Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to this week's episode of the Dirt Subies podcast. Got an absolutely wonderful episode for you guys, and i really couldn't be happier about this. This is going to be a good one. Got my buddy, Raph, the host and creator of the Subie and You podcast, which you guys hear me every week.
Speaker: recommending that you guys check out his episodes because he's got a massive catalog. But I had him on the podcast to sort of talk about his car, just talk about life, talk about his his current situation and kind of the history of the podcast a little bit. I really enjoyed this because despite what some people might think, this dude was one of my biggest supporters.
Speaker: when I decided to come out of my comfort zone and my shell and and start doing this. And so this was a huge honor. I just couldn't be any happier to do this. We got into some really cool stuff.
Speaker: think you guys will love it. But before we get into that, I got some quick messages to talk to you guys about. So those of you that are huge on the light bars before lockers movement, you guys need to make sure that your battery situation is on point.
Speaker: I've been running full throttle batteries paired with Mele Design Firm battery boxes and tie downs for probably about five years now. And they are now a proud sponsor of the Dirt Subies podcast. And I got to give them a massive shout out for all their support.
Speaker: And the way that they are doing that is by giving you guys a discount code that you can use for pretty much anything in their online store. Just go to Meleadesignfirm.com, use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout. That will get you 10% off. And I know a lot of you fumbled your bag during Black Friday.
Speaker: This is a way for you to still save a little bit of money. And that literally goes for batteries, battery tie downs, battery boxes, ah strut tower braces, engine bay caps. They sell a lot of really well-crafted parts for Subarus.
Speaker: And I would recommend checking it out even if you just want to spruce up your engine bay. Okay, next up, again, if you fumbled the Black Friday sales that it just ended, you can still save a little bit of money with my buddy Patrick Anderson over at ADF, Anderson Design and Fabrication. If you need a lift kit, ditch light brackets, skid plates, I know a bunch of you need skid plates because you guys are bouncing off rocks, use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout. Their website is awdadventure.com. That will give you 5% off. As far as I know, this is the only discount available
Speaker: for Anderson Design and Fabrication. Patrick does not need to offer a discount on his products at all. They sell so many lift kits. They are top tier in the industry, but he's doing this as a favor to me and as a thank you to you guys.
Speaker: So go ahead, use that code if you want 5% off and enjoy your new lift kit. Now, if you guys will do me a quick favor, if you're not already subscribed to the channel, whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, whatever, could you subscribe and then leave a comment? Let me know. Let me know what you're driving. I want to know what kind of car you're driving and let me know what kind of mods you're driving.
Speaker: And that would actually make my day. So let's jump into this bad boy. Well, gosh, dang it, dude. We're live, man. We're here with the... But the one and only Raf diggity dog. Oh man.
Speaker: Man. Thanks for, thanks for being on here, dude. It's an absolute honor. So of course, appreciate yeah you I Rafael, the host of the Subie and you podcast. And as far as what I do, by I guess I, uh, help the community get connected through the podcast, sharing people's stories and,
Speaker: for people, a place for people to share their stories and a place for people to listen and, and, uh, gotten some brands on to share their stories as well. And as of right now, is this recording? That's about all I do. Cause I don't have a job, man. I've been there, dude. I've been there. I was, i was pretty bummed for you when, uh, when I saw you posted that and actually you texted me, we were texting before you even made that post, but yeah,
Speaker: ah Well, before we get into anything else, man, let's ah let's talk about that a little bit. What was that kind of just that that day like? Can you sort of walk us through kind of what, I mean, obviously that's a horrible, horrible feeling, but how'd that day turn out for you?
Speaker: I actually got to work early that day. So I got to work. Yeah, I got to work like maybe like, I don't know, it was 7.48 or something, maybe 7.45. And we usually, i usually try to show up at eight or a little after.
Speaker: And i know that the guy, the the guys that own it, it's a civil engineer and architectural, and an architect, they meet with this guy in the morning to go over some projects.
Speaker: And he was, I think, and he was there early too, which was, which was odd. But anyway, so i get there and I figured, you know, they're just having their meeting with him. and then the,
Speaker: the And then I was like working and I noticed they were in there longer than usual. And that guy was out that they meet with.
Speaker: And i don't remember what time it was, but I get a Teams message from like the ah HR person. And she was like, hey, can you come down to the small conference room? And I'm like, oh, crap.
Speaker: And so I go down there, walk into the room, and they're just sitting there with like blank face, you know, blank stares on their faces. So I sit down and she was like, Oh, you're early. You're like, you got here early, the first of the three.
Speaker: And I was like, Oh, so I'm like, now I'm thinking like, i I mean, I guess this is going through my head. It's kind of all a blur now. But these two other guys walk through the door and they sit down. They're like, Oh, hey, you know, what's going on? And This one guy was like, well, you know there's really no good way to put this, so I'm just going to be blunt, but you know we failed you guys and all this other stuff, and they were basically saying, we got to let you go. Just a kick in the balls, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. What am I supposed to do now? yeah Yeah, it was very unexpected. And i mean, i think a lot of people know that I was wanting to get out of that job because it was very stressful. i was dealing with stress and anxiety every single day, which I've never dealt with that. Not like that with a job to where it was every single day and being micromanaged, which made the stress and anxiety even worse. Yeah.
Speaker: So in a way it was like, you know, a blessing, but then still it's like, now don't have a job and I don't have something lined up already. So I've been door dashing. Hey there. And you get to spend more time in the, in the track, brother. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, you know, you go from making like a certain amount per hour and then you're making that much per day whatever. Yeah.
Speaker: It's crazy. yeah Well, and what, you know, I know you and I have talked a little bit about kind of your professional life privately, but what exactly were you doing? I was a project manager for a small architectural and engineering firm and, and I got pulled into that role and I think that like, I think I was doing a good job. It could have been better if I would have had support, though, because there was like a huge lack of communication.
Speaker: There was like, you know, no support, no structure, no organization. i mean, I was constantly complaining to the friend that I had that left there, just telling her like, man, it's still bad here.
Speaker: and And we can talk a little bit about this, but man, sometimes the way life works out, we kind of get what we need by force, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and the thing was, too, is like, I was i was like, OK, if I can just suffer through this and and hang out through the end of the year, I could potentially go back to my old job because they couldn't. can't hire right now, but they might be able to hire at the end of the year, or beginning of next year, but there's still no guarantee because they're kind of slow too.
Speaker: Yeah. And how, um, how long had you been with this company specifically? It would have been three years at the end of November. So I started like the week I started the, I guess the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the week of Thanksgiving in 2022. Okay. Okay. So you would have already been there when we first connected and started talking. Yeah. And I mean, getting pulled into that project management role, I, it just, it's stressful, man. I didn't, and it it would have been better still if I would have had more support, but there's just like such a huge lack of support there. And that's, that was the biggest problem.
Speaker: You know, the job that I have currently is just, I don't think I could have come up with a better, you know, group of people to work for. It's, uh, that micromanaging thing that you, that you mentioned that's so far off my radar now. They're just like, well, we just need these outcomes and you just do whatever you need to do. Like, all right, perfect.
Speaker: Yeah, there's there's a lot of things with my old job that I look back now that I complained about that I'm like that was like, shouldn't have been complaining about it. Because there's there's so much about my old job that I really appreciate now that I kind of realized that I took a little bit for granted. And, you know, because it's just ah that's why, you know, if I'm able to go back, it won't be so bad. But yeah, still not really what I want to do.
Speaker: When it, when it was fresh, you know, when you're kind of going through that, uh, you know, the, however many steps there are grief, you know, cause you're, you're losing something that's, that's a big part of your job your life, you know, what's kind of that process looked like, you know, over the last what week and a half, two weeks. Yeah. Week and a half today. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. How, how are you feeling now? What's sort of been the mental, the mental process for you? Yeah, I mean, it's it's been up and down because like when it first happened, and of course, I was in shock and thinking like, what am I going to do now? And but I want to go back up a little bit because my friend that had left and went back to our old job, I was telling her, you know, i don't want to quit because I don't have anything else lined up.
Speaker: But if I get laid off for some reason or I get fired, I'm not overly concerned with it because I know that things will work out. I just I know I'll figure it out. And that's kind of where I'm at now is trying to figure it out. So if you could just snap your fingers, perfect ah job and situation, what would that look like? Would you, is there another career field you want to go into? Or, you know, are you thinking maybe trying to take the podcast to a full-time level?
Speaker: I mean, ideally, it would be nice to take the podcast full time. But, you know, it's it's really difficult. Not I mean, I could just do it full time, but I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. Yeah. yeah But ideally, like I would love to be able to do the podcast. And then I am getting like I'm getting my setup to myself set up to do voiceover. I've gotten Reaper pretty much set up where I need it to be. I just need somebody to help me go through it and make sure it's all good. Let's go. There's other things I've thought about too, man, you know, but ideally, I mean, i think it would be a lot of fun to do voiceover and i think it'd be fun to do characters if I could get into that, you know, wacky character voices and stuff. i just think that would be a lot of fun.
Speaker: That's like the, uh, you know, you grow up like watching, you know, the Simpsons or whatever, and then you get older and you see what the people look like that, that do the, uh, the voices. You're like, Whoa, like it was a woman doing part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. Can you, can you kind of talk about the voiceover thing a little bit? I have, have you done any work yet in that field?
Speaker: Yeah, so i I took some courses. I took one course from this guy who goes by the voiceover beard, and it was a lot of money for not very much return. So I've like learned some lessons along the way.
Speaker: And then there was another guy's courses that I took, and that was kind of you know a lot of money too. and I just, yeah because I didn't know.
Speaker: and And then i was looking at doing like potentially kind of like ah more like, not like audio books or ads or anything, like ah more like technical manuals or, you know, like welcome videos, that kind of stuff. Something that doesn't require like quote-unquote, like, acting for it.
Speaker: Yeah. Just kind of more neutral. And so I think I looked up, like, technical voiceover or something like that, and I came across this woman's, her YouTube channel, and her name's, he because she goes by VoiceOver Angela. So I found her YouTube channel, and then I started looking more into it, and then she has, like, this...
Speaker: you can join her platinum group. And there's like, they have a discord channel and people are in there all the time. There's like a lot of great support. And so I've grown a lot in that, but, and it's only like 20 bucks a month.
Speaker: And so That's what's up. Yeah. Well, that's like grandfathered in now. I think it's more than that. Okay. Because she switched platforms too. But I wasn't like, I haven't really done a whole lot with it just because working full time, doing the podcast, being a dad. Yeah. And just other life stuff. It wasn't a priority, but now I'm digging into it a little bit more. So I did do something for Melee Design Firm.
Speaker: I remember that. yeah Yeah. Mitch was stoked on that. He messaged me. He's like, we're going to get Raf to do this. I was like, that's rad. Yeah. So I was, I was super excited about that and extremely thankful to Mitch because I had reached out to him a long time ago and said, Hey, I'm, you know, pursuing voiceover. If you happen to have any voiceover needs, let me know. and he came to me and said, Hey, I want i want you to do this. So I think I did like four or six videos for them or something. And now it's on a website. I can't remember which website it is, but it's like ah a pretty big website.
Speaker: So I did that. And then this guy named Jan Lim, he was ah on one of my episodes. I can't remember which one it was, but he did a documentary called Between the Lines.
Speaker: And his wife had a little... It was a little grocery store or no restaurant called Manila Food Mart, or I think it's like grocery store slash restaurant. And I did a voiceover read for him, but they ended up going with his wife's niece and they, you know, they used a woman's voice, but he let me keep the file so that I could use it as like a, like part of my portfolio. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So it was like a Filipino thing. Yeah. That's awesome. You ever been to the Philippines? I have not. I've never been out of the U.S. I don't have a passport. yeah Oh, man. Well, at some point, you know, always I used to have a professor in college. He would always use this phrase. He'd say, before you're another day older, you need to check and check out this. You need to check out that. And he would also say, before you die, you have to check this out or check that out.
Speaker: Before we die, we got to go back to the Philippines, man. It is the jam, dude. Good people, good food, beautiful views, awesome beaches. Yeah. I love it.
Speaker: Yeah. I have checked one thing off my bucket list. I did ah i went snowboarding with my son last spring break. Okay. You break anything? Yeah. No, no, I'm pretty sure I bruised my tailbone falling down a lot. And I did, i did jack up my shoulder some from falling and, you know, bracing myself.
Speaker: Yeah, it was worth it it was like It was the first time I'd ever been and first time my son had ever been. And so that was a that was a lot of fun. That is, uh, what decade of life are you in? I'm not going ask your age, but I'm not afraid to say my age. I'm 52. 52. There you go. There you go, man. I have to say, I learned how to snowboard in my early twenties.
Speaker: It's not for the faint of heart. The first two to three times you go up, your tailbone is going to be so pissed at you. I started using, um, ice skating pads.
Speaker: Like, Oh yeah. Dude. I don't know. They make them out of something called like, I think it's MCL rubber or something. It's this high density foam. And, um, put it in. Yeah. We used to ride the park a lot. i' definitely, definitely taken some for the team. Lost a lot of dignity.
Speaker: Um, the, so, The podcast, what what kind of got you into the podcast, that whole thing? You're you're one of the first people that has like taken the Subaru community and put it in podcast form in any sort of meaningful way.
Speaker: So i ah bought my Crosstrek in September of 2020, and I knew that people had accounts for their cars because I was already following a few people with my personal account.
Speaker: okay So I bought my Crosstrek and I was thinking maybe I should start an account for my car. And i don't remember like how soon after i bought my car that I started an account.
Speaker: But i think it was like maybe just a few days or a week. And so started the account, started connecting with more people because I had, you know, a Subaru now and I wasn't using my personal account. Start connecting with all these people and started seeing like,
Speaker: everybody posting photos and talking about places that they went. And then there were some people that were listing like all of their mods. And and so I was thinking, like, I wonder if people would be interested in talking about this. Because at the time, people weren't doing reels. And like, I think maybe very few videos.
Speaker: So I was like, there's got to be a way for people to share more of their Subaru experience. And so... That was like where the idea came from of giving people a place to share more than what you could, you know, share on Instagram. Like you've just got some photos and some captions, but there's more to this than that, obviously, you know? And so, yeah and I had already done a podcast before.
