Comical Start
Comical Start
BONUS-Tech Troubles, Aisles of Confusion, and the Secret to Perfect Boiled Eggs
As mentioned in Episode 300, "Nice, Well-Produced, Informative", this is an unedited recording of the same with AI sprinkles. Everything except for this text in italics was produced and created using Buzzsprout's mastering and CoHost tools.
Ever been in a tech pickle that felt like a full-blown comedy sketch? That's the story of our lives in the latest episode, where we laugh in the face of Mikhail's audio setup shenanigans. Imagine sentences getting snipped by AirPods and wired earbuds that transform calls into an aquatic concert. We share our journey through this maze of malfunctions, complete with iPad calls, phone recordings, and the trusty fallback of a computer mic. Plus, we dissect the quirky antics of Skype that can turn any chat robotic.
Let's talk shop(ping). Have you ever felt the fury of a fruitless product hunt in the aisles of your local store? We debate the merits of stores sharing aisle information online, recounting our own balloon quest through Walgreens that ended amid laundry detergent. Through chuckles and sighs, we reflect on the curious design choices of modern stores, from confounding digital screens to the peculiar placement of party supplies. It's a conversation that might just save your next shopping trip from becoming an urban treasure hunt.
Finally, step into our kitchen for a session on boiling eggs that might just change your breakfast game. Whether you're gunning for yolks that crumble or those that ooze with a jammy goodness, we've got the tricks up our sleeves, including a pressure cooker method that's nothing short of revolutionary. And for dessert? We serve up tales of banana bread binges and the surprising endurance of overcooked eggs. So, strap in for an episode that promises to be as informative as it is hysterical, spiced up with our usual troubleshooting tangents and candid kitchen confessions.
Sorry, I misclicked a few times there.
Speaker 2:The thing that gets me is that I recorded OHEC this morning.
Speaker 2:We've done this so long, Mikhail just like he's had the same, really just uncomfortable audio setup for a long time now, but the last couple times we've recorded he's tried to switch things up and it just doesn't work. So last time we recorded and today he tried to use his AirPods and for some reason they have the issue that it sounds almost sounds like you were experiencing in a way, but in a different form, where the beginning of every sentence he said was cut off, like either the firmware in the AirPods or something about.
Speaker 2:Skype needed to convince themselves that he was talking before they'd allow the sound through, so you would just miss the beginning, and sometimes the end of every single sentence he said and luckily he didn't just start recording that way, like we always, of course talk a little bit beforehand, but like that was annoying.
Speaker 2:So then he switched back to his wired earbuds, which is what he did last time. But now those wired earbuds, their microphone is just like dying. So I think Jack said it sounds like he's talking to us from the bottom of a pool, it was just it was so quiet, yeah.
Speaker 2:So eventually we just had to have him switch to like. So here's the thing that's annoying about his setup is that he calls us from his iPad and then records onto his phone via a lapel mic. Oh, which is just unusual. So we had him switch so that he's on skype with us. He's still recording into his phone because that's that still works. But we had him go on to skype on his computer and just like use his computer's microphone because it's still a lot better than whatever headphone mic he had been using for the last like three years. So yeah, we spent time dealing with that. So now I'm like, please just click record and have it work and have me have you be able to?
Speaker 1:hear me. I'm so sorry and now well, you could.
Speaker 2:You could hear me the whole time, so, like that's the part that matters, right, I don't need to be able to hear you so this is the thing right now is so far in this conversation, everything you've said as like an interjection or a very small comment has come about two seconds later to my ears than I think it should, and I don't know if that's because you're delayed in your response as a person or if it's because you're delayed because of skype yeah, uh but I think it's skype based on what just happened let's hope it's skype.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to be quick with my responses now so that it doesn't sound like I'm delayed. If it is me as a person, but I don't think it's me as a person you've had a few times where, like I don't know you, you've turned robot-y sounding, uh. So maybe it's a skype thing, uh. But like never so far that I couldn't understand you. Who to what of much thing would you say?
Speaker 2:or it's an internet thing I think, yes, okay, I.
Speaker 1:I don't think that one me missing, that one wasn't. That's not a skype problem, that was a. That was a me problem, just not having my brain turned on or these are the death knells of your laptop no, it's not, it's fine. Uh, you want to know what I want to talk about, mark, though huh that has nothing to do with the internet.
Speaker 1:I I want to talk about some legal changes that need to be made in this country as soon as possible okay okay okay if a company has physical stores and they have a website where you can see if something is available in store and in their physical stores they have a website where you can see if something is available in store and in their physical stores they have aisle numbers, it should be legally required for them to tell you where the item is in the store, because you know they have that information and it'd be so useful to have. Uh, because I you know how big a Walgreens normally is, mark.
Speaker 2:Smaller than a Home Depot, but you know, still kind of sizable.
Speaker 1:Like it's a shop but like there's only like 20-something aisles, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most I would agree.
Speaker 1:It's not that big okay. Yeah, most I would agree. It's not that big okay. I spent over 30 minutes looking for a single item in that store and I think the workers thought that I was having a mental breakdown. Uh, because I was just like pacing up. I eventually like committed to just like going up and down every single aisle, even ones that I knew the thing. I was like I was looking for balloons. I knew the balloons weren't with the shampoo, but at that point the internet said that it existed. The internet said they had them in stock and that, and I was like I can't find the balloons. They're not where they should be, they don't. They're not in a logical place, uh. And so I searched the entire freaking place. It's been really nice to know what aisle they were at least supposed to be in. And you want to know where they were, mark. You want to know why I couldn't find them.
