SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
So, John, we are recording this on a Tuesday.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:29]
This is Tuesday the fourth. This will come out on the sixth, but,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:34]
normally,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:35]
on Tuesday,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:36]
02/06/2020,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:39]
we would know who won the Iowa caucus,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:43]
which you live in Iowa, so I have so many questions.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:46]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:47]
at this point, we don't we don't know who won the Iowa caucus, do we? We have we have some precincts reporting. Is it still at 60 some percent?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:57]
I can look it up right now thanks to the internet.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:59]
The last time that I checked, it was at 62%
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:02]
in the county. 2%.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:04]
Yeah. So So we don't know currently. Tuesday
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:08]
the fourth at
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:10]
08:00 central time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:11]
Yeah. So Tuesday 06:00, Tuesday the fourth. But yeah. You're right. So so first question, did you caucus?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:17]
No. I did not. Okay. Alright. Fair enough. If I were to caucus, I might caucus on Saturday with the group that caucuses on Saturday in Iowa.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:27]
I wonder if their their
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:29]
votes get counted.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:32]
No. Because it's not until Saturday.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:35]
Oh, this coming Saturday. This coming Saturday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:38]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:39]
Republicans and Democrats,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:42]
caucused
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:43]
on Monday evening, Monday the third.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:47]
The Republican caucus went fine, of course. Apparently, there were two candidates
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:52]
going up against, Donald Trump. One of them even got one delegate.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:56]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:57]
Wow.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:59]
But
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:00]
that's not the one that's been in the news. It's the Democratic caucus,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:04]
has, like, I don't know how many candidates are here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:08]
15, maybe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:09]
No. It's not that many. But it but it is One, three, four, five. It's a lot. Seven, eight, Here's the thing. I don't I don't actually wanna Oh, well. I don't wanna actually talk about politics.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:18]
What what cracks me up
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:21]
about this whole thing right? So the gist is, normally,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:25]
Monday night after the caucuses
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:27]
caucus,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:28]
you have some idea of who the primary winner is for Iowa, and Iowa's the first primary
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:35]
in the general election for the presidency.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:37]
However Do know why?
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:40]
It's Do you know why it's the first?
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:41]
I because that's that's Iowa's but this is what Iowa does. This is what Iowa does. This is actually in state law,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:49]
when the caucus will be held,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:51]
but it's only been that way
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:54]
for
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:55]
it's been it it hasn't been as long as people would make you believe.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:59]
Okay. It's like seventies maybe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:01]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:03]
So the the bottom line
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:06]
is that nobody had the right nobody had numbers, and they all blamed it on some app
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:12]
and Right. Some poor lowly app developer who made that app.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:17]
Correct.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:19]
And and my heart my heart breaks for whoever that poor soul is. I'm
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:23]
pretty sure it was was outsourced to a different country
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:27]
at, like, a crazy low hourly rate.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:31]
I I saw something on a national review indicating that it was the same company that Hillary used for her tech
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:37]
Yeah. During her campaign. I don't know if that was true. It's so hard to believe, you know, the Internet.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:43]
But suffice to say, some poor app developer
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:46]
is taking a lot of flack for
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:49]
basically making the Iowa caucus even more relevant than it is.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:53]
Yeah. So Iowa goes first because Iowa says it's gonna go first. Iowa is not a good representative of The United States at large.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:00]
No. No. That
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:02]
much is for certain. And Iowa gets, I think, 41 delegates to send to the conventions,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:09]
which is, like, 1%
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:12]
of all the delegates there. So everybody,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:15]
including presidential candidates,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:17]
put a whole lot of emphasis on Iowa.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:20]
I've had people, presidential candidates, stopping in the neighborhood I work in. We've had people knocking on doors and stuff like that. Lots of boots on the ground in Iowa. It drives me nuts.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:33]
And for what?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:35]
Because Iowa says they're gonna go first. So, John, you could move to Indianapolis where nobody really cares about our voters. Do you have your primary on Super Tuesday?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:43]
I I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:46]
I don't I don't think we're a Super Tuesday state.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:50]
Do you know what a caucus is?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:53]
I don't know that I could
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:55]
