In this episode, I share laughs, silliness, and wise insights from my friend, Jon Almada. Jon was born with multiple issues, including brain damage-induced Aphasia, the inability to understand or express speech. Jon's mother would not give up on him, and aided by his grandfather, a renowned neurologist, he overcame much of his disabilities. Jon has insights that can inspire and help other parents fighting against the system for their special kids.
Despite being born with Aphasia, Jon became a talented computer programmer and webmaster for a world-renowned Aerospace company that put a man on the moon. Jon is a well-known Psychic medium and paranormal researcher. He hosts the streaming show and podcasts, "SoulStreamRadio" (soulstreamradio.com & www.twitch.tv/soulstreamradio), gives helpful views and insights on tech and life on "After Burner One" (afterburner1.com), and is the owner of "GRI - Ghost Riders Paranormal Investigations." (ghostriderinvestigations.com)
What do doctors know? In this case - Nothing!
Listen to your heart, Never let go of hope and never stop trying
Listen to Jon's show, every Saturday night at 9pm pst
https://www.twitch.tv/soulstreamradio
Visit his sites at:
https://soulstreamradio.com/
https://ghostriderinvestigations.com/
https://afterburner1.com/
In this episode, I share laughs, silliness, and wise insights from my friend, Jon Almada. Jon was born with multiple issues, including brain damage-induced Aphasia, the inability to understand or express speech. Jon's mother would not give up on him, and aided by his grandfather, a renowned neurologist, he overcame much of his disabilities. Jon has insights that can inspire and help other parents fighting against the system for their special kids.
Despite being born with Aphasia, Jon became a talented computer programmer and webmaster for a world-renowned Aerospace company that put a man on the moon. Jon is a well-known Psychic medium and paranormal researcher. He hosts the streaming show and podcasts, "SoulStreamRadio" (soulstreamradio.com & www.twitch.tv/soulstreamradio), gives helpful views and insights on tech and life on "After Burner One" (afterburner1.com), and is the owner of "GRI - Ghost Riders Paranormal Investigations." (ghostriderinvestigations.com)
What do doctors know? In this case - Nothing!
Listen to your heart, Never let go of hope and never stop trying
Listen to Jon's show, every Saturday night at 9pm pst
https://www.twitch.tv/soulstreamradio
Visit his sites at:
https://soulstreamradio.com/
https://ghostriderinvestigations.com/
https://afterburner1.com/
This is Debbie Wells with special family connection. And I am so glad that you are here today. I have a very special guest. Somebody that I went to school with, his name is John Elma. And he's gonna tell us a little bit about some of the difficulties he had being born and raised with aphasia. And he's making faces at me.
Speaker 2:No, never.
Speaker 1:This will be an interesting interview
Speaker 3:Because<laugh>,
Speaker 1:I haven't ever had to introduce a friend. That's a goofball at the same time.
Speaker 3:It's my job.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And you do it well,
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So anyway, so go ahead and look, take it from your birth and, um, tell us what happened when you were born and some of the things that happened afterwards.
Speaker 3:Um, well, uh, I was born in, uh, an army hospital out of El Paso, Texas called, uh, William F Beaumont army general hospital. And my, my mother was pregnant. Uh, she had a doctor who was very concerned about the size of me because I was, uh, 20 was, I was 22 and a half inches long. I weighed nine pounds by the time I was ready to come out into the world. And I, I did not, uh, leave. I, I should have been born in nine months, but I stayed for 10 cuz I was hanging onto the womb going iron, going out there. And, uh, what ended up happening was, uh, my doctor went on vacation and my mother was, uh, passed over to an older army doctor and he said, all, she can take it. She, she can get that kid out, no trouble at all. Well, that was the biggest mistake ever. And what ended up happening was I was, um, uh, put through a three day event along with mom of trying to be born and come through the birth canal. And by, by being born that way, when you're oversized, when you should have been C-section, uh, you, I broke my mother's, uh, pelvis open with my head and they mom said it sounded like a rifle shot when it broke. And uh, then she started bleeding to death and uh, so I was, I was born very dramatically and uh, I had, uh, four sips marks on my ears from, they were trying to pull me out, had oxygen tubes, put up my nose to keep me going. Uh, cuz uh, they weren't sure I was getting enough oxygen. Well,
Speaker 1:You were, you were born with severe trauma to your brain as well. You can tell a little bit
Speaker 3:About that. Yeah. And uh, the, the upshot of it all was that when I, uh, finally came out, I had a, basically I looked like a, a Sasquatch head, you know, the big cone thing<laugh> my head had been completely misshape. And so they immediately set about, uh, molding my head and I went through all these molding process to get, get it back down to, uh, you know, something of a normal shape and that went on for quite some time. But the other problem that occurred was that I was, uh, uh, immediately diagnosed with neurological deficits, uh, all over the map and uh, uh, but it turned out my grandfather, uh, Alma, he was a, uh, research neurosurgeon, uh, practicing in California. And he had, was there for the birth of his first grandson. He saw the way the doctors were handling this and he went ballistic and uh, the army told him to buzz off. Well, he, uh, he called some Senator are friends. And, uh, the next thing you know, there was, uh, senators calling army bras. And before you, well,
Speaker 1:What did the, what did the army doctors do? What were they, what were they trying to do with you?
