. Well, I mean, you also, and I just lost that money.
Starting point is 00:22:53 I just let that money disappear. You had been doing pretty well with the call center too. You had advanced pretty quickly and we're making it clear there. So you think even if this hadn't taken off, you had success there. I think you maybe were, you were fine with that. It's true, but I had like a window. I think I you were, it's true, it's true. You were fine with that. It's true, but I had like a window. I think I had like 10 years from when I got out of the army.
Starting point is 00:23:09 So to start college. Oh my God. That's how they get you. Yeah. They tell you they're gonna give you money for college and they bank on idiots like you not going. No, totally, totally for sure. And then so I was always in the back of my head.
Starting point is 00:23:20 I was like, I had to have like nine years left to start school, eight years, seven. By the time I was like 31, I'm we were. Yes. That ship sailed. Yeah. That was crazy time by then. The area around ACC, there's so much and it's changed a lot.
Starting point is 00:23:34 And like I've only been here for a few years or whatever, but even like the few years I've been here, it's totally different. Like my wife took some classes at ACC and just get it like her associates or whatever, but like going and dropping her off or picking her up or whatever, the building and like the amount of like moving out and moving in or whatever is crazy. And I think they're trying to attract like international students and there's just so much like you would never think that this would be especially I mean when you guys started or whatever a pocket of Austin that would never be what it is now. I think that they've very smartly started up partnerships with manufacturing in the area.
Starting point is 00:24:13 You know with Tesla and Samsung and Apple all you know opening up very big offices here. I think they've partnered with all of them to do like fast track training and accreditation courses to get people into that skilled workforce when I think is a very smart move on their part. What would you do if you had the freedom to be anyone or to go anywhere without limitations? Start your journey and experience for yourself the feeling of total freedom when you game with Alienware. Alienware is your portal to new worlds where limits don't exist and the only rules are the ones you decide to make. Defy boundaries and start gaming now at Alienware.com. Next-gen gaming is built with Intel Core i9 processors. You know, I just realized I'm about to contradict something we were talking about earlier. We were talking about how this area had this small had a bad reputation of being kind of sketchy.
Starting point is 00:25:03 And then we didn't think it was justified. I will say, I was about to tell, I remember when I moved here, reading in the Chronicle, that Middle Fiscal Road, which is the road that runs right by the mall, had the most police calls per year of any street in the city of Austin.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Well, okay, so. But isn't that the bus station? I mean, it's a lot. That went up in that Middle Fiscal. I think a lot of that problem, we're gonna really talk about Old Austin forever. I think a lot of a source of that was the real motel. Yes, that was a huge, huge, huge,
Starting point is 00:25:34 real motel by itself. I wanna say was like 500 police calls a year. It was like three calls a day. Right, it was something ridiculous. And I think that's not on Middle Fiscal Road, but it's adjacent. Right, adjacent to it. And I think the real motel was responsible for quite a bit of that.
Starting point is 00:25:49 Quite a bit of that. And that was also like a not that I'm saying that strip clubs are places of distribute, but there was like kind of a strip club in a, it was just kind of an interesting area. I think, you know, you just get people who want to drink and then end up wanting to fight. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a variable. I mean, that happens. And now it's a PBS. Now the PBS headquarters is here. What is?
Starting point is 00:26:10 Austin PBS. That's so crazy. It's a big sign. It's a fucking cool asset. It's cool building. How do you get, I want to, I want to, like, how do we get a tour? I want to go inside. It looks really cool.
Starting point is 00:26:20 This whole area is so pretty from the outside. We can just go. I mean, like, SDSU and San Diego had the PBS location there and you could just go, you didn't like it. I want to check it out. Okay. Yeah, I don't care. Okay, PBS contacts. You got PBS contacts? You got a PBS guy?
Starting point is 00:26:34 Yeah. A PBS person. Okay. Check that out. Yeah, I'm sure we can figure that out. Have you been in the ACC Highland building since they've reopened it as ACC? No. I think I've only been in two or three times. I voted there a couple times.
Starting point is 00:26:49 So I used to have voting on this side. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I used to have it on the side by venue where we went. Then they moved it to the back side, back where the dealers used to be on the back end. You know, come and kind of buy where the lids was. Actually, you said lids earlier.
