854 – Syrup Sweet Park | Get Besos S3 E3

EPISODE 854 – Besos 3

[START OF RECORDING]

SCOOTER: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary, and all my patrons, all you patrons, thank you so much.  I don’t know what else to say other than I’m glad you’re here for me. I’m here for you. Thanks. I’m speechless. Your support is so great, thanks and let’s get on with the show.

INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you can set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts, things on your mind you’re thinking about, feelings, emotions coming up for you, physical sensations, changes in schedule or time or temperature, stuff…could be travel, could be weather, could be not feeling great.  That could mean any variety of things. Whatever it is, whatever’s keeping you awake, I’m here to keep you company and I’m ideally gonna take your mind off of stuff as you drift off and fall asleep. What I’m gonna do…is that how I normally start the show? I’m leaning in a little extra bit here. Tossing, turning…welcome to Sleep With Me podcast…we do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play; I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do…okay, a safe place to take your mind off of whatever’s keeping you awake. Okay, the way I’m gonna do it…you know, I’m always reviewing things but I have this nice, safe place set aside here. Safe place reviews; this safe place is pretty malleable so hopefully I can make it malleable.  A cat’s kind of figure…I wonder if cats have a different definition…or they always check and say huh, let me mush on this and see if it’s malleable. I mean, I guess there’s other ways to find out if something’s malleable but what if a cat…I guess Malleable would be a tough name for a cat. You could call them Mal. Malleable. You say what are you doing, Malleable? Checking to see if that bed’s malleable? I don’t know exact what the definition of malleable is but you’re scrimping and scornching, aren’t you there?  Yeah, so I have a safe place set aside. What I’m gonna do also, in addition, is send my voice across the deep, dark night. I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky dulcet tones, pointless meanders, superfluous tangents. I’m gonna go off-topic. I’m gonna be here to keep you company, is the main thing, and to take your mind off stuff. If you’re new, let me give you a couple of things, a heads up, if you will, about the podcast ‘cause it is a bit different than most podcasts and yeah, I just want you to make sure you feel comfortable when you say what did I get myself into here?  What is going on? When you do that just picture that cat push, push, pushing, alternating. I wonder if any cats use…most cats seem to use an alternating paw method from what I’ve seen. I don’t know if there’s any cats that do a dual-paw push instead; they say left, right, right, left, right, right, left. I don’t even know if they do that but you never see them do push, push, push, push, push, push with two paws. I mean, but I’m sure there are but what was I talking about? Oh, I was trying to help the new listener. Oh, okay. So yeah, you might say what’s going on with that cat?  It’s not doing the alternating paw method. The podcast is a bit like that; I say structurally is where it can throw people off right away and that’s okay. It’s totally natural ‘cause the show starts off with a few minutes of business. That’s how we keep it free for everybody. Then there’s a long and winding intro. Oh boy, it’s not too long though; it’s like twelve, to eighteen, to nineteen, to twenty, to seventeen, to sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, sometimes thirteen minutes. It’s where I introduce new listeners to the podcast and at the same time, I’ve learned that it’s this long and winding intro.  It’s an important…I’m introducing…a regular listener every night needs an introduction to bedtime. I don’t know, maybe that’s what I should call something that I work on; an introduction to bedtime every single night. A personalized introduction to bedtime is really what the intro is, whether you’re new or you’re a regular. It gives you a chance to wind down. I say well, most introductions, Scoots, are like one to two minutes and I say well, yeah, most are. You are correct on that but this gives you time to wind down or unwind. Some people might…this could be counterintuitive but it might be relaxing, is wounding.  I mean, I realize it’s called winding but either one. You could do some winding. I think I’ve talked about this before but what if we had…this could be another thing. Remember, we had Tube Town which is where…a business I thought of where people could inflate inner tubes and things for relaxation and fun. Oh, fun. Then I had the Perforation Party Zone, I think it was called, where you could perforate things with hole punches and stuff and then jump in pits of perforated paper. This third one, I already forgot what I was talking about, I really did. We could have The Malleable Zone with the cats but what was I already…I literally forgot what I was talking about.  Long and winding intros, perforations…as soon as I saw that Tube Town, I said I want to go down to Tube Town and inflate some tubes. But whatever it was, it was another kind of relaxing thing. What was I talking about? Long…the wind down…the bedtime story. I don’t know. That’s how fast I lose the…oh, wounding. There we go, and winding. Wounding and winding. If we had that, I mean, metaphorically, that’s what this podcast is doing in the reverse but say…there used to be clocks you could wind, or a watch. There still are but the problem is you could only wind them so much or the kids in movies, they wind the watch too much or the…there used to be cars; you’d wind them.  