Brynn McCormick and Robert Tavares

00:00 Ha. Cool. That was fun.

00:06 That was a little bit more trouble than I thought it was going to be.

00:11 Yeah. When it first started, I had this window in like the back of a couple of tabs because I was looking up some stuff, trying to set up for the interview, conversation, whatever we're going to call this. And I just stepped out of the room and I was hearing something and I didn't know what it was. I don't know if you were like sniffing or moving some papers around or something. I was trying to figure out what it is because I've got like some squirrels in the walls or something out here and I'm just like, trying to figure out what the heck that noise is. And I come back and I see you. It's like, oh, okay, cool. And then I couldn't sign, so oh, man.

00:44 Yeah, I definitely was on, but I couldn't see you. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I wonder if he can hear me right now.

00:53 Well, we're here, so off to a good start. So hi, Robert, nice to meet you finally.

01:00 I'm Brynn. Nice to meet.

01:05 Yeah, I don't know how this is supposed to go, so I'll kind of go off the little conversation guide, and I'm immediately going to deviate from that. You said your teacher in college kind of brought this up.

01:18 Yes, she's our public speaking teacher, and she said they were starting to do this in a city here in Kansas, and so she thought she would try it out and she really liked it, so she kind of gave all the students a flyer and let us try it out if we wanted. How did you hear about.

01:42 I'm I honestly don't remember. I think I may have gotten just a spam email or seen it as an advertisement or whatnot. Because, let's see, I signed up for this probably about a month ago and I kind of just forgot about it. And oddly enough I'm sorry I said, me too. Oddly enough, the day I got tired of getting emails from the one small step, the main company, I said, okay, this is kind of a bust. I unsubscribed. And then I think within an hour or two, I got a, hey, you and me got matched up for an interview. I'm like, weird timing, but okay, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I suppose so. Go ahead, please.

02:36 I was going to say I'm reading your bio and I don't even remember what I put.

02:41 This is going to be fun for both of us.

02:43 It says, I am essentially an only child raised on a ranch in California. My parents were old school conservatives. I have over a decade of military service that has broadened my view of the world and issues at home and have developed my own ideals. I still consider myself a strong conservative, but I'm open minded to hearing new perspectives. I believe we must prioritize self care and self help before we can help others. And I am a huge proponent of personal liberty. I feel like that was very well, thanks.

03:18 All right, so I guess going through yours again, brynn from Hutchinson, Kansas. Not going to lie, I went on a Google to see what that was, and a little bit of a bigger town than me. Y'all are famous for salt mines.

03:34 Sorry, go ahead. Yes. I actually am not from here. This is where I'm going to college, though.

03:42 Oh, okay.

03:43 I'm from more like the Wichita area in Kansas, which is like the bigger city in Kansas, but Hutchinson, KS, where we have the state fair. And they are famous for salt. Like, they have salt mines, but they turned it into a museum. So they take you down underground and show you the history and all that, which is cool. And then we also have the cosmosphere here. It has a bunch of space travel. It's a space museum, basically pieces of rockets from throughout history. And it's cool.

04:27 Sounds like might be a place to stop next time I'm driving cross country. I'm doing that next year, but sorry, I need to focus. Sometimes I get a little bit squirrel sometimes.

04:36 Me too. It's okay. I get it. Female Woman I'm looking at yours. So tell me about your town in California.

04:52 We have a gas station. It's really not a town. It's kind of like kind of the outskirts of maybe three other towns that started calling itself a town. Yeah, my graduating class in high school had twelve kids.

05:16 Well, that's how my dad was. He graduated from a class of twelve.

05:22 Cool.

05:23 Yeah, I'm familiar with that, but yeah.

05:29 I'm not from the part of California anyone ever thinks actually, have you heard of Yosemite National Park?

05:36 Yes, I have.

05:37 Okay, so I'm about maybe 2 hours away from the park entrance and about three and a half from the valley of the park. So I'm out in the kind of high desert area. A lot of mountains, oak trees, just kind of scrub. Not a whole heck of a lot, really. Kind of small town. It used to be more of a retirement community. We're getting some people kind of trying to move away from the city, and it's getting a little bit bigger, but we don't really have the infrastructure, so it's kind of a weird dynamic. Also, I really haven't been back there since 2016, so yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. And I'm sure you realize this as you go through college when you go home to visit the people that stay at home. When I first joined the Navy in 2009, the same people who are doing things in 2009, whenever I go home and visit, they're still doing the same things. I got a buddy who's almost 40 who still throws parties in his parents house when they're out of town.

06:43 Oh, my gosh. Yes. I have started to notice that because this is my second year in college and same thing every time I go home. The same people who are stayed at home, they're still doing the same thing every single day. And I'm just, wow.

07:01 So going you said you're in college and I think I saw the acronym CC. Are you going to a community college?

07:09 Yes, it's a JUCO. That's the league that we're in. We're Division one. JUCO.

07:18 JUCO Junior college.

07:21 Yeah.

07:22 Okay.

