Well, hello and welcome back to another great episode of GenXTalkin talking on being prepared adds on a special mission today, so he's not available.

Couldn't join.

So in his stead we have a very special guest today, Mr.

Brooks Marshall hey pop welcome to.

The show thank you very much.

Matt is my son from grade school.

Matt and Ed were very good friends.

I also knew.

Rocky, that's Ed's dad in both the hunting, fishing and in the capacity of being a great finance ear to use. Treasurer over at Aztec public venues for number of years.

I would really like to mention one thing about being prepared and my primary guideline is something that I lived through most of my younger years and that was the Group of Boy Scout pledges.

The be prepared starts there and it winds up with the whole list of things that a Boy Scout should be trustworthy.

Brave, clean, reverent and all in on, and each one can be expanded.

To guide a younger person throughout their life, being prepared means that no matter what you're doing or Are you ready for whatever is coming around the corner, there will be some not so prepared times.

Along with times that I.

Incredibly grateful for being prepared.

Let me start with my life in the mid 40s.

I was born in Santa Monica.

We lived in San Fernando Valley.

My sister is about five years older Than I am.

And we all moved to Tulsa, OK in 1950.

And we lived in Tulsa for about 10 years, which would have put me into junior high. But first let me start in San Fernando Valley. My dog's name was Cui, and she was a collie, a lot like Lassie in Tulsa, OK?

Our first pair of dogs were Tootsie and Topper and .

Were kind of.

Like Chihuahuas, but maybe a little bit bigger and a whole lot bigger until.

Two women runners, which are large, very well known hunting dogs named sooner and Boomer in 53 in Tulsa. We moved from 1 mid size home to a very large home about four miles.

Away from the city proper.

So in Tulsa I didn't realize, but we were pretty well off.

Dad worked for Douglas Aircraft and the reason that we moved both Douglas Aircraft had a manufacturing plant right next to the airport in Tulsa.

In 1961

He got transferred to Lakewood plant and had a beautiful home there, but mum had been ill for some time and one of the reasons for moving was for the medical that was available in California.

That was not quite as available in Oklahoma.

To summarize the final picture there she went through final years of cancer through the 60s and passed away in 72.

Two so in 6869 she was able to see the kids see where I had been married. By that time, the large home that dad and Mom had actually wound up being two homes next door to each other.

In 66.

Six I met married my wife and finally graduated from a City College in Long Beach and we moved to Ventura, CA.

When I was in the active service in the Navy, which I had been in the reserves for several years before.

Doug's included.

The Greyhound, and at that time I also had some rabbits having a greyhound their entire life is focused on how quickly they can find a camp rabbit.

Catching the rabbit.

It's survival rate.

Once it was out.

In the community.

Was less than one second I would take bundle and have somebody hold Brindle at one end of the block and I would run quick through 9/10 of the block and then raised my hand, turned him to loose.

And he could get to the end of the block before I.

Made one more house.

In active service in the Navy I was on board a fascinating ship called the Norton Sound, which was a converted seaplane tender and that has a very low to the water, midship and a.

Very tall.

Front and back of the ship, which originally for seaplane tender.

Those would have been creams where seaplane would fly up, stop, or float to the ship, and a crane would lift it up, but it had midship and they would work on it the way they modified the norm.

Sound is they had the regular navigational stuff.

On one end and new fancy fire control radar on the backside so it would be testing the newer fire control on the back and the engineers.

Would assemble this new fancy electronics come on board ship at 8:00 o'clock.

We'd go out to the Channel Islands.

Sit on station at about 8:00 AM for a couple of hours.

A plane would fly, overhead would go back at 3:00 o'clock and leave for liberty.

It was a delightful job.

We've only been in Ventura proper for a year or two in a rented house, and when we moved into the base housing, the base was actually a CB base construction battalion and the CB base.

Was called Port Wine Emy when I left the military in 68 we moved back to Long Beach for a short period of time.

Had a big.

House that we bought in Santa Ana, which was out on a wing between Huntington Beach and Garden Grove.

I was working at Douglas Aircraft from 6869 up until a reduction in force where the original 6000 employees at the Lakewood plant went down to 2000 and I survived.

