Everybody. I'm Connor. That's Doug, and this is
the Bethel School District presents podcast. And this
week, we are talking all about the Pierce
County skill set We are students there are
doing amazing things when it comes to video
game design and culinary
education, and we are using that as an
excuse to talk about food. Also, it's right
before lunch and we're a little hungry, but
we're gonna talk about America's favorite foods, specifically
as ranked by reader Died jet. And Connor,
we're gonna play a little game show here.
I'm gonna need you to guess the top
5 favorite foods in America before, Arts listeners
get bored? Okay. So are we talking like
super h Toy stuff, white truffle filled caviar,
lobster, bi with z or are we talking
more burgers and dogs? I think you're gonna
go with the ladder there more everyday foods.
Maybe an emphasis on some Super Bowl snacks.
But that said, there is a fair amount
of Asian dishes in the top 50. So
for instance, California rolls are number 13. And
chicken tikka masala, number 16. And did you
know? Here's the first little bit of trivia
for you do it? This is right off
the top of my head too. But did
you know that chicken tikka masala is actually
the national food of great britain? Is it...
I thought ships would definitely be on the
top of that list? Well, I suppose it
depends on who you ask what both of
those are on the national dish list in
the Uk. Okay. Well, this is America, Connor
and readers digest is our source. And people
need to know the top 5 foods. I
need some guesses. Well, obviously, I would stake
my
reputation on the fact that burgers are on
there. Pizzas on there. I'm gonna say chicken
sandwiches because I'm getting real hungry doug, guy
don't like that you brought this topic up
right before lunch. Well, there are 8 different
chicken dishes on this list. Chicken sandwich is
number 20.
You haven't even cracked the top 10 yet.
You said burgers, hamburgers, number 34
cheeseburger.
Number 2. Wait. Let me stop you there.
This is fake news. No list with hamburger
number 34 is a real list, but carry
on. That surprise surprise me to, though I
will take a cheeseburger over a hamburger any
day. You also said pizza, pizza on this
list 2 times. 1 at number 46 of
margarita pizza, and 1 at number 3. Cheese
pizza. I should tell you there's a lot
of side dishes on this list and potato
side dishes are on here quite a few
times. We talking tots
surprisingly not in the napoleon. You're gonna need
to think out side the bottom. Now, just
give me the list. Or you could just
take the list from me. Oh my goodness.
This is ridiculous. Are you kidding me Doug
the sing list chips and salsa? Chips and
guac and nacho has 3 separate items? Boy.
And and burrito bowl is number 1. Right?
Did chip chipotle sponsor this thing. I feel
think like the fixes in. So that's very
possible. I am glad to see doughnuts and
milkshake both made the list at number 31
and 35.
That is a wild list though. Lots of
surprises. And speaking of surprises, we recently learned
that students from the Pierce county skill center,
see how we tie this all together, Connor.
Is beautifully crafted podcast podcasting happening right here
for everybody. Their video game design class has
a game that will be shown at the
penny arcade expo, the kids out there call
it. Packs West. It's a huge deal in
a first time for the school and those
students. Absolutely. In the game's called Leviathan and
what soap innovative about it is that 1
player plays in 2 d and the other
plays in virtual Reality 3 d. Skill center
director Scott Martin, who has a little bit
of a history in the video game Street
says this asymmetric virtual reality Arcade game is
actually a first of its kind in the
gaming world. It is actually got to talk
to Scott as we cut the ribbon on
the newest building over at the Pierce County
skill center, the evergreen building. Fun fact, used
to be a distribution warehouse for the Tacoma.
News Tribune and Connor. I think you know
this the main building over at the Pierce
County skill center used to be a safe
way. Actually, doug, I didn't know that. That's
a little before my time, but that's cool.
It is the whole campus over. There's fantastic.
Cutting the ribbon on the Evergreen buildings is
actually the fifth ribbon cutting over at the
skill center. Cool This fall, the Evergreen building
is gonna be home to the construction trades
program in the fire science program.
Those 2 programs, quite a little more space
than they currently have. And so they'll spread
out and continue preparing students for life after
high school and the areas that they used
to occupy will be filled this fall with...
2 brand new programs,
electrical trades and Mech tron. Did you just
make that up Mech tron. I know it's
not a transformer.
Mech tron is an area of study that
focuses on industrial,
automation, think an Amazon warehouse that uses lasers
and robots to move boxes around really, really
cool stuff and our students are gonna be
learning about designing and room. Pairing that type
of warehouse. Wow, 2 new programs and the
culinary program over there's also expanding. They're getting
a bunch of new students because they're doing
some really interesting new thing. They are. They're
partnering with grassroots
northwest that that organization was getting some increasingly
interesting donations of food. That they needed process
before they could hand it out to folks.
