Re:Building Together EP 324 — How Do The Vibes Stay High?

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) with cohost Baked (@Bakedmetax) · Tue, Sep 15 2026 · 1:01:21 · 5 speakers (plus ~5 minutes of intro music up top)

TL;DR

• The title question got a real answer, twice over, from two different directions: Baked says stay in one lane and grind it out; CEELOS says bounce between lanes and match the space to your mood — both offered as ways to keep going without burning out [24:07], [24:47].
• The back half turned losses into lessons out loud: SLICK RIC stopped counting losses years ago and treats them as tuition, and CEELOS backed it with Michael Jordan's 426 losses and the first rule of teaching a kid to skate [32:28]–[33:28].
• The room opened on the CLARITY Act stalling out in the Senate (46–44, 60 needed) and a wave of liquidation posts — and then more or less refused to be upset about it. Baked noted the vote wasn't fully final and that an hour of debate had been opened [13:34].
• SLICK RIC offered the contrarian read: he's positioned against the crowd, sees the sentiment as engineered, and stayed in anyway [6:40], [32:40].
• zGhostin dropped Otherside alpha: the first "Regames" night hits the Otherside calendar Thursday, and he's chasing a Nexus & Chill session with James at ApeFest [14:05], [21:58].
• It was Baked's 28th birthday, which he spent working in a ceiling, moving Friday, and planning one margarita [15:00], [1:00:00].
• Long, happy detour into physical NFT merch in the wild — Pudgy blind boxes, Bored Ape figures at Target, Regen hoodies, the McDonald's One Piece collab — and why collectors should buy the thing when they see it [41:13]–[45:27].

Highlights

Losses as lessons, with visual aids [32:28]–[33:28] — The stretch that set the tone for the whole hour. Baked: "if you could have taken a picture of me and slick about an hour ago... you would have seen us with black eyes, lumps on our head." SLICK RIC said he stopped counting losses years ago and reframed them as tuition — no emotions, make the best decision with the tools you've got. CEELOS backed it with Michael Jordan's 426 losses, Magic Johnson's bigger post-basketball career, and the first rule of teaching kids to skate: you're going to fall, and if you don't, you weren't trying.

Two opposite vibe strategies [24:07] / [24:47] — Baked's answer to the title question: don't spread yourself thin, pick your people, pick your lane, grind it out. CEELOS offered the inverse — he deliberately spreads thin, and moves between spaces by mood: if a room's gone deep-and-personal and he isn't there today, he'll go find the room where people are just shooting the shit, or the room where people are degenning. He compared the group text to seeing all the bikes parked in front of a house and knocking on the door. Two routes, same destination.

Merch as a signal flare [42:38]–[47:28] — Baked admitted to walking past Pudgy blind boxes and Pudgy cards at Target twice and never seeing them on shelves again ("I gotta stop passing these things up"). CEELOS's pitch: grab one or two when you spot them in the wild, if only to make the cashier wonder. He and Baked both cop to wearing their project merch out in public specifically hoping someone clocks it — capped by the Venice boardwalk story, where a stranger recognized their shirts during NFT LA, said he was mostly tapped into Bored Ape stuff, and pulled up to the next day's event after they gave him the info. The shirt worked.

Why NFTs over cards [51:46] — zGhostin's closing thesis: Pokémon cards sit there, crypto sits there, but NFTs come with community and experience. "If you go on a vacation, you're paying for the experience" — so he'd rather park value in projects he believes in, because if it dips he still got the experience, and if it runs he's still in. Either way he counts it a win.

28 and responsible about it [15:57]–[16:40] — Baked spent his birthday up in a ceiling sweating, because he'd already taken Friday off to move: "if I wasn't moving Friday, I would have taken today off, but I took Friday off to be responsible." CEELOS suggested a younger Baked would have simply not shown up; Baked corrected the estimate upward. The whole crew then did the math on how long they've each been in the space — Baked was 25 when he joined.

Going against the grain on purpose [6:40] / [7:59] — SLICK RIC laid out his read: everyone's calling bloody September, the Clarity Act headline is being used as sentiment bait, and "without no risk, there ain't no rewards." He described the whole setup as psychological warfare designed to shake holders out, allowed that he could be wrong, and stayed in anyway.

