Election Madness and Terminal Emulators

[00:00:00] Introduction and Host Greetings

[00:00:00] Jeff: Hello, brand new America. This is the Overtired podcast. Uh, I’m Jeff Severns Guntzel. I got Christina Warren with me. Hi, Christina.

[00:00:14] Christina: Hi, Jeff. Um,

[00:00:16] Brett’s Health Update

[00:00:16] Jeff: you follow Brett on social media, uh, and maybe if you don’t, uh, you will now know that he is having some health issues. Um, and, uh, and we wish him so well. He is not here with us.

[00:00:28] Christina: he is not here with us. He’s, he’s with us in spirit. We hope that he’s doing well and that we figure out, hopefully, you know, by the time this episode goes up, he’ll be closer to figuring out why he’s been having some, uh, some fainting spells and some other stuff, which is super, super scary. So, and a fucking terrible week for it.

[00:00:45] I mean, it’s a terrible week in general, but like, of all the weeks for like, you know, to have to have like a health crisis on top of everything else.

[00:00:52] Jeff: Yeah, it’s like the only week that would also explain that particular health

[00:00:55] crisis. I’m not saying It’s I’m definitely

[00:00:58] Christina: no, no, Oh, no, [00:01:00] no, no. It doesn’t seem to be, but no, but yeah, totally. It is one of those things. Well, the thing is, if it hadn’t started like before Tuesday, I think that that would have been um, like, if I were the ER doctor, I’d be like, are we sure this isn’t just a stress response?

[00:01:16] Jeff: right. Yeah. Are we sure there’s not people across America passing out consistently right now?

[00:01:22] No. Uh, feel better, Brett. Uh, and

[00:01:26] it just sucks, and hopefully he figures it out, and if you do follow him on social media, send him, send him well wishes, um, and hope that he posts no more photos of himself from the ER.

[00:01:36] Christina: Yeah. For real. For real. Um, and, and, and, and, Very sad. Um, and, and if you’re either a doctor or an armchair doctor, please respond to him, um, with, um, suggestions for how you can solve his medical problem without actually knowing what his symptoms and, and situation is, because I know he will love that.

[00:01:58] Jeff: That’s a little special request he sent [00:02:00] through us.

[00:02:00] Christina: It is. It is. It is.

[00:02:01] Jeff: and we, we like to take care of him.

[00:02:03] Christina: We, we, we do. Just, just say that, you know, Christina and Jeff wanted to make sure that he doesn’t get any sleep.

[00:02:08] Jeff: Yeah, definitely. And if you’ve Googled this thing or something, you know, let him know the first thing you see, cause that’s sometimes the best thing.

[00:02:15] Christina: Yeah, it’s, it’s never the worst. It’s never gonna freak anybody out or like take them down another sort of spiral. It’s never gonna do anything else. No, um, please don’t, please don’t actually do that.

[00:02:23] Medical Advice and ChatGPT Discussion

[00:02:23] Christina: And, and, and Brett, if you’re, if you’re listening to this, please don’t, like, WebMD yourself. Like, we, we all know that, we all know the, the fear of, or, or at this point, okay, mindfuck.

[00:02:39] People are, because I’m already probably thinking of doing this, people aren’t going to WebMD themselves anymore. They’re just going to ChatGPT their symptoms.

[00:02:47] Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is, which can be not helpful. Probably can be helpful in some scenarios, but can

[00:02:53] Christina: I was going to say in

[00:02:54] Jeff: And you can’t know, is the point.

[00:02:56] Christina: I was going to say, like, I actually firmly believe [00:03:00] that if you had a really good medical LLM, or like, like a medical version of ChatGPT, which frankly, that’s what, that’s what OpenAI should do. They should start making like specialized, like off the shelf LLMs.

[00:03:10] So we’re doing things specifically for certain industries that are models that are tuned similar to like GitHub Copilot, like where things that are like, Hey, this is tuned on medical analysis and information and we can have statistical data and, and we can refine the parameters so that, um, uh, certain functions are not happening, um, you know, like, um, non deterministically but are actually happening on a deterministic system.

[00:03:32] So like math and things like that are always going to be correct, but we can make sure that like the, the, the training data is good. Like. Um, I could actually see, you know, that being a really, I mean, already doctors are using it and they’ve used, you know, like, uh, you know, things for years to be able to kind of like run through symptoms and try to get, you know, like, things back.

[00:03:51] But like, you could see, and, you know, that be, you know, really, really good, like, diagnostic, and like, uh, analysis tool, right? [00:04:00] Um, and, and even for like, lay people, if you even had like a, a, again, you know, like, OpenAI, like, make this, make, make the medical grade one for the doctors, but then also make, like, a home version where, like, people can pay, like, 40 a quarter on addition to their ChatGPT, you know, plus bill, and they can get, like, the personal, you know, MD sort of thing, and, like, get, like, you know, like, talk to your doctor about this, um, but, like, yeah, I mean, I guess you’d have to get chemical compliance, but, Anyway, I’m coming up with all kinds of business ideas for, for OpenAI.

[00:04:35] Jeff: rich by the end of this podcast, probably.

[00:04:38] Christina: no, I mean, it won’t be, but like, and God only knows, like, what it’ll cost them to actually run those things.

[00:04:44] Jeff: What about just a, what if, what if our goal could be by the end of this podcast to just have a little walking around money? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:49] We don’t have to

[00:04:49] Christina: that would be great.

[00:04:50] Jeff: Yeah, I

[00:04:51] guess

[00:04:51] Christina: mean, I would love it.

[00:04:52] Jeff: gives us, is a little bit of walking around money.

[00:04:54] Um, Yeah. I, uh, there’s a funny, um, my, um, [00:05:00] there’s somebody in my life who was in the ER recently, I won’t be, I won’t give any indications, but she gave birth to me, um, and, and, she was, she got tested for something and then was reading the results You know, you’re in the ER and you’re, you have results, but you’re still waiting for a room for somebody to talk to you.

[00:05:20] You can’t help but look at them. And she, she texts me and she says, it says, I have a collapsed bladder. I don’t, I’m eager to know what that means. And I was like, yeah, no, probably it doesn’t mean anything bad because. Medical language is funny. And what occurred to me is it might mean that you just don’t have any pee. And, and sure enough, she got to the doctor, she’s all worried about the like, collapsed bladder. What does it mean? It just means your bladder is empty. Oh, right.

[00:05:48] Christina: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. And, and, and that’s

[00:05:51] Jeff: sound good.

[00:05:52] Christina: no, no, but see, that’s actually a great example again of like a personal, like medical, like jargon thing. Like what does this mean? Like honestly, [00:06:00] even putting aside, okay, genuine like product idea and it doesn’t have to be OpenAI. Anybody could do this.

[00:06:05] Because in this case, you wouldn’t have to be necessarily, I mean, it would be better if you were fine tuned on like, you know, medical, um, uh, books and, and, and things like that. But, but, but it wouldn’t strictly even have to be. So just having like a, a, a well tuned kind of like personal, you know, explainer be like, I can type in what this medical term is from my doctor’s office and this is going to tell me in real language what it actually is.

[00:06:30] Jeff: Yeah, that’s, I love that. Yeah. I’m gonna actually, I’m sure she could have seen this on Google, although she didn’t seem to. I’m in ChatGPT, or in the most recent Roderick on the Line, John Roderick called it ChattyG, which is really amazing, and

[00:06:44] I, I, it’s so in my head that when I

[00:06:46] opened Alfred just now, I started typing ChattyG.

[00:06:50] Christina: Amazing. I mean, honestly, honestly, I kind of want to like, make that my alias for it.

[00:06:55] Jeff: So good. I know it was just my thought like, Oh, yeah, maybe I’ll do that. [00:07:00] Ooh, Collapsed bladder, often referred to as bladder prolapse or a cystoseal, occurs when the bladder drops from its normal position in the pelvis and presses against the vaginal wall. This typically happens when the muscles and tissues supporting the bladder become weakened.

[00:07:14] That’s not at all an empty bladder, says Chatty G.

[00:07:18] Christina: Yeah, I was gonna say, Chatty G seems like a very different thing. So, uh, so maybe not. Maybe, maybe, maybe this is not. Maybe, maybe we’re not having a good idea. Like, we’re

[00:07:28] Jeff: about this? Isn’t it just an empty bladder? Welcome to Chatty G with Christina and Jeff. Uh, isn’t it just an empty bladder, Chatty G? Let’s see. Hmm. It can indeed sound like I might refer to it, wow, it’s actually a structure. Well, that’s not what the doctor told my mother. All right, let’s stop there. Uh, and, uh, we’ll, we’ll take this to my chart.

[00:07:51] Election Night Reflections

[00:07:51] Jeff: Um, Anyway, so, uh, mental health, what, how about Mental Health Corner

[00:07:56] is, what are your coping strategies for, [00:08:00] um, the thing, the, the,

[00:08:02] The disaster?

[00:08:03] Christina: The disaster. Um, yeah, I’m curious to hear yours. So, I’m going through like the, the stages of, of grief and whatnot, and, and I’m pretty stuck in anger. Um, and, but, but the, the, like, the focus of my anger is shifting. And, um, which I feel like that’s growth. So, um, I, I kept, I, so. It was obvious to me on Tuesday night, fairly early, West Coast time, what was happening.

[00:08:31] Um, the same way that it was obvious to me in 2016, um, uh, then on East Coast time, like, what was happening. And so, I started having this sense of deja vu, and you see the numbers coming in, and you see, like, the polls, and like, you know, look. There can always be upsets, but in general, they follow a typical standard, and 2020 did as well, right?

[00:08:50] Like, it was really close. The thing that was shocking about 2020 was Georgia, um, I mean, Arizona a little bit too, but Georgia, just the fact that we didn’t know, and it was so close, and that they had to do their [00:09:00] recount, and that they had to do, like, the runoff for Senate, right? Like,

[00:09:03] Jeff: Thank you, thank you, Warnock.

[00:09:05] Christina: yeah, exactly, um, and Stacey Abrams, and all, uh, you know,

[00:09:09] Jeff: Yes, so Stacey Abrams, I’ll tell you later why I think of Warnock first, but yes, thank you all those people.