07:23 Yep. And our college is actually famous for our football team. They produce a lot of D one football players. They have multiple players. Go pro. We had like three players last year transfer to Alabama. And they play now, which I think is cool.

07:47 That's actually really cool. Yeah. Just be able to point at someone on TV. Hey, I know them. Hey. They got canceled in 6th grade. Okay, that's probably not a good thing, but no, that's neat. So, a little bit about me on the sports realm. I am not that well versed in any aspect of sports ball.

08:08 You said you played basketball a little bit.

08:11 The coach needed someone tall.

08:15 Everyone needs someone who's tall.

08:17 We needed someone tall and we needed one person to actually be able to field a varsity team. So if I didn't join, we wouldn't have enough people to compete. So they needed someone on the team. That was it. I can't shoot. Apparently I can't. Dribble. I'm good at grabbing the ball and being big enough to where people don't fight me for it and passing it off to other people. So that was my role on the team. I did play soccer. I actually had fun with that. Excuse me. But again, I only played sports my senior year. Most of the time in school. I went to a school over in hour away, getting into the old school conservative of the parents. Whatnot? I initially went to a school right down the road, but I think first grade, I don't remember this. This is just what my parents tell me. But I came home and I guess the teacher had just broached the topic of homosexuality. And they ask, what did you learn? They're like, It's okay to be gay. And I was in another school in a week.

09:25 Oh my gosh. I will say I have gone to four different schools in my lifetime just because my parents are principal teacher. So my dad would get a job at another school that pays better. So we just move. And I've been to a school just like the one you went to. I've also been to a school that was not a Catholic school, but it was basically a Catholic school. Everybody who was at that school was Catholic except me. They would leave school to go to church in the middle of the day. So it'd just be like me left the school. I know, it's weird. It's weird. And then I went to another school that was in western Kansas. So there was a lot of mixed races, mixed views. I was exposed to so many different viewpoints. It was eye opening, but I enjoyed learning about everything. There was a lot of Hispanic culture out there which was actually pretty fun to learn about. They make the best food, they make.

10:33 The best god on is. That is something I've had a hard time finding out here is Mexican food. I've spent most of my career in most of the past decade in San Diego, and I'm used to eating at taco shops where I can just look that way and see the Tijuana football stadium. So that's my experience and that's my bar for Mexican food. But no, I think what you're talking about kind of hits the nail on the head how, moving out to a more diverse area, you get to challenge what you think and you get to kind of get outside the echo chamber because I think that's where a lot of our problems are. We sit in these echo chambers because it's comfortable and we sit here and rile each other up and it doesn't do us any good.

11:22 That's how my dad was. My dad is very country boy conservative. That's how his family was. And he married my mom, who's like city girl, not so much conservative. So it's like my household is full of both viewpoints. It's crazy.

11:44 Not that there's a problem with political views, but I think as long as your views are well intentioned, I don't see a reason that conservative and liberal can't have a healthy relationship up to an including marriage. You just have to pick what's important and actually talk about it beforehand.

12:06 I agree.

12:08 And what's funny is, even with the self labeling and the political views, I found when you're able to do kind of like what we're doing, the whole reaching across lines and talking, I have found that some people who are on hot topic issues completely on the other side, self identified from me. If we actually start talking about it and breaking it down, it turns out we're almost completely on par with each other. We just maybe focus on they focus on this aspect, I focus on this aspect, but otherwise our views are almost completely in line.

12:42 I agree with that. I really do agree with that. And I feel like sometimes people can't like my neighbor, I will say completely opposite views of my family, but her and I are really good friends because we have so many similarities and things in common. We just enjoy being around each other. And if we do talk about politics, we talk about it. We talk about why we think that way and just leave it at that. We don't tell each other like, oh, you're wrong for thinking that way. We just respect like, okay, that's your view. We can move past that. You just don't have to dwell on it. I know, there's people who just really focus on that and are like, oh, you think this way, so I can't associate myself with you.

13:34 Yeah, I see a lot of that. I think a lot of people take, be it political views or views on anything, and they make that kind of a core element of their personality. So when you don't agree with it, it's tantamount to not agreeing with them as a person. So rather than have a debate or a conversation, it's more of an affront, like, oh, well, you think there's something wrong with me as a person, so therefore we can just never move past it.

14:03 I totally agree with that, which is why I wanted to do this, because obviously I feel like people who are doing the one small step feel the same way about, like, oh, they're still a human being. I want to get to know them as a human being, even if we don't have the same values in life.

14:24 Yeah, that's really big of you. So second year in college, I'm assuming you're 19 or 20.

14:33 Yeah, I'm 20.

14:35 Okay. Actually, I think a really big step of you wanting to make this step and kind of throw yourself into who knows who you're going to find on the other side of this camera. I work with a lot of probably, like 18 through 23 year olds that's the majority of people I work with, and most of them would not be open to doing something like this either, a, they're not willing to question their beliefs or where they stand on things, or B, not wanting to feel vulnerable. Like the first five minutes before we tried to get this started, I was getting a little bit, oh, cool, I don't know what's going to happen. How's this going to work? Because I've had some and you probably as well had some very unpleasant conversations or experiences with things.