Starting point is 00:27:03 And then they don't have voting here anymore. Then they moved it over to that city office, just down the street from there. If you don't know me asking, I'm not trying to dox either of us, but that's not the closest voting place to your house. Why would? It's really close to work.
Starting point is 00:27:17 Real close to work, okay, that makes sense. It's not too far from the RISTI studio. Yeah. That's one of the reasons I always, I like early voting so much, you can vote anywhere that has it. Yeah, I would just like, un-launch, go pick up some of the meat, vote, and then go back to work. It's really easy. That makes sense. This place, I think the shell of it is still there, but in the parking lot of the Old Mall, there was a store that I thought
Starting point is 00:27:40 was the... It made me warm a living... One of the many reasons I want to live in Austin was legitimately the store, because it seemed like a big city to me. If a city had this store, it had to be a big city that I wanted to. Do you wanna try to guess this? I don't, I really, I really can't even imagine what it would be. I have no idea.
Starting point is 00:27:59 I'm gonna say something stupid, like Sears. No, no. No. He's from Alabama, come on. Yeah, right, no. Selbow stores. No, what is it? The sailboat store. Oh, No. He's from Alabama. Come on. Yeah. Saylboats store. Now what is it? The sailboat store. Oh, yeah. It was a sailboat store and it was painted well and it looked fancy. And I thought it's people have sailboats in Austin. This is where I want to be. It's a place where you can go to a whole store just for sailboats.
Starting point is 00:28:20 I was from Alabama. Yeah. Even after even after five years in the army, I was still a kid from Alabama who'd spent five years in the army, I was still a kid from Alabama who'd spent five years in the army. The idea that there was a story you could go by a sailboat at, I was just like, well, fucking, we're in New York City. I never went to that. I never went to the sailboat. Just go buy it a million times. But there's like, there are like a lot of weird shops in Austin that are like still around. Like there's like a violin repair shop. And you just go, two people go here
Starting point is 00:28:48 like to repair their violins. Crazy. Crazy. And there's like a bunch of those and like main drags on stuff. I assume a lot of those places either have 99 year leases or own the building. You know, it's gotta be case. I never thought about owning the building.
Starting point is 00:29:03 That was like what happened with Lucy and disguise. They owned the building. Yeah, because they bought it forever ago when South Congress was not a great place. Yeah, when they sold onto it. And they closed down last month. Yeah, these were the new. This was their last year.
Starting point is 00:29:16 They think right after Halloween, that was like their big shaman. Sad to see a place like that go. It was, I definitely shopped there a bunch over the last 30 years or so, buying costumes or renting costumes and shit, but, I don't know, but it didn't see what's happened. The whole area's changed.
Starting point is 00:29:34 Like there's an Urmez store. That's exactly what I was gonna say. I think you guys have talked about that area specifically where is that where you would go down to get like free beer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, first Thursdays, yeah. You would talk about going there or whatever. Free beer, beer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, first Thursday, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:45 You would talk about going there or whatever. Free beer, free movie passes, you mean? Yeah, everything. Yeah. To bring it back up to here though, I do have a story about going to this mall that stuck with me for many years. I have had like a love-hate relationship with fast food my whole life. And I've like quit fast food cold turkey a few times.
Starting point is 00:30:05 The first time I ever quit was at this mall, because I was at the food court. And I wanna say, I don't know what I was eating, I'm gonna say a sabaro or fucking Wendy's or something, but I was at the food court, order in food, and I was still in the army at the time, so I was like maybe 21 or 22 just down for the day. And the guy who was taking my order
Starting point is 00:30:29 was having a conversation with his buddy who was working there. And he was complaining that his mom took his cell phone away from him and he couldn't get it back until he learned to be more responsible. And I was sitting here thinking, this guy is not responsible enough for a cell phone. And he's making food I'm putting on my body. And I was just like, I don't want to eat it.
Starting point is 00:30:49 It kind of grossed me out the thought. And I need that time. I don't think I ate. I was probably like a month after that. I quit. But there are a couple times later where I stopped for like years at a time. But yeah, that was my first foray into quitting fast food because I just like, I feel like- You feel back behind the curtain a little bit. Yeah, right. I'm like, here I am 47 and I still remember clearly the guy being like, yeah, just like,
Starting point is 00:31:11 I gotta figure out how to be more responsible so I can get my phone. What do you think you did? I have no fucking clue. I have no fucking clue. I just remember thinking like, I can't eat food this guy made. That sounds terrible, but it's dumb.