You’d always over-wind them. Totally natural. This would be…it would have to do something but you could wind it as much as you want for relaxation but it would also drive some sort of perpetual motion thing. I mean, not forever, obviously. That’s one thing. Then you could do wounding where you say Scoots, that’s just not…and I say well, if you’re wounding, I’d say you don’t wind string, right? You wound it. Let’s say you had a ball of yarn. Now kittens, don’t get too excited ‘cause we’re not…we’re doing the opposite right now. Someone’s gotta wound those balls of yarn, right? They don’t just put themselves in stock photos for nothing, of kittens in the background because when I see yarn at a store it’s in some sort of loop or something, right?  This is something I never thought about; is that how does that stuff get wound up, anyway? You say well, how I unwind is I wound. Unwound, unwind. Right next to Tube Town and Perforation Party Zone where you could wound any number of things to unwind. What was I saying? I guess I was saying that the intro kind of goes on and on in some sense like that to help you unwind as you get ready for bed or as you’re in bed so the day can kind of drift away. There are about 2% of listeners that skip straight to the story so if you skip ahead to about twenty minutes every time, you’ll be pretty close to the story but it kind of moves around. You could do that and then there’s probably 2% of listeners who support the show on Patreon so that they can listen to story…they get their own story-only versions of the episodes.  Those are some options but so that’s the intro. It’s long, it’s windy, and it helps you get all unwindy. Come on down to Wound and Unwind by winding stuff. It’s not a paradox; it’s just the way we do things here at Wound Down where you’ve been unwound by wounding. I was wowed. That would be one Yelp review that we probably wouldn’t get; wow, was I wound when I came on down to Wound [00:10:00] and Wind. Anyway, where was I? Holy cow, so that’s the intro and then there’s a story. Tonight, it’ll be our episodically modular series Get Besos which will be a nice, relaxing tale. Tonight, it’ll be…I’ve just been working on it. It’ll be a little bit of smaller theme park, a visit to actually the company that runs it, and a lot of meetings. But you know, that’s the kind of sleepy part of a theme park. Then there’s some thank-you’s at the end.  It goes business, intro, little business, then the story, then the thank-you’s is the structure. A couple other things to know is that…if you’re new is that this is a podcast you don’t really need to listen to. You can kind of passively, almost loosely consume it, just like it’s a little bit like you could barely hear it or it’s out of focus. You can listen but you don’t need to. You can just see how it goes. That’s why most people say it takes two or three tries to figure out if a podcast is gonna work for you or not so just imagine the podcast as a cloud floating on by. It’s a podcast you don’t really need to listen to but there’s also no pressure to fall asleep. I’m gonna be here to keep you company as you drift off. I’m here to be your bore-friend, your bore-bud, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-cuz, your bore-bestie if you so choose to just be here as your bedtime companion.  Now, if you can’t sleep, also you should know I’ll be here to the very end so whether you’re awake or asleep, I’m here to keep you company. Yeah, that’s my job. The other thing is I make this show because I know how it feels. I’ve been there in the deep, dark night, tossing and turning. I know how it feels, even recently. Believe me, I’m here to help. I’m here to help. You don’t need to listen but you can and no pressure to fall asleep. These shows are an hour to give you plenty of time to drift off. I hope you know and you understand that you do deserve a good night’s sleep. The reason I make this show now is because I know how it feels because I think the world is a better place when you’re rested in it and you can be out there flourishing and living your life. I think that’s it. See how it goes if you’re new, give it a few tries. One day there’ll be…I guess there wouldn’t be a theme park, a Sleep With Me theme park; it’d be more like in a low-traffic mall.  They’ll say whatever happened to that escape room? What happened to that thing where you paint rabbits, ceramic rabbits? What about that thing where kids climbed on playground equipment but it was inside and you had to pay money for that? Well, none of those worked out. Oh, so what’s in there now? Some really successful stuff? Well, we’ll see. The first shop is a place called Tube Town where you could go in and inflate inner tubes of any size. It’s for birthday parties, fun, stress relief, exercise. It’s called Tube Town. Wait a second, so you go there and you inflate…oh boy, so you could paint…you could also paint a roll…they have tube-based games. Right now, it’s a thing. Who knows in six months? People might have had too much tubes, you know. Okay, interesting. What’s next door? A Perforation Party Zone. You could also go from room-to-room but the Perforation Party Zone is for people who like to perforate things or punch things…I mean, hole-punch things, or stamping.  We have different ways of perforating paper and plastics, sometimes; recycled only. There’s also Perforation Pit. You can jump in and perforate…there’s a lot of throwing of perforated paper. Okay, what’s this last place called? Last one, Scoots already forgot what it was even though he remembered; he forgot again. Oh, it’s called Wind and Wound. It’s where you can wind things. Oh boy, so many things to wind; not just clocks. Everything is modernized so it can’t be overwound. Then there’s a wounding section where you can wind up different ropes, strings, knits, even other things. We did that, that is an experimental area, the spaghetti-winding station. That’s it. Ideally, the podcast kind of does that for you, until we get that built. That sounds like way too much work and management for me but I can’t give the idea away for free so just consult me. Anyway, I’m here to help. I’m really here to help you fall asleep. I really appreciate you coming by and checking out the show, and I appreciate your time.  I work very hard. I yearn and I strive ‘cause I want to help you fall asleep and here’s a couple ways we’re able to do it free for everybody.