15:27 Yeah. Especially growing up. Oh, yeah. And going to that Catholic high school, that was rough. I'm not even going to lie. That was rough. Kids were not very nice to me. Okay. This is like elementary school, though, so kids should not have even been talking about those things.

15:47 But they were kids are turds. One, kids are turds. And two, before you're able to think for yourself, they kind of just take whatever they've been taught and repeat it without. So if you don't mind, may I ask what you were kind of ostracized for?

16:10 Well, when I was in elementary school, we had, like it was like a presidential election, but really it was not a presidential like, because I was in third grade. It was just your classes. And I think at the moment, at that time, it was like Mitt Romney versus Obama. I think it was that election, if I'm thinking of that correctly. Is that right? Is that the right election?

16:45 Yeah, that was one of them. I'm just sitting here going god, I'm old.

16:49 Oh, that's fine. Of course, the hot topic of going to a Catholic school and having that political election going on, a lot of that community was focused on was abortion laws. That was a really big thing. We're in elementary school. We have no idea what that means. And just like, the information behind it, no idea. All the kids in my class knew was, oh, well, if you vote for Obama, they're like, he kills babies in mom's stomachs. And I was not aware of what abortion even was at the time. I was just going with what my parents were voting because the kids were like, oh, are you voting for Obama? Why? I don't know. I'm in elementary school, right? But they made a circle around me at recess and were like, calling me baby killer. You're a baby killer since you're voting for Obama. That was traumatizing. And I remember I went home crying and the teachers, they saw what was happening and they called my mom. And obviously we had a meeting about it with some of those kids parents. And my mom was just saying how my daughter's in third grade. She doesn't know what an abortion is. I don't really want her to know what an abortion is right now, but I'm going to let her make her own decisions on what she believes. And of course, the other kids parents are like, oh, that's not how we think. That's not how we do things. That was my experience in elementary school. That was my first encounter with not agreeing with someone politically.

18:50 I'm sorry you had to go through that. That sounds like I'm not going to make a joke about it sounds like.

18:58 Shit you can make a joke about.

19:01 Does cursing bother you? I'm going to try to keep my language clean, but given the nature of my profession, I do have a little bit of a potty mouth.

19:09 Okay. You should meet my coach. Like, I play basketball in college. Language does not it's not ever filtered, ever. So feel free.

19:20 That's fair. I just want to make sure, you know, if there's any boundaries or anything.

19:24 I appreciate that, but you're good. Go for it.

19:29 Fuck yeah. A little bit different. I was in my freshman year of high school, and I think it was who do you go up against the second time? I think it was Bush and Gore.

19:53 Yeah, something like that.

19:54 Yeah, Bush. And I thought it'd be fun. Just Bush, Gore, and Tally Marks and see kind of just have a little what I thought would be a fun vote had actually a couple people write up third party candidates, had someone vote for Nader. Still no idea who that is, but no. I walked in and one time I kind of the principal's daughter was very, um I would say she is to, like, liberalism or a liberal. What? A dude who just got pulled out of a bass boat and put on TV to talk about the UFO he just saw would be, to a conservative, not the best representation, I think. And I walk into class and she's sitting there just on the Gore tally, Mark side, going, Tally, mark, tally, mark telemark tally, Mark Taliban. I'm like, why? What the hell is the point of that?

21:00 It's not that deep.

21:03 No.

21:06 You'Re saying she was I don't want to say, like, radical, but she's kind of, like, felt very strongly on that point of the spectrum.

21:17 I don't know what her reasoning was behind it. Maybe she just wanted to I mean, we were kids. We all want our team to win. So honestly, that's kind of what I chalk it up to. As for our age young teenagers, it makes sense, but I just remember seeing that and going like, what was the point of that? Why? Yeah, whatever.

21:42 Yeah, I get what you mean. There there's no reason for that. Just do your one tally. There's no need to I think it comes down to maturity, too.

21:57 Well, maturity isn't something that comes with age, because this last during COVID because this is something I actually enjoy doing. I try to seek out people with not necessarily opposing, but, like, different viewpoints, different life experiences in me, and I like to talk to them about things getting off track a little bit of what I was about to say. I will make it a point to talk to my black coworkers about things that they do or black culture that I don't understand. And some people like, oh, you can't do that. That's racist, or that's so uncomfortable. But I've had a lot of them thank me for asking about it, and it has really good conversations. I learned a lot. But getting back to and I'm not, like, an angel about this. Sometimes I'll just kind of stir the pot to get a reaction. But during the beginning of COVID one of my old coworkers who now outranks me, like, we got into a difference of opinion about I mean, I can go into specifics if you want, but.

23:12 I'm sorry, I said, yeah, go for it.

23:16 I have the conversation saved because I actually made a report on it, but I think it was about how the COVID mandates were coming in and just the efficacy and the thought process behind it. And the dude ended the conversation with saying he was looking forward to watching me and everyone like me die. And even one of my coworkers, who I loved riding with this kid, he was a Democrat from New York, and I'm a fairly conservative guy. We'd ride in the squad car together. We were both military police at the time, so we'd just sit there and heckle each other. The elections were really fun because sometimes he'd get me in a corner, sometimes I'd get him in a corner, but we needled each other. But we also had open discussions about things. But yeah, even after that, even he felt the need to come to me. Like, dude, that was so fucked up. I'm sorry.