Speaker: And so I already had all the equipment. so I was just ready to go. it was just a matter of finding guests and, you know, thinking, hoping that people would actually like the idea.
Speaker: And I think maybe they did since we're here for over four and a half years later. Yeah. You're in the 300s, right? three hundred No, I'm i'm still in the two hundred s yeah Yeah. I'll be working.
Speaker: i don't know when this episode is going to come out, but I am working on episode 214. Okay. Okay. okay that what What are the statistics about podcasts?
Speaker: It's like 87% of podcasts or something never make it past episode five or some something like that. Yeah. So I think it's like somewhere around 18% of podcasts make it past like episode 20 and then the percentage drops further the more episodes you go. Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah. that's like one of my things, you know, at the beginning of each of my episodes, I always tell people like, yo, there's a massive catalog over here on the Subie and you podcast. Like you can go binge and,
Speaker: you know, get to it. You got a lot of listening to do. And I really, really appreciate that. So, oh do you know, well I've been doing the same, you know, so I've, I had, you know, I've been doing the website since like 2019.
Speaker: And part of what I would do for content on the website is I would talk to people about their builds and get, you know, photos and kind of get their story. Um, but you know, just, Google has changed a lot. The way that people find content is way different now. Yeah. And it was maybe like a year ago or six six months ago maybe is when it really started to – feel like, oh man, I really want to do a podcast, but I was hesitant like for, for a long time because i was like, man, I really don't want it.
Speaker: Like, you know, I don't want anybody to feel like I'm encroaching on the Subie and you podcast or anything. And, uh, you know, we had a conversation about it and just so everybody knows you were like one of the most supportive people when, uh, when I brought it up, cause I just figured like, there's no way he's not going to see that I'm doing this and yada, yada. So.
Speaker: I appreciate all the love and support, man. It means lot. yeah, of course. And, you know, I mean, your podcast is really good because you you get into more of the technical aspect of what we do with these cars, and and and your guests provide a lot of really great information.
Speaker: And mine's more, has been more like on the just kind of story and, you know, behind the the brand or behind the person and the car and what they're doing far as like places they're going.
Speaker: because I don't know a lot of the technical stuff, so I don't really know what to ask. And some people will start getting into technical stuff and say some things, and I'm like, I'm sure that means something, you know? Yeah. I don't know a whole lot, and I haven't done a whole lot, but I'm okay with that, too.
Speaker: You know, and I think the way that you interview people, it's like 180 degrees different from the way I do it. and you You do such a much better job of drawing you know, just information out of people, like you said, about kind of the story and that, that type of thing.
Speaker: And so I appreciate it, you know, that it's like a different style of interviewing and different type of information comes out of people when they, when they sit down with you. So yeah, I'm stoked. They're both good. You know, I mean, it's, it's good, good information for different reasons and it's, ah there's nothing wrong with having more content, you know, and i was glad to see that you were doing it and, ah you know, excited. And then,
Speaker: There were times when I'm like, man, there's another podcast now. I'm not the only one anymore. Oh, no. Yeah. But no, it's ah it's great. Like, you know, totally fully supportive. and And then it was great meeting you in person, which, you know, brought that even more full circle. So, yeah, that's that was super cool, even though it was brief. But, yeah you know, it was I was so thankful to make it out to all the or four of the five overland expos because then i got a chance to meet so many people and you were one of them and that was great yeah it was so funny so i think i've told this story i've probably told you but uh brandon you know star scream yeah he uh you know he had some like top shelf whiskey or whatever at the camp and so and and i don't really drink a lot like if i drink it's usually at home
Speaker: But ah he had some whiskey and I was just smashing whiskey throughout the afternoon. Like, oh, no problem. Like, cause it, I've, to this day, you know, I'm, I'm on the bad side of 30, you know, and ah never drank a drop of alcohol. So I was like 30. Oh, wow. so Yeah, man, it takes a good lot.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. You could just get into a lot of trouble if you're not careful with that stuff. But, you know, it takes a lot for me to feel anything from, from alcohol, but. Yeah, so I was drinking all that whiskey.
Speaker: ah Literally didn't feel a single thing. And then Patrick was like, oh, you want one of these... I think it's like the Alp brand, like nicotine pouches. And I was like, oh yeah, he gave me a nicotine pouch. And all of a sudden I was like, oh, bri so I'm like stumbling around the Subaru, uh, you know, little promenade that they had like, oh gosh, I hope nobody realizes that I look like an idiot.
Speaker: okay Pretty funny, but yeah, no, man, it was, uh, was an absolute blast to meet you. And, uh, yeah, I feel like it's been a long time in the making. So yeah. Yeah. And I was, i was thinking earlier because you mentioned that you had the website and i remember you reached out to me a long time ago and I don't even remember when it was, but You're like, oh, I would love to feature your build. And I'm like, but I don't have a lift. And your website says lifted imports and I'm not lifted. you're like, that's okay. It doesn't matter. I'll still feature you.
Speaker: So i was like, okay, that's cool. I mean, is anybody even going to like my car because it's not lifted, you know? Hey, man, it's got it's got bigger tires on it and it is seen mud and dirt. So that's that's all that matters. So much mud I ripped up and tore up my viscous coupling. Yeah. I was actually going to ask you about that. Let's let, let me, uh, change gears that gears and ask you about that. I change gears every day.
Speaker: six speed manual. bit Yeah. So, so can you kind of talk a little bit about, um, some of the symptoms you were experiencing in the car and all the process you went through before you realized that it was a center diff that was giving you problems? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so I remember exactly where I was when I first noticed the noise because, so my son was taking photography classes in school and he had to do like some sort of a theme.
Speaker: And around Houston, i mean, there's other places too, but they had like these electrical boxes at intersections that were painted. And so he had to have 10 photos of the same type of similar type of thing.
Speaker: So he was like, I want to go around and take photos of these electrical boxes that are painted. So we were hunting for those and we found one. And then we were turning around in this parking lot and it was getting dark.
Speaker: And we were going to park so that we could go walk over to this one. And as I'm turning, I hear this clink, clink, clink, clink. And I was like, what the heck is that? And then, and we had a long drive home too.
Speaker: And so it, but it only did it when I was turning. i noticed it didn't do it while I was driving. But i was like, that's weird. It's never done that before. And so I just started noticing it more and more, but it would only do it whenever I was like, it wouldn't do it when I first started my car. If my car had been sitting for a few hours or sitting overnight and I would turn my car on and I would drive and turn slow, it wouldn't do it.
Speaker: It was only after I'd been driving it for like 30 minutes or something in a car, you know, and the components were warmed up. That's when I would notice it. Cause I would like, when I was going into work, I would have to weave my way over to my parking spot because there was like all these parking islands and stuff and the way that I would get over there. Most of the way that I was going to work was straight.
Speaker: And then i would get to the parking lot and that's when I was driving slow going through these little windy turns to get to my parking spot. And it was like clek clinklink clank, clank, clank clanink clank, as I was turning, going slow. And I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker: I started messaging people that I know have changed a lot of axles like Milton and Kerry, you know, and I think I even messaged Anthony, who goes by Judy the Subie and maybe some other people. But I just said, what does it mean when you're driving slow and turning and you hear clicking noises?
Speaker: And everybody said, oh, your CV axles are going out. But I don't know what that really sounds like because I've never heard anybody's CV axles before.
Speaker: So by my description, they're thinking, oh, it's your CV axle. Apparently you're not supposed to feel it because mine was kind of like I could feel it kind of just moving just slightly as I was turning. I ended up messaging this other guy who knows a lot about transmissions and he said,
Speaker: Oh, I actually first I took it to uh, my shop here in Houston and they drove it around a little bit because it was warmed up by the time I got to their shop and they were like, oh, it's your center diff and you're going to have to replace the transmission.
Speaker: And I was like, oh my gosh, the whole transmission. yeah. Yeah, so like you're gonna have to find a new transmission. So then i messaged this guy that knows a lot about transmission. I was like, hey, they said it's my center diff, you know, this is what's going on. I sent him a video of it. And he was like, oh, it's your viscous coupling. and He sent me a video of an Outback that he had, and his was doing the same thing.
Speaker: And so he was like, no, you don't need a whole new transmission. All they have to do, just buy a new, go on to online, you know some Subaru online parts store. And I think he sent me a link to one of them.
Speaker: And ah he's like, just buy the viscous coupling. Then this is what you have to do to replace it. So that's all they should have to do. You don't need to replace the whole transmission. So I messaged the shop back and I was like, hey, this is what it is. This is what I need to have done. They're like, oh yeah, that's what we told you. And I'm like, well, but so they did say it was a center diff, but they also said I needed a whole transmission.
Speaker: Then when I finally got my viscous coupling in, I posted a picture of it. And in my stories and I said, oh, yeah, I finally found the missing piece to my time machine. And so Paolo, who goes by Rally Trek, he messaged me and he said, oh, you blew up your viscous coupling too.
Speaker: And I'm like, I guess so. But and and I found out that it had to have been from driving through mud very aggressively every time it gets really muddy. And so just, you know.
Speaker: time after time after time of driving through the mud and just slamming the accelerator down and turning, you know, just to because I would, I would usually turn maybe not full lock, but I would turn pretty close to it because I'm like, I want to sling up some mud so that it'll flap on top of my car. Cause I want it to look cool with mud all over it. And so wanting my car to look cool is what tore up my viscous coupling. so you know, there's a lesson to be learned there, I guess.
Speaker: Well, you know, it can happen even to daily drivers. It's funny that we're talking about this because my wife, she's got a, to that actually, she's probably going yell at me from the other room, but it's ah it's a 2012 Outback. It's got the same transmission.
Speaker: Well, almost the same transmission as you have. Same exact thing. And you're exactly right, man. You feel it because- Yeah. It moves a little bit. Yeah. It's not just like a clicking. It's like, I think what's happening is the, um, you know, it's binding up, you know, it's binding up and something's happening. Yeah. You feel it come up through the transmission into the cab a little bit. So note to anybody that thinks they got a bad CV axle, if you can feel it, like if it feels more like a thunk or a thud than it does, just a like light click, um,
Speaker: Center diff time. Yeah. Get that checked out. yeah By the way, congrats. How is it that you, how is it now saying my wife? It's dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. But um yeah, I found a good one, dude. Like I married up substantially. She's way more attractive than me.
Speaker: And, uh, she's, she's like, she's younger than me and more attractive and has like the best heart of anybody I've ever met. So I'm pretty stoked. She'll keep you straight then. Yeah. 100% dude. That's good. That's awesome, man. Yeah, man. Oh, thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah. That was. How long has it been now?
Speaker: Two weeks, two weeks. and Okay. Like four days. Yeah. Don't let anybody ask you, Oh, what's married life like? Dude, it's been two weeks, man. not I'm not yeah supposed to know. Yeah. Give me like two years and ask me. Is there any chance that this career change is going to result in you being able to be closer to your lady I mean, at some point, yeah, I mean, that's the plan because, like,
Speaker: i ah like I'm ready to move up there, you know, as far as, like, just being with her and everything. But with my son being in school and trying to figure out what he wants to do, i don't want to just be like, all right, see you Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I want him to try to kind of figure out where he's going to be, and i want to help guide him. And not that I can't, you know, give him guidance from elsewhere, but You know, i also have like lease that I need to, you know, ride out until that's done.
Speaker: So, ah yeah, there's some some planning stuff is going to have to start coming up soon to figure that out. But yeah yeah, I mean, if I can go back to my old job and I can do that, then they do that primarily remotely, except they have to go in one day to the office and there's an office in Dallas. So that okay that works out well.
Speaker: Yeah, I was going to ask. i I couldn't remember if she lived in the Dallas area. but is Yeah, she does. If you find yourself up there, or is it up or down from where you're at? I don't even know. It's up. Yeah, it's up. Dallas is like almost straight north from where I am.
Speaker: Perfect. Would you be any closer to any um elevation change up there? I mean, it's still Texas, so, you know, still private land. however that's true. There is an off-road park that is probably like 30 minutes from her house that we have actually been to before. Okay. She, me, her, and her daughter went and ah went out there. And it's it's a pretty decent park. So that would be like my best option for going off-roading up there. OHV parks are fun.
Speaker: Yeah. So, I mean, you have to pay for it, but, you know, it could be like maybe a once a month thing or something. or Once every couple of months. More than what I do now. yeah Yeah, man. we So i live I live way out in East Oregon. So I live about two and a half, three hours from from the area where you and I met up at.
Speaker: I live like northeast of there. And it's pretty barren out here. You got you know you got to drive a minimum of like two hours to really get in the woods you know which two hours isn't too bad but i got it's not convenient yeah yeah the in the area i grew up it was like get in the car drive 30 minutes and i'm at some of like the best like most rad world-class off-roading and like forestry type areas you know just the best forest in the united states you know yeah oregon's beautiful
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And it's so easy, you know, to, I tried not to take it for granted while I lived there, but being away from is kind of fostered like an absolutely new appreciation for, for that type of topography, I guess you could call it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when we went out there, we stayed in Sisters, Oregon at the recommendation of Derek. Thanks, Derek. Yeah. Shout out Derek. Yeah. And so like between him and, uh, PNW Crosstrek, Aaron, that's, uh, uh, cause it's, um, Aaron and, oh, now I'm, I can't remember his wife's name, but anyway, so I was talking to Aaron and so between him and Derek, they were giving me recommendations of places that we could go see,
Speaker: And so my thing was like, I didn't want to go anywhere that was like maybe further than an hour and a half away because i didn't want to spend most of the day driving, even though I'm sure like driving, we would have seen some beautiful scenery.
Speaker: Yeah. But I just, I wanted to have more time exploring wherever it was that we were going. So less drive time was better. Yeah, being able to be right in it, like, you know, surrounded by the good stuff.
Speaker: That's where it's at, man. And then we got to drive Frankie and have some fun with Frankie. Thank you, Milton and Kerry. appreciate that. Yeah, i saw that. what ah What was the experience like getting to be behind the wheel of that thing for a couple days?
Speaker: Dude, it was so bouncy. It was so, because they like jacked up the suspension he was telling me. So he said that the ride wasn't as, as smooth, you know, on road. And, uh, cause like we got in it and I, and I started driving at first and, you know, and then you had to figure out the harness cause it's like a racing harness that you pull over both your shoulders and you clip at the top and you clip on the bottom.
