Overtired

About Overtired

Christina Warren & Brett Terpstra have odd sleep schedules. They nerd out over varied interests: gadgets, software, and life in a connected world. Tune in to find out what keeps them up at night.

Publisher

Christina Warren, Jeff Severns Guntzel, and Brett Terpstra

Category

health & fitness · technology · tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

5 Dec 2014

Latest episode

13 May 2026

Latest episodes

38 of 243 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   13 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   445: Nails and Keys with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy)

   Brett records an episode without Christina and Jeff and chats with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy) about her start as a mommy blogger and longtime Mac podcaster, her tech-support work, and the strange lack of closure when online friends disappear. They trade mental-health and chronic-illness updates, Adderall vs. Vyvanse, difficulty finding curious doctors, and being labeled “worried well.” Don’t worry, they nerd out on mechanical keyboards, Karabiner, and remapping keys. GrAPPtitudes include Bartender 6 Pro, Sortio for AI tagging, Sketch Party TV, and Karabiner. Sponsor OneSkin improves your skincare routine with science-backed skin care products. With over 10,000 five-star reviews and validation from clinical studies, OneSkin has made a name for itself in the skincare industry. If you’re interested in trying OneSkin for yourself, you can get 15% off your order with the code OVERTIRED at oneskin.co/OVERTIRED (https://oneskin.co/OVERTIRED). Chapters 00:00 Meet Melissa Davis 00:56 Early Podcast Days 02:20 Tech Support Seniors 05:52 Digital Legacy Work 06:50 Sponsor: OneSkin 08:14 Mental Health Check In 08:34 Insomnia And Focus 13:19 Doing Time Tracker 16:04 Suspenders And Stenosis 20:18 Mobility And Home Hacks 22:10 Melissa Health Update 23:25 ADHD Meds And Mutations 25:25 Curious Doctors Matter 27:59 Vyvanse Vs Adderall 30:26 Tracking Mood With Data 32:27 Cane And Somatic Therapy 36:09 Somatics For EDS 36:50 Yoga Modifications 38:19 Polycystic Liver Shock 39:20 Fatphobia In Healthcare 40:56 Pole Dancing Reality Check 41:55 Mechanical Keyboard ASMR 45:56 Nail Art And Picking 49:09 Keyboard Layout Rabbit Hole 01:00:59 Shortcuts And Muscle Memory 01:03:12 GrAPPtitude App Picks 01:14:07 Karabiner Power Tips 01:17:30 Wrap Up And Thanks Show Links hEDS (https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/heds/) Doing (https://github.com/ttscoff/doing) Timing (https://timingapp.com/?lang=en) Royal Kludge Keyboard (https://www.rkgamingstore.com/products/s98-wireless-mechanical-keyboard) Gamakey Silent Linear Switches (https://gamakay.com/products/gamakay-mechanical-silent-switches-35-pcs-pack-or-70-pcs-pack?_pos=3&_psq=Pegasus&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=44602238730429) EPOMAKER Switch Benefit Section (https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-switch-benefit-section) EPOMAKER AegisSil Keycaps Set (https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-aegissil-keycaps-set) SketchParty TV (https://sketchparty.tv/) Karabiner (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/) Sortio (https://www.getsortio.com/) Bartender Pro (https://www.macbartender.com/pro/) Day One (https://dayoneapp.com/) Join the Conversation Merch (http://bit.ly/ot-merch) Come chat on Discord! (https://discord.gg/CqTqP9D) Twitter/ovrtrd (https://twitter.com/ovrtrd) Instagram/ovrtrd (https://www.instagram.com/ovrtrd/) Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpin1SywlYeYvPodSm9WXHA) Get the Newsletter (http://overtiredpod.com/sendy/subscription?f=O1OzoiRhl9nKXc3gWNrbNuS0Z1bhd59sd11vii13ypeCaKAucTTUT7632X763dS7lFhC) Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network (http://web.cachefly.com/CDN-BackbeatMedia) BackBeat Media Podcast Network (http://www.backbeatmedia.com) Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com (https://overtiredpod.com/) and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff (https://twitter.com/ttscoff), Christina as @film_girl (https://twitter.com/film_girl), Jeff as @jsguntzel (https://twitter.com/jsguntzel), and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd (https://twitter.com/ovrtrd) on Twitter. Transcript Nails and Keys