24:17 Yeah, what can you do? I appreciate people like that, though, that I don't know, they're like, dude, like.

24:28 The friend who said he was sorry, or the guy who said he wanted to watch I'm sorry, I know what you meant.

24:33 Yeah. But yeah, during the COVID mandates, I know some people were getting brutal about it, and I'm kind of like, guys, this is a new thing. It's scary. I understand why you're scared, and I respect that. I didn't care if someone got vaccinated or not. I got vaccinated just because my parents had me vaccinated. Like, I didn't think one way or another my friends didn't want to get vaccinated. That's fine. It was just kind of one of those things where it's like, oh, whatever, like you do you but it was certain people who same thing, like, oh, if you get a COVID vaccine, or if you do this, like you said, all the mandates, they're like, you're going to die. All you people are going to die, or vice versa. If you don't do this, you're going to die.

25:27 Yeah, you had both sides pointing at each other saying how they were going to die. God, we could rabbit hole just on the ridiculousness of that whole debacle. But I had mixed feelings about it when I got it. I didn't feel the need to get it. Personally during that time I was on have you ever heard of the island of Kauai?

25:51 I have not. Tell me about it.

25:55 It is one of the smaller, more rural islands in the Hawaiian island chain. And there's a naval station out there, and that's where I was stationed, and it is very remote. In order to get there, you usually have to fly to Oahu and then to Kauai, I think for the entirety of the 2019 through 2021 period, we had less than two dozen confirmed cases of COVID on the island. So there was really kind of a lot of separation from the rest of the world out there. So personally, myself and a lot of other people didn't really feel the need to get the vaccine, especially because the military has some hesitancy about vaccines.

26:38 Fair enough.

26:39 In the past. But I know I took it initially because with I don't want to use the words misinformation or disinformation because I feel like those get thrown around too much and it really doesn't mean anything at this point. But with all the different sources of information, dr. A says one thing, dr. B says something completely different. Dr. C says something a little bit out of A and B, like no one knew what to believe. My mom is I think she was 68 or 69 at the time. My stepdad is in his early eighty s. I have some other family who are in the at risk category. Obese take care of themselves, and they didn't know what to feel about it. So I kind of felt it was my job to I'm the healthiest out of all of you. I'm going to take it. If I get any side effects, I'll tell you directly. So I kind of use myself as a guinea pig for them.

27:34 That was very selfless of you.

27:37 Well, I mean, they were going to kick me out of the military and take all my money if I didn't take it, so I mean, there's a little bit of that, too.

27:43 Okay.

27:44 It's easy to be selfless when you know there's a gun off screen telling you to do it.

27:48 Yeah, no kidding. Well, I was actually getting my because I'm also a so when I was getting my CNA license, there was lots of rules with COVID Like, when I was doing my clinicals, the first place we went to, it got shut down literally the next day because of COVID And it made me really sad because all those old people had no control over what was going in and out of that building and who was taking care of them, which it's a lot different now, but yeah, I don't know. Just seeing all that was kind of sad. I was like because my parents got their vaccine first, and then I got mine, and then I don't remember if it went, like, elderly people got it, and then it was little kids. I don't remember the order, but I just remember my parents saying, like, I'll get mine, so then maybe you can get yours and continue working your job.

28:55 Yeah, I remember it got really convoluted at some point in time because initially the elderly were at risk, and I wasn't, uh to see it know, I just hear it the not who the CDC website, their distribution, like, prior to.

29:17 I know what you're saying.

29:18 Who gets it first? Me. No words. Good. Sometimes I get it. Like, it went from the seniors, then it went to minority seniors, then it went to all minorities, then white seniors. And it's just like every week or so, it seemed like it was changing up. Who was a priority. Whatnot? And then they were throwing in these stipulations. If you gave it to anyone out of order, you get this huge fine. If you wasted any of it, if you didn't use it was just so.

29:50 It was very strict. But then concept changing.

29:55 Yeah.

29:57 It's hard to keep up.

29:59 Yeah. Okay, let's get off of COVID This is getting kind of deep. So bringing it back on. So what views do you think you have that would make you describe yourself as liberal or what do you hold, like, most? Like yes.

30:19 Honestly, I honestly don't put a label on myself when it comes to political views just because I'm kind of scattered all over the place. Sometimes my views change, especially being out of JUCO. I'm learning a lot of things, okay? My teammates don't all come from high income families. I don't come from a high income family, but a lot of them come from a pretty low income family. And so they'll talk to me about their struggles and all this and that. I'm like, Man, I thought my life was hard. That is unreal. Our point guard is from Tulsa. She has it rough even. I can't even imagine. But I would also say, just to give a gist of my viewpoints, I'd say I very much grew up in a strong woman household. I hate to be, like, a raging feminist. I try not to be that way, but I don't like when a guy tells me I can't do something, because nine times out of ten, I can't do it. School is really important in my family because I told you, Mom's a teacher, dad's principal.