[00:09:15] Christina: Well, I mean, you know, obviously he was the one running for Senate, so, you know, um, and, and, and she, you know, had, had, had lost governor, so, you know, which is still amazing that she was able to pull in so many voters, but, like, you know, you, you, we, we saw even before it got to that point, like, we saw that it was close, and we saw, I mean, like, virtually tied, and that, and that it was, it was more competitive than we’d ever thought it would be, um, and, and so that, that, like, 2020, you know, It changed things, right?

[00:09:42] Like, like that was different, but like you didn’t, you knew early on that it was going to be like a tightrope, but like you felt good. Like 2016 though, I remember being like, this is, this is bad, she’s lost. And I felt the same exact way this time. And so I was, you know, kind of tweeting about it and posting about it [00:10:00] on threads and posting about it on Macedon and Blue Sky because we were The world is awful.

[00:10:05] Jeff: yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:10:06] Christina: And, so you have to be all those places, and all of them suck, and, and, you know, um, our, our, and, and Twitter, the worst one, is the only one that is real time at all. I mean, blue sky, I

[00:10:16] Jeff: I miss, that’s when I miss Twitter the most, is

[00:10:19] things like election night. So

[00:10:21] Christina: totally. And, and, and, but, but, but Elon has ruined it, and so it’s like the worst people in the world are there, but yet the news is there too, so it’s one of those fucking mixed things.

[00:10:29] So I’m kind of, kind of expressing, like, my, my anger, then I’m like, you know, I feel sick, I want to throw up, and I was like, I’m, I, you know, I, but, but already I started seeing people doing the whole, well, just put your chin up, you know, kind of attitude, you know, we’ll continue to fight, and I’m like, go. Fuck yourself.

[00:10:45] People are allowed to be mad. And like, that’s what I said. I was like, I was like, I started saying like, like Tuesday night and then into Wednesday, I was like, let people be mad. Let them feel what they feel. I’m not even saying be angry forever. And to be clear, I’m not saying don’t be angry forever because I have [00:11:00] some sort of sense of duty about like, oh, we all need to pick ourselves back up and do

[00:11:04] Jeff: Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:05] Christina: No, it’s because the anger Anger, it can be fueling and it can be good for a time, but ultimately it can become toxic. And so my whole thing with the anger is purely selfish. It’s like, as long as the anger works for you, be angry. But at a certain point, for most of us, anger is no longer, um, a, a beneficial response.

[00:11:24] And it winds up being hurtful. So when I say get rid of the anger, it’s not for the other people. It’s not to have peace for them, like, fuck them. It’s, it’s the same way I view forgiveness. Forgiveness is not for other people. It’s for yourself. You forgive so that you don’t have to live with that, right?

[00:11:38] And, and, and that is, you know, so that you’ve let it go and it’s no longer, like, eating at you. Like, fuck the other person, right? Like, that, that’s not who it’s from. Forgiveness is for you. Um, and I feel like

[00:11:48] Jeff: It’s not even an effective gift in many cases, right? It

[00:11:51] is something you have to do for you, and

[00:11:53] Christina: You do. Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Because it’s like, okay, because you can’t control whether or not someone forgives you or not, [00:12:00] especially if they really do.

[00:12:00] Right. Because a lot of people say, Oh, I forgive you. And then they don’t. Um, they’re, they’re still holding that through. Right. So it’s like, you know, if you’ve wronged someone or even if you haven’t, but they perceive that you have, like, there’s not a whole lot of control you have over that. Right. But like, I can control how I feel about a situation for someone else and how much I continue to let it affect me.

[00:12:18] And I feel the same way about anger. Right. But sometimes the can be really, really. fueling and, and really, frankly, like can feel good. So, you know, I’m not saying be angry forever, but I am being like, let people fucking feel how they feel and don’t immediately go into that, all right, time to get back to work.

[00:12:36] Like, first of all, fuck off. The work didn’t work last time and we should really talk about it. Um, you know, and there’s a lot, there’s enough blame to go around to everybody, but I, you know, the, the, the people I want to hear from the least are the fucking resistance, you know, like, Libs who have done jack shit for us in my opinion over the last eight years That’s who I’m really kind of pissed at now because

[00:12:58] Jeff: Well, it also feels like, when people do that, it [00:13:00] feels like they’re, it’s like, are you actually talking to yourself? Cause like, otherwise, who are you addressing? Everybody?

[00:13:04] Like, what is this fight? I mean, give me a minute.

[00:13:08] Christina: Right, right.

[00:13:10] Coping Strategies and Mental Health

[00:13:10] Christina: So anyway, you asked about coping strategies. My mind is basically just maybe like be pissed off and I’m okay with it. I’ve also been trying to like, you know, do some work and do some other things. I’ve got an insane next six weeks of travel planned. I’m gonna be in Salt Lake City for KubeCon next week.

[00:13:25] I’m gonna be in Chicago actually the week after that for Microsoft Ignite. So I’ll be near you and Brett. Then I’m going to be in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Then I’m gonna be in Seoul for kind of a quick trip. Yep. Um, and then, then I’m going to be, um, uh, back for like a week, then I’m going to, um, uh, Rome, um, with a friend for a long weekend, and then I’m going to, then I’ll be back in Atlanta for Christmas.

[00:13:49] So, yeah, like, the next. I know. I know. And that was not all, like, three of those things came out, like, very recently. So it was not originally supposed to be that [00:14:00] hectic, but things were, like, added on to my plate kind of last minute. And honestly, I was like, fuck it. Let’s do it. Like, when I had the, um, opportunity last week when I found out that I would potentially be going to Seoul and it was confirmed this week, I, I, I didn’t have to go.

[00:14:16] And given all my other travel, like. Honestly, it’s kind of a mixed bag whether I should do it or not, but you asked for coping strategies and I did have the thought last week, I was like, depending on how things go, I might really want a distraction, you know, where I’m just go, go, going and, and I know from, um, you know, when I used to travel like this all the time, so this is going to be like.

[00:14:41] Uh, uh, back to pre pandemic Christina a little bit, um, uh, I, I know that it’s a real good way of, of avoiding things you don’t want to think about or focus

[00:14:52] Jeff: sure is.

[00:14:53] Christina: It’s, it’s just to be, as you know, from somebody who’s, who’s traveled a ton and been a bunch of places and, you know, [00:15:00] uh, during, you know, times of, you know, kind of domestic crisis, it’s nice to just be busy, you know?

[00:15:09] Jeff: Yeah. And I mean, I feel like it’s, it can be a great way to, uh, avoid things you need to avoid. And it can also be a great way to metabolize things, just to not be, uh, in your own four walls, moving, moving, moving, while also metabolizing who he’s going to pick for this post or what he’s promising now is actually like, for me, a better way.

[00:15:31] I can hold it better. Yeah. Yeah. Then if I’m sitting at home,

[00:15:34] Christina: totally. No, that’s the thing, right? Like, and I think that.

[00:15:37] Comparing 2016 and 2020 Elections

[00:15:37] Christina: Um, I want to, I want to, uh, talk to you about how you’re coping and what your mental health is like, uh, first, but one thing I do want to, I think would be interesting for us to talk about would be, um, Like, I guess maybe comparing and contrasting, like, how this feels versus other, like, election, you know, like, losses that, you know, we’ve kind of gone through, [00:16:00] um, because when I think about 2016, that was hard for so many reasons, and it was very different than how I felt then is very different from how I feel now.

[00:16:10] But part of what made that both harder and easier was the fact that I was a journalist. And so it was, it was harder in the sense that, like, you couldn’t disconnect from it. Like, there was nothing I really could do. Like, I, even not being a political journalist, you know, being like a technology journalist still, like, there was something about it all the time.

[00:16:26] And, and, you know, and I worked in a newsroom and I couldn’t get rid of it, right? It was, it was in your face and you could not ignore Like the, the, the news dump that happened literally, you know, from the day he was elected up until, you know, and then it got only bigger, you know, once he was inaugurated and all that.

[00:16:42] Whereas, whereas this time, you know, but, but, but, and so that made it suck, but at the same time, there was also like that busyness of like, okay, well, there’s always a story to write. There’s always a thing to do. And so you didn’t have to like think about it too much. And, and I’m curious from like your perspective, like.

[00:16:59] You know, [00:17:00] um, uh, as somebody who, you know, is a journalist, but not like in, in a newsroom quite the same way. Like if, if, if it, if it makes you, if it’s easier or harder, like when you have to think about it all the time, right? Or if it’s better to have a distraction, I guess that’s what I’m trying to get at, right?

[00:17:17] Like in some ways, like the, the day to day news stuff could be a distraction even if it was about him. Whereas almost like it’s harder, like, Um, once I was no longer in journalism and I was having to, like, actually follow everything that happened, like, as a layperson, like, in some ways that was almost harder because I was like, you know, the, the, the, the Mueller investigation and all that.

[00:17:37] I was like, okay, I, I have to either choose to engage or not because, you know, this is gonna, like, I, I, I have to find something else to distract me or else this is just gonna be a thing that, like, overtakes my brain and, That’s not, that’s not helpful.

[00:17:52] Jeff: Yeah. Well, actually my, I have an answer to that initially that it ties into kind of my own coping strategies or like the [00:18:00] challenges in this election. Like I didn’t, when I was a journalist, I managed to, I managed to convince my editors that I would be not only no good at, but deeply resentful about having to do any kind of in the moment coverage of any kind of in the moment politics thing at all.

[00:18:18] Christina: Mm hmm.

[00:18:19] Jeff: I’m not the best person for it, and I kind of despise it. I despise the coverage that comes out of it most of the time. Not despise, but like, I just wonder why.

[00:18:28] Um, and I know I just feel like I was throwing my life away in dramatic, which is not what I feel about the people who are doing it. I literally, that will, is what would happen inside of me if I were doing it. Um, and, And so it’s, it’s much better for me to be able to fully manage the way that I follow and metabolize and everything, this stuff. Um, though I have really good friends who are journalists where it’s like, that is, they would never say it cause you’re not supposed to say stuff like that, but that is how they metabolize it

[00:18:56] and they need it and is their coping strategy.

