Kelly

[00:00:00] Brett: [00:00:00] This week’s guest is Kelly Guimont, operations manager at Technolutionary in Washington, DC, as well as doing daily observations over at Mac observer, the incomparable with Don Melton and the after show with Mike Rose. How’s it going, Kelly?

[00:00:15] Kelly: [00:00:15] It’s going good, Brett, how about you?

[00:00:17] Brett: [00:00:17] Um, man, I’m having a rough day.

[00:00:20] Kelly: [00:00:20] I understand completely.

[00:00:22] Brett: [00:00:22] You you’re, you’re already privy to this. Having been through a rather chaotic pre-show with me. But things are not going my way today.

[00:00:32] Kelly: [00:00:32] Yeah. I know those days. I think we all do

[00:00:36] Brett: [00:00:36] I’m happy that this worked out though, that I actually have you in we’re we’re recording now. So, uh, you’re wait. I thought you were,

[00:00:46] Kelly: [00:00:46] So we better get to it while everything’s behaving.

[00:00:49] Brett: [00:00:49] I thought you lived in Portland.

[00:00:51] Kelly: [00:00:51] I do

[00:00:51] Brett: [00:00:51] How are you working in Washington, DC?

[00:00:54] Kelly: [00:00:54] remotely,

[00:00:56] Brett: [00:00:56] I suppose that’s the obvious answer.

[00:00:58] Kelly: [00:00:58] Uh, uh, well, [00:01:00] what happened was, uh, Tom bridge is one of the founders of tech Solutionary and is a friend of mine. And, uh, not that long ago in January, as a matter of fact, this year, um, he told me that he had had a conversation with the other founding partner and said, like, My friend, Kelly, we totally need someone like my friend Kelly, to just sort of like handle all this stuff so that we can be doing this.

[00:01:23] And then I happened to mention that I was in the market for a new, for, for new employment. And so we sat down and had a couple of conversations about it. And so they hired their first remote person. Cause all of theirs, um, three of them total who all live in Washington DC. And it’s it consulting. So like a small place that needs an it department.

[00:01:46] Or even just someplace that has somebody that mostly handles the day-to-day stuff and then calls in backup, you know, for something larger. Um, Uh, those are our clients. And so they’re all there. Like in-person hands-on and, uh, [00:02:00] in the, before times, the intent was for me to be able to schedule people and to keep track of a little bit of project management.

[00:02:08] Like, um, this place totally needs their network redone. So when we have, when we have two people with a free afternoon, we need to book that slot, you know, things like that. Um, it has been different than that right now. Um, But like, there’s, there’s still a lot of people who are going into the office.

[00:02:28] There’s still people like hiring, you know, there’s lots of hiring happening. Uh, we spent most of March and April helping people with VPNs and things like that. So, um, Yeah. And I’m learning a ton because I didn’t know a whole lot of like nuts and bolts, networking kinds of things. So I’ve been learning loads about that and doing lots of frontline support.

[00:02:48] So people who, um, sometimes, you know, the password screen is a trick question for some people. Uh, and so I help, uh, so I help those folks out, which used to be a thing that, uh, they had [00:03:00] to do, like in the car. Like I can return phone calls while I’m driving from. One client to another client and, you know, everybody kind of has to wait until I’m done, you know, in, in the car again, before I can actually try and help anyone.

[00:03:13] So, um, I ended up sort of being home-based for all.

[00:03:16] Brett: [00:03:16] Yeah, so I feel like operations manager is a job title. That probably means something entirely different depending on where you’re working. So it, in your case, it sounds like it has some aspects of project manager. What exactly would you say your, uh, kind of, what is the job title mean for you?

[00:03:37] Kelly: [00:03:37] Uh, well, for me, it’s sort of, at least initially again, uh, it was day-to-day operations, so it was where is everybody, if something happens, who’s going to be the available person that I can get to deploy to some sort of, you know, um, unplanned outage. Yeah, unscheduled outage, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:03:57] Yeah. So a little bit of dispatch, [00:04:00] um, a little bit of being able to route the right, the racing’s to the right people. So, um, I have a work phone and my work phone is part of a, I think it’s called a ring pool. So if somebody calls the main number at techno missionary, there’s a chance my phone will ring and I’ll pick it up and answer it.

[00:04:18] And you know, who is that person? What do they need? Um, Handling sort of incoming email and, uh, tickets that come from our automated system about, uh, something weird is going on with your hard drive or you haven’t backed up to, you know, crash plan or a time machine or Backblaze or something in whatever amount of time we’ve set, you know, for that particular organization, things like that.

[00:04:41] So,

[00:04:41] Brett: [00:04:41] so you’re also doing like actual text support too, then.

[00:04:45] Kelly: [00:04:45] I do. Yes. I do a lot of tech support and I do a lot of, um, like helping folks with projects. Like if somebody decides they want to migrate from their old email system to a new email system, you know, whether it’s to Microsoft [00:05:00] office or away from Microsoft office or get everybody upgraded from whatever version of Mac S they’re on is a project I’m in the midst of now and things like that.

[00:05:09] So,

[00:05:09] Brett: [00:05:09] yeah, you’re upgrading yourself right now.

[00:05:13] Kelly: [00:05:13] Uh, well, Mike, my own computer only just went to Catalina. I was on my hobby for a long time. Um, you mentioned I do a podcast with Don Melton and, uh, Don stance is Gramps don’t beta. And I think I might’ve caught a little bit of, uh, Gramps don’t beta from him.

[00:05:29] Brett: [00:05:29] Yeah,

[00:05:30] Kelly: [00:05:30] Uh,

[00:05:31] Brett: [00:05:31] Catalina hasn’t been in beta for a year.

[00:05:35] Kelly: [00:05:35] Well, they shipped it.

[00:05:38] Okay. But we know it was in beta to like Christmas, at least. And then after that, I just never got around to it. So, uh, it’s done now.

[00:05:46] Brett: [00:05:46] for the record, I am not running big Sur on my production machine yet,

[00:05:52] Kelly: [00:05:52] Oh yeah.

[00:05:53] Brett: [00:05:53] which is going to be a whole thing

[00:05:56] Kelly: [00:05:56] Oh, yes.

[00:05:57] Brett: [00:05:57] marked marked [00:06:00] my, my main source of income. My application marked, uh, it’s PDF export breaks on big Sur and the solution. Is to do a complete rewrite of marked that will then only work on big

[00:06:18] Kelly: [00:06:18] on big Sur.

[00:06:19] Brett: [00:06:19] So really I’m looking at D looking at developing two entirely separate applications and also trying to get NV ultra out.

[00:06:27] And I’m losing a lot of sleep right now over this.

[00:06:31] Kelly: [00:06:31] And I can imagine that that’s only going to increase because Apple just announced an event for next Tuesday.

[00:06:40] Brett: [00:06:40] Yeah, no, I’m, I’m screwed. There’s no way I get, uh, there’s no way I get a full rewrite done by then. Anyway.

[00:06:46] Kelly: [00:06:46] no, but I imagine part of that is going to be here’s big Sur, whatever date they slap on it, whether it’s the next day or not. You know, it’s, I’m, I’m hoping that will be part of the one more thing.