Speaker 3:Well, they were trying to, uh, basically say he's hopeless. He cannot be, uh, uh, treated, they were gonna take him away from me and put me in an institution and I would be in a, basically a home the rest of my life. And they said, he's got no future. And they were, uh, completely willing to give up on me. And so what happened was I ended up, uh, uh, going through my grandfather's program because what my grandfather did is, uh, scared to be Jesus out of these people with all these senators calling. And basically the orders came down from Mont high that my grandfather would take over my case. And, uh, the diagnosis that I had was called induced aphasia. And, uh, there's different kinds of aphasia, you know, uh, people can be born with aphasia and the two types I know about, and there's probably other variations of it, but there's receptive aphasia in expressive aphasia. And, uh, receptive is people that, uh, listen to somebody speaking to them and they can't translate the words into a proper meaning. And, uh, and they just don't understand what's being said to them, uh, expressive, uh, was the form that I had, which is ability to form sentences and get words out. So I understood everything
Speaker 1:In the inability to,
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it was just my ability to, to speak in a way that, uh, other people could understand what I was trying to get out into the world. And
Speaker 1:There's two types of attitude. There's the, the type that you're born with and the type that is induced or caused by some, uh, um, traumatic experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So in my case, I was, uh, I had these problems going on on top of having neurological deficits with my arms and legs and my ability to move. And so they had just decided he's handicapped to give it up. And, uh, after my family, my parents refused to give up and my grandfather forced the issue with the army. Uh, it was a case of me being brought home and, uh, grandpa put me on immediate therapies. Uh, the main thing was that I was put on, um, uh, crawl therapy immediately.
Speaker 1:You had, you had very, very early inter intervention. I mean, as an infant, they started to interview.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they, so they did the crawl therapy and, uh, uh, and the other thing from the time I was in the crib, uh, they threw bright flashy things. Uh, mom and dad bought an aquarium and put fish in my room,
Speaker 1:Neuro stimulation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Anything that would stimulate and get my eyes tracking cuz I, my eyes weren't even tracking. Right. And so I, uh, and grandpa had them put the, the fish close to my crib. So I would look over and see these and my eyes would track. And it was any form of stimulation you could possibly give me. And, uh, this is true for, uh, all of Asics, uh, that kind of therapy will help you.
Speaker 1:I think anybody with a disability or anything with a cognition or memory issue can use that kind of yeah. Therapy.
Speaker 3:And he did it, uh, all five sentences. I can't even say the word right now, all five sentences. So I had auditory, uh, therapy because I was having some trouble with my hair, uh, and, and hearing what was being said. There was some receptive, but I didn't have a lot. It wasn't the worst of a, uh, the worst it could be, but it ended up, um, I had, uh, clacking toys, anything that made a lot of noise. I had anything that had, uh, lots of different tactile sensations, you know, the kind, you know, those balls that had the no KNS on mm-hmm<affirmative> mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah. I had those, I had, uh, mom made what was the first busy board? Well, ahead of, uh, you know, what the, uh, toy manufacturers were putting out for
Speaker 1:Young children. I think she said there were lights and buzzers and bells and switches and knobs and,
Speaker 3:And when the busy board came out, they, they got me one of those too. So I had a homemade one and then I had the commercial and you could turn the dial into knobs and all that. And so I grew up with all that around me and then, you know, to top it off, my dad was, you know, a rocket scientist. And so I grew up with all of that going on and there were, there were always radios in the house tape recorders. And so I was exposed to all these.