Until the reduction in force took the 2000 down to 1000, then I did not survive. Took an aerospace engineer layoff.

There was an abundance of them at the time, so my opportunities for getting another job was limited.

However, the good side was the GI Bill became available and I could go to college and do another.

Side job that you would be not expected from an engineer and that was a magician.

For some reason we had an abundance of peace.

So because I had numerous jobs at numerous Shakey's pizza experience, the delight on entertaining, there was great.

It was fantastic.

The best audience was what you would think was the toughest pals.

Angels would come in and then say get out of my face away from the table and I should say I'd be glad to, however.

Let me show you just one thing. If the girls would say all right and I'd show one color changing handkerchief and I was locked in for the next 30-40 minutes.

From Los Angeles, the most unlikely place to go.

Is far away from where I could find a child is a magician over an aerospace engineer and we went to Aztec NM.

We did exploring vacations where we went to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona all over the area.

I always enjoyed Colorado.

It became obvious after a week two.

It was the same as California.

It had smog, it had traffic, it had crime.

In order to get away from it, he had to live in a gated community or 20 miles out of town in California.

In the 70s he only had to go about 70 miles out of town.

Now you have to go about 150 miles out of town.

And the freeways started at two lanes, and now they're 10 lanes wide, and it's still one big parking lot on the way to work and away from work.

The only thing you.

Had to look forward to is an earthquake.

You always had a nice hot beach with another thousand people that you're sharing it with in summer.

Yeah, anyways, had the nice snow mountains that you're sharing it with another thousand people in the same parking lot, yeah?

However, growing up in California, I learned how to go the other way.

I always had a route in mind that said I can get there from here.

Instead of four hours in 30 minutes.

But sometimes I'd have to travel at 3:00 AM.

What did we find in Aztec?

The opportunities.

Once somebody realizes that they're there.

Pretty darn good.

But what was an engineer?

That was also in part time.

Going to do in Aztec, what are they at?

There were horses we bought for.

Later we had two pigs.

Of course, we had to call him Porky and Petunia.

Yeah, now I've got 2 Apple trees named Porky and Petunia and those apples are delicious.

My dogs name went Blackie, Brownie seizure and occasionally we had some visitor dogs.

Spinder and Carla.

Of course, working Petunia were just like pets, yes, so they were included along with the 20 chickens.

They were just like pets till which time to not be pets.

That's part of the ranching philosophy that says you can give an animal a great life and one kind of bad day.

One of my trips into Farmington I was knocking on doors because my sending resumes didn't seem to work.

Looking for an aerospace engineer.

John Hart, so I was in Farmington and I just walked up to a building with no name on it.

I knocked on the door, went up to the desk and said I'm looking for work and they asked if I knew anything about electricity and I said, well, of course I was.

In the Navy.

They taught me not to paint a light switch, so I'm good.

Forget education yes, forget engineering, forget entertainment.

I don't paint light switches so I know about electricity.

Yeah, yeah.

They liked me because I had a very humble attitude and I maintain that throughout their design.

The nastiest ditch the worst.

Place to change a lightbulb pole wire and I loved it.

It was great work and honest work.

The toughest job was my boss.

This had to keep me and a friend busy pulling wired digging ditch is because the normal thing was to take life easy if he needed it.

Climate goals, yeah.

Well, one person job done had sent three guys over there, but for Jerry and I would go do a 5.

Person job.

I initially started to work at Blanco plant, which is at Bloomfield and.

Then got transferred to Chaco plant.

The best part with Chaco Plan was I got a company house.

OK.

One of the family members that was visiting needed a place to stay so they moved into our trailer while we moved out to chuckle plant.

After we left charcoal plant.

We moved back to Fluid Vista and our dogs included.

Karla Preston, an interesting combination of digit dot and dash.

Now you would not believe it, but I was lousy at Morse codes, but I could name my cat, dog and dog did dot and dash.

It was.

A great family.

2nd in your startup here. That concept of moving from Santa Ana the LA area to Aztec NM.

What were some of the things that led to that decision?

Was it like recession?

Was it gangs?

There were several motivating factors.

The family had a bit of stress.

With the opportunities that were not so clean and comfortable for family life, the motivation of finance.

Well, it is very easy because we could see that we needed to sell the larger home that we had.

