Small P Prepper

[00:00:00] Jeff:

[00:00:03] Hello. Hello, ear holes across America and the world. This is, this is the Overtired podcast. I’m Jeff severance. Gunzel and I’m here with my cohosts, Christina Warren and Brett Terpstra. And we’re all back together. This is the reunion show. Um, it’s really great. Like most, uh, band reunions. I’m a little I’m, you know, I’ve gained a little weight.

[00:00:26] I’ve got I’m a little, you know, my face is a little bigger. Um, but here I am. Let’s go.

[00:00:33] Brett: Have you seen the, do you follow the circle? Jerks on Instagram? Just outta curiosity.

[00:00:38] Jeff: No, I was never a fan.

[00:00:40] Brett: Okay.

[00:00:42] Jeff: I don’t wanna make you mad. I don’t wanna make you mad.

[00:00:44] Brett: no, they just, they’re so old and they’re still doing it

[00:00:48] Christina: Yeah, I, I don’t even know who the circle jerks are.

[00:00:51] Brett: really

[00:00:52] Christina: No, I have no.

[00:00:53] Brett: live fast, die young. This is no.

[00:00:57] Jeff: I know. Well, who the,

[00:00:58] Brett: Old it’s

[00:00:59] Jeff: are. I have [00:01:00] never gone through a whole album.

[00:01:02] Brett: Old punk rock.

[00:01:03] Christina: Okay. Okay. I mean, I felt like I heard some stuff. I probably would be familiar because like the punk rock of my generation, which is like, you know, like pop punk ripped that stuff off. But

[00:01:14] Brett: don’t think they ever had a chart topper of any kind.

[00:01:17] Christina: Oh no, I I’m not, I’m not saying that I’m saying like that stuff, like it becomes I interpolated and, and inspired and whatnot, but yeah, no, I, uh, I Nope.

[00:01:27] Brett: So Jeff, you

[00:01:28] Jeff: uh, when it, when it comes to, let me just say this, when it comes to the classic punk rock, I’ve always had this sort of attitude. This is true of hardcore too, where I just, I kind of reach back and I pick one or I pick two, so I’ve got black flag. Right. And, and, and I, I come forward with them when it came to hardcore, I had bad brains and I kind of moved forward in life with them, but I never really spread out in, in, uh, hardcore or in that early, especially west coast,

[00:01:54] Brett: who’s your black, who’s your black flag front man of choice.

[00:01:58] Jeff: Um, [00:02:00] I don’t know, I I’ll take Henry Rawlins. I liked them all. I just enjoyed it

[00:02:04] Brett: same. Like, I like used to be like, oh, Chavo or bust and not man Henry Rollins. He, he was black flag. You, you can’t deny black flag with Henry Rollins. It,

[00:02:15] Jeff: Well, and it was weird. Like he, you know, pictures of him all like muscled out and like squat kneeling on

[00:02:21] Brett: uh,

[00:02:22] Jeff: a little aggressive. Like there was the thing about black flag. And especially with him was like, there was just, there was definitely too much testosterone, but, but it was, it was a learning band for me.

[00:02:33] It was a band that was a link in the chain and helped me understand how we got from one place to another. So that’s how I think of them.

[00:02:40] Brett: yeah.

[00:02:40] Jeff: Anyway.

[00:02:41] Brett: So you got, you got the COVID Jeff.

[00:02:43] Jeff: I got the COVID. Yeah, I happened to get COVID a few days before my family was supposed to leave for a meticulously planned trip to Kenya to visit, uh, a good friend of mine who has an organic farm there.

[00:02:57] And then to also go to the coast of Kenya. Um, [00:03:00] and, uh, yeah, we had been planning that one for quite a while. Uh, and it was a huge disappointment and I had not gotten COVID yet. So this was my first COVID and I got it just in time to cancel like a really, really special trip. And because we booked a lot of that trip with points and because.

[00:03:17] The way airlines are like . Whereas we had paid about $600 a person for our tickets that we were going to use to go, um, to rebook tickets ranged from 2000 to 9,000 per person. And, um, this just wasn’t gonna work out. And so, um, and I got really sick for a few days. Like I didn’t have the kind of like, ah, it’s just like having a head cold.

[00:03:39] Like I had a few days of just rolling around being like, make it and, and, um, and then a few more days of just really intense, uh, fatigue and just feeling really, really out of it. My wife and I were both kind of relieved when on the day we should have been flying out. I felt really terrible, cuz it just would’ve been hard if I was, I

[00:03:59] Christina: Oh, [00:04:00] yeah.

[00:04:00] Jeff: if I was having like COVID light and I was just like, I’m fine.

[00:04:03] And we

[00:04:03] Christina: Oh no,

[00:04:04] Jeff: is leaving.

[00:04:05] Christina: 100%. Like, like yeah, no, no, you needed it to be all in. Were you able to get like, at least refunded your points and stuff or.

[00:04:13] Jeff: everything was refunded. No problem with that. Thank God. And, um, and we were able to kind of pull ourselves together and actually like improvise a really fun family road trip out west where, uh, the kind of main anchor was Yellowstone, but really it was about just being in Wyoming, which my family had never been.

[00:04:31] I love Wyoming. Um, and I love it way more than South Dakota, which neighbors, it, uh, Minnesota has South Dakota on one side and, uh, Wisconsin on the other. And there are, those are both states that just feel this sort of it’s like they have some kind of complex to announce their politics above all else.

[00:04:49] And when you’re in Wyoming, man, we saw, we drove around Wyoming for three or four days. I saw one Trump flag, but you know, there’s a lot of Trump supporters

[00:04:56] Christina: Oh, yeah, the whole state, the whole state is like mud Trump supporters. It’s

[00:04:59] Brett: [00:05:00] all,

[00:05:00] Christina: are like five people who live. I was gonna say, I was gonna say, it’s like, Montana’s the same way? Like, like there are like 10 people in each state. Um, yet they each get, you know, electoral college shows, but regardless.

[00:05:13] Brett: Yeah.

[00:05:14] Jeff: the boys when we were rolling into Wyoming, I’m like, here’s at the oath Wyoming. It’s like 2000 people, 5,000 horses and you know, maybe 20,000 guns. And you know, other than that, but I love Wyoming. I really do. I, it honestly feels like the west. It feels like the mythical west and that’s not all good.

[00:05:31] Of course. Right.

[00:05:32] Christina: sure. But no, but, but yet,

[00:05:34] Jeff: Oh, it’s like going to another country for a, certainly for a Midwesterner and certainly for Midwestern teenage boys, you know? Um, so it was super cool. We pulled that together and just kind of improvised it along the way, because there had been a lot of flooding and the park had only just opened, uh, Yellowstone was actually pretty dead.

[00:05:53] And so we didn’t have the experience of like, you know, massive car lines and whatever else. [00:06:00] And very importantly, there is something that my family refers to as the Gunzel South Dakota curse. My father in trying to take us on trips over the years had a lot of mishaps. The one that I most remember was being in South Dakota.

[00:06:16] I think we were headed for Yellowstone, which I’ve never been to because of this. If that’s the case and all of our luggage was stolen by a motorcycle gang.

[00:06:24] Christina: Oh, my

[00:06:24] Jeff: And, and this was back in the day when like, you know, families were traveling with like cash, right. Or maybe checks, but mostly cash. And so we were, and they’re public school teachers, so we didn’t have a lot of money.

[00:06:34] So we had to go to JC Penney and buy the cheapest, like shirts and shorts we could find. And I ended up with like a wardrobe of like clearance racks, South Dakota shirts that I had to wear the rest of the trip. And, and then eventually the luggage was found and actually mailed back to my father with maggot and everything.

[00:06:54] I mean, like all kinds of weird bugs. And for some reason, the sheriff was like, here you go, there [00:07:00] was nothing in it. He’s like we found it, wanted to give it back to you. So anyhow, we broke the South Dakota. Curse, except for one thing, which is just a quick, very quick one thing. So I got the whole front end of my minivan fixed, uh, before we left for the trip, we picked it up and left for the trip, right.