Speaker 1:You had a lot of stimulation, you had a stimulation, you had, your environment was conducive to learning and stimulating you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And then when I got to the point where I was starting to move and I could not turn over, I was a year old and could not turn myself over. So mom and dad, uh, started basically doing crawl therapy. Grandpa was guiding that and I did crawl therapy for quite some time. And, uh, finally at, um, I can't remember. I think I was the crawl therapy started before I was, uh, six months old actually come to think of it, cuz I was a one year old when I, I crawl, I started crawling on my own, which they couldn't believe. And then after a day of that, I said the hell with that. So I got up and started walking mm-hmm<affirmative> and uh, then the trouble began, you know, cuz I was getting it every thing, you know, but uh, yeah, that was, uh, that was, I
Speaker 1:Can't imagine you getting into everything no,
Speaker 4:No way. So
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was, um, uh, I still had a lot of problems though, you know, because uh, my language abilities were just abysmal and um, you know, the main thing was is that mom and dad would, uh, say things to me. I knew what they were saying, but it was too hard for me to form the words to get them out. So I would just grunt or would
Speaker 1:You avoided it? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I would just take the lazy way out. It was hard and it was too hard and I would have temper tantrums over,
Speaker 1:Well, we'll always take the path of least resistance and not talking. Was that path for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But it's something they regret now cuz they can't shut me the hell up now. You know what I mean?<laugh> but, but it's
Speaker 1:Uh, I'll take that over the non talking version.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, you know, you know how it is when I got set in,
Speaker 1:So, or you've grown up now you've gotten into elementary school. So tell us what that was like being in elementary school and what, what they did to intervene there.
Speaker 3:Well, it was funny because when I started at school it was immediate, immediately apparent I was, I was behind everybody and I had these deficits going in and uh, there was some, some help at, you know, the Roseville schools, but they weren't all that great. And I, I had, um, life threatening asthma that was occurring at that time too. So I was being pushed back by my physical ailments all over the place, but it ended up, um, uh, they tried to label me as being, uh, a highly grade moron here. You know, we got past their army difficulties. Now the schools in
Speaker 1:Red that was before politically correctness removed those labels. Yeah.
Speaker 3:They called me, they got to high grade moron and that's, you know, that's just the way they, they labeled me. And uh, the reason I was labeled to high grade moron is I got in trouble with my mother that day that they took this test without scheduling it without even telling my parents they were gonna do it. They just did the test. And uh, what ended up happening was they, uh, they, uh, uh, caught me on a bad day.
Speaker 1:You were angry.
Speaker 3:So I was angry and I wasn't communicating and I was grunting and I just, uh, didn't I, they thought I was stupid<laugh> and so they came in and said, we're putting him in special ed, he's gonna go to this class with all these other people. And mom said, no, you're not. He's perfectly fine with his intellect. And uh, they threatened to Sue and it ended up what ended up happening was they, the school was digging in their heels, mom and dad dug in air heel and ultimately mom says, you know, said, what day was this? And they, they told her and they said, mom said he got in trouble at home. And he was off. So they said, uh, mom and dad said, take, let's do the test again on a day. He's perfectly happy. So they did the test again and, and I scored, uh, genius level intelligence
Speaker 1:<laugh> well, I think one thing that's, uh, a wonderful thing that's happened, um, throughout the course of time is that specialists, resource specialists, teachers, admins, they become better at listening to the parents. The parents know the child better than anyone does. Yep. They, they know are what they're they Excel at and they know what they're bad at. And um, sure. Kids spend some time in school and they see how they interact with other students. But it's also during the most stressful times of the day for that student. So getting to hear from the parents' point of view of how that student or how that person performs at home, when they're away from the stress of school is a good thing. And it's a good thing they've started listening.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They, um, it was great because when they were proven wrong, it really ticked off the psychologist that was behind all this. Uh, they got into having these, uh, you know, uh, people come in and just take over your rights and not even acknowledge'em. So yeah,
Speaker 1:The ADA was a good thing when it,
Speaker 3:Yeah, the ADA, I was just coming to that point. It's it's uh, when, when these organizations started showing up, it's saying, wait a minute, you know, you're labeling people and some of these people don't even deserve the labels at and others. Yeah. They're handicap, but you know, they need help. And, uh, the legislature, uh, that got into, you know, the ADA and the, the senators and congressmen behind that was, it was amazing. So, uh, all hats off to them. But I grew up when you didn't have any of this, you had to have, uh, advocates fought for you. And well, we were, even today, it's still a big thing to have an ad
Speaker 1:Kids back then were just the kids in the trailer on the back of the school grounds. They were separated out from the kids. They were treated differently. They were labeled, they were set up to be, um, ostracized.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I went through quite a bit of that. I mean, I, I, my school years, uh, my elementary school were tough and uh, all the way through high school. And when I, I got out of there, I felt like I, I got let outta jail, you know, but, um, I stood out because of my, uh, my Des deficits from the whole time I went through school.