And when that sold we managed to move for a short time to Palm Springs.

One of the incredible blessings is, even though there was a recession, we could afford to help another family that was.

Incredibly helpful to our family.

The motivating factor of gangs.

Yes, I was sold and bought over there at the Harbor Drive in which was just down the road from where he lives and the harbor drive in.

There was a flea market during Saturday and Sunday morning and after I pulled in on Saturday morning Friday night, there had been a.

Gang shooting where a couple of gang members upped over the fence and shot up a color.

That was looking at the movie in the Drive-in.

So that was a recognition that a combination of 1 gang territory encroaching on another game's territory.

Without naming, the type of gangs and who they were, I could see that the stress was over there.

Coming this way, the neighborhood we lived in wonderfully clean.

But on the other side of Harbor Blvd and the Harbor Drive in was the more difficult section of sand, and so that was the disk.

Citing factor and there were several times that we had some family difficulties where if you can imagine a 12 year old girl running away in California and the.

Life expectancy.

Of a defiant outgoing young girl, the life expectancy was very short, so we were very blessed to have another family that we could deliver.

And change her mind on OK.

Today it looks like I'm not running away.

I'm going to live with another family.

But to that girl she had more than one mom that loved her that was interested in her well being.

At that time my image changed drastically throughout the girl's early life, dad was always the bum.

The bad person.

The person that abused kids.

And I'm dropping the young girl off.

There was a realization that occurred.

What am I going to do with this thing that I love because she wasn't that grateful for?

Taking away her, running away privileges and going to some terrible place like Palm Springs, I was terrible course, it only took her a week.

Well, on that trip to find a drug dealer and.

It only took her a week to.

Find the 1st.

Drug dealer in Aztec, NM. The only drug dealer in Aztec NM, but she found him so.

What would be the motivation for leaving?

We had the money opportunity, the house sold.

I was almost done with my GI Bill.

So the college was coming to an end.

I had all sorts of resources on looking up places in the United States to move to.

And Colorado and Durango was my aim.

We vacationed in Utah and Northern Colorado drives through.

Oklahoma and I really didn't like Farmington, but I liked Colorado and Aztec was the closest I could find.

There was something about a piece of property in Flora Vista that had certain assets, no utilities, but certain.

Assets that were just fitting to somebody that looked at being prepared for chaos for worldwide problems.

And along with being away from the population, one of the features was year or round water.

That's something that like you're in the desert and you can breathe, but if you can't drink, find water.

You're good for a couple of days, so I had water year around.

There is no way that I could turn loose to that property.

However, another enterprise that we have was opening up a donut shop in.

And we were in there for one successful month, about six months in, and then another business opened up with the same Donuts, same sandwiches.

And it just took a nosedive.

It it only took me about three years to catch up on the utilities, the payments, the property.

So it it.

It is interesting to me.

Part of the reason.

I always suspected that you would move from California to a a smaller area is of course the violence and gangs and things like.

But also.

We were coming out of a recession as well, and California was pretty heavily hit during that recession.

OK.

It it feels to me like if you live through recession.

And you know.

What it feels to lose everything effectively when you move to your new place.

It's interesting how you can have homesteading capabilities.

You have the water.

You have an ability to build your own house.

You have a way to plant rows of corn to make food.

You have a way.

To warm yourself.

All these different things that people think these are just the absolute basics.

I've lost everything.

So I can't really rely on the societal norms that you might get.

Now I'm going to take care of myself and that's being prepared the.

Recession that was Universal did not affect me.

What affected me was getting laid off 4 kids, two dogs.

A huge 3 bedroom home, two car garage, large yard.

No income.

Still had to make the bills. Still had to buy the gas at the time in 7677. Part of that recession was gas prices and buying anything was double digit inflation. Double digit interest rates.

So being able to make bills.

And having all income stopped.

That was a major shock.

And if if you were without income for one month, it takes three months to six months of income to make up that one month of loss.

Much lost.

I was out for about 3 months which I could see was going to take years to make up.

That's an important lesson, I think for anyone you know.

I've talked about Dave Ramsey and his baby steps and saving the thousand first.

By the way, I completely disagree with that these.

Days 10,000 is the.