[00:07:18] And about two hours into our trip, our left front wheel starts rattling, like really intensely. We pull over. To sleep for the night so we can call a mechanic in the morning. My mechanic says, oh, I don’t think that’s a problem. You can, you can keep going. You know, but if you feel like it’s grave danger, bring it in.

[00:07:35] And so there happened to be a mechanic next to our hotel. I brought it in and it turns out two of the bolts holding the caliper of important part of my brakes to my wheel had just fallen out on the trip. And we were in a situation where had we not pulled over it would’ve seized our wheel. And if we were on the highway, we could have just flipped.

[00:07:53] And, and it would’ve been this just totally horrible accident. But the key is, this was before we got [00:08:00] into South Dakota. So the gun curse didn’t count. So we got it in time. We got it fixed and everything was beautiful from them, but that was chilling. And I just wanna say to people, if your mechanic says that bump is not a big deal, here’s why.

[00:08:13] Don’t listen.

[00:08:15] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. He’s just being a lazy ass. Holy shit. You could

[00:08:18] Jeff: he was shook when I told him what it was, he was shook. He was like, that’s really bad. And

[00:08:24] Christina: Yeah. Cuz that’s his fault. That’s 100% his

[00:08:27] Jeff: Bad. Yeah,

[00:08:28] Christina: exactly. That, that that’s him being fucking lazy and not like bolting the, the shit down

[00:08:33] Jeff: or someone in the shop. Yeah.

[00:08:35] Christina: and, and then being doubly lazy and being like, yeah, I don’t wanna check this out. It’s fine.

[00:08:40] Jeff: Right,

[00:08:40] Christina: Like honestly, like you need, you need a new mechanic.

[00:08:44] Jeff: I’ve never had a mechanic, which this guy in Minnesota, in St. James Minnesota did, when he saw what was wrong. I’ve never had a mechanic say, you’re gonna wanna come out here and take a picture. just to like, you want evidence that these bolts were missing.

[00:08:59] Christina: Yeah, no, totally. [00:09:00] And I’m just saying like, like, so thanks to the St. James Guy who, thankfully you’re not in, in South Dakota. Um, and also like listening to these stories, are you sure your dad wasn’t like John Hughes? Like, I, I know his stuff was like the Chicago land area, but like, are you sure? Cause this sounds like this sounds like, you know, um, vacation stuff, like, you know, national lampoons vacation stuff, like the motorcycle gang stealing the luggage, you know, almost having like the car, like literally fall apart because the brakes aren’t attacked.

[00:09:30] Like this is, this is genuinely like, like national Lampoon stuff.

[00:09:35] Jeff: It is amazing. It is amazing but we beat it.

[00:09:39] Brett: without, without, uh, without violating any medical privacy for anyone, do you know how you got coronavirus?

[00:09:48] Jeff: Um, you know, frankly, uh, and I’m really embarrassed to say this, that, like, I, I also understand how it happened and I shouldn’t, I’m not super embarrassed. Um, [00:10:00] we just like completely let our defenses down and EV and, and, and like that could have been it’s one thing, if we weren’t going on a vacation. But the fact that we were going on a vacation should have meant that we were masked everywhere, in my opinion, like in, in what happened with us and. And in one, just one very specific case. I went to a place that I know, well, my son, they were helping my son, uh, work on his vintage gaming PC. Um, and we all can, can appreciate this. It was like, it was how to load like an audio driver on windows 95 so he can play so he can get the full sound from doom

[00:10:44] And this is a place that’s really basically empty. It’s like a really cool little space where they call it a retro tech thrift store. It’s called free geek in twin cities. And, um, It’s basically empty in the past. People were always wearing masks. And I, I know there are people that’ll [00:11:00] listen to this and like be banging their head against the, um, whatever device is playing this podcast.

[00:11:06] But like, I was comfortable there and I felt like it had always been a place. I was comfortable. People were always wearing masks. And we were at a point here where everything was so, so low. We had not started to have this current, um, spike that we have. I think actually I was on the front end of that. Um, and so we sat in there for like three or four hours.

[00:11:23] Couple people came and went and that’s the one time I know I was unasked for a long time in one place. And, and that might have well, have been what did it, so,

[00:11:32] Christina: I mean, it could have been that it, it also could have been any other thing. I mean like the, the current variant is so contagious that even if you were masked, if you weren’t in an N 95, there’s, if you’re there for three or four hours and it could have been any other place and you’re around people, like when I got Omicron, it was, I was masked and I was triple vs.

[00:11:50] And I was like a month out of my, I, I had my booster, like my second, you know, my, my first booster for like a month. Right. Like, so it, it still should have been, you [00:12:00] know, you would’ve thought like, like at its apex and I was masking everywhere. Didn’t matter, you know, like, like, like you, you, you, you can try to like, say yes, we were going on vacation.

[00:12:11] We should have taken more precautions. I would argue, like, you still tested and, and figured this stuff out before you got on a plane. Right.

[00:12:20] Jeff: Well, yeah, we were still testing all the time and you know, like for sure. And with me too, like the thing about me and masks is like, I mean, nobody can see me here, but I’ve sort of like, got like a, a big face with a beard. And when I put a mask on, I know I’m getting stuff in and stuff is going out.

[00:12:38] There’s no mask I’ve ever found that where I feel like, oh, this is a good seal. Um, and so it could also be that I was masked somewhere and I got it, cuz this stuff is just moving around so fast. So, so I got it.

[00:12:51] Brett: I’m getting ready for max stack this weekend and I’ve been more like we’re in the green right now, as far as community spread goes. [00:13:00] So I, I do let my, my guard down. Um, I, I went to the co-op without a mask this week in general. I’ve been pretty good about masking everywhere, just as a precaution, um, we’ll test before, uh, before we take off tomorrow, um, I do have at least one good friend who is missing because he tested positive and he is asymptomatic.

[00:13:22] Like you were saying, like, you were thankful that you were symptomatic on the day you were supposed to leave. He’s asymptomatic. And that’s very frustrating to him, uh, because he feels fine, but you know, based on guidelines, gotta quarantine.

[00:13:37] Jeff: Well in travels 10 days, you know, and we were just like, yeah, I respect that. We would. I mean, like Christina, to your point, like, I’m just glad I caught it before I went on two different planes to how many different countries, um, and brought it to a place that where whose numbers are actually pretty good, you know, like I’m super grateful that it was not a hard decision.

[00:13:58] I mean, we were instantly just like, this is not [00:14:00] happening. You know, I can imagine, I, I know people, I, I can imagine people who would be like, well, if I’m symptomatic, I’ll just keep it quiet, you know?

[00:14:07] Christina: Yeah, no.

[00:14:08] Jeff: back in anymore.

[00:14:09] Christina: Well, that’s what I was gonna say. Like, like there, there are a lot of people who, and, and I’m not even necessarily gonna, like some people I know who listen to this podcast will probably like wanna like condemn all those people, but I’m, I’m not going to, like, I can understand if you’re asymptomatic or, or not feeling bad.

[00:14:25] And you know, it, you’re also maybe not, it’s not a PCR test and, and you don’t have to test to get out or to get in. And, and you’re like, fuck it. You know, I’ll just, again, the same as is, is any other kind of illness in the past? It’s not like people wouldn’t travel, you know, when they, when they were sick, you know, um, this is obviously different, but I’m just saying, I do understand.

[00:14:47] I’m just glad that you caught it. Like it, to me, the, what would’ve been bad, would’ve been like, if you were not symptomatic or, or it was in the early things and you were on the plane, not just potentially getting people [00:15:00] sick, but then you being sick in Kenya, you know, sick on the airplane like that, would’ve just been, been awful.

[00:15:06] Jeff: When it does seem to come so fast. My, my teenager was at a, a gathering with some friends the other night and at about 12 30, 1 of them just started instantly feeling like terrible. And then she tested and tested positive.

[00:15:19] Christina: Yeah, that happened.

[00:15:20] Jeff: fast.

[00:15:21] Christina: Yeah, that happened with, and I, I was concerned before I, I was very concerned. I was testing before I, I went to, um, uh, Copenhagen because I had been around someone who it was the same thing. Like we were in the same space and we weren’t like super close near each other, but we were definitely in the, in the same like room and space.

