Latest / I Think Less of You Podcast / Out of State Plates

Transcript

Out of State Plates · I Think Less of You Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: We have a weird lag.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Are you plugged in?
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: We didn't
0:09
SPEAKER_01: have a lag
0:09
SPEAKER_00: before.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: We're good now.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: It basically just opened a back door for people to install different malware
0:21
SPEAKER_00: and things and take control of websites remotely.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Just is a massive critical safety issue.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see what comes of it.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they talked about it and they will get it all patched up quickly.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I know my host was busy working all of yesterday running scripts.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see how that goes.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: But it is definitely something to watch.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Just watch people who understand it more intricately than the two of us.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: I do somewhat.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I can.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't
1:04
SPEAKER_01: know what's going on with it.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Everybody who knows about computers started freaking out about this thing yesterday.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: It apparently originated out of a security certificate issuer in India.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: I guess they're supposed to have encryption keys.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: They're like 161 characters long.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason, one of the encryption keys apparently was four.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Four.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: Four.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: It was not four numbers.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: It was the number four.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: There's supposed to be like sentence long strings of numbers.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are supposed to be complex keys and someone used four.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So that's great.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: So that also yesterday, I think in a similar story, I think it was Norway had their...
1:55
SPEAKER_01: Some kind of vital internal national database breached because their password for
2:02
SPEAKER_01: the database was password one and had been that for, I guess, 12 years.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's easier than having a sticky note.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing out here,
2:15
SPEAKER_01: people?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
2:18
SPEAKER_01: Actually, a sticky note.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to go back to that.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go back to just like a written notebook somewhere
2:25
SPEAKER_00: because it's actually far more secure.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: The ideal internet security is literally just a little notebook.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: They just have complete gibberish strings as your passwords and have
2:36
SPEAKER_01: a little notebook that you write in what gibberish string goes with what service.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: But I say that, but I just generally use the Apple default.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: It says, would you like us to generate you a password?
2:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, sure.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: I'll be fine.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, now I know how to hack.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: I know where I'm going to get all of your passwords.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I feel like you would be a fairly boring person to hack, and I mean that as a compliment.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm an open book.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: I have no secrets.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm, you know.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: I like how we're saying this and I'm sitting here.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: This is where we really suffer in not being a video format
3:22
SPEAKER_00: because I have made myself a burrito with a blanket because it is freezing
3:26
SPEAKER_00: in my husband's office right now.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm still very sick because I do.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: I do.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I'm going to be a Matushka soon, so.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I have no idea what that means.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got sick because I had visitors from out of town get me sick so rudely.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: So my kids had spring,
3:56
SPEAKER_01: fall break over the last, the previous week, Here's why we didn't record.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: And we were trucking all over New England.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: And one of the stops we made was indeed to visit you.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: I visited someone else that I know from the Internet.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: I had the lovely Garrett.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: And we had a delightful lunch with him.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was great.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: He showed us around his very cool office and then we went off to lunch.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so and we brought my youngest had a cold, which I didn't realize.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: And we brought that cold to you.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And now you have that cold.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: I still have it.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: So do I.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: It's actually a very long-lasting cold.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not super thankful for that, but it was cool to get to see your family.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: I got to finally meet Luke, which was great.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: He was a charming fellow.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: It's funny because you had kept insisting that we wouldn't get along.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: I thought we got along fine.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: You 100% said that.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: I said I didn't know.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: You were like, I don't know if I want to get you two together.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Luke was
4:58
SPEAKER_00: very picky.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: Luke is very,
5:00
SPEAKER_00: very picky,
5:01
SPEAKER_00: which I know is shocking considering he's married to me and he kind of likes me.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's wrong with him.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: But he's really, really picky and he's not an easy like.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm sure he said awful things about me after I left, but he was quite charming and nice.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: He would never.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: The only thing he said is he was like, I'm really glad they had to.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: He had midterms this week and he had to record himself singing.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I was going to have to excuse myself in a minute if they didn't have to leave.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's where having children who have a very hard bedtime.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: It comes in handy.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: You can mute it when you cough.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: You're so mean to me.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: You got me sick.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: You can deal with it.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: You can deal with hearing me cough.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: I can't always hit the mute button, like, quickly.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: It's across the...
6:08
SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: I had to,
6:09
SPEAKER_00: like, unbabushka and, you know...
6:14
SPEAKER_01: You need one of those slankets, the full body blanket with the arms.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: I really need, okay,
6:22
SPEAKER_00: I said this on Twitter and you made fun of me because I still get ads because I'm
6:27
SPEAKER_00: a poor person who doesn't pay for bougie, aristocratic Twitter with no ads.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: But they keep serving me.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: This ad that's like a footed onesie, there's like foot pockets in it.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And it's a gingerbread and it's heated.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I want nothing more in my life than that onesie.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have to buy it.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: We've reinvented electric blankets from first principles.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's pretty much what's going on.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: I want everything to do with this.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: It's Christmas themed.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: It's heated.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: It's a blanket that you can wear around the house.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: It has feet.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: I thought everyone stopped using electric blankets.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember why.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: It was like a fire hazard.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: I think there were people who thought they were giving them cancer.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: I'll die toasty in a lovely fire with lots of cancer tumors.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: But I'll be warm and happy.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: It'll be fine.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: I love cold areas.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that Boston's starting to get cold.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: It was like 40 when I woke up this morning.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Heaven on earth.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Also, I do get cold really easily and complain about it a lot.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: So I just need blankets around me at all times.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, I love the cold.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I just need a heated blanket.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I have heated gloves.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: People make fun of me for this.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: But I have heated gloves.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: I have heated gloves and I have a heated vest.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: I have heated all the things.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we went up to Bennington, Vermont.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: We've been to Bennington once before and I really like Bennington.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: My...
8:14
SPEAKER_01: Distant, distant family is from Bennington.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Like that's my generations back.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: I have an ancestor who was a Green Mountain boy in Bennington,
8:25
SPEAKER_01: Vermont, who then moved away and that established my family.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: So what?