[00:06:57] So

[00:07:00] [00:06:59] Brett: [00:06:59] yeah. That’s that’s my life right now.

[00:07:04] Kelly: [00:07:04] Yeah, well, I do a podcast five days a week. And so to me, like my audio set up is sort of, it’s not that it’s fragile. It’s just that I don’t have a lot of patients to necessarily sit down and mess with everything sort of over again, which is part of where my anxiety came from with Catalina, because, um, I just didn’t want to break anything was really what it was.

[00:07:29] And I am often not as much as, as your friend of mine, Victor Greta jr. Has this happened to him, but I’m one of those people that like, if something weird is going to happen, it’s going to happen to me. Like, you know, all I did was upgrade my operating system, but now every time I turn my computer on. The screen is purple, you know, or whatever.

[00:07:48] Like there’s always some weird thing and I will end up with that and I didn’t want to mess up my audio set up. So that was part of my inertia was just [00:08:00] everything works. Why should I go, like kick a bunch of it over and just hope that it all stays up.

[00:08:06] Brett: [00:08:06] I have the opposite problem where like nothing bad usually happens to me unless I really pushed my luck. And like, to the extent where people will tell me about the weird things that are happening to them and just bye. Explaining them to me, the problem goes away. Or by having me sit next to their phone while they show me what’s wrong, it just stops happening.

[00:08:31] I’m magical.

[00:08:33] Kelly: [00:08:33] we call that technician proximity syndrome.

[00:08:36] Brett: [00:08:36] Yeah. Yeah. I guess I’m a technician.

[00:08:39] Kelly: [00:08:39] there you

[00:08:40] Brett: [00:08:40] I’m not networking. Like the idea of learning, networking, networking is the biggest mystery to me.

[00:08:48] Kelly: [00:08:48] it’s a mystery to me too. It’s a mystery to people who are network administrators. So I feel a little bit better, you know, in that

[00:08:53] Brett: [00:08:53] there is a lot of black magic involved.

[00:08:57] Kelly: [00:08:57] there is, there really is. [00:09:00] Um, within that a hundred

[00:09:01] Brett: [00:09:01] Every, every time I, every time I, every time I pitch a, uh, a networking question to like Twitter, the responses I get back are half jibberish to me. Did you check your packet rate at the loop back? And I D mesh networking. Yeah. I, I can’t even translate half of the advice I get.

[00:09:26] Kelly: [00:09:26] Yeah, I, I have some networking knowledge only because, uh, mr. Kelly used to be a windows user for a lot of years. And so in order for anything to work for both his machine and mine, I sort of had to be the one who knew how to make it work. So, um, I have a bunch of sort of accidental. Network administration that I’ve done through my life, just to make sure that you know, his computer and mine will both work with that.

[00:09:52] And this goes back to like, Gosh, it’d be Macko S nine. Like 10 days [00:10:00] when, uh, trying to get everything to work together on the same network, you know, it was a pain in the neck or, um, having to write config files by hand, just to make sure that the printer would print for both machines, you know, and things like that.

[00:10:13] So, um, I have, uh, uh, a little bit of out of necessity sort of network. Knowledge and, uh, part of that, uh, now comes from a home smart home home kit, internet of things, sorts of devices that we continue to, to bring home and hook up to my network.

[00:10:35] Brett: [00:10:35] Um, so you were, you were going to speak at the max stack that didn’t happen this year.

[00:10:41] Kelly: [00:10:41] I was, I had a talk all planned out.

[00:10:45] Brett: [00:10:45] the theme was play, which was a tough one for me because the things that I consider play are they don’t translate for other people. Like, I like to write regular [00:11:00] expressions for me. That’s it’s, it’s, it’s, that’s fun.

[00:11:02] It’s, it’s a puzzle to solve. Um, but it’s hard to like say that to a group of people. So I had to like search really hard. I ended up picking a topic around like automation, home automation, because that, that is unless you take it very seriously, that’s all play. We we’re all just kids having fun with making lights turn on and off, but, um, So that was my pick.

[00:11:27] What, what, what direction did you go with yours?

[00:11:30] Kelly: [00:11:30] Yeah. Uh, mine was going to involve, uh, yarn time basically. Um, because, uh, it’s a full-on break. From whatever else you’re doing, sort of, um, you ha uh, like if you, like, if you’re typing, you know, or something like that, uh, you have to be. Engaged in doing something, you know, with yarn, like if you’re going to [00:12:00] crochet, for example, and I was going to use crocheting as a way to do that.

[00:12:03] Um, and part, uh, and, and for like part of it is, uh, if you are trying to do a lot of stuff that ends up being sort of brain intensive, like you need to give it all, you need to give like your subconscious, a chance to process and stuff. And that’s where like, um, sleep comes in super handy. Is it sort of helps.

[00:12:22] You know, work, all that stuff out overnight, sort of set the things that you’re, you’re able to remember and having to leave those things alone. And so one of the things I kind of wanted to talk about was the importance of getting to take a break and, and that it’s necessary to take a break and it’s important to take a break and it’s, it’s the same sort of thing is like sharpening a pencil.

[00:12:42] Like you can’t write with a pencil. While it’s being sharpened. Like you have to, you know, you have to take a minute, go sharpen it, come back, and then it’s ready to go. But after a while, like it’s dull and it can be hard to write with. And, you know, it ends up like, you know, sloped down the one side where it’s all weird and [00:13:00] like, it’s not a great experience.

[00:13:01] You have to take a break and sort of sort all of that out and then come back to it. And your brain needs that too. So, uh, I was going to talk about, and, uh, I still. I never got around to the logistics of it, but I was going to try to find a way to, um, get yarn for as many people as were going to be at my talk and sit down.

[00:13:22] And I’m going to show you one easy thing that you can do do this and that, like do this, you know, for a row. And then. Turn around and go back and just keep doing that because it’s a complete context shift for most people. Um, a lot of people who sit in front of computers are dealing primarily with words, and this is basically not dealing with words.

[00:13:44] And if you’re sitting in front of it, dealing with numbers, if you’re doing like complex calculations, there’s not a lot of complex math that comes into the, into something. If you’re using a pattern. Already, like, if it’s a known pattern that you’re just following, you just have to follow it. So all you have to do is be able to count.

[00:14:00] [00:13:59] So, you know, you have it’s, it’s 34 stitches across, so you have to be able to count to 34. That’s it not square root of two, or like nothing complicated at all. It’s just count all the way across count all the way back and. Just showing like a very easy way to make that happen. And another thing that’s nice about it is, uh, there’ve been there’s science behind taking a break and there’s science behind, uh, like knitting while.

[00:14:26] You listened to a video, you know, a web video while you’re taking a class or knit, while you sit in a meeting and there’s proof, there’s proof that like retention is higher and it’s a little easier if you’ve got this other things sort of low key distracting, uh, the very distractable part yeah. Of your brain, because you’re knitting or your crocheting while you’re listening to someone talk.

[00:14:46] Right. That doesn’t mean you’re not listening to them. It just means that like, The part of your brain that would normally be veering off in some other direction is consumed with, did I make it all the way across?

[00:14:56] Brett: [00:14:56] I know

[00:14:56] Kelly: [00:14:56] I have to chain one in turn and come back.