[00:15:38] And she just started feeling terrible and was like, I, I, I, I gotta go. And she was like, you know, cuz she, she gives me a ride home. Sometimes she was like, I can’t give you a ride today. I was like, that’s fine. I was like, no, you actually like need to leave and put a mask on and like leave if you’re not feeling good, you know?

[00:15:51] But it like, it hit her like instantly and then she tested positive that night. And then I was freaked out cuz I was like, I’m supposed to get on a [00:16:00] plane in X days. I feel totally fine. You know, I, I, I was testing and I, I was okay, but, you know, but it was one of those things where I was like, I don’t wanna infect anyone, but I also don’t feel bad.

[00:16:12] So, yeah. But so you’re right. Like I think it hits people real quick.

[00:16:20] Jeff: definitely. And all through my trip, people coughing, sneezing, you know, like it was, it really feels, I mean, at least, I dunno if it’s like this for you all, but for me in Minneapolis, like once I got sick, um, right after that, we started hearing a just friend after friend, not people had been in contact with, to be clear,

[00:16:38] Christina: Right, right.

[00:16:38] Jeff: it just seemed like there’s a wave.

[00:16:40] And then you have, you can look at the stance for your state, but they’re kind of meaningless

[00:16:43] Christina: They are

[00:16:44] Jeff: you know,

[00:16:44] Christina: well, cuz they’re trailing indicators. Right. So I mean, and, and we we’ve seen now, you know, that there is like a surge in a lot of places, so yeah. I mean, people look it’s, this is not going away. This is never going to go away. We’re going to have to find ways to like deal with it. Um, I’m just glad that you were able [00:17:00] to like, you know, make, um, you know, eliminate out of the situation, have a really good family trip, see Yosemite and, and be, you know, like, like have like a great experience that way, get, get your points back and, and your money back on your trip, cuz like that would’ve been awful.

[00:17:15] Um, and, and then, you know, figure out travel right now is also a shit show. So you might have dodged a little bit of a bullet, um, even in, in that regard, like it might be better like, you know, to replan when you can go back and, and visit your friend. Um, uh, and, and his farm, like when things are not as terrible, cuz the, the airports and, and.

[00:17:35] That situation. It I’ve never ever it’s it’s bad. It’s bad.

[00:17:40] Jeff: mm. Yeah.

[00:17:43] Brett: Can I, uh, Can I tell you about a sponsor?

[00:17:46] Jeff: You wanna tell us about a sponsor? Is it related to being sick or trying to cure yourself from it?

[00:17:52] Brett: I cannot, I, I do not have a segue for this.

[00:17:56] Jeff: Wrong sponsor. All right, go ahead.

[00:17:57] Brett: do you know, I [00:18:00] could do something with like feeling safe in a mask and then feeling safe at home.

[00:18:04] Christina: Yes. See, I was gonna say, I was gonna say I was gonna do that. That’s exactly perfect.

[00:18:08] Brett: okay. Damn. All right. So, so worrying a mask can make you feel safe, but sometimes you wanna feel safe when you’re at home.

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[00:19:47] There’s some real tongue twisters in there.

[00:19:49] Christina: was gonna say lots of SSEs. Lots of SSEs.

[00:19:53] Brett: Um, uh, Jeff, do you want to go ahead and tell us about tech expander while we’re, uh, we’re we’re on a little sponsor break.

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[00:20:35] Within the text expander, uh right there. You know what? Put it right there in the text, expander over there by the microwave. Um and then you could share it. You can get your whole team access to all the content they need to use every day. Then you expand it, deploy the content you need with just a few keystrokes on any device across any apps you use.

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[00:21:15] Brett: Thanks tech expander.

[00:21:17] Jeff: Thank you so

[00:21:17] Brett: So there are people out there. I’m not gonna say like it’s a, a huge number of people, but they have begun referring to the mental health corner as the MHC. Like it’s their favorite part of the show and they’ve given it an initialism, the, the MHC. So you guys ready for the MHC?

[00:21:39] Jeff: Mm. Yep.

[00:21:41] Brett: Jeff? I feel like.

[00:21:43] Jeff: I live my whole life in the MHC.

[00:21:45] Brett: It’s been a while. Let’s hear from Jeff.

[00:21:47] Christina: Absolutely

[00:21:48] Jeff: hear, let’s hear from Jeff. Um, my mental health corner, my MHC. Um, well, one thing is post COVID. Uh, [00:22:00] I’ve had some pretty intense brain fog and I just can’t tell for sure if I should attribute it to medication to stress or to long COVID pew, pew, pew. I don’t know what we would do after we say long COVID, but anyway, um, and, and that’s been kind of, it’s actually been kind of intense for me.

[00:22:20] Like I’ve really had some. Moments where I don’t know what it is I’m trying to think or say. And, um, and that’s something I’m really struggling with. Um, and hopefully it will get better. I mean, I’m kind of, part of it is that like I’ve been away from routine for so long. Um, in the week prior to getting ready for Kenya, I was like, you know, getting ready to leave the country for two and a half weeks.

[00:22:46] And so that was just kind of a wild time. And then I got COVID and that was just a, you know, shut down from everything situation. And then as I sort of started recovering from COVID, um, we decided to do this road trip, which by the way, [00:23:00] was in the safe distance after my getting COVID. Um, and so then I was on a road trip and for me.

[00:23:06] For me like road trips. I used to be in a band that toured a lot. And, um, I just love road trips more than anything. I love I, what I love the most and what I loved the most about this particular trip was like, I’m, I’m down to like the real primary things. Like I am driving a van. I am a father of two boys who are in the back.

[00:23:27] Actually the tallest one who’s now taller than me is sometimes in the front. I am the husband of the woman who is usually sitting next to me in the car. and, uh, and I’m the owner of that van. And that’s really that’s, that’s it. That’s who I am and we’re on the road and there’s no real clear rules and there’s no real big decisions to make, besides where are we gonna stay each night?

[00:23:47] And I love that feeling. And that simplicity so, so much, um, that it was really hard to come home from. And when I did come home, you know, I just have a lot waiting for me here. [00:24:00] Um, whether it’s work stuff or there’s just house projects, there’s just a, a million different things that, that were not present and didn’t have to be present in that minivan, driving across the country.

[00:24:12] And so coming back to it has been hard and it has forced sort of an existential crisis in a way, which is totally my style. Like, I, I am very quick to existential crisis. Like it it’s like I am, I am probably, I have the shortest path to existential crisis of anyone. I know. And so when I, when I came home, it was like, what do I, what do I let back in?

[00:24:33] And in what order, and how about this stuff that I don’t really wanna let back in, like some of these unfinished projects or whatever else, right. Like, I was just kinda, it took me a minute to. Come back to reality and to grieve the simplicity, especially I have two teenage boys. So like the it’s so cool to be so close.

[00:24:53] Um, cuz we’re not close. They spread all over the house and they’re doing their thing and God knows what and they go to bed after me and whatever. [00:25:00] And so like, it was really cool for the four of us to just be that physically close all the time and we get along. So that, that worked well um, so anyway, so I got back and that was just, that’s what I’m kind of coming out of right now.

[00:25:14] Um, but in the midst of that, I actually, this is just a PSA to everyone out there who takes meds without getting into how it happened. It was just a series of miscommunications, but I ended up having to go four days without, um, my search lane and you’re not supposed to just cold stop that stuff. Like there are consequences to it and um, and.

[00:25:38] And it was part of the reason it was four days is cuz I ran out on the weekend. Um, and then there was just some really poor communication issues with my medication manager, my pharmacy, whatever. So it went like four days, maybe five days without Citraline and um, and it was awful. Like I got extreme nausea, um, at [00:26:00] first and then I was able to find a friend who took Citraline and I went and got, you know, that one pill from him thinking that’s all I needed, but then I had a couple more days and um, Yesterday was the, the, you know, just before I actually was able to get the prescription, like, so I’d had all these waves of intense nausea.

[00:26:18] I had felt really fatigued. Um, but man, I had some, I had some stuff happen yesterday. Like some nervous twitches, like my jaw was sort of twitching. Um, I had to go out and fix . I have a tarp hung up in our backyard right now between our driveway and the, um, and the alley. And it was, uh, it was blowing in a, like a, kind of a windstorm and I was out there trying to fix it.

