416: Accidental Meth

Overtired

Christina, Jeff, and Brett dive into a rollercoaster episode packed with wild travel tales, parenting epiphanies, and tech geekery. Christina shares her whirlwind trip to San Francisco, while Jeff reminisces about meth-centric band auditions. Brett navigates an Accidental Vyvanse Overdose and a transition to VS Code, with plenty of geek love for GitHub extensions and markdown editors. They debate light themes, licensing chaos, and the quirks of macro automation tools.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Podcast Updates
• 00:46 Christina’s Exhausting Trip
• 02:09 Travel and Mental Health
• 02:22 Brett’s Upcoming Vegas Trip
• 03:17 Brett’s Sleep Struggles
• 05:25 Vegas Experiences and Shows
• 07:42 Journalism and Blogging Challenges
• 13:13 Conference Stories and Intersections
• 18:38 Jeff’s Parenting Reflections
• 33:13 Christina’s Family Visit
• 35:52 Sponsor Break
• 39:06 Jeff’s Meth Story
• 41:32 A Strange Encounter: Learning About Meth
• 42:16 Oasis: The Meth Incident and Live Performances
• 44:21 Oasis Reunion Tour: Hopes and Realities
• 48:45 Accidental Meth and Concert Expenses
• 51:44 Switching to VS Code: A Developer’s Journey
• 01:09:33 Automation Tools: Keysmith and Default Folder X
• 01:21:19 Concluding Thoughts and Personal Updates

Show Links

• Oracle Cloud World
• VS Code
• Keysmith
• Default Folder X

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Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff, Christina as @film_girl, Jeff as @jsguntzel, and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd on Twitter.

Transcript

Accidental Meth

[00:00:00] Introduction and Podcast Updates

[00:00:00]

[00:00:02] Christina: What? The feed’s been updated? You’re listening to Overtired. I’m Christina Warren, joined as always by Jeff Severinskenzel and Brett Terpstra. Guys, hello.

[00:00:14] Brett: As, as always, sometimes, as sometimes, all three of us are here.

[00:00:18] Christina: Well, look, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s like, let’s just, let’s just focus on the fact that again, like I said, the feed’s been updated. Like we’ve got a new episode out.

[00:00:28] Brett: Um, yeah, and I, the plan is to have new episodes for a few weeks in a row here, if we, if we stick to plan. We have sponsors, and It would be more trouble to not do the episode than to do the episode. So yeah.

[00:00:46] Christina’s Exhausting Trip

[00:00:46] Brett: Christina, how are you?

[00:00:48] Christina: Pretty good. Pretty good. Um, I, um, had kind of, I, well, I mean, I’m, I’m fine now. I slept a lot, which was good, but yesterday, which was, we’re recording this on a Saturday. Um, I, on [00:01:00] a Friday, which was our normal record date, I would have been a lot more tired if we recorded then because I was in, um, San Francisco as an in and out, like on Thursday, like I flew in, uh, in the morning and then flew out in the afternoon.

[00:01:15] Christina: And, um, I don’t know, uh, be, like spending more time in airports than you spend in the city that you’re visiting

[00:01:21] Jeff: That’s the worst.

[00:01:22] Christina: That kind of sucks, to be honest. So

[00:01:24] Jeff: sucks.

[00:01:25] Christina: it was a great trip and I’m really glad that I did it and it wasn’t like that bad, but it’s also one of those things where it’s like, it’s just a not a long enough flight for the whole thing to just be like, okay, in the future, if I can, I mean, in their instance, this was one of them were like, you have to do that.

[00:01:41] Christina: And, and I’m, I’m glad that I was at least close enough to do it, but you’re also kind of like, yeah, this, this sucks. Like I’m now more tired than I would have been if I had just, you know, gone someplace and stayed the night and flown back.

[00:01:53] Jeff: Right, right. I know I hate that. I hate that, uh, I’m always wrong when I make the calls. [00:02:00] I don’t like traveling anymore, though, is my problem. That much. I like traveling, uh, on a vacation. I do not like traveling for work anymore.

[00:02:09] Travel and Mental Health

[00:02:09] Brett: Which I think is a great segue into a mental health corner.

[00:02:12] Christina: Yeah, I think so.

[00:02:14] Brett: travel and mental health. I um, tomorrow, or Monday I leave as this podcast is released.

[00:02:22] Brett’s Upcoming Vegas Trip

[00:02:22] Brett: I will be on a plane to Las Vegas. And it’s the first time I’ve traveled. I, we did a road trip this summer, but it’s the first time I’ve like flown for work anywhere in years and Vegas is not my first choice for places to be.

[00:02:43] Brett: Um, but I will be flying in for a few days in Las Vegas for Oracle CloudWorld. Um,

[00:02:50] Christina: World? Hell yeah.

[00:02:51] Brett: and I’m presenting on topics that. I only know about because I researched them last week. Um, [00:03:00] and I have to give, well, actually like I kinda, I got out of doing most of the, like leading the presentations, but I have to be there for support and live lab instruction and everything, which is a little stressful.

[00:03:14] Brett: I’m a little stressed out and like.

[00:03:17] Brett’s Sleep Struggles

[00:03:17] Brett: This week I stopped sleeping again. Um, not on purpose. I, I might be manic. Hard to say because like during the day I’m pretty level headed. Um, but I do tend to get up at four in the morning and start like working on code, which is kind of manic behavior for me. Um, but I figured out.

[00:03:39] Brett: So like I take Three 600 milligram pills of gabapentin every night, and it’s the only way that I sleep. But then even with that, I started waking up at 2 a. m. every morning, which is, you know, not, not great, and I couldn’t fall back asleep. So what I figured out [00:04:00] was I could take Two of those pills at bedtime because I don’t generally have trouble falling asleep.

[00:04:05] Brett: I have trouble staying asleep. So I take two of those pills and that gets me through till 2 a. m. Then I take the third pill at 2 a. m. which gets me through until like 5 a. m. which is a reasonable time to get up because I’ve been going to bed at like 8 30. Oh, which is going to suck in Vegas because my flight gets in at like 11 p.

[00:04:24] Brett: m. on Monday. And then all of our, all of our team meals and everything are like 9 45 PM. Um, Vegas time, which I think is West

[00:04:38] Christina: hours behind.

[00:04:39] Brett: yeah.

[00:04:39] Christina: two hours behind you. So, so, um, like, whatever, like, so if you, uh, land, so it’ll be the equivalent of like 11pm for you.

[00:04:47] Brett: Yeah. That’s nuts. I, I can’t, I can’t function that late. Um, but I guess I’ll have to, I guess this is a good time to get back into like crystal meth. Um,[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] Jeff: I mean, yeah, that’s an individual decision.

[00:05:05] Brett: consult your doctor. Um,

[00:05:08] Jeff: Oh man, that reminds me, I’m gonna flag something, I’m gonna flag something for after the corner, uh, a meth story.

[00:05:15] Brett: Well, that’s, that’s my corner. I’m, I’m stressed about travel. It’s not going to be a big deal. I always pull this shit off, no problem. Um, but,

[00:05:25] Vegas Experiences and Shows

[00:05:25] Jeff: I wanna, I wanna jump onto one thing you, one part of a sentence you said, which is, um, dot dot, which, no, which is dot dot dot, it’s gonna suck in Vegas. Everything sucks in Vegas.

[00:05:35] Christina: Yeah.

[00:05:36] Jeff: Except, you know what, except, and I, I resisted this so hard when my mother in law booked us to do this, except Blue Man Group.

[00:05:44] Brett: Yeah, no, I love the Blue Man

[00:05:46] Jeff: Kind of great.

[00:05:47] Christina: Uh,

[00:05:48] Brett: too.

[00:05:49] Christina: I was gonna say if you can do the shows, right? Like I had a, I had an amazing time when I took my mom to Vegas. Like I had like

[00:05:56] Brett: and Teller?

[00:05:57] Christina: um,

[00:05:58] Brett: didn’t you see like

[00:05:59] Christina: saw, we saw,

[00:05:59] Brett: [00:06:00] in Vegas?

[00:06:00] Christina: no, no, we saw Taylor Swift in Atlanta, but no, we saw Adele in Vegas. We saw Adele at, at, at, at, at Caesars. And we saw, um, uh, the, uh, the Beatles, uh, Cirque show, now that they’ve raised, um, the, um, um, That, that, um, um, hotel, um, because it’s going to become like the hard rock or whatever.

[00:06:18] Christina: Like that’s, that’s probably not ever coming back. So I was really glad we got to see that. But we, we like went shopping, like we, it’s, Vegas doesn’t suck unless you’re there for work. When you’re there for work, it sucks, right? Like, but, but, but, but that’s how most of us go at this point. And

[00:06:36] Brett: it was, it’s like CES with like the Engadget crew was always fun. Like we had

[00:06:43] Christina: for you, for

[00:06:44] Brett: you know, karaoke

[00:06:45] Christina: Well, for you,

[00:06:46] Brett: and yeah.

[00:06:48] Christina: you, if you were a reporter at Engadget, it was not fun, I guarantee you.

[00:06:54] Brett: Um, okay. I’ll take your

[00:06:55] Christina: I, I will guarantee you it’s not fun because you literally have to be on, [00:07:00] like, the entire time. You have to wake up at 6am to go to press conferences, and you have to also go to dinners with people.

[00:07:06] Christina: And yes, you have time to do team excursions, but that also means that you again have to then go out to like parties that companies are having in schmooze and then get up at 6am and you have to blog five or six things a day. Like it sucks. Like you’re, like,

[00:07:19] Jeff: five or six things

[00:07:20] Christina: and while you’re

[00:07:21] Jeff: I hated the early 2000s.

[00:07:23] Christina: while you’re walking around the entire convention center and then at CES at that point was so big that it was too big for the convention center.

[00:07:30] Christina: So you’d have to go from like one thing to another, like, um, It’s maybe fun once, but if you’re actually going to those things to work it like as a writer, no, CES

[00:07:42] Journalism and Blogging Challenges

[00:07:42] Jeff: still, here’s a question, and Christina, you might have the best sense of this. Are there still jobs in journalism where you are expected, like real jobs in journalism, where you’re expected to blog five or six times a day?

[00:07:56] Christina: That much probably not, um,

[00:07:58] Jeff: that nice? I[00:08:00]

[00:08:00] Christina: yeah, it is, it is, except, but it’s funny because like the one exception are like the big event days, right? So like things like CES, or Mobile World Congress, or the Apple, you know, news days. That’s an all hands on deck thing to this day where you will have multiple people who will be contributing.

[00:08:16] Christina: It’s And, um, yeah, I mean, but no, it’s no longer the, even the business insiders of the world and whatnot like that, like they’re not asking people to blog that much. Um, I think that it’s, it’s probably, uh, more, um, reasonably, um, gone to like a, a file once a day thing, which is much better. Um, and, and, and with BuzzFeed and all those things being gone, like you don’t even have like the quick, like listicle sort of shit.