Alright, hey everybody, it’s time for our ongoing episodically modular series Get Besos, the tale of Rich Warren Sears and James Cash Penney’s escape from purgatory and return to earth to get Jiff Besos.  In season three which we’re in now, they’re trying to get Jiff out of trouble. Previously they were out to get him another way but…teach him to be kind. Now, Jiff’s on a quest to deal with someone called Z-Biff who runs a social media shopping…social shopping sharing platform, I believe it’s called.  They’re there to help their buddy Jiff. The tale is, this is an ongoing episodic and modular series. If you’re new, it’s fictional characters named Rich Warren Sears and James Cash Penney, formally retail giants, now passed onto another realm. Then, they were in purgatory. They got bored and they said let’s go to earth.  We see this person with this company who’s eclipsed our empires. Let’s go see what we can do to not be helpful to him. At first; then they became friends. They had a bunch of adventures. Then they ended up back in purgatory, this time all three of them. It’s three friends. Then Jiff escaped purgatory and went to earth in a quest for someone named Z-Biff in their social sharing shopping platform to try to get them in the grander sense of the thing; they’d say hey, I don’t know if this is great for everybody but Rich Warren Sears and James Cash Penney were not sure their friend Jiff could…they just want to make sure Jiff was gonna be…you know, they said let’s go help him and make sure he doesn’t get himself in a pickle.  They headed to earth and that’s basically where we are. It’s episodically modular and a seriality. I think that’s all you really need to know. Main characters Richard Warren Sears and James Cash Penney. Yeah, they’re trying to…oh, so each episode, they’re trying to find Jiff ‘cause they don’t know where Jiff is and maybe they’re trying to get to Z-Biff before Jiff does. Perfect thing to sleep to and here’s our Hollywood announcer Mr. Antonio Banderas. Yes ladies, yes gentlemen, yes boys and girls, friends beyond the binary, it’s time to take a journey back to earth from purgatory. With Richard Warren Sears and James Cash Penney starring in season three of Get Besos. Thanks, Antonio. Why don’t you kick back and we’ll hang for a little bit later?  Play a little…play something? Sounds great, Scooter. Thank you. Alright, that’s Antonio Banderas’ Get Besos. Alright, buddy, this is the place, I guess. I don’t know about…why is this building…what kind of colors do you call those, James? Richie, those are pastel colors. This is the corporate HQ. This is where we’re supposed to go. Okay, okay. I don’t know…so this is a corporation? Richie, I was just guessing. I think it’s…who are headquarters of Parade Rayne? But it’s spelled like rain, like the royal rain. Royal rain, is that when…what are those people called? The Aristocrats? No, that’s what we were. Monarchs, Richie, I think is the word you’re looking…yeah, when a monarch cries, is that royal rain? Yeah, I guess so, but this is Parade Rayne.  But yeah, that kind of rain, I guess. No, no, no, it’s not rain, R-A-I-N, [00:20:00] Richie. I can see the giant sign right there in neon. What is that, neon…is that hot pink, James? It is, but it looks like it’s hot pink…it’s like a cotton candy font. Oh, boy. This sounds like a bunch of nincompoops in here. Okay, let’s just go in. Hi, hi, we’re here to…excuse me, James. Sorry, my assistant’s a little flustered. We’re here to see the boss. It’s that simple. Okay, who are you? We’re Richie and James. I don’t know…we’re here to consult on behalf of…can you get someone that’s in charge here? I’m sorry, my superior here, he’s not super…hi, how are you doing? I’m James. Nice to meet you. Oh, hello, I’m Helen. Well hi, Helen. We’re here on a consult; we’re surprise consultants.  I don’t know if you’ve heard of us but we’re here to help, I guess is the simplest thing. We’ve been sent and we’re here to help you and your company and we’re not here selling anything. We’re the surprise consultants. I don’t know if…it’s a surprise so you might not have heard about it. If we could just…we’re not sure where we should start so we just need to know who we should report to. My boss, he’s not used to reporting to anyone even though he does because we’re consult…right, the customer’s always right. Not necessarily but we just needed to check in, I guess, and get started helping. Okay, well, I don’t see…now, who are you with? Surprise consultants? I buzzed the office but I told you that Jiff…James would get a…Jiff just put us in a large…okay, let’s not talk about Jiff. Oh, I’m sorry, wait a second; are you with J-Jiffy?  Are you consultants for J-Jiffy? We’ve been trying to get ahold of J-Jiffy. J-Jiffy, we just call him Jiff but yeah, that’s why we’re surprise consultants. Okay, well, I’ll send you right up. Just go through those doors and someone will be there to greet you in just a second. I’m so excite…do you know J-Jiffy? Do we know him? It’s not that big…J-Jiffy, you’d be disappointed if you knew him. That sounds like something he’d say. Okay, just go ahead through. I’m sorry, I gotta stick to the main desk. Okay, thank you so much, Helen. Richie, you got to tone it down; this is…we’re supposed to be undercover surprise consultants helping and figuring out…okay, just calm down. Did you hear them? They called Jiff J-Jiffy. Okay, let’s…oh, wait, here comes someone. Oh hi, I’m James. This is Richie. Oh hello, I’m Ronnie. Nice to meet both of you.  