[00:18:58] And I thousand percent [00:19:00] respect that. And they do great work with, um, but for me, like, even So we had some really great friends. These two couples that, um, my wife and I have been close with through getting to know through our kids were friends. And then we’ve just been like friends since our kids were in kindergarten.

[00:19:14] So I love them. I love being around them. And they were, one of them was hosting kind of just us and, and, and them basically to, to watch the election results and, and have a dinner. And I knew instantly, I don’t do those things. Um, but I also, you know, knew that it’s really good to be with people you love, uh, on a hard night.

[00:19:33] And so I was like, I’m just going to do the dinner. And, um, which is what I did. But like, even there doing the dinner, what is, what is so difficult to me, and it’s not unlike the journalism thing, and why that doesn’t work for me is like, I am managing my own kind of anxiety, my own hopes, my own fears, all that stuff, and I’m doing it in whatever way is like very much me, and the way I do that stuff is, it’s very inward, it’s very like in my head, so I can actually, you know, I can be [00:20:00] scrolling back in the day, I could be scrolling Twitter, but I needed to be doing it alone, um, and, and have like utter control, because as soon as I have other people in my ear processing in their way, um, and some people process by, you know, constantly looking up information and sharing it out while you’re watching the TV, which is already putting all this like useless information, graphics that make it look like something big has just happened, but nothing’s just happened. Um, and so like, I can’t, that stresses me out so much. So I actually did something this year that I have never done. And, I’m really glad I did, and I’m not putting it out there as some like, this is what we all should have done, this is a wise thing, because often when people suggest what I’m about to suggest, it comes in a very fucking annoying package. Um, but I got home from that election party thinking I was going to turn on the TV and just watch it with my wife and, you know, whatever. I actually got home and I’m like, I’m not turning anything on. Like, I’m really fucking tired, I haven’t been

[00:20:53] sleeping well, probably not unrelated to this. There’s nothing I can do, but hit my nervous system over and over [00:21:00] again.

[00:21:00] And it, and it doesn’t help me process. Like it does, again, I totally respect it helps people. I know process just be watching it with someone, whatever, talking, but I was like, I think this time I got to be no, no, nothing. So I didn’t watch anything. I fell asleep and I woke up at like three, uh, central. And so I was like, look at the phone.

[00:21:21] I was like, no, don’t look at the phone. Try to go back to sleep. And then I, I stayed in, don’t look at the phone, try to go back to sleep for an hour and a half, and at 4. 30, 5. 30 Eastern, um, which is when he did his victory speech basically, or started it, that’s exactly when I turned my phone on, it’s like, Trump is about to begin his victory speech, and I was like, holy shit. And so anyway, I took that in, got up, couldn’t sleep, obviously. Got up, went into my workshop at like 5 a. m., sorted work gloves, and then just was like, I’m not taking in any news for the first half of the day. And I didn’t. And then I started, and I was ready. And I, so one coping strategy, pre coping strategy was [00:22:00] just to like, totally unplug, which is not my

[00:22:02] nature.

[00:22:03] Um, and, and, oh my God, I needed to, but then To your point, and to some of the points of your Macedon post that I appreciated, as soon as I logged in, it was like, now we fight, now we fight. And I was like, you know what? No, I’m gonna go ahead and take a rest. I’m not like I, I’ve known fighting in my days. I’m not, I’m not averse to fighting.

[00:22:22] I’m not a complacent person. But I also know that I know what it’s like to destroy yourself. And I’ve watched other people destroy themselves. And I’ve watched people figure out that rest is a really important part of being in any kind of fight. And that’s it. This is the time. We got a minute. We got a minute to rest.

[00:22:40] It’s over. That’s we’re not contesting this thing, right? Like, um, we got a minute and it is, and to your point, however, anyone needs to do this need to do it. And so when I see people saying fight, fight, fight over and over, I’m kind of like, there’s a part of me that’s like, I mean, I get it. I respect it. I’m not, again, there’s no way of responding to this [00:23:00] thing that I disagree with exactly because I think everyone’s doing it the way they need to.

[00:23:04] But social media is different because you’re being told things all the time,

[00:23:06] people telling you. And so it’s just like, I tuned in for like, an hour. First thing I saw was actually your post being like, you know what, no, you can just feel what you’re gonna feel. You don’t have to fucking fight right now.

[00:23:17] Like you had a great, you had a great post, which I’ll link to in the show notes. That was the first thing I saw when I came on. And then I saw all the fight things. I was like, Christine, I think you’re the only Social media posts I liked in that entire, like, hour that I was on. Um, so yeah, I mean there was that also just that part of like, you, you really have to trust yourself, like really have to trust yourself.

[00:23:37] Like if people saying now we fight doesn’t feel good right now,

[00:23:40] it’s fine. You’re not complacent, you’re

[00:23:42] not anything. You just, you, you can’t actually fight good if you’re not in a good place. Anyhow,

[00:23:46] Christina: No, no, and it’s not a failure to be like, no, I’m, I’m taking a breath, right? Like, like the, the, the, the, the, that’s not, that’s not a moral weakness or, or, or anything. And in fact, I think some people would say, when you lose, [00:24:00] which like, to be clear, like the Democrats like lost, lost, lost, lost, like, like lost, like, like, like, like, like, this was, you know, like a repudiation and a referendum, right?

[00:24:10] Like this was, this was a, this was a loss. There was like, 2016 was. I guess now I can talk about like my theories about like how this is different from

[00:24:19] Jeff: Yeah. Do it.

[00:24:20] Christina: But like, um, but, but just, just to, to, to close the thought here, like when you lose like this, like for anything, whether it’s like a sports team or it’s like you get, you know, you, you, you lose a job or like something happens like in, you know, league ship or whatever, like, you know, like you lose a big deal, whatever the case may be, like the, the normal thing to do is to like reassess and I’m not saying we need to have the whole post mortem now, but like, sure.

[00:24:48] Don’t give up and continue keeping on. I, I can, I can be down with that idea, but I’m also kind of being like, okay, if the same strategy has not worked for, let’s say, [00:25:00] Um, just, just, just putting that out there. I don’t know.

[00:25:04] Jeff: Yeah, yeah,

[00:25:05] Christina: I love, just, you know, I, I, I don’t know, like, let’s, let’s just say that.

[00:25:09] If that has, if, if something isn’t working, maybe it’s time while you’re, like, before you get back up and fight to reassess, like, what you want your tactics to be. And that, to your point, I think, does require some, like, reflection. And look, if people feel better because they want to, you know, express the platitudes of fighting than doing whatnot.

[00:25:30] I’m not going to tell you how to feel, I’m not gonna tell you what to do. I’m just not going to be shamed into immediately jumping on the toxic positivity rhetoric of being like, oh we got this, everything will be fine. No, we don’t actually know, right? And that’s the point. It’s okay for people to be fucking mad.

[00:25:48] Um, I got so pissed off. I mean, this was some motherfucker on Twitter, so what do you expect? And I, and, and I, I didn’t engage other than like my one response, but like when I, I did tweet like Tuesday night, I was like, people are allowed to, you [00:26:00] know, be mad, you know, let them feel how they feel. And he was like, you know, anger is one thing or whatever.

[00:26:04] He was like, you know, but, um, he said, you know, like, um, uh, you know, burning buildings and, and, and some other thing is, is another. And I was like, What the fuck are you talking about? I was like, already, already, this was like Tuesday night, I was like, what the f I mean, if I

[00:26:19] Jeff: from Minneapolis.

[00:26:20] Christina: right, exactly, what I wanted to be like, is I wanted to be like, we’re not the group of people who refuse to accept results.

[00:26:28] And we’re not, we’re not the people who like, you know, like, stormed the Capitol, um, because I know what, I knew what he was dog whistling to, but I was like, actually, what that really made me think of was January 6th, and we will not do that. But I was like, what kind of bullshit escalation is that, right?

[00:26:42] Like, no one’s saying that, right? Like, that’s, that’s the thing, right? Like, but, but that honestly kind of like put me in like a, a. Fucked up sort of even notion to just be like, this is how fucked up the world we live in is, is that there are people who, to be clear, this guy sucks, but like, and it was a dog [00:27:00] whistle and the whole thing was, was bullshit, but like, you know, where the rhetoric is such that saying something as simple as like, you’re allowed to be mad, people can, for him it’s not in good faith, but for some people it could be, be like, yeah, so a way some people respond to that is to try to burn it down and, and, and have a coup.

[00:27:22] Like, that’s fucked up, right? But like, you know, but like, unfortunately, that’s the reality we’re in. Um, okay. So anyway, here’s my theory about how like this is different from like 2016. So 2016, I think for a lot of us, for most of us, was a shock. And, and even if you had like a sinking feeling that Trump might win, and even if you’d like thought that he was more, you know, So they’ve had a false impression that, like, Hillary Clinton is more, um, competitive than, um, the, the, the media, uh, mainstream media, especially political media gave him credit for, for a long time.

[00:27:50] And that, you know, like, he was a real, like, force to be reckoned with. Like, even if you had a bad feeling, the polling, um, everything indicated that, that Hillary [00:28:00] was going to win. And, and then when she didn’t win, but she did win the popular vote, right, which, you know, uh, was, was similar to like a Bush v.

[00:28:10] Gore thing. But In this case, it was like decisive, like it was obvious, like that. was almost like there was this huge shock, right? Um, and, and how did this happen? But there was also this, um, not comfort, but like this, I guess, additional kind of like sense of kind of like outrage, which is like, okay, but the Electoral College is, you know, should not be a thing that we do anymore.

[00:28:34] And like, this is the second time now in 16 years that we have a different outcome from the different popular vote and, and, um, you know, electoral college makeup. And like, this is clearly not the will of the people, you know, collectively, right? Like, like, I don’t remember the number, but like millions more people have voted for her than for him.

[00:28:50] Jeff: gap. Yeah.

[00:28:51] Christina: Yeah, exactly. And, and so, you know, so it came down to, you know, the, the bullshit electoral college system. And, and so, [00:29:00] That, like, you had the shock, but then you also had, like, in a sense, you were like, okay, but this is not the will of the people, right? This is not, this is not, um, what, um, the, the, the majority

[00:29:10] Jeff: less confusing.

