Code Word Felix with Daniel Muro LaMere

[00:00:00] Intro:Outro: Tired. So tired, Overtired.

[00:00:04] Jeffrey: Hello, everybody out there. This is Jeff and I am here with Brett. Christina is not with us. We miss her and we have, um, replaced her for one week only with, uh, with a fellow who has been name checked more times on this podcast than any of our partners

[00:00:22] Brett: true.

[00:00:23] Jeffrey: uh, we call 'em Denny Glam. But his name is Daniel Miro Lair.

[00:00:28] He’s a writer. He’s a, he’s a poet. He’s a, he’s a hardcore archivist. He’s a teacher who? A bunch of kids. welcome to Overtired.

[00:00:39] Daniel: Thanks for having me. Um, I do wanna say that I don’t seek to replace anyone. I’m just happy to be here.

[00:00:45] Jeffrey: Well, that’s a nice spirit with which to enter the podcast.

[00:00:48] Brett: I still consider usurper.

[00:00:52] Daniel: Fair enough.

[00:00:53] Jeffrey: Bend the knee.

[00:00:54] Daniel: Gauntlet thrown,

[00:00:57] Jeffrey: Um, Daniel is actually in my guest room right now. He is guesting on this podcast from my guest room. Um, and his, his setup is really depressing cause our guest room is still the, like covid guest room, which means it’s not a guest room at all.

[00:01:10] Daniel: but there’s lots of books.

[00:01:12] Jeffrey: There’s some books.

[00:01:13] Brett: What is a Covid guest room?

[00:01:15] Jeffrey: Like, uh, we turned it into a treadmill. there’s no longer a bed in there

[00:01:20] Brett: Oh, I see like a pandemic. A pandemic guest room. Okay,

[00:01:24] Jeffrey: nobody came over, you could just throw things into any room and it didn’t matter. And it never came around to bite you in the ass. That’s where Dan, that’s where Daniel is. He’s basically

[00:01:32] Daniel: the air’s not safe to breathe.

[00:01:34] Jeffrey: the basement.

[00:01:34] The air is not safe to breathe. No. Um, so anyway, uh, hello.

[00:01:40] Brett: Hello.

[00:01:41] Jeffrey: Here we are. Go ahead Brett. You got so.

[00:01:43] Brett: I gotta, I gotta warn everyone. I, my, my family’s in town for Christmas and I had some burning questions from my brother that maybe we’ll get into later. But, um, I invited him over for bourbon at noon and I drank, uh, two glasses. Uh, we’ll say, we’ll say like singles. I drank two singles at noon, and I, I just like crashed.

[00:02:16] After he left. I was just like worn out and now I’m here on a podcast and I am super, I am basically in recovery mode. I, I don’t, I don’t know what’s happening around me right now.

[00:02:31] Jeffrey: Well, you could do the exercise where you go green walls, uh, framed pictures, bass, guitar, and another bass guitar. What do I see in there? Treadmill on its side. That’s not how those go. Um,

[00:02:43] Brett: is, it is a treadmill on its side. You’re not wrong, I have a standing desk that I can, that I can elevate and then floor this treadmill down, and it’s a walking desk. But for the purpose of podcasting, I lower it and sit in a, in a chair, like a, like a normal person.

[00:03:00] Jeffrey: So Daniel, I’ve said a lot about who you are, but actually, why don’t you take control of the narrative. Tell us who you are, Daniel.

Introducing Danny Glamour

[00:03:08] Daniel: Oh my. Um, well, hello, I’m Daniel Mira Lair, uh, AKA a Danny Glamour. Uh, there’s a long origin story there, but, um, I’ll spare the listeners. Um, I teach high school English and uh, a class called Avid, which is like a college prep class and critical ethnic studies. And I’m a dad and I got some animals that live in my house.

[00:03:30] And, um, And I write poetry sometimes, and I blog about music sometimes. And, um, and I would love it if, if people would come hang out with me on Mastodon sometimes. So, um, that’s, that’s I think what, oh, and I’m like, you know, an elderly, uh, punk rock hardcore person, so, um,

[00:03:51] Brett: Poke rockers. Yeah, I, I think, I think you’re as old now as Bob Murderer was when I was in like the punk rock.

[00:03:59] Daniel: Oh, Bob Murderer. You know, there was a time,

[00:04:02] Jeffrey: That’s like rural juror.

[00:04:03] Daniel: yeah, there was a time when you, you could see that guy reliably on public transit. Um, I think we had a similar schedule for a while, um, coming from Whittier to downtown and, um, in Minneapolis. Uh, and um, also at the Triple Rock Social Club. You know, you’d often see him swallowing, uh, large quantities of cider.

[00:04:23] Brett: Yep.

[00:04:24] Jeffrey: Okay. I wanna say something as a, I’ll be a stand in for the listener. I have, I have spent time with these two together before in person and I, while I, I came up in the punk rock, Minneapolis. Thing I was not in the parallel existence, uh, the multiverse existence of the hardcore scene here, which both Brett and, and Daniel were like deep in.

[00:04:46] And so every once in a while one of them would just go, yeah, like Bob Murderer And, and I just encourage you listeners to just, you know, nod your heads smile cuz you’ll, you’ll get somewhere with

[00:04:57] Daniel: I think it’s probably a, a, a phrase that would be worth Googling and I think all would be revealed, uh, if, if the listener googled Bob murderer. But, um, also I was thinking of

[00:05:07] Jeffrey: I’m sorry.