Speaker 2:Were they next to the weird thing that thickens food?
Speaker 1:No, as far as I'm aware, they weren't. I didn't check very closely, but they were in an end cap they're not in an aisle and I was so they were in an end cap on an aisle, but the aisle they were in the side of an end cap. They weren't in the end cap. They were in the side of an end cap huh, so the end of an aisle? I'm confused yeah, essentially what's confusing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there's an aisle, okay yeah and then on the other side of like the back of that aisle, there's another aisle over there. You know, back to back these aisles like the shelving unit. Essentially is what I'm talking about yeah, but then at the at the end of that shelving unit, there is an extra thing that juts out from it. Its products are displayed 90 degrees from the products in the aisle. Yes, Grant. That thing is the end cap.
Speaker 1:But, it juts out a good foot. And so then, on the side of that. So now, with its products displayed in the exact same orientation as the things in the aisle, there is the side of the end cap.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Does that make more?
Speaker 2:sense. That's what I thought you were saying. I just wanted to clarify because your terminology was throwing me off. I understand what you mean. So, yes, that is confusing. No-transcript. Are between the aisles by definition, and they also rotate. So all I was going to say I promise you, I was going to say this before you told me where they actually were. But balloons are so obviously an end cap item.
Speaker 1:That is very fair. Except where should that end cap be?
Speaker 2:Would it?
Speaker 1:make sense if there's a greeting card aisle with bags and Not balloons Obviously not balloons Like bags and streamers and stuff Wouldn't you think it'd be over there, or not balloons, obviously not balloons Like bags and streamers and stuff.
Speaker 2:Now, wouldn't you think it'd be over there, let's investigate the mind of a Walgreens store designer From the people who brought let's not do that actually From the people who brought you. We don't need glass drink doors. We can instead replace them with screens that have a video that's supposed to tell you what might be in this yeah from from the designers of that, we bring you the balloons that are, I'm gonna say, next to first aid no first aid's on the back wall.
Speaker 1:I know that one okay, I don't know your walgreens, I know mine most walgreens that I've gone to first aid's on the back wall in the past five years. Uh, and I know that because I hurt myself frequently enough okay, where were they?
Speaker 1:I'm a frequent enough visitor to the walgreens. Uh, first aid, no, they were on the laundry end cap. Huh, like, like, on one side it's like laundry detergent and then the other side it's like like dish or like like soap, like soaps, hand soaps, and dish soaps and stuff, uh. But so I guess the whole point that I had uh is that this is something they have. There's no way they don't have this information. I don't believe they don't have this information. They couldn't obtain it.
Speaker 1:If they have the information of how many of the thing they have, I'm almost certain they have tracking of where the thing is. In some way. Uh, they could solve the problem. Please just solve the problem because, like I, I will agree with your point that, uh, there are things about walmart store or walmart well, yeah, that one too. But walgreen store design that like might not be the most intuitive and like the that. You gave the example of the screens on the coolers, but I would argue that comes from a very different place than this problem. Something tells me that the screens were installed there as an advertising opportunity to make more money rather than to, I don't know, do anything else.
Speaker 2:I just felt the need to bring those up. I'm not sure that they're advertising opportunities.
Speaker 1:Because you think they're really dumb.
Speaker 2:I've never seen people complain about them being used for ads. The complaint is that they make things appear stocked because you can't see what's in there. So when you open it up you're like boy, it sure looks like everything's here and then it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a weird system. I've only been to one that had those screens installed when I was trying to get a beverage of some sort and, honestly, the thing that annoyed me Maybe it doesn't do this anymore, because it was like a little while ago when this happened, but like it felt like every 10 or 15 seconds they would cycle through this like animated advertisement Of some sort for some product that was in the cooler, doesn't?
Speaker 1:surprise me and like all of them would do it Like every 10 to 15 seconds. When you're looking for freaking, like energy drinks or something, all of a sudden there's just a big ice cream ad in front of you. It's like I don't want freaking ice cream and I don't know where that energy drinks are.
Speaker 2:If you were, to make your own energy drink. What would you call it?
Speaker 1:uh, I don't know. I don't know. If I'd want to make an energy drink, I'd call it uh, oh, what is it? Uh, uh, kick-ass-or, or oh, is that what it is? I don't know where that's from. That's from a thing Heck. I'd call it Wando the Thirst Mutilator. Are you aware?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Wait, you're not aware of Wando, the Thirst Mutilator.
Speaker 2:Is this a Water Wednesday thing or?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I'm so afraid. How do I?
Speaker 1:spell it.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Brondo? Wow, I didn't spell any of those words, right? Brondo?
Speaker 2:Oh Bronda, I don't know how to pronounce it. I mean, I'm still not familiar with your.
Speaker 1:But yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is not Okay. Huh, san Leandro, I play baseball there. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Somebody made a beer out of this.
Speaker 2:Is that not what it is?
Speaker 1:No, it's not.
Speaker 2:It is a fictional.