[00:14:59] Brett: [00:14:59] I know that’s [00:15:00] true of ADHD people. The, uh, the need to fidget while absorbing information, is that true of everybody?

[00:15:08] Kelly: [00:15:08] Um, I think it’s true of a lot more people than just ADHD people. I don’t know if it’s like a hundred percent neuro-typical people or not, but it’s, it definitely helps to have that other thing to do. I mean, we’ve seen like, I mean, I know you and I have seen so many sort of fidget as toys that have gone by, you know, there’s spinners.

[00:15:28] There’s the little cubes, like the one I’m looking at right here on my desk that has like each, each side has a different thing that you can push or pull on or whatever. Um, yeah. And I think, you know, so there there’s, you know, there’s something to that. And part of the nice thing about this, about having this as a hobby, because I, uh, I aspire to knit.

[00:15:50] I’m not very good at knitting. Um, but I aspire to knit and crochet. And one of the things that I like about it is that there’s something to show for the hour [00:16:00] that I spent sort of goofing off or whatever. Um, and I, I liked that piece of it. And another thing I like about it is that, um, there are so many things out there, especially now, like just in the last, you know, in the last 10 years or so as more people who are nerds or whatever, Um, in whatever you want to pick, if you’re a nerd or a geek or you super belonged to some fandom, like a lot of those folks intersect with yarn in some way.

[00:16:28] So like right now, something that I’m doing is from a kit that I got last year for Christmas called star Wars crochet, and I’m crocheting a Yoda. Out of this little book it came with, it was a book and it came with some yarn and some stuffing to make, um, adorable little star Wars guys. And so I’m crocheting adorable little star Wars guys right now.

[00:16:47] Um, and, and so there’s lots of fandoms out there. Like I’ve seen the same company makes kits for like Marvel characters and there’s wizard of Oz. And there’s like, um, the frosty, [00:17:00] the snowman and Rudolph Christmas specials. Uh, you can get those characters and it’s all in this little prefabbed kit. Uh, and then there’s all kinds of other stuff.

[00:17:08] Like you can knit. I have done this actually. Um, you can knit, uh, one of the scarves from Harry Potter for whatever house it is that you prefer. Um, There’s lots of other, uh, sort of yarn craft around other sorts of fandoms as well. So there’s a lot of things that, that give you an opportunity to also sort of continue to be part of whatever fandom it is that you like.

[00:17:32] So like I’ve got a couple doctor who patterns, I’ve got some star Trek patterns, I’ve got more star Wars patterns. Um, there’s lots of stuff out there that you can also still be sort of enjoying. Whatever thing it is that you like to enjoy while you’re doing it. So like, I sat and worked on my, on crocheting, my little Yoda guy, uh, while I watched the Mandalorian last Friday.

[00:17:56] Brett: [00:17:56] so my interest in, I, [00:18:00] I do not knit or crochet, uh,

[00:18:03] Kelly: [00:18:03] believe that between L and I, this hasn’t happened.

[00:18:05] Brett: [00:18:05] Well, I was going to say, you know, my girlfriend L and she is, she’s become quite the, a knitter and crochet hair. And I always mix the two up and she always corrects me. It’s crochet. No, it’s knitting. Um, and

[00:18:20] Kelly: [00:18:20] you tell crocheting is one stick.

[00:18:22] Brett: [00:18:22] right.

[00:18:23] Kelly: [00:18:23] takes both hands.

[00:18:24] Brett: [00:18:24] when I look at the finish product, I can’t always tell, Oh, that was crocheted or that was knit.

[00:18:30] Like,

[00:18:30] Kelly: [00:18:30] Look, look, you have to look close, but if there’s V’s, it’s knitting.

[00:18:35] Brett: [00:18:35] Okay. Also, I don’t care, but I, I, she, she, she is convinced that if I sat down and did what you just described doing with the max stock audience, if I just knit a row and, and began to feel the, just kind of the rhythm and the pattern. That I would get into it. And next thing I know [00:19:00] I’d be, I’d be knitting clothing and all

[00:19:03] Kelly: [00:19:03] so nice.

[00:19:04] Brett: [00:19:04] It is, she is, she’s made me stuff that I love. Like my favorite hat in the world is one she made for me last year. And it is the coolest looking best feeling hat I’ve ever owned. And yeah, I would like to make stuff at that. That was that cool. But also I like to play games on my iPhone.

[00:19:25] Kelly: [00:19:25] yeah, I do too.

[00:19:27] Brett: [00:19:27] And that tends to like all the time she spends knitting with you.

[00:19:32] Like w w w we do it while we watch TV. She knits well, while we watch TV and I have to tell if things happen on screen that are visual only, like if, if the character reads something on a sign, but there’s no audio to go with it. I will usually like. I’ll be her, uh, kind of like audio subtitles and

[00:19:54] Kelly: [00:19:54] the audio description? Yeah.

[00:19:56] Brett: [00:19:56] what it’s happening on screen.

[00:19:58] Um, but [00:20:00] in the meantime, like with my ADHD, it’s hard for me to just sit and focus on the TV show. So I’m always fidgeting and I have an array of fidget toys, but I it’s so addictive to play. IPhone games while watching TV, maybe knitting is a solution to iPhone addiction.

[00:20:23] Kelly: [00:20:23] I think it can be at least like for me, it’s one of the things that I have used to try and cut down on the time that I spend goofing off and iPhone games. And so, because I sort of think about like, I could be, you know, I could be knitting something or I could be. Uh, working on, you know, whatever that is.

[00:20:40] Cause I also like really useful stuff. Like that’s the other piece of it. So, uh, the whole reason I sat down and decided I wanted to learn how to crochet in the first place. Cause I started with crocheting. Cause it seemed like the one stick was easier than the two sticks at the same time. Yes. Uh, at least for me, it was much easier to learn [00:21:00] because I only had to worry about.

[00:21:02] Holding onto one stick with one hand holding onto yarn with the other hand, as opposed to like a stick in each hand, but also yarn and like that’s a whole thing. Um, so I got a bunch of fundamental stuff sort of out of the way by learning to crochet first. And the other great thing about crocheting is that it’s really forgiving.

[00:21:18] So whatever the stitch is, if you’re doing it wrong, let’s say, but you do it wrong the whole way, and it doesn’t come unraveled or anything like it’s not fundamentally like. Wrong then it looks fine. Like no one will know that you didn’t do 100% the stitch in the pattern or whatever. Like if you’re consistent about it, it usually comes out.

[00:21:39] Okay. So it’s pretty forgiving in that way too. So I, I, I like it for that. Um, and I started learning to crochet because I wanted to learn how to make the towels that my grandma used to do, where you have the little loop across the top so that it doesn’t fall off the oven handle. When you put the towel there.

[00:21:57] So this has a button and you put, [00:22:00] you know, you button it to the oven handle or the refrigerator handle or whatever, and then it doesn’t fall off. And it’s the, like in my kitchen, it’s the greatest thing. It’s, it’s part of the landscape. It’s been that forever because my grandma made them for everybody.