no. I don't think I could articulate it. I So like most people have primary elections. Right? Right. You cast a ballot. You guys have to get together and talk about it. Same as all other all other elections. Like, you go cast a ballot in your private little booth,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:09]
you're good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:11]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:12]
you get together with all the people of the party in Iowa,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:16]
in your neighborhood mostly.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:19]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:20]
and you go hang out in a school classroom or a school gym,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:23]
and the Republicans and Democrats do it two different ways.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:27]
So the Democrats,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:29]
it's a very it's a very public vote. You can stand up, and you can,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:34]
speak on behalf of your candidate,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:36]
and then they actually move into different groups about who they're supporting until
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:42]
they come up with
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:44]
somebody who's there or people stop moving.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:47]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:50]
This is a very involved process.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:52]
Yes. It is. So this lasted the people who caucused last night, some of them spent three and a half hours caucusing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:59]
I I wonder if any I'm sure somebody knows how many people actually show up to caucus because it can't be a big percentage of Iowa residents. There's just no way. Right. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:11]
all I know is that
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:13]
four years ago
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:15]
versus yesterday,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:17]
the
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:18]
Democrats at least were saying that they saw
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:21]
two to 300 more people there than they did four years ago.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:25]
Wait.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:26]
At at your specific caucus location or Specific caucus location. I thought you could say 200 people more across the state. Across the state.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:34]
Hey, you know, that's 30 of the state. There you go. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:38]
I find this whole thing amusing but mostly just because they're blaming it on an app developer. Welcome to the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:45]
the twenty first century. So I went
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:48]
four years ago and caucused
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:51]
with the Republicans. I registered that as the Republicans so that I could caucus for somebody who I would not caucus for now because lots has changed in the last four years.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:00]
But Three three. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:02]
Three years. But
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:04]
it's weird because presidential candidates can come and speak for themselves
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:09]
too. So I was in the same building as Ted Cruz,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:13]
and somebody else was there too.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:16]
And they actually came and spoke from themselves, not at my closet kids specifically,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:21]
but for some of the bigger Cedar Rapids ones.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:24]
It's a very weird, weird process. Interesting
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:28]
times, John. Interesting times. So let's talk about something
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:31]
maybe as equally as depressing as
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:35]
politics,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:36]
the second episode of Picard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:38]
Ouch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:40]
No. No. I think it was that bad. Yeah. It wasn't that bad. You have to watch it again. Did you watch it a second time? No, I didn't. So it's it's weird. But the first episode, I couldn't help myself
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:50]
watching The
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:52]
second episode, I've been trying to find the motivation and just have not. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:56]
It wasn't awful, but No. I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:00]
don't know. The whole thing with the Commodore and Rizzo was a little I don't if the word I'm
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:06]
looking for is tropey or it's just
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:09]
unnecessary.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:10]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:11]
Yeah. I mean,
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:14]
I don't know. There were lots of little weird things.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:17]
It was it was to me, it was not edited as cleanly as the first one. The it was clear to me that they probably had more
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:25]
than they could fit into that episode, and so the script
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:28]
got hacked pretty hard and did not get edited well. That's that was how I kind of interpreted it. Sure.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:36]
You know, I You can't see who the director was.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:39]
I didn't pay attention either. I I don't think it's gonna be a huge
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:43]
deal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:44]
I mean, I I don't I don't think this is a make or break kind of thing. I I will say this. There was the
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:51]
the Romulan scanning of the apartment that also seemed just a little like
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:55]
Yeah. And like it was weird because they jumped
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:59]
back and forth between like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:01]
not time periods, but different
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:04]
points in time. Yep.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:06]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:07]
it just it was choppy,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:09]
and I found it hard to follow along
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:12]
There was also Naive Baccarat that showed up at Starfleet headquarters to ask for a ship, which
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:19]
like, that that was that was completely out of character for him, right, to to think be that naive.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:24]
So I don't know. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:26]
obviously, this is gonna take an Ocean's 11 kinda twist. Right? Like, that's that's what's next. I'm curious by whoever this individual is that he meets with at the end, you know, his pilot.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:38]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:39]