Speaker 1:It's a fictional sports drink in a movie about a dystopian future society on Earth where corporations have taken over and everyone's really dumb.
Speaker 2:Oh, is this an idiocracy?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And so they water the plants with Blondo.
Speaker 2:Well, the first several Google results are for beers that people have made. It wasn't until I finally scrolled down that there's a TikTok from someone that says Brando the thirst mutilator hashtag idiocracy, which is how I put that together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think. I'd want to try a beer that was named after that. I'll be honest, you wouldn't want to try. I don't think I'd want to try a beer that was named after that.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest you wouldn't want to try a, I don't think it would be good but this one is lime and yuzu sour ghost ale.
Speaker 1:That's not like a thing you might like gross no, like a citrus sour yeah, but like okay, that drink sounds good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's like I'm sure somebody has a problem with it or a problem with this of like the butter beer at Harry Potter World or whatever, like there's got to be someone out there who it's not what they imagined it would taste like in their mind, so they don't like it, even though it's totally a fine beverage. I feel like that's what this would be for me. It wouldn't taste right in my mind.
Speaker 2:Like it wouldn't taste like you wanted to taste from the movie or based on the description of the beer. From the movie oh, okay, well, I don't care about that. So I will literally go to this place, because it's where I play baseball, like.
Speaker 1:I don't think ever that. So I I will literally go to this place because it's where I play, like I don't think ever you'll what I will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're getting delayed again yeah, I can tell I will go get this beer because it is brewed by the place that is right by where I play baseball okay, that sounds great this is going great I have no idea what you said.
Speaker 1:All I heard is this is I think you said this is gonna be great. I guess you're excited to try buondo, the thirst mutilator.
Speaker 2:I said this is going great.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I definitely didn't hear what you said then.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry about this. I don't know if it's my fault or not, but I might as well apologize for it.
Speaker 2:It's probably not inherently your fault.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm okay with that. I will accept that and not inherently my fault is like the best I could have hoped for. So we're gonna go with that one. Uh, even if it is functionally definitely my fault, I don't know. Um, yeah, yeah sorry.
Speaker 1:I just looked at my window and thought I didn't see my car where I had parked and I was worried someone stole my car. But I'm just going to keep monologuing here in hopes that we can monologue our way past whatever is going down. Yeah, Ooh, I started making some more sauerkraut. I don't know if that's something you care about at all.
Speaker 2:I was just telling someone that you do that.
Speaker 1:There is sauerkraut being made in my home. You were telling someone that I do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You talk about me. That's cute.
Speaker 2:Who were you telling about that? I don't remember. It might have been Aaron's mom.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I'll react like I heard who that was, it cut off. Exactly. Whoever it was, it was too perfect. I could tell that you had said something, but I didn't hear at all who it was.
Speaker 2:Sorry I.
Speaker 1:It was God. You told God it was god.
Speaker 2:I'm so conflicted about whether I want to make the call that we hot swap to something other than skype while still recording hot swap off skype.
Speaker 1:Is that what you said?
Speaker 2:yes um.
Speaker 1:Are you there?
Speaker 1:oh my god you want to send me a text about what the plan is? God, you want to send me a text about what the plan is? Um, I'm trying to remember also making it. Sauerkraut came up in my life recently, other than me, like making it, obviously it was. Where was it? It was somewhere where someone was talking about like how that it sounds disgusting to like do things like that in your own home, or like people are gonna get sick if they do that, and I was just like sitting there quietly, like, oh, do I say something? And I was finally like I don't really care what this person thinks of me. So I was like, well, I do that all the time. It's great, it's super easy. And then they were just like, oh, after talking mad, mad crap to my face about it, about how anybody who does it is a fool. So, yeah, okay, we. Ooh, how do I do this? Okay, yeah, let's go, let's see what happens.
Speaker 2:All right, I don't know if Grant can hear me, but just for the listener, because I know that my recording is working on my end. Even know if grant can hear me, but just for the listener, because I know that my recording is working on my end, even if grant can't hear me. We are going to attempt a hot swap to something other than skype, because this is uh unsalvageable to have a conversation this way. Granted, I did ask grant a question and I don't know what his answer is.
Speaker 1:So he said I I heard hot swap to skype and I got, oh, I got a text. Uh, yeah, I think I can. I'm 95 sure it'll work. I found a problem mark. Why is my internet speed so bad? It's, it's, oh, it's coming through. Where is it come on? Pop up, pop up, you can do a computer. You can pop. Oh, oh, it says missed. No, oh, oh, am I calling him back after I hung up on him?
Speaker 1:oh, my making problems hello come on, mark, try one more time. Please don't give up on me how does this work?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna try again. Oh my god pop up, you stupid thing so I'll just narrate this in a monologue fashion, which is that I'm trying to call Grant and, oh my goodness, and FaceTime just doesn't want to work. So that's just superb. So we're just going to keep figuring stuff out. Maybe I'll make a Google Meet. I hope that that somehow works, for no good reason.
Speaker 1:Hmm, I don't know what's going to happen here. I just ran a speed test and I think that might be the problem. My internet speed is very slow. Last time I ran it, it came up as 0.19 megabits per second, so that could be part of the problem. I'm just monologuing to myself at this point because I'm not on a call with Mark. I'm going to try calling him again.