31:43 Right.

31:43 That's very big in my family. Church used to be really important, but once COVID became a problem, then they started preaching different ideas in church, and my parents are like, we don't really agree with these ideas. We stopped going to church for a while. They're finally going back, though. What else? When it comes to homosexuality, I didn't really feel one way or the other about it. Some two of my best friends happen to be gay. I swear, half of my team is gay. But you just live with it. It is what it is. They're respectful, so it's fine. Oh, what else? Vaccines. I get my vaccine. I'm a premed student. That's just kind of what I do. But my parents are kind of iffy about it because they're kind of getting up to that age where they're starting to have health issues.

32:52 Right?

32:54 My grandparents are really starting to have health issues just because they're getting old. They're getting pretty high up there, which is just fine. Man, I'm trying to think what else. I know abortion has been a huge thing the last year. Me, personally, I feel like, do what you need to do. And I know people are like, oh, well, what if people just get an abortion just because they were being unsafe? But I'm just kind of like, if they don't feel like they can care for that child, why give them a bad life? But I don't know. That's how I see it. If it affects your life or you're not ready, do what you need to do, even though it's really expensive and painful. So I've been told.

33:47 I have friends who've had them, and they said it's not pleasant. But first of all, I have to tell you, you're not allowed to be in the middle. You got to pick one side or the other and stick no middle ground whatsoever. Pick a side.

33:59 People tell me that all the time, and I'm like, I really don't know.

34:03 Oddly enough, one of my best friends, we were. Talking about joking about the government shutdown, and it ended up in a two hour back and forth over abortion rights last night. So I was up to, like, 1230 in the morning, just going back and forth with her about it, just laughing at you.

34:28 Me and my friends have those debates, too. We'll make up outrageous situations like, what about this? Is it okay? Then what if this happens? And I'm like, you know, in certain situations I don't know how to answer that question. I'm trying to think what else I know. Gun laws were a big thing throughout the last ten years, 1020 years. I feel like they should be regulated to a certain extent. Maybe not all the guns. The same gun that has been used in school shootings. I don't feel like people should be allowed to use it unless people like you who are trained to operate that machinery. I don't know. I feel like it should be regulated to a certain extent, but not totally taken away. That's about all the topics I can think of right off the top of my head.

35:31 Pretty good list. God, where to start on that? We can kind of go backwards from freshest and what's that?

35:45 So you can kind of bounce around. It doesn't matter.

35:51 I know some of the guidelines are here, stay away from this. It doesn't have to be all about politics or whatnot, so I don't want to make this exclusively about that. I understand. Where that last opinion about guns and stuff like that? I assume you've never or have very limited exposure to any guns. Have you ever shot a gun?

36:17 I have. My dad country boy, once again. BB guns, airsoft guns. Very much like low. You don't need much skill to operate them, but usually he's right there with me. Yeah, we're just like shooting pop cans off of a log type of thing.

36:40 Shooting what cans?

36:41 Like pop cans. Soda cans.

36:44 Okay, soda.

36:45 Soda.

36:45 Use the right word. Sorry.

36:49 No, you're fine. My parents do the same thing. They're like, what cans? What are you talking about? I'm like soda.

36:57 No. One of the things I love about being in the military, getting completely Sidebarring right now, is just being with people from all over the country. So we'll get into back and forth about, is it soda? Is it pop? Is it just coke? Everything? When you go to the grocery store, that thing you push around that you put your groceries in, what's that called?

37:16 A shopping cart?

37:17 It's not called a buggy.

37:19 We call it a buggy.

37:21 I don't call it a buggy. There's, like, some people, and they're like, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, they'll call it a buggy. And when we find one of them, I was pushing the buggy around, and I had to fill it up with bags. It's just fun to kind of poke fun at each other.

37:41 I play with a couple of foreigners throughout the years. Too. Yesterday I was with our Australian girl and she called McDonald's Maccas. Yes. I think it's cool. Different slang everywhere.

38:01 That's fun. Yeah. Like I said, I grew up in the country. I've been shooting since basically I can walk. I think I was like four or five when I got my first. It was a little 22 and I still have it back home. My dad actually almost cut it down for me. It was like 100 year old gun by the time I got it. But I'm so glad he didn't cut it down because the thing is only like this big and me trying to hold it now I feel like I'm just all bunched up with it.

38:34 That's cool. Keep that in the case.

38:38 Yeah, I need to because I tried to take it apart to clean it one time and there is no instruction manual for it. So I kind of got it back together. So I need to keep myself from breaking it.

38:48 Oh wow. I can't even imagine. But go ahead. You were talking about listening to other people's viewpoints on guns and whatnot.

39:05 I think trying to figure out how to say this so it doesn't sound like I'm just like regurgitating some talking points from some talking head somewhere.

39:15 That's fine.

39:16 I think it's kind of like kind of like what we were agreeing on. I don't want to put words in your mouth but like talking about earlier where kind of exposure opens your eyes to some things and I've heard similar things that you said and most of the people who say that have never actually been exposed to that to them.