Speaker: And so trying to get that adjusted just right. And then, you know, it's it's not like a regular seatbelt where you can kind of move move forward with it. It's like once it's locked in place, it's locked in. So, you know, you're used to being able to move in your car and we'd be like, oh, oh, crap, we can't move.
Speaker: So then like trying to like turn to look behind you when you're turning around was like just trying to move your head and not your body because you can't move. And, but yeah, yeah just driving, it was a lot of fun though. Cause it was, you know, faster than my cross trek and,
Speaker: It was interesting because i don't think the heat was working and it was kind of chilly that night. And so, ah yeah, it was, a you know, and then they took the back seats out and they just got the spare tire back there. So it's just like all metal.
Speaker: And ah the the whole ride experience was a lot different, but it was it was fun when we were able to take it off road and really ah get after it a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker: Track. Cause they do like rally, rally cross events in that car. Like they, they beat the dog piss out of that thing in, in a way that most cars are never abused. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah It's a, it's a different experience. I've driven in a couple of, um, like high horsepower track cars, not necessarily off-road or or rally builds. Oh, dude, you can you can hear the fuel pump going crazy. You can hear the whole interior stripped. It sounds like you're just riding in an Ace Hardware store or something.
Speaker: It's funny. Um, well, that's, let's talk a little bit about your, your Subaru and, you know, i know it's your, your first Subaru. So if you could talk a little bit about, um, how, like what the heck attracted you to these goofy cars and what all have you kind of done to it in the last, you know, what is this five years now?
Speaker: Yeah. So what's funny is this guy, Brian, that I know he and I went and we were test driving cars years ago when we were, maybe like in our late 20s, early 30s or something like that.
Speaker: and he was actually looking at a Subaru. And so we go to the Subaru dealership and I'm just looking around like, why would you want one of these cars, man? They're ugly. you know they really They really are. They're the they're but donor like the ugly redheaded stepchild of the automotive world.
Speaker: Yeah, and so I was just like, what is the attraction to this car? And I don't remember which one he was looking at, maybe the Outback. And I don't even remember what all models there were. there You know, I know there was an Outback and a Forrester at least, but I mean, yeah I don't know what else they would have had there.
Speaker: ah And so that was kind of in it. But then like, you know, later on and... kind of going through the years, I remember seeing WRX hatches and STI hatches and thinking like, what's the difference between WRX and STI?
Speaker: Didn't really know. I just knew that the STI was faster and had more horsepower and stuff. Yeah. And then, and so I remember seeing those and, and I, you know, I didn't really pay attention to anything else.
Speaker: And then one day I was coming coming back from work or coming back from lunch at work, coming down the stairs from the parking garage. I turned the corner and I see this orange Crosstrek.
Speaker: And it was in 2013 because that's when they were released here in the U.S. And I see it and I'm like, what the heck is that? Because I had never seen anything like it. You know, the body style was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
Speaker: And then it had all the black cladding. And so I was just like, this thing is like just the coolest thing I've ever seen. And so i I guess that, you know, because like on the left-hand side of the hatch, it says Subaru. And on the right side, it says Crosstrek.
Speaker: And so I don't remember if I even saw that it said Crosstrek, but I knew that it was a Subaru, I guess. And maybe I went and looked it up online to see what it was. But I just remember over the years, I started like doing more and more research into it.
Speaker: And then years later, I was thinking like, why didn't I look for a Crosstrek when I bought the car that I had at the time? And then was like, oh, yeah, i bought my car in 2012. And they didn't release them in 2013.
Speaker: But I started watching videos of cross track. Let me start that over. I started watching videos of of stock cross tracks, like going through mud and going through snow, knowing that I wouldn't have snow to drive through.
Speaker: But just like seeing like, what is this car capable of? Because I didn't even really know much about the all wheel drive system. I just knew that it looked cool and that it could go off road. And I was seeing, you know, what it could do through these videos. And I was like, okay, that's going to be my next car.
Speaker: Dude, ah I love that. did Do you have like, is there a car even back in your childhood? Have you, have you, always been a car person or was there a car that you remember seeing at some point that really got your gears turning of like, oh, I like this automotive thing?
Speaker: i probably I would probably say like Camaros back in the day, like seeing like the 69 through like 72 Camaros. Because like the body changed the body style changed from the late 60s to the early 70s. And I liked them both.
Speaker: And as far as like early childhood, I don't really remember like thinking about cars too much. It wasn't until I got like into my early teens that I started noticing cars.
Speaker: Because I remember, ah like, you know, just seeing, like, the Z28 and the Irox and stuff like that. And I was like, man, these things are cool. This was, like, back in 85. But then also, you know, recognizing and noticing, like, the older cars and stuff, too.
Speaker: And so, like, I've always loved classic cars for that reason, just seeing them around and stuff like that. Man, you got to live through um one of the craziest eras just in, like – technological advances, automotive body styling changes, you know, that I was born in the late eighties. And so I got to see some of the, you know, early and mid, you know, nineties, uh, stuff sort of take place. But, uh, I find the eighties to be kind of like the pinnacle of, Oh dude, it's like, yeah, exactly, man. It's kind of the pinnacle of, um,
Speaker: american culture in my opinion no everything was just so crazy you know lamborghini coontoshes were sort of like the supercar we all had on our on our uh walls you know just just crazy stuff like that definitely and irox bro that's like the ultimate oh you know yeah chain smoking like perm haired mom car you know like i would love to have one of those yeah Yeah. They were awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: What, um, you know, you kind of alluded to it earlier. I know your car's not, not lifted currently, but, um, what all have you done to the car to sort of outfit it for, you know, what you use it for?
Speaker: Okay, so I'll start at the beginning. The first thing that I ever bought to do anything to it was i bought a i bought two decals from Orsini Vinyl and Designs. I bought the one that has, it says the world is flat and it has like the piston on it. Yes. And I have that on the inside of my hatch because I didn't want to put anything on the outside at first.
Speaker: And then i bought a Save the Manuals decal. And bought white one. And then i was, I think I was going to put it on the glass maybe. But then my girlfriend was like, are you sure you want to put a decal on your car?
Speaker: She's like, what if you put it on... a magnet and and cut the magnet out. And then that way you can put it on your car and then take it off if you want to. And I was like, okay, you know, that's a pretty good idea. So, so that's what I did. So I, I put that on there and then, and then I found eccentric designs and started, I don't remember what decals I bought first from her, but I started, you know, talking to her about decals and everything.
Speaker: So I know I, oh, it may have been the Texas ones possibly because you've got the reflectors down at the bottom that are pretty big in the second gen. And I saw on her website that somebody had some outline of a state. and I don't remember which one it was. And I messaged her and I was like, hey,
Speaker: can you do a Texas? She's like, yeah, of course. So I bought the Texas ones from her and then bought a few more. And then this is a little sidebar, but started getting into conversations about asking her to be my first guest on the podcast, which is what kicked it off.
Speaker: So I did decals. And then i got, let's see, i had, ah I'm trying to remember like I had Primitive Racing on at episode 20 and i was talking to Blake and everything. And at the end of the episode, I was like, hey, yeah is there any, you know, do you do any sponsorships or anything? And he was like, i actually wanted to talk to you about that. And I was like, okay, cool. He said, I'd like to give you a full set of skid plates as like, you know, ah you know, like my form of sponsoring the podcast and your build.
Speaker: And I said, okay, well, I so why can do some like ad reads, you know, because he was awful so he was also offering like an additional 5% off. Because like if you bought... If you bought at the time, if you bought two skid plates, I think you got like 5% off. And then if you bought three skid plates, you got 10% off.
Speaker: But then if you bought all three skid plates and you used my discount code, then you got like an additional 5% off. Nice. And so he was doing that for a certain period of time. And I said, oh, I can do like an ad read for you. He's like, no, you don't need to do all that. You know, it just...
Speaker: We can just like put the, you know, you can put it in your show notes or something that you have the the discount code and we can advertise it somehow. And I was like, yeah, but I mean, you're giving me a full set of skid plates. So I want to be able to like let people know and just my way of saying thank you for, you know, on every episode until that, that ends.
Speaker: So, but I also wanted to make it sound like, you know, hey, my podcast is kind of legit because I have a sponsor now, you know? so so that was like my first kind of like ad read. And then, ah anyway, so skid plates and then what else? Oh,
Speaker: So as a thank you for doing the podcast, there were quite a few people that came together very early on because like you know they knew that I couldn't really afford to buy anything for for the podcast or for my car.
Speaker: So, and you can hear me talk about this on episode 25, which is like where I was the guest. Oh, that's OG. But yeah, super OG, almost 200 episodes ago.
Speaker: But several people came together. I think it was like maybe eight or nine people or something. And they all pitched in and they basically like pulled together some funds and they sent it to me as a thank you for starting the podcast. Sick. And so with that money, I was able to buy a new set of wheels. i bought my first set of wheels were Mayhem wheels.
Speaker: Okay. And then I bought a set of tires. And then I think i think i bought i'm trying to marry i don't think oh i bought my rooftop basket and maybe the crossbars or something. Sick.
Speaker: So, so yeah, so the first like actual thing that I added was before the skid plates was I added crossbars and the, the, you know, I, so I wanted to put crossbars on there before, kind of like forward thinking to a basket.
Speaker: But the reason that I put crossbars on at the time that I did is because I wanted to put Christmas lights on my, on my roof. Sick. I tried it with stringing them across like the front and just doing it along the side rails, but they ended up like flapping on the roof. Gotcha. You know, just trying to stretch them across the crossbars.
Speaker: Okay. I mean, that yeah, from one side rail to the other side rail. And I was like, well, if I had crossbars and I can do it on the crossbars and I don't have to stretch it across the roof and they won't flap on the roof. So that's why I bought crossbars so that I could put Christmas lights on And then i was like thinking at some point I'll get a basket. And so then I got a basket and then, you know, so I don't, I don't remember what the order was, but so it was like skid plates, wheels and tires, roof, are roof rails are the crossbars.
Speaker: Then eventually a basket, and then had like a Y-strap for a long time on the basket to hold my tire down and my spare tire. And then I eventually got the Yakima tire rack from ah Go Trekking, I think. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker: and And then eventually got the Spider no-drill roof rack and then got um Iron Man quick release things for an awning. Okay. Because then I got an awning from Yescom USA. Okay.
Speaker: And then, and I think that's pretty much, oh, and then I got a custom shift knob. Nice. <unk>s What's the shift knob? Tell about that. I'm trying to remember the guy's name and his page because I have to go back and look.
Speaker: But he did like he does like a ah ah bunch of different um materials and he has a laser engraver. And so it just it says pearl on it.
Speaker: And that was yeah, that was what I got. so That's super sick. Haven't done a whole lot to the inside, but the ah the outside is, you know, where I've done it the most. Yeah, and I know you, so ah your first set of wheels were Mayhems. What are you running now? I know you switched that up a little bit. I've got the Rika Tetons. They're the satin black Tetons, and they're 15-inch.
Speaker: Okay. And I got those as, you know, part of a sponsorship from Rika Wheels, which is super, super cool. Yeah. and And I've been running Toyos ever since. Toyos are the tires that I've been running since I switched tires, and I'm on my second set now.
Speaker: And then i also on the weo wells, I have easy flares that my buddy Jay, who goes by audiophile, he sent me a set of those because he had an extra pair.
Speaker: Thank you, Jay. I've used the easy flares, man. They actually work good. They work good and they look good, dude. Oh yeah. Yeah. They look good. It was, uh, I was so intimidated putting them on too, because it kept saying like, to like do it at a certain temperature and to like use a hairdryer to like warm them up and everything.
Speaker: And and and ah ultimately, I ended up not doing that. I just stuck them on. And they've been on fine. I was like, why was I? I get I started thinking through things too much sometimes.
Speaker: And ah and then I'll eventually just do something. And I'm like, I should have just done this all along then trying to overthink it. But yeah that's the way it goes sometimes. That's how it was for me the first time I pulled an engine out and started you know learning how to wrench. was like, why did I wait until my 20s to start doing this? This is sick, and it's not as mystical as they make it seem. I mean, you've got to take your time and and make sure you have access to...
Speaker: the right information but oh dude once you just get in and start doing stuff it feels good man when you're finished oh yeah i'm the i'm basically a god among men you know yeah i mean my son changed out his uh spark plugs on his um his 3.6 outback he did 98 of the work himself nice yeah and i've you know was hearing that it was a beast to do those I know in the three sixes, cause I mean, that's a big, a big engine to stuff horizontally into an engine bay. And I mean, the car is literally the exact same dimensions as the two five, you know, chassis. Yeah.
Speaker: But that's impressive. Yeah. He, uh, he did it and we saved $300 in labor. so that was good Yeah. were ah Were you there for for that process? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Did you helped out like 2% of it.
Speaker: I mean, yeah. It's the only thing that was like, so the third, the third yeah i guess, like spark plug that's closest to the firewall on the passenger side, the ah the coil pack, we had a really, really hard time getting it out.
Speaker: Yeah. Because the other ones we were able to pull out, but for one, you don't have a whole lot of room. So I'm like literally just using my fingertips and trying to pull it out. And I'm like, this thing will not come out. So I eventually took a pair of pliers, like, you know, the the pliers that you can adjust. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And then I got a paper towel because I didn't want to like really damage it. And I put the paper towel over the the coil pack and then grabbed it with the pliers just kind of gently and just slowly worked it out. And it finally came out.
Speaker: Dude, that is how you have to approach everything when it comes to wrenching. It's like, it's never going to go as smooth as it's supposed to in the in the manual. You're going to have to improvise. You know, you're going to have to...
Speaker: Like you said, wrap, wrap a rag, wrap a towel, wrap something around some pliers and start yanking on something. you're go You know, you have to use a bunch of extensions, you know, whatever it takes, man.
Speaker: Yeah. But, uh, other than that, and then the sixth, I guess it's the sixth the one, which is on the driver's side, you know, closest to the driver. Mm-hmm. it I mean, it's so tight in there. And so we had like a, you know, like Swivel. Yeah, swivel.