[00:26:43] And the. The experience of the pressure of the tarp blowing on me was amplified like by a hundred. And the sound of it was like amplified by a hundred. And I was just like, I really felt like I was losing my shit. And so just a warning to everybody, like, [00:27:00] get ahead of it cuz you don’t wanna find out what it’s like and it takes a day or so before it starts hitting.

[00:27:06] But like, man, it hit different every day after that. And it really, really scared me.

[00:27:12] Brett: I will say,

[00:27:13] Jeff: health.

[00:27:14] Brett: like, I’m on a, I’m on a med. Uh Lamictil that you’re not supposed to go off of suddenly. Um, and I, my like my personal reaction to going off it is very much like, um, Like narcotic withdrawal. Um, I get like my skin’s crawling and I get nauseous and headachey. And, um, my pharmacy, I use a small pharmacy where they know me by name.

[00:27:42] Um, if something happens with my psychiatrist, uh, if they fail to call in my refill on time, um, if any insurance problems happen, they will front me up to four days of

[00:27:57] Jeff: Mm. Oh, that’s

[00:27:58] Brett: without, [00:28:00] without a valid prescription. Um, because you know, I’ve been getting it for years now. Um, they know that that prescription will eventually come through and that is to me, one of the benefits.

[00:28:10] It’s why I refused to my insurance company, wanted me to switch all that over to mail order. Um, but I really I’ve benefited greatly from having a pharmacy that knows me by name, uh, because exactly because of situations like that.

[00:28:29] Christina: Yeah. Um, I had a similar thing. Um, when I lived in Atlanta where it was a chain, it was public’s pharmacy, but the pharmacist like the, the, the head pharmacist, um, Ray, who was just a wonderful lady, like knew me and would, would do the same thing, you know, for, as you brought as something happened. But yeah, withdrawal is not a joke and it can be different for every medication and it can depending on the half life, but it is, it is not a joke and it can fuck you up and it can take a while to come back in.

[00:28:57] So I’m really sorry. You’ve had to go through that because that [00:29:00] is not fun.

[00:29:01] Jeff: Yeah, thank you. It was not fun. I’ve had many versions. Oh, go ahead.

[00:29:06] Brett: I can relate to this, uh, reintegration when, when, like, I mean, there are myriad ways it could happen. But to simplify your life and to only have to focus on something as simple as where are we gonna stay tonight? And the rest of it is just take it as it comes and then you have to reintegrate into adulting.

[00:29:28] Um, I, I, I feel you, that is like for when I, this always, it always comes back around to drugs for me. But, um, the beauty of being addicted to drugs for me was always how simple it was. My only concern in life was the next fix. And like, nothing else really mattered. I could survive, you know, I’d get through I, but nothing else mattered.

[00:29:55] And now I live a life where so many things matter and it’s, [00:30:00] it’s hard to be an adult and the simplicity, like going on a vacation. Yeah. I get that. I hear you.

[00:30:07] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s great. It’s great. I mean, also this thing makes me think about like, you know, back after George Floyd was murdered and, and we had a really chaotic, intense period of time here with the uprising and then the military coming in and my own pharmacy, um, was actually wasn’t, it wasn’t burned, but it was looted as most of the pharmacies around here were, and there were like bullet holes in the glass of the drive through thing or whatever.

[00:30:34] And I could not get my meds. Uh, I had to get it all switched out, but most of the pharmacies in the area were looted. So it was like trying to find like, oh, I guess I can go out to the outer suburbs for my, but anyway, it makes me realize that it, it, I am a small P prepper and I, I, it makes me think that like, I actually wanna have just, I wanna have 30 days of every bit of my medication or whatever it takes to kind of wind down from it in case something happens again, because the crazy thing [00:31:00] about that period of time was like, All the stuff you think wouldn’t happen.

[00:31:04] Like, should you keep a tank full of gas? Why? Well, all our gas stations burned. Um, it’s like, that’s exactly why anyway, it makes me think about that. And I was gonna say too, that like on the withdrawal front, and this is a data point of one, but I, I have something to share. I learned from my medication manager, it’s like, so I take this medication called Seroquel.

[00:31:23] And one of the things that it can do, that’s really, really hard to manage is it can cause really rapid weight gain, which it did in me. It caused me to gain about 20 pounds. I’m a big guy already, like pretty quickly. And, um, and it put me right into like pre-diabetes, uh, mode. Right. And so. Yeah. So I managed to do like a month before our trip of, of eating, like a very, a very limited diet, um, that brought it back down.

[00:31:52] And now I have to like, try to figure out how to keep myself where I’m at. Not because of anything, not even any body image, nothing like that. Just like [00:32:00] it put me into pre-diabetes and, and I, I have diabetes in the family and I just didn’t wanna go all the way if I, you know, if I can avoid it. So I started pulling back on how muchs I would take during the day and at night.

[00:32:13] And that actually

[00:32:15] Brett: without guidance from, without

[00:32:17] Jeff: without guidance. No, I was under the impression I was under the impression I, I had a range I could work in. Cause even my prescription was like one to two morning, whatever.

[00:32:25] Brett: that’s true sometimes, but you have to be explicitly told that

[00:32:29] Jeff: And I, and I talked to my, so what confused me was that my bottle actually said one to two morning, afternoon and night.

[00:32:36] Right. So I was, yeah. And so I

[00:32:39] Brett: What are the, how many are these? A hundred milligram? A hundred milligram tablets.

[00:32:43] Jeff: Well, hold on. Let’s let’s go ahead and shake, rattle the can here. Um, I forget. And I’m going away now. Oh, they’re 50. They’re 50.

[00:32:51] Brett: 50. Okay. That’s a pretty one to two. That’s a, that’s pretty severe.

[00:32:56] Jeff: I know. So anyway, I mean, yes. All, all of what you’re saying is right. Like [00:33:00] that’s exactly the problem, right. Is that I misunderstood it as something I could just do and, and that had its own, uh, serious issues. So just to everybody out there, like don’t mess with it and keep it moving

[00:33:13] Christina: and, and talk to your medication manager and like, make sure that they don’t put shit like that on the, on, on the, the bottle without you understanding why it says that, like, maybe they’re doing that cuz they wanna get you extras. Right. Which is fine. Or, or maybe they like, if you’re cuz certain sensitive medications that I’ve had to do this where.

[00:33:32] I’ve had to literally cut the pills to a certain extent because the, the amount that, um, it, you know, if it’s like a tablet, because the, the available prescribed amounts don’t fit what is needed for me. So I have to have a pill cutter and cut it all the time. So, but like, you need to understand that I’m.

[00:33:49] Wow. Yeah. So that, that didn’t help with your withdrawal or any of the other stuff. If you’d been messing around with how much you were taking, trying to mitigate the weight gain.

[00:33:58] Jeff: that was more like a month or so [00:34:00] ago. And yeah, it was really bad. And I mean, and just to say, you know, one of the things my medication manager said to me about, you know, I was just asking, like, I have so many friends that are now starting to take medication. What, you know, what do you think it is?

[00:34:13] Is it cultural that it’s more acceptable? Is it whatever? And she said like, you know, in some cases your body just may have been producing something that was helping you manage a certain aspect of your mental health that it stopped producing. And so to all the people out there like me, cuz I didn’t start taking any medications until just the beginning of the pandemic by coincidence.

[00:34:32] Uh, thankfully, um, So I’m still learning, I’m learning all this stuff, right? Like I’m still kind of just a baby when it comes to dealing with medications and, and like, you both responded so quickly to the thing about Seroquel pulling back. Whereas for me, it was just kind of like, oh, let’s give it a try.

[00:34:49] Right. So hopefully this is one way in which mental health corner is helpful to

[00:34:53] Christina: No, I think, I think you’re right. Cause people don’t know. And I think, I don’t know. I’m I’m also thinking, I don’t know if it’s the. [00:35:00] Bodies aren’t producing it or that, that, you know, maybe like a, it’s called more cultural thing. I think it’s a personal awareness thing. I think like when you, it’s kind of like when you, you know, um, are looking for a red car or, or you get something new, like you see it everywhere.