Speaker 1:I don't know why it's not going through on my computer, but yeah, now it's not even like running the speed test, so I think that uh could be part of the problem here. Uh, this is unfortunate. Oh, oh, accept, accept, accept, accept. No, I accepted it. I hit accept, are you there?
Speaker 2:Did it accept. Okay, we're trying Google Meet now we're going to hope that settings don't get totally blown off by it, because, lord knows, I do not want my system level volume to suddenly change God this is brutal.
Speaker 1:When I have a permanent FaceTime notification, I can't make go away. Let's just do.
Speaker 2:Wait, we will salvage this episode, goddammit, I don't know how, but we will.
Speaker 1:What's this? Can I just oh this is brutal. But we will. Can I just oh, this is brutal. I don't know what to do. Should I try calling?
Speaker 2:I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1:What the actual heck is going on. I don't know why this friggin' FaceTime notification won't go away now. What the heck.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what's going on right now.
Speaker 1:Is this gonna work? I do not have much faith. I'm gonna be totally honest here. I just typed in the meeting code Mark sent me, but I think my internet's freaking done-zo. I think it's in the crapper. Oh, it looks like it's trying to work. You'll be able to join in just a minute. Let's count that I'm going to time that one. Let's not have my camera. Let's do as little little bandwidth as possible here. Oh, ask, join. Hello, come on, let me in, mark, let me in. Oh my god I'm here.
Speaker 1:I heard you say hello and now a giggle. I hope that's a good sign. I think the problem might be my internet speed. I told the recording but I know you couldn't hear me. My internet speed was less than 0.2 megabytes per second during the little intermission here we've had I don't know why uh okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, another potential option if we want to attempt to somehow tonight, um, since we don't really have other options. Yeah, I can hear you not terribly well, yeah, and you're still really delayed.
Speaker 1:That connection is unstable. So I was going to say, if you have headphones you can use with your phone, then we can make that work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. Okay, I'll call you, or you call me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give me 20 seconds to go grab them someone will call someone okay, we'll do what a foster cluck okay, fourth time is hopefully the charm here. Um hello, no, I do not want to route this through my computer hello are you there? I hear you. Do you hear me?
Speaker 2:I can hear you. Can you hear me?
Speaker 1:do you hear me?
Speaker 2:oh, thank god can you hear me?
Speaker 1:far too long of a pause there.
Speaker 2:That freaked me out, have you? Have you been recording?
Speaker 1:this whole time. Yeah, I can hear you, yes, yes, thank god, that's what's going.
Speaker 2:That's what's going to salvage this yes, I have.
Speaker 1:I had a nice little I was too flustered to hold up anything myself a little bit during that intermission there, uh, in some I there was there was a lot of dead air in there, uh, and a lot of sentences that began and never finished.
Speaker 2:But I'll probably cut out most of this I think if we can put in like five minutes of other intro stuff, which I can do, and then move on to comics and just proceed as normal, but pretend the clock is currently at around 20 ish minutes okay that's around when I think we stopped uh being able to do anything that that should work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I must give you a that should be just fine uh, I got banana bread that's coming out of the oven in 30 minutes okay, well, perfect how to jump back into this.
Speaker 2:I have an idea, so I put in these images in the google doc. Oh well, this was the funny thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I I was posting the episode last week and it has these two options magic mastering, which buzzsprout has pitched me on now for months. It's just there like automatic I don't know audio normalization. I guess I don't think it could do anything other than that. Uh, just to try and like, process your audio and if you did a terrible job editing or you're like, I don't even want to edit, I just want to throw crap together and upload it. Theoretically it'll do a passable job. Uh, I would never do something like that. Now the co-host ai caught my attention as a funny thing, right, because I was like what could this possibly be? Turns out nothing like I. I put it in what it actually is and it's not a co-host AI, it is an admin assistant, a production assistant, ai, really for a podcast, because what it does, no, it never could. Well, this is the thing. What it does, what it's trying to do, is replace all the work that I do.
Speaker 2:So what it says it can do is it'll ingest our episode. It will suggest titles. It'll try and write show notes for it is it'll ingest our episode. It will suggest titles it'll try and write show notes for. It'll suggest chapter markers. It'll provide a transcript. It'll suggest social and or blog posts to accompany the episode, if that's your thing. Now here's what we've learned, in my opinion, from our toying around with chat gpt is that my particular like style for podcasts. What I enjoy about podcasts is less of the norm, and I'm not convinced that something like this is optimized for the purposefully ambiguous titles and show notes that I create. I'm pretty confident that if?
Speaker 2:I did the show notes. It wouldn't even consider previous show notes that I've written. It'll probably just do some random suggestion based on whatever it wants to do, basically a summary of the transcript. The chapter markers I also don't need help with because we only ever have three chapters in this show, but it's at least an interesting concept. But I'm I'm just thinking how funny would it be. Actually, actually, here's a really dumb idea that I'm just coming up with. Given how bad this episode is in its raw form compared to most other episodes we've done in the last several years, do I make two versions of this episode One? So version A, you know, episode two hundred ninety nine, point five is the one where all I do is sync up our tracks and then I export that and shove it off to be magically mastered and AI co-hosted and we just see what happens.