[00:29:11] Christina: Right. Well, right. In some ways it made it like that much more shocking and like upsetting, but at the same time you were kind of like, okay, well this is, this is not the will of people. And then in 2020, you know, again, like, you know, won the popular vote by a large margin. And um, obviously it became very, very close and came down to a couple of states.

[00:29:28] And, you know, Georgia really did come down to the sand votes. But, um, although we even in like, you know. There wasn’t a buffer or whatever, uh, you know, like if Georgia or Arizona had been lost, like, you know, uh, Biden still would have won, but like, you, but you still had that thing, you’re like, okay, the people did not vote for, for, for this, right?

[00:29:47] Like, um, from an electoral point of view, uh, from, from a, um, you know, like populist, whatever, uh, you know, um, any popular vote point of view. But this time, A, [00:30:00] It, it wasn’t the same shock, at least for me, um, because again, like, I felt the spidey sense. I was like, I know what this feeling is like. I’m having deja vu.

[00:30:08] Like, this is what’s happening. You can see the, the, the things come in when I saw every single swing state, every single one, you know, come in, um, for, for him and, and, and, uh, demographics coming out stronger. Like, the big thing is, is that like with 2020, I think that we had a little bit of a false boost where way more people did show up to vote, which is great.

[00:30:30] That did not happen this time. And on the contrary, where you saw an uptick and an increase in voters was, was, you know, on the Republican side. Um, so their ground game was better. Um, uh, they, they got more people out. They got younger people out for them, which, which, you know, um, uh, the Democrats did not. Um, and then, um, more of them.

[00:30:48] More of them voted, right? Like for, for him. And, and to me, I was like, what made that, um, like, I’ll, I’ll find a thing that I sent to a friend of mine who’s Australian. Um, let me find this. If we want to put

[00:30:59] Jeff: Ooh, [00:31:00] Engaging the Australians. That’s always good for, for like, uh, balancing out any feeling. I love the Australians.

[00:31:06] Christina: Me too. Well, my friend, um, was lovely and like reached out to me at like, um, uh, you know, midnight my time. And so, um, I, I don’t even want to know what time it was, you know, for, for him, um, uh, the next day, you know, and so, so it was like 2 AM your time. And so, you know, very early or very late for him. Um, and he was, he was like, he was like, um, he’s like, Hey, I’m really sorry.

[00:31:29] I hope you’re doing okay. And I said, thank you. And he says, you know, um, he was like, uh, he was like, I don’t even know what to say. And I said, um, Uh, I said, I don’t either. I wish I did. So I wish I was more surprised. I thought it would hurt less this time. The shock value of 2016 isn’t there, but it’s still just as depressing this time.

[00:31:46] We know some of the outcome and it’s not good. And it’s like, what do you even say? We can’t even blame the electoral college this time. This was the will of the electorate, full stop. And that’s almost as upsetting as these people winning again, [00:32:00] that this was such a decisive blowout. And, and so. That was, that was the real thing for, for me.

[00:32:06] I was like, this, this was the will of the electorate. Um, you know, it was. Um, and so what it reminded me more of and like how I felt both Tuesday night but especially Wednesday when I kept feeling like, and I think I, I posted about this as well, I felt exactly the same way I did when I was, um, I just voted in my first election in 2004.

[00:32:30] And, and John Kerry lost. And he lost badly, right, like he, he lost about as badly as,

[00:32:36] Jeff: was

[00:32:36] Christina: lost about as badly as Kamala did. Yeah, right? I mean, you know, but like, yeah, totally, I mean, that, that didn’t help, but like, you know, the whole thing, you know, he wasn’t, he never connected with people, that campaign was flopped for a lot of reasons.

[00:32:49] But in that case, you know, I was, I was a college student, it was my first election, and I was, was angered in a way where I was like, Similar to this, I was like, [00:33:00] you know, we have, um, you know, a criminal in his cronies and, you know, a liar who we already know who this motherfucker is and we’ve reelected him, right?

[00:33:13] And that was how I felt in 2004. I was like, we know who George W. Bush is. Like, you could make an argument, I guess, in the year 2000, you know, why people might have voted for Bush. I didn’t really know much about him other than, you know, whose dad was, and he was, you know, governor of Texas, and, and Al Gore ran a very bad campaign, um, uh, you know, and, and really wanted to try to separate himself from, from Bill Clinton, which wound up being a mistake, regardless, right?

[00:33:35] Like, people, and, and he doesn’t have charisma, and so, you

[00:33:39] Jeff: Hoo, doggie. No.

[00:33:40] Christina: No. But, and, and, and, and, and unfortunately George W. Bush does. And, but so you can understand how even though that was literally came down to hanging chads, and, and, and again, Al Gore won the popular vote, like, you could, you could see, okay, people didn’t know what they were voting for.

[00:33:55] But then after that, when we’re in the middle of this

[00:33:58] Jeff: We knew that we were [00:34:00] voting for a conman and a liar and a credible warmonger, even if you generously say he was puppeted to be a warmonger, he was that person.

[00:34:10] Christina: was that puppet. He was that puppet. And, and you’re still, and, and you’re also voting for the puppet master, right? Like even, even

[00:34:15] Jeff: Yeah,

[00:34:16] Christina: that the, the, the, even if you believe that Cheney is the one pulling on the strings, well then you fucking voted for Cheney, right? And, and, and, and so

[00:34:23] Jeff: We knew who he was.

[00:34:24] Christina: absolutely, nobody was under any illusions about that, right?

[00:34:28] Which is again, why like promoting the fact that like, you know, Cheney’s endorsing, anyway, anyway, I’m not going to get into

[00:34:34] Jeff: Oh, I know, I was just like, oh god, I’m everybody just settled down on

[00:34:39] Christina: Exactly. It’s like, this doesn’t get, this is not going to win you any votes on either side, right? Because no one, this is like, this is something no one likes. Um, and, and no one wants to hear from. But like, but that was the thing, right? It was that I was, you know, I was so young and I was, it was my first election and I had just this feeling of kind of like heartbreak because I was like, And what was most heartbreaking wasn’t that it didn’t go my way, [00:35:00] but I was like, this was the will of the people.

[00:35:03] People know what this is, and they say we don’t care. We would still rather have this than this other thing. And that’s a hard thing to grapple with. And so that’s what this reminds me of. Yes. I was gonna say in some ways it hurt, in some ways this hurt a lot more, that that hurt more than 2016. And I feel like this hurts now too.

[00:35:23] Because again, for all the anger that I’m still having right now at like the fucking Democratic Party and, and you know, the fact that maybe if we’d had a candidate who’d had more than 100 days to run a campaign, we would have done better, right? Like in some regards, like I can be kind and be like, I never voted for her in the primary.

[00:35:42] I didn’t think she should be VP. And she would not have been my pick to be. On the ticket here. However, she, I thought, actually did a great campaign for what she had, especially the time that she did. She did way better than I thought that she, you know, would. And I have to, like, be honest about that. It was not enough, [00:36:00] but I also, for a certain amount, I’m like, you know, only about half of, only about a, only about a quarter of it, you know.

[00:36:05] Can be attributed to her. The rest of it is like things outside of her control, right? Because she was going to put it into a shitty position too, right? Where it’s like, well, what are you going to do? Are you not going to take the, you know, um, uh, the, the, like, who else can they nominate at that point when, you know, guy drops out a hundred days before the election?

[00:36:21] Like, what else can happen? You don’t have time to do a real primary. And, you know, unless you want to drag things out even worse, which, more which would make things even worse, you have to put up and she herself has to probably be thinking. Well, this is my only shot at ever being president because I’m sure as hell, you know, never going to win a normal primary.

[00:36:41] And, you know, like, this is a, a long shot, but, but I’ve got to do it, right? So, like, she was kind of put in a shitty position and she did better than I thought she would. But, like, is putting, like, my anger at, like, the Democratic Party and all that aside, um, like, you said that the thing, it just, it hurts because it’s like, [00:37:00] This, this was the will of the people and, and, and I, I can’t even be mad just at them because I feel like there were so many errors made.

[00:37:11] Um, I mean, I can be mad at some of them, but some of them I can just be like, well, I mean, we know that we are a country of dumb fucks, right? Um, and, but, but this is where we are. And so, yeah.

[00:37:24]

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[00:37:24] Christina: All right, so speaking about like the, you know, dumpster fire that is social media, having to deal with, you know, Twitter and threads and Blue Sky and Macedon and anything else, I guess even Facebook, uh, which I was not on, but, uh, other things, you know, there is a good antidote to all that, and that is a personal homepage.

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[00:38:05] Jeff: I spun up a blog, I spun up some posts, very, very easy, elegant, uh, simple, as the, as the software company is called Good Enough Software. It was like, good as good enough. Yeah. Uh huh.

[00:38:19] Christina: It’s great. Yeah. And so it was really easy to create like a beautiful, clean blog or website without any of the usual tech headaches, which, you know, um, it used to be really easy to like create a blog and now it’s not. And so it’s nice that there are services out there like this, which help you do that.

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[00:38:49] So, no comment. Uh, it is also way less complicated than using something like WordPress, and it’s a better investment of your time than posting [00:39:00] Everything to social media, which is what I do. Uh, and, uh, just for you, we have a special deal. So when you visit pika. page slash overtired and decide to go pro, use the code overtired20.

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[00:39:40] Pika dot page slash overtired. Ha

[00:39:43] Jeff: And let me tell you something, here’s how easy it is, while Christina was talking, and really only in the last 30 seconds, I went ahead and claimed pika. page slash peekaboo,

[00:39:52] Releasing Back into the Wild

[00:39:52] Christina: ha!

[00:39:53] Jeff: which I

[00:39:53] will release back into the wild after one week, but I could

[00:39:56] not believe that wasn’t

[00:39:58] Christina: You have

[00:39:58] Jeff: so now I have [00:40:00] it. Yeah, you’re gonna have to, you’re gonna have to buy it off me, I am

[00:40:02] gonna get

[00:40:02] Christina: a boo! Peek a

[00:40:03] Jeff: money by the end of this.