[00:22:14] And so it was just sort of a thing that ha that happened in, you know, the houses of my people was the towel was always buttoned to the thing and wouldn’t fall off. So. That was why I learned how to crochet was just to be able to make those for myself out of thing, out of towels I wanted and out of yarn I wanted.

[00:22:34] And so I. That was the whole thing that got me going with it again, like, you know, from, as an aside from like sort of sitting and goofing around, you know, while she was crocheting, you know, sitting with her, you know, making chains a mile long or whatever, I could do something else. So, um, that’s how I ended up getting back into it.

[00:22:52] And I, I really enjoy it for the fidget factor of like, I could be knitting, but also. You [00:23:00] know, taking a class online or watching TV or things like that. So I sort of like having something to show for my TV time so that it doesn’t feel like I just slacks off. Like I wasn’t just goofing off. Like I made five of these little, you know, kitchen scrubbies, you know, and now I, now I have those in my stash of like, Like, you know, gifts to give people or whatever.

[00:23:24] Oh, a friend of mine moved. I can go give them like one of these in a dish cloth and, you know, coordinate with their kitchen or whatever, that kind of thing.

[00:23:32] Brett: [00:23:32] I’m going to pause for one second because there’s some weird background noise on my end, and I’m going to isolate it real quick. I’ll find it.

[00:23:52] Oh, it’s L and the shower. It’s the pipes, the pipes, the pipes are calling. [00:24:00] Okay. 24 minutes. Noise break. All right. So back to it, do you, do you want to know what El is making right now?

[00:24:19] Kelly: [00:24:19] I do very much.

[00:24:20] Brett: [00:24:20] So like right now I’m wearing something. She made me last year there knit mukluks,

[00:24:26] Kelly: [00:24:26] Oh no,

[00:24:27] Brett: [00:24:27] are like boots.

[00:24:29] Kelly: [00:24:29] that sounds amazing.

[00:24:30] Brett: [00:24:30] yeah, they’re awesome. And they’re, they’re orange and I love them. Um, but right now she’s knitting socks, like with sock yarn, like form fitting socks, which to me

[00:24:41] Kelly: [00:24:41] I am. I am so intimidated by socks.

[00:24:46] Brett: [00:24:46] Like people, like we know like the, I don’t mean to stereotype, but the old ladies in town who knit, um, The knitter circle. Uh, [00:25:00] most of them are also apparently intimidated by socks. Oh, you’re making socks. Oh my.

[00:25:06] Kelly: [00:25:06] Yeah, well, a

[00:25:07] Brett: [00:25:07] almost done. Like it’s going really

[00:25:09] Kelly: [00:25:09] get second sock curse, like is, I think is what it’s called or second sock syndrome where like you knit the one and you get partway into the second one and

[00:25:19] Brett: [00:25:19] Well, she’s doing them on, she’s doing them simultaneously.

[00:25:25] Kelly: [00:25:25] Oh, okay. That

[00:25:26] Brett: [00:25:26] they’re both on the, the loop at the

[00:25:29] Kelly: [00:25:29] circulars. Yeah. I’ve heard about that. Yeah, it sounds cool. I’m, I’m super intimidated by them because it’s a thing you actually wear, but not a hat. And like, I haven’t made clothing besides hats, so I’ve done. Oh, I made a scarf. I’ve made a couple of scars. Um, but otherwise it’s mostly like most of what I’ve made has just been hats and like scarves, scarves.

[00:25:56] Like if it’s a little short. Oh, well, if it’s a little [00:26:00] wide. Oh, well it’s not like you can’t wear it because it’s just a scarf. So. Yeah, that was actually the first thing I ever sat down and knit was, uh, my, my, uh, Gryffendor scarf. And, uh, cause I looked at the pattern and went, okay. I don’t think switching colors would be that hard.

[00:26:17] Uh, and it says, you just do this spiral forever. So it’s a tube scarf. Um, and then I discovered when I went to buy all the yarn, I took my pattern with me and went to the yarn shop, said, hi, I want to make this in these colors. Can you help me? And it turned out to be a thousand yards, a yard. And that’s a lot of yarn.

[00:26:35] Brett: [00:26:35] like a thousand yards.

[00:26:37] Kelly: [00:26:37] It’s like a thousand yards a yard and that’s what I did. And so that was my first project. Um, I need a lot of dish clauses after that to sort of make up for it because the other great thing about some projects is like most people have multiple projects going on at, at the same time. Um, and part of the reason for that is because if you do, let’s say a dish cloth, And you use a stitch that’s that’s [00:27:00] taller than even if all you do is sit down and do and crochet one row across you’ve made progress.

[00:27:07] It’s like an inch and a half longer than it was when you started. And that’s like, that can be even just like 10 or 15 minutes worth of, I’m going to sit down and double crochet across here. And now it’s like, you see noticeably. More project than it was when you sat down. So like sometimes the gratification of it with a smaller project is really nice.

[00:27:28] Sock. Yarn is very thin. And so, um, like if you knit a row of a sock, you may not necessarily appreciate the progress there. So that’s part of what I, that’s another thing I really like about particularly crocheting and crushing dish claws in particular, I’ve made loads of them and I, because a, I like doing it B they don’t take that long.

[00:27:48] See, I can always give them to people. And like my mom, at one point I gave her one and she was like, well, I don’t, I don’t want to use it. Cause I don’t want to wreck it. And I’m like, mom, that’s, that’s the point. And I had to sit down and be like, mom, look [00:28:00] the ball. Like I had to go buy yarn to make this dish cloth for you.

[00:28:05] And I spent about $2 on the yard and I got five dishcloths out of it. Okay. So the cost of it, don’t worry about it’s 100% cotton. So it works just like all the rest of your disc clause. And if you don’t use it and wear it out, I can’t make another one and give it to you. So just use it please.

[00:28:26] Brett: [00:28:26] your dish claws out of 100% cotton.

[00:28:29] Kelly: [00:28:29] Yeah.

[00:28:29] Brett: [00:28:29] I would think like a poly wool combination seems suitable to me.

[00:28:36] Kelly: [00:28:36] Will will, would be nice. But, um, a lot of those you can’t put in the dry,

[00:28:42] Brett: [00:28:42] you put

[00:28:42] Kelly: [00:28:42] so if it’s just going to be, yeah.

[00:28:45] Brett: [00:28:45] Fancy you

[00:28:46] Kelly: [00:28:46] mean, when they come out of the wash, they got to go somewhere. So, um, so I

[00:28:51] Brett: [00:28:51] don’t do laundry enough.

[00:28:54] Kelly: [00:28:54] or at least don’t wash dish closet very often. Um, that

[00:28:58] Brett: [00:28:58] like Tish clots are self [00:29:00] washing. Like it, like you get them wet and soapy and then you rinse them and you bring them out and they’re clean. Right?

[00:29:08] Kelly: [00:29:08] sometimes, sometimes if

[00:29:11] Brett: [00:29:11] Yeah. Elle would disagree with me on that too.

[00:29:14] Kelly: [00:29:14] Yeah. Sometimes if you leave them for awhile, it’s, it’s not so much so you to kind of, you know, do something else. So

[00:29:22] Brett: [00:29:22] So, uh, it came up a couple times already, but you are a, uh, you’re a pretty hardcore star Wars fan.

