Inside The Den: Montgomery ISD's Career and Technology Campus

This is episode number 361 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad you could join us for another live episode here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

I'm pretty good, you know, just, uh, pretty good. I mean, it's late tonight, but late, late, uh, but yeah, I mean, it was a fun weekend of football.

It was a fun weekend.

There's so many things that happened.

The only thing that would have put the cherry on top of this, Texas hadn't come back at the end. You know what I will say, the only thing that made me happy about that, it was an SEC win.

Yeah, I— look, I, I was genuinely shocked that it started quite the way it did, with an interception the way it did. I mean, really early in the game, it was kind of ugly. Um, and then it went downhill from there for Texas fans. But then, man, the way they crawled back—

was it like 20 points in the 4th quarter or something?

They, they They, well, you know, there, there's a couple things you can say about it. Either Texas played really well or, uh-huh, Ohio State played really bad.

Um, but either way, I think it was both.

I think it was probably both.

I think, I think Ohio State played great through 3 quarters.

Yeah.

And then they, I think they thought they had it.

Yep.

And then the home crowd just kind of pushed 'em over the finish line.

Yeah.

I mean, really, I mean, once they had the momentum in the 4th quarter, I, I don't, there was no stopping 'em.

No, they—

well, especially after they missed the field goal, right? Which, that was crazy.

That was crazy. Um, so, so that was, that was a big one.

Yeah. Uh, OSU.

OSU.

Oregon.

Beating Oregon.

That was insane, dude.

Like, well, like, Oregon, Oregon never had a chance in that game. Like, they didn't even— it's like they didn't show up. It's like they forgot there was a football game that day.

Like, here's— I I was watching the game and like, you know, my folks went to OSU. So like, I'm sort of like a sideways adjacent OSU fan.

Sure.

I'm always rooting for 'em. But like, I watched that, I saw that one on the schedule and I was like, ooh, that's gonna be brutal. I mean, last year they were like 1 and 11.

Yes.

But like, they looked like a good football team.

They looked, Amiciam looked incredible. here's what was crazy. The stat that they kept showing over and over during the game was there has never been a team that has lost, that has been on a 10-game losing streak, uh-huh, win against a top 10 opponent ever, ever. And they had lost 12 in a row, right? So, and they, they beat them.

Yeah.

And, and they didn't just kind of beat them. I, I mean, the score wound up being 39 to 31. It did not feel like 39 to 31. Like, it was, it was substantially worse than that for Oregon.

Yes.

Yeah.

So here's, here's my question to you is, because the A&M game, uh, Arizona State looked pretty good.

Oh, the first, the first, uh, quarter And half of the second quarter, I thought Arizona State's going to give A&M all they can handle.

Yeah. They looked pretty good.

They did.

Oklahoma State looked pretty good.

They did.

BYU looks pretty good.

They did.

The field for the Big 12 looks a little bit tougher than it did last year.

Sure. Which is great for everyone. It's, well, it's good for football.

It's good for football.

It's really, it's, it's really good for the Big 12.

It's not a cupcake for Texas Tech.

No. Well, but Texas Tech looked absolutely dreadful.

I mean, who were they playing again? Because I know they didn't look—

they played Oregon State.

Oregon State. That was right. And they were— they were behind at one point, weren't they?

Oh, yeah. That, like, Tech— Tech— well, they, they didn't score first. Oregon State scored first. So Texas Tech looked terrible. I mean, they couldn't do any— their, their defense was terrible. They, they couldn't run the ball. They couldn't throw the ball. Our quarterback, like the, the backup quarterback looked so much better. Of course there's conversation there, but just Texas Tech looked terrible, really awful.

But they looked pretty good in the first game.

No, they didn't.

I mean, better than they did in the second game.

Oh, I thought they looked better in the first game than the second game. They were playing ACU, right? Which I, my alma mater, I loved ACU, but Of the two, you would assume Oregon State would be better than ACU.

Right.

And they should be.

Well, and, but, okay, then, okay, let's just get through the other ones. Oklahoma-Michigan.

Oh yeah.

Holy crap.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Which, I mean, I was, that was so delicious.

Well, but the thing is, like, I was so, my favorite meme, my absolutely favorite meme from the weekend was Michigan is the first team in college football history to go 2-0 after losing their first game.

That's brilliant.

It's so good. And, um, that's the thing that made me mad about it, but 'cause I was just like, I want Michigan to just— but I also want OU to beat Cal.

That was such a weird situation, 'cause you're mad about Michigan the game before, just like, obviously— I don't know what you wanna call it. It's not cheating, but it's just like...

Oh, yeah.

Tempting fate. I mean, they just— like, no, we gotta reset. They Groundhog Day'd.

They did.

That first game.

They did.

And you're like, You know what, they need to be— Michigan needs to be taken down a peg or two, right?

But like, but not at the expense of OU.

Like, let OU go down first, right? So it's, it's Sophie's choice.

It is, man. Like, ah, look, I, I look at it this way. Let them go down third, third game. Game 3.

Game 3, that's fine. Who are they? But who are they even playing?

I don't even know this week. I don't even know.

It's got to be a conference game.

Uh, I would think so. I actually don't know. I'd have to to look at.

'Cause they always play Ohio at the end of the year, right?

Yeah, most of the time.

Okay.