[00:05:08] Daniel: no. What? Oh, yeah. Robert. Robert Homicide, um,

[00:05:14] Jeffrey: Robert, this is is his Christian

[00:05:17] Daniel: Yeah, that’s right. No, I was thinking, um, today or recently about how, um, you know, we all do sort of come from punk rock, but I think each of us sort of in a, a different corner or niche, uh, part of that at the same time, which is funny for a town as small as Minneapolis.

[00:05:37] Jeffrey: Yes. And, and back in the day there was very, there was, as the nineties went on, there was much more sort of intersection. So if you take an example like the band Dillinger four, which is

[00:05:46] Brett: No,

[00:05:47] Jeffrey: a, a, a punk rock slash not, you call 'em punk rock or hardcore, what do you call them?

[00:05:51] Brett: I call him pop punk.

[00:05:53] Jeffrey: Pop punk. Yeah,

[00:05:54] Daniel: You know, I asked, uh, Patty on, on Twitter not long ago, um, you know, is Dillinger for a hardcore band? And he said no, but heavily influenced by hardcore. So I don’t know, you know, he’s one of the, of the four. So that’s, you know,

[00:06:06] Jeffrey: Because they were, in a way, the Dillinger four were the, um, were the bridge between the sort of more sort of punk rock noise, rock scene and then the hardcore scene. And there was, when I was in a band and playing like there was such a division. And then as the years went on, uh, the two scenes just started to sort of like, you know, intermesh in a really cool way so that now it’s kind of everyone.

[00:06:29] History. But I will tell you when, when you guys show me, like I saw this, this YouTube page today by, what was the guy’s name? Daniel Zimmerman.

[00:06:37] Daniel: Dan Zimmerman. Yeah.

[00:06:38] Jeffrey: Zimmerman. Who? Who is, we explained this archive cause it’s incredible.

[00:06:42] Daniel: Um, the, the page is called 25 after, um, and it’s, you know, Dan used to play guitar in harvest. Um, I think he later moved to Brazil, and I think he might live in Spain now. Um, I’m not entirely sure, but he. You know, used to always have a camcorder o over his shoulder at every show. And so, um, you know, a lot of us knew that there was this, you know, vault of, you know, content and, you know, we’re like, when is he ever gonna do anything with this?

[00:07:10] And so, um, in the last handful of years, he’s digitized all these shows and he releases them, you know, as best he can 25 years to the. after, you know, the show happened and he’ll like release it, you know, at, you know, Showtime seven, 8:00 PM or whatever

[00:07:25] Jeffrey: A stream. A live stream, essentially.

[00:07:27] Daniel: On YouTube. Um, and sometimes

[00:07:29] Brett: 25 year delay on

[00:07:31] Daniel: Well, and sometimes it’s like 26 or, you know, with the, um, the code 13 disembodied video that I sent to these guys earlier. Um, I think that was like 27 years ago. But also really great example of world’s colliding because those were bands that existed in very different scenes. But, um, it, you know, it’s funny, Jeff, I don’t wanna contradict what you said before, but I, to my mind, and maybe this is, um, evidence of our.

[00:07:58] Experiences within punk. I, I feel like the nineties were a time when there were way more mixed bills and, and bands that were really different that played together or were on comps together, like the, um, the no slow algo,

[00:08:10] Brett: Yeah. Oh man.

[00:08:12] Daniel: And I feel like things really, um, sort of calcified where people kind of ended up in their own corners, um, as time went on, uh, where, you know, it’d be like a hardcore show and just be like four mosh metal bands.

[00:08:25] And then, you know, there’d be like a cross show. Whereas, you know, I remember some of the first shows I went to, it was like really wild, you know, pairings of styles and it that was so great and I miss that.

[00:08:37] Brett: the first show I went to after moving to Minneapolis was at the University of Minnesota. Um, it, where I was attending school did not finish there, but, um, uh, saltines. And Dylan four played at like, I don’t remember the name, the name of the venue there. Uh, but it was literally across the street from the hall where I lived and, and I showed up.

[00:09:06] Um, my No SOK was seminal for me, like back in high school when that came out and we, we tracked to extreme noise and. I think we met Felix that day and, and we bought no Sogo and got an introduction to the Minneapolis scene. And, and then Matt and I, all of a sudden we did these flyers for this Dill four saltine show, and we absolutely showed up for it.

[00:09:38] And I believe it was all ages, no alcohol. Wow. So it was, it was kind of a weird show for me. Um, but yeah, that. That’s history right there. That’s good.

[00:09:49] Daniel: I was wondering, um, If we need to have an explanatory about, um, who Felix Von Havoc is, or what extreme noise is, or any of that maybe.

[00:09:59] Brett: I feel like that is, that is, that is Minneapolis history. We should definitely do that.

[00:10:06] Jeffrey: Can I segue into it by saying that like Daniel and Brett both have such deep connect. Of these really key parts of Minneapolis punk hardcore history and, and things like, um, extreme noise and names like Felix become very significant so that if you listen closely and then meet someone who was from Minneapolis in those days, you could just say one of those words.