Speaker: But it would like swivel like halfway and then get kind of stuck and then you'd have to like work it and then it would come loose and then it would swivel the other way. So I did that for a little bit and then my son got in there and got it out the rest of the way. But that was pretty much all I did. He took everything off that he needed to take off to get to the spark plugs and to get to the coil packs.
Speaker: tookck all I mean, he did all of it. And I mean, we had watched a couple of videos beforehand, but once we saw how to do it, they were like, you know, this is, it's not going to be, I mean, it was easy in the sense of it wasn't like too technical. yeah It was just difficult in the fact that it was such a tight space that it was hard to get stuff in and out.
Speaker: But other than that, I mean, I think it took us like four and a half hours total, okay which, ah you know, not too bad for doing it for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. Did you guys have to, because I see people, i've I've never worked on a three six. That's, that's actually a really good motor side note. But did you have to yeah, yeah. Did you have to um unbolt the engine and then lift at all? Or were able to do all of that?
Speaker: I've heard that that's the best way to do it or like you to get to them easier to do that. But no, we just left it in place. That's rad. Yeah. Can you, can you sort of talk a little bit about, you got two kids, right?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what, uh, what are they driving now? I know you brought them over to the dark side. Yeah. so my daughter got her car first and she, she was actually looking at a RAV4 and cause she really liked them. And then she was like looking into, ah you know, potentially getting an all wheel drive, but with the RAV4, you have to pay additional for the all wheel drive.
Speaker: and And I know that, you know, of course, i had an influence on her buying a Crosstrek. But she started looking into the new Crosstrek, and she really started to like them because she was looking at the Crosstrek and the RAV4.
Speaker: Then she started leaning more towards the Crosstrek, and then she was like, I think I'm going to get a Crosstrek. And there was a blue one and I think like a gray one that she really liked. Okay. We were going to go to Gilman Subaru Southwest in Houston because I knew the general sales manager.
Speaker: And so she's looking at the the two colors that she wanted. And I think they had one of them, but not the other. And then I was like, well, you know, let's go to the dealership because they may have some colors that you aren't thinking about or haven't seen that you may end up liking. You just yeah never know. so let's just go. And then we get there and the sales manager, he had left. He wasn't even there anymore. Dang it, man. We drove like all the way over here because I wanted to see him. i was thinking, you know, he would rake.
Speaker: really take good care of us because he knows who I am yeah and then he wasn't there but we still ended up having a good experience but she saw the sun blazed pearl which is like that kind of orangey reddish color and she fell in love with it and then that's the one she ended up getting the premium but not the 2.5 premium she got the 2.0 premium okay well yeah but yeah she loved it yeah and the and the paint codes man they look They look different in person. You know, it's a different experience when you actually put hands on the car.
Speaker: Yeah. Totally different. And we hadn't seen that color. That's the thing. Okay. We got there. She'd never seen that color before. So when she saw that, she was like, I'm really liking this color a lot.
Speaker: She was like, oh no, i liked the other colors, but this one is is calling me more. So yeah, so she she test drove the 2.5 at first. And then, because we started with that, because she wanted to look at like what the financing would be.
Speaker: And then she was like, yeah, that's out of my budget. So then we looked at the 2.0. And for her, she's not like... I have to have a car that's like, you know, this much faster having the 2.5.
Speaker: You know, for her she just wanted a brand new car that was going to have a lot more features than what she was, you know, previously driving. And so, you know, she, it worked out for her with the 2.0 and financing and everything and, and ah drove it home and, and she just, she loves it.
Speaker: And she's putting a lot of miles on it too. I mean, she's taken after you. She's yeah. She's had it for, I think, I think she bought it in April. So she's had it not quite two and a or not quite a year and a half. It's close to a year and a half. And I think she's like at 25,000 miles or so. So yeah, she's getting up there. So quick side note. I know you love to talk about the mileage on the Subaru. What's it at today or the last time you looked?
Speaker: I think 137, maybe somewhere around there. it's only five years old. I love that Yeah. Yeah. ah so So that's hers. And then Luke has the 2010 3.6 Outback. and And I bought that from Sean, who goes by Clean Man Hands. Shout out, Sean.
Speaker: I'm going him right now. Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he yeah he lives like north of me in Texas. And he will buy Subarus, fix them up and then sell them. And so he's always posting that, you know, he's got and another Subaru for sale.
Speaker: so And I messaged him like two years ago, I think. And I said, hey, if you have anything that's like in the five to $7,000 range, that's in you know good condition and everything, just let me know.
Speaker: And so he had just posted it. And then he messaged me and said, hey, I have this Outback available. If you want to come take a look at it. And so he was like, I'll need like X amount of money down to hold it, you know, because I've dealt with that before where people are like, oh, can I just, you know, look at it or whatever? Yeah.
Speaker: And he said, I just don't want to get burned. And was like, oh, I totally understand. So I like Venmo'd him the money and then went to the bank and got the rest of it and took Luke up there and and bought it for him for his birthday.
Speaker: dude. think it was for his 18th birthday. So, yeah, it was cool. He was... He was kind of upset about it at first because he'd been driving a yeah ah like a 2003 Dodge Caravan.
Speaker: And, you know, he started driving it his senior year in high school. So he kind of become attached to that. And, you know, all of his friends knew him with that car and everything. So it was kind of like I was taking that away from him, which I get it, you know. It's like your first car that you get to drive around and drive your friends around with. So it's like there's an attachment, you know, an emotional attachment to it. But, you know, he's grown to like the Outback and he can go off-roading with it, which he has before. And it's funny because, like, he's gone through places with friends that have, you know, gotten stuck. And they're like, man, it just goes right through. And he's like, yeah, you it's a Subaru. It's got all-wheel drive.
Speaker: Dude, and you knocked it out of the park with that car. The, um, was that fourth? I can never keep all the gins of the Outback straight. I was just talking about this with somebody because legacy, I can keep legacy straight because it wasn't until second gen legacy that they created the Outback as like a, uh, trim package.
Speaker: Yeah. start and So I, um I'm always a ah generation ahead or behind with it, but, I think that's such a good um and generation. And that three, six it's got a ton of power.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Just, Oh dude. And that's such a rare car, you know, which is, which is a pro and a con cause it's harder to find parts for, but, uh, if you take care of it, you probably won't have to do a whole lot of, um, eBay hunting for parts. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, he's he's got 206,000 miles on it or something. We bought it when it had 199. Okay. And we've had some some issues with it, but we've ah we've done some work on it. And I told him, I said, look, if we had a car that had no issues at all, we wouldn't have learned anything.
Speaker: and Yeah. you know So we've been learning a lot with his car and my car. Yeah. And honestly, man, I got, I got, I own three vehicles and they're all technically projects, but I wouldn't have it any other way, man. Like I'll trade, you know, like the amount of money I would spend on a car payment goes straight into my retirement account every month, you know, like, yeah, that's good. It just feels so good to be like, Oh, I'm the reason this car is still running, you know? yeah. Yeah. Being like, yeah, I got my hands dirty. I left skin under the, you know, in the engine bay of that car. And that's why it still has life in it. Yeah. We also, in addition to his his spark plugs, his ah AC discharge hose burst one time.
Speaker: i and You put that in a bonus episode, right? Yeah. Yeah. yeah And it it burst and he was downtown and I had to call AAA to get it towed because... I called Milton and I had Milton FaceTime Luke because I was like, I don't have no idea what's going on. And so Milton was like looking at it and I was like, you know, we just want to know if he can drive it home, you know, or what. and he was like, absolutely do not drive that car.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, thank goodness I have AAA. So we called They came out and then dropped it off. The next day, i went out on my lunch break and went to, i had to find, there's a dealership that's like maybe 20 minutes from me, West Houston Subaru. And I was looking for the AC discharge hose.
Speaker: They didn't have it. They said, oh, we can get it like in a couple of days. And I was like, I need one now. And so I found another dealership that was further away. So I drove out to that one, picked it up. brought it back. And that night we changed it out ourselves. and he And he, again, did most of the work himself and ah got it done.
Speaker: That's awesome. And did you guys recharge it yourself or did you take it somewhere? No, we took it. There was a place across the street that did it for us. Yeah, because we weren't really sure exactly how we would need to recharge it. And we were told by, I think it was Jacob Redneck with tech. He said, no, you should take it to a shop and have them do it. I said, okay, that's cool.
Speaker: I'd rather have, make sure it's done right. Yeah. Yeah, i I figured out how to do um AC recharges last year. And there's a lot of weird little nuances to where if you don't do it right, you can either go blind or or have to do it all over again if if you're not careful. But it's it's a little more of an involved process than just dumping stuff in it like most other things. So I think you, you, you probably made the right call, but yeah, it's. Yeah. I spent, I spent $200 the first day getting the, getting the hose. And then the next day, another $200 for the recharge. I'm like, yeah. And I just dropped some money on this car in two days.
Speaker: Do you know why the thing, um, burst? I don't know if like if it was because of pressure or if that hose was just old or what. and yeah I don't know why it did it, but he just he was down there and he was like, there's steam coming out from underneath my hood. And I was like, oh crap. And I said, okay, well, pop the hood. Let me know if you see any green fluid anywhere. yeah And he was like, no, I don't see any green fluid. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, I do. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, no. He didn't. Yeah. he He wasn't sure what it was at first, because when he once when he opened the hood by that time, like all the fluid had come out of the hose and, you know, I guess whatever it was being pumped through there.
Speaker: So he didn't see it spewing out, but it had gotten like all over his battery and some other stuff and. But yeah, I mean, changed it out and got Milton to help us with some of it, to you know, diagnose what it was.
Speaker: And then Jacob helped walk us through how to like change it out and some of the things that we needed to move to get to the bottom part of the hose and everything. So everybody's been like super helpful with everything that we've done to our cars.
Speaker: Yeah, dude, that's my, that's one of my favorite things about Subarus and the Subaru community is like, the because I run into so much stuff, you know, that, you know, because i I don't have any formal training at all. I just started messing with cars probably.
Speaker: probably to my own detriment i've probably cost myself more money than if i just paid somebody else to do it but i like the i like the process but yeah yeah yeah 100 and like there's almost always somebody that i can call and be like hey i've never run into this before what do you think you know yeah i love that everybody's so helpful Oh, dude, absolutely. i There's maybe in all my years, because I've been driving these cars, man, I hate to say it, but almost 20 years. It makes me feel like an old man.
Speaker: But yeah, in all my years, there's maybe only been one person in the Subaru community that I was like, I didn't really care for that guy. but Yeah, it's it's rare.
Speaker: Yeah, he wasn't even actually a Subaru dude. he was more of a stance guy that just happened to own a Subaru. um I forgot to ask about this. We got to give a big shout out to Mitch and to Melee.
Speaker: What are you running for a battery setup in your car? Oh, yeah, we could talk about that. Yeah, let's go. ah So the first thing that I got from Mitch was the the battery mount. And he made that for me. he yeah Because it it was like one of the first production ones that they were starting to make. It's the Group 35, I think, for the Crosstrek.
Speaker: And he put he etched the Subi and You podcast logo on the front, which is super, super cool. Shout out, Mitch. Thank you so much, man. Let's go, dude. Super, super cool. So I had that in there with my OEM battery.
Speaker: And then, ah and then like, oh, yeah. So I'm thinking back now, like maybe this was a sign. But on my way to my job interview for the job I just got laid off from,
Speaker: I got a flat tire and I had to pull off the, I was driving on 99, which here is a toll road. So it's like a highway. So it's got, you know, it's elevated from the like frontage road. So I pulled off onto the frontage road.
Speaker: I'm wearing slacks, a long sleeve shirt. I've got my tire up on my roof rack. So I had to climb up onto my roof rack, unratchet it, and you know, take it all off and everything.
Speaker: And then change my tire. get all that done. and then i get into my car and it doesn't start. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So i had one of those, uh, I had one of those like anti-gravity little chargers, battery chargers.
Speaker: Thankfully I bought that from Mitch before the, before the battery. And, but after the, uh, the, uh, battery mount. So I hooked that up to it, starts my car again, thankfully.
Speaker: uh, ended up driving on to, to the interview and everything. Uh, but so after that, I'm like, I've got to get a new battery.
Speaker: So I ended up getting one of the, uh, crap. What's it called? full throttle. Yeah. Full throttle battery. And it was like,
Speaker: It was kind of pricey, but Mitch was like, this battery will last you forever. So I ordered that battery from him. So then I had the battery mount, then the full throttle battery.
Speaker: Then i eventually got a pitch stop from him. so I chased out the pitch stop with his and Luke helped me with that. So that was cool. Okay. And then i did the front strut tower brace.
Speaker: And then i have a full set of engine bay caps. Let's go. so So, yeah, I'm running some melee stuff in there. Yeah. ah It's cool. I've got the same setup, actually. I've got all the same parts that that you mentioned. I don't have a Group 35.
Speaker: in either of my Subarus, they're slightly smaller, but I do own a group 35 full throttle. That's, uh, it's in the back of my Jeep. Nice. But yeah, I just, um, you know, i was telling you, I was out of town this past weekend to kind of say goodbye to the, to the homie.
Speaker: And yeah, man, I'm sorry about that. That's, uh, thank you. i appreciate it. I just feel, feel horrible for his, for his parents, man. Yeah. But, um, yeah, I got home.
Speaker: And yes, it was just mentally exhausting, you know, because of course. Yeah. Spent time with, I hadn't cried in a long time, man, but went into the hospital room and he was, you know, just there on a morphine drip in a coma.
Speaker: um But yeah, spent time with his mom, spent time with his dad and his dad, handles grief a little bit differently so I didn't really know what I was walking into when I went to hang out with him he's he's such a good dude they're all good people his whole family but I got home and I was just drained you know it was about three and a half hour drive to get there and about three hours back because there was no traffic and I got home went straight into the house didn't leave the house for like well I didn't drive any of my cars I just rode with my wife but
Speaker: Straight up left the dome light on, dude. Oh, man. Left the dome light on. I drained. It's a full throttle FT410, so it's slightly smaller than the battery that you have.