That's their— Ohio State's their big rivalry.

That's their big rivalry, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

So, uh, was there any other weird ones?

Well, there were some weird ones.

You're like, Alabama was down to Kentucky for a little bit, but then they came back.

And it's funny 'cause like in the— I don't know if you watched Game Day, but, um, Saban was going, look, I'm gonna pick Alabama, but yeah, We always played terribly in Kentucky. Mm-hmm. And he said, I'm just gonna tell you right now, it's gonna be a closer game than people expect. And it was.

And it was.

And it really was. Uh, I'll, I'll tell you the, uh, well, Kentucky's coming to A&M this week. Oh, they are?

Okay.

And I'm like, yeah, they looked, they looked decent. Um, but I'll say, man, Reed looks, looked really good.

He, he looked okay.

Yeah. In my, in my opinion, there was, there was like, I was watching the second half more than I watched the first half.

The second half, he looked great.

Yeah.

There were some really terrible throws.

Okay.

In the first half, um, that were very Reid-esque from last year.

Sure.

I just need him to like button that up.

Sure. That makes sense.

And, and the, the other thing is we, uh, we have our starting running back lost like 20 pounds.

Oh.

'Cause he was, he said he was trying to get faster.

Okay.

I don't think he's better when he's faster.

He's faster. Was not, he needed to be a bulldozer and he lost the bull.

He lost the bull.

He lost the bull. You know?

And like, that was kind of his thing is like he could, you know, like you knew he could get like a yard and it doesn't feel like he can do that anymore.

Yeah.

We've got, we've got some really spry guys that are really quick, but like sometimes you just need that bulldozer.

Yeah.

You know, and like we ain't got the bulldozer no more.

Yeah, no, that's for sure. Uh, the other game that was interesting, um, is Wake Forest and Purdue. Okay. That was interesting to me cuz it went to double overtime and Purdue lost.

Oh.

Um, and, uh, so Ryland, my son, was like, oh, I wanted to go to 10 overtimes. I'm like, that's never gonna happen, dude.

They changed the rules where you couldn't do that, right?

Yeah, you— I was like, it's not gonna happen. It can.

Was the A&M-LSU game where they went 7 overtimes?

Yes.

Or something?

And it can happen. You could get there. But here's what— here's the way it happens. First overtime is regular, regular first overtime. Second overtime, you have to go for 2. Right. After that, they switch off 2-point conversions.

What do you mean they switch off? It's have to, don't have to, have to, don't have to?

No, it's you start at the 3-yard line and you get one play. Oh, they switch off 2-point conversions.

Oh gosh, just to make it go quicker?

Yep, just to get it over with.

It makes sense.

It does. It absolutely makes sense.

Yeah.

Um, But I'll tell you the other one and, you know, go back to, uh, to the Big 12 stuff. The other one that I was like, all right, was the Utah-Arkansas game.

Oh, that was—

Yeah.

'Cause Utah stomped on 'em a little.

43 to 10. Yeah. 43 to 10. Like, and, and I've got, I've got a lot of, uh, uh, Arkansas friends. Uh-huh. And, and just the, the comments, man. They're just, it's because Man, when I moved to Arkansas, and I lived there for 10 years, when I moved there, dude, you could tell the— just the— you could tell whether or not the Razorbacks won or lost by the mood and the way church went the next day. Like, the way worship was the next day, it was like, they lost. A little somber. Yeah. Or, whoa, they must have won. A little more jubilant. Yeah, and interestingly enough, like, over the 10 years that I lived there, The

expectations were like, we suck. It's like, it got like, it, it got better for, for people that didn't care about Arkansas. It got better.

Yeah.

Uh, but, uh, but yeah, that was one that I was like, okay, that was, that was dominating.

In a situation like that, I always wonder, is Utah that good or does Arkansas suck that bad? Uh, honestly, you know what I mean?

I think Utah is better than people think.

That's what I would—

that's what I was thinking. Yeah. Last year, Uh, they gave Tech everything they could handle, and Tech was incredible. In fact, just to tell you how good Tech was, um, and there's more stats that I could give you that you don't care about, but Jacob Rodriguez, who was their—

That linebacker?

Yeah, the linebacker is incredible. Um, is he still there? No, no. Okay, he got drafted.

He got drafted. Okay.

Uh, by the Dolphins, Miami Dolphins. And yesterday he had 14 tackles.

Holy crap.

In his debut game. He is the only rookie, uh, to have the green dot. You know what the green dot is on his helmet? Uh, he's the one that gets the play calls.

Oh yeah.

Only rookie in the entire league that has the green dot.

28 years old or something, isn't he?

Yeah, he is. He is a little older, but I mean The dude's just good.

Oh no, no, no.

He had 5 solo tackles, 14 total tackles. Oh my gosh. The— here's what's, here's what's really cool. The last, um, the last guy to have that many, uh, in, in their opening game of their rookie year was Zach Thomas, who is also a Texas Tech grad. He had 16.

Oh gosh.

Yeah, which is crazy. I mean, that's it. And, and he's He's gonna be in the Hall of Fame. Mm-hmm. So like pretty good company you're keeping there.

Sure.

Yeah. Um, but no, the, the, the weekend was fun. There was a lot of good games.

A lot of moving. A lot of moving.