8:35
SPEAKER_01: I can just hear that dog barking.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: I like that you're.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Yelling at me coughing,
8:41
SPEAKER_00: which I can't help because I have a demon virus and you're sitting outside
8:46
SPEAKER_00: so you can smoke and subjecting a dog bark.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: I said to make sure of that.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: We were gone for a week.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: All right.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: My cat was our very kind neighbors were feeding our cat.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: So our cat was.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: But otherwise, our cat was completely alone.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: If you'd be either hearing that dog barking or hearing the cat yelling,
9:07
SPEAKER_01: because ever since we came home, the cat has been wandering around the house.
9:13
SPEAKER_01: I think I think objecting to us having abandoned her for a week.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Bennington, lovely town, beautiful town.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Robert Frost is buried there, which I didn't even know.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: There is a Bennington Battle Memorial in Bennington,
9:32
SPEAKER_01: Vermont,
9:33
SPEAKER_01: which is a big, it's like the Washington Monument, but on a slightly smaller scale.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: It's made out of limestone, which you can't go up, sadly, because it is poorly maintained.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: But we were in the museum at the bottom and the guy there referenced,
9:50
SPEAKER_01: oh, have you seen Robert Frost's grave?
9:53
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know Robert Frost even had any connection to this place.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: So we went and we found Robert Frost's grave in their old church and that was nice.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, saw the graves of his many children who all died.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: He had a very sad life.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Which I was only partially aware of.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: All of his kids died except for two.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: And two of his daughters lived.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: And one of them he had to commit to an insane asylum.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: So, but yeah, so that, but that was nice.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: And then we went up to near Burlington, which is, you know, Bernie Sanders country.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: And that was not nice.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't a fan of the Burlington area of Vermont.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: That's, we should probably get it to Canada.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: It's basically part of Quebec anyway, why not?
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, these are some takes for the mornings.
10:51
SPEAKER_01: I just say Vermont would actually probably be a pretty solidly Republican state
10:54
SPEAKER_01: if you got rid of Burlington.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm just putting that out there.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: There are various things that we could do with a little land swapping
11:03
SPEAKER_01: that could really solidify our national political situation.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could give California to Mexico,
11:11
SPEAKER_00: although I don't want to do that because I actually love California.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I just want all the Californians out of California.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: And then I would never leave.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: California is the best.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: The California is the best place on Earth.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: I just have to say it.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: It also has the worst people on Earth.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: The solutions to California cannot include getting there.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: There are many places I think we could easily just get rid of.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: California is not one of them.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: California, I think we will be well positioned to split up into multiple, much smaller states.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: But it's too it's a it's just too strategically important.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: It's too it is too.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Honestly, it's just it's a very nice area.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: Very beautiful.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: We have to keep it for a variety of reasons,
11:54
SPEAKER_01: but we need to find a way to kneecap its political power.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Everything you find in the entirety of America, you can find in California.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of it.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: There's different coastlines that you'll only find.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: It's so beautiful.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I love California.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Also the worst people.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: I've had pizza in California, so I will say that everything you find is not...
12:19
SPEAKER_01: They do not have everything that is...
12:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you could find really, really, really good pizza.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Not everything is better, but that's also a part of the people sucking, so.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, that's true.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: I just mean, like, looks-wise and environment-wise.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's a very pretty steak.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anyone can take that away from it.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: And we've discussed before that I quite like Solvang, so.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am starting to like the Northeast a little bit.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: It's really funny.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's always like, oh, how do you like the drivers?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: And everyone,
13:01
SPEAKER_00: the first thing you say, like,
13:02
SPEAKER_00: oh, we moved to Boston, everyone's like, oh, how are you dealing with the drivers?
13:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like...
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's because this is where my family first came to.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't find the driving offensive at all.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: I actually very much appreciate asshole drivers.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: They are really creative.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Lanes don't mean anything.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of drive where you're going.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: If you put your blinker on, they'll let you in.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Also, they will go around you if you stop at a red light.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: People do because they want to just keep driving through.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter that there's a red light, but like they are fairly nice.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: They're just really creative.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's fair.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: It's aggressive driving.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's very aggressive, very weird driving, but I actually appreciate it.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And I do have to say maybe it's because I drive a very,
14:03
SPEAKER_00: very large car with out of state plates like my car stands out.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: People always let me in.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: People haven't been rude.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been honked at aggressively anything.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: I haven't honked at people.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: I haven't had to yell at anyone.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: People will be very forgiving of you if you have out-of-states plates.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: However,
14:24
SPEAKER_01: bear in mind,
14:25
SPEAKER_01: you are much more likely to get pulled over if you have out-of-states plates in
14:28
SPEAKER_01: the Northeast.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Because they...
14:32
SPEAKER_01: They view you as being like, you know, basically, what are you going to do about it?