Starting point is 00:31:22 But I just remember being like, he's composing me. Like, he's not responsible. It's a phone. He's not responsible enough to dial nine digits on a phone. Nine, what was he calling? Seven. Oh. Canada.
Starting point is 00:31:37 That's like, if he's seven or 10, I'll give you nine. No, I'm not gonna worry about that. I'll give him. Oh. Anyway, that's my one story from this mall. What was the food place? I think it was like a sabaro
Starting point is 00:31:48 or it may have been a Chick-fil-A or a... I know there was a... There was a sabaro and a Wendy's there. I don't remember, there was a Wendy's there. There was a Chick-fil-A. I'm sorry, there was a Wendy's, it was like on the corner of the food court. It like didn't back up to a wall, kind of back to a wall.
Starting point is 00:32:01 Yeah, okay, it was out of the open. For sure. I ate it at that Wendy's many times. Didn't get hired there though. Did not get hired there. Did I play there? I did, I did. I didn't play there, I think.
Starting point is 00:32:11 You weren't responsible enough. I was a, oh, I was 19. Yeah, fuck, I was 19. Nobody wanted to hire me back then. I also, that was also, I think I was also partially annoyed because that was like five years before I got my first cell phone. I remember thinking like, why is this kind of a cell phone? Yeah, my first cell phone, I remember I got, I was living at the metropolis at the time.
Starting point is 00:32:30 So that would have been like 2000, maybe 99. It was one of those prime co-phones that everyone had at the time back when like cell phones first really started exploding. It's just weird to me to look back. I remember I I got that thin one, after the kind of chunky boy everyone was able to get, there was like one cell phone you get when they first came out and then a year later they were three. Yeah. And it was like the slow proliferation of it.
Starting point is 00:32:55 And now it's just weird to me to think that there was a moment of time where that we lived through, where it's like you went from being unreachable wherever you went to now you're like tether to a phone, you can be reached at any moment wherever you went to now you're like tethered to a fun, you can be reached at any moment. I remember being resistant to getting a self-unner.
Starting point is 00:33:09 I remember Bernie was mad about it. He wanted me to have him for work for like getting called in and stuff from scheduling issues. And I was like, I didn't, I fought it for a long time. Yeah, that sounds like a work problem. Yeah, and not like a personal problem. Yeah. And now I can, yeah, it's like,
Starting point is 00:33:24 didn't they pay for us to have, like didn't they subsidize cell phones for us for a while? They did eventually. Yeah, that was their compromise to make sure that we were on the further managers to make sure that we were on call unavailable. Yeah. I forgot about that.
Starting point is 00:33:36 Call center? Yeah, call center. And I remember thinking like, I thought that was funny about at research. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and just whenever we have a recording, it's just like go back and here's 12 notifications from 12 different people. Great. Cool. Oh well.
Starting point is 00:34:09 But man, phones were so, those cell phones were so shitty back there. I think I even applied to, I think here at Highlymo, I think I even applied to like a prime co-phone location. Oh, where's it? Maybe a pinky's wired. Remember pinky's wireless? It might have been a pinky's actually.
Starting point is 00:34:23 That got, I don't remember. It's been a quarter centuries since that happened. There's no, what was the, surely there's no pinky's wire, remember pinky's wire? It might have been a pinky's actually. That got, I don't remember. It's been a quarter centuries since that happened. What was the last, surely there's no pinky's. No, I think the last one was the one over there at like Congress and Riverside. Right, which had like the gorilla, the pinky. Yeah, I think that was the last pinky.
Starting point is 00:34:36 It was like a local cell phone store chain, which really doesn't exist anymore. I guess like now it's all like the carriers operate the store, but it was like a place you go and buy a phone and buy a plan. Like they sold all the phones and all the different carriers. It's weird to think about now. Let me ask you this, because you weren't there
Starting point is 00:34:55 and applied for so many jobs. All retail, they all said no. Something about me, it was not likeable. I can't figure out what it was. You were asking, like, oh, I wonder if my kid had this rejection, it's like everything's online. Like you just don't get out what it was. You were asking, like, oh, I wonder if my kid had this rejection. It's like, everything's online. Like you just don't hear back from people. Like you just applied everything online.