Speaker: Dude, I drained that thing further down than any battery I've ever drained because it just sat there for days with the with the light on. And I was like, this might've done it. This might've killed the full throttle battery, but got the no co out, put it on the charger for a few hours, came out. That line was a green, tested it with the, with the ah multimeter, see what the, see what the voltage looked like. And it was good, man. Started up, been driving it the last couple of days. Nice.
Speaker: Good battery there, dude. And that, that battery has been discharged all the way down. Probably. two other times, dude, that, that poor battery is probably just wishing it had to do a new owner. It's like, come on, please sell the car to somebody. That's not a an idiot. he's Stop doing this to me, man. come on. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I've got the strut tower braces and pitch stop mounts on, um, both my Subarus and Indubay caps, man. I just, I love having stuff for Mitch cause he's, you know, it's still a small, small company. And, um,
Speaker: You know, having things that are a little more bespoke and small batch. I'm like, oh yeah, i want that, you know? Yeah. And I got to meet him finally in Oregon for the first time, which was super, super cool.
Speaker: Yeah. It was great getting to meet him, have get him on the mic for a little bit. But like... Like with my car, i don't need the front strut tower brace. I just, I wanted to buy it because I want to help support him and it looks cool.
Speaker: And then same with the engine bay caps and the pitch stop. You know, I didn't really, didn't need either one of those, but it's just, you know, it's, it's, I like supporting small businesses and he's been so good to me and so good to the podcast. And so, uh, you know, he's just, he's been such a great guy through this whole thing and always very supportive. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. He was my first supporter and I know he was one of your earliest supporters of what you were doing. And he's, he's that kind of dude, you know, even when he's, uh, cause I, I work for him occasionally, like on the side just to, um, help him with like running ads and things like that. Cause as a business owner, the last thing you want to think about is,
Speaker: Oh no, what are the new, what's the new like update on these? Cause Google's always changing their platform. It's they're always yeah morphing it, but I have my face in that stuff all day.
Speaker: And, um, even when they've had like a super bad sales month or whatever, where, you know, when the economy's rough, he's still like looking for opportunities to, you know, support people like us, you know, scoundrels that are just talking for fun. Yeah. yeah Oh yeah. Yeah. No, he's, he's a great guy. Oh man. Yeah. Massive shout out to Mitch and melee dude. I, I love those guys.
Speaker: What are some of the, um, other, I guess like companies, groups, I know you've done some work with Subaru of America.
Speaker: um what other, uh, groups have you sort of, ah collaborated with and what's that sort of looked like for you? Uh, so, you know, eccentric designs has been one of them. Of course, she's ah a huge supporter of the podcast and sponsors it. And I've got, you know, a few of her decals on my car and then, uh, uh, Morimoto lighting.
Speaker: So I had them on the podcast and i remember that episode. Yeah. It good one. and Really good. yeah it was good. So they, they sent me some things and, uh, like they sent me, uh,
Speaker: So they sent me a ah set of ah LED headlights. And do you do you happen to know if you can angle them down or if you can move the position of them? Or once you put them in, they're in?
Speaker: are they just bulbs that lock into your housing? like, Oh yeah, there's, you should be able to adjust it the way you'd adjust any, um, and I don't know how that, I don't know how that works. So the reason I ask is, is I get flashed all the time because they are really bright and I guess they're maybe too high up and I flash people back and then they'll flash me and then I'll flash them like a whole bunch of times. I'm like, I don't have my brights on. They're just LEDs and they're angled wrong, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker: But and i because for a long time, I thought that it was my my ah my fog lights because I had those in, you know, and I thought maybe my fog lights are, you know, blinding people. Maybe they're too high because I've, you know, they're they don't seem as adjustable as like the yeah or as easily adjustable as the diode dynamics because I think those you can just adjust them from the front. Like you can push them.
Speaker: But these, you have to go back behind and do it on the housing, and it's kind of a little bit of a pain. Okay. But, yeah, so so with them, i yeah so I have a set of fog lights, a set of ditch lights. and then But those, the fog lights were a gift, but not from Morimoto's.
Speaker: Okay. The ditch lights I bought. And then they sent me like some sunglasses and some gloves and like a little coffee mug. And then they sent me this little light bar that you attach to the license plate and you hook it up to your ah reverse light. Okay. And it's basically like a mini light bar for reversing. Sick. So that you can see behind you because I remember being at an Airbnb when we went to...
Speaker: think me and my kids went to Austin or something one time and I'm backing up in this driveway and it's, there's no lights on the house. It's really late at night. And I'm like, I can't see anything at all behind me.
Speaker: Yeah. And so that's something that I, I still need to get put on and wired on because like, there's been so many times when I'm backing up and I just can't see. So that'll be nice. But, uh, yeah, see so I've, I've worked with them.
Speaker: And then of course, Spider No Drill Roof Rack had him on the podcast. And he sent me a rack before I drove up to Subaru Flatfest in Madison, Wisconsin.
Speaker: And... I wanted to like, and then and then I made like little ah display things with like a ah QR code so that people could scan it if they, you know, and had like a little blurb on there and what the dis discount code was and stuff.
Speaker: Because I was the only one at the event that had a spider no drill roof rack on my roof. Sick. Because I wanted like, you know, shout them out and represent them and everything. And then it was when I drove back from there that I had all the leaks and everything. I was going to ask you to reiterate about that in a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah. So, so spider and then, of course, Ryker wheels, um, had them on the podcast and they're just such a super great company. And I got to see them at Overland Expo and hang out with them a little bit. And, um,
Speaker: I don't think there's really been any other brands other than, ah you know, Mitch and and ah Primitive Racing. But, I mean, I've had other brands on the podcast, but none that I've, like, actually collaborated with that I can think of, you know, other than, of course, Subaru Gear, which is shout-out to Subaru Gear. It's, like, amazing that I got them as a sponsor and so grateful for that. yeah yeah bucky shirt let's go dude yeah dude bucky i really enjoyed your episode with him thank you thank you yeah yeah that was that was an absolute and you did travis and rihanna and done some heavy hitters man bucky is um you know i grew up skating like skating and snowboarding nice and so getting to see you know i
Speaker: kind of quit doing that when I went back to school and was trying to sort of like dial in a career path. And, um, you know, later on I saw some things pop up from Bucky. I was like, that dude drives Subarus now. Like, heck yeah. So it was super, super good to, to hear him kind of talk about all that on your, on your podcast. He, he's definitely a good human being.
Speaker: Yeah. and And I don't know how much I know I've shared this some on the on some episodes here and there. But so so Subaru flew me out to Boxer Fest in 2021.
Speaker: OK. And that was where I was introduced to Bucky. That's where I first met him. And ok this guy, Charles from Subaru was walking with me. He was like, Hey, I'm going to go introduce you to somebody.
Speaker: and he's like, Hey, Bucky. Or he's like, Hey, this is Bucky. You know, and Bucky, this is Raphael. And Bucky was like, are you the guy that does the podcast? And he like reaches out, shake my hand. I'm like, that's crazy dude, Bucky Lastic knew who you were. That is so crazy. I think it was just because Charles probably told him like, Hey, I'm going introduce you to this guy. Cause But so this was, so when I first met Bucky, the knowledge that I had of Bucky, like what I knew of him was that I remembered seeing him skate during X Games.
Speaker: That's it. That's all I knew about him. And I think that I, I think before I met him though, I intentionally went and like looked up some stuff and i saw that, or no, it wasn't even then. It was, it was before I had him on the podcast that I did this other thing. But But yeah, when I met Bucky, all I knew of him was that he skated at X Games. And I remember seeing him. That was it.
Speaker: And then it wasn't until like I started going through this journey more and more that I'm like, oh, my gosh, Bucky is like a huge deal. Dude. You know, i because I just didn't know. So I wasn't like because I know a lot of people are like, oh, my gosh, it's Bucky Lastic, you know, and they start freaking out.
Speaker: I was just like, oh cool. I met Bucky Lassick. I don't know who he is. you know kind of You know, he's, um, so any kind of extreme sport, there's a very short career path for the, it's just like football, you know, they've got, um, there's a lot of demand on your body, but also the sport progresses like crazy, you know? And that guy, and think he first started getting,
Speaker: uh, sponsors in the skateboarding world back when skateboards had only, you know, one curve in them, you know, yeah and to see somebody kind of progress through the decades and, you know, still have a successful career and he still tears it up on the vert ramp. It's,
Speaker: I'm always posting. i mean, he's, he's creeping up, I think on, and on your age. He is my age. He's, uh, he's also 52. I think he's a little, I think his birthday is before mine or after it's either before mine or after nine, but right now we're both 52.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. I don't think, yeah yeah I knew he was getting up there in age, but you know, he just is like, um, I guess like an inspiration to me, you know, somebody that's just done so much in, you know, in their life. And he's always, I think he's always been just like a, um,
Speaker: Like a positive dude, you know, because the skateboarding world when I grew up was a real negative negative environment and, you know, that type of thing. But yeah, yeah, he's a he's a solid dude for sure. maybe Maybe one of these days I'll have to fly out to one of the events that he's at. That'd be...
Speaker: Have you not met him? No, I've never met him. Oh man. Yeah. You got to make it out to at least, you know, Subie Fest or something. Dude, I'd love That's where he's at. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'd love to, I'd love to. Well, I'm, I'm hoping that, um, I saw he got an RS sort of set up for ARA rally. I'm hoping that one of these days he'll, uh,
Speaker: be at the Oregon trail rally. That's that would be super sick. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good event, man. ah I know I want to make it out to a rally, dude. I'm telling you, I don't know what it would take, but if we can get you out here to Oregon for the, for the OTR man, you're, you know, I am about two hours from where my favorite day of the OTR takes place, but yeah, You're welcome at my home anytime, man. I'd i'd love to have you. and Yeah. You could borrow one of my clapped out Subarus for the week. Yeah.
Speaker: I do need to give a shout out to another brand of somebody that I have worked with. ah I didn't to necessarily forget about them. i just like, as I was trying to think of other brands, I looked at my shirt.
Speaker: Orbis Overlanding. Yeah, that was a good episode too. yeah he Yeah. I met him first at Subaru Flatfest and then I met him again in Virginia at Overland Expo. But, uh, he's the one that he gave me the set of, uh, fog lights from Morimoto.
Speaker: Okay. And, uh, And then he was doing merch for me for a while before i had my merch store, which I want to bring a merch store back, but I need to look into that. Please was actually looking at it the other night. I want to do it through, probably will do it through Shopify.
Speaker: And then I found this other brand called Ninja PCD or POD. They do, they're like a um print on demand. Yeah. Because I was using another print on demand company,
Speaker: but I mean, their quality was good, but the only the thing I didn't like about them is they were constantly discontinuing shirts and stuff and and and products.
Speaker: And it just got it got to be so annoying to try to keep up with that. So at some point, if I can do it again, i would like to do just start off with hats and T-shirts. And I mean, that's really all I was doing. But I mean, like some of the T-shirts that I really liked that were comfortable and everything, they just kept getting discontinued.
Speaker: Okay. I think that's a huge thing, man. When it comes to merch, like I'll buy anything just cause I want to represent, you know, whatever it is. But when I get a shirt that's actually well tailored, fits nice on the, on the human body, doesn't accentuate my goofy gut. I'm like, oh let me buy another one. Yeah. i But by the way, you you, I, there's still merch available.
Speaker: Heck yeah. Okay.
Speaker: He wanted to get a hoodie. And so he bought a hoodie from me. I just have to go to that print on demand company that I was using that I had tied to my website. So basically, like if somebody wants to buy something, could just let you know what's available.
Speaker: just Venmo me and then I pay for it out of my account okay to, to, you know, swap out the difference. Now, just, uh, if people want to do that, um, should they message you privately on your Instagram? Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Rad. Cool. Okay. I might have to, uh, holler at you for some, for some gear. Okay. Yeah. I got it. I got to support. Yeah. I want to, I want to do the gear again, do the, uh, or do the merch again. It's just,
Speaker: I got to figure out my full-time job situation because like right now I'm going to be, you know, I'm extremely thankful for the sponsorships and I'm thankful for my patrons because that's really going to help carry me through, you know, until I can get into a full-time position again, you know, it's not going to pay all my bills, but it definitely does help. So If there's anybody out there that wants to help support the podcast, you can join Patreon. And that really, really does help. And it just, you know, I mean, it's Patreon is a way for people to support, you know, content creators, you know, if somebody is doing something that you like, it's just your way to show, ah you know, thanks. Like, hey, I want to support you. Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah, it took it took me long enough. But yeah, I just signed up last week. What? um Yes. And I appreciate it. Oh, dude, my pleasure. um If people want to do that, where do they where do they go to to make that happen?
Speaker: They can go to the link tree on my um profile, the podcast profile on Instagram, and it's the second link there. Okay, awesome. It says, let's see, let's see what it says, because I don't remember exactly what it says. I know that feeling. But if you go to the link tree, yeah, it it just says support the podcast via Patreon, and it's the the second, i don't know if you can see it, but anyway, it's the second link on there.
Speaker: Okay. And what are, what are some of the benefits that you give to your patrons on there? So they get access to the discord server and they, I do have like some episodes and well, like that was ah like, how was it?
Speaker: like candid conversations that I would record before and after the actual episode okay that I was doing. And I was doing that for a while. And then we were doing like discord chats. Like, you know, there's, you can chat through the discord, but we were having like actual calls through discord. Oh rad. And i just, I stopped doing that because like,
Speaker: you know timing and everything trying to schedule it because every i was doing everything in the evenings yeah and then it was i was doing it a lot more when my son was just coming over like on the weekends and then like one day a week and i had like an actual schedule going But then, like, once he got his own car, once he got out of high school and everything, like, he comes over a lot more often.
Speaker: And so I just, I was trying to spend more time with him. And so I stopped doing a lot of the stuff. and And I feel bad about that because, you know, it's like I wasn't really giving anything back to the patrons.
Speaker: But... I was giving, you know, episodes every week. and Let's go. There's, I mean, there's been a lot, there've been so many people that have stuck around and just continue to support the podcast just because, just for the sake of supporting the podcast. So I like, I'm so appreciative to everybody that's stuck around.