But I I think if they had
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:41]
like, this this was an episode where Picard was not true to himself, I think.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:45]
If they had kept him on point
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:48]
and if they had maybe
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:50]
not done the Voyager style
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:53]
Romulan scanning, we'll just explain things out of thin air because it's fun.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:58]
And then if they had maybe dropped the Commodore and Rizzo,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:02]
that would it might have been a better episode. That's a lot that's a lot of content to cut, but, you know, what he could do. Now, there were some good points,
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:10]
specifically, Picard meets with his doctor.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:13]
Yep.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:14]
And this is a direct tie in to All Good Things and the places where they flash
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:21]
flash forward to the future and the
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:24]
I don't know what they call it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:27]
The thing on his part of the brain. Yeah. They've they've got a name for it in All Good Things, which they actually don't resurrect the name in this,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:34]
in this show, in this episode.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:37]
But they confirm it in the present timeline in All Good things, and they basically identify it as it could develop into
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:44]
this illness or not. And the
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:47]
illness is initially attributed to Picard's jumping forward as well as his jumping backwards.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:53]
But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:55]
you know, it's
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:57]
it was like a it was a nod to it. I don't know that it was a full on confirmation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:03]
We got a little bit more board cube action this time. We did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:07]
I I'm not sure what the make of it though. So they're Damn. They're trying to salvage actual
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:13]
Borg, and we finally saw the scene
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:16]
with the sign that's, like, you know, 1,038
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:20]
days since last assimilation or whatever. Which is hilarious.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:23]
Yeah. It is. It's funny. Right? I I think the question I have is what
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:30]
is this Romulan specific, what's going on there or not? It seems like there's almost some kind of altruistic thing
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:36]
that at least the doctor
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:38]
thinks she's buying into. But clearly, the Romulans are manipulating it. So Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:43]
You you know, that part I found helpful.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:46]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:48]
am not sure about the love interest element that they got going between Narek and the android.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:53]
We'll see how that plays out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:56]
So, you know, it's again not bad. Didn't really like
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:00]
wow me like the first one did. I think the next episode is gonna be pretty critical. Right? I hope so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:06]
So we'll see. So interesting things is
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:10]
are that
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:12]
we haven't been on a spaceship really yet. I mean, there's scenes on the board cube,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:17]
but most of this has been taking place on Earth.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:20]
Right. Well, Picard's not even cleared to fly at the start of this episode. By Starfleet. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Good good good clarify. Yeah. So at some point, they're gonna get space bound. Right? Oh oh, you know what we didn't talk about? We got more context on the Mars incident.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:36]
Yeah. And that, I thought, was was awesome. Like, so the so for me, it was the Mars incident plus the scene on the board cube that made this episode
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:46]
worth watching. All the other stuff kinda got in the way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:50]
I mean, I I don't know. Was there anything besides those two segments that really seemed worthy of the forty five minutes it occupied?
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:00]
Probably not outside the doctor coming to visit Picard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:03]
Yeah. And and even that
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:06]
like, they haven't capitalized on what it means to the storyline yet. So Right. Right now, to me, it's it's still kind of in that throwaway category. But I was happy to find out what went on with Mars,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:16]
actually see these androids,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:19]
or the synthetics as they call them. Yeah. The that,
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:23]
that scene was really well done on Mars. Yep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:26]
It it it
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:28]
asks or leaves us with more questions than it gives answers, but it gives us enough answers. Which is good for seas for episode two. Right? Right. Right. Yeah. If if we get to, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:38]
episode The end season. Yeah. We'll we'll be in we'll be in right shape. But so anyhow, my my kind of general takeaway, looking forward to the next episode.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:46]
We'll just leave it at that. Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:49]
Did you watch Super Bowl, Sam? Did I watch the Super Bowl? Come on, John. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:55]
the I think the better question is, did you watch the Super Bowl? I did not. Not at all? I I was watching Toy Story two during a portion of it, and that was excellent. Okay. Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:08]
So I did watch it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:10]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:11]
can't say that the so the first half of the game was was a fight. It was a slugfest. Right? Like, there wasn't there was no wild crazy leads. I think the Chiefs took it in the fourth quarter and then made for a great ending to a game. Not the best Super Bowl I've ever watched. That will still always be the 2,008 Steelers victory, but,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:31]
nonetheless, I think it was all in all a good game. What what saddens me, John, that you didn't watch the game is that means that you didn't get to experience the food of the Super Bowl. That is true.