14:38
SPEAKER_01: They could pull you over and give you a ticket.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to show up at the court to challenge a ticket.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: So you're basically like, you know, you're a slot machine to them.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Except for in Boston,
14:52
SPEAKER_00: where you have a college every other block and people from all over the country.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Boston doesn't really have,
14:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you see every license plate here because there's so many colleges.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: So I would say, and that is why we're here.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're a perfect example of the type of people that are in Boston just for
15:14
SPEAKER_00: a short time for an academic thing.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: You even come to see Luke in his cassock.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: I did.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: It was quite dashing.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: He's so cute in it.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't say that.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: That's like, really, that's not great, but he looks so cute in it.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Orthodox, you're allowed to be married.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: You're allowed to like how he looks in it.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: His beard game is always very on point.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: He takes way better from Terry's beard than I do.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: He's a very stylish guy.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: He's much more stylish than me.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: He has really good clothes.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: We both are very, like,
15:59
SPEAKER_00: we try to be low-key about it, but both of us are actually really good dressers.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, not you see me when I'm in t-shirts and sweats,
16:06
SPEAKER_00: but, like, normally we're going out and things.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're both really good dressers.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: We both are very into, like,
16:14
SPEAKER_00: interior design and how our house looks and
16:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm into that too,
16:19
SPEAKER_01: but in a kind of weird bohemian way that involves having piles of stuff around.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Not exactly hoarder, but you know.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: You saw my apartment,
16:28
SPEAKER_00: like we have piles of stuff and we've only been here for a month and a half.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: We've been here for a month and a half and this was all stuff
16:35
SPEAKER_00: that like was basically bought for this apartment.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: We have other houses full of just crap.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: I will, I'll get down on myself because we don't like tidy as much as we should.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: Our house tends to be a bit untidy of piles of things.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: Our house is
16:52
SPEAKER_00: lived in.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: It's lived in.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: It's messy.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: It's just lived in.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: I go visit some people's houses, and I'm like, ah, you know, actually, I'm not doing that bad.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Your house is not one of those.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Great, you haven't lived there very long, but your house was very well appointed.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: It was a nice apartment.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your complaint.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: It is, I'm sure,
17:12
SPEAKER_01: extraordinarily difficult to downsize from two full houses to spread out into
17:17
SPEAKER_01: a small three-bedroom apartment.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: But...
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like, it's actually a really cute apartment.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I like it.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It is just hard.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, I haven't lived in an apartment since I was,
17:34
SPEAKER_00: let's see, I bought my first house when I was 27.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: I actually forced Luke to marry me.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: We were dating and, like, I knew it was going somewhere, but he was taking forever.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: And this was like at the height of the subprime housing crisis.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was a bank lobbyist at the time.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: I knew what was going on.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: I knew that there were a ton of short sales.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: And I bought a house like right outside Greeley.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And Greeley was one.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: It was Greeley.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And then it was like Pinellas County in Florida or something where
18:14
SPEAKER_00: the two like hot spots for subprime houses.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: So I bought a house like before We were engaged, anything.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And I bought it up near where he lived, and he was like, well, I guess I have to marry you now.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: It's clever.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you're kind of forcing my hand on this one.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: Very subtle.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was not subtle at all.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: But we also didn't get together in a very subtle way.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: I also forced him to start dating me in the first place.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: You're an assertive lady.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: I am.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Assertive, modern woman.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
18:54
SPEAKER_01: if people are wondering why we didn't record last week,
18:56
SPEAKER_01: it was because we rarely stayed in the same hotel two nights in a row.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: I think we actually only stayed in the same hotel two nights in a row once.
19:06
SPEAKER_01: So we were just all over.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: My one credit card gives me a free upgrade.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: I get upgraded to IHG Platinum status on it.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: So I was trying to stay at IHG properties because I could get a cheaper room.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: They would give me a free upgrade.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: By the end,
19:40
SPEAKER_01: it was a full week of just trucking around New England,
19:43
SPEAKER_01: going to different Holiday Inn properties.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: And by the end of the week, I was like, I can't remember which hotel I'm in.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: I'd get out of the elevator and be like, do I go left or right?
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Which hotel is this?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't always do well.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Like when I've done a lot of press tours,
20:00
SPEAKER_00: a lot of press tours are like that,
20:02
SPEAKER_00: where you stay in one hotel a night and you're moving quickly.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's exhausting.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And people don't realize how tiring that is.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: It's like its own job.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: I can't do family vacations.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: I say that.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: But then thankfully, my husband will never listen to this.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I end up doing that for us because I'm always like, I'm all the way over here.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I have to see everything there is.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: And my family's like, we could just like sit too.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: That works.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm my wife is like my wife wants to go truck around and see like,
20:39
SPEAKER_01: you know,
20:40
SPEAKER_01: she wants to go see all the things that we can in that entire general area.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: My ideal is generally just find one place and just kind of ferret into it and really dig in.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Into what's available within that one small area.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: But I also enjoy seeing lots of things.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: We randomly went to Calvin Coolidge's birthplace.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: I took a picture there, and it was one of the few pictures you've ever said.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: You were like, oh, that was a really good picture, which I was surprised by.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: Because normally you tell me my pictures all suck.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, I say it with love.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't say they suck.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: I just try to give like helpful reframing.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: You food
21:30
SPEAKER_00: pictures do suck.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: I will say that.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: No, they really are not good.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've seen like, you make good food.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: We just need to make it look better because the food that you make is actually really good.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: We just need to work on your photo skills just a tiny bit.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: My food photos, they have a charming homespun quality that I think people appreciate.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: I am actually,
22:01
SPEAKER_00: as an aside,
22:03
SPEAKER_00: while I've been dying of the flu,
22:06
SPEAKER_00: I have been sitting in bed working on a thing that I'm going to launch on my site.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Showing people how to take better pictures with their phones because it's actually really easy.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: So, side plug for that,
22:20
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't planning on saying that,
22:22
SPEAKER_00: but hey, you know what I've been doing the last few days?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: That.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: You will have to be my test case.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: See if we can get your pictures of potatoes to not look like potatoes.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: No.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, I...
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: I am taking a lot of cold medicine, so if this is really awful, I'm just... That is fine.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, everyone.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday I made for dinner what I termed to my family as Elevated Sloppy Joes.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: Now, I used Manwich for this, which is, you know, I actually like Manwich.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: No, that's fine.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: I like the flavor better.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: However, I had some russet potatoes needed to be used.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know what?
23:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to make potato bread buns.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: So I made potato bread buns with it.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: I chopped up, I had some mushrooms I needed to use.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: Chopped up these mushrooms, put in some onion, and I made it before the ground beef.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: So they were like elevated sloppy joes on homemade buns with manwich.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but you made homemade buns.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: That's like actually impressive.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: But the picture of the buns was not that great.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: But they looked so good.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I was like, we just need a better picture to show.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: I think that's awesome.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: I have a food blog, and I am not someone who sits and makes homemade buns.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: I think most of your issues with the photography, I think it comes down to lighting.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a lot of lighting.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: That is absolutely false.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: You have a table right next to the little greenhouse area.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is put your food on that table and clear stuff off of it
24:04
SPEAKER_00: and just set it right there and you have perfect, wonderful light.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's probably true.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: Except that I'd have to take it towards the greenhouse and you'd see what
24:12
SPEAKER_01: a god-awful mess our greenhouse is.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: Our greenhouse is just a mess in there.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't see the background of it.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Take a picture from an angle that you don't see that.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has to...
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Like, the secret of food bloggers is that none of us have clean houses.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: We just know how to turn our camera so that you don't see the crap behind it.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: You have one little corner.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: A good picture is just a nice, clear surface.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: Or in your case, you'll have a...
24:43
SPEAKER_01: You have a little tiny model kitchen thing you put things into.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: So people don't see the mess of the actual kitchen because it's in this little model kitchen.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and it looks good.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: It does.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking at a picture of something like, okay,
25:03
SPEAKER_00: this is going to be so boring to listen to probably,
25:05
SPEAKER_00: but if you're looking at a picture of something like, You want to see that thing.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Anything else that's in the picture is distracting you from it.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: So if you have like little things like a towel or something, OK, fine, whatever.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: But you just you want the thing to be the focus.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times,
25:22
SPEAKER_00: like not to pick on you and your pictures,
25:25
SPEAKER_00: you show your countertop and there is a million things there because you live
25:29
SPEAKER_00: in your house and you actually cook and you're actually using it.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: It's not a judgment.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Just like, you don't need to show anyone that.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: They're there to see this one thing.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: Show them that, not like the mess behind it.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: I do have a great love for going in pictures,
25:45
SPEAKER_01: finding the things that weren't the focus so I can comment on them.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know,
25:53
SPEAKER_01: if there's a bookshelf behind the person or something, like,
25:56
SPEAKER_01: you know,
25:56
SPEAKER_01: just zoom in on the book so you can find a book to be like,
25:59
SPEAKER_01: oh, you're reading Twilight, I see.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: So then you would think that you would compose a picture.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: But this is the thing.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people just take a picture.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: They don't take the two seconds to be like, oh, let me just move it to this clean area.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: No, and that's me.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, yeah, it's probably fine.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: You are exactly who the course that I've been working on is for.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: I think that course is a good idea.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: I think it'll do well.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that it'll do well because I'm like 10 years too late.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: But hey,
26:36
SPEAKER_00: I do think there's a real opportunity for people on Twitter specifically,
26:43
SPEAKER_00: maybe less Instagram and TikTok because people have kind of figured it out there,
26:47
SPEAKER_00: but on Twitter to present things a little bit better.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think Twitter could do better.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: I do not want Twitter to turn into or be like Instagram in any real way.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: However,
27:04
SPEAKER_00: I
27:08
SPEAKER_01: do think that the photography element,
27:13
SPEAKER_01: and that's Blue Sky, but a lot of people aren't on Blue Sky.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: Blue Sky,
27:16
SPEAKER_01: because I think Blue Sky is a lot of,
27:18
SPEAKER_01: the users of Blue Sky tend to be Instagram people.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: They do a lot of...
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Like, nice photography.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: And there really isn't that much on Twitter.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Threads, too.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: But the thing is,
27:33
SPEAKER_00: because things are getting flooded with AI,
27:36
SPEAKER_00: and AI is always presented in a way that is a lot more palatable,
27:42
SPEAKER_00: because the computer is sitting there making those calculations of,
27:45
SPEAKER_00: like, how do I make it look a little bit nicer and a little bit more enticing?
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, the computer is already rigged for that.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy for people to just do simple little things like take a picture
28:00
SPEAKER_00: on two times with that lens.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Like take a picture 0.5 for certain things.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Like knowing lenses and tiny little things like that,
28:13
SPEAKER_00: like how to crop out a background is all you have to do.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: We just have to take the steps.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: I personally...
28:24
SPEAKER_00: And this is so boring to listen to,
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I feel like,
28:27
SPEAKER_00: but I'm personally in this weird thing where like with blogs,
28:32
SPEAKER_00: we tried to make everything really, really, really pretty.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: And now AI is making everything really pretty that a lot of people are going
28:41
SPEAKER_00: for things that just look natural.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: So things are looking worse,
28:48
SPEAKER_00: but I think we can make things look natural and also pretty at the same time.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, like I said,
28:53
SPEAKER_01: that's when we've discussed this before that I think that we're moving towards
28:57
SPEAKER_01: a world where people are the monetizable thing is things that are palpably real
29:03
SPEAKER_01: as opposed to heightened reality that has been the norm.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: But that's like I said, I view the.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: Sure, but if you're taking a picture of your buns, sorry, I'm a child.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm a child of giggling.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Of the rolls that you made,
29:50
SPEAKER_00: you could set it in a better area so you're not getting that orange light
29:55
SPEAKER_00: and you're getting a blue light.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: And you could have shot it from the side so you could show how puffy it was.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, it doesn't help that- Or you could
30:03
SPEAKER_00: cut one open and show it's really airy.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: And then- It's still just as real.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: You're just showcasing, like, the thing you made instead of, like, the area you're in.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: For preference,
30:15
SPEAKER_01: I always go for a—I try to have incandescent lights as much as possible,
30:21
SPEAKER_01: and if not,
30:21
SPEAKER_01: I try to get as close to incandescent lighting as possible because I hate blue light
30:27
SPEAKER_01: with a passion.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: I don't even like overhead lights.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: I would have lamps everywhere.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Cosign a million percent.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying turn off the lights.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And like for photography, you need natural light.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I have big stand lights and things.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: I almost never use them.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I try to do all natural light as much as I can.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: It's just better.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: It's better for a picture.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: You say people won't find this interesting.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: I think people find it interesting.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: People like to know how the, people actually like to know how the sausage is made on something.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope they do because I'm going to sell it to them.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: I hope it picks up and people are interested.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: So like I said,
31:08
SPEAKER_01: I do think that interesting photography is a niche that
31:14
SPEAKER_01: because Twitter is intrinsically a very text based text and like,
31:19
SPEAKER_01: you know, rapid fire meme based platform.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: In the way that you use it, it is.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: I do think there are other users who use it.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: They're using it wrong.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: With videos and photos.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I don't think that needs to be a they're using it wrong.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Why not take the things you're doing and make them even bigger and even more widely accepted?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
31:49
SPEAKER_00: The thing I really like about Twitter and now that they're doing monetization
31:53
SPEAKER_00: and they've changed how they're doing it is that people can,
31:59
SPEAKER_00: you know, I like Additional opportunities for people to make money creating things.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: And especially with AI coming about, like,
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I just want people to do better so that we can have more opportunities
32:14
SPEAKER_00: for more voices to get out there.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And I do think that Twitter is a good place that you can still create and put stuff out there.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And leveling up photography, just little tweaks would be great.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: I use AI on a daily basis.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: It is a good tool.