39:40 And I haven't been, I'll admit it, I really have not been exposed to it.

39:47 Well, if you weren't 2000 miles away, I'd say let's go shooting. But a little bit logistically challenged there.

39:54 Yes.

40:00 I don't think a lot of people actually realize what goes into buying a gun. The amount of paperwork and background checks and all that stuff that actually goes into it. Like a lot of people I feel, think you can just walk into a gun store and one gun, please and just walk out and with no sort of check whatsoever. And I think a lot of people because when you were talking about I forget the word you use, but like regulation, control, whatever you used, were you thinking more along the idea of like universal background checks or something?

40:41 Yes.

40:47 Sorry, I don't want to focus on one aspect of this too much.

40:50 No, you're good. I really don't know much about it, honestly. So usually when people talk about it, I stay out of the conversation because that's understandable. I just don't know enough about it to say much. So when people ask me about my viewpoint I'm just like, I guess regulate it more. I really don't know. But you have more exposure to that than I do. So I feel like you can have a better opinion on it than I could.

41:19 I appreciate the deference. I wouldn't call it better. It's just it's mine through my experience, but I don't want to tear it wrong. I don't know. Yeah, it's funny, a lot of people again, I've heard that same thing you said where oh, yeah. If you're military, you should be able to have XYZ, but not necessarily someone on the outside. And my job in the military is actually training people to shoot. And most of the people that I end up working with in training, they should not be holding a gun.

42:01 Oh, gosh.

42:02 A lot of them are doing it because they have to they have to stand in armed watch. Let's see. It is required that we go to the range twice a year. There's no other training outside there. Sorry. Coffee?

42:24 No, you're good.

42:26 Like the actual legal understanding of how to employ use of force, when to use deadly force, when to use less than lethal force, the whole metric of that is kind of convoluted in the military, and it changes every couple of years. And most people out there actually standing these watches with these weapons don't actually understand what they're allowed to do. And most people that I see, everyone I work with on the outside, actually, civilians have to learn the laws because there is no legal protection in military and law enforcement. I'm more legally protected if I wrongfully, shoot someone than, say, if I were off duty and I used my gun in a similar situation. If I used it correctly versus someone in the military, law enforcement use it incorrectly, they still have more legal protection than I would doing that.

43:19 Oh, really?

43:20 And a lot of the elite, like snipers and stuff like that, are actually taught by civilian marksmen. I feel that there is actually more weapon safety and weapons knowledge in the citizenry than the military.

43:35 Really? Okay.

43:38 Because someone who does it in the military is kind of just so you're going through college, I assume you have to take some elective classes, right?

43:47 Yeah, I do.

43:51 There any classes that you've looked at just like, man, this looks like just the least horrible class. I'm going to take it because I have to get the credit hours.

44:00 I have to take a humanities class. I have to take so many hours of humanities. Right now I'm taking ethics, and I thought it'd be really boring, but I actually really like it. It's really interesting. It's same type of category, I guess, that we're talking about. It's like, different viewpoints and learning about different history of certain races, certain cultures in different countries. I think it's interesting, but yes.

44:27 Anyways, my ethics teacher in Monterey Community College started off the class by saying, what was it? He didn't believe in llamas. There were only tall goats.

44:41 Okay, interesting.

44:42 Sorry. Neither here nor there.

44:44 That's so funny.

44:46 Excuse me. It wasn't ethics. It was philosophy. That makes more sense. Yes. Philosophy. But anyways, yeah, where I was trying to go with the elective class, if you're made to do something you don't necessarily have an interest in or don't even want to do, you know, how much are you really going to care about that versus what you're doing? You say your physical therapy, so is that a kinesiology degree?

45:13 You can major in kinesiology or you can major in biology. I haven't gotten that far yet, but yeah, that's pretty much it.

45:24 Someone who actually has an interest and a passion for something is going to be more well read, more safe, more up to date on something than someone who's forced to do it. My thoughts on that.

45:38 Yeah, I agree.

45:41 Let's see what else kind of backtracking on the whole thing. God, small town. Not proud of it at all. But yeah, growing up, we hated gays. That was what you did. They were morally wrong. They were going to hell. They were bad, bad, yucky, gross people. And going to the military got to work around them, and they're just people who like different things than I do. So I definitely had my eyes open on that. You work with all sorts, so I definitely have some more open, some different.

46:33 Thoughts on it now.

46:34 Yeah, I mean, we could always debate the merits of marriage versus civil union and stuff like that. And then I have my own kind of feelings on the current Pride movement and what's going on with some of the newer additions to the LGBTQI.

46:59 I don't know what's that I said. As do I. There are certain things I'm kind of, like, uncomfortable about.

47:10 But you're not allowed to question it because if you question any of it, you question all of it. Yeah, I don't know, I kind of consider the modern Pride movement to be to the gay community what the Westboro Baptist Church is to the Christian community. Just like, not the best representation of those people. Yeah, but let's see what else.

47:37 I know I need like, a list written out in front of me. It's hard to keep in order in my head.