[00:10:27] Brett: Felix, who we’re on a first name basis with apparently, but uh, goes by, goes by Felix Vaughn havoc, and I don’t know well enough to know his real name, but Felix Vaughn havoc is Central

[00:10:38] Daniel: I’m not gonna share it here. It’s not that difficult to discover online, but it’s not for me to put it out there. Um, yeah, he, uh, I think he was a transplant from DC um, to Minneapolis. Um, and I, you know, I think had, had gotten sober. And just really threw himself at the local scene. He was, um, he sang in a band called Destroy and maybe most notably code 13 for a really long time.

[00:11:01] And he still runs a label called Havoc Records, which is really great. Um, and he was one of the, um, people that were behind, uh, getting extreme noise records off the ground, which is, you know, in, in, I think next year it’ll be 29 years of, of volunteer run punk rock record store.

[00:11:18] Brett: An anarchist record, sir.

[00:11:20] Jeffrey: in

[00:11:20] Daniel: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And it’s, uh, I volunteered there for, uh, a couple years, way back when.

[00:11:26] And, um, it’s a really important institution. and I, I went there a couple weeks ago. Um, it had been a very long time and, uh, and I had just, I had had a hospitalization, which is a whole other conversation, and so I was like running errands to sort of treat myself for being able to be out in the world and, and went and.

[00:11:46] And he like rang me up and I was like, I wonder does he, I knew that, I knew who he was. Like we’d been neighbors, you know, in East Phillips, in Minneapolis and like we worked on building a stage at a show space that ended up burning down. Um, and so like we knew each other, but, and I was, I. It just felt weird to like man.

[00:12:07] I don’t know. I get weird about stuff like that sometimes, and so I was wondering maybe he’s doing the thing I’m doing or maybe he has no idea who I am. Um, but it was cool to see him and to know that he’s still volunteering there and just really a, a life or an important part of what I think is an important scene, even though my participation in it is somewhat, um, you know, lacking these days.

[00:12:28] Yeah. Yeah.

Mental Health Corner

[00:12:29] Brett: Is this a mental health corner now?

[00:12:31] Jeffrey: Let’s do it.

[00:12:32] Brett: Um, I’ll kick it off. I, uh, I survived my, my Christmas, uh, my, my sister got delayed by the storm in the north here, um, going from Ohio to Minnesota, and she didn’t show up until like 4:00 PM on Christmas Day. And then they went ahead and had Christmas dinner.

[00:12:57] And given that between EL and I and our dietary restrictions, we can eat almost nothing. Um, except for like seeds. Um, they, they had, they had Christmas dinner without us. Which I’m fine with. And then I showed up at like from six to eight maybe. We opened all the kids presents and everyone got to gimme hugs and say, thank you Uncle Brett.

[00:13:25] And, and I I’m working on getting what?

[00:13:30] Jeffrey: you and Elle opened all the kids' presents.

[00:13:33] Brett: No,

[00:13:34] Daniel: Thank you Uncle Brett.

[00:13:35] Brett: We, we

[00:13:36] Jeffrey: you Uncle Brad

[00:13:37] Brett: We were, we were present for the opening of the presence from us to them. Um, I’m working on getting the, the kids to call l Auntie L. Um, we’re not married and in my family I think that’s a big deal, and it’s Uncle Brett and Elle. Um, and like Elle and I are, we’re kind of in it for the long haul.

[00:14:04] We don’t believe. Marriage, uh, as a, as a pairing. We we’re not big on the, the certificate. Um, but I really like, I don’t know how many years I’ll have to be with her before I can be like Auntie L Um, they still call my ex-wife an didi. So

[00:14:27] Jeffrey: uh,

[00:14:29] Daniel: That’s not okay.

[00:14:30] Jeffrey: that’s gotta be passed along.

[00:14:32] Brett: Yeah, you would think, but the fact is Uncle Brett, you know, could, it could change. Like I don’t, I, I don’t see a, a forever with anybody. Like, I love Elle and I will be with her for as long as it’s good for both of us, but when it’s not like I want the ability to move on, I don’t want, I don’t want a bunch of kids feeling dejected because something went awry in my relationship.

[00:15:07] Anyway. All right. That’s, that’s beside the point. Um. My family has remained in town and they, they don’t leave until tomorrow. And I, uh, we made a visit today. El taught the nieces how to, uh, cast on, which is how you start a knitting project you cast on to the needle. Yeah, so it’s like you start, you start with a slip knot, and then there’s a series of knots that you, you, you tie around the needle to begin a knitting project.

[00:15:40] And one of my nieces has gotten pretty good at knitting, but she didn’t know how to start the project. Uh, so Elle was there to teach her to cast on, she tried to teach a couple of the others. I learned a lot, very quickly about the learning styles of my nieces. I have one niece who has an interest. She a curiosity, but zero patience.

[00:16:04] And as soon as something is too hard, she like, she fucked it up as much as she could and then like held it up as like, did I do it? Obviously she didn’t and, and then she was off. She was gone. But the niece who actually wanted to learn this was so patient and so determined and she got it and I. It was, that’s the kid I have a lot of hope for.

[00:16:31] I think she will be, um, I think nine, maybe

[00:16:35] Jeffrey: Got it. Yeah, it

[00:16:36] Brett: I lose track. They keep growing.

