# Re:Building Together EP 351 — Highs & Lows

**Host:** CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) with co-hosts ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) and Baked (@Bakedmetax) · **Sun, Oct 11, 2026** · ~1h10m · 6 significant speakers

## TL;DR
- Sunday highs-and-lows format: everyone checks in with the best and worst of the week. Sam's high was putting in her two weeks' notice [08:26]; Baked's low was a 35-minute drive to a Hobby Lobby that's closed on Sundays [12:28].
- CryptoBulliez dropped in with a hard deadline: a chair/mount design competition on his browser-based Voxy Studio closing at 6pm EST — trait pack for every PixelPals-holding participant, five Mutual Fund passes for the five best builds [15:26].
- ValerieKates has pool league playoffs Monday at 7pm — race to 17, with a shot at a division state title and the BCA playoffs [39:57].
- CEELOS's "high that's also a low": his daughter's homecoming next Saturday, complete with a poster-board ask and an upgrade to official girlfriend [33:30].
- Week ahead confirmed: Web3 recap Monday (plus building connections), traits on Way Back Wednesday, AI news Thursday, People Over Pictures Friday, Halloween/harvest scenes for Creation Corner Saturday [45:59].
- The back half turned into a full Halloween session — the mom tax on candy, extinct Halloween candy, family costume themes, and an unexpected Bluey appreciation segment [48:35].

## Highlights

**[05:52] — A Big Pun intro and a host in his car.** CEELOS opened with the track still ringing in his ears ("that beat was so fucking sick, dude"), running the whole show from "the confines of my vehicle" while parked up near the Burbank airport for his wife's weekend pop-up.

**[08:26] — Sam quits her job and immediately smells the flowers.** Her high of the week(end): two weeks' notice handed in Friday, last day the 25th, three months in the making. No panic about what's next — "finding another job is not my worry. That's never been a worry." Bonus: Halloween now lands on a day off.

**[12:28] — Baked vs. Hobby Lobby.** His high was Saturday's Creation Corner rubber-hose space and a late-night five-hour Discord build session. His low: driving 35 minutes to buy TV mounts and wall décor, only to discover Hobby Lobby closes Sundays. Room consensus: nobody knew that, and it still seems like the wrong call.

**[15:26] — CryptoBulliez's 40-minute warning.** He came up specifically to make sure the room didn't miss a competition ending in under an hour: build a chair in Voxy Studio (browser-based, works on a phone, remix the starter chair if you're in a hurry), and every PixelPals holder who enters gets a trait pack containing the project's first mount — a chair you ride around on in the Other Side. Five best submissions get Mutual Fund passes, a collab with King Pickle. At that moment he counted 41 entries [21:15], and floated a small paid mint on Ape Chain for anyone who misses the window [22:36].

**[28:18] — Val's gratitude check.** Asked for her high after a mellow week: "Breath in my lungs, roof over my head, clothes on my back. It's a good day."

**[29:38] — toomazingTM's 21st-birthday beer and a grandpa warning.** He took his nephew out for the game and his first legal brew, then later described a second batch of girls screaming his son's jersey number from the stands — which led to a car-ride talk about keeping his head on his shoulders [37:19]. CEELOS's suggested countermeasure: print the kid's face on sticks and hand them out at games.

**[33:30] — Homecoming season at the CEELOS house.** The week's "high that's also a low": his daughter's date's mom texting tie photos before the boy had even asked, the poster-board ask, and the girlfriend question stacked on top. He talked through handling it better than he did with his oldest — "you feel the burn and you learn" — while also squeezing in the annual gathering for a close friend who passed in 2020, which falls the same Saturday.

**[39:57] — Pool playoffs.** Val's team finished fourth, knocked out the number-one seed, and plays the third-place team Monday for the championship; a win makes them division state champs and sends the team toward the BCA playoffs — her first major tournament at that level. Also noted: Liz is flying into Vegas next weekend for the Bills game, and Val's hoping she still needs an airport ride [42:28].

**[48:35] — The mom tax, defended in court.** Val's casual admission that she taxes her kids' candy opened the floodgates. CryptoBulliez — whose daughter was born the morning after Halloween 2021, making every year a costume-party-slash-birthday — argued the tax is simply the cost of escort service [50:12], then slid into a sincere candy-inspection PSA about pins and razor blades [51:07], which CEELOS duly credited: "Public service announcement brought to you by Crypto Bullies" [51:48].