I heard you’re friends with J-Jiffy; you’re here on behalf of J-Jiffy. I can’t believe it. We didn’t think…we just tried to reach out to hire J-Jiffy for some commissions. We didn’t think we’d actually…it was almost a lark. James, make sure they’re talking about the same Jiff ‘cause this sounds like someone that’s competent and not Jiff. Oh yeah, well, we are here on behalf to help on behalf of J-Jiffy and surprise consultants. Oh, that sounds like something J-Jiffy would do; surprise consultants. Now tell me, when you hear me say Jiff, J-Jiffy, what do you think of, Ronnie? Oh, well I think of that street artist-turned-disruptor J-Jiffy. I mean, everybody knows disrupting C-Biff and parody, satire, and most of all random street art and stuff. Now surprise consulting right when…I don’t want to come across…but we really…your timing…we need some outside-of-the-box thinking like, today.  Well, the only place outside the box gets you is out. Well, that’s what you think of when we say J-Jiffy. J-I-F-F. You’re thinking of the same J-Jiffy. Okay, excuse me one second, Ronnie. Richie, we just need to help; it doesn’t matter. We can’t quibble about Jiff or…it doesn’t matter. The principles may not matter to you James, but they do to me. But I understand they need my help and your help so yeah, let’s go ahead and…how could we help you, Ronnie? Oh, it's Ronnie, but thanks. Oh sorry, I’ve never seen a workplace that has oval nametags before, except, you know, service places; restaurants, parks, those kind of things. Oh, so you’re really coming in…you really are fresh eyes. J-Jiffy doesn’t…are you not familiar with Parade Rayne? Well, I mean, I have a funny joke about it that I’m still work…yeah, I’m familiar with crying monarchs. And Syrup Sweet Park; you must know about Syrup Sweet Park, right?  Ronnie, why don’t you just treat us like we’re 100% fresh eyes. We know nothing. Let’s just go like that, that we’re 100% right, that we’re fresh eyes. Oh wow, this is exciting. I mean, it’s not very exciting times here but I’m glad you’re here. I guess I don’t even know where to start. We could go…why don’t we start down the hall. But before I bring you back, you’re actually here to help, though; this isn’t a performance piece? I know J-Jiffy’s helped through art but I just want to make sure because I’m gonna reveal…I’ll tell you everything if you’re really here to help us. Yeah, we’re here to…please don’t…yes, we’re here to help. Okay well, yeah, Ronnie, we’re here to help and RW…just try to roll…we’re here really, to help. Also, don’t believe everything you read about J-Jiffy. Just because you…there are brains behind all people. As Richie was saying, he’s the brains. I guess I’m the mouthpiece and J-Jiffy’s…let’s just pretend that, okay?  Oh, are you like, his suits? You’re his business side of things? Of course, yes. I mean, we’re wearing suits. No, no, not exactly, Ronnie. Let’s just try to…we’re a blank slate and we’re here to be filled in with everything that’s going on here at Parade Rayne which already had, between the pastel colors out front and then the name of your company, we’re really curious and curious what kind of help you could use. Okay, well, I guess I should start at the beginning then because if you’re fresh eyes, maybe I could walk you through it and somewhere in the process…we’re making a big decision. Actually, today was the day and when I say we, I mean I’m…it’s really my decision to make. We got ourselves into kind of an algorithmic pickle but…let me walk you back. This is the hallway, the historic hallway, I guess. This is where it all started. You can see this mural here shows the history, the beginnings of the company when grandma and grandpa…that’s the first syrup tree that grandma…that they owned at this…we’re on the other side of town from…we keep the corporate headquarters separate from the park.  Or parks, I guess, in this case. But that was the first syrup tree and these were the groves where grandma started her syrup business and then that was just a roadside stand. This was the main thoroughfare through the states. Then they got really lucky because the roads, when they did the interstates, they built it right over…that’s when grandpa realized that this could become a little bit of an attraction. That’s when he started…that’s when Syrup Sweet Park started which was originally just a roadside place to get grandma’s syrup and have picnic lunches. Then it slowly expanded, as you can see. First it was just food and syrup and sweets. Syrup Sweet Park, it’s always been called, though. Well, until we took off the park but [00:30:00] that’s later. You see here, then there was the pony rides, then the magic acts, then grandpa added a Ferris wheel. Not long after that there was the first iteration of Syrup Sweet which was at the time Syrup Sweet Park. It was the first what we would call theme park in the world, different than an amusement park which was a roadside amusement at first; grandpa would readily admit.  But you know, it slowly grew and he paved the way. There’s a lot of other theme parks that have developed around other intellectual properties but ours was the first immersive park where you immersed yourself in a role and the whole park was Syrup Sweet which you know, at the time…I know I’m a little close to it but to think about these paradoxes that we all live in, how far ahead grandpa was to lean in and pass the idea of over-the-top sweetness. The main thing was the sweetness of grandma’s syrup and her influence. They worked together but she was much more on the service side and the behind-the-scenes numbers; grandpa was the one that loved the idea of the amusements and fun. Yeah, they’re Syrup Sweet and once it became Syrup Sweet Park, at the center of the park you could see Rocket Candy Mountain Castle, a mountain and a castle built into one. The hub and spoke design, that’s very popular. Grandpa wasn’t the first to invent that; that was based on European cities. Oher theme parks in other areas did adopt it as well, in the different lands and all the syrup sweetness. Okay, so this is a big amusement park based on maple syrup.  