with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy) [00:00:00] Meet Melissa Davis Brett: Hey, this is Brett Terpstra. I am without my usual cohorts, Christina and Jeff. Um, so I, I wanted to, you know, get a, get an episode out for all of you listeners, and I reached out to Melissa Davis, known as The Mac Mommy. Um, I don’t, I, I don’t know if they’re still known as The Mac Mommy, but in m- in my lifetime they have been. Um, Melissa, why don’t you introduce yourself, let people know, like, M-Ma- long time, like Mac personality, podcaster. Tell us where you came from. Melissa: Where did I come from? Outer space. Uh, I came from being a mom. I, I, I will admit, this is hard to admit, But I will admit I started out as a mommy blogger. That’s, like, kind of a bad word nowadays. Brett: back, back, yeah, this is way Back when Melissa: [00:01:00] Yeah. Early Podcast Days Melissa: so we’re talking, like… Well, my oldest is gonna be 20, Brett. My oldest is gonna be 20 this summer. End of, end of June he’ll be 20 years old. So that’s about how long I’ve been doing podcasting. I mean, I started, I started, like, when… Well, you know what? I started listening to Adam Christianson’s The MacCast Brett: But you know what? I started Sure. Like one of the very first podcasts, Yeah. Melissa: still, I still listen to him on the Mac Geek Gab. Like, his voice is just so soothing to me. I used to… Like, that was the f- Back when I had, I had, I remember I had, like, an old G4, uh, Quicksilver Mac, and in the stinky little back room of our old house. And I used to, I used to download the podcasts, burn them on a CD, put them in my Walkman, ’cause I didn’t have an iPod yet at the time. I wasn’t that… I was never really that cutting edge. And I’d burn them on a CD, I’d put the CD in my Walkman, and then I would sit and nurse, I would nurse my baby. I, [00:02:00] and I would have to tuck the, uh, the headphones, you know, I’d have the ear- the, the wired, kinda like I have now, uh, and tuck it behind my back, like, behind my shoulder, because otherwise he’d, like, yank on the cord. And I would just listen to podcasts while I nursed. And I… And then, uh, then I met Victor Cajiao, and I started just kind of being, like, a serial podcaster, showing up here and there, and then it just kinda grew from there. Tech Support Seniors Melissa: Um, and I do… So I do tech support. I’m an IT tech s- tech support person. I… People call me their computer guru. I mostly work with, uh, the senior population, our, our vintage people, which I, I’m slowly becoming one of them. We’re all, we’re all gonna go that way. Brett: I feel like anyone who does Mac tech support deals with probably an, a, a population that skews older. Melissa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s actually, it’s actually more– I will say it’s actually more difficult to work with somebody younger. Like, especially people my age or people [00:03:00] that are like, say, in their sixties I consider pretty young, 70 even. Uh, yeah, so but it’s, you know, the people are so, so interesting. You can learn so much. I love working with this population because they’re like encyclopedias, and the stories they tell you and the things you learn, it’s pretty amazing. And I could just, I could just spend– I have actually spent all day with some of them. Some of us just have really great chemistry and, you know, it’s… They– I, I’m also– I have ADHD, that’s no secret. And I think when you get older, um, not– it doesn’t affect everybody, but I do see a lot of what could be either they, they have ADHD or it’s like a– Brett: they have Melissa: of creeps in and it’s just a natural process of aging, cognitive decline. So, yep. Brett: have a lot of patience. Sure. S- some of my, some of my most interesting relationships over the last 10 years have been with, uh, Mac users in their late 70s, [00:04:00] 80s. And, uh, like they’ve been– They’re very– Like, they’re definitely… The people that I’ve known have been technically capable and very interested in learning. That’s why they follow me. That’s how I meet them, right? They’re like, they read my blog, which is just all nerd stuff. And, and so they’re, they’re technically competent, and they’re doing things that I can only aspire to be doing in my 70s and 80s. Um, I had a guy who was writing his memoirs at, in