Speaker: However, as far as what I'm going to do for the patrons, I literally today, i created a full like email list of all my patrons,
Speaker: And I sent out a thank you email earlier today. So now I have them all grouped together. i can just start one email, go to, you know, blind carbon copy that whole group and send stuff out. Cause I want to start, you know, once if I get an episode finished up early, i want to send out a link so that patrons can listen to it early.
Speaker: And then, you know, just send out thank you emails and stuff. And, uh, you know, when it, so it's, you know, it's things like that. And then I would like to try to start up the chats again and ah be able to get on with people. And, but if you're part of the discord server, you know, don't think that you can only talk while I'm around. Like I want, you know, it's for everybody to just chat and have conversations.
Speaker: Yeah. i've I've enjoyed being in there, just kind of looking at what people are doing and And that type of thing. No, no, man, I i love it. And yeah, if people are listening to this, do me a favor and and ah go support.
Speaker: gonna Gotta, gotta keep the homie, gotta keep the homie fed and and taken care of. So. Yeah, it's, ah it's been pretty like eyeopening in a way of thinking. Cause like with my full-time salary, like I was truly blessed with my full-time salary because I was, I was been in, I'm in like right now, even without a job, I'm still like in the best financial position I've ever been in, my life. Cause I worked really, really hard at it.
Speaker: And, but you know, before I lost my job, I was very thankful that I could drop $400 in two days to help, you know, get my car, my son's car fixed. I was able to, i mean, I spent $750 on on my two front axles that I didn't need. yeah and then I had to spend another like, you know, a few hundred dollars to get one of them, one of the axle seals replaced. Cause I didn't want to try to do it myself. And at the same time I got the, um, sway bar bushings replaced. Cause I already had them. I got the sway bar in links replaced because I had bought those. So the shop that did the axle seal, they did those things also.
Speaker: And then, you know, being able to just go places and and, you know, buy groceries and buy gas and, you know, buy extra groceries that I didn't really need, you know. And so I know all about that.
Speaker: But i you know, now I look back at it and I'm not like I wouldn't say that I'm penny pinching right now. I'm just not spending any extra money that I don't need to spend. But I did like find ways to cut back my expenses significantly and by a few hundred dollars and a month. So that's really helpful right now. Plus I paid some stuff off heck yeah and right now I'm sitting on zero credit card debt, which is like, let's go dude.
Speaker: Yeah. So let's go. I, uh, yeah. went And then see, and then when I moved, when I left my old job, the one before the, the one that I got laid off, but the one that i left to go to this most recent one, I ended up, um, I had like, and this is, you know, like getting totally personal, but,
Speaker: I had unpaid four ah one k loans that, that I didn't pay back from my old job. So I had to pay the taxes on that unpaid balance.
Speaker: And I literally, Right before, right. No, I did it right after I got laid off. I paid the last payment on that IRS debt. So let's it' it's so weird how like all of these things started coming to, were coming to an end right as I was, right as my job was ending. Because I also had a membership at a gym here called,
Speaker: burn bootcamp and I had signed up for a year and that was, you know, gyms aren't cheap. Yeah. And I told them before, like, I think it was like a month before i was, before I got laid off, but I was like, Hey,
Speaker: I'm not going to renew my my membership because I'm trying, I was literally working on trying to cut as many expenses as I could to see like, okay, how little do I need to make? How much can I live off of so that I can quit my job?
Speaker: And so I was pri trying to get prepared to see, you know, what I could do to potentially quit my job. And then I get laid off. However, I was already planning to not have that job for too much longer if I could do it.
Speaker: And so all this stuff just kind of came together right at the same time. The only thing that like I was really hoping for was to stick that job out and get another end of the year bonus because then I could have paid my car off.
Speaker: But now, you know, that didn't work out. Yeah. Dude, those end of year bonuses, those are, that's a nice carrot on a stick, man. Yeah. i I wish I would have been in this position back then whenever I got that bonus as far as like my financial position. I wasn't in a bad one, but yeah you know, I'm,
Speaker: I'm not like I'll be okay for the next couple of months because I've got a severance. But beyond that, you know, if if I'm not able to get a full-time job, then, you know, then it's going to start hurting.
Speaker: Yeah. oh You'll have to remind me at the end of this. um Let me put you on some game with like an program that I started doing. It pays half my mortgage every month and I got in at 7%. So it's a pretty saucy mortgage. Okay. But yeah, let me, I'll, I'll put you on that. Okay. After this. Hold on. I'm going to write this down so I don't forget about Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I got you. I got you. And I, and I don't tell anybody about this. Okay. All right. Cause it's getting saturated with, uh, yeah. Yeah. With goofballs. Actually. So the roadcaster pro I got because I can have four people on mics at the same time.
Speaker: And i got that because i I knew that there were local events that I was going to be going to. And I wanted to be able to take my equipment and and be able to do that. But another reason that I got the Rodecaster Pro is because...
Speaker: i i had somebody I had somebody call me or or somebody that wanted to record on the podcast. It was Chris who goes by Shadow Rue. I think it was episode seven, maybe. Okay.
Speaker: He was like, he wasn't going to be able to record through the computer for some reason. Like he didn't have a computer or he had an old one or something. And I know you're using Zencastr and the video feature of it.
Speaker: Back then i was using Zencastr, but just only the audio part of it. Cause I don't think they had rolled out the video yet. Gotcha. Okay. so he was like, i want to record. I can only record through the phone. And I'm like, how am I going to record through the phone? I don't have a way to hook up a phone. Like I didn't, i couldn't find anything. I didn't know what I was going to do.
Speaker: So I literally got this box. I put some foam in it. I put a microphone in there with my cell phone. speakerphone. speakerphone. So that whenever he was talking, the microphone would pick it up.
Speaker: And that was how I recorded with him. And I put it like that box off to the side, kind of like out of the way. Yeah. but that was like, that was my fix for recording through the phone.
Speaker: But the Rodecaster Pro has a feature where you can record either through, you can connect the phone through Bluetooth or you can hard connect the phone to the Rodecaster. Okay. And so it has a bunch of different channels because you have one, two, three, four for the four different mics.
Speaker: Then you have the channel for, which is the USB that hooks up to the computer. Then you have two phone channels, one that is hardwired, one that is Bluetooth.
Speaker: And then you have another channel that has uh, a bunch of pads on it with like sound effects and stuff. Okay. And so, yeah, this is like overkill for what I'm doing now.
Speaker: But I actually, when I re I recorded with somebody the other day and I recorded with them, Oh, it was when I was recording with, uh, Carrie and, man, Carrie and her co-driver.
Speaker: Yeah. So the ladies that were driving at the Rebel Rally that were yeah driving the this the factory Subaru teams, i had sent they sent me a Zoom link and I could not get connected. Mine just kind had the little thing that was swirling. i'm like, you've got to be kidding me because they're on a time crunch.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm like, and then, okay, hold on a second. So I was like, okay, well, we'll do, they're like, can you just call? And I'm like, yeah, I can call.
Speaker: So this thing here connects to, you got this end that connects to the roadcaster. Then I got the little adapter for my cell phone. This is from my old cell phone.
Speaker: This has the lightning plug and my new phone has USB-C. Yeah. I'm like, I can't connect. What am I going to do? And I was like, okay, I have the, ah the Bluetooth. I can connect to my phone to the Rodecaster Pro via Bluetooth.
Speaker: But I'm like, i didn't have GarageBand set up for that channel. So now I'm like, I don't remember which channel it is. So I tried to connect and it wouldn't work. And I was like, let me call you back.
Speaker: So I had to like set up a new track on GarageBand. I had to look up on Google, figure out what track that or what channel the Bluetooth one was, call them back. And then I'm like, okay, I think I got it.
Speaker: And then they started talking and it and it worked out. But I was just like, you got to be kidding me. Like, I hate it when stuff like that happens when there's like connection errors or connection issues or something.
Speaker: Because the first time I had Rian and Jel Cimino on, I sent her a link, a Zencaster link. Oh, yeah. And she couldn't open it for some reason. So we're emailing, you know, I emailed her and she's like, oh, I can't open it. So she she emailed me and said, I can't open it.
Speaker: And I said, okay, well, and there was something else that I had tried for a while too. i don't remember what it was. And I didn't really like it because I was having connection issues. And I'm like, here, let me, so and I had to like re-sign up for it real quick.
Speaker: And then i sent that link to her. She's like, I can't open that link either. And I'm like, oh my gosh, Rihanna Gelsimino is on the, like, I can only communicate through with her through email.
Speaker: I'm literally sweating because I'm so nervous and freaking out and thinking like, this cannot be happening. And so she sends me an email and she said, can you just send me a zoom link? And I'm like, oh my gosh, I've never even used zoom. Yeah. And so I literally had to sign up for an account as fast as I could try to figure out and look at the, you know, all everything and try to figure out how to use zoom.
Speaker: And then I sent her a link and we got connected finally But I'm like, why is this happening? This cannot be happening. I've got Rianna and Gelsomino on the podcast and we can't even get connected. And so that is why i use Zoom to this day because of her episode. Yeah. i just stuck with it. Can you actually tell people, so and a lot of people know this, but just so people understand like who you were trying to talk to, can you tell people who she is?
Speaker: So Rihanna Njelsimino is Travis Pastrana's co-driver and has been for a number of years now. And she's also from Australia and she's from a small town. She grew up in a family that did rally. And so she was in a few episodes.
Speaker: ah So you can go check out her episodes. But I think she was episode 244 was her first one. And then a higher one, it's just, it's Rally 101 with Rian and Gelsimino. And then we did another episode when she drove with, co-drove for Leah Block.
Speaker: Okay. but Yeah. But yeah, she was, a I was sweating. But if, and I'm sure you've probably never met her in person, right? I have. Oh, you have? Oh, that's right. yeah did you Did you meet her in Oregon? Yep.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. She is and She's awesome. She will sit around and just talk with people and tell stories. And i I mean, she's, she's just, you know, she's like Bucky in the sense that she's just super humble, very down to earth, very, you know, just super chill.
Speaker: I mean, cause like at the, at the Overland Expo, she's just like sitting there with everybody for like an hour, just talking and telling funny stories and everything. And it was just, it was great.
Speaker: And, you know, it's just like you have these people in these positions because i was we were talking about Travis to how like he's like the one of the biggest action sports stars in the world.
Speaker: Yeah. But he will sit there and sign autographs forever if he could. Yeah. Yeah. cause it's So much into the fans. Yeah. Yeah. And so needless to say, she, she's like a big deal in the Subaru world. I was sweating. Yeah. She's actually, uh, technically my neighbor now she lives in Idaho.
Speaker: Yeah. But, um, yeah, she, I got to meet her at Overland Expo finally. right. Yeah. I mean, I've, I've been in proximity to her previously at, uh, the Oregon trail rally when,
Speaker: oh yeah yeah I think Travis took 24 off. He took 2024 off after, uh, Ken Block passed away. Yeah. Um, so they weren't there for that, but she did drive with, uh, she co-drove with Leah, like you mentioned that year, man, which that was actually really cool to see Leah, rip and do she, she was a kid, bro. Barely had a driver's license. Yeah. I think she was what, like 16 when she did that. Freshly 16. If I remember right, a lot of her training took place while she still just had her learner's permit.
Speaker: crazy. Yeah. What an absolute family of animals, bro. Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, what other, uh, what other equipment do you use?
Speaker: Okay. So yeah, so we kind of got on a tangent there, but that's all right. So I have my, my roadcaster pro that I'm still using now. Uh, I, I started off with an MV, 88, uh,
Speaker: tiny little microphone from Shure because they have like this video kit that you could buy. They came with a little like tiny little tripod and then like a thing to hold your phone and then, you know, a way to connect the microphone to your phone and then you can download that Shure app and everything.
Speaker: So that's what I started with. Humble beginnings. Oh, yeah. And then I also had a Focusrite, I forgot what the name is. Like Yes, I had the Focusrite Started off with that also before I got the RODECaster Pro.
Speaker: And then, and then I upgraded to an Audio-Technica microphone and it's like the 2005 USB. And then it also, cause it also, it also has, has USB and then XLR. Is that the one I currently have possession of?
Speaker: It is. Let's go, dude. Yeah. Then from there, I went to the Shure MV7X, I think, which is the kind of like the little brother to the big Shure or, a yeah, Shure microphone that podcasters use. It's like the really long one.
Speaker: Like the SM7D or whatever. Yeah, SM7B. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. That's what it is. So the MV7X is kind of like the baby brother to that. So I got that one next.
Speaker: And then once I started doing more of a deep dive into audio or voiceover, they were saying, and so ah the MV88, that little one that I bought at first, that was a condenser microphone. okay Then the Audio-Technico was a dynamic microphone.
Speaker: Then the MV7X was a dynamic microphone. And then I upgraded to the Rode NT1, which you see here, which is a condenser microphone again, because they say that with voiceover, it's better to have a condenser microphone because it brings more of your natural voice through the microphone. And there's not really like any filters into it.
Speaker: And then i have another device that I'm not using, but I want to currently get, well, I want to set it up to use it full time. And I'm just going to keep the Rodecaster, you know, off to the side. And if I need to, you know, record over the phone, then I've got that capability.
Speaker: But the other one I'm going to be using is it's called the SSL 2 Plus MK2 or something like that. And I got it for as like kind of a downgrade from the Rodecaster Pro, but the voiceover group that I'm in, they said it's a really good unit. So i ended up getting that one.
Speaker: Okay. Heck yeah. Now I, I know that the SubianU podcast isn't the only podcast you've ever done. um you kind of already had your feet wet. What, uh, what did all that look like?
Speaker: but And I don't know if you're still doing that or not, but, uh, no, no. yeah So the, yeah, the first podcast I did, it was called The Vegan Connector. And i would go to like vegan like festivals and events and stuff.
Speaker: And, you know, like I'm super passionate about eating vegan food, especially like vendors that kind of put their heart and soul into making, you know, like comfort foods and stuff.
Speaker: And so I was thinking like, you're at these events and you see these vendors, but you go up and you talk to them briefly as you're getting your food and then you take off and leave. And I was thinking like, what if I could get the story behind some of these brands? You know, like these people were most likely not vegan, you know, at some point. And then they decided to go vegan and then they decided like, hey, I want to take this passion and create a little business.
Speaker: And so that's mainly what that was, was talking to brands and businesses like food vendors and stuff. And then I did have some like just people in the vegan community on the podcast and I did 33 episodes.