Well, because things cost a lot more, and I mean it's easier to save 1000. And maybe you can take care of things like a gas bill or an electric bill.

But if you have a car that goes out most cars today, $3000 to fix, you have a pet that gets injured $2000. A couple of those piled up within a short period of time.

And you've blown 510 grand.

Well, it depends on your situation. When the Dave Ramsey program first started, it was a $500.

To start with, I don't know what it is today, but that went to 1000, which is when we studied Dave Ramsey.

And now what he says is you need to have four to six months of your income.

So for everybody, it's not.

A flat rate.

The 1000 Bucks is just something to chill out on, knowing that if the small emergency rocks you on.

Anybody should be able to save 1000 bucks. I cannot imagine how people that studied and did the Dave Ramsey program could not have felt immensely blessed when the COVID shutdown hit and part of his.

Later program.

Is having a.

Long term solution.

Financially, he wasn't dealing with be prepared for.

A total shutdown of transportation of traveling, visiting everything you're in quarantine, which means food and utilities have to be covered even if you're sitting there in your living room by yourself or with your family.

But the family is also difficult because kids need to play.

They need to get out.

They need to do things and.

The Dave Ramsey program is called financial.

And if you can adapt that into, be prepared.

The peace in being prepared before the COVID quarantine.

It was so easy.

I had a stable income.

I had the property and I loved to work on the.

Property cutting trees breaking leaves trying to clean out ditches or something.

I really enjoyed doing.

Now when we first moved here.

We were only there for what, six months?

Six months.

And then you found the property.

Out in work.

No, I found the property within a month or two work for an electrician part time outside of working in the electrical department for the gas industry and as a function of working part time for a contractor, I was able to put in the.

Electrical power pole, but did that by hand.

And as a function of doing some research, I put in the septic system, which I overbuilt.

I didn't realize when you add 1 brick here and one brick there, it doubles that amount of bricks you have to put in a septic system.

And you have to dig it bigger holes.

Well, sometimes lots of concrete has to be.

Yes, yes.

So number one.

Do you ever regret leaving California?

Same as Mom, never. However, I traveled back to California numerous times, especially on Dad's final year almost weekly, but at least twice a month I went to California on Friday, came back Sunday night and it allowed me to buy a cover.

With no impact on income, it allowed me to pay for my third part of Dad's home.

He was in a care facility and allowed me to do the traveling because that meant much gasoline, but it was not a duty.

It's like the owner, your father and your mother.

How can I?

Do that.

This is an opportunity to mention.

On Dad's passing he was cremated. I set up with my sister on having a burial at sea. I kept aside some.

The majority burial at sea will mile out into the Pacific Ocean in Southern California.

Hopped in a collar. Went to Albuquerque. Drove Route 66 with Dad in my pocket. Went to Baltimore.

Or another part of the burial at sea was in the Atlantic, flew to Seattle, another part of the burial at sea is in northern continental United States drove back and the last part of the Ashes were out.

Come little divide.

That's the power.

You gotta share.

With me, where on the continental divide?

Just north of Cuba, it's big sign there come all divine.

One of the things I I really respect about my dad to the audience here he prepared me for a lot.

Of different things.

A lot of difficult times and you had this undeterred attitude whenever facing those trials I remember.

That old pink bus breaking down or overheating a couple of times in the middle of like Death Valley.

While you're traveling from California to New Mexico, right?

And I remember you just popping out. OK, let's just throw some water in it. Let's just go check some things and get underneath it and move around in the middle of 110 degree heat and and.

Another one was when we were traveling.

I think it was just you and me in in a a little truck and you were doing something in the front.

I think you were just putting some water in the radiator and you were looking at something and the head gasket blew and there was a bunch of the the grease and oil and stuff that kind of spit out all over the place.

You must have been.

Angry in some of these situations, so you.

Hit it well from.

Me, but tell me where do you believe you gained that attitude to react?

Well to these type of situations.

Well, that was in long Term Boy Scout experiences over numerous years every single.

Campout had a burn a cut all a stub of the to a difficulty and it was always handled in such a comfortable way and.

It was always acceptable to maybe say dadgummit.

And then learn.

From it and say I don't need to do this anymore.