[00:16:39] Jeffrey: it’s lovely when they’re at that point where it’s like they want it. And so, you know, anything you do to help is gonna be in service of that, not in service of like

[00:16:49] Brett: Yeah, but she had the, she had the patience, she had the, the determination to keep, keep getting it wrong until she got it right. I don’t have that, like I, I, I more relate to my older niece who just did not have the patience to learn this. I, I felt. I felt for her, I understood like, yeah, you should just go because this is gonna take more determination than you have.

[00:17:19] You don’t have the level of determination necessary to, to beat this learning curve. Um, you’re not that interested. And I think she’s probably fine if she’s interested enough, but I wouldn’t doubt there’s some kind of a D H D going on. Uh, in her, uh, obviously I’m not a doctor. I can’t diagnose that, and she’s also very young.

[00:17:44] Um,

[00:17:44] Jeffrey: you’ve had a couple drinks,

[00:17:48] Brett: but anyway, so, so I have this burning curiosity about like, these kids are being homeschooled, which I am innately. , I, I innately object to, um, I given how religious their parents are. I don’t like the idea of being, them being homeschooled, but in conversations, holy shit, these girls know so much and they have such a grasp on history and science and technology.

[00:18:23] Uh, they, they, they’re using this method where they learn songs. Uh, like extended 13 minute long songs about like historical events and they can sing like the history of the Reformation, for example. Uh, like she was able to recite it all at the dinner table.

[00:18:44] Jeffrey: just real big. They might be Giants fans, huh?

[00:18:48] Brett: But, but. They’re also able to pull from that and understand the connections.

[00:18:55] And the interesting thing about it is like in school we learned American history. I like, we learned what happened in the 18 hundreds, the 19 hundreds, but we didn’t necessarily learn what happened around the world. At the same time, we didn’t understand the global implications of what was happening. And these kids have already.

[00:19:16] At the ages of seven to 11 years old. And, and I was very fascinated and they understood enough about science. Like I showed them pictures of my Asher photography and they started talking, me, talking to me about the, the theoretical existence of microscopic black holes. And, and I was like, holy shit. How?

[00:19:38] How does a family that doesn’t believe in evolution understand? Advanced astrophysics. And so I had to have my brother over four drinks to talk about like exactly, I ne I needed to know what is it you believe and how are you conveying this to your children and.

[00:19:58] Jeffrey: believe in the power of song

[00:20:00] Daniel: Do you think that they maybe believe in black holes? As long as they’re small enough.

[00:20:05] Brett: here’s the Here’s the thing is they act. My brother believes in evolution. Uh, he couldn’t speak for his wife. Uh, he said she didn’t care whether evolution was real or not, but he believes in evolution. He believes in the earth being billions of years old, not 6,000 years old. and he doesn’t believe in hell.

[00:20:29] That was the big revelation for me, is that their brand of Christianity is, he called it nihilism, which means something,

[00:20:39] Jeffrey: Donny. They can’t hurt

[00:20:40] Brett: means something different to me. But for him it meant that instead of eternal damnation and burning for eternity, those who didn’t believe were just snuffed out. Like there was a reward for the saved.

[00:20:56] Jeffrey: Wow.

[00:20:57] Brett: there’s no, there’s no punishment. There’s no eternal punishment, uh, for not finding Jesus. And that was,

[00:21:05] Jeffrey: of nihilism, isn’t it?

[00:21:06] Brett: it’s a kind of Judaism, really. I, uh,

[00:21:09] Jeffrey: but it’s not like arguing with God, like Judaism is so wonderful at, you know, like, it

[00:21:14] Brett: it. It is, it is a little bit nihilistic. Uh, I also determined , he kept throwing around this term, right-Leaning, anarchist. Like he saw himself,

[00:21:27] Daniel: I think

[00:21:27] Brett: himself as a, he saw himself as

[00:21:29] Daniel: way fewer

[00:21:29] Brett: I know, I know

[00:21:31] Jeffrey: white.

[00:21:32] Brett: I, I was like, I was like, you know, you mean libertarian, right? He is like, well, it’s a, it’s a circle. And I’m like, yeah, and when you cross this gap at the bottom, you’re a libertarian.

[00:21:44] So for the rest of the conversation, he was a libertarian. But, uh, but it was, it was enlightening. I, I appreciated the conversation.

[00:21:52] Jeffrey: yeah. Yeah. It’s nice to open that conversation up.

[00:21:56] Brett: And that’s, that’s basically my mental health right now, that that sums it up.

[00:22:00] Daniel: You know, each week when I listen, um, I always think like, well, what would I say if I was in the mental health? Like, what is my, so it’s, it’s kind of a, I really appreciate this as a feature because it’s an opportunity as a listener to reflect, you know, on one’s own situation. But, um, So, yeah, I just recently, um, I alluded to it earlier, but I had a sort of a health scare.

[00:22:24] Um, my, my gallbladder went, um, I’m trying to remember the sophisticated term that, um, tits up and, um, and, uh, I Thanksgiving, um, Afternoon, I was getting ready to prepare some stuffing and I was like, Ooh, I feel kind of gassy. And um, you know, and I just was like, that sucks. I was uncomfortable. And I was like, well, maybe I shouldn’t have had those dried cherries, you know?