Speaker: And my original intent was to do that episode every other week and then do the Sue B&U podcast every other week And when i so when I started this one, i stopped that one because it wasn't really getting the attention and the traction that I was kind of hoping it would.
Speaker: Yeah. And so, and then just got into the Subaru community and, you know, this was like getting a lot more attention and it felt more fulfilling too, you know, cause with the other one, it was kind of, i was it just felt like I was mainly doing it for me at that point. Cause people weren't seeking it out. The connections in the community weren't like they were here. So I just stopped doing it.
Speaker: Yeah. Can you, um, Talk a little bit about, uh, cause you know, I'm, I'm pretty big on trying to eat healthy and that type of thing. can you share a little bit about kind of just your lifestyle and your, your diet and how long you've been doing all that? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so it all started with my brother sending me a documentary for, or he sent me a trailer for a documentary called Food Choices. And he was like, oh, I'm thinking about eating this way. And so he sent me the trailer, watched the trailer. And at the time, the documentary was on Netflix. But you know how Netflix will only keep stuff on there for so long.
Speaker: I watched a documentary which primarily talks about like how your food choices affect your health. Absolutely. so And it didn't really go into like veganism much at all. It was mostly just talking about like just like I said, like just how your food choices affect your your health. And that but it did talk about eating like plant based foods primarily and like whole foods and everything.
Speaker: yeah And so after watching that, I'm like, okay, I guess I'm done with all animal products. And had like some beef and chicken, I think in the freezer or something.
Speaker: But then I also had like eggs and and cheese in the refrigerator. So i'm like, okay, I'll just eat the eggs and I'll eat the cheese. And then after that, i just won't buy them anymore. And so ah my sister-in-law is Cambodian, and her ah parents came into town, and her her mom loves to cook, and she loves to entertain.
Speaker: and And this was after I'd watched the documentary, but she made some duck and some other stuff. And not wanting to be like rude, I decided to to eat some of the food that I wouldn't eat now.
Speaker: But and then after that, we dropped my daughter off at school and up in Arkansas. And on the way back, we were looking for a place to eat.
Speaker: And there was ah there was a subway like and a mile behind us. And I was thinking texted my ex-wife and I was like, hey, let's go to this subway. Because I was like, I can get a veggie sub.
Speaker: And I know I can eat that. And she was like, well, why don't we just go to Wendy's? You can get a salad. And I'm like, I want to go to Wendy's. And I don't want a salad. So we go to Wendy's.
Speaker: And every single salad had some kind of meat on it, like bacon, chicken, something. and the only salads that didn't have anything was the tiny little small like side salads.
Speaker: And so we still had like a seven hour drive to get back home or something like that. And and i was like, I guess I need to eat some substance. So I'll get a chicken salad. And I kind of reluctantly ate it.
Speaker: And that was August 12th of 2018. And that was the last time I ate meat. So ever since then, you know, I don't have like a staple diet of like, oh, I eat these things all the time or I do this every day.
Speaker: i love oatmeal. Oatmeal is like super good. um You know, I eat cereals that are little on the healthier. Like I eat Kashi cereal. I love that.
Speaker: okay I make smoothies. I just get frozen berries and I eat vegan protein powder. And I get plant-based milk and just mix all that together. I eat tofu. I've seasoned it and everything. And, you know, I love tofu. Dude, tofu is so versatile, you know, and it's the jam. Yeah. You can, you can do a lot of stuff with it. So i eat tofu, I eat tempeh. Uh, I don't, you know, and it's funny because like, ah there's always this kind of thought or misconception that because I'm vegan, I eat super healthy.
Speaker: I don't eat very many vegetables at all. Not that I don't like them. I just, I think for me, like i always wash my vegetables, I wash my fruit and it's time consuming. And so I just don't want to put in the time to do it. And so I, I honestly, I don't really eat that many vegetables.
Speaker: And ah' I've been eating more fruit. I've been trying to eat more bananas. I love bananas. I love golden kiwi. If you like kiwi and you've eaten the traditional like green kiwi, golden kiwi is insane.
Speaker: Really? It's good. Oh, yeah. Oh, I've never had It's so good. Yeah, you've got to find some golden kiwi. Okay. I eat a lot of, like when I eat cereal or like, especially when I make a smoothie, I almost never just drink a smoothie. I always make it into a bowl.
Speaker: So I'll pour it out into a bowl. I'll top it with hemp seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, ah almond butter. Maybe throw on some little like um like chocolate chips on it, like dark chocolate chips. Smoothie bowls are my jam, dude. I love smoothie bowls. there's There's been times when I've eaten like a smoothie bowl every single day of the week sometimes. You know, I've never done that.
Speaker: I've never done that before. My daughter introduced me to smoothie bowls because I was always drinking them. And she was like, what do you, she showed me something. I was like, what is what is that? She's like, it's smoothie bowl. That's sick. I'm like, a smoothie bowl? What's that?
Speaker: She's like, you just pour it into a bowl and then top it with stuff. Okay. And I'm like, ever since then, like, I just, you know, I'll like maybe go somewhere. Like I've, I went to Smoothie King for the first time in years and i got a smoothie from there. And, you know, of course I drank it, but 0.5% of the time when I'm at home, I'll drink a smoothie. Other in that, I'm making a smoothie bowl. It's just yeah so good.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, that's to try that kind of, you know, what I eat. I mean, again, I don't eat a ton of vegetables and not because I don't like them, but I mean, not you know, I'll eat pasta. I do eat some like, ah you know, vegan meats and stuff like Beyond Meat makes this.
Speaker: It's in a bag and it's called um like ah beef tips, like vegan beef tips. Okay. So good. Now, I got to ask this question.
Speaker: I could ask you pancakes or waffles, but I mean, we already know what time it is. Yeah. Let me ask you this. What's your go-to pancake mix? ah Birch benders.
Speaker: Okay. What the heck is that? Yeah. So it's this brand and they have one that's like, it's not necessarily like plant-based. It just doesn't have any, you know, eggs or milk or anything in the ingredients.
Speaker: And i don't know, just the consistency of it, the way that it cooks up, it's just like, it's really good. I've tried some that are like a different brand. I don't know. It's the one that I have found is the best. However,
Speaker: My daughter has made her own like homemade pancake mix. scratch. Let's go. I've done that before at times like with, I think I used oatmeal, but i that I turned into like more of like a flour where I just put it in a food processor. Okay. And ground it up.
Speaker: So like oatmeal flour and then banana and some other ingredients. I did that a long time ago. i need to get her recipe because she says it turns out really they turn out really good And, uh, but yeah, Birchbenders is the brand that I use most of the time now.
Speaker: Now how, so I'm not going to lie, dude. So I'm, I'm equal opportunity when it comes to waffles or pancakes, but when I do pancakes, I love like, uh, maybe you could just call it rare. Yeah. I love it when they're a little bit mushy. Yeah, a little saucy in the middle. yeah So how do you, how do you your your perfect pancake, how are you making it you doing cast iron? are you Is there like a certain ah use, I'm guessing you probably don't use butter, obviously, but how do you make them?
Speaker: So I have this big skillet that is a, um what is it coated with? It's like a, I can't remember what it is. Is it like a Teflon or some ceramic. It's a ceramic pan.
Speaker: Okay. Gordon Ramsay over here, bro. So it's a, it's a ceramic pan and it's pretty big. And then it just, it seems to be able to cook the best, but but anyway, and then my daughter introduced me to this algae oil.
Speaker: And that I get at sprouts. And so I've been using that. I put a little bit of algae oil in there and then put the pancake mix in, <unk> it up on one side, flip it.
Speaker: And I get mine cooked all the way through. i don't know how they do it, but ah the pant the place that I've talked about on the podcast that I like getting pancakes from is called Spiral Diner in Fort Worth. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker: their pancakes when they cook them have this nice crispy edge to them. Yes, dude. Yeah. I don't know how they do that, but I like, that's what makes them from that place.
Speaker: And, and that, that is why I'm a pancake person because of those pancakes. But I mean, I like, you know, making my own pancakes at home and don't get me wrong. I do like waffles. Waffles have their place for, for several different reasons, but in a pinch. I'm just, I'm all about pancakes, man. So good. dude, you're right. I always do like high heat to get that, uh, get that edge that you're talking about a little bit of, little bit of crisp on the edges and,
Speaker: you know i guess I need to just pour a little bit of oil around the edge as it's cooking or something. don't know. Just start deep frying our pancakes. Yeah. I've seen people do some crazy stuff with the batter. You know, obviously we both get down with like Subarus and pancakes. um But aside from all that, like what, what other kind of, um you know, there's more to us than just, you know, our car addictions. what What kind of stuff do you do when you're not blowing up viscous couplings and that type of thing? ah I mean, i like I like just, you know, driving around if I'm not, you know, trying to go through mud. I just like driving. But me and my son, like we like going into downtown and just walking around and looking at the buildings. People have asked me, like, well what do you do when you're down there?
Speaker: We don't really do anything. We just walk... and We've been to downtown so many times. it but There's just something about being down there with all the big buildings, looking up at the buildings, and like maybe seeing if they're building any new ones. But I don't know. That just...
Speaker: I don't really know how to explain that. But then like we go, we like to just go other places in the Houston area and just go walking around. You know, there's like a coffee shop. There's ah an area in that in Houston called the Heights.
Speaker: And it's kind of, it's like west of downtown. ah Interstate 10 goes, like cuts right through the middle of Houston. And so the Heights area is kind of more on the north side of I-10.
Speaker: But we'll go to the Heights area and just walk around, drive around. There's shops and stuff down there. So we like to do that. But one of the things that he got me into recently is pickleball. Okay. Heck yeah. i And we haven't played in a few weeks because we just, we've you know, i was gone to Overland Expo. Then we went to Subie Fest, Texas. And then...
Speaker: I went to go stay with my girlfriend in the Airbnb last week. And so we just haven't had a chance to play. And my buddy Brian let me borrow this really nice paddle.
Speaker: And then i ended up buying that one and a second one from him for like really cheap. But they're like $120 fuck.
Speaker: Yeah, because he was like, he's like, I would get a paddle and like, oh, this is it. And then I would upgrade to another paddle. So he's got like, you know, some better paddles that he uses. ah Because my son bought some from Target for like, it was like two paddles and four balls for like 35 bucks.
Speaker: But there is, the paddle does make a difference. And the ones that he bought, like the handles kind of coming loose from the paddle and okay these other ones that I bought are like legit.
Speaker: So pickleball, man, i could i could play that like every day if I had an opportunity to go do it. But it's kind of hard here because we have to play... At this, this, these courts that are outside and yeah, and it's in a neighborhood that you're supposed to have a key card to get into the court.
Speaker: But what's funny is there's a box inside that you push the button so that you can get out. And so what we do is he is his arm is thin enough to reach between the door and the fence that's next to it.
Speaker: And he's reaches in and he sticks the paddle in that, in that box to push the button. And then we open the door. So we're not really technically supposed to be in the courts. So if somebody's in there, then we don't go play.
Speaker: There's indoor places, but you have to have a membership or you just pay to go play for like an hour and it's like 40 bucks. okay And we've never done it indoors, but yeah, pickleball. And then we haven't done it a long time, but every once in a while we'll go ride our longboards.
Speaker: Oh, heck yeah. Yeah. And then we we both have a one wheel, but his has been kind of messed up because it'll like... His has this thing where the motor shuts off and then it'll just do a nose dive and then you fall off and if you're going too fast, that could be dangerous. yeah So we haven't ridden those in a while.
Speaker: ah But yeah, other than that, I like to go for a runs um and work out. Occasionally, i haven't done been doing that enough. What's ah what's kind of your your workout ah routine look like when when that's something you're doing? When I'm actually doing it? Yeah. So if i if i were to get in if I were to do it the way that I was doing it before, is i would get up at like 6.30 or 7 every morning, work out at home for about 45 minutes just you know doing push-ups or something, and then i have a barbell, so I'd be doing like lat work.
Speaker: Um, you know, like one day and then I have dumbbells and kettlebells. So I do shoulder work, do biceps, stuff like that, you know, so just switch out routines each day ah yeah and then and go for a run in the evening.
Speaker: That would be like, that would be my ideal day. So let's just throw out my whole ideal day. All right, let's do the podcast part time. I'm doing voiceover, both of them together, or, you know, maybe most of my income's coming from voiceover because, you know, I can do that kind of thing when, when I want podcast is, you know, if I'm doing voiceover and I've got more time to do podcasts, I can dedicate more time to it.
Speaker: But my ideal day would be get up, work out, do podcast stuff, voiceover stuff during the day, and then the evening go for a run. That would be my ideal day.
Speaker: Or up and go for a run in the morning. Yeah, Work out at night. yeah Dude, it's i don't I don't know how hot you guys get in the Houston area, but man, it's ah it's a different test. High 90s. Oh, bro. No, thank you. And actually, well, now that you said that,
Speaker: So yesterday morning I went for a run because I went for a run Monday morning and it was pretty easy. And then And then Tuesday morning I went for a run and it was super humid. Running in the humidity and the thick air is way different than running when it's not as humid. I've discovered that lately that when if it's really humid, I'm not doing so well. you know it's It's harder to run.
Speaker: Yeah, we we get into triple digits here. um, during the summer, but it's dry. know, it's like dry heat, you know? Yeah. I'm not going to go out and, you know, build a house in the heat, but you know, I can make stuff happen in the heat out here. But when, when I go like, uh, I was in Alabama a couple of years ago, the heat, they get out there completely different. It can be 10 degrees cooler, but that humidity level, man, it just translates completely different. Yeah. Oh, dude, whenever I went for a run yesterday morning, it was probably because looked, I finished up and it was about 10 o'clock and it said 84% humidity.
Speaker: And the humidity was going down as the time went on. But I got started around nine o'clock. So I'm guessing it was probably closer to 90% humidity. I mean, there's been times when it's been, it's very, very rare, but it'll be like 100 degrees with 100% humidity. And dude, it's just, it's nasty. I mean, you walk outside and you instantly start sweating.