I don't need to stick my hand in the fire because I know it burns yeah, and more important because I was in multiple groups of people, kids, adults I could learn from their experiences and learning from others experiences is so much more valuable.

Than having to get burnt or cut or break an arm yourself in the only time that I had to get some stitches.

As a result of the Boy Scout experience was when I was following somebody in a typical young boy game and they had just gone through a window and closed the curtain.

So I was running and I one of them threw my hand.

To move the curtain aside and the window was also closed.

So I broke a window and cut my hand and gusu stitches throughout 90% of my life. That was the extent of my operations, so I learned so much more from others, painful experiences so that when I.

Did have a crisis.

There was something called a solution that came with every one of them and if the solution was not apparent, it's it's the prayer of serenity applied.

The prayer, serenity, and simply grant me the strength to do what I can and the patience to understand or recognize what I cannot do.

And more important, the wisdom you tell the difference.

There's some things you cannot be prepared for, and I was incredibly.

Grateful for going into a situation and being prepared for it because it made multiple lives entirely different.

As a junior in high school, there was a brand new math class that came out and was advertised. This is a new presentation. Now today 99% of the population knows about zoom.

But I did that in 1959, nineteen, 60 and my zoom was the television. The TV stations did not start transmitting until 6:00 AM with one of those big round symbols called sign in and there was only.

Three of them, not 500 channels. There was one of the three.

That broadcast 30 minutes before the sign on a professional from Tulsa University giving Hills 2 day a week lecture.

So Monday, Tuesday I had one opportunity in two days to see Monday's lecture and either Wednesday, Thursday.

I had the two days for an opportunity to see the Wednesday lecture, but I had to get up before 5:30 and study math.

And it wasn't just math, it was called new math, something that was unheard of.

It wasn't calculus, it wasn't fancy trig or something like that.

It was new meth and that had logic.

I mean, you had to know such.

And set up a.

Border up here and a border down.

There and put numbers in there now.

Saturday, the professor would come in and the students would come in and ask questions and take tests and do the the personal contact on.

Saturday the 12 lectures were only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday, I was extremely fortunate because I learned something that the professor said about the third or fourth week in first of all he said, look.

Around and see how many people are not here now.

I grade on the curve.

Those people that dropped and dropped officially they don't affect the curve. Those that dropped and did not do it officially or with the edge and look at it this way, you're guaranteed ACB or name all you have to do is show up on Saturday.

Shut up.

Answer questions, ask questions, take tests and just be alive.

And I was extremely successful at getting a B in a 3 unit full four year college as a junior in high school.

Now kids take college classes all the time, but in the 50s and especially over the air.

That was on.

Heard that was a start to the college.

Now I got through high school, went directly to Amish State College for electrical engineering.

So the main reason I was in college was not because mom and dad paid for it.

It was because it was a college deferment because I was.

In the Navy resume.

And when I drop out of college, I go active.

Yeah, so that was an incentive to try to stay in school in the United States there was a thing called a draft and then that waited for the draft call.

Faced bullets and jungles.

And people that didn't like us so much yet 56,000 people died. Hundreds of thousands wounded, and it was an uncomfortable war in the middle of it. Here I am, a soldier in the middle.

Of the LSD revolution, I was also along with electrical engineering.

I was in various Broadway and musical shows.

Those shows and classes.

I excelled in engineering a lot of classes.

I had to take twice so my GPA fell slightly and I left Long Beach State College which later became Cal State.

At Long Beach.

And went to Long Beach City College to continue my military deferments and did obtain a degree to which I also met.

Married Dori had long as I went into the service.

I had a second one when I came out.

In the service.

So I had military training in naval tactical data systems I took and.

Taught electrical raid over electronics in the service, so I was also taking classes there.

Fascinating ship up in port wine, Emy, which I've already mentioned.

Great duty, great liberty, and great opportunities considering.

90% of the population was getting shot at.

There are some that look at that and frown upon the you know, college deferment type of program, but I think for some people who don't quite comprehend what was happening back during the draft for the Vietnam War.

So on if you have an opportunity and you're one who loves to learn, there seems like there is no other choice.

I'm thinking if.

I were in a similar type of situation.

Sure, and one important thing to remember.

A college deferment doesn't get you out of the war, it just postpones it.