Yes. A lot of movement. I mean, I, I honestly was shocked that they put Texas at number 1. They were at number 4. I didn't like them jumping to number 1.

The AP loves putting Texas 1.

They really do. I, I didn't love it because for lots of reasons, but I'm just like, look, you barely won that game. And to— at home, at— yeah, I just didn't, I didn't love you moving up that quick.

I, I love 'em being at number 1 right now.

Just because you love knocking 'em off.

Yeah. Somebody's gonna knock 'em off.

They will.

I, I guess no question.

Yeah. No, someone will. And, and what I'll— what's, what is interesting for, for those of you Texans, Texas fans out there, like that was, that's that monkey off your back though. For, for, because, okay, here's, if you go, if you, if you start 0-1, mm-hmm, you're crawling out, right, from there. So for Texas fans, it's a monkey off their back.

It's a monkey off their back. My, the reason I think this is like a beautiful situation, one, OU lost to Michigan, right? So they're gonna start conference play next week. I don't know who they're playing. I don't really care.

Yeah.

Um, but like, OU is probably gonna do okay through the SEC gauntlet. Yeah, whatever it is, whoever it is that they're playing. I don't think they're playing Alabama this year.

They're playing UTEP next week.

UTEP. I mean, yeah, they're gonna recover okay.

Right now they have, they have, uh, Iowa after that.

Okay.

That'll be a tough game.

Woo. Yeah, but they'll be fine.

Yeah.

Any— anyway, what I'm looking at is going I would love for Texas to hang in there at number 1 till the Red River and then, okay, OU just knock 'em off again. Well, that, yeah, that would, and I don't, I don't, I'm not rooting for one or the other. I think they both stink, but like, but like if, if you know, like when one's, one's higher than the other.

Yeah.

And like they can knock them off the hill.

Yeah. Especially after like Michigan beats 'em.

Right.

Like that kind of, that kind of feels like, okay, well Michigan could have beat you too. Yeah.

So I don't know that I, but I also think that's just, I think that's just college football. I think that's what makes it great is we can talk about who's ranked and who's not, but like for the most part, any team can really play with another one.

Oh, for sure.

In general.

Well, yeah.

I mean, on any given Saturday.

Yeah. I mean, like, like I said, we, we, you can look at some of these games that like, like what Oregon fan was concerned going to Stillwater? None. None.

But like they went home with their tail between their legs.

They got stunned.

Like it can happen. Right. And, and so like, I, I think that's, it's just a beautiful, like really, I would hate to be number one.

Oh yeah. It's a target.

It puts a target on your back. Yeah, of course it is. And everybody wants to knock you off that pedestal. Of course. Like I'm, I'm perfectly happy with Texas being number one right now.

Yeah.

Fine. Like when do they get knocked off? Yeah. Who's gonna do it? Right. Because it's a long time before they play A&M.

Yeah, it is.

You know, fine. You wanna stay, stay number 1 till then. Yeah. That'll just make it all the more delicious when they, when they come to Kyle Field.

Yeah. Um, but anyway, um, we got stuff to talk about.

Yeah. We, so we got the, uh, VIP tour of the Den.

Yes, we did.

Uh, dude, which was incredible.

Yeah. So, uh, the Den is the, uh, career and tech— career and technology education center for Montgomery ISD. And what's pretty incredible about this place is that it's state of the art. And when I say state of the art, I mean like they're regularly giving other school districts tours of this thing because of how they built it and the way it is impacting the community even. And, dude, we, we were, we were privileged to get to walk through it with Mark Ruffin, the superintendent.

Who's been on the show.

He's been on the show. And, yeah. So, dude, where do you wanna start?

Also, DEN stands for Discover, Explore, Navigate. Yes.

Yes.

So it is a standalone campus for the high school students in Montgomery ISD.

2, 2 schools. You got Montgomery, you got Montgomery High School and you got Lake Creek High School. And they can either drive over there or they can be bused over there.

Yeah. There's a shuttle system.

Most of the programs there are at least a 2-year program. And you're coming out of that program with some sort of education certification, uh, ability to go get a job.

Yeah. And if we, if we get any of this wrong, I do apologize. But, like, there was a lot of programs that had certificates associated with them that you get when you come out of that program.

Absolutely. So now, now you pay for them. I mean, this is the many, most of them, you, you pay to be part of the program. But, again, the education that you're getting from this is not Hey, did you pass math? Mm-hmm. Did you pass your science class? Uh, you literally could go get a job, right? With these, with these, uh, skills that you've got and certifications. So we wanna run through 'em, what we, what we walked through. How do you wanna do that?

I mean, I, I, I've got a list of 'em right here.

Okay, let's do it.

So we got law enforcement.

Yep.

We got, um, automotive and collision. Hang on. It's, this is like a scrolling thing.

So automotive and collision is, they're not doing collision right now. Like that is not—

That's not part of it.

It's not part of it. They, and I, we actually, uh, they were talking, they were like, look, this, this would have to be something completely different than what it is right now. But, uh, they have the facilities to do it. They have the facilities and they, this is one that they can open up to the public. It's public facing. You can come get your tires rotated. You can get your oil changed. Right. Basic stuff like that.

So I'm, and I'm just going off their website, by the way. Construction and architecture, which we saw an incredible woodworking facility. And Mark even told us, he goes, I would love for us eventually to collaborate and just build a small home.

Yeah. A tiny home.