47:45 Um, let's see. As far as kind of going off the list, what I can remember what you saying. As far as abortion goes, I don't think it's a cut and dry issue. Like, most of these issues are not cut and dry.

48:07 Like, I agree.

48:09 Abortion, I don't think is a single point issue. You can't look at it in a vacuum. Abortion? Yes, abortion. Even most pro choicers and pro lifers, I think if they actually discussed what they felt and believed would be closer aligned than they realized, I think there's scenarios where it's acceptable. I think there's scenarios where I don't agree with it. I think my biggest problem with it is considering it for the most part, like health care and making it like, taxpayer funded.

48:48 Yeah.

48:51 I don't know. My biggest thing, like, going back to the first part of my bio is if you're an adult, do what you want to do. As long as it doesn't affect me?

49:01 Yes.

49:02 If I do something you don't agree with, you do something I don't agree with. It is fine to not agree with someone, but if it ain't hurting me, if I ain't hurting you, just kind.

49:16 Of let them do their thing. Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it, too.

49:21 I'm going to step out of the room real quick. Sorry? Use the bathroom real quick.

49:25 You're good?

50:41 I don't know why I shut the doors. You're sitting there looking at my closet. You have no way to see me. Anyways.

50:53 Anyways.

50:58 Back to the list sidebar again. So far. How's this going compared to what you were expecting or did you have any expectations?

51:14 Honestly, I wasn't really knowing what to expect. I honestly was expecting to get paired with someone who is in their 60s. I'm not even going to lie because that's how my teacher portrayed it. And now this is like someone who's more like I don't want to say in touch, but, like the computer. You knew how to set it up. I don't know if an elderly person.

51:46 Barely.

51:49 I feel like it's been going well, though. And I don't really know. I'm looking at step six right now on the top of the screen because it said, like, introduce yourself. Why are we here? Growing up conversation tips.

52:05 There's a step six, apparently. Yeah. I have my window. Minimum or not minimum. Oh, okay. Yeah. All done. You had to say something about knowing how to use a computer. I just completely screwed up my window. Okay. There we go. You're back. Cool.

52:34 I don't know. Oh, I do have one question. I'm reading your bio again.

52:40 Yeah, shoot.

52:41 You said, like, I believe we must prioritize self care and self help before we can help others. Tell me more about that.

52:53 So that's, I think, more of a geopolitical statement. I've been not all over the world, but I've probably seen more countries than some people have counties. Let's see. Just this last year I've been to Spain. Estonia. Poland. Lithuania. Denmark. Scotland. Portugal. Probably one or two others I'm forgetting. Year before that, Malta, Greece. Yeah. A whole bunch of different places. And kind of seeing what goes on over there's. A lot that we can help people with. But I think right now, I think it's kind of stigmatized to look out for. How do I want to start it? I don't like the idea that America first has become kind of a bad thing to say with I agree. Like, our education system is not good. I'm sure you've seen this. The first community college I went to, I think the mean reading level was about a fifth or 6th grade reading level for college. I work with people in the Navy who damn near can't read. Like, we're reading manuals and they're sounding out words.

54:47 That's hard.

54:49 Yeah, that's really hard. Funny thing though, I was doing a class for one of the systems I work with and I was the senior guy in the class. So I was reading the tech manual and letting the other guys do the work so they could get the hands on experience because I've worked with the system before. And about 2 hours into the class the instructor actually looks over and sees me and I can read upside down and he sees I'm just reading the textbook upside down and I'm reading it faster than the other people in class can read normally. But yeah, I definitely think we have a lot of work we need to do at home to kind of get ourselves back on track before we can really be expected to help other people. Because if we break down then we're no longer able to help people. Even with you can bring that down to self help, mental health and stuff like that. A lot of people don't prioritize taking a rest day or treating themselves or actually taking care of themselves because they believe it's selfish or they're told it's selfish, and they just have to give, give do. And eventually they just kind of run themselves ragged. And then not only are they no longer able to help others or do for others, but now they're in a crisis themselves. I don't know. I kind of think that's where we're going.

56:17 I agree. Yeah, I agree with that statement because we definitely have a lot of work to do in our own country and I know oh, who was it? Was it Abraham Lincoln? One of the presidents said like he.

56:35 Worded among oh, sorry, go ahead.

56:37 No, yes, that's right. Something like that. Or maybe it was a different president. And I know they said it with different words, but they said like the day that oh man, there's a word that he used that means the day we stop minding our own business is the day of our downfall. I forget the word that he used, but I forget what president was. I'm sorry, I'm rusty on my sounds.

57:09 Kind of like the Monroe Doctrine.

57:12 Yes, that's right. That's it.

57:16 Yeah. I kind of got a foot on both sides of the fence there because yeah, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. But also we are not the world's police.

57:32 I agree with that too.

57:35 Let's talk about the elephant in the room, the whole Ukraine thing.

57:39 Yeah.

57:43 We have no business being like don't get me wrong, I feel absolutely horrible for the people who are affected. I think an entire generation or more is going to be absolutely obliterated in more countries than just Russia and Ukraine. And I hate to see it, but we have no business out there.