We’re not in Canada, though. I’m sorry, what’s…okay, Ronnie; so, your grandmother and grandfather had a syrup stand which slowly expanded into a theme park. The theme park is based on the idea of syrup sweetness. What does that mean to you, Ronnie? It kind of means going to someplace…it’s a vision and a vision that we’ve tried to continue. They say you’re going to someplace just one or two steps outside of our world, our regular day-to-day world where you’re a participant in a character in a place where everyone’s syrupy sweet in every experience. Not everything is perfect at our parks but we just embrace the idea. We took the idea of an amusement park, as you said, RW, and tried to make it something much more concentrated but without being a parody of itself. It’s like you’re setting aside all of your grouchiness, all of your judgment, and you don’t have to. There’s people that come to the park; they don’t have fun, or one person is paying for it and they’re not happy, or people’s expectations aren’t met but the goal would be that you go there and you realize you are suspending your disbelief. You’re stepping into a world where it’s not just a faux service experience where it’s like hello ma’am, hello sir, welcome to our fine establishment.  Have a wonderful day. Where it’s so over the top that everyone is having fun in the over-the-topness. Instead of being a veneer, it’s like a polished hardwood through and through the experience. I guess that’s just supposed to be fun. Okay Ronnie, so you have a park that is almost like…even irony is suspended and it’s so over-the-top, the kindness and the leaning. What kind of stuff goes on at Syrup Sweet Park? Okay well, you know, there’s no lines. That’s one difference between an amusement park and our theme park. We have very clear rules and an established set behaviors. But you’re supposed to leave all your worries behind. That was the first thing grandpa used to do; he’d go okay, well theme the rides. Maybe the rides will be very similar to the other amusement parks. We’ll theme them. He also noticed that waiting in line wasn’t fun; so did my mother and her siblings when they would go with grandpa. Every attraction has waiting in line as one of the main attractions. There’s parties themed different things for some lines. He called it queues without blues which was pretty funny. Queues without snooze…queues your choose. Yeah, I think he did say that once; queues without blues. People loved that. They participated in that and there was always random giveaways and every moment thinking about the customer experience and making it more fun for them.  Believe it or not, the park kept growing. It was more and more successful until Z-Biff. I think that’s probably why you’re here. The park had its highest attendance…it was just a little bit over ten years ago which was the peak of the park. It had a long history. It had opened before I was even born. Then Z-Biff opened Z-Biff’s Joyce Adventure Park, or Joyce Adventure Land I guess is now what it’s called. Z-Biff had started slowly buying up property not that far from our park, secretly doing it through a bunch of companies, financing everything and then once everything…the plans were logged, offered to buy our park out. Grandpa refused; Z-Biff went forward and started building the park. Grandpa said well, there’s probably room for both of us. I guess over the past ten years it’s mostly been…well, it hasn’t…you kind of see the story’s a little bit more complicated than it would seem but Z-Biff’s plan was to just slowly undercut us on pricing, keep expanding their park to keep Z-Biff’s customers busy, lure our customers away. Now, we were lucky because, you know, in a lot of similar things but never…Z-Biff never caught the essence of our park. We have maintained a strong niche support. In any other circumstances that would not have been enough because of Z-Biff’s thing but then, let’s see, this really gets…here’s where things change. I was in school studying and I notice everybody was unhappy; what should we sell to Z-Biff?  Should we keep grandpa? Then grandpa moved on to the big farm in the sky and Aunt Sharon took over the company. It was tough times even though the park…you know, once Z-Biff…the closer Z-Biff’s park got to opening…and then when it opened it just was a lot of thinking about it, a lot of stuff. Now, I was in school and I’ll be honest; I was just at a stage where I wasn’t really into the parks. I was going through a rebellious phase, wanting…I was studying a lot of e-commerce things. That’s just how everything goes…and mobile application stuff. I just wasn’t interested in the park. I needed to go my own way but at the same time there was…I was able to get some funding, thanks to grandfather, to start my own company. It wasn’t free funding; the service we’d owned, a large portion was my main investor. I started this. I started Parade Rayne and I guess since you’re coming from fresh eyes, we kind of move in to my office here, ‘cause I try to keep the Parade Rayne app separate from Parade Rayne the company and Syrup Sweet Park. When I was in graduate school and starting this company on the side, I noticed, and probably the two of you are very familiar with the idea of raining on people’s parades, [00:40:00] right? The idea that…especially on social media…social sharing shopping platforms and ubiquitous of this kind of…this new era we entered has a culture that…there’s a large percentage of people, maybe not the majority, that wait for people.  