The Senate gets a report card [8:20] — CEELOS ran through the vote tally and landed on the age of the people deciding crypto policy: "These old folks out of here, dog. They don't even know what the hell they're talking about. What they know about crypto." SLICK RIC agreed and voted for replacing them with "regular everyday people." Names of sitting senators were mangled beyond repair by the transcript, but the sentiment survived intact.

Disneyland with no kids [10:03] — CEELOS's park report: single rider all day with his wife, 12–15 rides, both parks empty, browsing the expensive gift shops with zero fear of a toddler breaking something he'd have to pay for, plus a lot of people-watching ("that's how I know I'm getting older"), then homemade enchiladas at his mother-in-law's at 10 on the dot. SLICK RIC added that he hasn't taken his kids out to dinner in a year — everything gets ordered to go now.

The happy meal side quest [17:51] — toomazingTM turned down a McDonald's run from his coworkers, then got sent the One Piece collab drop and called right back: "hey, I forgot I actually do want something." He only wanted the card and the toy. Then, honestly: "But I might fuck around and eat the meal." CEELOS immediately decided he was also getting McDonald's.

Buying 50-cent JPEGs live on air [18:33] — While the Senate news was still fresh, CEELOS narrated a purchase in real time: never heard of the collection, pretty sure it's a rug, almost positive it's AI, but they're fifty cents and they look nice. "This is how the vibes stay high, bro. For me, this is how the vibes stay high." Later he nearly bought a Gob by accident and had to talk himself down.

Free money appears, nobody asks questions [40:16] — OpenSea dropped CEELOS ten dollars of Tendies ("oh why thank you, I'll take 10 free dollars"), while Baked was still trying to figure out where $25 in his wallet came from, since he hadn't sold anything.

Legal to drink [1:00:00] — Baked signed off to go have a margarita. CEELOS: "You're finally legal to drink. Let's get it forever 21." Then he offered a birthday present — one of his rugs, from the hidden wallet, in the proud tradition of the last NFT he sent, which Baked confirmed he still has.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "Another day, another candle, red, green, blue, orange, who gives a damn... ain't no thing but a chicken wing on a string." — CEELOS [5:19]
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  0:38
• "This is all psychological warfare. It's what it is. They want to trick you up out of there." — SLICK RIC [7:59]
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  0:38
• "18-year-old bake would have taken both days off." — Baked [16:28]
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• "I never count them as losses, I just count them as lessons." — SLICK RIC [32:40]
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• "If you stacked enough little victories in a pile, before you know it, you'll be standing on a mountain." — CEELOS [34:58]
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• "Nope. Everybody have a great day. And, you know, make it a great week. Let's get it." — zGhostin [59:18]
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  0:38

Who said what

• CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) — host and the engine of the episode. Framed the Clarity Act news as a buying opportunity for JPEG people, bought some live, and delivered the long-form answer to the title: chase good energy, take the L's, laugh at the fumbled bags, stack small wins.
• Baked (@Bakedmetax) — cohost, birthday boy, and the room's fact-checker on the Senate vote. Made the case for staying in one lane rather than spreading thin, and carried the merch-and-collectibles thread. Left for a margarita, well earned.
• SLICK RIC (@richj530)^* — the markets voice. Positioned against consensus, reads the headline as sentiment bait, and reframes every loss as tuition. Also the one who no longer eats out with his kids.
• zGhostin (@zGhostin) — Otherside correspondent. Brought the Regames calendar alpha and the ApeFest Nexus & Chill plan, and closed with the case for NFTs as paid-for experience rather than inventory.
• toomazingTM (@TooMazing265) — brief but decisive: called his coworkers back for the One Piece happy meal, reported chicken nuggies and a Uta toy at the end, and left the room with "anything is possible, bro."

Worth a full listen

• [30:00]–[35:00] — The heart of the episode. The collectively fumbled coin, the skateboarding analogy about friends clowning you the second they know you're okay, SLICK RIC on emotionless trading, and CEELOS on Jordan's 426 losses. Works better as one continuous run than as bullet points.
• [41:13]–[47:28] — The collector stretch: blind boxes at Target, McDonald's doodles cups, Regen hoodies in Florida heat, and the Venice boardwalk stranger who recognized the merch and showed up the next day. Lots of small specifics a summary flattens.
• [57:32]–[1:00:33] — The close. CEELOS's "go reintroduce yourself to the world" send-off into the happy-meal debrief, the forever-21 birthday roast, and the promised rug from the hidden wallet.

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