Speaker 2:And then the other version is, of course, the correct version. And I could always never release the AI version. But now I'm like really curious. Well, even just what? Because it'll still be 90% the correct material. It should still be able to do something with the information. I'm just curious what it's going to choose to do, Like. What sort of style does it want for the titles? Is it going to be something like boring, like I expect?
Speaker 2:like I expect or will it have any sense of how we currently operate and suggest something off the wall like Brondo the Thirst Mutilator, which is the first idea for a title that comes to my head, but I don't know. So I might actually do that because presumably, if it works how it's supposed to, trying it once should be free and I should be able to just upload something without making it into an episode and also we are not screwing over our listeners like we did in episodes two and three. I always forget which ones are the removed from, expunged from the record episodes, if you will. Where we like released our technical difficulties.
Speaker 2:I said I apologize, I shouldn't say we, because that was my choice. So, yeah, I might actually do this. But, yeah, this was very interesting to me because it gives me insight into how certain podcasts work nowadays and how that's just not the podcast that I listen to. Like, I'm very self-selecting as, like, what influenced me wanting to do podcasts. Yeah, that's affected everything that I do for the show and everything that McHale and I do for OHAC in terms of putting it together show, and everything that mckayla and I do for oh hack in terms of putting it together um it would be so much funnier if this was an attempt at literally an ai co-host and I was just like how?
Speaker 1:I don't know how that could work, but it'd be very funny yeah, yeah, that makes me think about I recently talked with somebody else about, uh, podcasts and they were talking about podcasts they listened to and I very quickly they were talking about podcasts they listened to and I very quickly noticed I was like, oh, we listened to totally different podcasts. Like they're clearly listening to these like nice, well-produced, informative podcasts. Like yeah, the only podcast I like or the only podcast I reliably listen to are podcasts that are just like a couple friends like talking about random crap and I listen to are podcasts that are just like a couple of friends like talking about random crap, and I listen to ones in between Like I think is the in between spot that I like.
Speaker 2:That was the model, like we modeled the how that show is made, especially McHale, and I like after shows that we like where you can tell there's some structure to it but it's not always the same exact format like there's flexibility in it. But, importantly, the title is almost never useful in terms of it being indicative of what's going on, like it's. It represents a thing in the episode but it's not like giving anything away. It's just meant to be funny and catching the show notes are a healthy mix of if there's actual useful information for the episode, we put it there.
Speaker 2:So in OHAC our structure is Mikhail writes a paragraph that is like a joke essentially, it's always like he spends a good amount of time on it and creates something that is funny in some way that reflects what we talked about. Whatever it is, he does a really good job with those. And then the show notes, as we call them, are links to literally everything we mentioned as best we can. So that's how that show works here. I'm not even going to bother trying to link to the random stuff that comes up. I'm not going to link to all the amazon pages, uh, that we come across, uh, although if we could figure out how to get like referral links, maybe uh yeah, we don't qualify.
Speaker 1:I just write this up before descriptions that are meant to be again, they're representative, but they're not everything that we talked about.
Speaker 2:and then I have the links to the actual comics, because that's the only thing that's like consistently relevant. Uh, other shows. Here's what they do First of all, they have like the hosts, and then like a huge team of people around the hosts. As compared to the podcasts that I listen to, they're made by like professionals, but the professionals still work with small teams. Some of them edit their own shows, some of them they'll have like an editor, but they are their own like content producers. They decide what's going to be in the show, they do all the research they're putting in the work and then they create the podcast. And having that as an example is what let like Michaela and Jack, and I feel like it's attainable to just do it on our own in it without it sucking right, and it's not like what we do here every week is like just amazing, but it's it's not terrible either, like we could be using far worse microphones. You know all this sort of stuff, um, and I could also just not edit it like some people do.
Speaker 2:But I edit it and I provide show notes A lot of other places. It's like the title is boring, the show notes have nothing useful in them at all. The fact that I'm at least pleased that this Buzzsprout thing, this co-host AI, has chapter marker suggestions, Because if there's one thing that every podcast, especially podcasts that have a structure, you already know what you're going to be talking about Just put in chapters. It's not hard. So Also a quick meta note.
Speaker 2:I don't know what headphones you're using. I'm currently using Bluetooth headphones and okay, so my Bluetooth headphones have a transparency setting. I am as well. That is turned on by default if I'm on a call specifically. Yeah, I haven't turned it off yet, but I am just slightly weirded out because I can hear myself so much more than I normally can when I just have regular earbuds in and I'm talking to you. I just feel like I'm I'm much more aware of my voice right now, and I don't't think I like it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I might go into my.
Speaker 2:I'm afraid to touch any of the Because I have like. I know there's some button combination on my headphones that could turn it off, but I'm too afraid to hit them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah. So my headphones are also Bluetooth headphones and they also have, like, like noise canceling and transparency settings, except they have an odd glitch where whenever I'm in a phone call, the app that you can use to control it does not recognize the headphones existing. So I cannot control it from the app and the only option is from the headphones. But because I can't get into the app and register the devices, I can't look up what my shortcuts are and every single time I have tried to figure it out by just trying things, I have ended up hanging up on calls repeatedly.
Speaker 1:Uh, because, like when you enter the phone call, it just puts it into noise canceling mode, which is the exact opposite of what I want on a phone call. Uh, because I want transparency mode yeah or or just off mode either works for me, um, but yeah, so this is uh very annoying to me because I feel like you sound like you're wearing.