[00:35:13] Like there there’s a, there’s a term for that, um, for, for that phenomenon. But I have a feeling that’s some of it is that where you’re just much more aware of it because it’s new to you and it’s top of your mind. So you notice and pick up on every conversation you have with anyone who is new to taking medication.

[00:35:29] Um, but you’re right. I think, but, but I think this can be really helpful. You’re right. For people, like, if you’re new to this stuff, don’t fuck with your meds, especially your psychiatric meds at all, without talking to a doctor, it will lead to bad things,

[00:35:40] Brett: like they absolutely will, they will need adjustment. They always need adjustment, but you have to do it. You have to do it with guidance. Like there are people that you’re paying to help you make these decisions. And I don’t care how knowledgeable you think you are. Uh, you need, you need to follow [00:36:00] someone with at least what is an RN?

[00:36:02] Is that, what, what do you need to be an RN?

[00:36:06] Christina: Um, well, on our end, I think I would want like a physician’s assistant more than

[00:36:11] Brett: Sure,

[00:36:11] Christina: trust in RN, to be honest with you, but yeah.

[00:36:14] Brett: sure. But you, you want someone with at least some schooling in, in, in the field, uh, which you can’t get just by reading the DSM.

[00:36:24] Christina: No, you can’t. And that’s the thing too. Like you, you really need people who’ve like seen stuff and, and, and can see how things can act. And also to be clear, not every doctor medication manager is going to get everything right. That doesn’t mean that you don’t still seek out other people.

[00:36:36] You know what I mean? Like, just because their dumb ass doesn’t mean that you give up on the whole thing and think, oh, I know best. And I can adjust myself. No, you really can’t like it’s, it’s a bad

[00:36:45] Brett: really fucked up is interactions. And like for, for me, with bipolar and ADHD, like I take four different meds in addition to suffer like blood pressure and, and, [00:37:00] uh, cholesterol. I take four different psychiatric psychotropics. I take four different meds for my mental health and the balance between them.

[00:37:11] I don’t care whether you have seven years of schooling or two, um, nobody knows. Every possible interaction or how a tweak to one med will affect the combination with another med cuz everyone’s unique and it, yeah, you, you, even if they make mistakes, though, you’re working, you’re working with someone who at least can account for the mistake and figure out how to correct it.

[00:37:41] Uh, cuz blind guessing is not gonna do it for you.

[00:37:44] Christina: No, it’s not. And, and, and people who think they can be like lay pharmaceutical, you know, uh, geniuses themselves, which I know wasn’t what you thought. Um, uh, Jeff, but like, but some people I know, really do think, oh, I, I, I can do this myself. No, you really can’t like, and it’s one of those things that think, [00:38:00] especially as intelligent people, we, again, it’s like Dunn, Kruger.

[00:38:03] Like we assume that we can do more than we really can because in many cases we have. and, and no with, with medication stuff, like I’ve just learned. And, and I unfortunately learned it at a very young age, but, um, you know, some of the stuff that like you’re learning now, like minor adjustments can make a massive impact on your life.

[00:38:20] Um, withdrawal can come on really quick. I mean, like, it’s possible that when you were adjusting your stuff, that like, if your body got used to a certain amount that even ripping down that smaller, uh, dose was kicking off certain withdrawal symptoms, right? Like it, it depends on what the medication is, but some of 'em are that sensitive, which means that if you’re doing those weird amounts, you have to figure out like how to, you know, balance the right things.

[00:38:43] So, so that you get consistent, but it’s just, it’s, it’s, uh, it takes time and it’s complicated, but you need to work with your, with your doctor or medication manager or whatever on that stuff. And I’m really sorry you’ve been going through that because like, nothing to me is worse about like, [00:39:00] To me, it’s, it’s honestly, in many ways, worse than the, than the depression, like worse than the diseases themselves is sometimes the process of having to manage, like finding the right medication and going through that testing and going through the withdrawal period and going through all that stuff is, is sometimes as debilitating as like the, what you’re trying to treat.

[00:39:19] Like obviously it’s, it’s not, you know, what you’re trying to treat I think is, is, is worse and, and could have like longer term consequences, but I don’t wanna ever, um, pretend like that process of finding a solution can’t be equally arduous and, and really difficult.

[00:39:36] Brett: you pay, right? It’s it’s the mental health tax is, is all the medication futzing that you have to do,

[00:39:43] Christina: Yep. Which a lot of people don’t wanna do. I think this is why a lot of people say medication doesn’t work for me. And my response to that is usually okay. How many have you tried and, and how much out, right, honestly. And how, how,

[00:39:54] Brett: you put in the effort yet.

[00:39:56] Christina: Right. And, and, and the thing is it’s shitty.

[00:39:58] It sucks to have to go through the effort. [00:40:00] It sucks to have to pay that tax. Cuz we didn’t ask for any of this, we didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not a choice that we made, but it’s, it’s the same with anybody who has it. It’s somebody who’s diabetic. Somebody who has, you know, some, some other sort of, you know, like, uh, you know, condition like it’s, it’s shitty, like it’s unfair, but it is, but, but you’re right, it’s the tax you pay so that you don’t kill yourself or hurt yourself or hurt someone else, you know?

[00:40:25] And, and that, that is ultimately worth it. But the process of getting there can be very, very difficult and really, you know, frustrating and, and you have to kind of unfortunately go through it and I’m glad you’re you have like a supportive family and, you know, situation where you can go through those things.

[00:40:42] Like my, my great, my, the only thing I’m grateful for, you know, my experiences is that I was, you know, like between 14 and 17, when I went through most of my, like. Testing of, of, of stuff. So I mean, it fucked up my life then, but, you know, I [00:41:00] was, at the time it seemed like all, all consequential. Now I’m like, God, if I had to do this while I’m trying to work a, a high profile corporate job and doing other things, like, I don’t know what I would do.

[00:41:11] Right. Like I, if it got bad enough, it would be one of those things where I would have to take like disability time and, and go on, on leave. You know what I mean? Like, and, and be because I, I don’t know how you, how you deal with it. Otherwise, if, if things get really bad, when you’re trying to figure out like what medications are, right.

[00:41:26] And tweaking things and, and getting all that stuff together. So I’m glad that you have support and, and don’t feel like, hopefully don’t feel like the weight of everything is on your shoulders and that you can take the time to know it’s not gonna be perfect. It’s gonna be shitty and take time to figure out, but it’ll be okay.

[00:41:43] Brett: But it’s worth it. Like

[00:41:44] Christina: is worth it. That’s the thing.

[00:41:45] Brett: we’re glossing over that part. Like when, when you do figure, when you make it through the

[00:41:50] Christina: better. Yep.

[00:41:52] Brett: Then your life can be multiple times better, uh, with medication like [00:42:00] it’s worth, it’s worth the

[00:42:01] Christina: it is. No, it is.

[00:42:03] Brett: med at the right dose.

[00:42:05] Christina: No, I totally agree. No, and I, and I say this and I mean, this absolutely sincerely, and I’m not being like, I’m not trying to, you know, like, uh, trigger anybody or whatever, but like, I would not be alive without medication. There’s no doubt in my mind, I, I would not be alive. So for me, it is one of those things where I’m like all the hell, all the other stuff, as bad as it is, it is still better than the alternative, which is not being able to get out of bed and function as a human being.

[00:42:30] And literally like praying for death. Like it is, you know,

[00:42:35] Brett: Yeah.

[00:42:37] Jeff: Hm. Glad you’re here too. Glad for medication

[00:42:40] Brett: yeah. Do you want, do you wanna take the next mental health corner, Christina,

[00:42:45] Christina: Sure.

[00:42:45] Brett: on that note?

[00:42:47] Christina: on that, on that happy note? No, I’m I’m okay. Um, I don’t really have much to, uh, much to add. I’ve just been doing some work stuff. Um, had some gastrointestinal stuff this morning, which is not fun. I hate dealing with that. Um, but, um, [00:43:00] yeah, no, I’m I’m I’m I’m okay. I’m okay. Um, so I have some friends who are in from out of town this week.