[00:08:42] Christina: Um, like the closest thing, you know, to that that’s still around, I guess, like I said, would be like Business Insider. And I think they’re probably, even for their interns, they’re probably only like at a file once a day place. So that’s good. At the same time, I will say as like bad as that was, that was like the best bootcamp I ever had as a [00:09:00] writer

[00:09:00] Jeff: Mm.

[00:09:01] Christina: was, was having to file a lot.

[00:09:05] Christina: About a lot of different things. I mean, like you get burnout for fucking real, but you also get fast. And when there’s breaking news, like no one is faster than a blogger.

[00:09:16] Jeff: What I always liked, I liked a version of this, which is, I’m thinking, so I covered the RNC when it was here in St. Paul, it was the McCain Palin RNC for this really cool site at the time called the Minnesota Independent, which is just a good kind of, it’s a good progressive journalism site. And, and I had just.

[00:09:36] Jeff: Quit my job at a, at an alt weekly and needed something to do. And they, they brought me on and I, this is what I love. So I went every day to that convention. There’s tons of protests. So sometimes I would just follow the police around because that was a way to write about what was happening. I found my way into the convention hall at one point, whatever.

[00:09:57] Jeff: It was just like adventures every day for a few days. And [00:10:00] I loved having an intense day and then sitting down at like 7 PM and having to write. 2000 words about that day. Um, because it wasn’t like, um, it wasn’t like I interviewed a bunch of people and I have to like write a kind of straight thing, like, but I love writing a good sort of very, like, meaty, not trite narrative piece, uh, at the end of a, at the end of a hard day.

[00:10:27] Christina: No, and I think that can be great, right? And there’s nothing wrong with that. Like it’s just, but it’s hard when like, I don’t know. Um, and I always, I never minded doing like live vlogs. Like that, you know, I

[00:10:38] Jeff: love live vlogs.

[00:10:39] Christina: vlogs I always enjoyed. Um, and, and like, and like if somebody asked me like, can you do a live vlog right now?

[00:10:44] Christina: I haven’t done one in like six years and I would be like, yeah, fucking put me in. Um, that’s a, that’s a muscle that like wouldn’t go away.

[00:10:51] Brett: I think you were, so last time I was at CES, we were developing the new live blog software, uh, for Blogsmith [00:11:00] and it was me and Joe Bartlett and we were coding like non stop during the days because like they were live blogging CES and it was brand new software and we were bug fixing in

[00:11:13] Christina: Oh, damn. That would be, that would be really hard.

[00:11:16] Brett: yeah, it was, but like, I think it’s different.

[00:11:20] Brett: Because we had one thing to work on and we were like heads down on that one thing and we weren’t like popping from event to event and switching gears constantly.

[00:11:29] Christina: That’s what I’m saying. That, that, I, I totally think, like, like, it could still be stressful, but that would be fine. Like, but when you’re, like, as, cause I, cause I used to have to go to, like, Vegas twice a year. I would go in January for CES and then I’d go in April for NAB, which is like the, um, uh, National Association of Broadcasters, um, which is a smaller event, but a similar type of thing.

[00:11:46] Christina: And I would have to, you know, like, go, yeah, from like thing to thing. And then you’re trying to do like your little write ups and trying to get like the news out. And like, in some cases you’ve been able to do it in advance because you’ve already been pre briefed on stuff and you can just hit [00:12:00] publish.

[00:12:00] Christina: But in other cases, yeah, they’re like announcing things live. And so you’re having to figure out like what’s good live, like what’s worthwhile. And then you’re like walking the show floor and being like, Oh, okay, well, should I write about this or should I write about that? And, you know, want to make sure that I’m showing enough, you know, value for me being here.

[00:12:16] Christina: Um, and I don’t know, uh, I’d be curious The big, the big conferences in that way, like for the blogs and the people who do go, I mean, it’s a lot of video people now more than websites, um, which is its own other nightmare. I was on camera, but I didn’t have to do the edits, but trying to edit videos, you know, to go up while you’re at those events, it’s another kind of, uh, version of hell because, you know, people want to see it as soon as possible.

[00:12:44] Christina: But if it’s going to be good, it’s going to take more time to, you know, cut the whatnot. So you have some people who just live stream and like, great. But, you know, if you want it to actually look fully produced and that takes a lot of time and effort, and you’re also dealing with, you know, um, everybody else trying to [00:13:00] saturate the, the internet that you’re on.

[00:13:02] Christina: Um, even if you bring in your own hotspots or pay for your own. Um, Wireless, or, or, or, Wired, Lines, or whatever. But, um, yeah, um,

[00:13:13] Conference Stories and Intersections

[00:13:13] Brett: I don’t remember which year it was but, um, CES one year coincided with the Adult Video Network Awards

[00:13:21] Christina: Yeah, they did that for a number of years. They were the same week. Um,

[00:13:24] Brett: gotta tell you live blogging that was actually pretty fun. The AVN awards, I mean, not, not CES.

[00:13:31] Christina: right. Um, yeah, I, uh, I, I never went to any of that. Instead, what would happen, it would be, You would always have, and they would always be disgusting looking and, and acting men who would see a woman and be like, Oh, are you here for CES? Are you here for the AVGN awards or whatever? And it’s like, or AVN like, go fuck yourself.

[00:13:49] Christina: I’m not fucking you regardless. Like genuinely, like, like, like fucking kill yourself. Um, you know, like that, uh, and, and the CES, like, I don’t remember who it was who [00:14:00] made them move it, but like, there were enough complaints about that overlap that like, they had to be moved

[00:14:06] Brett: Yeah. I bet. I don’t doubt that. I don’t doubt that.

[00:14:10] Christina: Yeah, because I think, because I think what would happen is I think that the adult actor, film actresses, I think they would get harassed too. I think they would have like people, especially people who are from other countries who don’t, who have like different social norms and don’t know how to act around people, would like just blatantly sexually harass them.

[00:14:26] Brett: Yeah. Well, I imagine, I imagine that’s true for adult film actresses, just about everywhere they go.

[00:14:33] Christina: For sure, but like there, but if you have people who are coming for a specific event from your industry, you might still have people who are gross, but you know, are going to maybe have a certain kind of, you know, decorum. And then you have people who are like, again, like from parts of the world where they just don’t respect women in any regard and really think that like, it’s okay to just, you know, Reach out and touch people or to say things, um, even in the best of times.

[00:14:58] Christina: And, uh, and then you have like, [00:15:00] you know, like adult film actresses and it’s like, huh, yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe don’t have these two things the same week. I don’t know.

[00:15:09] Jeff: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Although, conferences and conference groups intersecting is one of my favorite things about going to conferences. That one’s just a little messy.

[00:15:19] Christina: No, no, totally. No, look, look, if everybody can act like an adult, I’m in full agreement. I was actually, I was actually in, I was actually in Vegas, um, I guess like three weeks ago, four weeks ago. Um, yeah, a month ago, I guess. Um, for, it was, again, it was supposed to be like a 24 hour thing. I wound up in that case, actually being smarter and staying a second night.

[00:15:38] Christina: So like I got in at like 7 p. m. and And we shot on the whole next day, and I thought that I was going to be leaving at like 7pm the following night, and we had the hotel suite for another night, and I was like, well if we have this, this is dumb, I will just stay the night and then leave at like 10 or 11am the next day, which is what I wound up [00:16:00] doing.

[00:16:00] Christina: Um, and so I was there for like, 36 hours. Um, but, um, it was, it was fun because we were, uh, it was during def, um, uh, Blackhat and Defcon. And so, um, and I was interviewing some of our security researchers and I didn’t go to any of the events and I, I wasn’t able to go to any of the parties, which that’s okay.

[00:16:17] Christina: Um, I didn’t want to get COVID or anything, so I was, that was fine. But we, um, me and like, um, the, the guys on our, our films team were fantastic. Like we hung out, we, did Topgolf and things like that. But like we went to this restaurant when we first got in and there was like this white party happening and we, we didn’t know like what it was for.

[00:16:35] Christina: And, and, um, like even like the, um, waitress, she was like, I’m not sure what they’re all lined up for in this casino. And I was like asking, I was like, so, What are you here for? They’re like, Oh, it’s just a corporate company, white party. And I was like, trying to find out like what company they worked for and they wouldn’t like tell me.

[00:16:47] Christina: And I was like, okay. So we were all like, okay, yeah, they must work at a cult. But that was kind of a fun thing to see because obviously there were all the security professionals there, but there were people who were in town for other things too. And seeing like, like, [00:17:00] like to your point, Jeff, like seeing those different types of groups intersecting, um, was, was pretty funny.

[00:17:06] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah, I had one. I was in Omaha once and, uh, at the hotel. I wasn’t there for a conference, I was there for a project, but at the hotel it was like, I forget what the group was, but it was all, um, elderly women in, um, dresses made of sequins and hats with sequins. And then it was a, it was a bodybuilder conference.

[00:17:25] Jeff: I’m sorry, a body, a bodybuilder competition. Um, and so the whole, the whole, like three days I was there, these were the groups that were like intersecting in the lobby and stuff. And it was just the best. It’s like a world I want to live in.

[00:17:38] Christina: That’s amazing. I was at one in, in June for the AI Engineer World’s Fair. Um, was, was at a, um, uh, the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Um, but the other event that was there was, I think I took a photo of it, but it was like some sewing convention.

[00:17:54] Jeff: Nice. Oh, that must’ve been gentle, gentle people.

[00:17:57] Christina: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so it was, it was like this very weird [00:18:00] thing. Like they had like, they have like the signs like showing like, This direction for the AI Engineer World’s Fair, this direction for like the big sewing convention. And like, you could not have like a more different demographic of people. Like one is like, like almost entirely men, like in probably like their, their, you know, 20s and 30s, um, talking, you know, like AI nerds.

[00:18:17] Christina: And then the other is like, I would say the median age is probably 55 and, and all women. That was pretty funny.

[00:18:24] Jeff: Yeah. Oh man. Awesome. Awesome. Traveling, live blogging. Weightlifters.

[00:18:32] Christina: Weightlifter.

[00:18:32] Brett: your mental health, Jeff?

[00:18:34] Jeff: Pretty good. Good. I’ve, uh,

[00:18:37] Brett: I’m

[00:18:38] Jeff’s Parenting Reflections

[00:18:38] Jeff: I just, I can just say, I mean, what, what I can say in, in short, cause I’ve, I’ve talked about it in the last episode and, and definitely a few episodes ago as I anticipated it or approached it, but like, um, dropping my oldest off at college and then returning to a life where he is not a physical presence every day.

[00:18:56] Jeff: Um, one of the, like, just really [00:19:00] kind of amazing experiences for me, like as a parent. especially recently, is like, I didn’t really anticipate how, um, parenting him would be different. Uh, because, so really he’s a great communicator and it’s very easy to talk. And I’ve said before, just like kind of like a great roommate basically, but also just like a really, really good kid.