To show that we can do it from top to bottom.

Right. And when we tell you these things, there is state-of-the-art equipment in there. They spared no expense on the equipment For example, uh, the table saws that they have in there are SawStops. Mm-hmm.

And— It's the ones that'll stop when the hot dog hits it.

Yes. You can't, you cannot cut your finger.

Right.

On that.

He, he told us, he was like, it says it'll do that.

I ain't trying it. Exactly. That's what everybody says.

I blame him. I don't blame him. I wouldn't try it either.

That's right.

It's not worth the test.

No.

So, but anyway, construction and architecture, that, that's in there. Welding and manufacturing. There was actually a bunch of welding students while we were there.

A bunch.

Which, like, look, if you want your high school student to come out of high school with an actual marketable skill, you can make a bunch of money welding.

A lot of money.

And like, they're doing TIG, they're doing MIG. I mean, like, they're doing all of it.

Yep.

Um, and those kids were talented.

Yeah. Yes, they were.

Um, health services. Um, so health services, uh, that was really robust. Yeah.

So the health services, it looked like you were walking into an ER.

Well, and not only that, it was the, the, they had the full-scale—

The EMT?

Ambulance.

Yeah. So yeah, they had basically, uh, it was just a box, uh, but they had a full-size ambulance box in the, the room. They also have life-size dummies that they can program to have heart attacks or to have—

Bleeds. Bleeding.

Uh, yeah. And like all of the, they can program them to do different things.

Scary looking.

That dummy was scary. Like I was like, I was like, what do you do? Like USB-C this to your computer or something? Like, how do you program this thing?

Jumps up. I'm gonna punch it again.

It was, it was, it was a little lifelike, little lifelike.

Well, like one of the things I didn't, and he was, he was pointing out to us, one of the certificates a lot of people have to have in order to work on an ambulance is how to run the gurney.

That, that was bizarre to me. I had no idea.

But I mean, it looks complicated.

It does, but it makes sense. But they get that certification there.

But like down, and then like, you're right. The other part of it was the hospital wing where you can get a certificate in phlebotomy. Yes. And then it's like a medical scribe, I think.

Well, it's the, um, CNA, certified nurse assistant.

Right.

And so you, I mean, yeah, they learn how to do all of that stuff there. And what was really cool, it was like walking into a hospital. It looked just like an ER.

Like what, 12 beds in there?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, all the equipment that you would see in a hospital, they had.

Mm-hmm.

The one thing that I don't think they have is like an x-ray machine, but like, there's so many other, so much other stuff there. And what was really cool is that was all like next to each other. And he said what they've, one of the things that he said that I loved was he said they have made this space so multifunctional and, and they truly have. that the only limitation is their imagination. And so he's said that multiple times. I'm like, I love that phraseology. Like this idea of like, if you can dream it, we can do it. Because you just mentioned law enforcement. They've got full-blown, um, simulators in there to where they can literally do—

Situational shooting.

That's right. And so they had this, he said, we have a dream at some point that maybe we run a full-blown uh, scenario of like, hey, there's a car accident or there's something that the law enforcement have to show up to. The ambulance shows up, takes care of someone, then takes them to the hospital.

Right.

And it's all this scenario that they can do like real types of things. And like the things that they thought of, like the, the size of the door of the, of the hospital was a, the size to get a gurney through. Right. Like they, they, it's the size of a hospital door. They thought of everything. Yeah, it was brilliant.

I mean, it was weird walking from place to place because it looked so authentic. Yeah, because it was.

It was.

Yeah. All right, so, and then audio and video production.

Okay, dude, we, we were like, as, as people that do a production, right? And not, not the video side of things so much, but podcasting and stuff, like That you have more experience in this, so I'm gonna let you take it.

Well, they had a full soundstage.

Like, not a small soundstage. Not a small one.

Not a little one.

Huge.

Like, I was, I was telling, I was walking through it and I was like, like, do you realize what you have right here? You could do a movie in, because they had the full curved wraparound green screens.

Yeah.

And they had the soundstage in there with it. They had all the gear that they needed. They had the, the isolation room. They had everything.

Everything.

If you go in there and you don't learn how to do some sort of video and audio production, you have not been paying attention. They have incredible gear. Yeah. Like, it's like you could, you could literally shoot a full motion picture in that space. Now, I'm not saying it would be like the most imaginative or the best motion picture you've ever made, but like, there's not much you couldn't accomplish in that room.

Agreed.

As far as like just putting together like CGI, putting together like any, any scene, any scene that you wanted to do, you could do it in that room.

Oh yeah, with, with multiple people.

And, and like, it's huge. Multiple people, the cameras, the lights. The, the lighting was just blowing my mind. Oh yeah, like I was—

the racks they had up there.

I just wanted to play with it. Um, that's what I wanted to do. I was like, I just need you guys to leave, right? I need you guys to leave so I can just have a moment with all the buttons.

Um, yeah, well, that, you know, full, full, like, nice big teleprompters on the, on the cameras.

Because I think he was saying, like, they do the news, the school news from that. And, like, and they had a news desk in there.

Yeah.

Which looked great.

Yeah.

Um, but I was like, man, that's, that's just scraping the surface.

And you walk into that room and you start talking and you're like, oh, it's a, it's a dead room. There's no echo. Yeah, it's completely dead. It was incredible.