[00:40:04] Christina: No, exactly. You need some walking around money and thankyoupika. page. And also now I want to see a peek at a page from you slash peekaboo. Um, but no, but go, go, go, go, go, go, go to Overtired, uh, use the code to thank you Pika. Um,

[00:40:16] Jeff: you.

[00:40:18] Political Comparisons and Criticisms

[00:40:18] Jeff: Yeah, the people who put 14 flags on their car won. I mean, that is, yeah. And the 2004 thing, part of why I was glad for you to say that is like, one of the things that I’ve really Yeah. Yeah. Bristled at from the time Trump was first elected is, and I understand why people say this. Everyone’s like, wow, this kind of makes you, makes George W.

[00:40:40] Bush look like, oh, you know,

[00:40:41] someone you might want. I was like, you know what?

[00:40:43] The Impact of the Iraq War

[00:40:43] Jeff: That guy, that guy caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands

[00:40:48] of Iraqis. That is the definition of a monster. And. And like, and granted, that’s also just the machinery of the presidency of an imperial like nation, whatever, right?

[00:40:57] But like, he didn’t have to do that. [00:41:00] Everyone agrees now. Everyone agrees now that war was a mistake.

[00:41:03] Christina: it was based on lies. It was

[00:41:05] Jeff: means that based on lies, we murdered hundreds of thousands, some say up to a million people. We can’t really know how many people died that would not have died otherwise. But the, the estimates are hundreds of thousands to a million, right?

[00:41:16] Like it’s a lot of people. If it was 150, 000, which is the lowest estimate, that’s a lot of people. And so for me, it’s like, yeah, that guy is kind of charming in a kind of dipshit way. And he does make adorable paintings. And

[00:41:29] that’s really funny.

[00:41:30] Christina: I was gonna say his art is actually incredible. Like, that’s the fucked up thing. Like,

[00:41:33] Jeff: Yeah. It’s super

[00:41:34] Christina: art, his art is actually profound. Like, his art is profoundly

[00:41:37] Jeff: Yeah. But like, you know, that thing of like, yeah, Trump is a monster too.

[00:41:42] And he, and he’s ruining, he’s going to ruin lives and people are really. Vulnerable and people are going to be hurt. People we care about are going to be hurt. People that fit into any number of categories that are not sort of the mainstream, like

[00:41:55] cis white people, whatever, are going to be hurt. There are people that I love and care about and will fight [00:42:00] for.

[00:42:00] And

[00:42:01] Christina: people are also gonna be hurt,

[00:42:02] Jeff: Yeah, I know, everyone gets hurt a little on this one, probably, and so yes, he’s terrible. We don’t have to compare them at all,

[00:42:11] but I can’t stand people softening on George W. Bush because the man

[00:42:17] was a murderer, and that is not something that gets softened over

[00:42:22] time. it should not. It should not get softened over

[00:42:25] Christina: No, no, it shouldn’t. We should reject all of it, right? The same way that we should fucking reject Ronald Reagan and like not look back on him with like the rose colored glasses that even some liberals have, right? I think most people at this point like know enough not to. I mean, obviously, history will forever treat Ronald Reagan great, but You know, people who actually look at, like, what the impact of his policies were, shouldn’t.

[00:42:47] Um, and, um, but, but, George W. Bush, like, everybody, everybody, everybody agrees. They agree. Like, that war was a mistake. It was based on lies. It never needed to happen. Um, the Iraqi deaths, which are, are, uh, you know, just [00:43:00] absolutely monstrous, as you said. But also, like, Selfishly, like my friends, right? Because I was, I was, you know, like 18 and, and when, when that war started and, you know, like, like people who signed up, you know, for out of either, sometimes in a sense of duty, you know, because of 9 11 or what I’m in most cases, they’d signed up because they wanted to have college paid for, right?

[00:43:23] And you have people who were like, your recruiters are telling you, oh, you’re never going to go to war.

[00:43:27] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:28] Christina: They go on six duties, right? And then some of them come back and some of them don’t, right? I had friends who did not come back home, who did not sign up for that. And it wasn’t a draft, but it essentially was.

[00:43:37] Like if you, if you’d signed up for the military and you were young enough, like they were going to fucking send you.

[00:43:43] Jeff: Yeah, you don’t come home or you don’t come back all the way.

[00:43:45] Christina: right, exactly. Right. And it went on for fucking 20 years, right? Like we were fucking stuck there for

[00:43:50] Jeff: Twenty years.

[00:43:51] yes, and That’s what that man unleashed and he is not to be softened

[00:43:55] Obama’s Rise and the DNC Reset

[00:43:55] Christina: Not at all, not at all, but I would say to be slightly hopeful on this, the [00:44:00] thing that I think did come out of 2004, and you might have better memories of this than me, especially since you were kind of all over the place, um, uh, in your perspective on this might be better than mine, from what I recall, that was sort of a wake up call moment for the DNC.

[00:44:18] And there was a big reset. Um, and so, and that was how we wound up getting Obama. Um, now ironically, the people that led that reset are the same people that I personally now think we need to have move on. Um, and, and, and be replaced, right? But hey, you know what, like 20 years is a long time to kind of have, you know, like stuff in, in, in, in place.

[00:44:42] But, you know, but, but from what I recall, and, and I could be wrong, but like, it seemed like it was, You know, you had the Howard Dean people who really were trying to kind of change

[00:44:50] Jeff: Howard Dean

[00:44:52] Christina: the the Netroots folks, right? And then, and then he blew his campaign and didn’t, you know, was, was obviously never going to be the guy.

[00:44:58] Um, but those people [00:45:00] then All shifted to Obama. And saw, OK, here’s a guy with charisma, here’s a guy who’s fantastic, who has, you know, just, just star quality out of the wazoo, who was a star, I think. It was the 2004, um, Democratic National Convention, that was his big breakthrough speech, right? I mean, that, that, I mean, I think more people will remember that speech, nobody remembers what John Kerry said.

[00:45:22] Um, uh,

[00:45:23] Jeff: sure it was not interesting.

[00:45:25] Christina: No, but, but people remember Obama, right? And, and then the, the, those people who were kind of coming up like these, these new kind of more, you know, at the time we were calling progressive, you know, kind of voices kind of came through and that became the basis for getting Obama elected in, in 2008 and 2012.

[00:45:42] And, um, do I think that those same people should be leading things now? No, I don’t. I think that the, the, the tactics and the playbook. from that era don’t work, or more to the point, the way that they’ve been done in the last, you know, four cycles [00:46:00] doesn’t work, but, um, I, you know, maybe if you took some of those lessons about how, you know, like, Millennials actually voted for Obama, um, you know, like, I don’t know, maybe have a candidate who actually inspires people, I don’t know, but like, You know, but like, just, just a shock, but, or, or here’s a shock, here’s, here’s an idea.

[00:46:19] Have somebody under 60 run. Like that’s just throwing it out there. Just throwing it out there. Right. And, and, and that’s not even a dig at Kamala’s age or anything. She was far younger than anybody else running, but like, you know, he, Obama was in his forties. And, and we, you know, we hadn’t had that. Um, I mean, I guess Bill Clinton was, but like, you know, like, that’s, it’s a very rare thing to have.

[00:46:41] And it’s like, we need that again. Um, especially, you know, at this point when we have all this, you know, this old man kind of, um, energy, uh, for the last, you know, it’s going to be 12 years. Um, but, but by the time, um, uh, this, this next term of office is, is over, you know, remains to be seen if, [00:47:00] if the, the 78 year old, um, you know, Makes it through the whole thing, but regardless like it’ll be, you know, 12 years of Oldman being elected.

[00:47:09] Um, I don’t know so maybe that’s like my, my sense of hope. Uh, sorry for the pun. Um, of being like, maybe this will be like a wake up call moment where once we kind of reassess people can be like, okay, now how can we, As, as a party, as kind of a, you know, um, institution, whatever you want to, want to call the thing, you know, uh, an ideology, how can we, like, reassess how we actually fucking win?

[00:47:37] And, uh, maybe, maybe you can only do that if you get your ass fucking killed, like, and beat, in every way that you can be beat.

[00:47:45] Jeff: Yeah. And then, looking forward, before we do Grapptitude,

[00:47:51] it’s gonna be a funny pivot.

[00:47:53] The Long Haul of Fascism

[00:47:53] Jeff: Looking forward, I do, I mean, the other part of Processing all of this is like, fascism [00:48:00] is a long haul. And, and whether it, no matter how many of those letters are capitalized in the version that we’re going to get, um, it’s a long haul and, and it’s not the fight or a fight.

[00:48:12] It’s, you got to stay on your feet somehow. Like you can burn out, flame out so fast. And I’ve known people who live in. Fascist states, totalitarian states, and, and I, and I’ve seen them on the, on the tail end, like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where, I mean, there were certainly people resisting and quietly being killed, but like, I’ve definitely seen the end where everyone’s like, look, this is just what it is, you know? Um, and, and that’s because it’s so total that you know, that your neighbors could rat on you and that’s how total it gets. Right. And so it’s definitely important to know what that can look like and, and to look out for signs of it. Um, and, and I do think, and I know I’m sure you do too. I do look forward and think this is going to be a horror show

[00:48:58] and, [00:49:00] and sometimes it’s not as bad as we think, but a lot of times, um, it’s in ways we forgot to imagine. And, and like, I’m. I, part of the resting thing for me is like just being grounded enough to be able to take it all in. And, and while keeping, while keeping hold of myself,

[00:49:20] Processing Political Stress

[00:49:20] Jeff: I was, I remember thinking, especially during the pandemic in the early days when he was giving press conferences every day and, and he was just making us all terrified and, and everything. Um, I remember my wife and I started doing what we called worry walks. We’re like, let’s process this motherfucker on the sidewalk so that when we’re home, we can just be home.

[00:49:41] And so we’d just take a walk every day and just be like, all right, what are you freaked out about? What are you pissed about, about this guy?