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:42]
So You should you should come and visit me. We we went to the nines. Always come and visit. You go to the nines for everything, Stan. Even breakfast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:51]
The the Super Bowl is a special kind of nines though because so alright. So just to back up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:57]
When you think of football, what do you think for dinner?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:00]
Nachos.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:02]
Okay. I I can't dispute Pizza?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:05]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:06]
Not No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:07]
Well, wings can be. Yes. But for me, it's always chili. Right? Chili. Interesting. I don't think that the majority of America would agree with you. I understand. See, I I,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:17]
I remember, like, chili cook offs at, church and stuff on Super Bowl Sunday. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:22]
that's that's what I associate it with. So we made a big vat of chili. You've had my chili before. I have. It's pretty good. It is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:30]
Feel like you made it differently when I was there this past year versus when you made it over the campfire.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:36]
That's possible. Was it better or worse? I think that I liked the campfire one better. You were also very hungry that day, mind you. I was? Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:47]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:49]
Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:50]
noted. We'll have to work on it. I I will say this is a particularly good batch
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:54]
that, that we whipped up. And I and I say we, it was mostly missus Lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:58]
She uses my recipe, but but she was driving that because I
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:02]
was working the meat smoker, John. Alright. Did you smoke some wings? I did not smoke some wings. I smoked some chicken breasts
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:09]
Yeah. So I could pull them and incorporate them into our buffalo chicken dip.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:14]
Which is bit mostly like Frank's Red Hot and
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:17]
Cream cheese. Ranch dressing cream cheese. Yeah. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:22]
but here's the thing. That smokiness from that chicken permeated that sauce like there was no tomorrow. So every single bite had this just beautiful hickory smoke to it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:33]
And then for kicks and giggles, I saved some of the sauce before we incorporated the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:38]
pulled chicken.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:40]
We sliced some jalapenos long way, removed the membranes and seeds, put that sauce into it, and then I smoked those wholesale.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:48]
Yeah. And John, I can tell you that those were delicious. Those jalapenos They sound delicious. Those jalapenos acted like they had one job in life, to soak up smoke.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:58]
There there were some smoked hot dogs in there too, but So
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:02]
how long does it take to smoke a jalapeno?
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:05]
I did mine for an hour. I don't know that they needed to go that long. It it all depends on how much crunch you want in the pepper itself.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:13]
Fair enough. Yeah. The chicken, you know, hour and change the way that I did it. So This has opened up a whole new world, Stan.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:20]
Listen, man. Imagine like a
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:22]
smoked jalapeno salsa.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:25]
Oh, yes. Dude, listen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:28]
Vegetables,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:29]
cheeses,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:30]
and,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:32]
birds are the new the new hottest of my meat smoker. So you you already alluded to chicken wings? Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:38]
That seems inevitable. I will be doing that at some point. Have you done ribs yet? I have not done ribs. I should. My father in law's done ribs recently, and that was pretty good. So Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:50]
Anyhow, you gotta come out for Super Bowl sometime, buddy. We do food. Right? You're making me hungry.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:56]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:58]
Anything else about the Super Bowl?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:00]
No. I mean, that Food food was a highlight. Oh oh oh. You're There's one other thing. There's one other thing that we should
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:07]
we should call out. There was by and large, I don't know, advertisements, whatever. But there
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:13]
was a trailer for Black Widow Which I have not watched yet. Spectacular.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:17]
Yeah. You should watch it. There was And I haven't watched the other one either. Yeah. The other one
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:22]
was a trailer for WandaVision,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:24]
Winter Soldier,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:26]
Falcon,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:27]
and then Loki. And the Loki, that was just one scene. But this was excellent. And you really should if I'm surprised you haven't I've watched seen some of the WandaVision
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:36]
stuff,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:37]
might have been on Instagram,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:40]
and it looks
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:41]
far different than I thought it would be, but it also looks very intriguing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it's it's this retro look is what we get. Yep. And And it's like flashing through different retro time periods or Yeah. Yeah. It's it's not what I expected at all, so I don't I have no idea what this means. Clearly, time travel is an element. I'm excited.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:00]
I I'm I'm looking forward to it. That's all I can say. I I've that was probably the most exciting moment out of the whole Super They moved these up from when they were originally planning to release them. Correct? Yeah. That's that's what I've heard. Yeah. Don't know that I've gotten solid confirmation on that, but Oh, is it bad Patrick Reddit intel?
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:17]
Is is it Patrick that told us that they've moved up?