Yeah.

And, and now the other thing that I'll mention, because right off from that was, was the room that, uh, had a bunch of desks and then had the podcast.

2, 2 podcast studios.

So, uh, every one of the spaces in this building has an attached classroom.

That was something that was really cool.

It was really neat. And they have a dedicated classroom for that space. They're not sharing dedicated space with classrooms. Right.

So, so anyway, that one was mind-blowing. It blew my mind.

Yeah.

Really, really. I was like, how do I get to hang out here?

And they, and they have better equipment than us.

Way better.

I mean, I was like, come on, Mark. Yeah.

You're just poking the bear.

Yeah. Right, exactly.

So, engineering robotics.

Oh, okay.

But this one was also cool. They've got, when you walk in, okay. The, the classroom and the lab spaces on this one, alone were impressive. Rows and rows and rows of 3D printers.

Yes.

Metal fabrication, metal printing, uh, metal shaping.

Like robot, robotic, like arms that they have to program to move things around.

They, they had the robot arm from the first Iron Man movie.

They did.

Like they had that in the lab.

Yes.

That they could program to like pull stuff out of machines and put it in other machines so that they wouldn't have to handle it. Yep. But they were, he was like, we allow them to program it to do other stuff.

Yeah.

Um, and I was like, I don't get to play with that. Right. What the—

Well, and, and in there was a second 4 by 8 sheet, uh, CNC machine.

Yep.

The second one. There was also one over in the construction area.

Like, dude, I like, I don't think some of these students, I don't even know if they realize what they're getting to mess with.

Well, and he mentioned something to that effect. He was like, look, they're, they're, they probably don't realize that when they go into the field, whatever that field is, They're gonna go, oh, this equipment isn't nearly as good as what I learned there, right? Yeah.

So, and then because it's robotics and engineering, you know, obviously people like to build robots to do stadium fights. So they actually have an arena.

Yeah.

Like 3 arenas, I think is—

There's 3, yeah.

Where they host robot wars. Or I don't think, is that what you call it?

Yeah, I think so.

Sure.

That's what I'm calling it.

Robot battles.

Yeah.

Right. And, and they, and again, they built the room with cameras above the arena, and then the arena's on the first floor, but they also put the balcony for the second floor where the arena is so that people can also have a second layer where they can see down. And that's probably the best view.

Yeah. They could, and they can put bleachers in. They've got bleachers that, that fit in there so people can watch the, the battles. The battles.

And they, he said they have gobs of people show up for those.

Yeah.

Which I'm sure. I was like, well, I wanna know what it is.

Yeah, exactly.

This one was probably my favorite, the Culinary Arts.

Oh, dude.

Which was actually the first place that we went when we showed up. And I was like, how does it get better from here? It got better from there, but it didn't get much better.

Yeah, that place is awesome.

It was a teaching kitchen, and we actually got to see some students in the kitchen with chef. And at the time, they were working on stocks. I think they were doing vegetable stock at the time.

They were.

And he was telling us, he's like, yeah, we're, we start from the bottom and we teach them how to do everything from the bottom up. And then we use everything that we did right now. And so what he said is like, we're building stocks. We're doing vegetable stock right now. We'll build, we'll make gobs of it and then we'll freeze it and then we'll show them how they can use it later on in other recipes. But that's attached, that, that whole kitchen, I think had like 12 bays of individual kitchens.

Yeah.

So you could have that many students in there And then each one has a closed-circuit TV that attaches to a camera where the head chef is so that all the students can watch him and then do the exact same so that they can see what they're supposed to be doing at their station. But their station each has like a grill, a stove, an oven, a— man, it had everything.

Oh yeah.

I mean, everything you could need in a commercial kitchen, each one of those stations had.

Yep.

Individual for that student to use.

Mm-hmm. Um, and you know what? And I noticed it first in this one cuz it was the first room we walked into. You remember what was hanging besides the TVs?

All the plugs.

There were, there was electrical and depending on the, the room, sometimes air.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, like for the compressor.

Compressed air.

Yeah. Uh, there were pull-down plugs everywhere.

Yeah.

There's nowhere that if, if you had a full room of students that they're waiting on a plug or— on a plug or a station or an extension cord, for that matter. Or an extension cord. Yeah. And they're keeping extension cords off the ground cuz they're high. Right. So like they thought of everything.

Yeah. So now that kitchen is a production kitchen.

It is.

That is now also attached to a service line.

Mm-hmm.

It's also attached to a dish line. That's also attached to another service line that's attached to an actual restaurant that they have in the school.

Yep.

That you can go in for meals.

Like a lobby.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like you, but like, they, it's not every day.

Right.

You kinda have to pay attention to the schedule, but you can go in and have a meal prepared by these students, guided by this chef.

They got one coming up. So, so this is one thing I didn't tell you. This past Saturday, they did a, uh, car show at the Den, and we went. Oh, you did? Yes. Uh, it's the first one they've done. It's gonna grow, but they were giving tours, so I actually went on a little second little tour. It was not what the tour we got, but the cool thing is they were doing, um, they were doing desserts and coffee. Mhm. Uh, because it was in the morning, they had, uh, brownies and cookies. Dude, they were made by the, by the students. Maybe the best brownie and cookie I've ever eaten. I'm not, I'm not just saying that.