This happened interpersonally before we were online, of people saying wow, did I really like…we saw it with Syrup Sweet Park, actually. Next issue wide, grandpa wanted to invest in the company was…that you would see people and they’d say wow, I love that movie, and then people would love to correct people. Contrarians is not the right word to describe it but it does have a contrarian streak and interpersonal behavior. That’s probably what it is; people wanting to correct your personal opinion or experience. I don’t know, it’s just a very human behavior. Normally, when it’s interpersonal, you can walk away from it or say wow, that is a bummer and maybe choose to spend less time with that person who’s raining on your parade or maybe you just accept it as a form of human behavior. But I thought that no one was monetizing this. That was one thing. I guess I didn’t realize the Pandora’s box I was going to open but I also thought think about all this data or data, I don’t know how you two refer to it, think about all that. All these contrarian opinions to something that’s like, what could we do with that data? Also, how could we monetize that data as well? What else could we learn from this? But also, could we give people a central pub…central hub to rain…to essentially…it became Parade Rayne application. I guess I’m talking too much about my thing. I want to move towards solutions. Eventually, and again, it’s hard for me to pretend you two don’t know anything because for a short time Parade Rayne was the biggest thing and was known, until Z-Biff essentially bought it from us.  It wasn’t purchased; it was just a lifetime license because it retained a lot of rights because…but anyway. It became a…Parade Rayne was an application where you could essentially rate other people’s ratings or…I mean, that was how the account was presented. Someone said wow, I love this restaurant. You could just correct their thin, or you could be contrarian, or…it wasn’t…looking back on it, I don’t think…I guess it was something that was mostly pitiable and inevitable at the same time and it became very, very popular, very, very successful. It actually offset all the losses that the park started experiencing so it just came at the very right time. Everybody viewed me in the family as…I was very caught up in it, I’ll be honest with you. I never…I don’t know, I just saw the charges and said could we use those charges for energy and didn’t worry about the pollution. I guess that’s the best analogy I could make. I said wow, we could make energy out of this, or money. There’s energy in these Anty opinions. I didn’t think about the…the hard thing is there isn’t really any consequences, you know, other than some sort of pollution. I guess that’s how I’ve started to frame it for myself. At the same time, this became, even as I started to have complicated feelings about the platform, it really started to carry the park. Then we were at this thing as a family; do we want to be in the theme park business up against Z-Biff or do we want to be in the Parade Rayne app business? Locally, my opinions started to hold more sway and I said well, the history of these kind of applications is…they do spark and then fade so I said to most of my family, I wasn’t totally into the parks but I said well, everyone else that is involved in this and that works here loves it and our niche customers love it.  I still caught up in my thing and so then we got an offer from Z-Biff to license…first they wanted to purchase it but we were in a position, a powerful position; we had some patents and some things and Z-Biff really wanted those. We weren’t in a position to just license it out to keep a lot of the data. Z-Biff just integrated it into their platform and we were able to keep the Parade Rayne name. Right at the height of that and my family turning to me, I said why don’t we also lean into this? Let’s move in. This is our…this is the Blue Sky Development section of the company here. Let’s go through; I have my door…one of my office doors goes right in through this corridor we’re in, right into Blue Sky Development. These are where the team works in the offices. This is the main room. This is the model of what we broke and this is where we need your help, I guess. This is Parade Rayne Park, the sister park to Syrup Sweet and it was my concept, not my entire vision; the whole team contributed. What if we had a park that we took all the data and opinions we learned from the antique opinions? You know, what would a theme park look like? How would we build a theme park for people that dislike that people like cotton candy, for example? You say oh, I love cotton candy and the cotton candy at Syrup Sweet Park is the best or the maple cotton candy; can’t get it anywhere else. The people that correct…technically, it’s not…you can’t call it cotton candy unless…or just so you know, or oh, I strongly dislike it. Could we build a park for them? What if we used grandpa’s example to make it unthreatening? Like it’s a role you play and that’s again, the general idea for Parade Rayne Park. Okay, I hope you don’t mind me saying it, but that’s a terrible idea. You can’t make something to please everybody, especially people that won’t be pleased.  