32:37
SPEAKER_01: It's not a replacement for creativity.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: But it's a tool.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: It's a tool.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a great research tool.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: It's a great format tool.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: It's a good virtual assistant.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: I want to be really careful in how I use AI to not reduce the output of humans
33:15
SPEAKER_00: and use it on things that human creativity and input is better used
33:21
SPEAKER_00: in different areas.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: That I don't need a human to do.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: It's a force multiplier, is the thing.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that the printing press was or any other,
33:38
SPEAKER_01: the printing press radically changed how words were created and disseminated.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, you still had to have useful words.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: You had to know what you were doing when you were writing the words.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: AI isn't going to replace anything that wasn't in need of being replaced.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Because you still have to have a person behind it who knows what they're doing
34:10
SPEAKER_01: and knows how to ask and what the output should look like and all that.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: So a quick random question.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: And this is...
34:20
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be the weirdest episode.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm so sorry.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: This is so disjointed.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: You just hopped up on
34:25
SPEAKER_01: cold medicine.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: No, I was chugging.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: You just saw me finish.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: I've been downing Alka-Seltzer flu as we're doing this.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: I am definitely cold medicine high.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: So again, apologies to everyone listening.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: But we tried to do this.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: But I think an interesting thing I've been kind of asking myself lately
34:47
SPEAKER_00: and would be good to talk with you about since we both are wanting to start
34:55
SPEAKER_00: a new website is where we think things like websites are going in the future.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: I am going to be building out as a part of this if we ever actually launch,
35:09
SPEAKER_00: which is kind of on me,
35:12
SPEAKER_00: is building more of like a newsletter directly in through the website so
35:16
SPEAKER_00: that people can get it to their inbox Like a Substack site as well as a website.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Trying to think of different ways like that.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, do we actually think that websites are even going to be around in the next 10 years?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Do we think there's a place for them?
35:34
SPEAKER_00: We want to talk about travel.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: And candidly, I sent you that itinerary.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: I had clawed makeup.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: Stuff like that is going to come for things like websites that talk about where to travel.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know that it takes away their use.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know that it takes away a reader's incentive to go to
36:01
SPEAKER_00: a human versus just a computer.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just wondering what your thoughts on all
36:06
SPEAKER_01: of that are.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: So you, I don't think, you weren't a big internet nerd back in the 90s.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: You were out, like, you know, having a social life.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I had like 15 live journals.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I had like Angel Fighter sites and like I had everything.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: You think that I'm far cooler than I am.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: I was a massive nerd.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: If I had to project out about 10 years where I think the internet will be in
36:37
SPEAKER_01: the world of AI,
36:39
SPEAKER_01: I think that we will revert to something of the world of the 90s internet
36:47
SPEAKER_01: where websites will be structured.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember WebRings?
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we've talked about web rings way in the past, but we have.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: I think that things will be structured similar to how web rings used to be,
37:04
SPEAKER_01: because I think what will become important,
37:06
SPEAKER_01: because people are going to use AI as a replacement for most of
37:11
SPEAKER_01: the random searching they do on the internet now.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: But...
37:17
SPEAKER_01: People are still, again,
37:19
SPEAKER_01: and this goes back to my saying,
37:21
SPEAKER_01: I think people are going to be looking for the real.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: I think you will likely have functionally like web rings or little communities
37:27
SPEAKER_01: of websites that people follow because they're interested in the personality of
37:32
SPEAKER_01: the person who is writing them.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: Because, again,
37:38
SPEAKER_01: actual legitimate personality is something that AI I don't think will ever be able
37:43
SPEAKER_01: to replicate.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you look at, like, 2001, Hal 9000 didn't have personality.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: He just had a lot of power.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: And a computer doesn't understand.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, I looked at the thing that I asked Claude to draw up as, like, an itinerary.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Two seconds looking at it, I was like, this isn't even realistic.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: You need X, Y, and Z, and the timing for this is wrong.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's just stuff I know because I travel so much.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Computers aren't necessarily going to get some of that.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: It still didn't nail down exactly what I wanted it to do.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: But...
38:29
SPEAKER_01: I think the internet will go back to being more of found communities.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: There'll be larger found communities,
38:36
SPEAKER_01: and they certainly were in the 90s,
38:38
SPEAKER_01: because many more people are going to be on the internet.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: But I think a lot of people will likely stop using the internet as much in general,
38:45
SPEAKER_01: which might be a good thing.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, for all people to talk about it,
38:51
SPEAKER_01: a surprisingly few number of people actually are active on social media.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they Globally,
38:58
SPEAKER_01: various social media things have millions and millions and millions of people
39:00
SPEAKER_01: on them, but the world has 9 billion or whatever people in it.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: Most people, even in America, aren't really that active.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: They may have an account they don't use much.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: And I think more people will go back to that.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll say some of that is generational, and it depends on what social media.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's any social media that everyone is active on, right?
39:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think People my parents' age are super, super active on Facebook.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Like most of my Facebook fans for Sweet Seas are very much boomers.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: They also have dropped off a lot because they're very,
39:43
SPEAKER_00: very pulled into AI in a way that's so,
39:47
SPEAKER_00: so fascinating because my kids are the The time my kids see anything
39:52
SPEAKER_00: that they think is even slightly artificial,
39:54
SPEAKER_00: like if I edit a photo too much, my kids are like, it's AI, I'm out.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: They send something artificial and they're like, nope, out of here.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: But they grew up in a world where there's so much artificial,
40:08
SPEAKER_00: whereas my parents grew up in a world where everything was really real.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: Now the artificial is the draw to them.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting watching a lot of that play out online.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: I think they will fizzle out of the artificial quickly.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: But our kids are never into it because they've always had that.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: When I say most people don't use social media, I don't mean they don't use it.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: You mean like they're
40:35
SPEAKER_00: not on it all day, every day?
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're not power users.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: They're at most on social media for, we'll say, an hour every day.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know,
40:44
SPEAKER_01: in between something,
40:45
SPEAKER_01: they'll open it up,
40:46
SPEAKER_01: scroll through for a bit,
40:47
SPEAKER_01: they're like, okay, now it's time for me to do my next thing.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that will likely get eaten up by AI.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: And likely take less time out of their day,
40:58
SPEAKER_01: because they can just, like,
40:59
SPEAKER_01: you know,
41:02
SPEAKER_01: they can just open up the AI and ask them to explain what's going on
41:06
SPEAKER_01: with this news story I saw a snippet about, rather than...
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Rather than go to social media to try to suss it out.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: But again, I think that the internet is always going to have a healthy number of people.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: And I think like your kids,
41:23
SPEAKER_01: a lot of the people will want to focus more on their individualized personalities of
41:29
SPEAKER_01: the people that they are following.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: Of the people who are making the content rather than, oh,
41:34
SPEAKER_01: look at that beautifully staged photograph of the content because who knows
41:37
SPEAKER_01: if that's real or not.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: We're only, what,
41:40
SPEAKER_01: like a year,
41:40
SPEAKER_01: two years out from when AI,
41:42
SPEAKER_01: you could tell something was AI because the background faces were all swirly and
41:47
SPEAKER_01: the fingers were messed up.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: And now it's just,
41:52
SPEAKER_01: you kind of have to just know the vibe of AI photos to know that it's
41:58
SPEAKER_01: an AI photo.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't have that.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: They don't understand.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: Same for AI writing.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of subtle tells.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: People talk about the M-dashes.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: The M-dashes are one thing.
42:12
SPEAKER_01: The AI's gotten better at the M-dashes.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: The AI has clearly started removing the M-dashes.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, some people have told their AIs to never use an M-dash.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: It's in some people's instructions for AI.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: No, but it's also,
42:32
SPEAKER_00: there are other tells,
42:34
SPEAKER_00: like they'll always say,
42:35
SPEAKER_00: so because I'm writing a lot of recipes,
42:38
SPEAKER_00: I realize about recipe sites,
42:40
SPEAKER_00: they'll say, oh,
42:42
SPEAKER_00: this is the kind of recipe that feels like an extravagant dinner,
42:47
SPEAKER_00: but really you just threw it.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: It's the feels like, and there are certain things like they'll say, Um, it's a hug in a cup.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like that people don't talk.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: That's there's a lot of AI like quirky things that are trying to be overly warm
43:04
SPEAKER_00: and human that are just like clunky.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: It tends to have, in writing styles, they all have weird vocal tics that make it clear.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: Also, it's in the weird, it tends to format things oddly.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: There's this habit that it'll have of kind of trying,
43:26
SPEAKER_01: the way that it tries to circle back to previous ideas with it,
43:29
SPEAKER_01: because it's always- It's
43:30
SPEAKER_00: SEO writing.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: It's SEO writing.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: That's what I've been doing forever.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you read my site- If you read Sweet Seas, it reads AI.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: It's not, but it reads it because- Because it's trained on that.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, no,
43:46
SPEAKER_00: not just that,
43:47
SPEAKER_00: but I mean, yeah,
43:49
SPEAKER_00: they did train it on a lot of our sites, which really sucks for me and my income.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: But I, for the last 10 years, have been writing things to take my voice out of it.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: So- In my calculations, I was like, well, nobody cares what Courtney is doing.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: No one cares about me.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: They just want to know how to make X thing.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: I took myself out of all of it and just made it very like,
44:17
SPEAKER_00: if I'm a reader and I'm going to this site,
44:20
SPEAKER_00: I want to know how to make pork tenderloin.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about this lady's life story.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about all those whatever cliche things.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: I just want this information.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: So I wrote to that.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, now AI comes in and you need personal stories.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: You need all of that to signify that you are a human.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: And I'm screwed because I look like a computer
44:42
SPEAKER_00: because I've been out here just giving people actual information and none of
44:48
SPEAKER_00: the personal side to it.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, so I think that what it...
44:54
SPEAKER_01: If you read a lot of old journalism,
44:56
SPEAKER_01: like old travel and correspondent journalism,
44:59
SPEAKER_01: I think that that is where things will go.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: And I think honestly, I think that that was better anyway.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: Like if you read old PJ O'Rourke that pieces,
45:07
SPEAKER_01: dispatches from his There was a travel journalist I used to love named Michael J.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: Totten, who I have always somewhat aspired to be Michael J. Totten.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: He would go off to various parts of the world.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: And do these kind of deep dives with photographs of the local culture.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: I remember he did one about Montenegro, which I loved.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: He trucked around the Balkans for a bit.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: He went to Montenegro.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: He went to Albania and just looked around and then interviewed people.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: And that, I think, is what people want.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: I just...