Right.

So like, and they were advertising, they were doing a, uh, uh, soup and sandwich night.

Oh.

And so one of the things that the chef said is like, look, yes, we're, we're teaching stocks right now. Then we're gonna get into different types of cuisines. Then we're going to get into this, that, and the other. But the thing is, we don't just teach them how to cook. We're also teaching them how to serve. We're teaching them the whole restaurant experience. And so they'll do like white glove dinners, right? Where you come in and you're paying, you're, you're paying for a seat.

Sure.

But, but they'll do that. They have, they have the desire someday to do like open to the public daily. But he said, It's difficult to do that right now because you got students coming and going during, sure, you know, school days. And it's just like, okay, are, are they coming to eat whenever they're switching classes? That doesn't work, you know?

Right.

No. So anyway, but culinary was awesome. Oh geez. Yes. So good.

And probably like the biggest area.

It was massive. Of, of the school.

It was massive.

Um, the only thing that may have been larger, maybe, was, uh, cosmetology.

I was gonna say, that's the next one.

Okay.

Yeah, which is also open to the public.

It is.

I don't even know how many stations they had in that room. Dude.

It's a massive room. They probably had 30 stations. That's like, that's just the haircutting stations.

Just the haircutting stations.

Then they had pedicure, manicure, facials.

Yep.

They do all of that and it's open to the public.

Yeah.

And so like on Thursdays and Saturdays, You can go. And, and so it's a 2-year program. This is actually— my daughter wants to do this program, so I, I've kind of dug into this one a little bit. It's a 2-year program. They, they give you internships.

Mhm.

So like, not only do you learn how to do everything, they give you internships. And most of the students leave, uh, graduate high school with a job. Like, like many of their internships will hire them straight out of this program. But this was the thing that was kind of blowing my mind is he said that a lot of these kids start getting their client base while they're there, while they're there, because these people come in on Thursdays and Saturdays and find out who they like and follow them. And I'm like, that It, it, it's that type of opportunity for, for a girl like my daughter who, look, she's just not gonna go to college. Mhmm. Okay? She's

stupid smart, but she's not gonna go to college. And that's what she wants to do. She can start making money immediately.

Learn it in high school and then go get a job.

Exactly. Yeah. Pretty cool. There, that, that, that place was awesome.

Yeah. And, and really the only other thing was, the animal science and agriculture, which we didn't get to see that because it's a whole other facility.

Right.

Hopefully we get to go check that out one day because that's kind of my wheelhouse.

You would have loved that.

Yeah. But like, I loved getting to see this. And I think part of the reason we are— we want to talk about this is because it matters the school district that you're in, that your kids get the opportunity to do this kind of stuff. I was talking to some other parents that I know that live in a neighboring school district. They're like, we don't have anything like that.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I know, because these guys have been extremely intentional about spending their money to develop this program so that kids have the opportunities to learn these skills.

Right.

You know, and it's like, I, I don't, I don't know of another school district that does it like this.

No. So, so I know that there are some others that have this type of, you know, the career and technology education, but they don't have this kind of facility. No. They, they've got different. So I, I don't know about you, but where I grew up in little Lamesa, Texas, Um, we had auto mechanic shop in the metal building outside that was, you know, hotter than all get out out there. There was a cosmetology area, but it had like 4 stations. Um, so we did have some, there were, there was a, there was a woodshop, but again, it was in that like standalone building out there that was just put up, right, for that, but that's about it. Like, it's just a

metal building.

This is not that. This is not that. Yeah.

And there was no client-facing, you know, community-facing type of thing. Not in workloads.

To me, that's one of the things that makes it most unique is like, it's one thing to learn how to do something. It's another thing to learn how to interface with a, with a client.

Right. So, uh, this, they didn't tell us this, uh, when you and I were there. But whenever I went on the tour, uh, the other day, so the automotive, um, they work on all the fleet vehicles for the build, for the—

Oh, that's cool.

For the, uh, district. So like parked in the back, there are their fleet, like their SUVs and stuff that like—

Yeah. Yeah. Not the buses or anything.

Not the buses and stuff. Yeah. They have their own, their own mechanic shop that does all of that.

Right.

Um, but like the SUVs and the stuff like that that the administration drives, uh, for various things, they work on all of those.

Yeah.

Um, they also will work on teachers' cars and things like that. So like, there's just so many, the opportunity that this creates is huge. And so, you know, whenever you see, whenever you see things on the road, we're like, oh, this is, this, this new neighborhood is zoned to Montgomery High School or Montgomery ISD. Like, you need to ask questions. Like, what does that mean?

Yeah.

Like, what, what is that?

What opportunities?

Why, why are you advertising that?

Yeah.

Because, you know, there are some communities that are not advertising the school zone that they're in. You can find out, but you're not at, you're not advertising it like you do in, in other places. But sure. This place is amazing. Amazing.

Yeah.

No, it was really— I'm proud to be in a community that, that has this. And now this was another thing that was very interesting because, he, he mentioned to us, like, there are people asking, like, can our kids go to this? But we don't, they don't go to the school. We live in Montgomery, but we don't go to Montgomery ISD because maybe we're homeschooled.

Sure.