Starting point is 00:35:09 And we're in a world too, or like, I can't go to a restaurant without people asking you, like, do you know anybody who's hiring? Anybody who needs a job? Yeah. Like, we're desperate here. Yeah. Um, what was the last retail job you guys worked? Not like the, the, the phone sort, whatever.
Starting point is 00:35:24 Like, I assume you guys both work some shitty retail job, it's some shitty spot or whatever, forever ago. Do you remember what that was? It's weird. I was just having this conversation with Emily last night. We were talking about, I never was able to work customer-facing stuff because... It was...
Starting point is 00:35:42 Something about your face. A hundred percent because of that reaction. Yeah. Like I made customers, I remember getting talked to by my boss Keith, I worked in a place called Sydney Fried Chicken in Alabama, which is still there by the way. We looked it up last night,
Starting point is 00:35:59 and I had a talking to you because I made customers uncomfortable. Probably why the porn store didn't hire you. But I just couldn't not be a dickhead. The last retail job I worked was I worked in a video store in my last year in the army. So I had like a, most soldiers, at least when I was in the army,
Starting point is 00:36:16 had to moonlight to make a living because the army doesn't pay you enough to live, only to die. And so I had a job working at a video store in Eaton Town, New Jersey. And that was the best job working at a video store in Eatin' Town, New Jersey. And that was the best job I've ever had in my entire life. And I include restructees. I've talked about it before. The owners lived in Philadelphia and one of them got cancer and was sick and so they never came to the store. And we had a manager who was just like 28-year-old
Starting point is 00:36:41 divorced single mom who was the coolest lady ever. We talked about this the coolest lady ever. Have we talked about this on this podcast? Yeah, yeah, we talked about it on the podcast before. She died and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and that was a great job. Just a great job. How about you guys? I had, before the call center,
Starting point is 00:36:53 before we were in Austin, we were working at the call center, I had three different jobs. All three of them were kind of customer facing. One of the weirdest, one I would say, is probably a work that an office supply store in Eagle Pass, the small town of Gropa on the border. There's an office supply store, but I didn't work selling the office supplies. I worked off to the side
Starting point is 00:37:13 at the Beeper counter, and I could sell people beapers. I could sell people beaper plans, and I could repair beapers. Like I had like a like tool. I had no training to do this. They just hired me and they're like, you're the people repair guy. How do you fix a beeper? Like where does it go wrong? Most of the time the problem. So there were a couple of different things that could be wrong, right? Like this is so interesting to me. You have no idea. Like I hearing about fixing old technology like this. Like this is such a lost. Yeah, it's not. No one will ever have to do what Gus is about to describe ever again. So I am fascinated by this. So there were a couple of different problems that could exist, right?
Starting point is 00:37:49 First problem would be like a carrier problem. Like your beepers not receiving the signal, it's not receiving the pages. So I had a list of different carrier phone numbers, like not publicly available phone numbers for the different beeper carriers that you would call and like talk to one of their technicians and be like, you know, here's the serial number on this beeper. It's not getting service for some reason. And then they would just like, you delete it from their system and re-ad it,
Starting point is 00:38:10 be like, cool, now it's working again. Hand it back, easy, right? It's just like, the customer doesn't have the number to call because they don't want, the carrier doesn't want to be over one customer calls that are pointless. Like, I would have to troubleshoot, oh, this is a carrier problem, call a carrier problem fixed.
Starting point is 00:38:22 The other problem would be like, my beeper doesn't vibrate anymore. Like it doesn't make the buzzing noise, you know, when these are the two biggest problems ever in a beeper. So then when that's a problem, you just take it apart and normally, like the way that a beeper vibrates and buzzes,
Starting point is 00:38:38 it's like a haptic feedback in a controller. It's just like a little cylindrical weight, that's like half a cylinder, and there's like a motor that little cylindrical weight, that's like half a cylinder. And there's like a motor that spins it around and sits it's only half a cylinder. It's like it's off-center and it's both thing kind of vibrate. The motor would get gunked up.