[00:49:45] We’d process him. That asshole went on every walk with us for most of 2020. Goddamn him. Um, and, and I, I, the thing I keep thinking about too, is like, you know, How hard it is to keep that guy out of your body, which, which has all kinds of meanings different for women than it [00:50:00] does for men different for me right now than it does for almost, you know, what I’m talking strictly semantically, like, how do you keep them out of your fucking body? Like, how do you keep them from like, moving into your house? Right? Like, and that’s, that’s the thing that’s so One of the such wicked things about him is the way that he, he takes us all with him. I mean, even if you don’t want to, I was joking with my wife, like Biden should pass an executive order funding the therapy for everybody who didn’t vote for Trump for the next, at least two months, because we’re going to use it up on the federal government.

[00:50:34] And it should be a federal response.

[00:50:36] Christina: It should be. It should be. No, no, no. I’m with you. And like the, and the hard thing is, is you’re right. Is it’s like, we, we want to like, how do you keep it out of your body? Um, but at the same time, like, cause part of me, I’m still here, right? I’m still in this place. This is not where I will be in a month, um, this is where I am right now, but there is a part of me that wants to [00:51:00] be like, okay, fuck it.

[00:51:02] You voted for this. Let it burn. Let it fail. Sometimes the only way that you can actually show people. That sometimes the only way you can show people like what mistakes they’ve made is if you fucking let it fall apart. Um, and, and to a certain extent, that was also a lesson from 2004, right? Like a lot of things happened, you know, the war progressively got worse than we had, the financial crisis and everything else.

[00:51:23] Reflections on 2008 and Racism

[00:51:23] Christina: And like, I think that as much, I mean, obviously Obama ran a great campaign, great person, but he had to overcome being a black man in 2008. Um, you know, and, and, uh, it would,

[00:51:34] Jeff: With the name Barack Hussein Obama.

[00:51:36] Christina: Correct. Right. He, he, he, he had to over, exactly. He had, he had to overcome all of that baggage in a time when, you know, despite what people might want to say, oh, this is the worst time for, you know, types of, people’s like, no, it was actually worse then, right?

[00:51:48] Like, things have actually improved. Like, it’s hard sometimes to see how much things have improved when things still seem bad and we still seem so far off with, with equity. Um, but things are, better. And things that like [00:52:00] rhetoric that people could get away with then you couldn’t do now like I remember driving through Kentucky in 2008 and seeing people having I mean, this is awful.

[00:52:10] I mean, this is, it was one of the things that made me so embarrassed to be from the South, which is something I don’t have any control over, um, to be clear, right? Like, I have no choice over where I was raised and, and where I was born. Like, I have nothing to do with that. But like, I saw people who had, um, nooses and like, stuffed Obama dolls hanging their houses.

[00:52:35] Jeff: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

[00:52:38] Christina: September, October 2008, right? And that was the sort of thing like that, that made me embarrassed to be in the South. It made me embarrassed to be an American. Like, that’s the sort of thing like viscerally, like, yes, right? And, and the fact that people were just doing it on main, right?

[00:52:53] Like, forget about people, people like, oh, people are really coming out with their full racism on Twitter and TikTok now. Yeah, you’re right. Um, but like, let’s not [00:53:00] pretend people weren’t like literally like from their houses, right? In neighborhoods, just, Out there, right? Like, it was just an acceptable sort of thing.

[00:53:08] Um, I, I, I do think that you would have a much harder time doing that now, right? Which, which is a good thing, right? That’s progress. But, but anyway, my point being, like, I think that we could, and I’m, I’m sorry, I’m rambling, like, we could, There, there’s an argument we made, I guess, that it’s like, maybe we, things do have to fall apart for people to realize what, what, what it is they did.

[00:53:32] And, and we just have to hope that, that our democracy is strong enough to, you know, survive this sort of thing, even some failings, so that we can get to, you know, another general election and, and, you know, um, Uh, maybe, you know, better people can be put in charge and that it doesn’t devolve like, you know, some fascist regimes do where, you know, it does become essentially, you know, like tyranny and [00:54:00] people don’t have real choice and people are afraid to do other things, right?

[00:54:02] Like, so, you know, I do understand like, because part of me is there. I’m like, I fucking let it fall apart. And then there’s another part of me too, where like, back to my anger, I’m getting great joy and, and hitting stop on every fucking text I get from the DNC who’s asking me for money now or asking me for anything else.

[00:54:19] I’m like, fuck you. You know what? I will give you money in a couple years as I, as I have before, but right now I don’t want to see any of your texts and I sure as fuck don’t want to give you a dime. And so I feel like,

[00:54:29] Jeff: out which nonprofit came out the day after being like, we’re ready. We just need your money. I was like, Hey, fuck you. I

[00:54:36] like, I don’t

[00:54:37] Christina: like, absolutely not.

[00:54:37] Jeff: man. Like, yeah.

[00:54:39] Not doing that.

[00:54:40] Christina: absolutely not. Well, that’s the thing, too. It’s like, if you came out, if you were like, This is what we’re gonna do different, and this is why we need it, great.

[00:54:48] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:54:48] Christina: But, but, A, you don’t have that now. Even, even the best equipped people don’t have that now. B, it’s like, read the fucking room, right?

[00:54:57] Like,

[00:54:58] Jeff: way, it’s no different. So [00:55:00] in the days before the election, I got, uh, the business I’m part of, we got a, um, we got an email from our liability insurance provider that said, do you have a plan for civil unrest? And I was like, man, that’s callous. I realized it’s a cynical business and that’s a cynical fucking move.

[00:55:16] And that’s exactly what I felt the day after when I forget who it was. It wouldn’t be a shock to anybody, whoever it was, but it was just like, no, no, not yet.

[00:55:26] Grieving Political Losses

[00:55:26] Jeff: Now I want to say a closing word about Tim Walz and the woman who would have been our governor, Peggy Flanagan. Yesterday I watched, um, again, Tim Walz playing crazy taxi and talking about his Sega Dreamcast,

[00:55:39] um, on a Twitch stream with AOC.

[00:55:41] And I want to say that the thing that I loved about Walz and I. I had a lot of issues as well. It’s not about most of his agenda in Minnesota, but during the George Floyd uprising it, you know, it’s probably like objectively okay that he sent in the National Guard when he did, um, [00:56:00] although that makes me terrified and very scared because I’ve seen that same National Guard in other contexts

[00:56:07] and and seeing how quickly things can go from like, well, this feels all right, to like, whoa, that’s a checkpoint and you just killed somebody in a car. Um, but he actually, when the Chauvin trial was happening, he sent the National Guard preemptively. And I had a military convoy go down my street. That was like one I would have seen when I was in Baghdad in 2003. And that was, that was very, very upsetting to me that, that it was that easy for him to make that call when there was no credible threat of anything that would warrant.

[00:56:33] The National Guard. And when you can just do be responsive, you can be responsive. It’s okay. Like you can let in America where we are allowed to protest, you can go ahead and just let the protests go

[00:56:44] and then decide if in your role, with your mindset, your view on the world, do you need to send in the National

[00:56:50] Guard?

[00:56:51] Like you can do that after the fact. And I had

[00:56:53] Christina: do that.

[00:56:54] Jeff: I had basically checkpoints. I had many of the streets in my neighborhood, my pharmacy, my grocery store, my gas [00:57:00] station. There was a Humvee on one side of the road and a Humvee on the other. And the thing I, I tired, people tired of hearing me say, but I have seen it. It was like. I want you to know that two things, people would be like, well, their magazines aren’t in their guns. It’s like, you know, soldiers are trained to get their magazines in their guns pretty quickly. That is a nice gesture, but this isn’t like a huge point of comfort. The other one is when you have a Humvee on either side of the street, it is just a matter of seconds before it’s a checkpoint.

[00:57:22] And once you have a checkpoint, a whole new range of possibilities opens up and almost none of them are good. And so anyway, I was upset with him. Flash forward to me watching him play Crazy Taxi and talk about a Dreamcast.

[00:57:35] Christina: You’re

[00:57:35] Jeff: I was like, first of all, Crazy Taxi is just not a game anyone references, but in my house, it is a beloved

[00:57:41] Christina: Oh yeah. Mine too. Mine too. I mean, I mean, I mean, look, the, the, the, the trailer, we used to play it at, at my very first job and, and, and it would just be that, that offspring song and, and showing the whole thing. And, and, and so it was like, it was like, it was like, it was like two minutes of bliss because we had like these promo videos that we would run.

[00:57:57] And I was always so excited because I was like, man, I get to listen to [00:58:00] good music at work. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:58:02] Jeff: yeah.

[00:58:03] Christina: But like, but the game was so fun. The music was great. You know, it was just this ridiculous thing where it was, it was very similar to, in some ways, Grand Theft Auto 3, which was the first good Grand Theft Auto, where like, you could run people over like accidentally.

[00:58:15] And in fact, there was like, there were missions in both Grand Theft Auto 3 and in Vice City, which were taxi missions, which were basically crazy taxi, but in GTA. And you know, which, which is

[00:58:27] Jeff: Crazy Taxi is like, is like the equivalent of Oops All Berries for video games in relationship to GTA, where it’s

[00:58:33] like, all you’re taking out is the fun driving and the wacky people and the

[00:58:37] things that you can do driving down the street with people. You take that out, you leave all the other stuff over with GTA and the Vice game and everything else. It’s totally, I just realized that it’s the Oops All Berries of video games.

[00:58:47] Christina: It totally is. It totally is. But it’s so fun. It’s so fun.

[00:58:50] Jeff: Yeah, and the thing that I appreciated about him as a VP candidate was really that he was never someone who seemed like he was working towards that. And all of a sudden he was there.[00:59:00]

[00:59:00] And I’m actually kind of glad to see him not get sucked into the imperialist machine, even though

[00:59:06] it exists at every level and him being able to deploy the National Guard is a version of that. But what I’m really sad about is Peggy Flanagan, who would have been the first Native American governor in the country, um, and who is, like, objectively a good person, uh, would have become our governor, and what is extra beautiful about that, and I don’t think this is strictly, um, cynical politicking is that there’s a picture I love.

[00:59:34] So I have this shirt that says protect trans kids in this like, really like, um, aggressive font. And then it has a knife on it and a rose on it. It’s just a very aggressive shirt. And, and there’s a great photo of her wearing that shirt and smiling. And like, and I feel like if I could have had a governor that was willing to take the chance of wearing that shirt, and then possibly meaning it, um, not with the knife, but you know what I mean?