I mean, yeah, we…there was descent. I said well, what if we say yes to even the descent? Okay, Ronnie, let me just…RW has strong opinions, like some of the people, venues you’ve talked about. How far along are you on this new park? We’re about 80% finished and we got a big investor; we really need it to work well. Well, I mean, yeah. I guess I could tell you before I tell you about the park that we either proceed and finish the park and hope that it works and if it doesn’t work, we have about a four-year window, or we sell to Z-Biff. Z-Biff would buy the parks, probably tear them down or operate them as an expansion of Joyce Adventure World. Okay, so you basically need our help to see if you should…okay. Tell us a little bit about it. It’s similar to Syrup Sweet Park but obviously different. Yeah, it does have…we’ve worked on it. I’ll just try to give you a summary. We have five sections and we kind of worked on it…I don’t know, trying to take what worked about Syrup Sweet Park and then…everything. We tried to do everything based on…one of the things was that…one of the biggest things that Syrup Sweet is that Parade Rayners really dislike, is that people like waiting in line at Syrup Sweet Park. That’s one of the things that gets them the most upset. Okay, wait a second; so people dislike that people have fun waiting in line at Syrup Sweet Park? That makes people upset? Oh, very upset. Just Parade Rayners, just certain…they would say you’re being…they would make a lot of different reasons why. It’s not okay to have fun waiting in line. Either waiting in line’s wrong or enjoying waiting in line’s [00:50:00] wrong, or…just that naïve…oh boy, and you tried to make a theme park to please these people. Well, not so much to please them but we tried to make riffs on that. We have one section of the park…there’s six attractions but only one line and it’s kind of like a meandering tunnel.  It’s randomized. It’s tough to explain but basically, through algorithms and depending on what information you input in and if you use our app and stuff like that, we know what rides you want to go on in this section of the park, or depending on the number of people in your party. It randomly lets you on rides so you feel like you could be in line for any amount of time. It’s all tightly controlled but it seems random. You could wait in line for thirty seconds or we tell people up to two hours so it rarely happens. All the waits are balanced out so you really…everyone ends up waiting in line almost the exact same amount of time and you’re occupied while you’re waiting in line but you’re also mentally occupied wondering when they’re gonna be online. That’s interesting. Okay, why don’t you tell us about the next section of the park? Okay, well, that next section of the park’s called Forest of One because another thing we knew that most people dislike, but particularly Parade Rayners, is when there’s too many people that like the park or are at the park, so we have this Forest of One. It has attractions and it’s very…it’s again, very tightly controlled by algorithm but you go in and you feel like you’re by yourself or just with your family. There’s a lot of paths and they open and close to different people. It's made to feel…the ceilings and the sky and the forest is very open at the top but you’re led on these paths to these attractions and other people’s presences just hidden from you until the very end when you decide to exit the area, the Forest of One, there’s a big dance party zone. Okay, why don’t you tell us the next part of the park? Well, the next part of the park we’re having trouble with but again…because some people say there’s too much walking or too much of the park’s too big. That’ll be a virtual section of the park. That’s one’s still…that one is set for expansion which again, is not looking great.  Okay, what’s next? The next section’s called Chill, Thrill, and Spill. Chill, Thrill, and Spill? Okay. Another thing people…Parade Rayners dislike that people like is oh, I like thrill rides. Oh, let me tell you that…what about my four-year-old? Oh, I like dark rides that are immersive and slow. Oh, those aren’t thrilling. Oh, well, I like rides that I get splashed on. Oh, I don’t like being wet. These are all attractions in Chill, Thrill, and Spill; five attractions. They have three different types of rides. We have a…we call them toddlers, tweens, and teens but it’s really kind of any age child, anyone…that’s Chill. The Spill is for tweens and then the Thrill are thrill rides for anybody that likes a thrill ride. Essentially, it’s one ride but with three possible experiences depending on what you’ve chosen. Okay, sounds expensive. Oh, it was very expensive to design these attractions. Kind of unprecedented but also may, in the end, when you look at the throughputs of the ride, could be very effective. Okay, why don’t you tell us what this area…what is this green line going through the whole park here? Oh, that’s the permanent Parade Rayne zone. That’s a permanent parade that goes on the whole day, through the whole park, and you can rain on the parade; there’s different places where you can turn on rain, you can march in the parade, there’s a boo-zone, there’s a cheer-zone, there’s a zone where you can, for a price, you can rent a megaphone and that’s in a distant section of the park. Yeah, we have foam tomatoes and things like that, just…but a permanent parade. Okay, so tell us Ronnie, what’s the biggest problem with this whole thing? Okay, well I think your friend RW kind of gets it. It turns out that raining on people’s parade is not an all-day thing. I don’t know how I didn’t realize this. I had all the data, I had all the experience but people kind of only…they don’t bring the rain all day. In some sense, they splash and walk away.  