58:05 I agree.

58:08 And the fact that when we almost had the government shutdown they were talking about to be selfish for a second. They were talking about not paying me and my coworkers, but they already had, like 10 billion set aside to set to Ukraine, even though we couldn't get our own affairs in order.

58:29 That's bad.

58:30 What the f?

58:32 Yeah, that's really bad. I am so sorry.

58:37 We got paid. I've been through several government shutdowns. We have never not gotten paid. We're political pawns. One side uses us against the other. Like, oh, well, if you don't pass this, then they don't get paid, and you're the bad guys for hanging this up. And then a couple of years later, the shoe is on the other foot, and they're doing it to the other people. It is what it is.

59:01 I know, but it sucks.

59:03 Yeah. Especially like no, I hate this whole Ukraine thing because not this last deployment, but the deployment I was on before that, we escorted the Russian invasion fleet to the Black Sea.

59:29 Really?

59:30 Yeah. There were days, like, their assault craft, the ones that carry, like, the troops and the tanks and all that stuff, I could have probably thrown a rock and hit them.

59:40 Oh, my gosh.

59:42 That really upset me. When that kicked off, this whole thing happened, and here we are. I thought it was going to happen. I figured it was going to happen. I called it, and lo and behold, it did. And it's just like I don't know.

01:00:00 I know, but it's hard. Like, what can just a few people do? It's the people who are way high up telling everyone else what to do. They make the decisions, and you have to go through with it.

01:00:14 Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. It's getting to almost a crisis point in the military. I don't know if you've heard, like, the standards are changing in the military, who they're allowing in and stuff like that.

01:00:31 I have heard a little bit about that.

01:00:33 They've lowered, like, the ASVAB requirement to ten. They're taking people with moral conviction waivers, more GED waivers, like, just kind of lowering.

01:00:46 Yeah.

01:00:46 It's interesting because no one wants to stay in because we're not situations like that. Yeah, there's a whole thing. I not going to go down the whole path on that, but yeah, I won't make you a couple of years.

01:01:02 Well, I hope it gets better because it's rough out.

01:01:08 Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Hopefully next year I'll be moving to Nevada to finish finish out my time out there, and I'll probably get out and go work for the Department of Forestry. I have a buddy who's a fire captain for that, so that sounds like a lot more fun. So fingers crossed.

01:01:32 That could be fun. Fingers crossed, right?

01:01:37 Yeah. He's a good friend of mine. We both joined the military, like, two years out of high school. He joined the Army, I joined the Navy. He did his one tour. He went to Afghanistan, had a lot to deal with, and kind of helped him through that. He's good now, but we've been close for going on 30 years now.

01:01:56 Oh, wow. Yeah, you guys have to be tight at that point.

01:02:01 It's one of those good relationships. Like, we can go like a year or two without talking, and then when I'm in town, I'll just hit them up and it's like nothing ever changed.

01:02:09 Those types of friends are the best. They really are. Well, I won't keep you here much longer. I really did enjoy our time. That was a very good conversation.

01:02:25 I enjoyed it too. Definitely. Again, I didn't really expect coming to it with any expectations, but not what I expected. It was very fun talking to you because you sound like you're open minded and astute and, you know, not just some entrenched mindset that I'm starting to see in a lot of the well, everybody in general, but a lot of the younger generation. So that leaves me feeling a little bit hopeful.

01:03:01 Yeah. Try to give some hope to some people, but yeah, I definitely learned a lot too. Your experience gives me different perspectives, and I'm very open to learning about new perspectives and learning more about everything, really. But, yeah, I enjoyed that. That was very cool. I did not know what to expect, but it was good. I get to tell my teacher about it now.

01:03:33 Yeah, I get to be part of your project. Before we split ways, is there any other questions or anything I may have touched on that maybe I didn't you have a question about or I could have explained better or elaborated better on or anything like that? Or just any parting shots? Parting questions?

01:03:57 I don't know. I think you did a pretty good job, honestly. Kind of getting to know your background and where you're from and everything like that. Do you have any questions for me?

01:04:12 No. You were pretty good at keeping things concise. You're definitely a lot more on track than I am. I do have a problem with kind of like seeing a squirrel and chasing it.

01:04:24 Trust me. I used to be the exact same way. You asked me about a shooting guard the other day. Yesterday.

01:04:35 There we go.

01:04:37 So you told me that in high school, you were the person who would get rebounds and kick it out. Well, I would be the person who would be sitting on three point line waiting for someone like you to rebound the ball and I'd receive the pass. I very much appreciate people like you because I am not big enough to get rebounds myself. I can't go for layups, can't get stuck in the trees. That's a big no no for me. Usually I'm one of the smallest ones on the court, so I just sit on the outside. I shoot out there.

01:05:19 Just like that?

01:05:19 Yeah, just like that.

01:05:22 We had a guy on my team who, when he'd take his penalty shots, that is exactly how he shoot. He'd guide it and then flick the wrist. He was a monster of a guy. He was like six, seven or something like that. So.