Starting point is 00:38:53 Like, peepers are dirty. Like, shit, you keep in your pocket or I need to do it. So you just like pull the lens and stuff? Yeah, I would just like get like little tweezers and just like clean all the gunk off it, some compressed air, put it back together and it would work. Those are the two most common problems for a beeper.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Anything else, like, sometimes it would be like, oh, you're like, it doesn't turn on, the circuit board's bad, like, swap it out with a different one. Does that one work? Yeah, here you go. Let me charge you 30 or 40 bucks or whatever the circuit board costs. My big job in high school was I was an electronic hydraulic and pneumatic tool repairman.
Starting point is 00:39:21 And that was like, the, that's how you fix 90% of all tools is clean them. Yeah, that was just gunk. Like every once in a while like brushes would be bad or like an armature would would blow out. But yeah, like almost everything is just like he just cleaned out the gunk. Yeah, it was amazing how much I was and I wouldn't do it in front of the customers with like a little screen like, oh, and let me take it to the back. You know, and you're like taking apart and it's like, oh, fuck this box. It's fucking beautiful fucking beautiful. It's like, it's like, it's actually a popcorn in your bag. Yeah, I don't know how this got in here.
Starting point is 00:39:47 I also worked, when I was at Rice, I took a job on campus there. I worked at the AV department at the university. And that was weird because it's like, it was fields and fulfilling AV requests for faculty. So it's like a professor would be like, I need a projector in this room for this class, because I'm gonna be for whatever reason.
Starting point is 00:40:10 So it's like you just like keep inventory on everything and be like, I just gotta make sure that this piece of hardware is in that room at this time and then go pick it up. And then it was also, oh, the light burned out in this projector or in this overhead projector or in this film projector, or in this film projector. You know, what kind of light bulb does it take? And you have like this big inventory of different light bulbs
Starting point is 00:40:29 because everything used a fucking different bulb and just matching the bulb and swapping it out. Really easy. And then I also worked at a lawyer's office for a while for like a summer. Oh, yeah. I was a lawyer's receptionist. So that was just like taking phone calls,
Starting point is 00:40:45 putting stuff on the calendar, greeting clients, like that kind of making, like picture mail went out. Is that every job you've ever had? That's those three. Yeah, and then just the call center and then Richard Heath. You were thinking about how many jobs I've had. Yeah, I've had quite a few. I feel like you've had more than
Starting point is 00:41:02 Gossam I put together, probably. I also worked at a little league field. Sorry, for how about that? You were to tell what?. I also worked at a little league field. Sorry, forgot about that. You were to tell what? A little league field. A little league field. Oh, right. Yeah, I was like a scorekeeper.
Starting point is 00:41:10 Getting out there hitting home runs. I was like, your face was scorekeeping. You were kind of doing like a mat daemon thing where like, you were like hoping that like a team would see you and you're like, oh, I'm just a groundskeeper, but I'm a good, good star. I'm a good star, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:20 Being the little league scorekeeper for a few years, kind of a ruined baseball a little bit for me, because now that's all I can think when I see a play, like, oh, it's a 5-3. That's a 6-4-3. 6-4-3 double play there. 6. Have you ever been fired from a job?
Starting point is 00:41:35 No. No. Oh, and I also worked at the Pro-Sharp Rocks place. Right, right. No, I never have. I tried to get fired at that job. You did. I really got them.
Starting point is 00:41:47 I remember the conversations about it. You're like, they won't fuck from fire. I mean, I don't know what I'm just going to see how long this goes, I guess. I got fired from the very first job I ran. Oh, yeah. I was 15. I got a job sweeping up hair at the salon.
Starting point is 00:41:59 You got fired from that job? I got fired for being too gossipy. At a salon. I just talked to ladies all day long and just got up in their business and just are in like, just got, I got in the mix. I got, I was too into the scene and they had to let me go. I drove like two weeks.
Starting point is 00:42:17 Isn't that like one of the things people go there to like socialize? I thought I was providing a service. Apparently, it sounds like it was distracting. So, apparently it was too much. So yeah, it's really a job of been fired from yet, you know. Yeah, well give it time. But so far, I'll be gate first job, first job, fucking.