Speaker 2:I feel like I sound like I'm underwater um.
Speaker 1:You sound fine, sorry, bud yeah, I don't sound fine to myself, though, and it makes me self-conscious. Um, it's okay, I just don't know why I don't know why. Let's hope it doesn't stick around it was so bad maybe I yeah and like I had the thought of like did I like not pay my internet bill, or something?
Speaker 2:and I was like no, I did like five days ago, without realizing it I was worried about it.
Speaker 1:but no, like I. Yeah because, no, it would have been seven days. Yeah, because seven days ago I was worried that I was having internet problems because I must have, like, forgotten to pay my internet bill. So I double, double checked and while I was there I just paid the next one Because that wasn't the problem, because there was just an outage temporarily. But yeah, that was a problem.
Speaker 1:No, we're not going to talk about that tonight, we don't need to get into that, but you know what we can get into, mark. Sorry, I didn't notice, this was my job, but it's some truth facts by Wolf and Morgenthaler. I am very confused but we're going to go with it. This iteration of Truth Facts is titled, or it has a header of texts you will never read. There's a small pile of books labeled syllabus, a seemingly a piece of paper with a picture of like a tablet on it and some words labeled user manuals, and then a document full of what I presume to be legal text titled terms of use or captioned terms of use. Uh yes, text you will never read. I do not agree with this. I do think that the punchline of this comic feels like 10 years out of date in a way, and also the obvious elephant in the room?
Speaker 2:is these pile of books for syllabus? It's not what a syllabus says.
Speaker 1:Yes, what on earth I do Like yeah, if I got a syllabus that was four textbooks long, I wouldn't read it either. I'll be honest, skim it but I've never gotten a syllabus. That's anything like that like I, I would be more leave it as a reference text that I could like command f or something three inch, three ring binder I would feel like if that existed, there had to be an easter egg in it somewhere.
Speaker 1:They would get you an a plus automatically, like, or else like who would go through the work of making that if there wasn't some funny easter egg in it? You know, some monstrous academic, I guess, but which is fair possibly, but possibility actually mark rod mark so many things I don't want to talk about the names to protect the innocent.
Speaker 1:About to you user manuals are important. User manuals are so important. You don't have to read a user manual when you first get a device or a thing. Okay, that is totally acceptable. If you can figure out how something works and how to use it, you don't have to read a user manual when you first get a device or a thing. Okay, that is totally acceptable. If you can figure out how something works and how to use, 100% do and you do not read the user manual, you are the worst. Like you are, like it's the first thing you should do. I'm sorry it's like one of not the first, but it is one of the first troubleshooting steps you should use is if you have something that you purchased or something and there is something wrong with it that you don't know how to do or how to deal with, skim the user manual. At least check the table of contents.
Speaker 1:Come on, I have had so many things in my life in the past few years that the user manual has made it very simple and I don't understand people who don't have the skill of if I don't know how to do something on my device or on my thing that I purchased and it came with a user manual that say, includes a troubleshooting section. I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem that I'm probably not the only one that's ever experienced it, because I'm not that special. Probably other people have dealt with this too. It's literally the first thing in the troubleshooting section. It tells you exactly how to fix it. Why am I trying to make up my own way to fix it? Like just read what they tell you to do and do it, and it fixes the problem. I, I don't know. I just don't get it.
Speaker 2:I don't get people who don't know how I appreciate you doing this rant of your own volition. My favorite thing, though, are user manuals that are hilariously translated. Good Doesn't mean that they're not useful.
Speaker 1:It does mean that they're very funny though.
Speaker 2:I should have. I really should have just like a folder of of pictures I've taken of such things, but I haven't been good about it, but especially when eric open up butt of device. Yeah, insert batteries into device, especially when erin and I first moved in the first six months of just buying so much stuff off Amazon. Man, there are some good ones, alright.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you do with your user manuals?
Speaker 2:Not like the ones that are like things you don't need a user manual for.
Speaker 1:Like I don't keep a battery. User manual. But like if you buy like a food dehydrator, we still have the manuals for our pressure cooker thing.
Speaker 2:You know it's pressure cooker air fryer combo. We have the thing for that, we have the thing for our food processor and for the KitchenAid stand mixer. Those are all currently just on a shelf in our living room next to all the cookbooks, because it's thematically similar and also some of those have recipes in them in addition to them being user manuals in a way. In fact, most of the air pressure or pressure cooker, air fryer thing is it's mostly recipes, and then for me, the food processor would be, if I was ever in a position to need to use it while aaron isn't there.
Speaker 2:I would need to have to learn how to assemble it without breaking it, because there's a lot of individual parts. Well, it's not actually.
Speaker 1:Is it that complicated?
Speaker 2:If you didn't put it together correctly, it would be evident. But to like, let's say, you wanted to shred like a tremendous amount of cheese. I think that there's five or six individual parts that need to be like put together, if they're currently all separate and you just have to remember the order in which they actually go in and yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 2:And also a food processor can be dangerous if you do it wrong. So I'd rather just know how to do it correctly. But we have those. Those are physical. Obviously I have, like my car's, manual in the in the glove box, but outside of that I don't. I can't think of any other manuals I would have held on to. What I should be good about is, when I buy something like electronic is just going and getting the PDF of the manual, because the PDFs exist, but it's better to just have it and have it myself than relying on the company to continue to have it.