Speaker 1:Now I know that, uh, your mom and dad went out of their way to provide a lot of resources for you. And you have told me in the past about, uh, tutor that you had, could you tell me some of the things that she did tell me about her?
Speaker 3:Well, I had the asthma problem and what ended up happening was it got life threatening enough that I was, uh, diagnosed that my doctor, uh, told my folks, you gotta get him out of the valley because the, the, uh, chemicals there spraying on the fields and things like that, his body can't take it. And my chest was caving in, I, I literally had, uh, problems with the air getting into my lungs and that kind of thing. And I've got scar tissue in my lungs to this day from that. And it ended up mom and dad decided to move me up into the mountains. And we lived at my grandfather's place because he was on a trip to Alaska. And so I got into the elementary school district up in paradise, California<affirmative> and they had some pretty good people there who took a look at me and said, you know, um, he's not doing well. And it was, I think, I think it was third grade, third grade. I was in there and they said, we've got a teacher who's really good with these kinds of students and she's retired, but she does tutoring. So they put at me in a tutoring program with Mrs. Edwards, and she had these, uh, amazing, this amazing split level house, uh, off Clark road in paradise. I remember that location. And it was, this had this wonderful view. And, uh, she had hummingbird feeders and all kinds of dazzling things that, you know, caught a lot of interest. And she specialized in kids like me. And, and so I was always being tested to see if I could keep my eyes off those kinds of stimuli and focus on the work at hand. And she made school.
Speaker 1:She taught you to resist.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And she taught me to, and she taught me that doing school is fun. And I went from DS and Fs to straight a
Speaker 1:That's one of the things that I've asked myself many times with my grandsons and, uh, my oldest grandson's ADHD is, do you remove the stimuli or do you surround them with it so much that they Des they begin to desensitize to it? Yeah. And I believe it's probably a, uh, a personal thing dependent on the person's disability or their individual abilities, but I've decided to just enrich his life with a lot of stimuli and have him learn to desensitize to it. And so far it's working.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I, I ended up, um, uh, coming out of that and did quite well in school, but, uh, the problem was, uh, as much as the stimuli was an issue, it was the emotional stuff. Um, because, uh, pH can be, uh, basically behind 1, 2, 3 years behind their,
Speaker 1:The immaturity factor.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it ended up, uh, I was still sticking out like a, and I was small, physically small, and I got, uh, picked on a lot. And finally, you know, my grandfather and, uh, mom and dad said, uh, you don't have to be a victim. So I started fighting back and I spent a lot of, lot of time in the principal's office over fighting. But, uh, and the prince, you know, the thing was the bullying that went on. Uh, it was kind of a sanctioned thing that most schools just looked the other way and said, well, you know, you should have just taken it. And it's like, I'm not gonna be sitting there being beat up on by these people. So, uh, I finally started growing in my junior year. They were getting ready to give me human growth hormone. And, uh, all of a sudden I started sprouting like a weed. And I grew so fast, my arms and legs hurt. But one day somebody picked a fight with me that they didn't, uh, realize I had grown a lot stronger. And, uh, I prevailed. And, uh, after that, they
Speaker 1:Didn't pick vice with you anymore. After that,
Speaker 3:Uh, it was, uh, about, it took three or four of those, uh, incidents with me in a junior, uh, late in my junior year for that to come to a halt. But, you know, that's a reality that, uh, disabled kids and people with my disabilities and to face and, um, it's different now, but I don't think that the bullying problem is gonna go away, but you, you have to deal with that when you're dealing with the school
Speaker 1:Are taking more of a hard line with that, though. They have very, very strict anti-bullying policies. They teach kids how to avoid it and how not to be a bully. So they're very much more proactive than they now than they were.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But, you know, back in those days it was, uh, you're on your own. And yeah, I remember, uh, when I got into college, it was a complete, I, I thought college was gonna be the same kind of baloney. And it was like, oh my God, what a refreshing difference, you know, they're
Speaker 1:Grownups.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, and you were basically being judged on your abilities. And I got my eight, you know, my associate degree and, uh, moved on and then eventually, you know, late in life, I got my bachelor's in it. And, uh, you know, I'd used that in my aerospace work, but, um, yeah, it, it was a very, uh, traumatic childhood, but, uh, I feel lucky that I had the family. I did it when you got family behind you, you can do anything.