Starting point is 00:42:33 That's like that could be a good podcast. Like talking to people at a salon, just catching up on the one I'm talking about. I think you're gonna talk about jobs you got fired from. No, no, no, no. It's a little bottom James does it. It's called the barbershop, the shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:44 How about you Eric, you ever been fired? Not fired fired, but, I mean, mutually parting ways. I guess probably best if you, yeah. Yeah, but like, I've had a bunch of work on jobs and find weird jobs and Craigslist and all that stuff. I like, I like jumping from job to job, doing stuff. I think this is probably the longest I've stated a job
Starting point is 00:43:10 that was like an actual job, like paying, like actual living money. Because everything else was, you work at a peer one, work at a zoo, work at an electrical contractor, work at an IT place, work at Target, work at a radio station, it was just like, what could I do? place, worked at Target, worked at radio station, it was just like, what could I do?
Starting point is 00:43:27 What was working at Target? That was my first job. I was the first person that I ever got hired at a brand new target in my hometown in San T California. Did you enjoy working at Target? It was fine. I think I was there for like two years, two and a half years,
Starting point is 00:43:41 and they hired me to push carts, and then I learned how to do everything else, so you just kind of, like two years, two and a half years, and they hired me to push carts, and then I learned how to do everything else, so you just kinda, like everything else, like at this job, just a pinch hitter, just put me in wherever you need me, that kind of thing. Just a institutional knowledge. Yeah, it's just that, and then, you know, you quit by going, fuck, how much am I making?
Starting point is 00:43:58 Eight, 10 an hour, I'm out of here, and then, you know, you have a different job. That was, I've had like a job lined up, I think like the whole time, I think I've only taken like a year off ever. That was after I said, after I was working a job that I hated, saved up 10 grand and quit, and then just went like, okay, I'm gonna,
Starting point is 00:44:18 not work for the- Yeah, I'm just gonna like not, 10 grand at the time was like an insane amount of money that I could just like live on it, and that's when I moved in with Garrett. I always wanted to work in it, like a big box. It's easy. I mean, the last two weeks were probably the best two weeks
Starting point is 00:44:33 that I was there, because you could finally answer the super questions that people ask when you're walking down an aisle. And somebody goes, Hi, excuse me, do you work here? And you look at your name tag and you go, no, and then you go, not for long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so you're not for long. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:45 And so you're like, oh, that feels good. Ask me a week. Yeah. But it was fine. I mean, you know, you have here, the people that have been there for too long and the people that like transferred from other stores or whatever, but it was fun. I think if I was older and I worked there, it would have been like a problem because I don't think I would have respected anyone that also worked there, it would have been like a problem because I don't think I would have respected anyone
Starting point is 00:45:05 that would also work there, but when I was 16, I didn't know any better to not respect anyone. I just like repetition a lot. I think that's why I worked in newspapers. It's why I've fucking, it's why I achieved 100, had 7,000 episodes of every show we ever made. And so I always like, grocery store or like a target, always seemed like just like a zen kind of job for me like
Starting point is 00:45:27 Fronting shelves at a grocery store. I would pay to do. Yeah, it's It's good, but then you have to be careful of being outlasting the people that leave because then they'll put you in the job that isn't the Zen thing you want to do and you have to be the person that comes in at five in the morning to unload the truck to figure out what boxes go Where and that's when it starts getting into like work and not, hey, you know, they put me behind like the food counter. I worked it like they call it like food avenue. You know, it's like, you remember the target used to have, it's not like just like Starbucks at every target. It was like an actual like, here's popcorn and hot dogs, whatever. So I would just go back there like, yeah, I need to like give the person a break.
Starting point is 00:46:05 So I would go give the person a break. And it's good. It's good. Vice-cream would be like, all right. Clean the slushy machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it would just be like, we making a hot dog. And I go, all right, I mean, a hot dog.
Starting point is 00:46:15 And then people will come to the counter. And I'm like, I don't know how to cook anything. I'm sorry. And then you want to cook? Yeah, cook. Sorry, I give you popcorn. But yeah, I'm working those jobs are easy. I think it's a good fallback kind of a thing
Starting point is 00:46:26 where if you ever go to a new town, I think it's a good way to like get on your feet and then figure out what you're like. You're not just a loser. I'll listen and I'll do it. I tried that. I was gonna say like, I guess Gus is a cautionary tale for me because when I was at the mall,
Starting point is 00:46:41 you know, because I don't know, we've talked about this a bit, but the mall's back. When I was at the mall, you know, cause I don't know, we've talked about this a bit, but the mall's back. Yeah. I've heard. When I was at the mall last week, walking around, everybody seemed so happy to work there. And I remember just thinking, like, these people all seemed to really enjoy their jobs. I was, I thought, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Not that I don't enjoy my job, but I don't know. You like, and see how you were, I can see how you were, how you walked into a mall and thought, like, I must work here. And I'm gonna apply it every time. It was just easy. There was just so many places you could apply to at once.