Speaker 2:I haven't been good about that, but that would ideally be the thing that I do. Yeah, because I don't need a bunch of physical ones around, but to have some point of reference, I agree. I did actually come to think of it. This is thematically similar. A few weeks ago, I finally replaced the keyboard on my ThinkPad, which I purchased to replace it four years ago.
Speaker 1:Ooh, wait, you, oh. This is a way we are very different that I was not aware of. What do you mean? You purchased, like you purchased the ThinkPad intending to replace the keyboard years ago and then you never got the replacement keyboard and you just did it recently. The second one I've had the laptop for now. You purchased the replacement keyboard years ago and you just replaced it recently.
Speaker 2:The second one I've had the laptop replacement keyboard years ago and you just replaced six years, five and a half years and three, maybe it was three years ago, I don't remember either way. Three to four years ago, uh, I had, um, the, the arrow key, I think the right arrow key and the a key on on the laptop keyboard were starting to like get really loose. It would pop off sometimes, and so I was, and so I bought a keyboard to replace it, and then I just like I, but at that point, and then it was covid and I wasn't like using my laptop as a laptop.
Speaker 2:Most of the time I was like using my desktop.
Speaker 2:So it just sort of like never.
Speaker 2:It just like didn't think about it, and I also thought at the time that I needed to do a lot of disassembly, like I thought I'd scanned the manual for the ThinkPad and been like man, I have to take apart like half of the computer just to replace this keyboard.
Speaker 2:And it's not unusable, like it all technically works. It's just a little annoying when the a key like pops off and I have to like squish it back down and then it works for a while longer. Um and so finally, like a few weeks ago I think it it was because I was it was around the time that I sent you the mechanical keyboard, because I was I was storing the mechanical keyboards that I had and the box for this replacement keyboard all in the same place, and so I pulled out the replacement keyboard and I was like I should do this and so I had like and I just recently pulled my ThinkPad back out and like put on a different version of Linux on it to screw around and all this sort of stuff, like I also just hadn't been using the ThinkPad now for several years in any way.
Speaker 2:I've just kind of kept it around just in case, uh, as like a project computer. Yeah. So I finally went in and I and I found a good repair manual on ifixit, and it turns out that I should have realized this. Like thinkpad good thinkpad keyboards, like the higher end thinkpads, their keyboards are all water resistant because they are not built into the laptop in other ways. They are kind of a separate part that has that have channels that run away from the rest of the computer. So you could spill like a bunch of water into your keyboard and it won't touch any of the other components. The only thing that you're likely to hurt is the itself.
Speaker 2:But replacing the keyboard isn't that expensive, and so all you actually have to do is like remove, like disable the battery for safety purposes.
Speaker 2:But you probably don't even need to do that because you're not opening up the laptop at all.
Speaker 2:There's just a handful of retaining screws on the back of the computer that are separate from the screws that you would do to like undo the actual bottom of the laptop and then it's just like you shimmy out the you know you use the little like spudgers and picks and stuff and you just pop out the keyboard and there's two ribbon cables that you have to undo and then you put, bring in the new keyboard, put the ribbon cables in, plop it in and that's it, and and it took me like maybe a little more than five minutes to just do it.
Speaker 2:So I wish I'd done it earlier. But now I have a fresh new keyboard and it came in handy because a new postdoc joined Aaron's lab from Spain the other week and he didn't have a computer. He needed to wait for one to be ordered for him. So he used my ThinkPad in the meantime and it was helpful because it had a fresh new keyboard and the other week I had again replaced it with a different version of Linux that happens to be a significantly more user friendly version of Linux that I could just be like yeah, you basically need a web browser, like, so there won't be anything weird for you to do, so yeah yeah, that's, that's very fascinating.
Speaker 1:I wow, I I'm gonna be honest, I'm still baffled by the fact that you apparently had this replacement keyboard and it wasn't the like all the single, most all-consuming thing in your life that you would have like done before doing life-sustaining things in your life. Uh, and I'm noticing that's maybe something about myself, that is, I previously did not recognize being an odd thing about myself, that if I ordered a replacement part or like a part that I could use to fix a thing that I had wanted to fix, and it came in, like that would be the only thing that matters in my life. Like I would like skip buying groceries, I would skip like eating meals because, like the focus is on, oh my, gosh, I want to fix the thing and I got the thing.
Speaker 2:I needed to fix the thing. If the keyboard had been broken, like broken in a more meaningful way, obviously I would have done it right away because I wanted a working keyboard, but just given the situation, it just was never that important. And then later on that year was when I got my macbook that I've been using now, so it just like and it just fell off the radar and then I moved to San Francisco. It's just one of those things that just in that moment ended up not being that important and I got to enjoy it.
Speaker 1:But the fixing process sounded so fun and gratifying.
Speaker 2:And it was fun and gratifying. There are other ways that I do, that I get new guitar strings or something. Okay, like, yeah, I'll take the time to not quite to the extent that you just said, and, again, the things that I'm doing are more on the scale of 15 minutes, so it's not a life and death scenario either way.