[00:22:46] And then I just like went about my business cuz I had a meal to prepare and had to get the kids together and get to my parents and didn’t think much of it. And then that night, um, laying down in bed, I had like, really bad back pain and really didn’t sleep very well. But I, you know, At that point had been really battling some insomnia for some months and months.

[00:23:06] And so I was like, well, I guess this is just another night where I’m up, you know? And um, and then the next day it was like a lot of stomach and back pain and I was like, oh man. Um, I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess I’ll call the nurse line. I’m out of ideas and. The woman at the nurse line who , I think probably saved my life, uh, told me to go to the er and she’s like, yeah, if you don’t feel like you can drive yourself, you should get an ambulance.

[00:23:31] And I was like, oh, okay. And for me, like calling the, I guess they call it the Caroline, um, calling the Caroline and going to the emergency room are, you know, worlds apart. The book is a lot of, lot of steps in between. And so I was like, oh God, you know, she thought it might have been my. So, yeah. So then I go to the er and again, they thought maybe it was my heart, a thing I mentioned a few times to them because they were telling people, um, nine hours, uh, for a wait.

[00:23:55] And this is, you know, five o’clock, uh, 5:00 PM on Black Friday. Um, and you know, I, I wanna be clear that I’m not complaining about these people. Um, I’m complaining about our healthcare system, but there. Shit ton of people that, um, end up clogging up our emergency rooms because they are in a position where they have to use it as their primary care.

[00:24:17] Because, you know, if, if you don’t have the right kind of job, then you don’t have insurance and it, or if you’re poor on disability, it’s just fucked, you know? And so, um, there’s people in all manner of, uh, disrepair. Um, and then, and then me who. Sit still because of the discomfort. So I’m pacing around and getting side eye from a lot of people.

[00:24:35] One woman in particular just kept giving me, you know, fucking daggers. And then, you know, I’d walk past

[00:24:40] Jeffrey: like a man son,

[00:24:42] Daniel: Yeah, exactly. I’d walk past the, um, sort of the check-in booth and uh, sir, is there something we can help with? No, I just can’t get comfortable. I’m sorry. And, um, you know, and then I’m still like trying to go to the bathroom a a lot cuz I don’t know what’s going on.

[00:24:54] And, um, two hours later I finally got the ekg. Uh, so thank God it wasn’t my heart and I didn’t die of a heart attack. And the chairs, um, And then finally they did like a CT scan and they, they were like, you know, I’m really sorry. We don’t have any beds. We think it, but we think it’s your, um, gallbladder and, um, you know, we’re gonna have to check you in.

[00:25:15] But again, we don’t think we have any beds, so we’re just gonna have you, we’re gonna have you back in this back hallway. And, uh, sorry again. and then, yeah, I had the surgery the next day and um, so then, you know, it’s that weird thing of like having a conversation after surgery and not being sure when it started or how many times they had to try to have it with you.

[00:25:34] But then, you know, as a surgeon again, she’s like, yeah, then explaining everything of course, and all these like 12 syllable words. But she’s like, yeah, you know, it was, uh, took a lot longer than we thought. And it’s like, well, it’s all the same to me. I don’t know. I was out, but. You know, it was really swollen and, um, you know, parts of it were gangrenous, other parts were necrotic.

[00:25:51] And I was like, okay, I don’t, like, I was like, hold on. Did you what ? Yeah. I was like, gang, like gang green? And she’s like, yeah, yeah. And she, I was like, like, I, I could have died. And she’s like, yeah. And so, yeah. Um, and so because it, it was like four or five times the size it was supposed to be. So, um, four scars because two of them, the two became one.

[00:26:12] And, um, So they could get it out. Um, and you know, and then I was like, I was like, well, maybe I’m being a weirdo and sensationalizing a thing I’m prone to doing from time to time. And so I was like, maybe this wasn’t as bad. And she, you know, cause she didn’t lead with the thing like, well, you almost died and so maybe, you know, she was like, yeah, it could have happened, but we don’t really know.

[00:26:32] Um, So I, a few days later I got like my chart like sent to me on my phone and I copied it and pasted it and sent it to my, um, sister-in-law who’s a nurse in California. And I was like, yeah, I guess I just don’t really feel like I know how close I really got. And she’s like, pretty fucking close, dude. Like, that was really gnarly.

[00:26:50] I’m glad you got checked out. So,

[00:26:52] Jeffrey: Wow.

[00:26:53] Daniel: That was a weird thing because, and I like had to work this out in therapy, which is the mental health component of it. You know, the having almost died, but not having experienced sort of the near death, you know, in the way that,

[00:27:07] Brett: You didn’t, you didn’t ha, you didn’t have the diagnosis in advance. You were told in post that you almost died.

[00:27:14] Daniel: And kind of had to piece it together over the course of like 10 days.

[00:27:17] And so it was like, and then what? And I, you know, I always want everything to be meaningful and there’s no way to, you know, and now what shall I do with this? Well, it’s, you know, the same thing you should have done before , like to be a good person. So, um, so, you know, but I’ve, you know, I’m very aware of, um, Sort of mortality and, and also, um, how fucked up our medical system is.