between like mountain bike rides. And so here’s the thing, though, is when you, when you know someone online and they’re in their 80s and you stop hearing from them for a Melissa: Yes. Yes. Brett: you have to assume that they have passed on. and that is sad, and you never really get any closure because you don’t know their friends or family. You [00:05:00] never get like a notice, an obituary. You don’t, you don’t know where these people go, um, and you don’t know how to check in on them once your normal channels of communication are severed. Melissa: Yeah, we’re at that age where we probably start reading the obituaries. Like, I haven’t heard from so-and-so in a while. Let me check the obits." Brett: I had, I had– Before NVUltra went on for, what’s it, like five years now, uh, without a release, um, I had a project called BitWriter with David Halter. And Melissa: remember you mentioning that, yeah. Yeah, and you wondered. Mm-hmm. Brett: he stopped responding. Melissa: you find out any at all? Any, Any, concrete… Brett: Nothing. I have put feelers out everywhere I can think of. I have no idea what happened to him. Melissa: went Richard Simmons, huh? Brett: yeah. Yeah. With less Melissa: No contact. No contact. Aw. Digital Legacy Work Melissa: I, I’m lucky that, uh, in my line of [00:06:00] work, I do typically hear from the family if they’ve passed on, because I form kind of a bond with a lot of people. I, I typically don’t lose clients unless they die, so… Brett: and you have some, like, in real life connections to Melissa: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do, I do both. I do… I have some clients where I’ve never met them in person, I’ve only ever done remote. Uh, and then, but most of my clients are, are local, the majority of them. But I, I still s- see them remotely too, so yeah. I’ve, I’ve actually been hired by some people, um, mostly I’ve had two male clients who they got a terminal illness, they knew they were terminal, and they followed me online and they pretty much hired me to take care of their surviving spouse. So that, that was… that’s a difficult thing, but I’m just honored that they chose me to, to help them out with that. So I’ve kind of been a bit of a digital undertaker in that regard. Sponsor: OneSkin Christina: I want to take a moment to share something that has significantly improved my skincare routine, OneSkin. [00:07:00] So we all have those days when our skin doesn’t feel its best, and I’ve certainly been in that boat, especially recovering from surgery. And I was tired of navigating through endless products that promised results, but often fell short. And that’s when I discovered OneSkin. It was founded by scientists dedicated to longevity, and this brand stands out for its commitment to real science over marketing hype. They tackle the fundamental question of how to actually slow down skin aging rather than just masking it. And their groundbreaking ingredient is, uh, ZeroS01, and it’s a proprietary peptide designed to help deactivate the damaged cells that contribute to aging skin. Since incorporating OneSkin into my routine, I’ve actually been noticing some improvements. My skin feels smoother. It looks more vibrant. Um, it’s definitely more moisturized, and so this is benefiting from its focus on supporting collagen and strengthening the skin barrier. With over 10,000 five-star reviews and validation from clinical studies, OneSkin has made a name for itself in the skincare industry. If [00:08:00] you’re interested in trying OneSkin for yourself, you can get 15% off your order with the code OVERTIRED at oneskin.co/overtired. That’s 15% off at oneskin.co/overtired using the code OVERTIRED. Thank you for supporting our show by checking them out Mental Health Check In Brett: Um, so do you wanna do a mental health Melissa: Sure. Brett: I, I know, I know you’ve listened to the show before. I know you know how this works. Melissa: how this works. Brett: Would you like to start? Melissa: I think I would like to hear you start, and then I’ll, I’ll add on Brett: that sounds good. Insomnia And Focus Brett: Um, so sleep continues to be a major issue for me. Um, I actually for four days in a row last week, I got eight hours of sleep a night, which was insane. I felt so good. Um- The first night… So I take [00:09:00] Lamictal for bipolar, and if