And the answer is no. Like, you, you can't. have to be enrolled. But one thing they're working on, and I don't know if it's gonna pass, but they're working on, allowing Montgomery ISD to be a home— not a homeschool, but an at-home school to where they can do online school. And if they do that, then, yes, they would have the opportunity to do that. So pretty cool.

I imagine something like this could draw a lot of kids out of homeschool.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, for sure.

So cool stuff, man.

Yeah, man. Um, we, I, we, we probably shouldn't like do this show without at least talking about the, uh, Lindsay Clancy trial.

Oh my goodness.

So I don't know how closely you've been following it.

Uh, pretty closely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, I, it happened back in 2023, correct?

Yeah. So the, the scenario for anybody who's been under a log, Um, is that she killed her kids. That, that's what she's on trial for.

Strangled all 3 of them.

Yeah. And now the, the crazy thing is that, um, she kind of, she's pleading insanity, basically that she went insane. She's got mental issues, all that kind of stuff. But, but the thing that's maybe the most intriguing part is that the people that are saying, uh, there are plenty of people that are saying she didn't do it. Their husband did it. Yeah, there's—

well, there's a lot of people that think there's like a whole conspiracy.

Of course.

Um, and then they're like, well, she was drugged.

Yeah.

Um, but like she was kind of self-medicating.

Yeah.

And she was, she was a nurse, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. So I mean, like she had access to drugs.

Mm-hmm.

Um, yeah, it's just a messed up situation.

So it— what happened was it came down to verdict. And the jury, there's one juror.

Just one.

There was one juror who would not convict.

Yeah. And we should point out it was, so 9 women and 3 men. One dude.

One dude held out.

Yep.

And, and it, here, here's, here's how it came down. It came down to the judge. that the jury came back and said, you can send us back as many times as you want, and we are 100% confident that he is not going to change his mind. So here we are. We cannot unanimously come to a decision. And when that happens, if you're not unanimous, it's a mistrial.

It's a mistrial.

And that's what happened. And so that doesn't mean that they can't try her again. They will.

They can.

They, they probably will. I, I feel certain that they will. But when a mistrial happens, it doesn't mean that it's, that she's just like off.

Well, if you're, if you're a DA worth your salt, there, you'd be crazy not to.

Oh, uh, of course.

I mean, you'd never work in that town again if you don't.

You're right. You're right.

So I'm not saying it's the right call. Sure. I'm just saying like, they're gonna try her again.

Yeah.

It's like, they're, they're not gonna let this go down.

No.

So now, I mean, the likelihood that they're going to get an acquittal, pretty high.

Yeah, it's very possible.

I mean, unless they find some really— that's the problem, man, is like there's so much damning evidence in this. I mean, like they have her confessing on the 911 call. She's confessed to other people that she did this. It's just whether or not she is actually crazy.

That's what it boils down to.

And the problem is, is like, what person can't look at the situation and go, in order to strangle your 3 children, you'd have to be crazy?

Right.

But it doesn't mean that you get off.

Right.

It doesn't mean that you go free.

Because, well, because, yeah, because—

This is what bothers me.

What bothers me is like, okay, if that's the case, If you're telling me that she's crazy, and I mean that in every sense of the word.

Sure. Yeah, I know.

She's crazy. You don't go home.

No.

You go to a facility to keep you away from—

We don't really have that anymore.

We don't, because we used to have state hospitals for that kind of thing. Those don't really exist the same way they did.

Right. I mean, we had— and look, there was some bad, awful stuff that happened in state hospitals.

Of course.

But we had the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest movie, and then after that, Like state hospitals kind of just went away.

They did.

We had like some reforms and like we have mental health institutions, but we really don't have loony bins. And now most of those people are just living on the street.

Yep.

That should be institutionalized.

Yeah. Well, 'cause they're not getting the help that they need.

Well, we just don't have the stomach to stick crazy people in crazy houses.

Yeah.

I mean, that's really what it is.

All right, no.

And like, I think this is a person that probably needs to go to the booby hatch.

Yeah, I would agree. I would agree.

Like, I'm, I'm not, I'm not saying that she's not guilty. I'm saying she killed her 3 children.

Sure.

She crazy.

Yes.

Go away.

Right.

Society no longer needs your presence.

Uh-huh.

Ever.

No. And, and I sure don't want you around my children.

No.

Or any other child. That—

okay, that's the question I want to ask all these women is like, Free Lindsay Clancy. Free— like, okay, fine. Have her come over and babysit your children.

Right.

Yeah, because that's free.

Right.

She's free to now market herself to the public.

Yeah.

I've had medical training.

Yeah.

I know how to do CPR.

Yes.

I'm a nurse.

Uh-huh.

I'll watch your children.

Right.

Let her. By all means, all of you women who are standing up for this woman, like, let her come babysit for you.

Yes, there will be standing room only, right?

Put your money where your mouth is.

Yeah.

They won't do it.

No.

Bunch of freaking hypocrites.

Yeah.

This is what bothers me the most about it.

Me too.

No, she was— and that's the thing. It's all these—

filtered Craig. That was a moment.

Look, man, true crime podcasting has not done good things for the female culture in the United States.

No.

I'll say that much. Every— everything is now— everything is now a conspiracy. Everything.

How many true crime episodes are about women?

I don't know. I don't listen to that crap.

I don't either, but it's a bunch. I don't—

What do you mean are about women?

Are like, they're not painting women in a better light because of like lots of stuff that are like, okay, You just think the men are the bad people of the world.