45:54
SPEAKER_00: I just bought these books for Luke for his birthday.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: He's actually credited as being one of the first travel writers, like a modern travel writer.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: Patrick Lee Firmer, have you ever read any of his works?
46:12
SPEAKER_00: No.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: I got this.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Mani is the peninsula in Greece that I am obsessed with.
46:19
SPEAKER_00: My husband has never been.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: I would move tomorrow to the Manning Peninsula if I could.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: And I bought his anthology about his time in Manning and then also in Thessaloniki.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: He was a British journalist who actually walked
46:39
SPEAKER_00: from Britain, I mean,
46:41
SPEAKER_00: took the train, you know, and then to, I think he went to Jerusalem and back.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: And I specifically really, really love his...
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Stories on Greece.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: They're really beautiful.
46:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: I actually got the Folio Society print because I'm a book
47:01
SPEAKER_01: nerd and I love Folio
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Society prints.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: They're so pretty.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: I saw these in a bookstore in Edinburgh and they're actually really rare
47:09
SPEAKER_00: and really hard to get, but his books are really easy to get on Amazon.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: It's just these printings that were hard to find, but really, really beautiful.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: It was very pretty.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and His writing is fantastic.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: I think you would actually really enjoy it, but it's a more like personal account.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: It's very travel blog feeling.
47:32
SPEAKER_01: There's a book that I really like and I recommend that everyone read,
47:37
SPEAKER_01: especially everyone who drives an electric car or is into the,
47:44
SPEAKER_01: there's a book called Blood River.
47:45
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember off the top, Patrick Butcher maybe.
47:49
SPEAKER_01: It was written by a guy who, He,
47:52
SPEAKER_01: I think in 2006,
47:54
SPEAKER_01: he got appointed as the editor for the Africa Desk at the Times of London.
48:00
SPEAKER_01: And he felt he didn't really know a lot about Africa.
48:03
SPEAKER_01: He said, how can I learn about Africa?
48:04
SPEAKER_01: I know.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: I'll go follow the course that Stanley Livingston took across the African continent
48:12
SPEAKER_01: through Congo.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: And it's about his journey through the Congo and Following along
48:19
SPEAKER_01: the Stanley Livingston's trail and about what just what,
48:24
SPEAKER_01: like, you know, war-torn hellscape it is.
48:26
SPEAKER_01: And also about how all the cobalt in your batteries gets mined by slave children.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm fully aware that my EV is more harmful to the environment and society as a whole.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: It's just a really cool car.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: It is.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: You saw the Ghostbusters thing, it was so fun.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: And that's just for Halloween, it'll go away.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, I won't have Ghostbusters mode forever.
48:58
SPEAKER_01: Before I had read that book,
48:59
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of, I was, you know, whatever, whatever on a lot of these things.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: After I read that, I was like, this is like, you know,
49:10
SPEAKER_01: Scaling up batteries under the current technological paradigm is morally reprehensible.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: Nuclear is 10 times better than anything that goes on with this stuff.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: I would agree.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to get any pushback from me on that.
49:27
SPEAKER_00: I just like a cool car.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: I will say the one thing I do really appreciate about my EV,
49:35
SPEAKER_00: and being from Colorado, it is important.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: The only way that it's better environmentally is that it is really nice having
49:46
SPEAKER_00: a car that's not putting off a ton of fumes.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: Modern fuel mixtures actually don't put off that much fumes,
49:56
SPEAKER_01: although you have to do things to them to stop it.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: But they do impact ozone and things.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: The ozone layer is fine.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: Ozone is like the smog.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: No, ozone layer.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: The smog layer you get, which is really bad in places like Colorado and Salt Lake.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: Salt Lake, the inversion is so bad all winter long.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: If they all drove EVs, well,
50:18
SPEAKER_00: one, they'd have no electricity because there's no grid that can withhold that.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: But if they did all drive EVs, it would be a lot more pleasant.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: So that's the one place that I'm like,
50:30
SPEAKER_00: okay, there is something to not having emissions, especially in climates like that.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: But also I can see that like the battery is actually so much more harmful
50:41
SPEAKER_00: for society and for the environment.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: And it's not sustainable and our grid can't withstand it.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, give us nukes.
50:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm fully, you know, team nuclear.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: I just also really like my cool car.
50:59
SPEAKER_01: But that's with writing,
51:02
SPEAKER_01: I think that it's that sort of like the more,
51:06
SPEAKER_01: the kind that I tend to prefer, I think will likely be the thing going forward.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, maybe that's just me wish casting,
51:13
SPEAKER_01: but the kind of digging into a topic or digging into a location and presenting it
51:19
SPEAKER_01: with the individualized personality of the writer and through the prism
51:23
SPEAKER_01: of their experience and style.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: I think the way that we're going to go forward with AI replacing a lot
51:36
SPEAKER_00: of creative endeavors is things that promote a community tied to it.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think writers that go and use me as an example, I have no community built with Sweet Seas.
51:51
SPEAKER_00: There should be.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have a lot of readers.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: I have a huge email list.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: I could write I need to find ways to tie a community into that.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: But I think people are going to be a lot more invested going forward in things
52:07
SPEAKER_00: where they feel like they have a place and they're considered and they have friends,
52:16
SPEAKER_00: which is why one project that we have talked about working on in the future having
52:22
SPEAKER_00: to do with travel and community is Um,
52:25
SPEAKER_00: will be really enticing,
52:27
SPEAKER_00: but I think that's going to,
52:29
SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to go back to like,
52:31
SPEAKER_00: like you said,
52:33
SPEAKER_00: back in the old ages and think of,
52:36
SPEAKER_00: you know, like angel fire and things were a way to get to know other people.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: And it was a way to like grow a community.
52:42
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be more of the, my space of occasion, um, connections that you make.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: I think of the various internet social media style apps,
52:54
SPEAKER_01: I think YouTube is actually the best for that in a lot of ways.