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:20]
That's what I can't can't remember where wrote Patty made reference to it. Okay. I feel like I read that somewhere too though, so maybe that's true. I listen, man. Disney plus needs some new material
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:30]
Yeah. Badly. You just need to watch through all the Pixar movies like me. Yeah. Well, okay. I mean, don't get me wrong. The catalog's great, but they need some new content. Yeah. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:42]
about lost my mind with the one clip of Loki wearing a prison uniform. I have no idea what that's I'm watching Stan. Haven't I'm
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:49]
I'm not I'm not ruining too much for you.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:51]
But You just ruined the whole thing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:55]
I I don't think you'll feel left out when you finally watch it. I'm ashamed that you got on this podcast to record without any watching. Of it, man. My That was all the way back on Sunday. Today's Tuesday. I've been trying to see if Iowa's gonna, like, be kicked out of the union.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:11]
Fair enough. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:13]
Alright, John. You put down for this week a life tip, start meetings on time. Start meetings on time and prepared.
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:21]
Did you have a rough week at work, buddy? No. I didn't. I was just trying to think. I like this life tip segment and I like the mastering minimalism segment.
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:29]
So right now, I'm grasping at straws until you think they're stupid and you start coming up with your own again. Okay. Alright. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:36]
So We talked about this. We did. Yeah. I told you this is, like, my biggest pet peeve.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:42]
And I I I had the I had the mull over why this was
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:46]
last week because
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:48]
I my my trigger got tripped a couple times. We'll just leave it at that. We're not gonna go into the details about what tripped my trigger. That's right. Except that it was a meeting that started
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:57]
far later than it should have, and I was on the verge of walking out,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:01]
which
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:03]
if I had been at work, I would have done, actually. I would have just said this this meeting's over and gone on to do something else. So I I was reflecting on this.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:12]
With great power comes great responsibility. I guess.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:16]
The the environment in which I work in,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:18]
there is probably four to five hours of my day that is completely clocked. Right? Like, I've got something to do, something to engage in. I gotta be on and alert.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:29]
And if that meeting starts one or two minutes late,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:32]
it's it's chewing out a big portion
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:34]
of valuable time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:37]
And so maybe maybe I've just become wired
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:40]
over the six and a half years I've been with, with Salesforce. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:44]
you start meetings on time, you start prepared,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:47]
you work through them efficiently. There's a there's a block, and it is limited because something else is coming after it. And so I I just I don't know, man. I'm I'm like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:58]
I I think I'm just hardwired
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:00]
to keep the schedule. And so when meetings are not on time, when they don't start on time, it comes across as super rude to me. And Okay. Me maybe I'm an outlier, but I I know I know there are other people out there like that. Right? Like, you're you're essentially when you start meeting late, you're wasting somebody's time. Yep. And So I'm gonna pause and I'm gonna ask you, so, like, in general, how many people do you have in meetings?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:24]
Oh, it all depends. I mean,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:26]
if I'm meeting with, like, an engineering team, right, it'll be five to six people. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:32]
I do a lot of one on ones throughout my week, and so that's just one person. Maybe occasionally there's two.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:40]
You know, a big meeting is is, like, 10 plus. Right? Right. And so I don't have a lot of those. Those aren't productive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:47]
So let's take, this meeting with the dev team and say it starts
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:53]
ten minutes late. I mean, ten minutes late is no big deal. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:57]
That's a that's a huge deal. No. No. That's a huge deal. If there if there are six people in that meeting, you have wasted ten minutes Right. Of six people's time. Right. It's an hour of company time. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:07]
Just to be clear, at at my work situation, at, like, five minutes, I I make an audible. Like, are we gonna do this or not? Because if not, I've got other things to do. Right? And that's that's the latest that I will let something slide. That's a meeting that I don't control,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:23]
not getting on time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:24]
I may give a minute or two of grace at the beginning of it if there's somebody critical that hasn't made it there, or I know that, like, somebody just came from another meeting and they might need a potty break. But, you know, that's like a two to three minute window or allowance that that we buffer. I I don't
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:40]
I don't know. This is very different.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:43]
So Right. Now one on one, it's kinda just a sign of disrespect if you don't start on time and
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:51]
Yeah. Pretty much. Again, like, I I do recognize sometimes people are coming from something else. But Sure. You know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:57]