Speaker 1:And they, and not just family, but family that had a lot of tenacity. They, they stood up for you. They advocated for you. They never gave up on you. Yeah. Um, when you were in your high school years, was there a time that came along in high school or after high school, when you knew what you wanted to do was in a career when it just hit
Speaker 3:You? Well, it was 19, uh, about 74, 75. My father was still working, uh, uh, the remnants of the Apollo program. It was, it was starting to wind to down. And, uh, I wanted to be a rocket engineer, like my dad and, uh, dad was, uh, I think it was about 77. I had been, I had been hanging around a shop in 76 called the bite shop in citrus Heights. And they had all these computers and I was really interested in that stuff, but I really liked the, the, the rocket thing, you know, cuz I mean, this is what my dad did, you know, so I wanted to be like him and, uh, my dad got caught in a very bad explosion at Aerojet. Um, it was a pot of, uh, propellant that flared up. It went to, it went, uh, runaway. It was a runaway reaction and it went the thermal and uh, he saw a little white dot of, or a little black dot of, uh, fire start in the center of the, uh, as it was combusting, his spontaneously lit and he jumped off the platform. And when he did, he got about 10 feet away and it flared and uh, shockwave picked him up and threw him a good 25 feet, set him on fire. He had to put himself out under the delusion, the laboratory
Speaker 1:Didn't it melt his goggles to his eyes or
Speaker 3:Something like that. Yeah. He had the injury that he was the second person in the country to end up with this gas that comes off of the goggles when they're heated, suddenly like that. And it went into the eyeballs. And so for 25 years he wore, um, sun shade all the time. He kinda looked like Roy Roy or Oron mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah. Always walking around with sun suns on, but, um, he was sensitive to light. So he was always in dark environments after that. But um, uh, when I got to the hospital to see him that night, when this whole event happened, uh, he was laying there and his hair was all burned off on the sides. He still had some on his top of his head and uh, he grabbed me and says, you're not going into the rocket business. You're going to go into computers.<laugh> and I said, okay, pop. I said, and he says, you're too clumsy to handle high energy materials. You will be dead. And he says, I got lucky on this one. And I'm really good at what I do. And I said, I said, okay. And he says, you promise me. And I said, all right. And so I started looking at computers and next thing I knew I was, uh, following that track and I
Speaker 1:Computers have been a, a godsend to a lot of kids with special needs. I know I have an ability. I have a D D but yet when, um, I have I'm working on something that I am really into, I ha I tend to hyper focus. And when you're a computer tech or you're working with computers, you're not having to socialize all the time. You're pretty much on your own. And you have that ability to hyper focus. So that was probably a perfect fit for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I tend to be, um, laser focused when I get into my wor my space and I, I do, I do very well on work that I have to be alone. Um, you know, and I wrote, you know, airframe that way. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, I mean, I had to, uh, I did, I did a secure communication systems called aframe. Uh, I pull, I just vetted it, followed my, uh, heart on it and it turned out to be the right product at the right
Speaker 1:Time. Know my philosophy is, is that if you hadn't been, uh, if you hadn't had these disabilities thrust upon you, you might not have had the, the ability to write that program.