[00:29:33] Kelly: [00:29:33] I am.

[00:29:34] Brett: [00:29:34] and I figured if, if the knitting conversation wasn’t compelling enough to people. Maybe we could get into like a star Trek star Wars argument. No, I’m just kidding. We’re not going to do that also. I know you appreciate star Trek.

[00:29:48] Kelly: [00:29:48] I really liked star

[00:29:49] Brett: [00:29:49] have to be a binary choice

[00:29:51] Kelly: [00:29:51] it’s not, I do love star Trek, but my heart is with star Wars.

[00:29:55] Brett: [00:29:55] and, uh,

[00:29:56] Kelly: [00:29:56] I love star Trek. I went and saw like lots of the [00:30:00] movies, like opening day or opening weekend in a theater, you know, like as soon as they could get my hands on them, I went and saw them. I love next generation. Um, I’m watching discovery.

[00:30:10] Picard was great. Like, yeah. It’s not like I don’t, I mean, hi rod. It’s not like I don’t love starting. So

[00:30:18] Brett: [00:30:18] but, but I’m curious to hear your take on the Mandalorian. Don’t give away season two.

[00:30:25] Kelly: [00:30:25] I will not. Um, I adore the Mandalorian and I think what it is about it that I like is, um, well, I th th what I’ve discovered about it, that I, what I, that I like about it a lot is that it’s showing us a whole lot of. The star Wars universe that we didn’t see before. So, um, and the reason I discovered this is because like, when we end up in a location that seems familiar or we see, um, aliens that we’ve seen [00:31:00] before, that looked familiar, that we recognize from something else.

[00:31:02] I sort of get not bored, but I’m like, Oh, we’ve seen this. And I’m a little less interested in what’s happening because like we’ve been there. We’ve seen that, show me something new and that’s, and I. It sits with me. Like I was sitting thinking about it as I was rewatching season one before season two started last Friday.

[00:31:22] And. I realized that specifically what it is, that’s what it is about it that I like so much is that it’s expanding the universe that we already have. And it’s one of the things that I don’t like in star Trek when we do that, like, I didn’t need to see the wrath of Khan again. I saw it once you don’t need to retell me that story.

[00:31:41] Um, Like tell me you have the whole universe to play in and you, you, you take me back to this for the third time. Like that just seemed unfair. Um, and it like in bummed me out because there’s this whole universe of stuff that you could be showing me and you’re showing me something I already know. Um, and that’s one of the things that I really like [00:32:00] about the last Jedi as a star Wars movie.

[00:32:02] Um, I really liked that it was trying to make the universe bigger and show us other things and show us different stuff. That was also part of the universe that we’ve been inhabiting, you know, with these movies for so long. And that’s what I really like about the Mandalorian. I love the, the, you know, the clan of, to the Wolf and Cubs story, you know, that we’re getting with that, that we saw through the arc of season one.

[00:32:25] And I really like. How it came together and, and it’s, it’s another, it does right now, what the Mandalorian is doing is what star Wars does when it is at its best, which is you’re telling me an interesting story about interesting characters that happens to be set in space.

[00:32:42] Brett: [00:32:42] Yeah, well,

[00:32:44] Kelly: [00:32:44] That piece is in that piece is almost incidental.

[00:32:47] To what’s happening, which is, which is the part that I, which is the thing that I like about it. Like when it’s, when it, when star Wars is really hitting its stride, it’s doing that. And, uh, you know, it’s, it’s the same thing. I like [00:33:00] another. Other storytelling, you know, when the point of it is not space, the point of it is not the aliens.

[00:33:04] The point of it is the relationships. The point of it is whatever it is that, that this group of people is trying to accomplish together or whatever, you know, that, that’s the part I really like. And I, I enjoy seeing like the. The weird aliens and the goofy politics that, that different folks have here and there.

[00:33:26] And, you know, all that kind of stuff is stuff that I really enjoy. So I, anything that’s sort of making the universe bigger, particularly in an interesting way. Uh, that’s the stuff that I like about, about particularly the Mandalorian

[00:33:39] Brett: [00:33:39] did you read at all about the set that they shoot on?

[00:33:43] Kelly: [00:33:43] it is mind blowing. I can’t believe that they do the stuff that they do with that. And I just love it.

[00:33:51] Brett: [00:33:51] explain it, explain it to me if, as if I didn’t. Cause I have this like vague idea of these like crazy led [00:34:00] screens and everything, but I don’t think I fully understand what is happening. So explain your understanding of it for me.

[00:34:09] Kelly: [00:34:09] so I think like, If I’m like parsing this properly. Right. And I’m not a filmmaker, so I don’t, I don’t know for sure. Um, but they film the bulk of, of the show in this thing called the volume and it’s like this massive. It’s this room and it’s, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s like a sound state. I don’t even think it’s like 10,000 square feet.

[00:34:34] It’s I think it’s less. And so what they do is they take these screens and they put the scenery on the screens around the room instead of using like matte paintings and things like that. So, um, they they’re doing a lot and it, so it allows for like, Everyone to be in the same [00:35:00] place at the same time, regardless of where they’re filming.

[00:35:02] So, uh, like with the, uh, with the original movies, they had to film like part of it in Tunisia and part of it in another place and part of it in another place. And then some at a studio in London and with the volume, they didn’t have to do that. Um, it’s sort of like, instead of having it, it’s. Similar to green screen, as an idea in that the backgrounds and stuff are all computer generated.

[00:35:30] They’re all something that was synthesized from someplace else. But, um, they take it a step further by making it, uh, by, by sort of broadcasting

[00:35:38] Brett: [00:35:38] Right.

[00:35:39] Kelly: [00:35:39] on the walls so that you can see it so that all the people that are in. The scene that’s supposed to be taking place in the desert. Like the ground is covered in, you know, the, the floor that they’re standing on is covered in sand and there’s, you know, set pieces around them.

[00:35:53] But you know, a few feet away you’re seeing like way, you know, it’s, it’s a vertical [00:36:00] wall, but it looks like, you know, the horizon is way out there and it goes on for miles and all that kind of stuff. So, um, they’ve

[00:36:06] Brett: [00:36:06] a reason they didn’t call it the holodeck? I mean, would that have been crossing too many lines?

[00:36:14] Kelly: [00:36:14] It may have been, um, I don’t think this was developed for Lucasfilm, um, or ILM or, you know, whoever it is that they say is in charge of that stuff these days. But, um, uh, it, I think the company that came up with it, I don’t know. I don’t know why they named it that, but I just think it’s. But it’s super cool.

[00:36:35] Um, if you have any, plus in are watching the Mandalorian, they did this, um, additional series alongside of it called like the Disney gallery. I think something like that. And they talk more about the Mandalorian and like how the story came to be and that sort of stuff. And there’s one episode that just deals with like the logistics of filming in this space.

[00:36:55] And it’s really cool to get a chance to watch.

[00:36:57] Brett: [00:36:57] Yeah. Have you, uh, [00:37:00] since the, uh, since the whole pandemic thing, have you tried having a, uh, a digital watch party at all?

[00:37:06] Kelly: [00:37:06] I have not. I should.