Starting point is 00:47:08 Yeah. And just get rejected about so many times. And it's climate controlled, is that? You said, awesome. All of our doors are outdoor malls. Like all of our malls back home. I think there was one indoor mall, and it was the worst one.
Starting point is 00:47:22 All they were all outdoor. It was San Diego, what do you expect? That's true. You know, you need to spend Diego? It's all right. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not.
Starting point is 00:47:31 No, it's not. We're getting right around 50 minutes so we should wrap up. But we should talk about Benu Coffee because this is the second Benu Coffee and you guys were asking what episode it was that we did Benu before. It was episode seven, like I said, LeCarr.
Starting point is 00:47:42 You said 10. I said 11 or 12. I said six. I said three. Okay, so like I said, it was episode seven, like I said, LeCarr. You said 10. I said 11 or 12. I said six. I said three. Okay, so like I said, it was episode seven. And that one was on MLK. This one's at Highland, ACC. This is...
Starting point is 00:47:57 That was the hottest couple coffee that's ever been made. I couldn't drink it for so long. And then I started drinking it and it is, like I have like a headache. It does not taste good. It tastes like eating coffee grounds. I'm sad. I'm like, I'm like really bummed out.
Starting point is 00:48:11 Yummy. Here's what I'll say about this B-New coffee. The issue I have with the other B-New coffee on MLK, the original one is, it feels like you're walking into a library that's also a coffee shop. And I just feel like if I make any noise, like everybody's sitting there there looks at me like,
Starting point is 00:48:26 this is a recurring complaint with you. Yeah, and that will just that be new specifically. And also flight path. And flight path as well. Those are the two places that are like very studious, I feel, where I feel like I'm imposing if I go in there. This one didn't have that vibe.
Starting point is 00:48:39 No, not at all. It was loud. Yeah, and it was. People were studying, or like they seemed like they had books and whatnot, but it was still loud. It was vibrant in a life And they were studying, or like they seemed like that books and whatnot, but it was still loud. It was vibrant in a life. The line was long, the whole time. Yeah. Seven. Okay. It's like a six. I feel like it's a little, this marijuana is a little more water down. And I typically like a little more punch to it. I will say this felt like where B-new on MLK
Starting point is 00:49:05 felt like a coffee shop where you come and get coffee and study and it's this thing. This felt like a coffee shop where it's like, try our weird signature drinks. Here are 100 weird signature drinks. They had a lot. What did that dude ask? I'd like to do it, ask me something.
Starting point is 00:49:19 I didn't understand. I just went over to grab his Americano because the guy called it out and then another drink was there before he got his Americano. And so he's handing it to Gus and he's like, oh, did you get a Pride and Prejudice? And guess what? What?
Starting point is 00:49:30 I just thought I was like, I know those words, but I don't know what you're asking me. They just had a hundred signature drinks that were like, and they were everywhere. The ones that were on the counter, on the printed out sheet were different from the ones that were on the board. And there were like little temporary ones.
Starting point is 00:49:47 And there were ones on like sticky notes next to the register. And then there were like other ones and like a book off to the side. And it's, it was crazy. And I don't drink coffee that way at all. I think that's the reason I wanted to stick with something I knew I could find everywhere and not get like a weird fancy drink
Starting point is 00:50:02 because I didn't want to be getting something different and comparing different things that every coffee shop went to. But Jeff still got a nice coffee. I don't like change. Right, you repetition. It took me 45 years to get the iced coffee and Lewis Medina like beaten it into me that I would like it and I finally did and then once I discovered I liked iced coffee,
Starting point is 00:50:24 I turned off hot coffee. And now I just like it and I finally did. And then once I discovered I liked iced coffee, I turned off hot coffee. And now I just like this. 44 degrees outside. Yeah, but we're not outside, we're inside. It's a 63 degrees in here. It is fucking, it is. It was, it's that fucking cold. We've needed it up six degrees since we've been in here.
