Re:Building Together EP 283 — Wayback Wednesday

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) · Wed Aug 5, 2026 · 1:23:12 · ~6 active speakers

TL;DR

• A Wayback Wednesday that started as a solo show — co-hosts were at the DMV, at work under an HVAC unit, or fighting a dead mic — and turned into CEELOS holding court on childhood, gang culture, and parenting before the crew trickled in.
• CEELOS opened up about growing up in a rough LA neighborhood during the Rampart years, and credited skateboarding with keeping him out of far worse.
• The back half pivoted to the new X money card, MetaMask headaches, crypto taxes, and a lot of laughing.
• Baked previewed a game he's building on the project he CTO'd; it's "pretty much polished" on the play side.
• Practical Regen talk: how to stake Regions via Anvil for Rebux, buying Regions cheaper out of the vault, and excitement about aligning with Simple Farmer and the Other Side gaming future.

Highlights

[1:58] "I'm a professional." CEELOS scheduled some pickups mid-space, cued up his son's favorite YouTube clip (a rapid-fire "no woman, no crime… no beans, no greens" soup recipe), then a full intro track — all while insisting, deadpan, that he was running a tight ship.

[6:31] Solo show, reluctantly. With Val stuck at the DMV, Baked knee-deep at work, and Solo's mic crapping out, CEELOS rescinded Baked's co-host invite on air ("It's over for you, bro") and settled in to carry the episode himself.

[16:52] The great dishes debate. CEELOS calls doing dishes therapeutic and fun; Baked ranks it dead last among chores, tracing his hatred to a six-person house where the kids caught every pile-up in the sink. A clean segue into the day's actual theme.

[23:00–37:00] Growing up in it. CEELOS gave the room a long, unvarnished account of an early-'90s childhood in a gang-infested neighborhood patrolled by crooked Rampart cops — nose-twisting, weapons pointed at an 11-year-old, crossing yellow tape to identify friends. Solo related from Whittier, where his side of the street and the other were rival sets.

[35:26] Skateboarding as a lifeline. "I'm not exaggerating when I say skateboarding saved my life because it really did." He framed it as an aggressive outlet that burned off teenage angst and kept him from meetups that went bad.

[45:49] Stop making excuses. One of his proudest bits of growth: learning to drop the justifications and just say "my bad, how do we fix it?" — which changed how he deals with bosses, customers, and his five kids.

[53:47–1:04:00] The X card era. The crew geeked out over the new X money card — CEELOS thought the fancy black envelope was a lawsuit — comparing credit lines, testing peer-to-peer sends live. Solo instantly fired back $1.55, which CEELOS noted won't even get you on the bus.

[54:48] "Yesh." toomazing's story about the older gentleman who came to fix the office x-ray machine and, asked if he'd found parking okay, simply answered "Yesh" — apparently the biggest laugh of the day. He printed it out for his desk.

[1:02:45] Arguing with the professionals. A running bit on trusting experts: CEELOS asks his tax guy every year about crypto and gets waved off, while toomazing (who works in the medical field) has zero patience for patients who "asked Chat GPT" — "Then go talk to Chat GPT."

[1:10:22] Regions, staked. Pancho came up wanting to stake his five Regions; CEELOS walked him through Anvil (anvil.clutch.market), earning Rebux, and buying Regions cheaper out of the 173-deep vault than off OpenSea. The bigger point: aligning with Simple Farmer's Anvil protocol as Stonk Brokers heat up.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "Scheduling some pickups real quick. Alright, that's scheduled. I'm a professional. Don't forget, I'm a professional." — CEELOS [1:58]
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  0:38
• "I'm not exaggerating when I say skateboarding saved my life because it really did." — CEELOS [35:26]
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  0:38
• "One of my biggest wins in this life… was learning to stop making excuses and just start accepting." — CEELOS [45:49]
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  0:38
• "And you know what he said? He goes, Yesh." — toomazingTM [54:48]
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  0:38
• "Be like, hey, Chat GPT says you're full of shit." — CEELOS [1:02:45]
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  0:38
• "Jed's pants are kind of tight in there… it's gonna be hard to like run with them skinny ass jeans, but we'll see." — CEELOS [1:17:44]
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  0:38

Who said what

• CEELOS (host) — Carried most of the episode solo; delivered the heavy childhood/gang material, parenting reflections, and later the practical Regions/X-card breakdown.
• Solo dolo (@solodolo) — Coming off a marathon, dodging a dead mic, doing laundry; the local color on Whittier gang lines and the man who sent a live $1.55.
• Baked (@Bakedmetax) — Phoning in from under an HVAC unit; shared the dishes-trauma origin story and previewed a game he's building on the project he CTO'd.
• toomazingTM (@TooMazing265) — The medical-field voice; source of the "Yesh" story and the tip that put the crew onto the X card.
• Pancho Villa (@SeFuentezz) — Rolled in late from a long commute wanting to stake his five Regions and get bullish on Other Side.
• ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) — Brief cameo from the DMV, headphones out.

Worth a full listen

• [23:00]–[37:00] — CEELOS on his upbringing. The recap can flatten it; the actual telling, and how matter-of-factly he lands the "it was just normal" line, is the heart of the episode.
• [53:47]–[1:04:00] — The X card discovery, live money-send experiments, and the "Yesh" story back-to-back — the funniest stretch of the room by a wide margin.
• [1:14:00]–[1:19:00] — The genuinely thoughtful riff on why Other Side and NFT gaming will make sense once the younger generation grows up, complete with the Jed's-skinny-jeans avatar bit.