**[52:16] — Candy archaeology and costume math.** Baked mourned that Halloween candy is now just Snickers in a seasonal wrapper, which unlocked candy cigarettes (chalk-dust puff included), those mystery strawberry-wrapper hard candies, candy corn discourse, and the horror of receiving a popcorn ball. He's also handing out candy from his own house for the first time ever [54:38], while CEELOS did the grim arithmetic on how many costume-wearing Halloweens he has left with his kids [55:23].

**[1:01:04] — Costume planning, live.** Val's pitch: full Addams Family, with the little one as Wednesday, her as Morticia, husband as Gomez, and the older brother offered Cousin Itt, Uncle Fester, or Thing (CEELOS endorsed a green suit with one painted hand). CryptoBulliez is matching his kids — daughter repeating her favorite demon-hunter costume, son going Luffy, him trying to figure out what to do with his long hair. Baked, asked to guess what he'd wear, called his own shot at [1:07:43]: Jason Voorhees, high-end mask only, no cheaping out.

## Topic timeline

| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| [01:25]–[05:52] | Intro track, episode 351 open |
| [05:52]–[12:04] | Baked and Sam check in; the two weeks' notice |
| [12:07]–[14:45] | Baked's highs/lows, Hobby Lobby closed Sundays |
| [15:26]–[26:16] | CryptoBulliez: Voxy Studio chair competition, trait packs, Mutual Fund passes |
| [26:25]–[28:35] | CEELOS's and Val's highs |
| [28:50]–[33:00] | toomazingTM: nephew's 21st, gym, football |
| [33:30]–[38:22] | Homecoming, parenting teenagers, grandpa warnings |
| [38:39]–[43:38] | Val's edits and streaming setup; pool playoffs; football |
| [44:00]–[48:21] | Mid-space reset and the week's schedule |
| [48:35]–[1:07:11] | Halloween: candy tax, candy nostalgia, costumes, Bluey |
| [1:07:11]–[1:09:29] | Costume lightning round, inflatable-costume YouTube rabbit hole |

## Notable quotes

- "I can smell the flowers again, the colors look bright. This is amazing. It's a beautiful time." — Sam, on life after resigning [11:52]
- "Breath in my lungs, roof over my head, clothes on my back. It's a good day." — ValerieKates [28:18]
- "You feel the burn and you learn." — CEELOS, on handling daughter number two's dating life [35:12]
- "I was like, bro, you better make sure that you keep your head on your shoulders, bro. Focus in school." — toomazingTM [37:19]
- "Public service announcement brought to you by Crypto Bullies." — CEELOS, after the candy-inspection speech [51:48]
- "It'd be real weird if I was at home just watching Bluey for no reason." — Baked, declining to confirm Bluey fandom [1:04:17]

## Who said what

- **CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG)** — host, running the episode from his car between shifts at his wife's pop-up; steered the highs/lows round-robin and supplied the homecoming saga.
- **Baked (@Bakedmetax)** — co-host, mid-space reset duty; mellow week, cooked in Discord, defeated by Hobby Lobby's hours, excited to hand out candy in his own neighborhood for the first time.
- **ValerieKates (@valeriekates_)** — co-host, keeper of the weekly schedule; pool playoffs Monday, Grok-powered video edits now that she's paying for the blue check, Addams Family costume architect.
- **Sam** (𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 — @pressedcurl)\* — gave notice at work Friday and spent her whole check-in on the resulting high.
- **CryptoBulliez (@CryptoBullyzNFT)** — came up with the Voxy Studio chair competition deadline, explained trait packs, mounts and a possible Ape Chain mint, then stayed for the Halloween tangent and most of the candy discourse.
- **toomazingTM (@TooMazing265)** — chill week; nephew's 21st, his son's football season, and the ongoing project of keeping that kid humble.

## Worth a full listen

- **[15:26]–[23:51]** — CryptoBulliez's full rundown of Voxy Studio, the trait pack mechanic, how mounts work in the Other Side, and his live thinking about supply and pricing for a follow-up mint. The summary flattens a lot of practical detail.
- **[33:30]–[38:22]** — The homecoming/parenting stretch, where CEELOS and toomazingTM trade notes on teenagers, and the tone shifts from comedy to something genuinely warm and back again.
- **[48:35]–[55:23]** — The Halloween block: mom tax jurisprudence, candy cigarettes, popcorn balls, and the quiet realization about how few costume years are left. Pure unhurried Sunday conversation.

\* Some voices are identified from context; those names are marked as likely.