[00:19:24] Jeff: And, uh, and, And the way that you interact with your kids normally is like you catch them at the right moment. Maybe you have a nice conversation. They’re on the couch, you’re on the couch, you’re driving them somewhere, they’re driving you somewhere. Um, and a lot of, a lot of interaction, whether it’s like, uh, transactional or supportive or, or just, you know, like really connecting happens that way.

[00:19:46] Jeff: Like just kind of ships passing in, uh, the day and night. Um, but when you’re, when you’re separate. It’s phone calls and, and there’s just a different, um, it’s a different experience, a different way of like [00:20:00] receiving him and being present to him and, and kind of a learning curve, not in a bad way at all, but just like trying to like figure out what is different?

[00:20:09] Jeff: Why does this feel different? How, how, how can I be the same kind of present or like whatever this new present I need to be? Um, and And you know, first few weeks of college are hard. And so it’s been, you know, like a lot of sort of trying to be present and supportive and listening or whatever. And it’s been really awesome.

[00:20:28] Jeff: I had this kind of weird realization, which is like, well, first of all, when I turned 40, I’m 49 now, when I turned 40, I literally remember I was walking in Omaha, probably that same trip. And I remember thinking, well, I’m about to turn 40. That’s probably it for new phases of my life. I don’t think it’s probably going to be too many big new initiatives.

[00:20:46] Jeff: I don’t know why I was thinking that, but I really felt like it was, I didn’t feel

[00:20:49] Christina: was over for

[00:20:50] Jeff: was over, but yeah, but I just felt like, well, you know, the thing where I jumped from thing to thing or whatever, and maybe there’s a big left turn, whatever. I was like, Oh, it’s probably done. Um, totally not done.

[00:20:59] Jeff: [00:21:00] And, and I also kind of like, I was thinking on that and then I was thinking about how like, What I’m experiencing now feels like a new developmental stage. Like, in terms of the sort of challenges it provides and like the, the sometimes like the struggles to recognize like, Oh, I’m in a new developmental stage.

[00:21:18] Jeff: Like I am developing new ways of being in the world. And I realized that I actually have always loved entering those stages, even when they’re super, super hard. And, uh, and this one isn’t super, super hard, but it’s. It’s loaded with a lot of emotion and, and, and a lot of like wanting to, you know, maintain a connection at a time when, when your child is like in maximum new independence mode.

[00:21:44] Jeff: Um, and so just figuring out like, it’s a change of identity and I, and so far, I really like it. And, and I was, did not expect that. I like the change in identity. I’d love to have them back more. I’d love to have them closer, not 11 hours away, but, um, anyway, so that it’s just, [00:22:00] I don’t know, but I think because that’s on my mind all the time, I think that’s the best kind of mental health check in.

[00:22:06] Jeff: And also just that it’s hard when, when, when your, your kid is like, you know, on the like, rollercoaster of the first, I didn’t go to college, but from what I understand, that first semester can be hard.

[00:22:16] Christina: It can

[00:22:17] Jeff: as can the first

[00:22:18] Christina: of changes.

[00:22:19] Jeff: Yeah. It’s so many

[00:22:20] Christina: you’re away, yeah, you’re away from home for the first time. Um, for, for, for most people, I mean, some people have had other experiences, but for a lot of people, you’re away from home for the first time. You have that first real sense of independence where there are consequences for, you know, like no one’s going to wake you up and make you go to class.

[00:22:33] Christina: And you’re meeting all kinds of new people who are going through the same things and, um, getting really close to people really fast, um, because you spend so much time together and trying to figure out who you are and. Getting to reinvent yourself to some degree, you know, because It, you know, again, like it’s not the same for everybody, but depending on where you go, like, you might not have many of the same people from your high school there.

[00:22:55] Christina: And so, you know, you kind of get to try on new, you know, like [00:23:00] personalities and, and other things and be like, okay, well, I don’t want to be like this anymore. I can be like this. And, and then, yeah, you know, if you, especially if you were close with your parents, like trying to figure out like, okay, well, how am I still going to see them and, you know, maintain those things.

[00:23:15] Christina: Um, where’s he in school?

[00:23:17] Jeff: he’s at, he’s at, well, he’s just, he’s at a college in Indiana. I don’t know why would I feel weird saying the name of the school. Um, but he’s at a college in Indiana and it’s, it’s where his mom went and, and, um, and it’s, it’s a great, it’s a great place, great campus. He’s very happy with all of that.

[00:23:33] Jeff: But like, have you all ever been in a long distance relationship?

[00:23:36] Christina: Yes.

[00:23:36] Brett: Um, kinda. Yeah,

[00:23:39] Jeff: Like, you know that thing where, if something’s, you’re talking to someone and you’re kind of stuck with whatever the last impression you had was on the phone, right, like pre text or whatever, or like

[00:23:50] Brett: even when your partner is traveling.

[00:23:52] Jeff: Yeah, same, same. I was gonna say, it’s like when you’re traveling where like, if it’s, if you have a, if you leave a call with a sense of [00:24:00] like, I don’t know what, like longing or sadness or, or if it’s happiness or whatever, you sort of keep that and realize only later that like, that didn’t freeze for that person, but it

[00:24:09] Brett: happened in between.

[00:24:11] Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:24:12] Christina: more things happened since then. Yeah. I have to, I, I’m curious, you know, because like when I went to college and, and I didn’t go very far from home, so it was very different in a lot of regards, but you know, um, but I did have the long distance relationships and stuff, but like, It was harder to keep in touch with people, you know, like we had cell phones, but we weren’t texting all the time and, and you couldn’t FaceTime with people, you know, and, and that kind of thing.

[00:24:37] Christina: Um, do you think that, like, are you able to be more connected through like other ways? Are you finding that?

[00:24:43] Jeff: Yeah. And, and also with that, like trying not to overdo it myself, you know, cause I could ask a question or check in every five minutes. Um, and so I’ve been, that’s the other thing I’ve been trying to negotiate in my head, which is like, okay, what do I, Right now, what do I need? And what I need [00:25:00] right now is some kind of contact, whether it was with me even briefly, Hey, I want to send you some, some slippers, you need slippers with your shoe size.

[00:25:07] Jeff: And it’s like, tells me the shoe size, like, that’s it. Like, that’s the minimum I need. Um, And, and, but otherwise, yeah, it’s nice. Cause every once in a while, it’s just a loose text. It’s just a, like, kind of like, Hey, have you heard this album or whatever? I’ll get that or yeah, proof of life. And, and, and so, yes, it is easier to stay in touch because you don’t have to, it doesn’t have to be a call.

[00:25:27] Jeff: And I think, I think, especially when as a parent thinking of the two of us here, like when you’re anxious, like one of the things I was really trying to do, we would only talk like every couple of days or do only talk every couple of days, but I was like, I don’t want to. I don’t want to burden him in any way with any of my anxiety.

[00:25:46] Jeff: Um, if he’s describing something and it makes me worried or I project or whatever, like, and so if you’re, if you’re doing more texting and phone calling, it’s a little easier to control that, to like, just, just be really like. [00:26:00] Mindful of like, I don’t, we’re both going through our own very different thing and I want us to both know that we miss each other and all that stuff.

[00:26:08] Jeff: But like, I don’t want to put my like, grown up ass dad anxieties onto his just freed himself into the world, you know, feelings.

[00:26:19] Brett: I did not have to deal with this at all. I, I went to the U of M, so I was only a couple hours away from my folks, but I was so happy to get to know them. Get out of town. Um, I had like almost no contact with my parents for that first year of college and my roommate, my dorm mate was my best friend from high school and really the only friend that I cared to keep in touch with.

[00:26:44] Brett: Uh, so I lived with him. My girlfriend had gone to the U of M the year before. Um, so I was basically getting out of a long term relationship by going to college. And like everyone I needed to communicate with was there in [00:27:00] my life and I had like no anxiety. It was, it was so exciting to be on my own and away from what I considered a pretty oppressive environment.

[00:27:11] Brett: And yeah, it was, it was different than what you’re describing.

[00:27:16] Jeff: Well, and that thing too. Oh, go ahead,

[00:27:18] Christina: No, I was just going to say, but you know, it, but it’s also like your, it’s your parents react, you know, um, experience. I’m sure it was also different from Jeff’s, but like, it was different from what you were going through too. Right. Like, I’m sure, however they felt about you being gone and how you felt about being gone.

[00:27:32] Christina: Like, you know,

[00:27:33] Brett: think it was a huge relief that I was gone.

[00:27:36] Christina: yeah, there might’ve been that, right. But it’s just like, but it just, you know, we remember like our perspectives. Like I, I’ve, I’m going to be honest until these conversations, I’ve never even really thought about like what it was like for my parents. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:48] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:49] Christina: Honestly, like it’s never even really even occurred to me to be thinking about like, oh, well, how do they feel about, you know, us being gone?

[00:27:55] Christina: We weren’t that far. Like my sister was home more often than I was, but I, [00:28:00] you know, it was 30 minutes away and still came home some weekends to, to work, um, and, and do laundry. Um, but, and, and that happened less and less. That was really only the first year. And then after that, yeah, I was like half an hour away.

[00:28:12] Christina: Um, and so it wasn’t, I don’t know. I never even really kind of like anticipated like, what’s it like for them to not have us there? Um, I, I imagined that it was relief, but, but it never really occurred to me, you know what I mean? Like, it wasn’t one of those, one of those things that was kind of like, top of mind at all.

[00:28:32] Christina: Um, which is interesting to kind of like, you know, think about, be like, oh, yeah, no. What were they, you know, going through? Now when I moved to New York, that might have been different. But I’ll also kind of admit at that point, like, I was older and whatnot, and I, you know, haven’t ever, like, thought too intensely about like, oh, you know, how does this make my mom feel, you know?

[00:28:54] Jeff: When there’s, I think, yeah, right, right. And I know I, and I didn’t think about it just because I didn’t go to college. Like [00:29:00] I, I moved out, moved into Minneapolis from the suburbs and, and was here for a long time. Then I started going to like scary places at a young age. And I don’t know how the fuck they dealt with that.

[00:29:09] Jeff: But like, uh, but I, the other big thing, right? Like for both parents and the individual is like, did you launch or did you escape? Right? Like, and I escaped, uh, not escaped like the clutches of my mother, but like escaped. My life as a kid in school. And as a kid in the suburbs and all that stuff, I escaped and I, I, I’ll leave it to my son to tell to, to know whether he launched or escaped.

[00:29:35] Jeff: It feels like a launch from my end.

[00:29:37] Christina: Yeah.

[00:29:39] Jeff: Yeah. Ah, yeah. Well, thanks. I thought that would be quick, but man, it’s, it’s definitely like the thing that’s always on my mind. It’s such a new, it’s new. Like I it’s, I he’s 18, right? It’s 18 years. He’s been in my house. I see him every day. I say good night to him. I say, good morning to him.