[00:27:40] Although nurses are amazing and I got really good care and obviously the surgeon did a great job. Um, I, I do wanna just tell people as a public service announcement, especially dudes, I feel like, um, to like get things checked out. Um, yeah, I’ve got other people in my life that have had some things happen recently where I kind of wonder if things could have been prevented had they gone in.

[00:28:03] Brett: Yeah.

[00:28:04] Daniel: of which was unfortunately fatal. So, um, yeah, it’s just so people should get things checked out cuz like, if I had just tried to tough it out, you know, another night, I mean, who knows? Right? So, um,

[00:28:15] Brett: I, when I had appendicitis, I, I, I waited three days. I thought it was a bad flu of some kind with a lot of stomach pain. Um, and they told me if I had waited one more day, I’d be dead.

[00:28:30] Daniel: that wild?

[00:28:31] Brett: I went to the ER on Tuesday this week. Uh, because my watch alerted me that my heart rate had hit 120 B bpm while it had determined that I was sitting still and I was cooking at the time, I was like slowly ambling around the kitchen and my heart rate was at 120.

[00:28:51] So I like sat down and it didn’t go down. Um, it, I was ranging between one 10 and one 30 for an hour before I decided, okay, I’m gonna go. To the er. I’m gonna get this checked out. It’s a Tuesday night on like Christmas break. It was pretty empty. I got seen very quickly. They did a bunch of tests. They determined I wasn’t having a heart attack, and like did, did some other tests to just see if they could figure out what was going on.

[00:29:23] Didn’t resolve anything, but, uh, but they were very, they were very cool about, um, the care and, and I really appreciated that. I, I feel like a hypochondriac when it comes to that stuff. Uh, heart disease runs in my family and I worry every time, every time something abnormal happens with my heart, I worry.

[00:29:46] Um, I’m very paranoid that I will die of a heart attack. So that was comforting. It was a weird way to go into a square dance with my mom.

[00:29:57] Jeffrey: Wait a minute. I, sorry. my brain just like rebooted.

[00:30:09] Brett: That was, that was so my parents had their square dance. Uh, and, and

[00:30:15] Daniel: is an anniversary thing, right?

[00:30:17] Brett: My excuse for not participating in the square dance was I just went to the ER and they told me to take it easy for a couple days.

[00:30:27] Daniel: That’s great answer for a lot of people, is taking it easy, I think. But um, so

[00:30:33] Brett: your partner round and round.

[00:30:34] Jeffrey: Not if you’ve been, it swung.

[00:30:35] Daniel: Yeah. No, no, shit. So I’ll be, I’ll be quick to wrap up my mental health situation. Um, so then I had to convalesce for a week and, um, you know, public education is a wonderful thing, but, uh, it was really, um, eye-opening, how much the job crept into my life when I was supposed to be just like laying around, being grateful to be alive and, and recer.

[00:30:59] Yeah, there was like multiple things a day and it wasn’t really anybody’s fault. It’s just shit trickles down on teachers. And um, and it really, like, it’s really given me pause to think like, I wonder how much longer I can do this. And um, and that’s not to say that, I’m making a decision or not. It’s just, that’s, that’s been a weird thing because it’s that, you know, I have felt so fortunate to have found teaching and sort of fell into it and, and felt like, um, I don’t know, to have a job that I really love and feel like I’m good at feels like such a gift.

[00:31:34] And to, to sort of be questioning that as. Place to be. Um, and also, um, as an ADHD person, I recently ran m into the national or international, um, stimulant shortage. I take, uh, Dexter amphetamine for my A D H D and um, good luck finding that anywhere. The guy at Walgreens was like, yeah, there’s none in the state, in our

[00:31:58] Brett: Like, uh, Folkin.

[00:32:01] Daniel: Uh, I dexedrine, I guess I

[00:32:04] Brett: Okay. Okay.

[00:32:05] Daniel: Um, and they were able, I take 15 milligrams and, um, they were able, you know, and it’s, it’s really fun to be the person with the compromise executive functioning, to be like trying to be the conduit between the psychiatrist and the pharmacies. But I was able to find a pharmacy that was able to fill, um, a 10 milligram prescription and then I just, you know, cut one in half.

[00:32:27] And I have to tell you, Being back on those meds today. It was a combination of that. And my daughter had a play date today, and we are not tidy people, so we spent hours like tidying our house. I was a sweaty mess. Um, but the physical activity early in the day and the clean house and the pills, I just felt like so much better today and I’m so grateful.

[00:32:52] So, um, I really. It’s kind of in rough shape the past few days and it’s, it’s nice to be back. So that is my mental health update.

[00:33:02] Jeffrey: I. I have a, a, a new chapter I’m in with, initially it was the shortage and there was no Vivance. Um, and may or may not have gotten some from one of the people on the air with me right now. Uh, I can’t remember who. Um, but I, um, I got a letter from my insurance company that said, um, essentially we’re no longer, um, going to cover you taking Vivance until you have failed at, and that was the, those were the words.

[00:33:32] Any of these four alternatives and they gave me the alternatives. Focalin, what you’re taking Daniel, like, you know, um, Adderall, which it does hit different than Vince, even though they’re basically the same thing. Um, and like I almost don’t have the energy to be as full of rage as that actually makes me.