[00:59:58] Like, I would have been [01:00:00] pretty. Pretty amazing to both get Tim Walz to where he was going to be, which I guess would have been obscurity for four years, but, and then to get her as a, as a, and so I’m, I’m, I’m grieving a little bit losing her, but I, I do, and this isn’t something my circle completely agrees on.

[01:00:15] I am very happy to still have him as our governor. I think we’re the only state that has a consolation prize, um, in this election, which is to get him back.

[01:00:25] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. No, I’m, I’m happy for you. I’m happy you like him. I mean, it’s, it, it, and hopefully, you know, that she will have, like, next, I mean, so, is this his second term or his first term?

[01:00:35] Jeff: it’s his second.

[01:00:36] Christina: Okay, so, so maybe she can, you know, uh, have a, have a strong showing to be able to run, um, uh, whenever, you know, this, this term is up.

[01:00:44] Jeff: I will say she, she was one of the people, one of the politicians in the country that dressed as Tim Walz for Halloween,

[01:00:50] Christina: amazing.

[01:00:51] Jeff: which

[01:00:51] is just like, wow, maybe you do really like this guy. That’s a good sign too.

[01:00:56] Christina: Yeah, yeah,

[01:00:57] Jeff: mean, I, it’s funny because when I talk about all [01:01:00] this stuff, like I, I, I am someone who holds like, I know we’re both like this, you can hold two truths next to each other.

[01:01:05] One is that I don’t believe. That there can be anybody that walks into the White House and could do the kind of good that I would hope they can do. Um, I was horrified and zero surprised and have been about the, the handling of Gaza and didn’t vote. Um, would not have never, would never have not voted because of that.

[01:01:24] Um, in part, because that machine is, is rolling, rolling, rolling,

[01:01:29] and whoever, whoever enters the office is, is being, is being chewed up by that machine and is too much of a sort of something to to compromise to make, you know, meaningful decisions of integrity, not to say it’s not complex, but it obviously, there’s a simplicity to that many people dying. So I do hold also like this sense of like, burn the system down. But

[01:01:52] I’m also like, that’s Steve Earle, my son and I went and saw Steve Earle a few months ago. And he’s like, He’s very [01:02:00] radical and he’s, he’s like, look, everybody vote. The election day is not where you vote your hopes and dreams and aspirations.

[01:02:06] It’s a transactional affair. And, and so go do your transaction, right? Like,

[01:02:12] and I really appreciated that, that take. Um, but anyway, and I liked him. Well, sorry if anybody’s mad at me for saying it.

[01:02:20] Christina: No, I, I like him too. I mean, if anything, I mean, like, look, are there, look, and I don’t live in Minnesota, so I can’t speak to what his, you know, time there was like as a governor and I I don’t think any politician of any, you know, thing when we’re talking about like governor, president, whatever, like, even smaller than that can be, can be perfect and to your point can do the good that we always want them to do.

[01:02:43] There’s a certain, um, amount of, um, uh, both like just realistic requirements of like what you can and can’t control and there’s also a certain amount So, there’s a lot of ego that’s involved with people who are actually capable of reaching those jobs that, that, that can, you know, interfere with [01:03:00] maybe, um, always standing to your principles, right?

[01:03:03] Like, even I think probably our most principled president, Jimmy Carter, probably made decisions, you know, as a politician that were, that were, were, were, were, you know, to, to get elected or self serving or whatnot and not just for doing the right thing. Because if you always do the right thing, you’re never going to win and then you can’t accomplish anything, right?

[01:03:17] So, I, I can recognize those trade offs, but I, you know, I, I, not having lived in his state. I, I wasn’t familiar with him, but I liked him. I liked his personality. I did, I was a little annoyed that like it did seem like on the campaign, I mean, and part of it too, this is again, me again, I’m just, I’m in blame mode.

[01:03:33] I’m, I’m just angry. You know, it felt like he was sidelined maybe to some extent during, um, uh, the, the, the, the campaign. Although at the same time, you’d be saying, well, What else is a, is a VP supposed to do? Um, obviously he was not going to be able to out debate, um, uh, J. D. Vance, although, you know, it wasn’t horrible, but he, you know, he, um, w w was

[01:03:55] Jeff: wait, there’s a, there’s a podcast called the Says Who Podcast, my friend Dan does it. [01:04:00] He, he described that debate in the most beautiful way. He said it was like being stuck in a car with a fart.

[01:04:04] Christina: yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, you’re exactly right. Right. But, but what I mean is, is that it’s like, okay, so, you know, there, Uh, we can make arguments like, Oh, you know, he wasn’t, you know, um, maybe used enough on the campaign trail around. I have no idea. It did feel like he was, you know, maybe like a better surrogate before he was VP, but I liked him.

[01:04:23] And, and I, um, I hope that this isn’t the last we ever see from him. Right? Like, obviously the man is never going to be president. Um, and I, I don’t think that he would even want to be, but, yeah. Hopefully there is a day when there will be like a administration or something else where, you know, he could play a part if he wants to, but at the very least, I’m happy that at least the people of Minnesota have what seems like a genuinely good guy who genuinely does care, right?

[01:04:48] And who’s willing to like get on stream and fucking play Crazy Taxi

[01:04:52] Jeff: Which is how, let’s just go ahead and imagine him, let’s pretend that he’s just waiting for the next big call, but he’s doing that just playing crazy taxi [01:05:00] in his basement while

[01:05:00] Christina: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:05:02] Jeff: He’s just like, I need to rest. That’s right, Jeff. I need to rest.

[01:05:06] Christina: He’s like, I need to rest. And, and then they’re like, wait, you know, you’ve gotta pick up, you know, like you’ve, you’ve got, you, you’ve got, you know, 20 seconds

[01:05:12] Jeff: Yeah,

[01:05:13] exactly. Exactly.

[01:05:14] Christina: to pick up your customer, you know, or, or, or you lose. Um, yeah, no, I mean, yeah. Uh, resting on, on the governing side of not resting on, um, you know, moonlighting as a, uh, crazy taxi driver in Southern California.

[01:05:28] Um.

[01:05:29] Jeff: Exactly.

[01:05:30] Christina: All right. So we’ve talked about all the things, well, I’ve talked about the things that I’m mad at.

[01:05:34] You’ve been trying to keep me more in line. Do we want to talk about some things we’re

[01:05:36] Jeff: I’m not trying to keep in line, shit,

[01:05:39] Christina: No, I know. No, you’re, you’re, you’re not trying to keep me in line. You’re just, you’re being more, you’re, you’re like in a, you’re in a more healthy place than I am at this point, but that’s okay.

[01:05:45] I’m, I’m

[01:05:46] Jeff: Maybe just externally.

[01:05:48] Grapptitude: Tech Tools and Apps

[01:05:48] Jeff: Um, so yeah, Grapptitude. Uh, it’s funny. Like I’ve been trying to shift my brain into Grapptitude and all I keep thinking about is how, um, [01:06:00] how I recently used something we, that I learned about from you in Grapptitude, which is, um, was it from Brett? Find any file?

[01:06:07] Um, uh, it’s just a great, very old app.

[01:06:11] And it’s funny cause I use, and I’m going to say it cause I, I don’t have anything new to say today. Um, and, uh, I use Who to spot for everything, but

[01:06:19] like, when I want to search system files, like, find a file is just right there. It’s ready to do it. And it’s been such a huge help to me this week, just based on the kind of work that I’ve been doing. Um, so that’s one bit. And then I’m going to do a second one just cause they’re both sort of repeats of past. Uh, so I I’ve used drafts ever and ever and ever.

[01:06:41] Um, but I only just finally sat down and Super configured my actions and my like custom actions. Menu, because I’ve always just like had a million action groups on there.

[01:06:55] So if I was doing Markdown, I’d go to the Markdown one. If I was doing whatever, I’d go to this [01:07:00] one. I was just bouncing around. It was super inefficient and I could never find what I was looking for. And so I, I finally decided to configure and make my own custom sort of like toolbar that helps me do everything that I personally do all the time in drafts.

[01:07:13] And I don’t know how it took me these many years. Cause I’ve been using it for probably, it hasn’t been around more than a decade. I think I’ve

[01:07:18] been using

[01:07:18] Christina: it’s been about a decade. Yeah.

[01:07:20] Jeff: Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve been using it since pretty much the beginning as like the place I go to, to where all my text starts, as everyone says, um, but I have just been blown away because part of doing that was looking at what I might want that I don’t use, um, and I’ve just been blown away by what I can do, uh, my, uh, my continued frustration with that app, and I’m Sure.

[01:07:41] There’s a decent explanation for this is that I can’t use it. Like I use Envy Ultra or almost any other sort of text based app that I like, which is I can’t have a folder of text files that I can act upon from any app. It has to be in that app, which means when I search who to spot, I don’t get things that are in drafts.

[01:07:59] This [01:08:00] drives me crazy. Crazy. But that’s how much I love the app, that like, I am constantly overcoming that, that total frustration. There’s one super hacky workaround for that, that allows you to at least, this is the other thing you can’t do with it. Now I’m just, now it’s grAPPtitude,

[01:08:14] uh, is you can’t open your thing in another, in an external editor.

[01:08:17] I can’t open it in Sublime Text and do all the things I do so quickly for the last 10 years to my friends. to my plain text. Um, I have to paste it in and come back and there’s a hack for that that’s really wonky or wanky. Let’s say wanky. Um, but anyway, all that said, I fucking love drafts and I cannot believe really what a perfect app it is except for those two things that otherwise would feel big to me, but because it’s so perfect, it’s not.

[01:08:40] So those are my two.

[01:08:42] Christina: Yeah. No, it’s, it’s, it’s a great app and I think I’ve, I think I’ve used some of those workarounds for a long time that like I’ve, I’ve been. Um, okay with like, you know, that aspect, but you’re right, like, it’s so good you want to use it everywhere. Um, and yeah, the automation stuff is, is really [01:09:00] great. Um, I also have to say like, as just like a, an iOS app, you know, like on my iPad and my iPhone especially, like, it is so good because the thing is, is that if I’m being real, I have a lot of options on my desktop, um, for, for doing any sort of notes stuff, so many options.