They view it as something very ephemeral. Even if you’re the rainee…if you’re the rainer you’re just viewing it like a squirt with a squirt gun. You’re saying hey, I’m doing this person a favor, correcting their mistakes or mistaken viewpoints and now I’m moving on. Even though that might be detached from what really happens, that’s how most people view it, as totally ephemeral and there is no impact other than you, an act of kindness. Like, hello, your taste in donuts is terrible. You obviously know nothing about donuts; also, that isn’t even a donut. Just so you know, that’s a pastry and it doesn’t taste good. Have a good day, goodbye. They don’t want to be…I don’t know how I was kind of…it doesn’t seem like a place that anyone wants to inhabit for a very long time. Even those that do, they don’t view themselves as inhabiting it. I mean, I guess they do desire…their deeper desires are very clear but the reality of the situation…oh boy, this sounds like a bunch of nincompoops; I was right. Which one, Richie? Which one do you mean? Okay, what do you mean? I’m just saying…okay, so there’s a tension here but the tension that is created, it’s never really released and it’s not something anyone wants to sit in or spend time with. It’s more like you said, like pollution, I guess. Yeah, I guess that was a great analogy, Ronnie. Now I’m just gonna move away from it. We started a theme park based on this so that’s why…I don’t know what to do. We’re at a critical juncture. We’ve put everything on pause ‘cause once we ran tests and experience tests, we realized…I don’t know. Do we just give up, move forward? We can’t…we’re in a financial position like I said, we can go three or four more years but that’s it. It might be just easier to give it to Z-Biff. What would J-Jiffy do? Should we…I don’t know. Okay, don’t rain on your own parade, Ronnie, please. Okay, well, here’s what I’m thinking; it seems like you’re taking on a lot, Ronnie, and you kind of…I don’t know, it’s not…I don’t know.  The one thing about the first park is, I think it’s like this strange myopic thing and maybe you almost forgot that. What do you mean? I think making the character part stronger and what you said about the pollution or the ephemeralness, is that Parade Rayners don’t seem themselves as Parade Rayners, really. They’re favor-doers, right? Okay, what do you mean? Well, Richie, I think I know what you're saying. They’re leaving behind and we need to take them on a journey. Yeah, Richie, you’re right. Exactly. What if there’s a way to build Parade Rayne as an experience before Syrup Sweet Park? I guess if you’re a regular pass-holder or something but that dance zone in the Forest of One, there’s a wishing well at the edge of Parade Rayne where you leave all of Parade Rayne behind and go into Syrup Sweet. What you’re saying is basically we take the park we already started building [01:00:00] and shift the focus a little? Right, right, how would you do that, Ronnie? I guess with the story and the theming; so that people are coming to Parade Rayne as characters of Parade Rayners. They’re not real Parade Rayners looking for catharsis. But then how…wouldn’t people have to choose sides or something? Wouldn’t that make it worse? No, no, no, people are…they need to be…no, yeah, I think what Richie’s about to say is that you make it fun. They choose the roles so they can be the critical voice. I mean, that will probably need a better name. That’s what your creative team could come up with. The person there to enjoy and then be corrected. You know when people…they go and sit on that thing, or they throw pies at the person insulting them? Then people could also be observers; you could almost give people, I don’t know, a pin or something to determine which role they’re playing. Oh wow, you’re right because deep down what I did discover is behind all this, everybody has the same kind of desire or realizations. It’s just getting expressed in different ways. These could all be different approaches that people could try on.  Wow, how did I not realize this? I think you did. I think it’s just…that’s why Jiff came here. We’re just helping. You’re doing the doing. They’re in the park, just like in Syrup Sweet where they’re…we could have had a backstory, even, of…yeah, there’s so many ways we could do it. This could be a parallel world, a pre-world. Wow, really…they could be using this Parade Rayne as power for Syrup Sweet. Maybe it’s a work of one world versus the other world, worlds in balance. I think you’re onto something and especially onto something worth remembering. Yeah, that the people that are raining on the parade, they view themselves as heroic and maybe if they could choose that character…I don’t know if it would change them in the end or this would be more of an experience. It is a fine line, to find your way around, Ronnie, with making sure…I don’t know but I think it’s possible. I think you could do it. I think you should. You seem to love this work. I think it would stand to counterbalance things with Z-Biff, maybe. Yeah, I think you should really stick it to Z-Biff but in your own way by being successful, your own success. Well, thank you both so much. I’d like to give you both VIP passes to Syrup Sweet Park. No, thank you. I’m actually a Parade Rayner myself but I’m not in that way you were talking about; in an actual, helpful way. I could see…I’d like to correct all of them, too. Thanks, James and I are gonna go but it was good seeing you. Good meeting you; happy to help you. Thanks for helping us, Ronnie. We’ll see you later. Well Richie, that went pretty good. Well, I don’t know, James. I had a lot more to say but I just followed your lead and listened. Okay, let’s go…I think it’s time for us to get some sleep, what do you say? I say goodnight, buddy.

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