52:57
SPEAKER_01: Because
53:00
SPEAKER_01: for presenting and creating actualized personalities.
53:07
SPEAKER_00: I think personalities, but not communities.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: No, not communities.
53:11
SPEAKER_00: The community aspect of it is not as strong.
53:13
SPEAKER_01: I think Twitter is honestly the best for actually building communities.
53:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:20
SPEAKER_01: It's just,
53:21
SPEAKER_01: they have never successfully figured out how to, I mean,
53:27
SPEAKER_01: monetizing to other platforms like YouTube off of Twitter,
53:31
SPEAKER_01: I believe, is very difficult.
53:32
SPEAKER_01: Some people have done it, like Red Steez has monetized over to Substack with it.
53:40
SPEAKER_01: We plug away at this podcast, which isn't monetized, but it's nonetheless...
53:44
SPEAKER_00: This is just for fun.
53:45
SPEAKER_00: This is just because we like to hang out and talk to each other.
53:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, honestly...
53:49
SPEAKER_01: It's for fun, but also I think it's something of an extension of the
53:57
SPEAKER_01: community.
53:58
SPEAKER_01: Certainly,
53:58
SPEAKER_01: I think the people of my followers who listen to this podcast do it
54:02
SPEAKER_01: because they're curious to actually hear from me as opposed to the kusi.
54:07
SPEAKER_01: And I'd assume you probably have some people from Sweet Seas who are curious.
54:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, I don't know.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
54:15
SPEAKER_01: I know you advertise it on Sweet Seas.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: I have a link.
54:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, I have a link to it.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people,
54:24
SPEAKER_00: but again,
54:24
SPEAKER_00: this goes back to me writing my website for everyone and not for my people.
54:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of my readers give a crap who I am.
54:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that people are there for me.
54:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
54:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm convinced most of my followers don't even like me.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: I get a lot of weird...
54:49
SPEAKER_01: You still believe that no one likes you.
54:51
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, there are times...
54:53
SPEAKER_00: I start from that
54:55
SPEAKER_01: assumption.
54:56
SPEAKER_01: You clearly decide, like, maybe Lee doesn't like me.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't know what I got.
55:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm like...
55:04
SPEAKER_01: I sure spent a lot of time talking to you for someone apparently I don't like.
55:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
55:09
SPEAKER_01: Anyways.
55:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are things that you just can't get out of your mind from high school.
55:22
SPEAKER_00: Everyone hates Courtney, just sticks with you forever.
55:25
SPEAKER_00: No, I do think, I think it's going to be really cool to see where we go with a lot of this.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like we've been talking about nothing.
55:37
SPEAKER_00: This is so Alka-Seltzer-y.
55:41
SPEAKER_00: Influenced ramblings for me.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: I apologize for the shifty nature of this one.
55:48
SPEAKER_00: But I do think it'll be cool to see where we take some of the stuff
55:52
SPEAKER_00: that we've talked about doing.
55:54
SPEAKER_00: I think this podcast is great for me.
55:58
SPEAKER_00: Even though we suck at promoting it, we're not doing it professionally.
56:03
SPEAKER_00: We probably should be.
56:05
SPEAKER_00: It's been good for me because it is another outlet.
56:09
SPEAKER_00: And having to do this gets me to do other things that I have to do.
56:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's important.
56:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I'm someone who needs a lot of projects to keep myself going.
56:23
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't really make sense because you would think like, oh, you're not busy.
56:28
SPEAKER_00: You can get things done.
56:29
SPEAKER_00: I need like a hundred things that I'm doing to actually want to do things.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: I think you're kind of similar in that like, You need things that you're doing to do with her.
56:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, although I'm very happy to just find a rut and hang out in it.
56:48
SPEAKER_01: So I have never been someone who has a lot of internal drive.
56:53
SPEAKER_01: That's just, that's been my, both my blessing and my curse.
56:57
SPEAKER_01: Because on the one hand,
56:59
SPEAKER_01: it makes me just,
57:01
SPEAKER_01: as we've discussed before,
57:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm generally just a happy and content person,
57:05
SPEAKER_01: whatever I happen to find myself doing at any given moment.
57:08
SPEAKER_01: But also, it's hard to be like, I should go do this thing that'll probably take work.
57:12
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I'm happy here.
57:14
SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
57:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm really good at being like, yes, let's do this.
57:21
SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
57:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm a dreamer.
57:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not always a doer.
57:27
SPEAKER_01: All right.
57:27
SPEAKER_01: I think we got enough here.
57:30
SPEAKER_01: We're good.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about absolutely nothing for an hour, so we're probably good now.
57:34
SPEAKER_01: That's for the best sometimes.
57:36
SPEAKER_01: All right.
57:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go take some more cold medicines.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: I had thought about bringing up the video game studio Bioware closing,
57:46
SPEAKER_01: but you'd be all cranky about discussing video games.
57:50
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea what you're talking about.
57:54
SPEAKER_01: You can discuss
57:55
SPEAKER_00: it all you want.
57:56
SPEAKER_00: You can discuss it all you want.
57:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to sit there like, I don't know what you're talking about.
58:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that that weird link you shared?
58:05
SPEAKER_01: The video?
58:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's one of the Bioware games.
58:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you are spending all day doing stuff like that and have the audacity,
58:18
SPEAKER_00: the audacity to question my love for Bravo TV.
58:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've never played that game.
58:25
SPEAKER_01: I've actually never played a Bioware game.
58:27
SPEAKER_01: There's a series called Mass Effect that people love,
58:30
SPEAKER_01: and I would probably have liked it if I'd played it at the time.
58:33
SPEAKER_01: I just was largely unaware of it.
58:35
SPEAKER_01: So I have never played any of their games.
58:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm just familiar with them because I know the video game world a bit.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: Again, the shade I get for watching Real Housewives.
58:50
SPEAKER_01: As you should.
58:51
SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.
58:51
SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.
58:55
[music]