I miss my evening dose, I crash and I sleep in the next morning, and I sleep soundly. Like, it’s the best sleep I can get. And then I wake up and all of a sudden the withdrawal kicks in, and then I’m shaky and dizzy for half an hour after I take the dose. Um, but that’s after, like, a solid night of sleep, and it never works two nights in a row. And, like, I’ve tried, like, maybe if I take Lamictal in the mornings instead of the evenings, maybe I’ll sleep through the night. It doesn’t work after that first missed dose. Um, but then I just, without making any changes in my lifestyle, started sleeping, and I thought finally after, like, two years of insomnia, I had turned a corner, because I can’t remember the last time I got eight hours of sleep for more than two nights in a [00:10:00] row. And then it ended, and then I was up. I’ve been up since 2:30 today. Melissa: I wondered, yep. Brett: I mean, I went to bed at 8:00, so that’s still nine, 10, 11, 12, 11, Melissa: I actually dozed off on the couch around 8:30. Like, if only I could just be in my bed right now, just be, like, transported. Yeah. Oh. Brett: Oh, I, I wish. If I could go back to bed… Like, sometimes I’ll, I’ll lay back down around 7:00 or 8:00 and get, like, another half hour of sleep, but it’s really that, like, uninterrupted block of deep sleep that I need, not… I take naps during the day, and I can usually fall asleep for half an hour, um, given that I’m usually functioning on five hours of sleep anyway. But anyway, um, I– That, that’s just kind of par for the course for me, so, like, any, any of our listeners know that that’s gonna be the first thing I report. Melissa: are you, [00:11:00] like, kinda competing? Like, are you trying to get eight hours because that’s what’s prescribed? Have you ever thought about Brett: be- actually, what works eight and a half, like I’ve, I’ve… Back when I had the option to sleep more than five hours, like, I did a lot of kind of experimentation and Melissa: know where your sweet spot is. Brett: Well, it… See, the sweet pot- spot changes as you age, though, and you need less sleep as you get older. So, so I can’t say for sure that eight and a half hours is still my sweet spot. Um, and I think honestly, if I can sleep seven hours, I feel pretty good, and I consider seven hours a good night’s sleep. Melissa: Yeah, ’cause mine’s like between four and six. Brett: really? Yeah. See, Melissa: feel Brett: I don’t function well. Oh, I don’t function well on anything less than seven hours. Melissa: I just have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I just don’t– I just hate to sleep. I just would rather be doing other things. Life is [00:12:00] just too interesting. Brett: I get that. I– get that. I– as someone who’s bipolar and has had like manic episodes where I’m up for five days straight, like I, I love not sleeping. Um, w- when, when I have the mania to give me energy and back it up. It’s when I’m just dragging all day and feel like a zombie. The thing– The, the plus side to it is the more tired I am, up to a certain point, the better I can focus. Like my brain slows down and it’s really easy for me to get into hyperfocus. And like most mornings I’m up at, you know, 2:30, 3:00 and I just start coding. And I can not only hyperfocus, but I can switch focus between three or four different projects like simultaneously. I hit compile on one, I move on to the next one, and I can rotate [00:13:00] through them and like keep track of all of it. And then right around 10:00 AM, my ability to do that ends and suddenly I like flip to a project and I cannot for the life of me remember what I was doing, which is why I’ve spent my life building note-taking apps and, and time tracking tools. Melissa: Yep, same thing. Doing Time Tracker Brett: dude, h- d- I don’t… You might not be familiar with my project Doing. Melissa: N-no, but I– you alluded to something. that’s not what you’re working on with Dan though, is it? Brett: No, no, that’s gonna be Melissa: Dan on that too. I, I, don’t know what it is yet, but yeah, I’m, I’m Brett: Oh, it’s… Yeah, it’s gonna be cool. Melissa: that’s so exciting. Brett: no, Doing is a command line tool where you can type things like, “Doing now podcasting with Melissa,” and it starts a timer for like what I’m doing now, and then I can ask it if I leave and