It doesn't relieve you of the duty. If you excel then you have opportunities becoming an officer instead of two, three and four years. It's a four 5-6 year. Yeah. And there was something about the service.

And my personality that didn't get along, which is ironic because there is exactly the same societal bureaucracy.

When I came to Aztec and worked for a gas company that had the same mentality of.

I'm more important than you because.

I've been here longer.

I got my shot when I went down to the bosses office and I became a very important person.

Yeah, and the officers change and the bosses change when they get that position of authority.

So education was half over I went to work for Douglas Aircraft, which also offered quite a few classes in leadership and management, which I excelled at that.

But like I said, the population.

Of that particular plant while I was working went from 6000 to 2000.

And when I got my.

There was, it was from 2000 dropped to 1000 and when I moved out of my desk they had to move two engineers in to that responsibility because they apologized and they still called me six months after I was laid off because.

I knew the drawings and all of the requirements, but there was a hierarchy and I had to lay off and two engineers got a job.

From my experience with Douglas, every time I wanted to go back to college for some reason, I went from a 40 to 60 hour workweek and I had to drop out.

I had applied for college about three or four times, and every single time.

Time extra hours were added and I had to resign from going back to college. One of the toughest things is being away from college for 810 years and then go back to college full time. That was an interesting experience. I decided to take it light.

And I went to a junior college called Golden West and in six months got a certificate of completion in graphic arts.

But I was doing it on the GI Bill, which paid me very well for going to college rather than let the giade, which I still had another year or two of GI Bill available rather than let it run.

I went up to Fullerton College, Cal State Fullerton.

Applied and got the jail build there and went through their public relations work and I obtain a bachelor's degree from Fullerton and used up the rest of my GI Bill.

Right?

Well, while I was going to college, I was also entertaining in the magic world and adjusting my schedule so that the two weeks before finals I could say I'm already booked.

So I had off those times I had a little manual typewriter and I was.

In a delightful car is a Volkswagen Deluxe called a Karmann Ghia and I would go into the passenger seat, drop the glove box door sent my typewriter on there and type out my tomb papers.

That was that college when I moved to Aztec. I went up to the only College in town which when we got here in 77 slash 78, it was actually in the miss you. It was a kind of an energy satellite.

But I took some classes and I got some NMSU credits and then it became San Juan College.

 was in California at Golden West.

I also got some UCLA credits because I was also doing research at Golden West in the field of psychic discovery called Kirlian photography.

I was the Orange County researcher and I would go up.

To UCLA or doctor Thelma Marsh was writing books and doing Kirlian research for the Western University.

She was doing the entire universities.

And I would run copies of what she was working on and taken back to gold and must had my own cameras that I bought, which were basically Polaroids.

And I found a deal at the flea market where somebody had a huge box of Polaroid film so.

I could do lots and lots of research.

The most famous one is Lee.

That you would take picture of him.

You'd see the entire leaf and then you'd cut part of the leaf and you'd see a phantom image and the source for that came from a book called Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain and.

I also want to restore the magician work.

Catching ferns up in Pacific Palisades and became extremely good friends with some other entertainers that were jugglers that.

Actually we were on different variety shows.

I was also very good friends with a hypnotist that wanted Magic Castle access, so he used my coupons to get into the Magic Castle and he got me several magic shows.

In some of his bookings and for some reason those people could make more money 2/3 times what I would make as an individual because they had an artist agent and when I could fill in I'd make hundreds rather than 50.

Does that complete my education? Yes, I have 330 and then I continued with adult education most of the time I took courses. If I enjoyed the profession. So a particular professor. One you know very well. A member of our.

Church was an economic teacher and I took every one of his classes because he was so enthusiastic.

I took a lot of GIS remote sensing classes and I excelled at those because.

This is number 1.

The instructor was so enthusiastic.

One of the courses that I would have enjoyed taking is astronomy, and that instructor was so disastrous, did not know it was.

And I dropped it.

Nothing like a bad instructor to make you.

Go there, sorry for me.

And the worst thing possible is if it was a required class.

Yeah, especially in the intro classes because you'd have a teacher with the tenure and.

Would have a book.

With his lectures, they never change the tests never change and he would sit there and.

Really the paid.

One little more.