when I'm gonna be late in that situation, I always give the person a heads up, like, I'll be there in two to three, and that's it. It's two to three minutes. It's like, literally, I gotta go to the bathroom and come back, refill my water, come back, you know, something like that. Yep. And and so I I don't know. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:11]
it's just it's a waste of people's time. It's rude,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:14]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:15]
I it's it's just not it's not productive. Right? Like, you even think about your own productivity. If you're late for something,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:22]
you you're not just, like, wasting the other people's time. You're cutting into whatever you were gonna get out of that meeting too. Right. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:31]
This could go a whole bunch of different ways, but we're just gonna leave it at start meetings on time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:37]
Yeah. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:38]
Come prepared. Like Yeah. Come prepared. That's a good one. We we should say that one for gonna talk about and yeah. Let's let's say that one for another episode. But as far as, like, meetings, and it doesn't matter if it is,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:51]
work, personal,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:52]
or or whatever. Right? Like, just be respectful of the people around you.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:58]
Alright. Alright. You wrote down minimalism. Yeah. You you wrote down paper. Like, what if put down some paper? That. I have I have too much paper, Stan, especially
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:07]
with tax documents being mailed to me and stuff like that. So I was wondering, like, you went all digital for a while.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:15]
What do you do with paper,
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:17]
like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:18]
insurance
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:19]
stuff or
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:20]
tax stuff, things like that?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:23]
So with taxes, I keep a copy of everything for seven years in physical copy. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:31]
It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:32]
I don't I don't do, like, receipts or canceled checks. I use, like, donation letters. And and so we're talking about, I don't know, maybe 20 sheets of paper in a folder for you. I I don't keep a hard copy of the tax
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:44]
return.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:46]
I only keep a digital copy of that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:48]
I also
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:49]
each year, I digitize all of those 20 some sheets that are floating around in my tax folder so that I have them in a folder on my computer. So literally,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:58]
you know, that eighth year,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:00]
when I go to shred, I don't have to worry about scanning it. I've already done that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:04]
Here's here's maybe a little pro tip. If you
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:07]
are wondering, like, I gotta feed all this stuff through a scanner. I don't even have a scanner. You got your phone, and you can either take a poor man's picture or get yourself an app like the scanner app by Riedel for your iPhone. I'm sure there's one like Microsoft has one that is is, across the platform. But Scanner Pro by Riedel is
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:25]
just an epic,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:27]
awesome app that does a really good job of scanning. And so I can actually get a better scan, in my opinion,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:33]
using Riedel's app than I can with my flatbed scanner I bought, you know, seven years ago or whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:40]
And that that makes it a little easier too. Now, other papers, like, what what kind of papers are you amassing around your house, John? Yeah. I don't know. I've got
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:48]
mortgage stuff. It's mostly financial based stuff or, like, insurance,
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:53]
things of that nature. Most other things don't see the light of day. Christmas cards,
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:58]
Anna likes to keep Christmas cards, but those usually end up in a
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:02]
box somewhere.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:03]
Most Christmas cards
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:05]
are recyclable material after January in my in my book. Got it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:10]
You know, pictures and stuff, like, that's that's nice. Or actual, like, customized notes. I I understand keeping those, but Right. Not a lot of people do that on Christmas cards. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:20]
but you mentioned insurance stuff. I think, like, you know, policy documents are good to keep hard copies of.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:26]
Statements, I don't know, man. I I get those online. I don't keep the hard copy. Same with bank statements, bills,
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:32]
all of I think most of my bills
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:34]
so the only bill that I get is the one from the city
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:38]
in the mail.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:41]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:42]
Scan that one. Else's. As it comes in, whip out your your phone with your scanner app or scanner pro by Readdle and take a snapshot, save the PDF, and move along with life. I I just,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:52]
a lot of this stuff, you're never gonna refer to anyhow, and you're gonna let it age out. So it's about making sure that it ages out on its own.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:00]
I, you know, I primarily do the mail. I don't save a lot from the mail. I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:06]
It's it's it's not a problem for me. It hasn't been in a long time. I've got one bin that I use for filing. Right? It's where I keep the taxes, the insurance policies, things of that sort. Once it gets too tight where I can't put it in another folder,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:19]