[00:29:54] Jeff: Like, you know, like

[00:29:56] Christina: You’re close and you have a, and you have a good relationship, which is also, [00:30:00] which is also like different, right? Like that’s not everyone’s situation. Like, like, um, you know, um,

[00:30:04] Brett: that’s actually a rarity.

[00:30:06] Christina: I think so. I mean, well, for both ends, right? Both for parents and for the kids, right? Well, especially when, um, and I would say, cause I definitely have like some friends who are close with their kids, but like, um, one of my friends, like his son is a senior in high school and is going to be going to school, not that far from him, like, you know, um, in the same state, you know, a couple hours.

[00:30:26] Christina: Right. And so I don’t know, What their situation is going to be like, but they also, um, uh, he’s divorced. And so he doesn’t, he’s not with, you know, his kids full time all the time. So I, I don’t know like how much of their day to day will change, but if you’re close, you know, like that’s, that’s, that, that’s a, that’s a different dynamic.

[00:30:44] Christina: Like I was close. I’m closer with my mom now, but like, I was close with my parents or I guess close to my mom. Like, I wasn’t really close with my dad, but wasn’t not close, but also I wasn’t 11 hours away. Right. Like I try to imagine like, what would have been like, like if I had gone to New York for college, um, right [00:31:00] away.

[00:31:00] Christina: Right. Like, and, and have that sort of experience. Um, I will say it was interesting because there were definitely, especially once like the, my, my second year when I moved into my first apartment. And I wasn’t ever coming home to, to work or, or, or anything, um, because I had a, a job, um, uh, at a different location and, um, didn’t need to do that, like, you know, I, I would talk to my mom like less and less.

[00:31:26] Christina: Like it was, it was funny. It was like, okay, we were half an hour away, but we might only talk, you know, every other week or something, you know, it just kind of depends. Um, and, uh, you know, so, so proximity didn’t play as much of a role there, but yeah, you know, cause you start to realize like, like you’re live.

[00:31:41] Christina: Your life like evolves and, and, and launches off, but like your parents lives, like they go on too, right? Like that’s, that’s the thing is that everybody’s, everybody moves on. Um, and you just have to navigate, okay, well, how much, you know, how do we stay in contact and, and whatnot. And that’s not just like parental relationships.

[00:31:59] Christina: That’s [00:32:00] like any sort of relationship. Like I had some friends and, and frankly, most of the relationships didn’t last, but like friends who didn’t maybe go to college or, or, you know, kind of stuck, you know, more closer to like my hometown and whatnot. Like, okay, well, how often are you keeping in contact with people or even friends who went to other colleges?

[00:32:16] Christina: And, you know, it’s just like, okay, well, how, how, how are we all keeping in touch? You know, are we IMing one another? Are we, you know, emailing, you know, we making phone calls? Like what’s, what’s the deal? And like, you realize, okay, if you want to maintain these things, you have to put work into it. It won’t just sustain itself.

[00:32:31] Jeff: Yeah, that’s another one. Right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And then that thing of like, I mean, this, I can stop after this, but the, the thing that I’m sure both of you relate to as people who went to college. Um, I mean, I certainly relate to it in my own way, obviously. Is that thing of like, there’s still so much you’re doing for the first time.

[00:32:51] Jeff: It’s like your first day every day to, to. Borrow from John Roderick. It’s like your first day, like every single day. Like, um, and that’s really, that’s [00:33:00] something I remember loving that. I just, I loved everything. I, everything I ran into, I’m like, I don’t really actually know how to buy laundry soap. I love that shit, loved it.

[00:33:09] Jeff: But anyway. Uh, so, Christina, you wanna?

[00:33:13] Christina’s Family Visit

[00:33:13] Christina: Yeah, I mean, I’m, I’m fine. I’ve been, um, like I said, I just got back from a day trip. I was off before that. Like I was back for a week, but I was, um, it took like two weeks ish off. Um, I went to, um, to Atlanta to visit my family. Um, and, uh, I got to see my nephew go to his first day of preschool. Speaking of first, he’s three years old now and, and that, that’s wild, right?

[00:33:36] Christina: Like just to

[00:33:37] Jeff: Super wild.

[00:33:38] Christina: just to see how quickly stuff passes, right? And, um, And my sister has been sending me photos and stuff. So, uh, so that’s been good, but uh, no COVID, um, knock on wood. Um, I had to do the thing where, because I went to Las Vegas for, like I said, for that day trip, I knew that, you know, cases were really high and I was concerned about, you Getting my parents sick.

[00:33:59] Christina: I didn’t [00:34:00] really give a shit about if I got, you know, sick, um, because I’ve had COVID a few times. And at this point, um, I don’t think that would be negatively impacted or whatever, but I didn’t want to get anybody else sick, but it was like the worst. And I got my original booster of like in October of last year.

[00:34:15] Christina: And I was like, I know this is the worst possible time to get a booster. Cause the new ones are about to come out and it’s like August 1st, but. I’m going to go ahead and get one anyway. So I got a boost for August 1st. And maybe that, while it being okay, it sucked because then like the new ones came out like August like 26th or something.

[00:34:33] Christina: So I was like, well, now I have to wait, you know, two months before I can get One of the new shots, but, um, I did not get COVID and one of our video guys did. He thinks he got it on the plane and he was only maybe knocked down for like a day or so, but that was good. But yeah, it was one of those things I was like, okay, I was traveling.

[00:34:50] Christina: Um, and then I went to XOXO in Portland and then went back to, um, uh, you know, Seattle, um, and, uh, you know, kind of, you know, [00:35:00] Reconvened work. And then I, like I said, had a day trip this week. So I’ve just been kind of traveling a lot, but, um, but mental health has been pretty good. Um, no, no, no real complaints about anything other than, um, yeah, weirdly.

[00:35:14] Christina: And, and just hearing you talk about like your experiences with your son and stuff too, like watching my nephew, you know, he’s three, he’s only three years old, but still like seeing these kinds of moments, like it makes you kind of, I don’t know. I think about like my own, like, Not mortality, but you do think about just the passage of time in different ways, you know?

[00:35:32] Christina: And that’s, yeah,

[00:35:34] Jeff: Oh man, I’m gonna be 50 in January, and I realize, like, 20 years ago I was 30. In 20 years I’ll be 70. And that sentence that I just spoke out loud goes through my head daily. Like, what the fuck? Yeah, for sure.

[00:35:52] Sponsor Break

[00:35:52] Brett: So, um, should we take a sponsor break?

[00:35:55] Jeff: Yeah, then can I tell my meth story?

[00:35:57] Christina: Yes.

[00:35:58] Jeff: Okay.

[00:35:59] Christina: We’ll do, we’ll, we’ll [00:36:00] do sponsors first, meth, meth after the

[00:36:02] Jeff: It’s not, it doesn’t actually involve actual meth, but It’s, it involves the topic.

[00:36:06] Christina: Okay. I mean, I have actual meth stories, but we don’t, we don’t have to share those now.

[00:36:10] Brett: As do I, but that’s a horrible segue. So, um, a lot of people don’t know this, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret. In my free time, I actually run a fairly large corporation, uh, somewhat shadowy, uh, with a bunch of shady contractors. And one of the things that really gets under my skin is how many of those contractors use devices and apps on my network that I can’t control.

[00:36:37] Brett: And that’s where this week’s sponsor really saves my butt. Imagine your company’s security like the quad of a college campus. Speaking of college, that would have been a good segue.

[00:36:48] Jeff: Meth was less of a good segue.

[00:36:50] Brett: there are,

[00:36:51] Jeff: the nature of your shadowy corporation. I don’t know if 1Password

[00:36:54] Brett: I’m not allowed to,

[00:36:55] Jeff: the space between meth and their

[00:36:58] Brett: On the down low, I can’t talk [00:37:00] about exactly what my corporation does, um, for legal

[00:37:04] Jeff: Sorry for getting you back in it

[00:37:06] Brett: So, so, so, you got your, your company’s security quad of a college campus and there are nice brick paths between the buildings.

[00:37:14] Brett: Those are the company owned devices, IT approved apps, and managed employee identities. And then there are the paths that people actually use. The shortcuts worn through the grass that are the actual straightest line from point A to point B. Those are your unmanaged devices, shadow IT apps, and non employee identities like contractors.

[00:37:37] Brett: Shady, shady contractors. Most security tools only work on those happy brick paths, but a lot of security problems take place on the shortcuts. 1Password Extended Access Management is the first security solution that brings all of these unmanaged devices, apps, and identities under your control. It ensures that every user [00:38:00] credential is strong and protected, every device is known and healthy, and every app is visible.

[00:38:06] Brett: 1Password Extended Access Management solves the problems that traditional IAM and MDM can’t. It’s security for the way we work today and it’s now generally available to companies with Okta and Microsoft Entra and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1password. com slash overtired.

[00:38:27] Brett: That’s right, we got a custom URL. That’s 1password. com slash overtired.

[00:38:35] Jeff: All right. Nice work.

[00:38:37] Brett: Thank you. That was one take. Uh, there were, for anyone listening, there were no edits in that. I’m, except for the part where Jeff started talking about meth in the middle of the ad read, but I think they’ll, they said to make it our own.

[00:38:51] Jeff: Hey,

[00:38:53] Christina: I mean, look, look, look, look. If shadowy business stuff, [00:39:00] how can we not make Breaking Bad references?

[00:39:03] Jeff: I’m

[00:39:03] Brett: Right on.

[00:39:04] Christina: I’m just saying.

[00:39:05] Jeff: yeah,

[00:39:06] Jeff’s Meth Story

[00:39:06] Christina: All right, tell us your, tell, tell, all right, now, now that we’ve done the sponsor read, um, uh, Jeff, please tell us the, your, your meth story.

[00:39:12] Jeff: Do you have a friend or are you the friend who has, um, this sounds like another ad read actually,

[00:39:17] Brett: really does.

[00:39:19] Jeff: who is the person that retains the memories? Uh, I have a, I have, I have a

[00:39:24] Christina: Oh yeah,

[00:39:24] Jeff: friends who, yeah, that’s you. I believe that I was, I would have guessed that. I have friends who remember everything. Um, Uh, name check, Danny Glamour.

[00:39:34] Jeff: I see you. My friend, Joe, who’s been my, my friend since, um, eighth grade. He remembers we were in bands together. We toured together. He remembers everything. And, um, and, and he told me a story back to me recently that was incredible, which is that we were, uh, we w we had like a, like a 16 year olds as 16 year olds, we had like a heavy metal band.

[00:39:53] Jeff: We were pretty good. And we even made like a demo. We had no singer. And, and we made this demo and. [00:40:00] And the guy who recorded it was also my drum teacher and kind of like a mentor to us. He had been in metal bands for a very long time in the region, basically. And, and we needed a singer and we weren’t ready to get out there into the world.

[00:40:12] Jeff: I’m telling you, there were good songs. Okay. I still, I just recently listened to that. It was good songs for 16 year olds. Um, so we wanted a singer. We decided to put an ad in the Alt Weekly here in City Pages. Which is now long gone. And, uh, and, and all I remember about, and all Joe remembered about what we said, besides that we were looking for singers, was that we said we were young.