[00:33:53] The idea that they would take a medication I’ve been taking for I think, uh, two years now. It’s worked great for me. Um, I finally have it kind of balanced into an overall sort of cocktail and then say, Hey, guess what? We’re gonna play a little game. Okay, no more Vivance. Now we’re gonna play fail at folk

[00:34:11] Right?

[00:34:12] Brett: that is,

[00:34:12] Jeffrey: like, oh my God, those are such different drugs. Like

[00:34:15] Brett: is the ADHD game, man.

[00:34:17] Jeffrey: that. Yeah. It’s like you’re the worst drug dealer ever. Um,

[00:34:21] Daniel: Vivance newer too, like

[00:34:24] Brett: Yeah. Vivance is newer than Adderall, but it, like, it’s the same families Adderall, but it, it, uh, it, it, uh, moves through your system differently. It’s more, it’s more directly processed by the liver. Um,

[00:34:38] Jeffrey: and it’s actually partly made so that you to kind of, it was an answer to the problem of snorting

[00:34:44] Brett: yeah.

[00:34:45] Jeffrey: Um, basically it’s like you can’t snort by band and

[00:34:48] Brett: I mean, you can, but it

[00:34:49] Jeffrey: can, yeah, you can, part of the reason that works is cuz it moves differently through your body. So my understanding is that Adderall just hits right away.

[00:34:57] Um, and is a little bit and drops you off at the door, you know, like a few hours later,

[00:35:02] Daniel: What about if you cooked it down into a gummy?

[00:35:06] Brett: Uh,

[00:35:07] Jeffrey: Hey.

[00:35:07] Brett: a good idea. I’ll let you know.

[00:35:09] Jeffrey: yeah, let us know. By the way, there’s a new cannabis shop in, in my neighborhood called Cannabis.

[00:35:14] Brett: Oh my God. So Minnesota

[00:35:16] Jeffrey: Minnesotan thing ever,

[00:35:20] Brett: So, so we’re gonna have to take a sponsor break here.

[00:35:23] Jeffrey: let’s.

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Grapptitude

[00:40:06] Brett: Oh, we did It. Is, uh, Danny, are you participating in.

[00:40:12] Daniel: Yeah, I got one.

[00:40:14] Jeffrey: Oh yeah. Way to come

[00:40:15] Brett: let’s, let’s kick it off with our guest.

[00:40:18] Jeffrey: Okay.

[00:40:18] Daniel: thank you. Um, I am not a power user of, um, anything that I’ve ever put my hands to. I would like to say that off the top. Um, but I, and also the laptop I use belongs to the school district for which I work. Um, and so I am not able to, To do fun things with it, nor would I know how. Um, but, um, I, I’m a big fan of the iOS app.

[00:40:43] Two Dots. Two Dots, which is a

[00:40:46] Jeffrey: Yes.

[00:40:46] Daniel: It’s a, it’s a game wherein one, uh, you know, connects dots and there’s nice, like, chill music that I rarely turn on. Um, but you know, in those times that I, I think I’ve heard others refer to as interstitial times throughout the day. I like to just, you know, have little two dots going.

[00:41:04] And it’s good for, you know, sometimes, you know, I might be watching a show and playing two dots at the same time, cuz that’s how my brain works. Um, especially late in the day when I’m not medicated. But, um, yeah, it’s just a nice little, it’s just a nice little game. I’m on. I’ll, I’ll tell you now. I’m on level.

[00:41:18] Let’s look. Well, I, I wanna tell you, but I, I, hold on. Okay. Games over here. Click on it. I’ve been playing this bad boy for like eight years. Looks like we’re on level, um, level 2,938.

[00:41:32] Brett: Jesus.

[00:41:33] Daniel: So that’s

[00:41:34] Jeffrey: Hap good haptic feedback that game The little vibrations.

[00:41:38] Daniel: And, uh, accessibility for the, you know, I don’t, thankfully I am not, I don’t believe colorblind or if I am, it’s just a, just a touch of the colorblindness.

[00:41:49] Um, but I, uh, you know, they do have a colorblind feature if, if one needs that. Yeah.

[00:41:56] Jeffrey: That’s awesome. I, I, I’ve also been playing for eight years. The reason it’s not on my phone is the same reason it’s never on my phone because it’s never on my phone for more than three days, and I get so hooked and like completely like lost in it that I’m like, gotta delete this app. It’s too good.

[00:42:11] Brett: I’ve never played this game.

[00:42:14] Jeffrey: Oh, it’s so delightful.

[00:42:16] Daniel: I wanna say too, one thing I like about it is that they don’t it, it doesn’t feel like they mess with it. You know, whereas like there were other apps that I, that I have enjoyed both games and otherwise, where it’s, you know, a couple of them are getting folded into things at the end of the year, like Dark Sky.

[00:42:32] Um, and you know, I’m a big fan of Geo Guesser, but they just did something weird with that. And, you know, I just, I like for people to just leave well enough alone, you know, leave, leave, leave my, just don’t, don’t get in there and mess with my stuff.

[00:42:47] Jeffrey: Exactly My, my pick is a tool by Simon Williamson who used to work for The Guardian doing sort of journalism hacker shit. Um, and once he left the guardian, Built something called Dataset, which is just an amazing, um, tool for, you know, looking at, looking over your kind of SQLite databases. But he also has a bunch of tools that help you create those databases.