Starting point is 00:50:38 With all of our hot takes. Yeah. I think, I think being is a fine, it's a fine cup of coffee. If you are a student on this campus, doing a study group meet up where someone's going to do 80% of the work and you're going to phone in your five, that is what this is. If you want to be in silent public, go to the B-News at MLK. If you want to be in Rockus, uh, talky people public, go to the other one.
Starting point is 00:51:00 Next to a yoga studio in a Paris baguette where they don't do their own bread make their bread. I don't think they pretend like they do. I swear they don't. They they they they act like they'd like bakery cosplayers. It's like keep it. They like to act like they're making stuff. They like bring out trays like they just mean they heated it up. Keep it up and see if you can get this room a little bit warmer.
Starting point is 00:51:24 Are you doing guesses or what? Well, yeah, we got some guesses. I got some from my mom. Okay. I got this one from Meg P. She says Austin Mania. And I like that guess. I was trying to think how it fits. No.
Starting point is 00:51:39 No, the guesses are pretty acronym for anything. acronym Austin. sorry James, I don't think either one of them is anything, I don't think you're close, bro. No, not even in the building. All right. Oh, these are Jeff Mom guesses? I got two from Jackie Ramsey.
Starting point is 00:51:55 All right. Okay, my mother's suggestions are, a normal morning in Austin. Okay. I like it, but no. That's not it. No. That was pretty good, but two. It's a good one. Anatomy of Austin. No. Okay. I like it, but no. That's not it. No. That was pretty good, but it's a good one.
Starting point is 00:52:06 Anatomy of Austin. No. Oh, I like that. Both great guesses, though. They're good guesses. I need to remind her. It's more dream, like I say, it's dream logic, right? Right.
Starting point is 00:52:18 A lot of these make too much sense. Man. That's frustrating. It's hard to think of things that don't make sense. Right, you have to think of something that doesn't make sense and isn't clever. And then you got it. Boy, okay.
Starting point is 00:52:31 I don't know, send your guesses. Send, how do they send them? Like send them to ad-earque-bador? Send them. No, you can send them at Animal Podcasts on Instagram and on Twitter. That's where you can follow us as well. Stay up to date with the coffee we've been drinking.
Starting point is 00:52:44 And the shirts we have on sale at startartrestortief.com. We have hang on there's names for both of these. No one told me no one gave me any information. Yeah, there's a there's a get your own podcast shirt. We have two shirts. The Anima L podcast ringer and the Anima get your own podcast shirt. They're actually, I mean, when this comes out, was it cyber Monday? Oh yeah. Some like that. So like, there's probably a deal on those shirts right now. Probably. Probably go grab them. One way to find out.
Starting point is 00:53:10 Yeah, go go bogo or something. That's a thing. People bogo, I won't get one. But that's it for this episode. Any parting words for these people, any final thoughts or in parting wisdom you want to give? We're going non-canon for a couple of weeks. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, we're on two weeks off, I think, coming up
Starting point is 00:53:27 these next two weeks. And there's gonna be the gusts non-canon episodes. Yeah, I can be in these episodes. I don't know why I'm getting excluded from them. Because you don't want, if we were, listen, it's warm enough in here. Let's just end it. Here's the thing, here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:53:41 If you wanted to be a part of them, then we wouldn't be taking them off, then we wouldn't be taking them off. And if that's the thing. Here's the thing. If you wanted to be a part of them, then we wouldn't Be taking them off then we wouldn't be taking them off and if that's the case Gus I'm not giving you an inch on this. Thank you Eric. Thank you. Apply it evenly. Hey if you're listening black box down We do supplementary episodes that are not core episodes We still give ourselves a break we space it out a little bit. You just fucked up. How is that a break? You fucked up The release cadence on this one. How? Fuck this Eric. I'll see you sense? Oh my god. Fuck this. Eric, I'll see you next week for whatever we record.
Starting point is 00:54:08 Yep, see you later. Not canon. Bye. Bye. Example, together in Trempathos, Characombs, Characombs are free to deal as I've nothing to do with this podcast. Analyze various unsolved and rooster-teeths, cryptic podcast, f*** face. Call to action. Feel free to add something show premise specific,
Starting point is 00:54:35 but short. Listen to show name on Apple Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. It's f*** face, a podcast. Subscribe or no. You do yes? wherever you get podcasts. It's f*** face, a podcast.
Starting point is 00:54:48 Subscribe or no, you do yes?

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