it it's an automatic trigger to go through and sort and, like, okay. I gotta get rid of this stuff.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:25]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:26]
So that I guess This is what I needed, Stan. Nice. Do you got a link to the bin? So, like, an actual filing,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:33]
like
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:34]
It it has yeah. It has the ability to hang folders. It's just a plastic bin. I don't I I got it so long. I could take a picture ago. I I don't I I didn't get it on Amazon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:43]
Probably Walmart. But, you know, it's it's not it's not So not a firebox or anything like that? Just a No. I mean, again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:50]
like, what are you putting in a firebox? It's gotta be stuff that it Card titles. You can't replace. Right. Yeah. And that's Yep. That's not my task returns.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:59]
Right? Yeah. Passport. Yeah. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:01]
but, again, for me, the thing has been I have the single singular bin for putting paper when it gets too tight that I can't put something else in. That's the trigger I go through. And I I don't have a lot of folders in there. I've got, like, taxes 2019, and I got a 2019 folder for other stuff, right, that's come in over the course of the year. And and that's the the bulk of it until you get to, like, life insurance policies and so forth. Right. But on that, you know, that dated folder, that 2019
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:29]
folder, if things get tight,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:31]
I will go back and find the one that's the fattest and then start sifting through it. And so as an example, right, like, if I had a contractor here to do the radon pipe, I keep the bill of sale of that, you know, for a little bit, but then there's a certain point at which they're not gonna tender any service on anyhow, so then I discard it. Sure. Right? And
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:48]
the again, forcing function is just simply the space. Limit the space, and you can control what goes in it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:54]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:56]
That was a good minimalism tip, Stan. I'm glad you brought it up. Yeah. I wasn't really sure that good. Practice. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:04]
last thing I wanted to check with you on, did you take a look at this Facebook privacy stuff that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:08]
got released this this month? I did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:12]
Did it weird you out? Little bit. Yeah. Okay. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:16]
Facebook released a new feature to their app. I guess it's probably on the web page too, but I actually downloaded the app to to navigate to this. And, if you go into the privacy checkup
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:27]
excuse me. Privacy checkup section,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:30]
there is a new area called off Facebook activity.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:34]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:35]
they they basically list anybody who
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:38]
is
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:39]
absorbing
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:40]
your tracking information through Facebook. So they've had, I don't know, a Facebook like button, and they were able to see your
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:48]
who you are based upon
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:50]
that like button registering info.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:52]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:53]
So how many sites
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:54]
did you see, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:56]
So I actually didn't do this. I didn't go through. I just saw the the news release.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:02]
I had hundreds, and I don't even use Facebook that much. It it actually surprised me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:07]
So, like, this brings in the
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:10]
Facebook pixel too, like, the
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:13]
remarketing pixel. So Yeah. People All all of have a
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:17]
have a little
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:18]
little script that they put on their website that you know nothing about.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:22]
And if you're logged into Facebook, hey, they know you visited their website. They can send you an ad later on. Yeah. It's it's really powerful. Right? Because your Facebook login tells them a lot about you, and,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:35]
you don't even you don't have to actively engage. It's it's I I don't know. It was a little bit creepy to me how much stuff came up. All I can say is and maybe you can include this in the show notes, John,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:45]
the the link to it. But basically Sure. You should if you are a Facebook user, you should dig into the privacy section and look for your off Facebook activity.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:53]
Before you clear it out, look at what's there. You can also apparently now turn off some of this
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:59]
Yep. Which which is good, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:02]
And let
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:04]
me let me back up. Some tracking
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:06]
that you can opt into, fine. I get it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:10]
This stuff is,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:12]
silent and sneaky in a way that is disconcerting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:16]
Right. And and that's, I think, why everyone
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:20]
should go in, check out what their,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:23]
off Facebook activity
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:25]
looks like, and clean some of it up, and also,
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:30]
you know, maybe turn it off. That's what I did. So Yeah. I think that there is definitely a certain level of evil here,
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:38]
but the
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:39]
the kinda offhand remark is gonna be, well, wouldn't people rather see ads that are relevant to them than random ones?
