From Bob's Office

1/9/20 Our guest on this episode is Brenden Peach, a good friend of Jake's with a media degree from Cal State Fullerton and currently a production assistant at TMZ. After a discombobulated intro (0:00-9:30), Jake started the interview with asking Peach about his favorite food. The ensuing spirited conversation included Jacob ranting about under-cooked Del Taco fries, Peach's work history at In n Out and some of those trade secrets, plus the "Peach Special" animal fries (9:30-23:25). Next we got a synopsis on Peach's family life and school history, from being at Los Alamitos and Ocean View for high school, to his journey from Fullerton JC to Cypress to CSUF pursuing basketball, experiencing possibly the worst first day of college in history (23:25-48:00). Once his basketball career ended, Peach started to focus on a career in media, eventually landing him a job at TMZ, so he gave us some interesting info about working there (48:00-1:10:30). The rest of the show was a potpourri of conversation revolving around more food, Pokemon, video games, and pets (1:10:30-1:45:31).

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1/7/20 In the first guest episode of the new format we welcomed Angel Sanchez onto the show. He is another member of the Long Beach Pyramid Scheme ultimate frisbee team and goes by the nickname "Loops". We started the episode with a recap of our weekends, including friends leaving, disc golf, Rosca de Reyes (aka Baby Jesus Bread), and the greatest Jeopardy tournament of all time (0:00-17:30). We started with finding out how Loops got his nickname. Bird noises are involved (17:30-23:00). We spent the next conversation focused on Loops' family life, mostly on life with a quadriplegic stepdad, not knowing his biological dad, significantly older siblings, and the pride and pressure of being the first in his family to plan on finishing college (23:00-45:00). Then we looked at Loops' educational background, how music has played a major role in his life and how he plans on studying music composition moving forward (45:00-1:10:15). Our last conversation was focused on Loops' faith background, being influenced by his mom and stepdad, joining the Cru community in high school and college, and how the story of Jonah has impacted him (1:10:15-1:38:37).

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Our first episode of the new format, Jake and Jacob recap the Wild Card round of the football playoffs, preview Gardner Minshew's cross-country adventure, and look ahead at the Divisional round of the football playoffs. They also talk about Alex Caruso and Dwight Howard being among the leaders in NBA All-Star Voting, and a bounty set on President Trump being equal to the contract of Domantas Sabonis. Finally, a quick look at the Associated Press choosing LeBron James as Athlete of the Decade.

12/31/2019 Our last guest of 2019 was our good friend, Kevin Jentes. He is a graduate of Los Alamitos and is currently studying at Grace College in Indiana. Since we haven't been around for a few days, we started by pointing out some of our highlights from the holiday. These ranged from Throw, Throw Burrito and disc golf to celebrating a wedding and other group celebrations (0:00-22:50). Then we recapped the college football playoff semifinals games between LSU/Oklahoma and Clemson/Ohio State, and talked about the end of the NFL regular season (22:50-45:00). Jake took a break, so Jacob and Kevin talked about disc golf and bowling for a little while (45:00-52:30). When Jake got back we heard from Kevin about his parents and his siblings, and some details about life at Grace College and what he's studying there (52:30-1:07:40). From there the conversation took an unexpected turn and we had an in-depth look into the game of Minecraft, which has been a major part of Jake and Kevin's lives for quite some time and is much more complicated than it sounds (1:07:40-1:22:25). Moving into more important things, we had some discussion with Kevin about some of the people who have influenced him and the personalities and dynamics present in his relationships with his siblings (1:22:25-1:42:40). We concluded our conversation with Kevin giving a detailed look into his faith journey from being the son and grandson of pastors to the most influential three weeks of his life one summer and a couple really important verses for him (1:42:40-2:12:15).

Have a fantastic start to your year and decade! Please listen, comment and share!