Speaker: It's like, it's so gross. Yeah. I mean, you'll be in the shade and you're sweating. Dude, it's horrible. Yeah. No, thank you, man. I'll, I'll pass on that all day. Or if I got to work in a car, work on a car, you know, you know, in heat like that. No, man, i looks like I'm Chevrolet-ing it to whatever I got to do. Cause yeah, no thanks. Yeah. It's not fun. Oh man, dude. I've been talking your ear off for two hours and 10 minutes. It's been great though. oh absolutely. um Is there anything that we're missing that I should be asking you?
Speaker: I don't know, but I was just thinking I could ask you a question. Oh, let's go. How is my episode different or how does it differ from your other episodes? Being that you tend to get into more technical things with the other guests. Well, one of my favorite things to do is just talk to people and like...
Speaker: Talk to people the way I'd have a conversation just in any environment, you know what I yeah mean? Like, um, and the fact that we've got, you know, podcasting stuff in general, you know, in common, just being able to pick your brain about, I guess, life stuff in general is a lot of fun.
Speaker: Yeah. No good. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's my jam, you know, and you know, there's a lot of times where, you know, I'll interview people that are, um, you know, they just drive the cars and, uh, you know, they, they don't have technical knowledge of the cars at all.
Speaker: Um, it's just, you know, it's just fun either way, you know, just to get to like, just talking to people is great. Exactly. Like just, always call it making a friend in real time, you know, because some of the people that I've interviewed literally never talked to them, don't know anything about them. And then I just hit record and I just start asking them questions. Yeah, no, it's, it's fun to get connected with people.
Speaker: The hardest part is keeping connected with all of your guests because dude, i've you know, cause like i would say that, I mean, I'm, I'm getting up to episode two 14. That's what I'm working on.
Speaker: But i would say that like maybe 180 something of my episodes are all individual guests, meaning like they've only been on one time. Okay.
Speaker: Because out of the 214 episodes, i've had people on multiple times. Like I had Jen on from eccentric designs. Then I did a bonus episode for her for her first year. And then I think maybe a second year anniversary, Patrick from Orbis overlanding, same thing. We just did a regular episode. Then we ended up doing a bonus episode to do like an anniversary one.
Speaker: I've had Rianan on three times. I've had Sierra who goes by SLT Trek. I've had her on twice. I've had ah Carrie on, goes by Mountain Subi. I've had her on twice.
Speaker: And then i know I've had somebody else on a couple of times because I've, you know, I've started, I wanted to get guests coming back on the podcast. Yeah. So I would say probably about 180 people are I've,
Speaker: people are ones that i've had on the podcast as like an individual episode. And, and then there's some people that like, just aren't on Instagram anymore. They don't have a Subaru anymore, but it's just, I mean, you get connected with so many people over the years and it's, it's hard to keep up with everybody.
Speaker: i you know, i find the same thing, even just in life before I started doing like the Subaru thing and creating content, you know, you, you just meet people, then you kind of feel like a bad friend because you're like, oh man, I haven't talked to this person in forever. Or sometimes I'll look at my phone and see just like 80 new notifications. I'm like, oh, I can't even think about it, dude. It's like, yeah, it gets overwhelming, but.
Speaker: but i've had I've had people that'll message me and like, this is where I feel really bad, but I'll have somebody message me and I'm like, Oh, who is this? And then I'll start scrolling and I'm like, Oh my God, like six months ago, we had like a whole long conversation about all this stuff.
Speaker: But then, you know, obviously they weren't messaging me. I wasn't messaging them because everybody has their own thing going on. And you know And I think a lot of people have their kind of little group of you know friends in real life and then online friends where it's like, these are the people that like I talk to kind of on a consistent basis.
Speaker: And then there's a few people outside of that that I keep in touch with. you know, somewhat regularly, but not all the time. And then beyond that, there's like people that you connect with like every so often, you know? And yeah so I just think for, for all of us, it's really, really hard to, you know, i mean, if you were trying to keep up with everybody and keep in touch with everybody, you would just be doing that all day long. Oh Yeah.
Speaker: We've got other stuff to do. You know, everybody has other stuff to do. I'm not just talking about you and me, but you know, especially when you have all these guests on, cause I have guests that I've had on, you know, like a long time ago that I just like, I haven't heard from, i haven't messaged them. And, you know, so it's like, it gets difficult to like, think about constantly keeping in contact with people. And, uh,
Speaker: But, you know, I mean, ah you, you'll go and message that person or they'll message you and maybe you haven't talked in a year and it's just like, you know, nobody's like, oh, I haven't heard from you in a while. What's going on? You know, it's just, you just pick right back up. and But I mean, friends in real life are like that too.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And I think social media has made it so much different, you know, cause it used to be back in the day, like you had to pick up the phone and talk to that person live, you know, now it's, it's easy to like,
Speaker: make connections and but also to accidentally neglect those connections. But I mean, it's great because through this, through social media, you get connected with so many people that you wouldn't have otherwise. Because if yeah you, I mean, before we had social media and, you know, and email and Facebook and all this kind of stuff, we wouldn't be talking to people on the other side of the country because we wouldn't have known they existed. Exactly. And so, you know, I mean, this is, it's, it's so cool. And then you get to talk to people on the other side of the world.
Speaker: which is like, yeah it's amazing. You know, you can, yeah you don't have to like, you know, through like Instagram messaging and stuff, you can be, you can actually have a conversation, like a phone conversation or a video conversation and you don't have to pay like long distance charges. Like you used to have to back in the day when you were calling somebody out of state, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Some of our, some of our listeners are going to have no idea about how it was back in the dinosaurs when we had to like, pay money to talk to people that didn't live in our, you know, in our state. Yeah. And did do you remember the days of not even having to dial a zip code? I mean, an area code? Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. In the, in the city that I grew up in. Yeah. You didn't have to punch in a zip code, just seven digits. That was it. Yeah. Cause like i remember in Houston, like the, the main area code for Houston was 713. Yeah.
Speaker: But back when we would call people, you didn't have to dial that. You would just dial their seven digits. and Yeah. And then the second area code they came up with was 832. And then now there's like even a so the third or a fourth or something like that.
Speaker: But yeah. The world's changed a lot. Too many people, man. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I feel that way. I'm just like, oh, dude, don't move here, please.
Speaker: Yeah. It's a little, it's a little crazy. We've seen a lot of the same changes. You know, like I said, you you got a few years on me, but we've, we've lived through a pretty wild time in history, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but ah still, I think these things are pretty amazing because yeah you can do, i think the biggest thing for me with, with cell phones is not, you know, the thing that I like the most about it is not really keeping in touch with people because you can use a computer, you know, if you're like, Oh, I don't really want to be on my phone. I'll just chat with people through the computer. Yeah.
Speaker: But for me, Spotify, man, having, thousands and thousands of songs at your disposal but whereas before you had i mean because when i grew you know when i first yeah i had we had tapes and then you had to like it only had a certain number of songs and you had to take it out turn it over and then you know and then there was records you know if you're at home you could play a record album and then and then oh my gosh these cd things came out which was super cool Now you don't have to turn it over. It's better quality. You don't have to worry about the tape messing up, but man, it can get scratches. Yeah. And then, you know, and then you go from that to MP3 CDs. Cause I had an MP3 CD player in my 97 Ford Ranger. Right.
Speaker: And i remember putting like 150 songs on a CD and I was like, this is amazing because I've got so many songs on one CD. Whereas before you might have a song that only had like 10 12 songs. Now I've got songs yeah and I've got CDs with close to songs each on so now i've got all this music and then now I've got, I don't even have to put in a CD or anything.
Speaker: Dude, and you don't even have to own a lot of it. Yeah. You just stream it. You just pay to stream it. You're good. but Yeah. Dude, I remember eight tracks. Oh, yeah. Me too.
Speaker: Our car had one. No kidding. The very first car I remember my parents having had an eight track in it. That's crazy. Dude, that's sick. Yeah. We're we're definitely.
Speaker: Yeah. We're, ah I mean, and I was so poor growing up that. I, you know, we didn't have anything new. So it was like, we had anything. It was from, you know, 20 years ago. And so was like CDs were the, were the thing when I was a little kid, but you better believe I was listening to music on a little cassette player. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. That's, I guess that's the, that's a bright spot of growing up poor. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there is something to be said, though, about like the technology and and missing actually tangible. ah like Oh, yeah. however Tangible processes, I guess you can call it. Put a tape in there, push play, push rewind, you know, i mean.
Speaker: There's definitely convenience now of having all of your music in one place. But, and you know, people that are growing up that don't, I mean, we would record songs off the radio with our tape player. You know, it's like, dude, I'm just going to sit here and listen to the radio and... Oh my gosh, the song came up. we'll ah let Push record quick. I've done that. Dude, you've got, you know, mix tapes that you put together from taking one tape and recording it onto another and recording stuff off the radio.
Speaker: You can't, you can't do that anymore. You know, you can put together playlists on Spotify, which is pretty cool, but yeah, there's something missing there, man. It's I rarely, most, most of the people that I'm around, cause I got a baby face. I look like a child. So most of the people that I know,
Speaker: or younger than me, they have no idea what a cassette is, man. Most of them never even used a CD before. It's a refreshing to talk to somebody that had the same experiences that I did. Well, i one thing I can definitely say about both of my kids is they they both love and appreciate old technology, especially my son. like we He goes to Goodwill and we go to we go to antique stores and he's always looking at all the old shelf top radios and stereos and stuff.
Speaker: And he loves that stuff, man. He's just he's so crazy about it. And I love that he has an appreciation for it and that he loves that, you know, that he's not just growing up in this age and all about what's going on in this age. Like yeah he, I think he would prefer to have been like growing up in the eighties, like seriously, same with my daughter too. I mean, she's, I introduced them to all the old eighties music and they love it.
Speaker: Yeah. I've taken that same. um I've been on kind of ah a similar kick with like, retro video game stuff, you know, like, oh dude, I'm just going to go buy all the stuff I couldn't buy as a kid. you know Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. Oh dude. It's my, yeah, it's, it's, I got a whole shelf over here. That's all full of like, Oh gee, like eighties Nintendo stuff and nineties Nintendo stuff. Like shout out to your little game boys too that you're making, dude. Those are so cool.
Speaker: That's been so much fun. um, Now I actually know how fast I'm going when I'm driving the Jeep, you know? Yeah. Oops. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That, that car overestimates my speed on the dash. it says I'm doing like eight miles an hour faster than what I'm doing. So I have people tailgating me like, get out of the way, idiot.
Speaker: Well, gosh, dang it. go faster Yeah. So how can people get ahold of you like on a social media or Um, where can people find you on there? Uh, so I am at Sue B and you podcast at Sue B dot and dot you dot podcast or on Instagram. And then also i have a page for my car, which is Pearl, the cross track, which is based, the same thing. Pearl dot the dot cross track.
Speaker: I think it's. stopp Yeah. And then they can search. Yeah. And then Sue being you podcast.com. Okay. And then Sue being you podcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: Heck yeah. and And I have a Facebook page, but I don't know how to use it really. So stuff gets posted there when I post to Instagram, but I'm, I have people that'll message me through Facebook and I won't see it for like three weeks. Yeah. I'm not even joking.
Speaker: Yeah. Are you, um, So you're on pretty much all the platforms, uh, Apple podcasts, Spotify. um I don't even know what else there is now. theres There's a bunch of other ones and I'm on, yeah, I'm on pretty much all of them. I think the only one I'm not on is like Amazon or something. okay Cause I couldn't, I could never figure out how to get, like, they kept saying to like verify through an email and I would do that. And it, for some reason it never ended up working, but I think that might be like the only platform that I'm not on, but I mean, most of the popular ones are Apple podcasts and Spotify. That's where most of my listens come through. Yeah. Same here. That's what I see the most of. There's some other yeah random ones. I'm trying to think pod chaser is one that I see people use and things like that. Um, do you have any discount codes, affiliate deals, anything like that, that can get you paid?
Speaker: Uh, so the, definitely with a Subaru gear. So go check out Subaru gear.com. There's, they're constantly adding new items. There's, there's so much stuff on there. There's more stuff than there used to be, I think. Okay. Plus you've got, you know, the Bucky Lasset collection, you've got the motor sports collection, you've got, you know, ah so many great things. You've got stuff for your pets, stuff for yourself, stuff for your kids,
Speaker: stuff for your car, stuff for your home. Okay. And the discount code is SUBIE and U25. Okay. And that gets you 20% off your entire purchase. Heck yeah. Plus, if your total is over $50 after the 20% discount, then you automatically get free shipping, which is huge. That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah. And their stuff's good, man. Oh, yeah. It's like really good. It's not just some garbage that, you know, they printed a graphic on. It's like good stuff. Yeah, and I've had people that have bought stuff through the gear store, and they're like, oh, my gosh, like I got this whatever, and I love it. It's such great, good quality and everything. So it's like I love getting the feedback from people.
Speaker: yeah And ah so the other affiliate that I have is Ryko Wheels. So you can if you buy a set of Ryko Wheels, you can use the code SUBIU10 at checkout, and that gets you 10% off a set of wheels.
Speaker: And people are still using the code. Dude, that's a good deal. Yeah, I had them on you know, I had them as a sponsor actively for a long time. And then when I dropped down to doing it every other week, i I dropped them because I was thinking about only doing it once a month at that point. but okay so ah But i'm I'm hoping to get them back as ah as an actual sponsor again at some point. But but yeah, that's people are using that code too. So I'm thankful for that.
Speaker: Heck yeah. And you, you do get like a little bit of a commission on that. Yeah. So perfect they like every quarter, I believe they'll send me, you know, a little small check for, yeah you know, sales, but yeah. I'm all for people getting paid, man. So if anybody's in the market for wheels, you gotta, you gotta support the homies. Dude. And the Titan, the, uh, Tetons are, it's a good looking wheel, dude.
Speaker: Yeah. And they're affordable. Yeah. And they've got other good styles too, that they've come out with. So, uh, I know that the 15 inch people are kind of going away from that and opening more in the 16 or 17 inch wheels, but yeah, man, it's good stuff.
Speaker: Right on dude. Well, thanks for doing this, man. This was, uh, this was sick. I probably forgot some things I was going to ask you, but we, uh, we did two and a half hours. Yeah. Yeah. It's always great having a conversation. Yeah, absolutely.
