Call/Meeting Summary: New Year's Eve Family Breakfast

Overview

Casual New Year's Eve morning breakfast with the Crane family (Ari, Jennifer, sons Jet and Maverick) at a local cafe near Liberty, Texas following Gary's attendance at Apostle Delmar's revival service the night before. Conversation covered 2025 reflections, Jennifer's libertarian education philosophy and nomadic family vision, school choice implications, geopolitics (China-Taiwan tensions), and Gary's new contract news.

Key Topics Discussed

Gary's New Contract

• Mentor Contract: Gary shared he's received a contract from a mentor to build a community: "Sent you a contract? Yeah, to build a community that he wants to see built."
• Ari's Response: "That's awesome. So you're moving ahead, man... Congrats, man. That's huge."
• Gary's Framing: "Starting point for sure."

Ari's 2025 Reflection

• Tough Year Start: Father passed away a couple days into 2025, following best friend Barb's death in July and father's death in October 2024.
• Job Loss Trauma: Boss fired Ari via Google Docs lockout 15 minutes after he texted about his father's death: "I was a VP. He didn't say you were firing him. I should have."
• Jennifer's Perspective: "I just couldn't believe that Ari's boss fired him when he found out that his dad died. It was just such a diabolical thing to go through."
• Resilience Context: Ari noted this wasn't his toughest year: "My toughest year ever, I went through basic training... taking $11,000 a year. I literally had nothing. I literally left a family business that I could have taken over and just decided to forge my own path."

Children's School Success

• Ari as School Presence: Principal personally praised Ari - "the member gives like such a delight. He's a super friendly guy. He's super helpful and inspirational to everybody."
• Jet's Achievement: Student of the month recognition; gets positive feedback 89-90% of his day.
• Jet's Advanced Math: Does math problems mentally without writing them out, consistently getting correct answers. Concern he'll "start to get lost" in fourth grade with traditional teaching methods.
• Maverick's Progress: "Doing much better this year" in first grade, learning phonics and socialization fundamentals.

Jennifer's Self-Sufficiency & Nomadic Vision

• Rejecting Money-Driven Society: Jennifer expressed desire to disconnect: "I don't want to be attached forever. I don't want to have the Earth ship on. I don't want to have solar panels on the water source. I have not wanted to be a part of this money-driven society. I don't want to pay taxes."
• Road Life Plan: Considering selling everything in summer to travel with family while Ari visits record stores: "We do it for however long we can... We hit the road a lot, you know, and we do this a lot in like a minivan. It would just be nice to do it on a little bit easier level."
• Jet's Education: "I think for him, he could excel so much more at something that's more self-paced-driven, something that doesn't take a... seven-hour period of him being somewhere where he has to do the right thing for seven hours. They're only learning for two hours a day at school."
• Job Security Concern: Jennifer noted the stress of employment uncertainty: "What I'm saying is it's not possible to cope with any of that list. If everything else that you are committed to that society has made you have to pay a role in... if you're doing that and you decide you can't do that, everything else that you worry about."
• Chinese Zodiac Framing: "It's the year of the horse... getting it done, doing it, forging it out. Last year was the year of the snake, the shedding."

School Choice & Education Philosophy

• Texas Education Savings Accounts: Discussion of lottery system for compensation - creates uncertainty for families considering homeschool/private options.
• Funding Disparity: Public schools receive more per child than what families get for homeschooling (~$2,700 homeschool vs ~$6,000 private school credit).
• Libertarian Education View: "Libertarians, you know, it turns out to be right about basically privatizing things. It can take a while to prove that it's right."
• Predicted Outcome: Gary notes most initial impact will be "certain private school families will just have random lotteries" rather than "new innovations in the school."
• Local Reality: Several private schools closing in Colleyville area due to pricing too high for demographic.

Geopolitics - China/Taiwan (Ari's Observations)

• Ari Monitoring: During revival service night before, Ari was monitoring Xi Jinping's reunification speech (8 hours before) and largest military drill ever with 380 aircraft surrounding Taiwan.
• Invasion Concern: "I really thought China was going to fully invade Taiwan."
• US Response Theory: Predicted US wouldn't intervene despite $8B rocket sale to Taiwan; thought blockade preventing delivery could trigger conflict.
• Anduril Discussion: Gary mentioned autonomous weapons company; Ari discussed San Diego company working with dolphins for mine detection.

Minnesota Fake Education Centers

• Gary's Interest: Looking at how fake education centers in Minnesota exploited system, considering "real education centers" opportunity.
• Funding Questions: Questioned how they got so much money per child when "numbers don't add up."
• Illinois Corruption Pattern: Ari compared to Illinois political corruption - "That's what Illinois is all about... nepotism and just corruption, it just goes so deep."

Previous Job Exit Context

• Gary's Alpha Exit: Discussed leaving previous job (Alpha/Trilogy): "It felt like a good exit option. But then the real exit option was just reading the Bible."
• Sherman Taylor Situation: Ari hasn't spoken to Sherman Taylor in weeks due to feeling disrespected after leaving previous job to work with him.

Family Dynamics Observed

Jet (Age 8-9, entering 4th grade)

• Asked sophisticated questions: "If you wait for the waiter, does that make you the waiter?" and "If you buy a bigger bed, you get more bedroom, but less bedroom."
• Performed magic tricks and sleight of hand for Gary
• Very social and engaged with adults

Maverick (Age 5-6, 1st grade)

• Highly interactive and imaginative - constant Yoshi toy games with Gary (from Kinder Egg)
• Played "find Yoshi" shell game with Gary repeatedly
• Learning manners at table (fork use, napkin placement)
• Ordered eggs, hash brown, toast for breakfast

Jennifer

• Strong libertarian/self-sufficiency worldview
• Vision for nomadic family lifestyle
• Open to selling everything and traveling
• Practical about children's education needs
• Expressed strong reaction to Ari's firing as "diabolical"

Key Quotes

Jennifer on self-reliance:

"I don't want to be attached forever. I don't want to have the Earth ship on. I don't want to have solar panels on the water source. I have not wanted to be a part of this money-driven society. I don't want to pay taxes... as much as self-sufficient as possible relying on me and my effort."

Jennifer on Jet's potential:

"I think for him, he could excel so much more at something that's more self-paced-driven, something that doesn't take a... seven-hour period of him being somewhere where he has to do the right thing for seven hours. They're only learning for two hours a day at school."

Ari on 2025:

"2025 was tough. But, you know, compared to what? Not my toughest year ever."

Gary on new opportunity:

"Starting point for sure."

Ari's farewell:

"You're always welcome to stay with us."

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary headed back to Austin with Tim Joo after breakfast
• Ari family headed to NASA Space Center Houston with kids
• Gary to lock in mentor contract details
• Jennifer considering summer nomadic lifestyle pivot for family
• Continued alignment on education reform and libertarian principles
• Open invitation for Gary to stay with Crane family anytime