[00:37:08] Brett: [00:37:08] We did for, uh, for Halloween, we got, uh, Dan Peterson from agile bits and Dave Chartier and, uh, Christopher gambling wall and Jack, and a bunch of cool guys and girls and gals. And. Um, actually there was, I think always the no Ellen and Honda both showed up.

[00:37:31] Um, but anyway, like it’s a zoom call plus the hu not Hulu, uh, Plex watched together feature. And then while the movie’s playing, we mute the zoom call and switched to messages.

[00:37:46] Kelly: [00:37:46] Oh my

[00:37:46] Brett: [00:37:46] For like the running commentary and the wisecracking we do over like text messages and it is, it takes, it, it’s a lot of brain space because like, you’ve got two screens, three screens [00:38:00] going at once really.

[00:38:01] And, and you’re trying there’s, you know, there’s that whole, like, I want to enjoy the movie, but I also need to be witty about this. Uh, the whole MST three K thing going on. Um, it it’s a blast though. And honestly, even with all that, they’re still easier to pull together than our real life watch party with friends.

[00:38:22] Kelly: [00:38:22] Oh, for sure. Yeah. Um, uh, Dawn and I used to sort of, uh, when Westworld was airing, we would watch, we would watch air quote together, um, where we would also go, like we would just sort of over messages. We would kind of coordinate, like, I’m going to start at six 30. So am I okay. Like let’s just hit play at six 30 and then we would just sort of text each other at the same time.

[00:38:44] Like if, about something that was happening or, um, Uh, as soon as I could name that tune, I would send him the name of it because he always wanted to know I, so like we would do that. And, um, and he, he enjoys [00:39:00] those exchanges immensely. And we’ll occasionally, like when we were doing the show, the podcast, he would talk about, you know, and this is when Kelly texted me, you know, whatever it was.

[00:39:09] Brett: [00:39:09] Yeah, no, I really like, I like remote watching with people. There’s something, there’s something very. Yeah, I, I won’t say it’s better, but it’s very different. Uh, not being in the same room, but still sharing the movie with someone.

[00:39:26] Kelly: [00:39:26] sharing that experience and that’s it, like I’ve watched other, other stuff kind of, kind of at the same time, not exactly, you know, like what you’re doing. Um, but I have done stuff like that and sort of had, you know, had the conversation sort of going on the side, just in messages, you know, as I was watching it at home or whatever.

[00:39:47] And I think part of it is the little bit of normal that you, that comes from. Being able to talk to the person, you know,

[00:39:55] Brett: [00:39:55] yeah.

[00:39:56] Kelly: [00:39:56] like you would normally be able to like lean over and whisper that to [00:40:00] somebody by, you know, now you just send it in messages. And so it’s kind of a little bit of normal, uh, in 2020, which is, which is hard to come by and therefore appreciate it.

[00:40:09] Brett: [00:40:09] Yeah. Yeah. It’s much like, uh, when things get back to normal, there are certain things such as. Uh, digital watch parties and, and for a non-trivial part of the population work from home, um, things that people don’t necessarily want to go back to the way they were like, sure. We still want to have movie nights with friends.

[00:40:35] That would be great to get back to, but also these digital watch parties are fun in their own special way. And I would do them even if I didn’t have to.

[00:40:45] Kelly: [00:40:45] Well, and I think part of that is just sort of. Uh, the possibility, right? So now that we have much easier technology that makes it so that we can all watch the same thing at the same time, like, it also means that you and I can watch something [00:41:00] together regularly where that would not be a possibility most of the time.

[00:41:03] Brett: [00:41:03] right. Yeah. Like the, the last one was people from Chicago and Ontario, not Ontario, Ohio somewhere. And, and Minnesota, like all just getting together on Halloween night and watching John dies at the end. Have you ever seen that movie?

[00:41:24] Kelly: [00:41:24] Uh, no, I heard about it.

[00:41:26] Brett: [00:41:26] You would be hard pressed to find a single good review of that movie, but it’s actually not that bad. It’s weird. It’s weird. It was a good Halloween movie. It wasn’t too scary, but definitely a trip.

[00:41:42] Kelly: [00:41:42] Cool.

[00:41:42] Brett: [00:41:42] Anyhow, should we do some top three picks

[00:41:46] Kelly: [00:41:46] Uh, we certainly could.

[00:41:47] Brett: [00:41:47] top, top two or three? All

[00:41:51] Kelly: [00:41:51] I’ll give you as many picks as you want. Cause I, I have a great number of things to pick.

[00:41:55] Brett: [00:41:55] What’s let’s start with one.

[00:41:57] Kelly: [00:41:57] Okay. Um, so I’m going [00:42:00] to give you. I will send you a link. Uh, this is, uh, a t-shirt. It should not surprise you that, uh, I’m sending you a t-shirt, but, um, you did mention to me that a lot of your audience is, uh, ADHD people.

[00:42:17] And so, uh, I have this shirt that says in the ACDC font, it says ADHD. And then below that for, because I know like, Picking a t-shirt on the podcast makes it riveting. But underneath that, it says for those about to, Ooh, we’ll rock and, Oh,

[00:42:34] Brett: [00:42:34] I actually, I own an ADHD ACDC shirt, but it does not have the tagline under it.

[00:42:42] Kelly: [00:42:42] That’s what I thought you would dig this. Uh, so, uh, this, the, the shop that makes these shirts is a friend of mine. His name is Eric. Hi, Eric. And, um, Uh, he has some other shirts too. He has a fat lives. T-shirt that he’s been selling forever for [00:43:00] people who, uh, disbelieve that sequence on tattooing.

[00:43:04] And, you know, they’re in the middle of return of the Jedi. Um, and he’s got a, he sells one that says, bring your re game, which I love very much. Um, And it might be because I said, I just, all I want in life is a shirt that says this and so made one. Uh, and then he’s got, uh, some other ones too. I have one for a raise salvage, uh, that says now accepting portion pal.

[00:43:28] Um, there’s a, there’s just like some fun sort of goofy star Wars t-shirts there that I really enjoy. So, um, there’s some of those, so that’s, uh, that’s my first pick is a clever t-shirt.

[00:43:41] Brett: [00:43:41] I saw, I saw a welcome mat the other day, that in the ADA, in the ACDC font, it just said without any context, it just said for those about to knock.

[00:43:55] Kelly: [00:43:55] Yeah, I like that.

[00:43:56] Brett: [00:43:56] Yeah, it was good.

[00:43:57] Kelly: [00:43:57] That’s a good one. Yeah.

[00:43:59] Brett: [00:43:59] All [00:44:00] right, hit me with another one.

[00:44:01] Kelly: [00:44:01] Okay. Uh, so I have. Uh, this is a pic that I have, like I said, I don’t remember if we were recording or not when I said this, but, uh, I’m always looking to optimize and I want it. Like, whatever, whatever it is I’m doing, I want it to be as convenient as possible when I’m trying to get it done. So, um, one thing that I have found lately is that I’ve been, I’ve taken to wearing my Apple watch 24 seven basically.

[00:44:28] Um, because I wear it for sleep tracking and, uh, for the alarm. Because my alarm goes off half an hour before mr. Kelly’s alarm goes off. So it feels like having it tap me on the arm is a little bit nicer than just having it Blair 30 minutes before he needs to be out of bed. So, um, I’ve started doing that.