[00:43:12] And so he wrote a tool called s3, o c r. Um, and basically what it allowed me to do was say, Hey, there’s that bucket over there. I want you to OCR everything in it. Right? And that’s cool, but the thing that you can do next that’s amazing is create a whole index of everything there. So, I, I, I ended up with this amazing like, um, SQLite database that allows me to interact with the data in these, um, documents in a way that I didn’t never dreamed was possible.

[00:43:45] So, It’s a little tool. It’s a little tool that allows you to OCR the stuff you have in your S3 bucket. And that just seems so simple, but lemme tell you, it’s not

[00:43:56] Brett: So, so my, my pick y for my pick. You have to go back to Byword. Um,

[00:44:04] Jeffrey: byword. B y

[00:44:06] Daniel: W a

[00:44:06] Brett: B Y W o R d, byword,

[00:44:09] Jeffrey: app.

[00:44:10] Brett: great app. It was a, it was a great, very minimalist in the spirit of TechMate. Like the first time I opened TechMate, I was a, I was a pretty brand new Mac user and I opened up TechMate and there was no toolbar, there was no menu.

[00:44:28] Nothing.

[00:44:29] Jeffrey: Yeah.

[00:44:29] Brett: Um, and it took me, there’s this like learning curve you have to go through to realize everything is keyboard based and, and all of the features are there. You just don’t have a word esque menu bar to tell you where everything is by word was like the pretty version of that for writing markdown

[00:44:50] Jeffrey: not was I still use by word,

[00:44:52] Brett: byword still, still operates, still. Great app. Um, and then I found a multi markdown by Fletcher Penny, uh, which was a flavor of markdown that incorporated a bunch of things that. That standard markdown didn’t like tables and footnotes and citations, et cetera. Um, and Fletcher built an app called Mark Mult, multi markdown composer, uh, which currently version five is in beta and I am on the beta for it, and it remain.

[00:45:28] These days my go-to for markdown editing, um, the engine that runs all of the text transformations and editing in multi markdown composer is being is in Envi Ultra. Um, it’s basically the same. The underpinnings of multi-market on Composer are available. In ENV Ultra, he like, he built them as sea libraries that are portable to other applications.

[00:45:58] So that’s what you get when you are running ENV Ultra. But if you want the full version with basically design for longform, markdown editing, uh, multi markdown composer is my pick for the week. And it is, it is an app that I use pretty much daily.

[00:46:20] Jeffrey: I need to revisit it. I, I loved it when I think I used it around version two or three

[00:46:25] Brett: Yeah, it’s version five is outstanding. Uh, my favorite thing he ever added, which you cannot find in envy Ultra is table of contents. Uh, manipulation. So like you, you set up headings in your document with, you know, uh, hash marks to set like heading one, heading two, heading three. Uh, multi markdown composer in the sidebar creates, uh, a hierarchy of your headers and then you can drag one head.

[00:46:59] Before another header and everything between that header and the next header will drag with it. So you can manipulate, yeah, you can reorganize your document just by dragging the headers around in the table of contents menu bar. And it has a ton of features like that. That better outstanding?

[00:47:20] Jeffrey: Awesome.

[00:47:21] Brett: Yep. Yep, yep.

[00:47:23] Jeffrey: All right.

[00:47:24] Daniel: Buy word is, uh, $5 and 89 cents.

[00:47:27] Brett: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:27] Jeffrey: it? Yeah. I paid it years ago and I still use it when I’m really, my brain’s really cluttered and I need to write something. I will just open up

[00:47:36] Brett: Best. Best. My favorite feature of byword that does exist in multi-market on Composer and in NV Ultra is Command Option Up Arrow. Um, if you have, if your, your cursor is in a word command option, up arrow will select the word, you hit it again, it will select the sentence. You hit it again, it will select the paragraph.

[00:48:00] You hit it again, it’ll select the full document. It, it expands your selection from the cursor position,

[00:48:07] Jeffrey: Hit it again and it opens up, uh, chat, g p t

[00:48:10] Brett: uh, no, it opens up a wormhole and then you’re fucked.

[00:48:14] Daniel: But a microscopic wormhole.

[00:48:16] Brett: Microscopic. Yep.

[00:48:17] Jeffrey: you can believe in, you know, Well, it’s been a pleasure talking to you people.

[00:48:22] Daniel: Hey,

[00:48:23] Brett: Oh my God. It’s over already.

[00:48:25] Daniel: I’m really tired.

[00:48:26] Brett: I feel like. I feel like we hit a bare minimum of Minneapolis hardcore history.

[00:48:31] Jeffrey: That’s true. Can always do more

[00:48:34] Daniel: Yeah, it’s probably the re listeners are probably glad for that.

[00:48:41] Jeffrey: Well, listeners, I do hope you’re glad, whoever you are, because the one listener and I know is always listening is on the fucking podcast. So I’m not sure what our analytics are gonna look like.

[00:48:52] Daniel: I’ll still listen. I liked the sound of my own voice.

[00:48:56] Jeffrey: Me too. Me too. That’s true. Uh, you guys get some sleep, but not yet. You’re in a guest room without a bed. But like, you know, as it goes, get some.

[00:49:03] Brett: Get some sleep.

[00:49:04] Daniel: Get some sleep. Thanks.