[00:43:05] Um, uh, Amazon, AWS is having some sort of internal thing. And so, um, like it seems like every person I know now works at AWS and developer relations, so I’ve, I’ve been able to see people, which is cool. So I’m, I’m,

[00:43:20] Brett: about that. What’s funny about that is Victor and I work at Oracle yet. We’ve been they’re, they’re launching, uh, an AWS, uh, heat wave on AWS where you can use an Oracle database with like, uh, it’s it’s a whole thing. Victor knows more about it than I do, but we’ve been dealing with AWS and AWS people not stop to. Anyway. Okay. Um, I’m kind of the same, uh, I, I was doing, I was doing well. I got up at 3:00 AM today because it was one of those nights where I fell asleep, [00:44:00] thinking about a problem and I solved it in the dream I had between 9:00 AM and 1:00 AM. And then I woke up at 1:00 AM and I laid in bed for two hours.

[00:44:12] Thinking about the solution. That I had come up with. And then at three I gave up and decided just to code it out and, and it worked, it, it, it was great. It, it worked, um, if Twitter hadn’t changed their API, since the last time I Fuzed with it, um, it would be a perfect solution, but they did. Um, but anyway, like, I don’t think I’m manic right now.

[00:44:38] I think I’m, I think I have insomnia and maybe a little bit of obsession. Uh, but I’m certain I don’t have like the elevated mood. I don’t have the, like, I’m pretty fucking laid back right now. Um,

[00:44:54] Christina: I’m sorry about the API. I, I think that there’s somebody who maintains like a more up to date [00:45:00] kind of Python

[00:45:01] Brett: they did,

[00:45:01] Christina: to go for. Sorry, go on.

[00:45:03] Brett: they, they moved it to V2. Um, and I, I haven’t played with it for at least a year now. Maybe more, um, So the apps that I had created for the V one API still function. And as long as I used the API keys from those original apps, my, my little integration, I made it so that doing can import your tweets as doing entries.

[00:45:31] And as long as you have a V1 API app made it works great. But the Ruby gem that interfaces with the Twitter API is only for V1 and you can no longer create a V1 app. You have to create a project and an app now, and it has to use V2 endpoints. So I have to find a new gem if I’m gonna make this work. So the thing I figured out and, and I’ll make this brief because no one gives a fuck.[00:46:00]

[00:46:00] I figured out how to make plugins for doing, uh, gem based. So you can develop a doing plugin as a gem and publish it, and then people can install the plugin just by typing gem, install, doing plugin, Twitter import, and, and it installs it. And it’ll pick up any gem on your system that starts with doing dash plugin dash will be loaded as a plugin and doing, um, so it makes plugins distribute distributable to this date.

[00:46:38] Nobody has ever written a doing plugin aside from me. And I don’t see it being a big community effort, but at least now I, I know how to do it. I figured out figured out a way to make that work.

[00:46:50] Jeff: That’s awesome.

[00:46:52] Brett: Yeah.

[00:46:52] Jeff: That’s awesome.

[00:46:54] Brett: So can I ask you guys, I’m getting ready to travel for the first time in a [00:47:00] while? We’ll say a couple years.

[00:47:02] Um, and I’m just going to Chicago, which is like a six hour drive for me, not a big deal, but I’ve forgotten how to pack. Do you guys have any tips for like managing a packing list? How do you put together your packing list? What do you, how do you double check? How do you know you got all your shit together before you leave?

[00:47:25] Christina: Yeah, Jeff, do you wanna take this one?

[00:47:27] Jeff: yeah. Okay. I’ll take, I got, I got three things I wanna say right away. Okay. So in terms of the packing itself, I always designate a table or a space for where I’m gonna throw everything as I’m getting ready to pack. And that might be just the morning that I’m packing or might be a few days before. So it’s like, if I know I want my sunglasses, the sunglasses go on that table.

[00:47:52] We actually have like a folding table. I set up. It’s like how my dad used to plan pancake packing or, uh, camping trips. And, um, if there’s some, you know, [00:48:00] like there’s a hat I wanna bring, I put it there. If there’s like a medication on making sure I have, I put it there. Like I just make this ugly ass pile of stuff.

[00:48:09] Ends up being for me a lot easier than a packing list. So like my first round is just to walk around the house and be like that, that, that, that, and throw it on the table. Then I make my packing list and the way it works after that is if it’s on the table, I can cross it off the packing list on or under the table.

[00:48:28] So I might put like a suitcase under the table. Right.

[00:48:31] Brett: Yeah.

[00:48:32] Jeff: and that’s when I make my packing list and I always make my packing lists, um, on like index cards or on a half piece of paper or whatever. So I can just carry it around with me. Um, I’ve tried doing templates. I’ve used like task, paper format or whatever, but that didn’t work for me.

[00:48:47] So that’s, that’s the packing recommendation. Okay. Just pile it all up and then figure it out. My second thing is fricking, uh, packing cubes for your suitcase, the cubes that you, you do, you use those[00:49:00]

[00:49:00] Christina: I do. I do. Yeah. I, I, I was like for a long time, I was like against them. I was like, this is stupid. No, it is not. It is the way that I make stuff work, honestly.

[00:49:10] Jeff: It’s incredible and, and like get enough so that one can be just for dirty clothes. Um, and so like, my family just went on a trip and we borrowed packing cubes from a bunch of friends. So each person had a different color packing cube, and we all packed into one suitcase. And if you wanted your stuff, you just grabbed the one that had your shirts in it, or the one that had your shorts in it or whatever.

[00:49:31] I like you, Christine. I was just like, I don’t know about all this, but it has changed the way I travel. Um, especially with multiple people, but even if I was alone, I would use them. The third thing is just to bring an extension cord. That’s all always bring an extension

[00:49:46] Brett: uh, what kind of exception? Cord two, prong three prong lightning, cable SBC. What kind of,

[00:49:52] Jeff: It’s I, I do a three prong with a couple of three prong outlets in it and a couple of USB outlets in it. So, you know, the kind, you [00:50:00] can just grab off a target shelf or

[00:50:01] Brett: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have some good. I have some good options for that.

[00:50:05] Christina: Yeah, I, um, I made my mistake when I went to Europe that I didn’t even realize this because it’d been so long since I traveled that I couldn’t find my, um, like, uh, converter kits for, you know, my, my, my foreign stuff. So I had to buy something in the airport. Um, and then I did actually have one that I could use.

[00:50:22] So I had two different plug things, but what I found, I have this, um, thing, the audience won’t be able to see it, but I’ll show you two it’s great is, um, from, uh, it’s, it’s called it’s from a hyper and it is a, um, USB plug. So it’s great. So on the back of it, it has like a two-prong plug, but you can obviously attach any sort of converter to it, which I did on the front of it.

[00:50:48] It also is a two-prong plug. That’ll take up to 1500 Watts so you can plug

[00:50:52] Brett: pass through.

[00:50:53] Christina: Pass through other stuff into it, including another one of these. And then on the front, it has, it goes up to a hundred. Watts has three [00:51:00] USB, C hundred watt ports. You’ll do total a hundred Watts and then one 18 wat, um, us B a. So with this, I can basically have my iPad, my, um, phone, um, my laptop all fully charged and it has a pass through for anything else I need to plug in.

[00:51:18] So with this and a power converter, like, like a, you know, just like a universal kind of, you know, plug thing, this is really good for me. This is better than the Belk one that I used to use for travel, because it’s got enough wattage for the, all the, um, you know, like I can do a 16 inch MacBook, fully charged off of this thing.

[00:51:37] Brett: Can, can you drop a link to that in the

[00:51:39] Christina: I sure can. Um, it’s really good. I’ve got two of these. It was a Kickstarter, but they sell them like officially on their store. Now it’s really, really good. Um, something like this. Um, and I would also say, uh, yeah, like having cables, I tend to keep my, my advice. Cause my advice is basically very similar to Jeff’s, but I would also say if you’re traveling more frequently, like I [00:52:00] try to keep my laptop bag.

[00:52:02] um, there are some changes and I, I get fucked up here sometimes, cuz I knew that I had a cable in the bag and then I don’t, but I try to keep like my tech bag, uh, kind of filled at all times. So I’ll have stuff that I use just in the travel bag. Right. So I buy extras. So I have a lightning to USBC cable. I have, you know, like, um, a two and a half millimeter, you know, audio Jack cable, um, just is something to have, you know, again like a charger, like one of these, these, um, things from, um, hyper that I just have in the bag.