[00:44:48] So it means that, um, I’ve been looking for a way to. Uh, charge my device and charge my charge, all of my devices, basically. And I found this [00:45:00] particular, uh, charging station, I guess. Um, so it’s got the, it’s all wireless charging. It’s got an upright place to set your phone and, uh, the base for that, uh, Is just another charger it’ll charge headphones, like your, um, I have like three sets of headphones right now that do wireless charging and all of them charge on this, uh, wireless pad kind of in the back.

[00:45:26] And then the top of the, the top of the place that holds the phone sort of folds back to be, um, flat so that it’s horizontal. And it’s got another charger there that you put your watch on. So this will charge three things at the same time for. Only slightly more than the space of a regular sort of upright charger.

[00:45:46] If you have a wireless charger that holds your phone upright, like on your desk or whatever, um, So I found this because I went looking for one because I saw a couple that looked kind of interesting, but kind of big, and this [00:46:00] isn’t that much bigger than the wireless upright charger that I already own that I have on my nightstand.

[00:46:05] So I have this one on my desk and I have it there too, because I like first thing in the morning when I first get into work, I will usually start, uh, I will charge my watch for awhile then, and then I’ll charge it, uh, for a while later. Like during other stuff during the day. So I get a couple of good opportunities to make sure it’s full and it’s an easy way to charge my work phone and kind of have a place for my work phone to live.

[00:46:28] Like if I’m not carrying it around, it can just sit right there. And then I always have a place to charge my headphones. And so, um, I have found that super duper handy. I like that one a lot.

[00:46:37] Brett: [00:46:37] Yeah, I just, uh, I put little standup watch chargers all over my house. Cause I also use it for sleep tracking and they use it for workout tracking, but then there’s all these time in between where I’m really just checking the weather or the time on occasion. Um, And the, and so just here and there, I’ll just find half an hour to just leave it on the [00:47:00] whatever dock is near, where I’m sitting.

[00:47:02] Um, uh, I, I, yeah, it’s, it’s a weird charging schedule. Also, the battery lasts for like, uh, I would say two days at a time on this watch I’ve had for a couple of years now. Uh, it’s

[00:47:16] Kelly: [00:47:16] I was going to ask which one you have.

[00:47:17] Brett: [00:47:17] It’s a series three,

[00:47:19] Kelly: [00:47:19] Oh, nice.

[00:47:20] Brett: [00:47:20] bizarrely long battery life for its for its age, but,

[00:47:24] Kelly: [00:47:24] I have before, or, and I, I basically don’t have, don’t have trouble if I can get two good stretches of time on the charger in a day. And I mean like less than an hour, if I can get two good stretches, I’m solid. So, yeah.

[00:47:39] Brett: [00:47:39] And I built a, a flush Mount. She charger into my standing desk.

[00:47:45] Kelly: [00:47:45] Nice.

[00:47:47] Brett: [00:47:47] just lay my phone down on the desk and it charges. Um, it’s not fast. I, I, I don’t fully understand what I would have to [00:48:00] do to make it a fast charger, but at

[00:48:03] Kelly: [00:48:03] just need a different wall plug.

[00:48:06] Brett: [00:48:06] I’ll work on it. I don’t, I don’t care that much. I

[00:48:09] Kelly: [00:48:09] I said probably like a lot of times that’s all it is like usually the it’s not the cable. That’s the problem. So

[00:48:15] Brett: [00:48:15] good to know. All right. Uh, what do you have for, uh, maybe a third pick.

[00:48:20] Kelly: [00:48:20] uh, my third pick is something that, um, I’ve been, uh, I’ve been looking at because I do have a friend who wants to learn to crochet. And so, uh, this is what I was looking at. Uh, it’s a kit for $17. That will teach you how to crochet a dish cloth. So it’s got the hook that you need. It’s got three balls of nice yarn to use for this.

[00:48:47] It’s not super duper, fancy yarn or anything. It’s just really great for dish cloths. Um, I’ve been using it for a while and I really like it. Um, it’s got the pattern that you need, and it’s got a little booklet that has basic stitches [00:49:00] and, uh, the crochet hook that they give you is, is a very nice one it’s made out of this cool wood.

[00:49:04] And it’s got like some nice colors in it.

[00:49:09] And like I said before, like a dish cloth is an easy way to make progress. Uh, you know, even if you can just sit down and, and crochet one row, uh I’ve you know, and I use, like, I kind of always have some very small project going so that even if I can just make one lap, I feel a little better about whatever it is or, you know, if I just need to get out of my head for a little while I can take 15 minutes and go crochet a row or two and be, and be done.

[00:49:34] And sort of context shift from whatever it was I was doing before and get out of my head and quit overthinking something. Uh, so that’s another nice thing about dish clauses. You can just go forth or force and back, and then, you know, you’ve made some progress. And, uh, and, uh, like I said before, like crochet is not that complicated.

[00:49:53] Um, and this is $17 and for $17 you get a load of good stuff and it comes in a little nifty [00:50:00] box and you can start making disclose.

[00:50:02] Brett: [00:50:02] all right. Fine.

[00:50:06] Kelly: [00:50:06] Okay also, uh, and this is, uh, this pic is a kit from nitpicks and I really like nitpicks. Um, yeah.

[00:50:14] Brett: [00:50:14] Did I tell you what else has gotten into she into spinning? Like making her own yarn crazy. She, she tends to, she tends to do deep dives. I’m a very like surface level person and wants to pick up a little bit of everything. And she like gets to one point in the ocean and then just dive straight down until the next thing you know, she’s got like a little llama farm

[00:50:42] Kelly: [00:50:42] I was going to say next,

[00:50:43] Brett: [00:50:43] she wanted to

[00:50:44] Kelly: [00:50:44] going to get a note

[00:50:45] Brett: [00:50:45] has llamas.

[00:50:46] Kelly: [00:50:46] yes. Yeah. Um, well, if, if she tries to go for llamas and alpacas, cause the yarn is a

[00:50:53] Brett: [00:50:53] she prefers alpacas as animals as well. I think she, she [00:51:00] constantly shows me pictures like cute alpacas.

[00:51:05] Kelly: [00:51:05] Well, I look forward to her inevitable yarn store so that I can buy alpaca yarn from Ella and knit with that instead.

[00:51:13] Brett: [00:51:13] Yeah, I will. Uh, I’ll keep you posted on that. She’s she’s. She wants to learn how to, I don’t know the, the words, but there’s a type of spinning you can do while you’re walking. So she wants to get to a point where we can walk the dog and I can hold the leash and she can spin. And I have, I have reservations about being the guy.

[00:51:40] Who walks the little dog with the woman who’s spinning yarn. I don’t know. It’s something some deep seated.

[00:51:47] Kelly: [00:51:47] Are you talking about like drop spindles or something? Okay.

[00:51:51] Brett: [00:51:51] Yeah, I am, but I don’t know why it bothers me. It shouldn’t. I should. She’s she’s a wonderful lady and I [00:52:00] love, I love that. She’s so crafty.

[00:52:02] Kelly: [00:52:02] She’s super crafty.