[00:40:31] Jeff: We didn’t say we were 16 and that we were, you were going to meet at my mom’s house. Um, and, and we said that we had a label ready demo. That was our, that was the advice from our mentor. And, um, and, and I think about this in life so hard because we probably did. Seven auditions. It started with like a phone call.

[00:40:48] Jeff: Um, and then, and then some fucking dude with like a mullet, um, and, and, you know, any number of like what it was like acid wash jeans, uh, any number of kind of looks were present. They’d show [00:41:00] up to, to jam with us. and would find out when they got there that they were grown men and we were 16. And, and a couple of us were very awkward.

[00:41:09] Jeff: Um, and, and, uh, anyway, so like, they would say things like, well, I got to say, I mean, you said you were young in the end. I didn’t realize you were this young. Um, there was a guy who was so nervous to sing that he asked if he could take the microphone all the way into another room separate from us. So we’re like, dude, this is not a good start.

[00:41:27] Jeff: We’re trying to get out there. Um, and, but anyway,

[00:41:31] Brett: live gigs.

[00:41:32] A Strange Encounter: Learning About Meth

[00:41:32] Jeff: But there was this one dude who just wanted to hang out. And so we did like, we played and then we went upstairs into the living room. Uh, my mom was not there and we hung out on the couch and the guy, the guy told us at length, how you make meth. And like, there’s like, it’s just like, he’s preaching, doing like a sort of tutorial to these 16 year olds.

[00:41:53] Jeff: None of them did meth. There was a lot of, there was a lot of pot. among us. Not me, but like among us. There’s a lot of acid among us, but um, no [00:42:00] meth. Uh, and, and this guy just went on and on at length about how he and how we also could make meth. And I,

[00:42:08] Brett: that’s the story of how, how you found your singer.

[00:42:11] Jeff: yeah, that’s how we found our singer, man. Yeah, I know that was a good band.

[00:42:14] Jeff: Super jacked up.

[00:42:16] Oasis: The Meth Incident and Live Performances

[00:42:16] Jeff: Um, Also to say that I didn’t know the story about Oasis accidentally taking meth and then playing a show, but you can watch it on YouTube. Um,

[00:42:24] Christina: What, what show was that? Cause that could be,

[00:42:25] Jeff: it was here. I think it was in the States. I think it was in the States at a club.

[00:42:29] Christina: okay, okay. All right. I, that, that, that tracks cause, um, I have seen the documentary about like their Wembley show, which was like one of their worst live gigs

[00:42:37] Jeff: just watched it

[00:42:38] Christina: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which, which I actually, I think I have like, I have like the live, and then they had to make that a live recording,

[00:42:44] Jeff: It’s so painful to watch.

[00:42:46] Christina: is so painful to watch.

[00:42:47] Christina: But like, to see like how they were able to kind of cobble together the audio to make something somewhat passable to sell. And then you look back and you’re like, wow. And I, and now, now I’m going to be a really bad OASIS fan. I can’t remember which one fucked up. I think it was, [00:43:00] I think it was Liam who, who fucked up,

[00:43:03] Jeff: Liam, I mean, the thing that you can watch on YouTube, which is like a bunch of cuts is, is, and I was never an Oasis fan. I honestly got obsessed with footage for some reason after they announced they were going to reunite, but it’s because it’s everywhere in my algorithm. But now I’m just like, I’m transfixed.

[00:43:17] Jeff: I’m not even that big of a fan of the music still, but I’m transfixed. And it’s the one that I’m thinking of at one point is like, Liam Gallagher is singing. Not the real lyrics to the

[00:43:27] Christina: Yes, yes,

[00:43:28] Jeff: pausing to say things like, does anybody want some lasagna? Uh,

[00:43:33] Christina: Exactly,

[00:43:34] Jeff: fucking Wembley. It’s incredible.

[00:43:37] Christina: he was like, purposely like drunk and angry, like they’d gotten in a fight. And, and like the second night he knew that this, that, you know, they were going to have to be making like, it, it, they had all the recording stuff there, like they knew this was gonna be the live album.

[00:43:48] Christina: And, and he’s just like, fuck it, let’s do it. And like, in retro, and, and years later, I think he’d apologized, but Noel was just like. Beside himself, he’s just like, okay, I’m ready to go, right? I’m [00:44:00] ready to leave. And Liam’s like, oh, what do you mean we’re leaving now? And it’s like, Noel is just like, done, you know?

[00:44:05] Jeff: it’s at Wembley. Yeah, no, it’s amazing. I have to say, like, I am transfixed by those two. I think I, so I’m confused. Christina, are you a good person to ask some OASIS questions? I can be brief. Until two weeks ago, I didn’t give a shit about OASIS, but all of a sudden I’m obsessed.

[00:44:21] Oasis Reunion Tour: Hopes and Realities

[00:44:21] Jeff: I was under the impression that Liam was the asshole, the bigger asshole, but now I’m starting to understand that maybe Noel is the bigger asshole?

[00:44:28] Jeff: Or are they both just big assholes?

[00:44:30] Christina: are, they are. That, that would

[00:44:31] Jeff: In ways that are kind of delightful.

[00:44:32] Christina: Yes, 1000%. I mean, which is why I’m going to spend so much money. I tried to get tickets for the reunion tour and, um, failed. And I’m going to spend so much money, like, it’ll, it’ll still be less than Taylor Swift money. Let’s be fucking for real. But like, I’m going to spend so much money on trying to get Oasis, um, uh, tickets.

[00:44:50] Christina: Because the thing is, is like, I feel like I have to go to like one of the first shows in the UK because I have, it, it’d be like buying, uh, tickets to, um, you know, the Fuji’s [00:45:00] reunion, which they’ve canceled. Right? Like, you, you can’t buy tickets to any Lauryn Hill concert and expect to actually be able to go to that concert.

[00:45:07] Christina: Like, that’s not happening. Like, there’s a 95 percent chance, probably actually a 99 percent chance that Lauryn Hill will not show up. Like, that’s just how it works. And I

[00:45:16] Jeff: That sounds like the Oasis show a little

[00:45:17] Christina: And that I was going to say, Oasis to me, like, feels similar. It’s like, okay, you have to like buy these tickets, like with the assumption, like even with, you know, getting them from Scalpers or whatnot, which is like, you’re just going to have to go to London for a completely different, you know, go to the UK for a completely different purpose and be okay with it because there’s a very, very good chance that that these two brothers will just absolutely refuse to go on stage with one another.

[00:45:39] Jeff: Or that show might be five minutes long.

[00:45:41] Christina: Right. But well, that, that I think would be less likely. I think that like, if they’re going to actually get on there, like they even did the full, you know, Familiars to Millions, uh, show. That was that, that Wembley thing. Like they, you know, did the full show, both dates. Um, like it was bad and they had to do a lot of overdubbing, but like they did the full thing.

[00:45:58] Christina: Um, and [00:46:00] honestly, If you were there in the year 2000, you probably would have been pissed off, but in retrospect, you’d probably be like, fuck yeah, I got to witness that shit show like in person. Um, I’ve only

[00:46:09] Jeff: It’s super 90s. I don’t even know if that was in the

[00:46:12] Christina: It was, it was, it wasn’t it? It, it was, it was, it was in, um, 2000, which actually I saw that tour.

[00:46:19] Christina: Um, I saw them at Music Midtown in Atlanta, uh, I guess in like, may of 2000. And I was, I mean, I, I liked Oasis, like everybody liked Oasis. Um, you know, like definitely, at least like where I grew up,

[00:46:32] Jeff: Brett’s shaking his head. I was indifferent.

[00:46:35] Christina: well, well, I just mean like in my group of people, right? Like I was definitely like where I grew up, we were

[00:46:41] Jeff: Everybody liked Oasis, that’s a fair statement.

[00:46:43] Christina: you know what I mean?

[00:46:44] Christina: Like everybody, everybody had, you know, What’s the Story, Mori Glory. Like everyone had that album. Like the Blur vs. Oasis, like fan wars, at least in like the South, at least where I grew up, it was not even a competition. It was like Blur had one song and like everybody knew like

[00:46:58] Jeff: Pock life.[00:47:00]

[00:47:00] Christina: Yeah, and, and so, um, I mean, I liked Radiohead best out of all of them, but like, you know, I was definitely Team Oasis versus Team Blur.

[00:47:08] Christina: But the thing that shaped it for me, and like, the reason that, um, was I saw them perform, like I said, at Music Midtown, like they ended like night one, and I was kind of indifferent about even sticking around to see them. Like, I was there for like, the bands that I was really into at the time, like, terrible in comparison bands to be completely candid with you, like, like Collective Soul.

[00:47:27] Christina: And I’m like 16 years old. And, and, and I saw, and I saw Oasis do their live set. And it was to this day, like, here we are, like, almost 25 years later, like one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Like, and I don’t know, and I know that tour was hard for them, So I don’t even, I don’t know what their, you know, situation was with one another.

[00:47:52] Christina: And they were, you know, performing at like this festival in fucking Atlanta, like downtown Atlanta. And they like, or Midtown really, and like [00:48:00] killed it. Were so incredibly good that I was like, well, fuck, I guess I’m, I guess I’m an Oasis fan now, right? Like I had, I had, I had a

[00:48:09] Jeff: what’s happening to me. Yeah. That’s happening to me through YouTube now, except I still can’t listen to an album. I don’t know what the deal is, but I could watch that guy press his upper lip to that sure beta 58 all day long.

[00:48:22] Brett: So as a segue into, um, First, I want to give Christina a heads up that I did actually talk about yours last week, but you’re welcome to repeat it if, if you think you have new things to say.

[00:48:37] Christina: Oh, no. Okay. Well, if you talk about mine, then, then I will just once again, say Moom 4. Great. But that’s, uh, I’ll find another

[00:48:43] Brett: I preempted you, I’m sorry.

[00:48:45] Accidental Meth and Concert Expenses

[00:48:45] Brett: Um, but speaking of accidentally doing meth, um, I am realizing in real time that I accidentally did meth. took a double dose of Vyvanse today,

[00:48:56] Jeff: Oh, God, I’ve been

[00:48:58] Brett: me, which has me pretty [00:49:00] fucking edgy right now.

[00:49:01] Jeff: Yes,

[00:49:02] Brett: It’s not a good feeling. Like, I have, I have abused plenty of drugs in my life, but I am, I am way past

[00:49:10] Jeff: I’m sorry, Brett. I’ve done that, and it was not okay

[00:49:13] Brett: It’s not okay.

[00:49:14] Christina: yeah, I,

[00:49:15] Brett: cool.

[00:49:16] Christina: yeah, I’ve definitely, yeah, people don’t realize, yeah, the on, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt, go on.