[00:52:32] Some other stuff like, like my, my travel adapters and I try to keep those things always there so that when I’m doing my tech stuff, which is a lot of times for me, even a bigger deal than like. The clothes or, or other stuff? Well, no, cuz cuz clothes are a big deal, but you can always buy clothes. You can’t always buy the tech stuff.

[00:52:51] So if I, if I have that organized, then I know that I just basically have to grab my bag. Like I know that I have that. And, and then for me, I also make sure, like I keep my [00:53:00] pills in. Um, it’s funny. I use a, a, um, an air France, um, amenity kit, um, bag that I got the, the honestly like the, from fine business class so much over the last, uh, you know, few years I have all these amenity kit bags, which are great for story, medication bottles and things like that.

[00:53:17] And also like adopt kits. So like I have like these, these Tomy bags that are basically all my toiletries and that’s the same thing. I have toiletry kits that are not my day in and day out toiletries, but just my stuff for traveling. If you’re not traveling all the time, you don’t need to do that. But I would say similar to the packing cubes, having whether it is, you know, um, a.

[00:53:38] A clear, you know, gallon bag that you have to use for TSA if you don’t have precheck. Um, and I forgot about this because when I, and that in Europe, they don’t have precheck. And so I forgot that I had to put everything in a plastic bag and held up, you know, security. I mean, it was fortunately, it was, it was, um, not very busy, but in, in Copenhagen.

[00:53:55] And the people were very nice to me when I had to send my things through four times, like a freaking [00:54:00] novice and I felt so bad, they were so kind to me. And I was like, I am so sorry. I did not realize that I had all this stuff in there, including a phone that I totally forgot about. Um, like it was. A lot, but yeah, but having like bags set up for your toiletries, your meds and, and that stuff, um, works, but yeah, packing cubes are amazing.

[00:54:22] And then, yeah, just kind of, uh, I always do like the broad city, like, like, you know, phone, wallet, keys, uh, and then I add on like my denim, like pills kind of mantra, like before I’m leaving a place also when you’re like leaving the hotel room, you know, checking for everything. Do you have my phone, have my wallet, my keys.

[00:54:37] Do you have my medication? You know, cuz those are the important things. Anything else you can, you know, replace?

[00:54:43] Brett: The one tip I would add, I have like a, I have a tech go bag. Do you guys know what a cocoon backpack is? um, like it has, it, it has a whole panel of just like elastic straps, and you can just kind of like

[00:54:58] Jeff: Oh, like a [00:55:00] tactical

[00:55:00] Brett: stuff and yeah. And, and I have that rigged up with every possible adapter from this to that, um, including like an ethernet cable for hotels where I can have a hardwired connection, uh, USB dongles, USBC us B a to, you know, everything.

[00:55:21] And I just, I, I don’t use those cables at home. And that bag is basically always ready to go. So anytime I’m going on a trip, that’s going to involve tech at all. Like if I was going to, uh, Yellowstone, I probably wouldn’t bring the bag, but for anything that involves tech, uh, it’s, it’s a, it’s my go bag.

[00:55:45] It’s it’s everything else that I’m finding

[00:55:48] Jeff: Yeah, that’s amazing. Oh, wow. Are you driving?

[00:55:52] Brett: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:55:53] Jeff: purse. That’s the other thing I, I converted the house purse into a car purse and it was amazing cause I brought it in and it [00:56:00] would be by my bedside in each hotel. It was incredible.

[00:56:03] Brett: Nice, man. We, we didn’t get through half our list today. We spent a long time on mental health and I’m okay with that.

[00:56:12] Christina: No, I think it was good. It, it was also great to hear like a, a Jeff update and, and I think, I think this was like a really solid episode actually.

[00:56:19] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:56:20] Brett: Okay. So

[00:56:21] Christina: then, and then I think, I think we’re gonna save the other stuff for when you come back from max stock. I think Jeff and I are gonna do like a, a solo show, probably this, uh, this next one.

[00:56:30] Um, so that you, so that, so that Jeff who, uh, so the Brett rather a birthday boy, uh, can, uh, can enjoy his que and, uh, and enjoy all of his people at max stock.

[00:56:41] Brett: oh yeah, it was my birthday on Wednesday,

[00:56:43] Christina: Yes, it

[00:56:44] Brett: Tuesday. What day is.

[00:56:46] Christina: Today is

[00:56:47] Brett: It was Tuesday was my birthday.

[00:56:49] Christina: Happy happy belated. And, and now who knows when it was, when you’re listening to this podcast, but, uh, but, but happy birthday to, uh, to Mr. Terpstra

[00:56:58] Brett: How old are you Christina? [00:57:00] 29. Is that what it

[00:57:01] Christina: Uhhuh. Yep.

[00:57:02] Brett: I, I just turned 29 as well.

[00:57:04] Christina: That’s awesome. Welcome to the club. It’s a great age.

[00:57:08] Brett: 20, 29 come 44.

[00:57:11] Christina: Mm-hmm

[00:57:12] Brett: I think I had, I keep having to do the math. I’ve lost track over the last few

[00:57:16] Christina: it, look, you’re just turning 29 for the 15th time. It’s not a big deal.

[00:57:20] Jeff: Yep. You’re doing great.

[00:57:23] Christina: 16th time, whatever, like, yeah. Math is hard.

[00:57:26] Brett: Arithmetic.

[00:57:27] Jeff: lightning round.

[00:57:28] Brett: Oh, Jesus. Uh, how did I forget about gratitude? Yes. Okay. Jeff, go.

[00:57:34] Jeff: Uh, I am, uh, I am grafting, um, note plan, which is an app that I’ve, I’ve kind of made an attempt to integrate into my life three or four times since its inception. Um, and I’m doing it again right now. Note plan is, uh, you know, text document based, um, notes, organizer, but really that’s not why I use it cause I have other things I use for that.

[00:57:59] I’ll [00:58:00] see Brett Terpstra. Um, but what it does is it puts sort of an interface in front of you that has a little bit of a, like you have like your picture, you open up the app and you have a little mini calendar in the right hand side, uh, UN below that in a column, you have your, your events over the next few days, right?

[00:58:18] And then you have kind of a. Basically a text editor in the middle. And what it allows me to do that I like so much is I can look at that calendar and just very quickly click on an item and make notes for that item, for that meeting. That’s coming up for that, you know, um, that deadline I have or whatever.

[00:58:37] And it’s just, it’s, it’s built, it’s one of these apps that, you know, if this sounds interesting to you just go look because it’s built in features over the years, really consistently and really wonderful features. And so I use it mostly just to keep sort of a, a one note for the week and a note for each day, um, that I can create in an advance.

[00:58:56] And it just allows me to kind of, um, you [00:59:00] know, anchor certain key tasks or things I need to think about. And I can just let 'em go. Um, and for me, I really like that more than I like doing it inside of like an OmniFocus or something, but, you know, none of these solutions is perfect, but the it’s just wonderfully designed.

[00:59:17] There’s a wonderful templating, um, sort of, uh, system inside of it that you can use. And, and the coolest thing for me is what makes me able to play with this and then put it down. Is that like all good apps of this type. It’s just looking for a folder that has your text documents in it. And that’s sort of my primary requirement for anything like this is like, can I just turn you on and show you my text documents and start using you with the stuff I’ve already got and not have to create a new system or anything like that.

[00:59:46] And that’s what note plan allows me to do. It’s also on set app, just to be, uh, clear about that, what were you gonna

[00:59:53] Brett: Interesting side note, cuz I knew you had to go Jeff, but uh, um, Eduardo from note plan [01:00:00] and I have, we both use Cindy for marketing emails. So if you ever get a marketing email from note plan, uh, I designed, he gave me the template and I designed the script that turns a markdown file into that email, uh, with his

[01:00:16] Jeff: nice.

[01:00:17] Brett: So E emails from marked, uh, share the same formatting as emails from note plan. Um, and he, he designed them. I scripted it and uh, it’s synergy developer synergy

[01:00:32] Christina: Is it Eduardo? Uh, uh, Brett production.