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:48]
For me, that answer is no.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:50]
But for other people, maybe it's different.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:54]
Yeah. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:56]
I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:57]
You know my general take on consumerism and how much stuff we buy. Right? Like, this this is a massive minimalism thing. So I don't really want targeted ads because I think that's part of the problem.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:08]
Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:09]
But but I think I think there's there's a the bigger problem is trust.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:14]
And so these other sites are,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:18]
taking your information unwillingly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:21]
and you don't know Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:22]
How they protect it, how they, you know, store it, or what they do with it. Right? And they could be selling and making money. They mean, there's there's all kinds of stuff. And they could be also targeting you
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:32]
with things that are inappropriate or you don't want to to see. Right? Like, you've got a moral or ethical
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:39]
dilemma with. And and I think that that that's where it really crosses the line, where it gets creepy, and and why
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:45]
some of the the extent to which this ad tracking is going is just too far. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:51]
So There is a great
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:53]
it might have been Walt Mossberg and Steve Jobs,
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:56]
where Steve Jobs talks about how Apple approaches security.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:00]
And he goes into,
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:02]
like, if you're gonna use personal data,
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:05]
you ask the user. You ask them every time, and you ask them until they tell you to stop asking them. Like
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:12]
Which which is why, you know, the iPhone, for all of its quirks, sometimes,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:18]
is is mildly annoying in terms of the amount of times it asks you. But I tell you what, I think that's a better state of things than
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:26]
the alternative. Right? Yeah. And I I think that's gonna be even more important going forward.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:31]
Like, I don't see this problem getting better.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:34]
No. I think what'll eventually happen I mean, browsers are starting to take some action. Right? Like, of the same site stuff that's going on kind of addresses this. You have Apple doing active protection inside their browser.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:46]
But
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:48]
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:49]
runs their web browser. Yeah. Well and they've given themselves a loophole, but I I think the the bit there is it's it's something. It's moving forward a little bit. Ultimately, I think in the future, probably probably a long time in the future, there will be some kind of,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:06]
legislation
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:07]
that really starts to button this down. We've already seen it in Europe. You've already seen it in California
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:12]
to a lesser extent.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:14]
I think there's another wave of
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:17]
litigation,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:18]
legislation
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:19]
that will try to make the Internet a little more secure. What what's a little worrisome, right, is it's there's a spectrum here, and you don't wanna litigate and and kinda
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:31]
create laws to the point which the Internet changes its nature and its its openness.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:37]
Yeah. There's that. And then if you look at, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:41]
the hearings with Zuckerberg,
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:42]
like, the people who are making law
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:46]
don't have any idea about
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:49]
what's actually going on or what's possible. And now I'm speaking from web developer point. Yeah. Yep. Take privacy very seriously,
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:57]
but
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:58]
these laws can
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:00]
basically make things impossible to do. Yep. They can. They can. They they put a big burden on being able to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:06]
you know, create that startup or express yourself in a unique way on the Internet, and and I think that that openness,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:12]
it's there's just a fine line, right, between protecting
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:15]
people who are too innocent to know what is being done by the Facebooks and other, you know, marketing
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:23]
ad tech kind of things out there
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:27]
and and
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:28]
not limiting
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:29]
creativity and and just freedom of expression that has existed and kinda really made the Internet what it is. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:37]
Wild wild west, man. I feel like I should be, touting Reddit or right now, like, it seems like a a Reddit punchline that I just just had there. I don't know anything about Reddit. Do you think Reddit tracks user data?
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:49]
I imagine they have some. I yes. That's a good question. Google Analytics for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Interestingly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:56]
there are some new alternatives to Google Analytics emerging.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:00]
I was I was reading something about, 37 signals and what they use.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:04]
And, so there's I think there's maybe hope.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:07]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:09]
Maybe. Another there is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:11]
Yeah. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:13]
Nice reference. Nice reference. So so, John, we're gonna record
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:17]
the next episode a little earlier this week because I'm headed off to Disney
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:21]
next week. I'm I'm pre Disney episode? Well, that's I think that's the question. Do you wanna talk about Disney for thirty five, forty minutes?
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:30]
Okay. Maybe we'll and do that. No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:33]
I just wanna know what you have scheduled,
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:35]
what you're definitely gonna eat,
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:37]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:38]
I don't know, what what your fast passes are for. Okay. There we go. So tune in next time to hear all those things and probably way more than you wanted about my trip to Disney starting next week. Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:50]
Until next time, John. We'll talk to you later. See you, buddy. Bye.