12/19/19 Our guest for this episode is our friend and colleague Mariah Shope! She is an integral part of the Los Altos community, and has just completed her undergraduate coursework in Geography at Cal State Long Beach. We intro'ed the show with Jake telling a funny story from his week, getting excited about Star Wars, recapping the most recent Mandalorian episode (spoilers!)and Jake and Jacob giving a recap of their high school group Christmas party (Jake gifted a toilet seat...) and bowling night (0:00-33:25). After we quickly previewed the upcoming football weekend (there are three games on Saturday; 33:25-39:10), we had a very interesting conversation with Mariah about why she doesn't like sports and the psychology behind competition and being a fan of a team, and some of the economics of sports (39:10-57:15). After that, Mariah gave a riveting summary of her life up to this point, covering specifically the death of her father and brother, the abnormal circumstances surrounding both events and the overall mental state of her entire surrounding family, a church community that stepped up to support her through her difficulties in middle school and high school, and how God facilitated her surviving all of her circumstances and getting her to where she is now (57:15-1:39:10). That discussion lead into her telling the story of her entering a dating relationship, and how that unfolded in ways that were extraordinary all on their own (1:39:10-2:03:30). Our last conversation with Mariah was about her desire to study geography and what urban planning looks like as a future career for her, and her favorite bible stories (2:03:30-2:17:30).

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12/17/19 For this episode we welcomed our good friend Khalil Meade. He is currently studying business and competing in discus and shot put at Cal Poly Pomona, and he has become a popular counselor at summer camp.Additionally, previous guest Ian Silva sat in on the show. After recapping our weekends, a few sports topics were covered: Jacob explained NFL coin toss protocol because of the debacle at the start of the Rams/Cowboys game; Drew Brees breaking the career passing touchdown record; LeBron James and his new view on load management; Anthony Rendon signing with the Angels (0:00-35:40). Then we turned our attention to Khalil and first talked about the different ways that people re-seal bread packages, and how Khalil almost broke a kitchen (35:40-44:00). Jake asked Khalil how they met, and we learned about Khalil's family (44:00-54:50). From there we transitioned into the more serious discussion of how Khalil lost him mother to cancer a few years ago. Khalil let us in to that struggle, what his mother meant to him, and how he has grown as an individual through that process (54:50-1:07:45). Then we turned our attention back to his dad a little bit, and that lead straight into a discussion about Khalil's education in private school and his views on being raised by two teachers and the education system overall (1:07:45-1:24:45). Next we had a thorough discussion about Khalil's faith and being a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), specifically on how he processes what happens after death and the role of doubting and questioning faith in a healthy way (1:24:45-1:57:20). Our last topical conversation was about Khalil's involvement in sports, specifically field events, and the philosophical discussion of being a team player in an individual setting, and what motivates him to train and perform (1:57:20-2:14:20). We ended with Jake asking some of his fun, random questions, so we learned about some of Khalil's musical leanings and his favorite memories of interacting with the other three of us (2:14:20-2:30:26).

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12/13/19 In the first ever "From Bob's Office" special event, Jake Mathes accepted the challenge of trying to eat five pounds of ham in one hour for a $100 prize. Jacob Nielsen, a previous guest, sponsored the event and joined us for it, and Jake Hardy of Orange County FCA also sat in with us for the action. We were recording the podcast and streaming live on Instagram, so some parts of the audio change and are not up to the usual standards at times, so we are sorry about that. But the content is still hilarious. Find out how Jake did!

12/12/19 Our guest on this episode was writer/poet/friend Micah Bournes. Jacob has known him for 15 years and they have both seen the other go through some incredible growth, personally and spiritually, over the last decade and a half. We opened the show with an exciting event that happened at the bowling alley the previous night, then talked about big baseball news and the upcoming football weekend (0:00-32:50). Then we learned about Micah's sports history, including playing baseball, soccer and football as a kid into high school (32:50-53:40). From there Micah gave us a rundown of his family, including some history of how his parents ended up in SoCal and insight into the life of being one of six children (53:40-1:00:30). That led into a lengthy discussion of Micah's experience in school and how some of his struggles in the classroom shaped some of the success he has had in his career. It lead into a lengthy discussion about education and how individuals find success based on some of their advantages and disadvantages (1:00:30-1:42:10). We got back to being focused on Micah and taking a thorough look into how Micah developed his creativity and became a writer, rapper, and poet (1:42:10-2:07:45). We ended our conversation with a look at the importance of community in our lives, specifically the art communities Micah has become a part of and the bible study group that him and Jacob were in and the role those played in their lives, and some of the most meaningful traveling journeys and personal interactions Micah has had in his career (2:07:45-2:48:06).