[01:00:35] Jeff: yes. And Eduardo’s just done really an incredible job at this app. Um, because I, I do once a year ago. Oh, I think this is what I need. Um, and I dive in and what’s amazing is that every time I dive in, what I did before is still basically there. And, um, and that’s the, how I use tools. I, I dip in and out of them all the time.

[01:00:55] So anyway, it’s just a wonderfully designed app. Check it out and that’s it. Who’s [01:01:00] next.

[01:01:01] Brett: All right, go ahead, Christina.

[01:01:03] Christina: Okay. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this one before. Have I talked about J ski before?

[01:01:06] Jeff: No.

[01:01:07] Brett: You know what? I don’t remember.

[01:01:09] Christina: I then, then, then I, then I, then I’m gonna talk about it. If I I’ve somehow talked about this before that I apologize JSK or GSKi however you wanna say it is a great, um, uh, app. So it’s, it’s two things. It’s both, uh, there’s a CLI that’s kind of like a front end and there’s also a, um, a Mac app that, uh, uh, CiDRA, uh, CI house.

[01:01:30] Uh, and I know that I said his name wrong, um, created for, um, sorry. CiDRA

[01:01:38] Brett: Sohu Sohu.

[01:01:40] Christina: Sohu Sohu anyway, uh, he’s a prolific open source contributor who makes a lot of really great Mac apps and, and, um, also created like the awesome list, uh, stuff and whatnot. He makes a lot of really good utilities, um, and a lot of, uh, free open source stuff.

[01:01:54] Um, some of his things are, are paid, but most of them are free, but this is basically a GIF, [01:02:00] uh, a GIF converter. So convert videos to, to G’s animations, but it, it focuses on quality. So you can have really high quality, like, so I’ve had to do this recently where I’ve had to make. Um, JS have like screen recordings and stuff so that we can share, uh, screen recording videos that I’ve made like on social media.

[01:02:19] And most of the built most of the, the, the GIF, like conversion tools are terrible to be completely honest, they compress things way down. They don’t look good. And, and they’re just, they’re not worth a damn gys ski, which is free, is great. It’s a high quality different coder. So like the file sizes will be large.

[01:02:36] You can actually then limit the number of frames and you can also. How big the, the image is if you need to, um, to, to get it down. Um, and, and I found that actually will, will get you a long way, but the quality is incredible. And, um, the Mac app and, and the CLI version basically has to be run, you know, from the command line.

[01:02:56] And you can pass in, you know, like your frame for a second [01:03:00] and you’re width. And, and, you know, like, you know, the, the name that you want, you could do all of that. Exactly. Maximum of colors and, and you uses FFM peg, and it can, can do that stuff. But the, the Mac app is incredible because it’s super easy for you to just drag in a video file and then make adjustments.

[01:03:16] It’ll give you kind of an idea of how big the resulting file will be. The resulting file is actually usually a little bit smaller, which is good to know, and the results are just top notch. Like I haven’t found anything even remotely close and I’ve used basically everything else you could use. So this is from, um, the image Optum guy.

[01:03:34] Um, uh, and, uh, so it’s, uh, it’s really, really great. And, and if you have to deal with, with, with the gifs or gifts at all, and, um, converting them, like in the old days, we actually had a guy at Gizmoto, uh, Andrew Zuki. Who’s amazing who would make us the best, like gifs that I’ve ever seen, where he would, what he would do is he would take footage from the video.

[01:03:57] He would import all the frames into Photoshop, and then he would [01:04:00] export them out. Like he, he, he would do the editing and like export them out and, and Andrew has a setup, so he can do it really quickly. But if you don’t have an Andrew on your team who can do that for you, then this is going to be the closest thing you can possibly get.

[01:04:12] And it’s, and it’s free and it’s, and it’s also open source. So really good step.

[01:04:16] Brett: So two things, first of all, it’s amazing that you’ve given up on the fight and you just say both G and GIF every time you’re like GIF or GIF, GIF or GIF. Um, second I use GSKi on the command line in combination with G sickle, um, and the two together. I I’ve come up with a pretty good GIF workflow even though for like websites.

[01:04:40] Um, I’m using looping MP4 video now, but for social media, I’m excited.

[01:04:47] Christina: to. Yeah.

[01:04:48] Brett: I’m excited to try this gooey. This looks really cool. I

[01:04:52] Christina: the gooey is great. Yeah. The gooey is great. And the reason I like it is because it’ll give you the preview of the size because certain social media sites like [01:05:00] LinkedIn will like be really particular. Like they need a G, but it’ll, it can be up to eight megabytes.

[01:05:06] And then some like, Twitter will be fine with the file size. But if the resolution is too big, then they won’t, it won’t work. I didn’t know these things until the social media team was like, I need you to convert this to a smaller size or a different size. And I’m like, are you freaking kidding me? And thankfully I was using a tool that like, let me hone in on all those detail.

[01:05:27] Jeff: Awesome.

[01:05:28] Brett: All right. My pick will be quick. Um, I just discovered it, it was one of those that came up when I updated brew. I always look through, it tells you like what the new formula are formula and, and I go through them and I do a, a brew home, uh, brew home on all of them. And, um, I found this one called Astro Fox in the Cass brew CAS, and it is an open source free to use application that you can drop in an [01:06:00] audio file, for example, a podcast.

[01:06:03] And it will do background images, titles, and waveform, animations, and output an MP4 for you to upload to YouTube. Um, I’m excited because we’ve never agreed to record our actual faces while we’re talking on this podcast. And I have always been hesitant to just publish a video that was just a static image.

[01:06:29] Um, and, and then have our audio over it, but I do want to be on YouTube and this gives me an animated, visually interesting video from our little conversations here. Um, so I am very impressed with Astro Fox, uh, especially because it’s free and, uh, I’ll link that in the show notes. That’s it?

[01:06:52] Jeff: Awesome.

[01:06:53] Christina: I’m gonna definitely check that out. That’s great. That it’s, that it well done. Checking out the, the home brew formula, new new formula [01:07:00] things, cuz I’d never heard of this and this, this is like a perfect solution for what we’ve done and also might be useful in some of my other endeavors.

[01:07:06] So this is cool.

[01:07:07] Jeff: but did you pick it based on name alone

[01:07:11] Brett: no,

[01:07:12] Jeff: when you update, do you get like descriptions as well?

[01:07:17] Brett: No, when I, when I update it, I just get, I get names. So, yeah. Um, there’s a lot of stuff like flock. I know what it does, you know, I don’t need to, but if it’s a weird name, that sounds somewhat interesting. Um, the other one I found was tuck TUC, which is a variation of the Unix cut CLI. Um, but it does basically stuff that you would have to do some extensive said and a magic to do.

[01:07:47] Um, it basically uses cut syntax to say cut the second and fourth column, transposed them and split them with the centimeter. Um, it, it’s [01:08:00] very intuitive. Uh, I’ll link that one as well

[01:08:02] Jeff: is the one it’s like a, it’s a node module, right? That’s am I looking at the right thing?

[01:08:06] Brett: I think it’s a go, I don’t remember what it’s

[01:08:09] Jeff: Anyway. Cool. That’s awesome. Um, I would like to thank a, a special guest today, which is my youngest son. Who’s been making pesto in the kitchen, outside my door. So if you’ve heard a lot of kitchen noises, I do not have the heart, uh, to tell him to stop cuz he is making pesto.

[01:08:25] Um, so that’s it, but

[01:08:28] Brett: I, I didn’t hear it. I

[01:08:29] Christina: I didn’t either. I didn’t hear any of it. So, so

[01:08:32] Jeff: I delighted.

[01:08:33] Christina: so a great soundproofing and B um, you got to like hear and smell the pesto making and now you

[01:08:38] Jeff: Yeah. It’s awesome.

[01:08:39] Christina: So that’s

[01:08:40] Jeff: awesome. Before I get some sleep,

[01:08:43] Christina: Yes.

[01:08:44] Jeff: get some

[01:08:45] Brett: Speaking of get some sleep guys.

[01:08:49] Christina: Get some sleep. Can I Onvoy.