[00:49:20] Brett: No, it’s okay. Uh, my, my other thing was like, Christina spends exorbitant amounts on getting to cool concerts and like, that’s, that’s important to her. And I want to admit that I spent a crazy amount of money upgrading my flights to Vegas to first class, um, because a three hour flight in, in, in what now passes for economy, where my knees touched the seat in front of me, um, just is so much hell to me that it’s worth a fuck.

[00:49:52] Brett: Fair sum of money to fly first class. So on my way home, I could not get the [00:50:00] upgrade for the three hour part of the trip. Um, and so I am going to spend three hours in economy and it’s going to be a shitty way to end the trip, but the, the rest of my flights, four, four other flights are all,

[00:50:15] Christina: So you’re not able, so you’re not able to do a direct, you can’t go Minneapolis to Vegas?

[00:50:20] Brett: No. Um, I go lacrosse to Chicago to Vegas, and then Vegas to La Chicago to lacrosse. And I, I have three hour overlays at O’Hare, uh, which isn’t so bad. Um, I have, I have day passes to like the American Airlines, what do they call it, Lin Embassy? No. Admirals. Admiral Lounge.

[00:50:46] Christina: Lounge. Yeah.

[00:50:47] Jeff: Like, we’ve talked about lounges. Changed my life.

[00:50:49] Christina: Oh, yeah. No, this is the greatest thing ever. Like, I have to like the Platinum American Express card, like specifically for that reason. Um, if you can find like places to have Centurion lounges, that’s great. But [00:51:00] even just like priority pass stuff,

[00:51:02] Brett: what lounges?

[00:51:03] Christina: the, uh, the, the American Express Centurion lounges, they’re not at every airport, but the ones they are at, they’re incredibly

[00:51:10] Jeff: You know what else the metal American Express cards are great for? This is more for Brett and me, probably, is ice scraping your window. I keep an expired one

[00:51:19] Christina: Oh yeah. No, that I’ve heard. I’ve heard that from people. Yeah. That is definitely like a thing. Like we do not have that in, in, um,

[00:51:25] Jeff: You don’t

[00:51:25] Christina: state.

[00:51:26] Jeff: need to take advantage of that.

[00:51:27] Christina: Not at all, but I have actually seen people like on like the Amex like subreddit like do that sort of thing with the metal cards, which is funny. Yeah.

[00:51:36] Jeff: love it.

[00:51:37] Brett: All right, um, I’ll kick off the Grapptitude because this one has been a long time coming.

[00:51:44] Switching to VS Code: A Developer’s Journey

[00:51:44] Brett: Um, I, as of, as of this week, have made the switch from Sublime Text to VS Code.

[00:51:52] Christina: fuck. Fuck yes, finally.

[00:51:54] Brett: VS Code is so much better than I thought it was.

[00:51:58] Christina: it is.

[00:51:59] Brett: [00:52:00] Especially with Copilot. Copilot fucking blows me away. Like, I type the first two letters of, like, a comment for a function, and it, like, knows exactly, and it, it does everything.

[00:52:14] Brett: It’s, and it’s almost always right. Like, I’m like, I’m working on some sass for a redesign of my website and I type a dollar sign and it knows what variable I want to fill in. Uh, I, I put in like a font face definition and then I move down a line and type in that symbol and it just figures out what font files are in my folder and creates all the font face definitions for all of them.

[00:52:42] Brett: I can turn a Ruby comment. I can just write a comment about what I want a function to do. And it’ll write a perfect, and, and not just a function based on an LLM, it’s a function based on all of the other files in my project. Um, and it can reference [00:53:00] variables and methods from other files and it’s just shit Sublime will never do.

[00:53:05] Brett: Um, and it is, and it’s taken a little bit of getting used to with, uh, setting up key combinations and everything. Um, and there’s some frustration around keyboard shortcuts. Uh, especially when they overlap and, uh, but I’m figuring it out and the configuration is pretty easy compared to Sublime, like the, like the graphical interface for, because you can view your, your config as JSON or as, An interface and, and sometimes you have to open up JSON to add custom features and whatnot.

[00:53:43] Brett: But all that said, um, it is a really solid editor and I am really enjoying it.

[00:53:51] Christina: I’m so glad to hear that you finally like moved because I know because it’s one of those things like it’s hard to make the move like I, um, I did it because I, I, I worked at Microsoft at the time and, [00:54:00] and, um, know and still know frankly a lot of people who work on that team and, and I know a lot of people who work on the Copilot extension so I’m very glad to hear your feedback on that.

[00:54:07] Christina: If you have other feedback, positive or negative, please let me know and I can get that to the right folks.

[00:54:13] Brett: zero negative feedback. I am just constantly blown away by how good it is a

[00:54:17] Christina: No, they do such a good job, and, and, and really, like, keep making that so much better, um, with so many constraints, and, um, extensions, which are in, um, uh, preview right now, but will be coming later, um, although, well, there are two types of extensions, but there are co pilot extensions, um, that can exist in VS Code, so that certain, you know, you can use the, um, the agents feature to basically ask an extension in chat, um, Various things that powered by Copilot.

[00:54:43] Christina: I don’t know if you’ve played around with that or not, like some of the built in ones are like at Workspace and at Terminal and at VS Code, but other extensions can add those things too, which is really cool because then in your chat interface, you can just ask specific things about a certain extension, um, or service, um, as the case may be, which is [00:55:00] really fucking useful.

[00:55:01] Christina: But like, no, I know how hard it is to go from like, you know, one editor to another, even if you know there are a lot of advantages around. And even if you know, like. You know, in my case, it was Textmate, and it was like, this is never getting updated again, like, this is, this is dead in the water. But it’s hard to, like, move editors.

[00:55:16] Christina: And, uh, but, but, I, I’m, I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying VS Code. Um, if you come up with, like, uh, I would be interested to see at some point, like, your, your, um, keybindings and, and settings files. That’s one of the things they’ve improved a lot over the last few years. Like, at first, you used to have to only, you could only edit settings in the, And then they started adding the graphical interface, and most things are there, but not everything is.

[00:55:41] Christina: Um,

[00:55:42] Jeff: to keep his key bindings to himself.

[00:55:45] Christina: well, I would just like

[00:55:46] Jeff: I take that back. I take that back. He wrote War and Peace, but it was key bindings.

[00:55:50] Christina: Right, exactly,

[00:55:51] Jeff: ahead, Christina.

[00:55:52] Christina: No, no, I was going to say that one of the things that, and this is improved over the years, but I remember when they introduced this, I don’t know, probably four years ago, maybe longer than that at this point, [00:56:00] but the, the concept of having like profiles that you can sync and different types of profiles and, and like pre kind of defined environment setups, I love.

[00:56:09] Christina: Because I can have, I have like a, I have one that I have just for writing, but I also have one that is basically like for demos or for workshops or whatnot that won’t have any of my pre configured stuff that’s, you know, basically kind of as close to like an out of the box experience as possible. Um,

[00:56:24] Brett: set up a profile just for like testing extensions because my first time I tried VS code, I just installed like everything that looked

[00:56:34] Jeff: Classic. Yeah,

[00:56:35] Brett: pretty soon I

[00:56:36] Christina: And it’s like a web

[00:56:36] Brett: what was doing what and it was a huge mess. So now I have a profile just for fucking around with

[00:56:43] Christina: Exactly.

[00:56:44] Jeff: the, it’s like the raiding the store in Red Dawn. Uh, it’s just like, I’ll take a sleeping bag. I’ll take six arrows. I’ll take that bullet.

[00:56:51] Brett: The only complaint I’ve run into is the Markdown, uh, packages that are available are not up to snuff for me.

[00:56:59] Jeff: [00:57:00] Well,

[00:57:00] Christina: Yeah. I have, I, I have some, I have some issues with that too. And so,

[00:57:03] Brett: to, I want to port Markdown editing, which is a package I built for Sublime and then it switched to another maintainer who continued to extend it. And it’s all in Python and I’ve never written an extension for VS code, but I am interested in porting Markdown.

[00:57:21] Brett: Cause it’s pretty, it’s pretty basic text editing stuff that just makes markdown life easier.

[00:57:27] Jeff: this so much,

[00:57:28] Christina: I would too. I would too. Cause,

[00:57:29] Brett: magic links and magic footnotes I miss,

[00:57:32] Christina: yeah, like that I would love. Cause like, cause that’s the thing, like there’s like the Markdown all in one package. There’s some other things like some, some, um, people have even put together some like collections of, um, uh, You know, extensions that you could not install altogether.

[00:57:45] Christina: Like some of the GitHub documentation, people have done that. And some of that’s good. But yeah, I run into some things there too. So selfishly, this excites me that you are interested. Because if you’re able to work on porting, I’m sure we can find people to help with that and whatnot. [00:58:00] But, um, also writing extensions for VS Code is pretty, um, Straightforward.

[00:58:05] Christina: And they, you know, um, borrowed a lot of things from Sublime and TextMate in the early days, which have still kind of continued onward. So,

[00:58:14] Brett: there’s a Yeoman generator for making extensions and it is, it’s, it’s, that’s something that Sublime has never had and like something to like, uh, scaffold out a plugin. That’s pretty cool.

[00:58:30] Christina: Yeah. They did that early on. I think that’s one of the reasons to be candid, like why, like it took off the way that it did was that they really put a lot into, from the very beginning, mean like, okay, we know this is only going to work if the extension community shows

[00:58:43] Brett: Right. Well, yeah, and we’ve talked before about how vital, um, Uh, a community is to an app, um, and if you want an app to reach any level of general acceptance, at least in the nerd world, [00:59:00] like you need to some extent extensibility, but more importantly, you need a community. And that’s something like Obsidian has done really well.

[00:59:09] Christina: done so well.

[00:59:10] Brett: Code, TextMate did, like TextMate was to me, the gold standard for like. Building out a community and showing what, what an app could do

[00:59:21] Christina: Yeah.

[00:59:21] Brett: had a community.

[00:59:23] Christina: And that was really impressive because that was really before GitHub, like obviously GitHub happened when TextMate was still, you know, popular, but like the early stuff didn’t even have GitHub yet, right? Like people were, you know, sourcing, were hosting things other ways and like people built, you know, kind of like ways to view extensions, if I recall correctly, there were like Plugins that you could install so you could view other extensions from other places, right?

[00:59:45] Christina: Like, you know, kind of bringing it into their own app stores and whatnot, and like that, I think kind of set like the tone where you’re like, okay, if anybody else is going to, this is table stakes now, right? And I think Sublime did an okay job at first, and then I really just think that they just dropped [01:00:00] the ball.

[01:00:00] Christina: Um, that’s one of the reasons why I

[01:00:02] Brett: it’s just seemed kind of stagnant for a while

[01:00:04] Christina: It has, right?

[01:00:05] Brett: the, the package control ecosystem that was built for Sublime, um, was, it was great. Like for finding extensions, for sharing extensions, like it was great, but I just, Like I have an RSS feed from package control and mostly what’s coming through now is just new themes.