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12/10/19 Our guest on this episode was Aaron Meade. Hailing from just outside the city of Cork in the great country of Ireland, Aaron is the first guest we have had on the show who was not actually recording with us in person. Go us for utilizing technology! We started the show with Jacob telling the story of how he and Aaron got acquainted (specifically how Jacob ignored Aaron for a year) and then all of us recapping our weekends, including Jake and Jacob going to the Rams/Seahawks game and interesting travel stories (0:00-15:18). Then, we introduce the first event in From Bob's Office history: "Jake vs Ham", this Friday at 1 pm. (15:18-22:40). From there we talk about the football weekend. We start with Packers/Redskins, but get go on an age tangent and Jacob tells the story of how he almost made the Clippers Summer League team once. We get back on track looking at playoff scenarios, Jameis Winston, and the final college playoff rankings (22:40-41:17). Then we briefly cover Lakers/Timberwolves in basketball, and the Stephen Strasburg/Gerrit Cole/new pitching rule topics in baseball (41:17-47:45). We finally turn our attention specifically to Aaron and hear about his already lengthy ultimate frisbee resume, and do a little comparison of Irish ultimate culture to American ultimate culture (47:45-1:09:43). From there we shifted into overall sport culture in Ireland, including the incredible-looking sports of Gaelic football and hurling and the emergence of American football, and Aaron's personal interests in American sports (1:09:43-1:34:15). After that we drifted a little into Ireland's popular culture, a bit about the country's history and celebrations (practically every day is "a reason to drink"), and the upcoming tradition, "12 Pubs of Christmas" (1:34:15-1:49:07). Then we got to talk about Aaron's family, what his parents do for a living and how he dealt with them splitting up when he was fairly young (1:49:07-1:58:10). Our last topic involved a very complicated explanation of the education system in Ireland, Aaron's unorthodox journey through it, how it compares to the American education system, and what the future looks like for him (1:58:10-2:18:45). We ended the show with Jake asking a couple of his patented fun questions, leading to an explanation of a ridiculous mountain goat fair (2:18:45-2:34;39).

We are incredibly excited to share this episode with you, and are really looking forward to having Micah Bournes on Thursday and "Jake vs Ham" on Friday. Stay tuned!

12/5/19 This episode features Tony Landini as our guest. He is from Victorville, California, graduated from Biola University and is the high school youth pastor at Arbor Road Church in Long Beach. We started the show talking about Star Wars, other movies and video games (0:00-11:10). Football this weekend includes Cowboys/Bears, Rams/Seahwaks, Packers/Redskins and Giants/Eagles, so we talked about all of those games in varying detail. The college football rankings came out and we talked about that for a bit, and had a lengthy discussion about Uga, the University of Georgia's mascot bulldog (11:10-36:30). We also talked a lot of basketball, including Tony's Timberwolves, MVP talk, and two LeBron controversies against the Jazz (36:50-1:00:50). From there we transitioned to Tony's athletic career in football and basketball and his eventual decision to focus on school instead (1:00:50-1:17:00). Next we journeyed through Tony's early life, first in Phoenix then a quick stop in Azusa before settling in Victorville. He filled us in about his parents and siblings, and the awesome job his mom has (which resulted once in Tony getting cussed out by NBA great Oscar Robertson!), leading up to how he ended up at Biola (1:17:00-1:40:25). That was an easy transition into Tony's faith journey, becoming a Christian in high school, sparking a faith revival in his family, learning how to navigate relationships, meeting his wife, Natalie, and living on campus at Biola (1:40:25-2:01:05). We finished up with Tony telling us how he got interested in youth ministry and the path he took to get to his current high school pastor position. We sprinkled in some other random questions and insights (Tony really likes Italian food) along the way (2:01:05-2:32:43).

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