Only here because I have to be same with the students.

So I did take a lot of adult education classes.

Most of those were without credit, so I probably would have closer to 350, but 90%.

Of that is.

Lower it's not upper on level.

Predaj in one of the important lessons.

That I would like our audience.

To understand.

Where I come from and that is the love of learning.

I will sit down in front of a computer and sign up on a course.

There's one that I looked up that was learning artificial intelligence from MIT Labs, and I listened to the first couple ones and obviously the first ones.

They're talking all foundational.

Stuff so it's.

All these super high level mathematics but.

Teacher was great.

I mean, he was really entertaining, really interested super like deep into this.

Discussion, but other ones that I've gone off and and tried to learn you.

Know I think it's.

So important, even if you're not getting credit.

If you find something interesting, just go learn it.

In today's Internet based Society of learning, if you can't find a couple of corner that you're interested.

A couple of courses on something that you're interested in.

You're just not looking.

You can find a course.

On just about any and.

Most of the time it's free.

Now sometimes they're teaching stuff that.

You have to be careful because the quality or the accuracy may be a little less than.

I needed to learn how to re bead a lawn tractor tire.

You know how when they go flat they.

Separate from the rim.

So I I wanted to learn how.

To do that quickly.

Oh, there are some ways to do.

Good and there's some.

Very dangerous ways to do it as.

Well, I'm not sure if I would trust learning from YouTube.

I think years ago I would have agreed with you, but I think today there are people out there in the YouTube environment and there's other competition to the YouTube that's just highly unknown.

But there are other video sources and.

They are professionals who have served in an industry for years and they just dumbed down the solution to answer the question how do I do this?

And they go, oh, you do that by doing XY&Z. For instance, setting up a solar panel with a solar charger and battery pack.

And everything I went through a couple of courses for that still don't feel comfortable doing.

But I started to understand the fundamentals.

Of the electrical.

Systems behind it and.

How the solar is gathering energy and so on.

Again, I still don't feel comfortable doing it, but those people who are teaching it they've been doing it for a year I.

Have a question for you?

How do you tell someone?

That's teaching that says they have been screwed.

Rituals looks good.

Puts on a different good show, but only an expert in the field would figure out they're sending some wrong advice.

Wrong information of how do you?

Tell same way, yet you verify scriptural or other educational things, and that's by verifying it with.

Other proven sources.

So if you have, for instance, a person that served in the military for X number of years and the current capacity they do XY and Z, and they're teaching certain firearm safety rules.

And then you watch a video from this other guy or gal who says?

No, it's totally cool if.

You're pointing a gun at.

Somebody, it's totally.

Cool and leave out rule #2 Levi rule number two yeah yeah. So yes my learning has had ups and downs, but overall I've.

Totally enjoyed learning to the point where even without the school I will draw books from the library.

Fortunately, when I had an opportunity.

Or a challenge to create a patent.

The three books that I chose from the library free was.

You can easily do a patent.

You can do a pen without a lawyer.

I also took advice.

That was before You Tube, by the way, and successfully did the patent.

And instead of costing 10 to $20,000, it costs $600. Now I had to sit in the kitchen for two weeks with hour after hour after hour drawing, figuring I had to do my own searches.

On patents to be able to create the patent correctly and it went through and with a little adjustment which I could ask the pass.

Patent clerk to help me with.

That's part of doing a personal patent.

If I had a lawyer they won't do it, but I said I'm just an individual.

Will you help me?

The capability and the ideas are still valid.

To this day, however, getting in the door of an ATM, for example manufacturer, is impossible.

They have a policy.

Same thing in the music industry, or a lot of places that have patents.

They have policies that say do not talk to anyone, even if they have a pattern and they're offering it for free, which I did.

You may not talk to them.

You cannot even look at what they had, but that was one of those learning experiences.

Where after the fact of having a patent, I found that really what I needed was my own manufacturing plants and somewhere in the neighborhood of Mirror 1 to $200,000.

Urge to provide it to distribute to get it out there and then for that particular patent with ATM's. I didn't insert as being an ATM owner, would I take a gadget and install it and I found.

Somebody in London that had the similar type of solution that couldn't even give it away because.

The liability on ATM owner is already putting 10 to $20,000 in $20 bills in each one of his machines.