Oh yeah, that's where the— that's where the whole, would you rather be alone with a man or a bear, right, came from.

Yes.

And like, this— the scary statistic was like most women chose the bear, right?

Exactly.

Which is the dumbest choice. Clearly they've never been around a bear, right?

Uh, exactly. They don't know what they're talking about.

No. They, they, they think a bear is something from like Brother Bear in a Disney movie, right? Who just likes blackberries and blueberries.

Yeah, poo.

Some honey.

Oh man, I, I literally—

I saw a video today of a guy that shot an elk, and as he found the not dead elk, uh-huh, the not dead elk, okay, the wounded elk laying on a hilltop. A bear was mauling it.

Oh.

And he walked up on the bear and he said, get off my elk. And the bear just kind of— and just kept eating the elk.

Oh my.

And so he shot the elk in the head to put it out of its misery.

Yeah.

The elk dies. The bear won't quit. So he shoots the bear in the shoulder, to which the bear runs away.

Uh, like the bear. Yeah. Didn't even hurt the bear really.

Didn't hurt the bear.

Just made him mad.

Probably hurt him enough where he ran off.

Yeah. Right.

And then it's like the, the guy with the, the phone turns to the guy with the, the gun and he's just like wide-eyed. Like, what did I just see?

That's incredible.

And it wasn't even like a really big bear. Uh, people don't like, these things are like giant badgers. Did you?

Yes, they are. Did you ever— I think I've asked you this on the air before. Have you ever seen The Edge?

The Edge?

With Sean Connery?

No, I've never seen that.

Dude, it's an old movie. I say old, probably like late '90s. You need to watch it. The story is the plane goes down and they're out in the middle of nowhere. They're hiking, trying to get out of there, and they wind up getting chased by a bear. Like, hunted by a bear. And it's incredible. You need to watch it. Is that Sean Connery?

That's what I was thinking.

Oh, no, it's not. I always get him confused. It's not Sean Connery. It is—

Anthony Hopkins and Alex Baldwin.

Yeah, Anthony Hopkins. I will tell you this.

With Elle Macpherson.

This is—

yes, this is— Okay. L.Q.

Jones.

Yeah. Like, dude, most people don't know who L.Q. Jones is.

I love L.Q. Jones. He's incredible. He's the guy. He's hilarious in this movie.

He's the 3-fingered bandit in Zorro.

Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. But like, okay, the Alec Baldwin one is the, is the least interesting person in this movie. But I will tell you the weirdest thing about me. This is probably not the weirdest thing, but I confuse Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery all the time. All the time? All the time. Not that I don't know the difference, but I, I think about movies and I think, I think of it, it's not Sean Connery, it's Anthony Hopkins. They get, they get hunted by a bear and it is, it is great movie. You need to watch it.

'97.

Yeah. Okay. Late '90s. There you go. Yeah, it's, it's worth, it's, it's worth watching.

Hmm.

I don't know that I'd watch it with your youngest, but your other 2, well, especially your oldest. I don't know, your middle one would probably enjoy it, but it's, it's a little gory.

So, okay.

Yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, what's it rated?

Uh, let me get back over here. Hang on, I'll tell you.

I'm guessing it's— if it's not R, I'd be surprised. Um, just for the just for the, like, the horror of it.

Okay, maybe, maybe this will tell me.

So it's whatever.

Why does it not have this?

Oh, I'll go look if I can't find it.

I imagine it's rated R. I see the movie poster. Oh wait, it's rated R. Yeah, I I knew.

In fact, uh, you can find it anywhere, but I own the movie if you want to watch it at some point.

Okay.

So yeah, it, it, uh, gets a 7 out of 10 on IMDb.

I like me some Anthony Hopkins.

Yeah. Yeah, he's, he's good. So, and Alec Baldwin is actually really good in this movie too.

But well, Baldwin tends to be pretty good.

Yeah, he is. So, uh, was there something else we were going to talk about?

We were going to talk about Icemaker, but we can, we can hold off till the next episode. Okay, it's 100-pound Icemaker. Well, I mean, we'll— oh, incidentally, Anthony Hopkins was also in Mask of Zorro with El—

oh, well, that's probably where they—

because he was the original Zorro.

Yeah, that's right. Well, listen, it's late, so we're gonna—

dude, I just realized Hopkins is like one of my favorite movies.

Which one?

Legends of the Fall. Oh, yeah.

He's, he's been in so many things, dude.

But like, him playing a post, uh, um, heart attack dad, like, the way he did that.

Yeah. It's good.

Like, also just one of my all-time favorite movies.

Yeah.

Also one of my all-time favorite, uh, scores. Oh, okay.

But better than Jurassic Park?

Yes.

Jurassic Park score is pretty good.

It's good. It ain't that good.

It's pretty good.

It's recognizable, I'll give it that.

Yeah, it's pretty good. But all right, well, listen, with all of that, Thanks for listening. Uh, we have a brand new website. Go check it out. In fact, now you can see all of our clips, all of our shorts, all of it on our website. You can go to YouTube, that's fine, but you can also just go to our website and find all of our, our episodes there. And, uh, yeah, we hope you enjoyed the episode tonight and, uh, share it, like it. You can go to leave a review right on our website at reviews. And, uh, till next time, we'll see you later. See ya.