And by interesting, I mean, the Department of
And Wildlife donated salmon that had been poached
So really weird stuff. Yeah. That was a
very interesting 1, and it was really cool
to see what they did with it. They
also are receiving
giant block. Of frozen chicken and huge vat
of oats, and then they're making these amazing
things with it and being able to help
families with that. Absolutely. And through this partnership,
those 40 pounds of chicken and 50 pounds
of oats are becoming ingredients for a variety
of recipes
invented by the culinary students. For example, with
all that chicken and fish, students learn butchering
skills and processed all that food into accessible
meals for people in need that were given
out through the food bank. And maybe the
best thing about this is that students have
created more than 1200 meals for families in
need and that work is being noticed. It
is Pierce County appropriated
hundred and 25000
dollars to the Pierce County Skill Center's food
waste reduction culinary program. That money is gonna
be used for new equipment for bulk food
production this fall. So the skills center director,
Scott Martin is incredibly proud of the work
this staff and students are doing and for
good reason, and he loves telling people all
about them. He is a great storyteller. We
sat down and talked to him earlier and
it might have something to do with his
theater background. My undergraduate degree was in theater,
and my first few years teaching
started off primarily as a a drama teacher.
I... I gotta say,
well, in terms of acting, I I won't
even tell you I was any good it.
So I can't say that that's necessarily helped
me. But I think the process,
Of of developing a character, a lot of
the work that you're doing is trying to
read the people around you and under stand
those those emotions and where they're coming from.
And so in education, especially in administration, a
lot of the work is is
trying to see other people's perspective.
You're trying to move a group of teachers
forward in terms of their skill set. And
so to understand how they're feeling or thinking
or how that's connected to them is really
critical.
And then also, you're working with the students
and you're trying to grow them forward. So
what are they seeing and perceiving and how
is it
affecting them? And again, parents. Right? So you've
got all these pieces and as an administrator,
you're trying to help everybody
connect and move forward it, and that's a
lot of what you're trying to do when
you're developing a character as an actor. So
I think that Matt has come into play
a lot in the work that I do.
You're also known as something of an adventure.
A couple years ago, we actually did an
article about you that we titled the world's
most interesting principle.
You've been skydiving. You've been bungee jumping. You've
owned and flown your own plane, then something
happened with that plane. Can you tell us
a little bit about your experience as a
pilot.
I can tell you, but
the the real big downside here is that,
my wife is the teacher in the district,
and I know she's gonna hear this. And
she really doesn't like me telling this story.
So I'm Sorry, Lisa, I apologize, but I
was asked on microphone.
I had been flying for 95. I had
95 hours is a pilot. Ironically, you need
a hundred hours to get insurance. This is
probably why my wife doesn't want me telling
this story. But, I was flying that was
the day... After I got my job as
an assistant principle.
The previous assistant principle at Frontier where I
was at.
He lived in Olympia. I was flying down
to go golf with him
and
on approach, at Olympia, my tail stalled out,
and
I've basically fell out of the sky onto
the runway.
And yeah, I I crashed that plane without
insurance. Sorry, Honey? Sorry.
And and, thankfully, most of us will go
our whole lives with out being in a
plane crash.
Can you just describe a little bit about
what was going through your head when you
realized
This is actually happening.
I'm going to crash this plane.
Wow. It was it was rather overwhelming as
I bounce down the runway at about 75,
80 miles an hour with my propeller striking
the ground,
much like a dolphin trying to swim with
me bouncing that it call it a por
landing quite frankly. So,
yeah, not without some ex, but it was
it was definitely terrifying,
So is it fair to say that that
was the end of your piloting career? No.
No.
Because I wasn't gonna go down like that
it took a year. We had to take
the engine apart, ship it somewhere, have it
repaired, get the plain painted, new propeller, all
that a year later. It was ready to
fly home from the Olympia airport. So I
went down with another licensed pilot, and I
flew at home, and I landed it.
That was the end of my piloting career.
K. Another fascinating part of your life,
you had a kinda interesting stint in the
video game world.
Actually sold a game for quite a bit
of money.
Can you tell us a little bit about
your history with video games? Yeah. Absolutely. I
will say, at the outset, the story is
better than the reality of the story. But
because we did sell it for quite a
bit of money, but that money's is not
in my pocket.
So
long story short, my best friend from college
and I,
we were fans of fantasy football.
At the time, this was back in the
day,
Farm and those kind of Facebook games were
the viral games were really all the rage.
And so we sat down and developed The
idea of a game that would combine those
2 things. So it was considered Farm filled
with Fantasy Football. We pitched it to some
friends that we knew in the video game
industry, and they had some connections,
so
the 4 of us got together,
launched our own company,
went out with their connections and got some
angel investment to the tune, of almost a
million dollars in angel investment.
Ran the game on Facebook. We had
over a quarter million players, almost 300000 people
play in the game. Of and then Z
came along, the biggest conglomerate of that type
of game in the world and wanted to
purchase our studios. So they pe paid us
a little over a million dollars for it.
So, yes. I have sold a video game
company for a million dollars.
But if you remember earlier in the story,
a lot of that money belong to someone
else. So yeah. Fun story? Not a huge
bank town. Thanks for joining us on the
podcast.
Cheers I'll let you know when I get
back up in the plane, maybe you can
join me. I will not.
Well, that is gonna wrap up this week
show. Be sure to like comment, subscribe, Leave
5 star reviews all day long heck. Leave
us 1 star reviews. I just like reading
those ones. Alright, Doug. That's get out here
chicken tikka masala, awaits us. I'll fuel the
gem.
Let's