Speaker 1:Uh, hey, I need to go get something out of my oven really quick, so my alarm will stop beeping at my neighbors, because you can hear it through the walls of my apartment building. I know that for a fact. I'll be right back correct up your butt okay I'm back in a position where the recording can hear me now well, I hope your bread gets better I almost died running through the doorway I almost died running through a doorway well, I hope your banana bread gets better than an f minus by tony carillo carillo.
Speaker 1:We have by.
Speaker 2:Tony Carrillo Carrillo. We have two folks sitting on a park bench. One's an older woman on the left, the other kind of a I don't know a dad-aged, dad looking guy on the right Way. In the background is a tiny face peeking out from behind a bush, and farther to our right we we see kind of a Imagine, one of those like National Park informational pedestal signs in a way, except it has like six pictures of various people of different shapes and sizes and what appears to be explainer text next to them. But the size of this is so small that we can't actually, you know, the text is just scribbly lines, but that's the infographic that we're looking, that we have, and the woman on the left is saying this park has the best people watching in the city. That kiosk details the variety of weirdos you may encounter here Weirdos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, freaking weirdos dude Um, oh gosh, yeah, let's do it. Uh, so, Mark um.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one that I explicitly pointed out, do you?
Speaker 1:see the weirdo in this comic, first of all, it's the person behind the bush. For the listener, yeah, no, it's the dude who's crossing his leg. Weird, both his legs. His legs do not come off right.
Speaker 1:The appendages are difficult, that's what I'm going to say, but it's neither here nor there. But it's neither here nor there. Um, oh, I, yeah, I'm. I guess I am critiquing the drawing, which I should apologize for as someone who whose drawing would look far rougher than this, um, but no, what I wanted to talk about, mark, is that, uh, I feel like there's uh the sign depicting different types of weirdos. Presumably have a number of people who look odd, okay, and one who I can't tell if they're a person or not, or what they are. And, yeah, I don't know where I'm taking this. I've changed my mind like three times about where I want to take this.
Speaker 1:Um, sounds good let's just take this in the direction I want, which has nothing to do with the comic. Does that sound good to you? So, mark, I'm making banana bread right now, as we've already established. Uh, and it's because I made banana bread earlier and I had more bananas and I was planning to make banana bread again, like next weekend, and by earlier I mean yesterday morning, and I ran into a problem that I'm kind of ashamed of. But I'll admit to you and anyone who chooses to listen to this episode is part of why I'm making the second loaf of banana bread now instead of next weekend is not because ingredients are about to expire. It's because I making the second loaf of banana bread now instead of next weekend is not because ingredients are about to expire, it's because I ate the whole bread yesterday, yeah, and then I started thinking about how much, how many calories that was, and I'm worried.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was so good though yeah it has more sugar than flour I think it has a lot of sugar. And then I had the realization during, while eating the last piece of banana bread, I had the realization of like, oh, every ingredient, or it was really while I was eating the last piece, while I was making the new batch, and I had the realization of like, oh yeah, everything that I'm putting in this bowl I I ate like, and it was while I was pouring in the hundreds of grams of sugar.
Speaker 1:And I was like oh, oh.
Speaker 2:I've had days like that. Today was one of those days.
Speaker 1:for me, that's less than great.
Speaker 2:It's more on the. It was on the burrito side, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Ooh, she's got to bounce back tomorrow, yeah bounce back like a hard boiled egg that was boiled for five hours maybe I still think a hard boiled egg.
Speaker 2:I don't think the elasticity would be that much improved, but as a science experiment worth trying is this going to be another dumb, stupid science experiment?
Speaker 1:I got to try.
Speaker 2:This is a fascinating one.
Speaker 1:At least I didn't claim I would eat it. Now I will admit I am kind of curious about what would happen.
Speaker 2:I really just don't want to boil something for that long, because I could pressure cook an egg for less time I'd still get the same effect, right like because you pressure cook an egg for like two or three minutes to make it hard, the equivalent of hard boiled, I think. So I don't know. How long do you boil an egg for to make it hard?
Speaker 1:for boiled eggs wow, you've never boiled eggs, so you do like. I think it's like 10 to 12 for full hard, 8 to 10 for like, almost like, like, kind of. So I think, if it is like full hard, like like 10 to 12, being like you want a crumbly yolk, 8 to 10 being you want like a, a fully cooked, but like not crumbly yolk, and then like less than eight, is something that I don't do, is like starting to borderline on a somewhat jammy yolk or something place or like gummy or I don't know what it would be, and then like if you're getting down to like six, you're like I'm looking up pressure cooker soft?
Speaker 1:am I close, are you?
Speaker 2:looking this up, do the pressure cooker on low pressure which I've literally never done, I've only ever used high pressure so low pressure for six minutes and then do a five-minute slow-release pressure drop I think is what it's saying and then, after five minutes, release the remaining pressure. Yeah, and then after five minutes, release the remaining pressure and then throw them in ice water, so I could just like triple that time and see what happens.
Speaker 1:Holy frick Yo dude, I'm so good.
Speaker 2:Well done.
Speaker 1:I think I nailed that boiled egg times I gave. I don't know what I said, but I think they were close to correct.
Speaker 2:I think we should stop recording because already our phone call is approaching. Episode links Okay, yeah.