[01:00:26] Brett: And honestly, there only need to be so many text editor themes. I mean, you’re basically working essentially with 16 colors. I mean, you can make a

[01:00:37] Christina: There are only so many

[01:00:38] Brett: color scheme. Yeah. Like you’ve got, you’ve got your, your Solarize combinations. You got your base 16 combinations and you got like, um, Uh, like the monokai variations.

[01:00:51] Brett: And after that, like, what are you even doing?

[01:00:55] Christina: No, it’s true. It’s true. What’s actually really funny is that still to this day, like the, the [01:01:00] GitHub repo that I have that has like the most like stars and other things from it is a, a, a TextMate theme repo. Um, that’s like, that I created like in like

[01:01:10] Brett: Oh, and Twilight from text me. You need

[01:01:12] Christina: You need Twilight. Yeah. And so, and people still download this and stuff.

[01:01:16] Christina: And it’s like, you know, close to 15 years old, um, that,

[01:01:19] Brett: cause TM theme, TM theme files work on every

[01:01:23] Christina: Well, I was gonna say, that’s the thing. It became the, like, just kind of generic, uh, format, which is fantastic. Um, and people have made better ones since then, but it was funny. I created, like, this repo. I think I did it for a Mashable article, and I’d had a GitHub account, but I hadn’t done anything with it.

[01:01:39] Christina: And I was like, well, I just need a way to distribute and show off these themes. And I even, like, people have asked me over the years, they’re like, can you put licensing in this? I’m like, sure can’t, because I don’t know where a lot of this stuff came from. Because I just found things from various servers and other things, like many of them, it’s funny, it’s like added from slash user slash Christina slash textmate dash themes, right?

[01:01:57] Christina: Like a lot of these things were like, [01:02:00] you know,

[01:02:00] Brett: and none of these are mine, so I can’t license

[01:02:03] Christina: I can’t license them for you, right? I was like, I was like, I can, I can do all kinds of other, you know, I can, if there’s anything in the readme file on that thing, you know, that points to a person, I can give them credit. But like, I was very explicit. I was like, a collection of textmate themes I’ve gathered over the years, and people were like, what’s the license?

[01:02:19] Christina: So I’m like. Good luck, right? Like this is, this is just kind of a, uh, you know, share and, and, and do go with God sort of thing, but don’t use this. I’m not telling anybody to use this commercially because I think some people, it’s funny, people have created like, um, TM theme, like editors and many of them, they pull in frankly from this repo, you know, it’s kind of like the kind of default themes to play with and modify.

[01:02:42] Christina: And so for something like that, I could understand. We were like, Oh, it would be good to have a license around this. And I’m like, yeah, I’m, I’m definitely not. Good luck. I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but I wouldn’t use this commercially. Yes.

[01:02:55] Brett: note, I, a while back, I decided to start using light [01:03:00] themes in my text editor, and I’m still dark theme and terminal. Um, but I almost can’t edit code. Have you ever tried switching from light to dark themes? Like, it, whatever you’re used to at the time, it’s really hard to see it anymore. Inverted.

[01:03:16] Brett: Um, so for a long time, every time I looked at a light theme, it just looked wrong, um, and I decided for the sake of my eyes to force myself to make the switch, and I made my own light theme called Lucky Charms that I installed in, like, uh, in Vim and in, uh, Sublime and now in VS Code. And I’ve actually gotten bored with it.

[01:03:42] Brett: And the snazzy light

[01:03:44] Christina: Snazzy Lite is really

[01:03:45] Brett: that comes with VS code is, is what I’m using right now. Um, but like, it’s weird to me that people default to editing in dark mode. Um, I find that so [01:04:00] strenuous on my eyes. Um, and if I’m looking at pages and pages of code, I absolutely, I’m a light theme guy now.

[01:04:08] Christina: Yeah, I go back and forth. Sometimes I am lite. I’ve been, um, kind of probably a variant of a dark theme for most of my, you know, time in text editors, but I sometimes will use the lite. I will say the one time I always use the lite and snazzy lite is good. The github lite is another good one. Um, is, uh, when I’m presenting because, um, dark themes, um, when you’re using any sort of like, like projector, uh, system, you know, or, or whatnot, like to, to large audiences, oftentimes the, the, the bulbs and those things aren’t, uh, like frankly bright enough to really illuminate dark, um, uh, backgrounds.

[01:04:44] Christina: And people don’t think about that when they give presentations, but if you, especially if you’re like in a big crowd, depending on, you know, just like quality of the screen that you’re on and, and, and all kinds of other things, like it can be really hard to see the text on screen. And so, um, I, that was like, uh, feedback that was given to [01:05:00] me, like, Years and years ago, uh, when I first started doing, um, conference talks and they’re like, no, use like, it was almost like a rule.

[01:05:07] Christina: Like we use, you know, light themed for, you know, uh, text in, in our presentations. And I was like, okay, with that, I like how dark looks better. And then you realize, oh, okay. But inside a room, especially with various lighting things and whatnot, actually light is a lot better for that. And so, um, that’s made me more open to, Just depends, right?

[01:05:29] Christina: Like, my eyes don’t bother me using dark things for the most part, but sometimes, sometimes it can. But I do draw the line, like, again, unless I’m in a presentation and then I might switch it. I can’t use a light editor for a terminal. I just can’t. Like, it, it, it, like, it feels

[01:05:44] Brett: weird. It’s weird how different that is. Um, and I don’t know what the distinction is, but I’ve tried light themes in Terminal,

[01:05:51] Jeff: we’ve been looking at dark terminals since Wargames.

[01:05:54] Brett: maybe

[01:05:55] Christina: I will say this though, like, especially depending on, like, what machine I’m on. So, like, [01:06:00] when I’m on my, um, like, iMac or, like, my 27 inch, um, uh, studio display, like, My terminal, um, text size is a lot larger than the text size is on my text editor. And I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, right?

[01:06:14] Christina: Like,

[01:06:15] Brett: I use, I use uncommonly large text sizes too. And it’s not just for my eyes. My brain just works better. Maybe seeing less on the screen at once, uh, which is the side effect of using a larger font,

[01:06:30] Christina: yeah, no, I

[01:06:30] Brett: like 14, I use like 14 point fonts in Terminal.

[01:06:34] Christina: Yeah, I use, I use 16, um, for, uh, for terminal and I probably use like, you know, 12, um, on, um,

[01:06:41] Brett: I do the inverse. I use 16 in my text editor and 14, 12 in, er, 14 in Terminal, I guess. Yeah. Anyway, uh, so that’s my pick for the week. I just used up like 20 minutes.

[01:06:54] Christina: No, that’s great, though. VS Code. And, um, do you have any plans, like, as you start to play around with it [01:07:00] more, do you think you might, you know, dip into wanting to either share, like, your config files or extensions or anything like that?

[01:07:06] Brett: Oh, absolutely. I, I, I intend to get into writing extensions. Um, yeah, I, my last couple, uh, forays, I wrote an Obsidian extension and tried to get it submitted to the repo. And it was a pretty basic extension. And they, I did, I made all the changes they requested on the PR And then they let it die and they kept sending me emails.

[01:07:33] Brett: If this doesn’t get, uh, if, if this, if there’s no activity on this PR for the next 30 days, we’re going to close it out. And I, I kept bumping it. I’m like, it’s done. Could you, you know, merge the PR and they just, they never responded and it died. Um, so I’m hoping if I get into developing extensions for

[01:07:57] Christina: VSCode is not that way. It will. It will. I [01:08:00] mean, at that point, like, I think it is literally just something like to get listed like in the marketplace is a very simple thing. Like, I don’t even know what the approval process is. Extensively, there’s one, but I don’t think it’s super strict. Um, and, uh, and you know, you can just, there’s a way to do it directly from, from GitHub.

[01:08:19] Christina: Um, because on those pages, they go to like, you know, usually the source link is a GitHub link. And so yeah, it’s, it’s a relatively easy process. And that also makes it easy to push out updates and stuff too, because then the release notes, like anything in your readme from your GitHub, like kind of shows up, um, as, as the release notes or other things in the extensions.

[01:08:37] Christina: So yeah.

[01:08:40] Jeff: Awesome. I got one.

[01:08:43] Christina: Yeah.

[01:08:43] Brett: for it.

[01:08:44] Jeff: All right, here’s the scenario. Every day I, I open up Firefox, I use containers, uh, and because I, for many reasons, but I have to open up four different Google accounts for work, like my personal account, my personal work account, our admin account, and [01:09:00] then another, just account related to the business.

[01:09:03] Jeff: And, um, and every day I, I, I mean, not every day, I can, they can save, but I actually don’t like seeing these tabs when I’m not working. So I tend to even if, you know, like I pin them and then I kill them. But, uh, Basically, like, every day I, like, open up, I have a keyboard shortcut, open up my container for personal, open up my container for work, for admin, and then I open up two of those windows and I hit drive in one and gmail in the other so that, like, by the time I’m done, I’ve got drive for each of those accounts open, I’ve got gmail open, and, and it’s so fucking tedious and it seems crazy that I can’t automate that better.

[01:09:33] Automation Tools: Keysmith and Default Folder X

[01:09:33] Jeff: Um, But I, I was on setup. Sometimes I go on setup and I browse, which isn’t always a great experience because there are just some stinkers on there and some stuff that just hasn’t been updated in a while and it’s not, you can tell when you, you can go and look, but it’s not immediately obvious. Um, and, uh, so anyway, I, I stumbled into this thing called keysmith, which is just, it just records macros of what you’re doing on your screen.

[01:09:56] Jeff: It’s similar to something keyboard. Maestro can do, except that [01:10:00] going into keyboard maestro is like going into an art museum where everything’s eight and a half by 11 and all frames are touching. Um, and, and it was beautiful. So I just like, I instantly opened up this app and I had it record doing this thing where I opened these different containers, enter Gmail, enter drive.

[01:10:17] Jeff: It did it beautifully, added a keyboard shortcut. It was, it took me about, I Three minutes. I had to do just a little bit. You can go in and correct your macros like anything else that has a macro. Took him about three minutes. So elegant. So great. Uh, and, and I love it. And, and the app is like, um, and it can do a lot more than that, but that’s how I’m using it.

[01:10:36] Jeff: It, the app was like a COVID baby, uh, came out in like August, 2020. It’s kind of adorable. It’s by two friends. They’re both named Daniel and they’ve been friends since kindergarten. Um, and it hasn’t had like a serious update since like maybe 2021, but they, they keep it like lightly updated. You know, when there’s a new OS, there’s a new version.

[01:10:55] Jeff: Um, and there’s, you know, occasional bug fixes. Like they seem to be paying attention to it. Uh, [01:11:00] and it hasn’t been buggy for me at all. And I love it. It’s like, uh, it’s if you get it on setup, you just get it on setup. If you purchase it, you can do like a free license where you get like up to five macros or you can, um, you can purchase like a single license for 54 bucks.