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think it was all for a reason. Uh, these things happen. It was funny. It just, uh, my, when the internet came along, I had been specializing in, uh, you know, tape, uh, tape translation programs and robotic tape systems. Uh, I was really into backup technology and, uh, I got into some political difficulties at work because there's another individual trying to fight me at every turn on that. And, uh, in 1994, the first mosaic browser showed up at work and they were setting up the first ethernet. And I got involved in that. And so I went up to my bosses and I said, I'm getting really bored with this whole tape thing. It's, it's, I'm not gonna continue on with this. I said, I want the action is in the internet. I want to go do that. And they'd seen my pro uh, programming skills. So they, they, they approved me and I became an assistant webmaster at that point. And, uh, I started taking off and by the time it was done, uh, so 94 happened about 1998. We got exposed to cold fusion as a language. It was a rapid prototyping language. And I, my boss at the time, Jim a said, uh, why don't you go find something to work on? Just find something that interests you only. And I said, well, I wanna study file movement. And he said, why? And I said, because everybody's trying to find ways to get files back and forth and nobody to understand what, what to
Speaker 1:Keep, to do, keep it secure at the same time.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I came up with this concept of, uh, a, uh, a means to upload files on the internet of them in secure folders. And I christened it arrow frame. And, um, the next thing I knew, uh, I got called in one day and there was all the, I was in front of the company, president the VPs, all the high, heavy weights. And here I am this kid and they said, um, can you demonstrate what you have? So I showed him and I thought it was, I, I said, this thing, a joke. It's not even ready. Uh, and they said, no, John it's ready. We need this for the ATMs meteorological satellite program. So they put me, uh, to work. And I, I said, I have to have absolute peace and quiet to develop what you're asking me to do in two weeks. So they sent, they said, uh, you go home, we'll pay for your time. And, uh, they, they, uh, gave me two weeks to just sit home and do that. And one manager got mad as hell about it and tried to get me in trouble over it for following my orders. And I had to account for my time. And, uh, they were trying to prove that I was just goofing for the two weeks. And I, I took my, uh, I had my log files. So I said, here are all my log files. I was working 16 hours a day on this thing for two weeks. And, uh, they shut up after that. But, uh, that's a different story, but I had to laugh about that, but I, I got down to, uh, Azusa with a completed product. Uh, we loaded it up on the systems there. Um, I in a room with more top secret clearance people than you could shake a stick at. And, uh, I presented what I had and they said, this is next level. And, uh, the next thing that I, I was part of the ATMs meteorological S and I've got an award here for my participation in that.
Speaker 1:Well, to me, your story is a story of how all the people who want to take the square pegs and fit them into the round holes lost because the people who loved the square peg found a square hole for them.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It was funny because that, that whole program took off after that. And, uh, uh, just before nine 11 happened in, uh, June, uh, they came to me and again, and said, we need to put you again for two weeks. We want to, uh, expand this to be able to use it in multiple programs. And I, they gave me a day to go home and think about it. And I came back and I, I looked at the table designs and database I did. And I said, yeah, I could pull this off, but I need, I need another two weeks to retrofit. So I did it, they gave me the two weeks, same guy did it again to me about, you know, not showing up for work. So I kept pulled my logs out again. And, uh, in July I demonstrated in front of NASA and, uh, for the Cobra program, Cobra engine and, uh, uh, with United technologies, uh, there also, and we demoed it and then S stood up and said, this is the future. This is what we want this kid to do, keep going. And, uh, I got it up and running and we were in production the next month. And the next thing, you know, nine 11 happened. And from that point on what ended up happening was, uh, I was working on, um, every major missile and, uh, you know, warhead program you can imagine came on board. And so the application ran 20 years. Uh,
Speaker 1:There's too many pieces of software that run 20 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It had a, quite a lifetime and, uh, I retired and it, it, and it outlasted me. It lasted another, uh, year and they shut it down. And I think about 2018 years. So, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, so tell us what you're doing now.