So are you taking any classes now?

Officially no, but what am I learning today?

One of my new fields is archeo astronomy and I am learning about the combination of archaeology and astronomy, finding where other people are discovering.

Things and I go out and look and see if I can find those same things.

I've been extremely successful at discovering or key astronomy assets.

Out there.

Yeah, here in the.

Four corners there.

In my backyard without having to go in far out places.

That's that's one of the things that I've always found interesting that you mentioned to.

Me years and years ago.

And that is you can live in the smallest of towns.

You can have the smallest of colleges or high schools.

Or whatever around you.

And you can find talent and you can find things to do.

And you can go out into the hills and.

Have an experience all your own.

That no one in.

New York City will ever do.

One down in L.

A or Hollywood will ever experience.

Like I still remember Adam Winzler doing Snoopy in a high school play.

That was probably one of the best performances that I've seen.

Just the way he pulled it off was was really impressive.

Now I was just a kid during the time I probably had very low expectations of acting, but still it was something that was really impressive.

And something that happened right here where I lived.

And when you imagine that he was an accomplished violinist, to the point of going to Vienna to play with an orchestra.

Out of Aztec NM.

It's a lesson in contentment, being happy with.

Where you are.

And just taking advantage of the things that.

Are around you.

Whether it's the mountains, the hills, the desert, the the rivers, the lakes, all the different things around you, whether it's taking advantage of the education system, the libraries.

That are available to you.

I want to discuss one word that you used in being in a location and being content that leads to not excelling.

Being content is often the roadblock to opportunity and that.

Not being obnoxious, but having a struggling to learn about something or to do something or to be a better athlete or a a better computer student, or learn about something now when I apply contentment to.

My situation it's I am at peace with being where I'm at and not having to go to New York or back to Hollywood or accomplishing the world.

The parting shot is simply.

There are so many words of wisdom that if we just understand the realization that there is so much truth in that word.

I carried around a piece of paper that says you cannot tax half of the population and give it to the.

Other half because it reduces the desire to work for both halves.

The half that gives away or test their money taken away does not have an incentive to work because that guy is getting it for free.

And that guy.

That's getting it for free.

There's no incentive to work because that you're going.

To get for free.

So that's just the financial side.

But in life, that's serenity.

Of prayer of understanding the difference in knowing what you can and what you cannot do.

The wisdom in that is tremendous.

Parting shots West Point before rules.

I always carry a multitool.

Every week I need either a knife or needle nose pliers.

I must have 10 multi tools and I have warned out probably 2 lovers.

To those who don't know, Leatherman is kind of the creme de la creme of multi tools.

Well, it depends on if you like the stainless steel or the block.

Are we going to get into?

An argument about multi tools.

Absolutely not.

They're all great, and just having one is fantastic.

The one time I found an interesting.

Use of a multitool is a person that was going to use one to go out into the forest, and he took the multitool onto a grinding wheel and took the screwdriver that he would not need and turn that into a chisel that he would use.

Under the Boy Scout, there's a model of do a good turn daily and that feeling good about being able to help somebody.

There's a secondary item in the Boy Scout ruling try.

Not to let him know.

Can you do a good term and not tell anyone?

Now Oprah had a great one that says pass it on or pay it forward and that went viral.

Another source for words of wisdom is kinda like a poem called Desert Dorado and that has numerous great words to live by.

I watched the colin Powell ceremony and they passed.

His 13 rules of leadership, he had some great rules to live by.

Most of them had dealt with leadership, but in amongst his 13 rules to live by.

The best one is right up the Gen X talkin and Boy Scouts start with it and it's be prepared whatever you're doing.

So my compliments go to you.

And your endeavors.

Thank you, I'll not necessarily add 2, but compliment your parting shot as well.

I find myself reminding just about anyone I come in contact with with that serenity prayer.

I think it's probably one of the most.

Things that we can do.

I I put it a lot more simple and just control the things that you can't control, that's all, but I do like that final statement of.

Understand the difference.

Or have the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and can't control.

Well, Dad, I thank you so much for joining us today on the show and remember this loyal audience always be learning to respond well and they cover faster.

Until next time this is Matt Marshall signing off and Brooks.