[00:52:04] Brett: [00:52:04] Yeah.

[00:52:04] Kelly: [00:52:04] It’s pretty great. Yeah.

[00:52:05] Brett: [00:52:05] All right. Well, That’s a pretty good show.

[00:52:10] We did there.

[00:52:12] Kelly: [00:52:12] All right.

[00:52:13] Brett: [00:52:13] Um, for anyone who isn’t already there and Kelly, you have an invitation, there is a discord server with, uh, quite the growing community where you can come talk about the podcast or anything that happens to be on your mind. Uh, we were just talking about, uh, let’s see, my cat, my cat comes up a lot. But there’s a lot more than that. We talk about keyboards and cats and Taylor Swift, because it it’s a shared discord with the over-tired discord and they have separate chat channels within the discord, but there’s also a Taylor Swift disco audio channel that I will on occasion play music in. [00:53:00] And I’ll be honest.

[00:53:01] It has been a lot more. Punk rock than Taylor Swift, because nobody’s in there listening to it. And I’m not going to spend Taylor Swift just for nobody.

[00:53:16] Kelly: [00:53:16] I sort of enjoy that. I I’m glad to know that there’s punk rock happening. That makes me happy.

[00:53:21] Brett: [00:53:21] Yes. All right. Well, tell Kelly, tell people where they can find you.

[00:53:27] Kelly: [00:53:27] okay. Um, you can find me five mornings a week over@mackobserver.com, where I host the Mac observer daily observations podcast. Uh, we talk about Apple news and, um, And there’s actually another podcast, uh, that, uh, I think is on the horizon that, uh, people should keep an eye on the Mac observer.com for, to check out.

[00:53:50] Um, I’m also doing an episode while we’re talking Mac observer. I will be on an episode of background mode with John Martellero. Okay. Uh, in the coming [00:54:00] weeks, I don’t remember exactly when that’s going to go live. Um, but yeah, John and I usually get together and talk about the TV that we’ve been watching, the TV and movies that we like.

[00:54:09] And, and, and we disagree on stuff pretty often. So sometimes it’s fun to go check that out. Um, you can also find me over at the incomparable where my show with Don Melton is called greetings from the uncanny Valley. We talk about Westworld and, um, You can also find me over there on some of the other shows around the incomparable.

[00:54:27] We just did a game show episode. Uh, I also did an episode where we talked about Shaun of the dead and for agents of smooch. And, uh, I did a podcast about, uh, the movie aliens. Uh, for the main show feed, um, and the rest of the time, you can find me with Mike Rose talking about whatever comes to mind over@aftershowpodcastattheaftershowpodcastwithmikeandkellyataftershowpodcast.com.

[00:54:53] And if that’s not enough listening to me talk, you can find me on Twitter as we’re. So.

[00:54:58] Brett: [00:54:58] Verso. [00:55:00] Yup. That sounds like a very, a very complete list. You talk a lot. I know. I don’t mean that in a bad way.

[00:55:08] Kelly: [00:55:08] No I do. And it’s only when I have to sit down and make this list that I’m like, wow, that’s a lot of

[00:55:13] Brett: [00:55:13] I got exhausted just hearing about all of the talking that you do.

[00:55:18] Kelly: [00:55:18] Well, the Westworld podcast generally is only on, well, Westworld is airing, so we’re not doing, that’s sort of on hiatus right now.

[00:55:25] Brett: [00:55:25] Yeah. But one of your, you do five days a week on. Yeah, no, you, it’s very impressive what you do and, and you have a day job.

[00:55:36] Kelly: [00:55:36] I do. Yeah. So that’s, that’s sort of my lunch hour every day. Um, uh, even though it’s 9:00 AM, uh, because I keep East coast office hours. Um, so I spend my lunch hour. Uh, we get together over at Mac observer. We have our, our morning meeting and, uh, chat about whatever it is. And then we go record the podcast and I posted it and then I go back and work for the [00:56:00] afternoon.

[00:56:00] Brett: [00:56:00] Wait, so you get up at like your, your day starts at 5:00 AM.

[00:56:04] Kelly: [00:56:04] Um, my day starts at six that’s when my alarm goes off at five 30.

[00:56:09] Brett: [00:56:09] Oh, it only takes you half an hour to get going. That’s cool. I’m much the same, but I live in a house where it takes people more like an hour and a half, so I have to get up.

[00:56:20] Kelly: [00:56:20] Yeah. Well, but I also don’t have to go anywhere. So I do have that. I do have that like advantage, you know, I don’t like my commute is a flight of stairs, so

[00:56:30] Brett: [00:56:30] yeah, that’s been my commute for 20 years now. And I’m

[00:56:36] Kelly: [00:56:36] been my commute for eight years because our, our, our old house was only one story.

[00:56:40] Brett: [00:56:40] and I’m doing interviews fascinating. So I don’t even have to have breakfast, basically. It’s roll out of bed, Kappa coffee. I’m ready to go. Except for Monday, Mondays and Fridays. Now we’re back in the, uh, in the studio for yoga. So I do actually have to leave the house.

[00:56:55] Kelly: [00:56:55] Oh, okay.

[00:56:57] Brett: [00:56:57] I like zoom yoga. That’s another thing I think we [00:57:00] should keep when things get back to normal.

[00:57:02] Kelly: [00:57:02] Zoom yoga sounds awesome.

[00:57:03] Brett: [00:57:03] It is it’s it’s like going to yoga except you don’t leave your house.

[00:57:09] Kelly: [00:57:09] Well, I also liked the idea of, of the, the lack of judgment of whatever outfit I’m wearing or like my downward dog is in downward downward enough or whatever. Like I don’t have to worry about anyone else in the Oh, okay.

[00:57:25] Brett: [00:57:25] You have the option to not turn on your video. But I mean, the fact is it goes into presenter mode. So even if other people are on this screen from where, from your mat, you can actually make out other people or anything. But

[00:57:40] Kelly: [00:57:40] that sounds a little

[00:57:41] Brett: [00:57:41] of course I’ve only been on the teacher side of it.

[00:57:43] Like I live with the teacher, so I’m always behind the computer. Just kind of like. Doing it along with the class, I’ve never actually attended a zoom yoga class as like a [00:58:00] zoom.

[00:58:00] Kelly: [00:58:00] full on attendee.

[00:58:01] Brett: [00:58:01] Yeah. I’ve always had the zoom yoga in person, which kind of defeats the whole zoom thing. But anyway, okay. Again, thank you for being here.

[00:58:11] Uh, this went better than I had hoped based on how the rest of my day has gone.

[00:58:16] Kelly: [00:58:16] Oh, well, I’m glad it, I hope it improved your day a

[00:58:19] Brett: [00:58:19] It did. Yeah. Yeah. It was a delight. And, uh, and thanks everyone for listening. I guess this is, this is an awkward, sign-off

[00:58:32] Kelly: [00:58:32] Okay. See, I, that’s why I came up with a sign off. So that’s why I ended up of daily observations with be excellent to each other.

[00:58:39] Brett: [00:58:39] do it now. Say it.

[00:58:43] Kelly: [00:58:43] This has been systematic with Bret Turkstra. He will talk to all of you again soon in the meantime, be excellent to each other.