Speaker 3:Well, I retired at 20, uh, in 2017, uh, June of 2017 and I'm, uh, I kind of got bored<laugh> because I, you know, I really thought I was gonna be able to get out and start doing stuff. And, uh, my mother ended up with a massive stroke and, uh, I had to take over our ranch and I've, I started thinking about it in the last year. So it's been 20 17, 18, 19 20. I started looking about 20, 19, 20 20 at what can I do here? And I've been building up my studio and I had broadcast experience at I Jett because it kept pulling me in to do voiceover for, um, uh, defense videos of all types. And I even did a titanium, uh, titanium safety video because it turns out TA titanium is flamable when it's, uh, particles, it will actually catch fire and cause big fires. And so I did a titanium safety video. I was, you know, dressed up in suit and tie and standing there in, in, uh, in a, uh, work area where all these, uh, tooling and manufacturing processes were done, uh, building 2004. And, uh, we did that. And so I, I had this background and I had never really believed that I had a broadcast voice.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think most people who have heard you during this broadcast believe that you have a broadcasting
Speaker 3:Voice. Yeah. I, I remember when I was 16, the first hint that I had the voice was, uh, I was at an old defunct station now called car oy. And they were doing a live broadcast in citrus sites. And there was these two DYS jockey who I listened to every morning and I went there to meet them. I thought they were cool. And they get talking to me and this one guy, he says, John, you've got a radio voice. Do you know that? And I said, no. I said, I don't like the way I sound, even he says, no, no, no, you've got a radio voice. And so, uh, the other guy said, yeah, you're right. And, uh, I, and they said, you should just think about it, you know, because you, you, we were would be able to hire you on if you wanted to come on. And I just said, I don't think I'm ready for that. But all those years later, I was at a Jett and here comes the media people and they said, John, you've got a radio voice. And I went, you're the second people that have said that to me, maybe there's something to this. And so they started using me. And so I was on about five or six, uh, defense videos, uh, that were used for proposals for the government. And then, uh, you know, then the videos of safety videos I did. So, yeah. So anyway, it turned out to be a strength and, uh, I'm partially handicapped with my back cuz I have degenerative disc disease and I can't get back into the conventional workforce at age 60 61 here. So I looked at, at my strengths and said, I have my voice is my strength. And, uh, I've got my talents with technical and it seems to be a fit. So podcasting live video, uh, book writing. I'm a, a prolific, uh, I'm a hell of a technical writer. So my technical writing skills and, uh, are being put to play and I'm doing books for Amazon, uh, as we speak. So yeah, it's um, it's a media company I'm doing
Speaker 1:Well. You've come really far for somebody that they were gonna put into an army institution. So I'm, I've been very, very happy to hear your story. And I'm, I'm very pleased that there are parents out there and there are parents still because I've run them every day that refused to give up on their child. They refuse to listen to the experts. They refuse to listen to the doctors. They refuse to listen to family. I mean, they cannot tell you how many well-meaning family members have said the same thing to peer is like John's and would've wanted them to give them up so that they could have a different kind of life, an easier life, but you have loving parents like them who refuse to give up on their, their child. And look what we have. Now. We have a, a grown man who has contributed to the military defense, the defense of this country who has contributed much to our tree. He's a, a good person. He's taking care of his mother now. And, uh, who knows what he's gonna be able to do with his broadcasting company. I am really, really excited that he was finally able to do an interview with me. And thank you so much, John. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah,
Speaker 3:It was gonna be here.
Speaker 1:Um, let's give your, your broadcast company or your, your podcast, a little plug here. Where can they listen to you at?
Speaker 3:Um, I'm on, uh, I I'm on Twitch, uh, for my live broadcast, but I have a buzz sprout from my, uh, my other, uh, podcast, which come off of the live broadcast every week on, uh, Saturdays nine to 11. But you can learn more at, uh, soul stream, radio.com or if you want, wanna look at the, uh, Twitch broadcast, uh, twitch.tv/soult stream radio,
Speaker 1:And you'll have links to books that you've written and things that won't be posted at those places when they
Speaker 3:Come. Yep. I'm in, uh, process. I should have my first book, uh, with Amazon in the coming month and I will have that on the Soult stream radio, uh, dot com site.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, good luck to you. I thank you so much and, uh, have a wonderful day. I know you're gonna, you're gonna help a lot of people out there with this broadcast.
Speaker 3:Yep. And there goes the cuckoo
Speaker 1:We're right on time. Yep.
Speaker 3:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker 1:All right. Have a good day everybody. This is Debbie Wallace with special family connection and thank you for listening.
Speaker 5:Please
Speaker 1:Feel free to be, is it us@specialfamilyconnection.com where you will find more news information and past episodes of my podcast, special family connection podcast episodes are available on all major distribution labels. If you would like to help us out with a financial contribution, please look link on my homepage@specialfamilyconnection.com.