[01:09:16] And so drafts is not always where I go. Uh, but on mobile it’s different. If I’m wanting to do something where I’m really wanting to do like, especially like a more, you know, like, um, uh, markdown kind of centric, you know, like heavy sort of thing that I know I’m going to be converting to other formats and whatnot.

[01:09:33] Like, I know some people like Ulysses and Ulysses is great. Um, but. Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t really work with, I guess, kind of my flow, where it’s like, is beautiful. And, and I think that if, if you are, if it works for like your kind of like writing flow and your workflow, like, awesome. But I’m somebody,

[01:09:51] Jeff: it does yeah.

[01:09:52] Christina: but, but, but I am somebody who like, I actually, you know, like to have kind of my, my automations and integrations and, and see my markdown and like, [01:10:00] you know, see like what that looks like and, and, and type that kind of stuff out.

[01:10:04] And so, um, I, I love drafts. Um,

[01:10:07] Jeff: Well, and, oh sorry, go ahead.

[01:10:09] Christina: no, no, I was just going to say, I love it.

[01:10:11] Jeff: And, and also, since you’re talking about iOS, like, the thing that’s amazing that is Part of my toolbar, because I mostly use it on iOS, is like, I can do the things on iOS that I can only do in VS Code or Sublime

[01:10:23] Text otherwise. So I have buttons that allow me, yeah, I have buttons that allow me to skip forward by a word, go to the beginning or the end of the line, move a line up or down, like

[01:10:31] the kinds of things you could never imagine doing on iOS, I can do with just a little button that’s at the bottom of the screen, and that is incredible.

[01:10:37] Christina: No, I, I feel the same way. Like, honestly, I think like the iOS thing is, yeah, because, yeah, I can use any number of text editors and have, um, on Mac, right? But it was in, in, and I think that’s why it was an iOS app first, and it’s great that it is on the Mac, um, because then you can have access to all of your files and stuff there.

[01:10:52] But for me, like, it was one of those things that I was like, no, I want to have, you know, originally, I mean, this is how long the app has been around. Like, you know, it was [01:11:00] kind of, I was like, I need my, TestMate on, you know, my phone. Um, at least the way I use TestMate, right? Not so much as coding, but for writing.

[01:11:09] And, um, and with the action stuff, especially, it’s, it’s just really, really good. Um, and, uh, um, uh, big fan. Um, so, um, yeah, plus one on that. Great, great, great work. Um, also the developer is just such a great guy too. And so it’s just, you know, I always love to support identity. Good dubs. Um, also another app that he makes, um, uh, this is, uh, I think this is a free one.

[01:11:33] I, I don’t even know if it has any in app purchase things. I think it might be completely free. Um, but if you want a really good, um, like, um, a thesaurus slash dictionary sort of thing on iOS, there’s an app called Terminology that he makes and it is really, really good because like the built in, um, uh, Like, Thesaurus on macOS is actually pretty great, but there isn’t anything like that built into the iPhone.

[01:11:56] And so, terminology is, and so it’s [01:12:00] awesome where, you know, you have those moments where you’re like, what’s a word for this? Terminology is.

[01:12:05] Jeff: Yes.

[01:12:06] Totally, totally plus one on that one.

[01:12:09] Ghostty: The New Terminal Emulator

[01:12:09] Christina: um, okay, so my pick this week, um, is actually a little bit of a tease, and I apologize for this, but I did still want to give it a shout out. Um, it will be available in a couple of weeks for everyone, but you can get access now if you join their Discord. So, um, I don’t know if you are familiar, uh, Brett, with, um, uh, Mitchell, um, uh, from, uh, the creator of, uh, Hashicorp.

[01:12:31] Um, uh, you know, Terraform and, and all that stuff. Okay. So, so, uh, Mitchell Hashimoto created a company called, uh, HashiCorp, which, um, was, uh, then, um, I think when public and it was been acquired and is worth lots and lots of money, and he stepped down from, um, them, um, a couple years ago and just decided to be a rich guy.

[01:12:51] And, um, uh, he,

[01:12:54] Jeff: Oh! I know who this guy is! My son talks about him all the time. Yeah, okay. Go

[01:12:58] Christina: Okay. Anyway, um, [01:13:00] he has been building for like the last year, he’s been building a new terminal emulator, like in public. And I know what you’re thinking, Christina, you’ve talked about terminal emulators before. You told us about Westerm like a few months ago. Like, do we need another one? Well, yes. Right.

[01:13:14] Cause as much as I love iTerm2 and, and like Brett and I talked about that at length, um, a while back and as much as I give to their, like Patreon and everything now, like I’m a big, big fan. There are some things that it does that are slower, like it’s beautiful, but there are some things just the way that it does things that are slower if you’re doing a lot of actions and whatnot.

[01:13:35] Um, and, um, this is where some of the Rust, um, uh, based, um, terminal emulators are really great. Um, Ghosty, which is what Mich Mitchell has been working on, um, it’s actually based in which is, I guess, like kind of a similar, kind of, it’s. Similar to Rust in that it’s very fast, um, but he’s been working on making it, like, the most accurate, like, kind of best terminal emulator he can make, and it’s also a [01:14:00] native app, so it’s available, it’s cross platform, unlike iTerm, so that, that’s one of the cool things, so it’ll work on, um, uh, Linux and, um, uh, Mac, and the Windows support is, is there, but it’s coming, I’ll be honest, I think Windows Terminal is pretty great, but it is, it is coming there as well, um, he’s been writing a lot of stuff on, on his blog, kind of devlogs about it, and he actually released a thing, like, Uh, two weeks ago, basically being like, ghosty 1.

[01:14:20] 0 is coming and saying it’ll be publicly released in, in, um, 2024, uh, December 2024 as an open source project under the MIT license, which is awesome. And then he kind of talks about how he wants it to basically be the best drop in replacement for your kernel, current terminal, terminal emulator, you know, Mac OS or Linux.

[01:14:38] Um, and, uh, yeah. I’d been seeing his tweets and I’d been seeing other stuff and I was like, man, how good can this really be? Um, I joined their Discord, which I will have linked because right now it is in private beta, but they are letting people in the Discord in fairly often. And I don’t even think I engaged in the Discord, but it, maybe it was a week and, and I was given access.

[01:14:58] And so then I have access to the [01:15:00] GitHub where you can file issues, but the Discord community is also really great of terminal nerds, you know, very responsible to feedback. Daily updates are coming. And I’ve been using it. Um, there are still some things that I prefer about iTerm2, but part of that could probably just be like 18 years of, of using it.

[01:15:18] Um, but, um, I really, really, really like Ghostie. So it’s free, it’s open source, it’s cross platform, it’s very fast, and the Mac app is native as fuck. So, um, you know, there are, uh, right now, the, the way the preferences work, it’s a config file, and you can access that in, in the Mac app and kind of enter in what you want to enter in.

[01:15:37] But there’s not a GUI. Um, but if I, but if we can be real, the GUI for the preferences in iTerm is really not any better understandable. Like, it’s, it’s, it, you know what I mean? Like, like, let’s be real, like,

[01:15:51] Jeff: Like, I know it because I’ve been using it a long time, but

[01:15:54] every

[01:15:54] Christina: even then, even

[01:15:55] Jeff: reset, I’m just like, oh boy.

[01:15:58] Christina: You have to reset. And then in that [01:16:00] case, you have to like find the plist file, right?

[01:16:01] Like in this case, like you have, like it, it, it, it by default will create a config file in your dot config folder in your home folder, dot config slash ghosty slash, um, uh, config. And, um, you know, you can then port that, you know, to other machines. Um, so you can, you know, sync that with your dot files and get or anything else, which is really great.

[01:16:20] Um, it automatically will pick up, um, like if you already have like a, um, you know, like, Oh my Zosh or. Or Zshell, whether OmaiPosh or OmaiZshell or, or one of the other, like, uh, you know, managed, managed things, like customized, um, you know, uh, terminal, it should pick up on those settings automatically, um, but even out of the box, the defaults are really good.

[01:16:41] Um, I, I like it. So, so Ghosty, Ghosty is my pick, um, and, and join their Discord because their Discord is, is cool. Um, I’m, I, uh, was like kind of refreshingly surprised to see. It’s rare to see like a cross platform community of terminal owners because usually it is [01:17:00] just like the Linux ricers and nothing against them but like I use a real desktop operating system for a reason and you know I don’t always want to like You know, I think it’s important to hear about that stuff.

[01:17:12] So like, it’s a nice mix of, of, of, you know, Windows and, and, uh, and, or not Windows, um, Mac and Linux people, some Windows people there too, but, but, um, Windows is a little bit, um, harder, um, support wise. Um, it hasn’t been a priority, but they are, they do have builds. So, um, Ghosty is, uh, that was very long of me, but Ghosty is my

[01:17:32] Jeff: No, I just, I put that stuff in the show notes, including the Discord server, and I just joined the Discord server, because I want to play.

[01:17:41] Christina: Yeah. And, um, I’ll talk to you offline, I’ll get you, I’ll get you the latest DMG, it’ll auto update, so.

[01:17:48] Jeff: thanks.

[01:17:50] Christina: Look, this is, this is gonna be MIT licensed. I don’t, I don’t feel

[01:17:53] Jeff: Yeah, yeah, right, right,

[01:17:54] Christina: being like, here you go.

[01:17:56] Jeff: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. [01:18:00] Alright, awesome.

[01:18:02] Closing Thoughts and Self-Care

[01:18:02] Jeff: Well, might get some sleep, I doubt it.

[01:18:06] Christina: Yeah. I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to, um, I haven’t been sleeping well, um, understandably, but we’ll, we’ll see. Um, I, uh, have a cold as well, so I don’t know, I’d like, I’d like to get some sleep. We’ll see. But yeah, uh, take care of yourself, um, and all of you out there, I know this week is gonna be hard for a lot of you too, so take care, take care of yourself and, uh, do, do, do whatever you need to, yeah, get some sleep and, uh, Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett, most importantly take care of yourself.