[01:11:14] Jeff: It actually looks like it’s just a permanent, like a forever license. Um, anyway, I was like so delighted to find this cause there are various things I do over the course of the day, various admin things with just like a lot of times with just shitty apps that. You know, you should not have to click this much and they’re not easy to automate.

[01:11:30] Jeff: You could do it in Keyboard Maestro, but again, I love Keyboard Maestro. God, I sound like Trump. I love Keyboard Maestro, um, but uh, but

[01:11:39] Brett: A lot of people are saying

[01:11:41] Christina: lot of people are saying, a lot of people are saying it’s too much.

[01:11:44] Jeff: lot, a lot of people are saying, um, yeah. That’s my first attempt at a Trump impression. Not, not great. Uh, that’s right. I did the hands. You can’t see it, but I did the hands. Okay. Like the accordion. Um, anyway, so

[01:11:55] Brett: the, the Obama speech at the DNC.[01:12:00]

[01:12:00] Jeff: So anyway, that was, uh, that, that’s mine and I’m, I’m so excited about it and I only discovered it yesterday.

[01:12:06] Jeff: And so I’m going to play a bunch.

[01:12:08] Brett: Yeah, I’ve actually played with that before. Um, it felt like adding one more thing to an already crowded automation setup for me. Um, but it was, it was. Uh, I think I, I think I passed on it because it was, um, simpler, um, conceptually than Keyboard Maestro and it felt redundant. Um, not that I was doing a lot of macro recording in Keyboard Maestro.

[01:12:36] Brett: It just felt like if I was going to get into that, I already own Keyboard Maestro. And, but no,

[01:12:43] Jeff: My,

[01:12:44] Brett: that review is, is tempting.

[01:12:47] Jeff: my, my issue with going into keyboard maestro, and this is not a problem. This is actually the, the great thing about keyboard maestro, but like, I totally go into Terpstra mode where it’s like, well, I could do this, but I could also do this. And if I’m doing this, I [01:13:00] could also do this.

[01:13:00] Jeff: And then I’m pretty soon. It’s like, well, fuck, uh, I, I had a deadline an hour ago. Um, and, and so with this one, it’s, I always need like, I need the like automation app, like Keyboard Meister, where you could just like go in and you could go deep. And then I need the thing that’s like, I’m panicking. I can’t think straight.

[01:13:18] Jeff: I’m having a nervous reaction to having to do this thing over and over. I need to fix it quick. And this is the, is a great little thing in the toolbox for that.

[01:13:25] Brett: Did you ever see my Markdown document linker for Keyboard Maestro? That was the result of going into Keyboard My Shoe and just realizing I could do something, and

[01:13:36] Christina: Yeah. I remember

[01:13:37] Brett: two hours doing something. Like,

[01:13:39] Jeff: Yeah, yeah,

[01:13:40] Brett: give it, you give it like a root directory for like a Jekyll site, for example. Um, and as you’re writing, you can just type lnk.

[01:13:50] Brett: And it’ll pop up like a Quicksilver style menu of all of the documents in your markdown directory. And you can use [01:14:00] fuzzy search to find one and it’ll insert like a liquid format or markdown format link to that document for like intro document linking.

[01:14:09] Jeff: You know what? You know what just occurred to me? I bet you, I bet you sound like that when you talk in your sleep, what you just did. Parklife.

[01:14:19] Brett: I laugh in my sleep. I sing in my sleep. Um, Elle finds it very endearing because They don’t have to share a bed with me,

[01:14:28] Christina: Okay.

[01:14:28] Brett: separate bedrooms. So just occasionally she’ll hear like singing coming and laughing. I’ll wake myself up laughing regularly. But anyway, Christina, would you, uh, would you land on

[01:14:44] Christina: Okay. So since Brett mentioned Moom last week, and I’m sorry that I missed that one, but uh, uh, I will just co sign that. Um, and, uh, I, I upgraded, um, that, um, recently and I was super excited about it. I’d missed the announcement and I, I saw it, I think maybe like the [01:15:00] day before, but, uh, I had the upgrade price like change, but that was fine with me.

[01:15:03] Christina: I’m still happy to upgrade. It’s a really good app. Um, speaking of kind of apps where there are some things that, um, you could do with other apps, including, um, things like LaunchBar or Alfred or whatnot. But, um, there are other things that I think are just really unique to this. Uh, we’ve talked about this one before, but a new 6.

[01:15:21] Christina: 1 version, uh, just came out and adding Sequoia compatibility. Uh, and this is a default folder X. This is also available. on, um, uh, Setapp. Although I’ve also, this is one of those ones that I’ve like purchased, like a direct license. And then I use the Setapp version because, Brett, you’ve said, you’ve indicated before that, that like it, it helps out the developer more.

[01:15:42] Christina: Um, if you use the Setapp version, um, frequently, then they’ll get a higher payment. But it was also one of these apps that is important enough to me that I’ve gotten enough value out of over the years that I was like, I’m going to buy it. Um, And use it as part of my subscription. To be clear, I don’t think, I’m not saying that that’s something that everybody needs to do.

[01:15:58] Christina: Like, that’s a, [01:16:00] you know, Christina quirk. But default Flutter access is one of my favorite apps. If you’ve never used it, it kind of takes over the, you know, save as, I guess, screen on your Mac. And yeah, the dialogue, thank you. And adds in additional Chrome where you can Access more features like, you know, a specific set of folders or, or, um, favorite folders, or you can automatically say, you know, for this type of recent, yeah, for this, for this type of, you know, file in this application, I always want it to go here, regardless of what the most recent thing was, like this is where I always want it to open.

[01:16:39] Christina: Um, I also have like, um, uh, keyboard, short, uh, uh, uh, uh, key bindings, um, within Finder where I can hit a certain combination and it’ll take me. immediately to a certain folder. And I know I could do that in any number of apps, but I use it with default folder X because I have some folders that are just always a favor that I always want easy access to.

[01:16:59] Christina: And [01:17:00] they’ve, um, they’ve also just released a kind of a new feature to be able to do, um, I guess like a quick, uh, quick access, um, to, to files like across apps, something you could do in Alfredo launch bar, or if you want to access, you know, certain, uh, URLs or certain, um, um, Other, uh, stuff you can do that from kind of a quick link, um, uh, key binding shortcut.

[01:17:25] Brett: Oh, cause they have, there’s like a quick search where it pops up like a, um, like a launch bar style window. And I’ve never used that.

[01:17:34] Christina: I’ve used it a little bit and they just, they added some, some new things with that. Like, so, um, you can, um, now I guess one of the new things is that QuickSearch can be used to open, like, web URLs that are saved in your favorites. So that is kind of interesting. Yeah. Like, if you have another solution for that, like, I’m not saying that, that you necessarily need to use, uh, default folder Xs, um, in, in it.

[01:17:57] Christina: in replacement of that, but there are some things that you can do that [01:18:00] are cool. And if you don’t have an app kind of set to do those things, I think it’s a, it’s a, it’s a nice little variant. But just, just for me, like, this is just a, um, the, the version six came out. I’m not sure when, um, it was either, uh, earlier this year, sometime last year, but it’s good.

[01:18:15] Christina: But 6. 1 is going, you know, came out with Sequoia support and some other things. And I don’t know, um, it’s a really, really good app, really, really good developer. And so, uh, big

[01:18:26] Brett: I’ve, uh, I’ve said this before, but, and I use default folder all the time. But my favorite feature is when you’re in an open or save dialogue and you open up the parent folder,

[01:18:41] Christina: Mm hmm.

[01:18:42] Brett: it adds arrows. And you can jump quickly to subfolders and parent folders, um, just from one simple tree and you don’t have to navigate folder to folder.

[01:18:54] Brett: You can just jump around and you can jump up to parent directories and into a subdirectory [01:19:00] of a parent directory all without, with just one click and, you know, some hovering, but, um, I, I absolutely adore that feature. Can I tell you how I actually navigate directories now?

[01:19:14] Christina: Yes, please.

[01:19:15] Brett: So. In my terminal, I use a variation of something that used to be called bashmarks.

[01:19:22] Brett: Um, and the way that mine functions is I have a folder called dotmarks and it creates symlinks. to anything that I bookmark. So all of my frequently used folders bookmarks and I can type because I’ve, I’ve written my own cd command. But I type cd and then any part of a bookmark name hit tab and it jumps to that folder.

[01:19:47] Brett: And then I have an alias cdf that opens the current terminal folder in Finder. So when I want to navigate into like the image directory for my blog, I type [01:20:00] cd Oh, which is for some reason, the shortcut for my blog, CDO. And then I just type images and it will find that subdirectory of the parent bookmark, and then I just type CDF and I’m, and I have it in fine.

[01:20:14] Jeff: Nice.

[01:20:15] Christina: That’s awesome.

[01:20:16] Brett: I it’s so like, it’s so easy to add new bookmarks and to navigate subdirectories of those bookmarks using my fuzzy CD command that really there’s Default folder X even. It’s just, it’s so easy

[01:20:33] Jeff: Hey, do you use the, do you ever use the terminal in VS Code? Now that you’re using

[01:20:37] Brett: I do. Yeah, I have.

[01:20:38] Jeff: really like that.

[01:20:39] Brett: I also enjoy the SSH remote config. Um, and I can, I can load up an Oracle cloud. Uh, I can load up a GitHub repository connected to an Oracle cloud instance, all in one term, VS code window and edit files remotely in a cloud [01:21:00] machine. And execute cloud platform, um, apps like spin up Pulumi and everything inside of a VS code window.

[01:21:11] Brett: And it’s so integrated. It’s super nice.

[01:21:16] Jeff: Awesome.

[01:21:18] Brett: All right.

[01:21:19] Concluding Thoughts and Personal Updates

[01:21:19] Brett: We did it. I have to go pick up Elle. So we should wrap up.

[01:21:26] Jeff: All right.

[01:21:26] Brett: We’re like an hour and 20 in.

[01:21:28] Christina: Hey, look, it’s been a while since we’ve all been together, so

[01:21:32] Brett: alright, well, we all seem to be sleeping okay at least as of last night, um, but I think we could all use

[01:21:40] Christina: we could use more for sure. And, and, and I hope you figure out, uh, things, uh, Brett, whether you’re going manic or not. I know we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about that, but it’s because it’s been a while since you’ve had a manic episode, hasn’t it?

[01:21:51] Brett: Um, it’s, this might be a topic for next

[01:21:55] Christina: Yeah, we, we, yeah,

[01:21:56] Brett: like, I think I think my definition of manic [01:22:00] episode might be changing.

[01:22:01] Jeff: Ah, super

[01:22:03] Brett: no longer like five days with no sleep. Now it’s like three months with like less sleep and, and like less obsession, but still like from my normal elevated mood, I guess. But anyway, well,

[01:22:20] Jeff: like, it sounds like the common thread is, I bet that it’s evident in your GitHub action.

[01:22:24] Christina: Yeah.

[01:22:26] Jeff: yeah, if we, we can go, we can go track that. Um, all right. Get some sleep.

[01:22:32] Christina: Get some sleep.