come back, I can say, “What was I doing?” And it’ll tell me, [00:14:00] “You’re podcasting with Melissa.” Obviously, that’s a weird example ’cause I’m not gonna leave in the middle of this. But then it can give you like totals, time, tag-based time totals, uh, for your week and everything. It can show you like what you finished yesterday. Um, it’s not so much a task tracking app as it is a tool for keeping track of what you’re doing in the moment. Um, for, for people like me who switch between four projects at once, it’s really handy. And some guy, some fucking guy Melissa: Some fucking guy. Brett: it, rewrote it in Rust, and it is really good. it is really good. Uh, he like, I- Oh yeah, I use Melissa: Okay, ’cause Brett: This is, this is separate. this is this is a little more ‘ intentional than Timing. Um, I use both. They kind of work together, and Doing can actually import Timing’s JSON exports. So you can turn your, you can turn [00:15:00] all your Timing data into command line, uh, readable Doing files. Um, but anyway, this guy rewrote it in Rust with my permission, and he gave me full credit on the page. And I think I’m switching ’cause Doing is written in Ruby, and Ruby is slow, and Rust is fast. And like my Doing file where it stores all of my current projects, like my Doing items, gets so big that it can take Doing like up to five seconds to respond when I ask it, “What was I doing today?” Which is five seconds is a long time on the command line. Um, and his Melissa: pretty instantaneous. Brett: his version is like 100 milliseconds. Boom. But anyway, Melissa: It’s almost like you built your own little AI thing. Like, what was I doing? What Brett: kinda, kinda, yeah. Melissa: you doing, Dave? Brett: This is, this [00:16:00] was built long before AI was a common thing, but the other thing that’s contributing to my mental health Suspenders And Stenosis Brett: is suspenders. Melissa: Ah, yes. Brett: So I have I have gained 100 pounds, um, not, n-not of my own choice, but like I had rapid weight gain and I recently got a stenosis diagnosis, which I hate the Melissa: telling you, I’m telling you, we’re like 23 and me here. I’ve got that too. Brett: apparently during one of my, like when I gained 50 pounds in like six weeks, my body was looking for places to store all the new fat and decided my spine might be a good place for that. Um, so I have fat in my spine and I have degrading discs. This is separate from my love of suspenders, so I’ll get back to [00:17:00] that. I, um, Melissa: Wait till you get it in your eyeballs. Brett: Oh, for real? Melissa: Yeah, you can have… I have, um, what’s it called? Cholesterol. Yeah, if you look at your eyes really close, if you see like a white kind of w- ridge around your irises, that’s cholesterol. Brett: Oh, wow. Yeah, I hope, I hope that hasn’t happened yet, but who knows? Um, Melissa: Brings out Brett: I– So I have all this, I have all this extra weight and I had a lot of trouble with belts. A, belts hurt ’cause they dig into my, my gut, and they don’t really work. I, every, every time I stood up, my butt crack showed and I had to like wiggle my pants up. And then I I tried a pair of suspenders and it was like a l- a switch had been flipped. All of a sudden my pants just stayed up without any constriction around my waist, just like they just stayed with me wherever I went. And now I can, [00:18:00] I can tuck my shirts in and it actually looks kinda cool when you got the suspenders look going on. Which means, so like for a long time I only wore one brand of shirt, um, and because they, it was, it fit my belly and it was long enough and like it wasn’t, wasn’t baggy around the top and didn’t hang off my belly like a muumuu. Melissa: Mm-hmm, Brett: And like, so I, I, I only wore this brand of shirt and I own like 15 of them, and I would just cycle through Melissa: dresses, they’re just your Walmart $10 cotton tank dress. Love it. Brett: Yeah. But now that I can tuck my shirts in and feel okay about it, I can buy those extra large nerd shirts, ones with funny slogans and stuff on them. And normally those would hang straight down off my belly, and I hate the way that looks. But now I can tuck those in, which means I can get back to wearing funny, [00:19:00] ironic T-shirts, and it, it’s like opening up a whole new world of possibilities Melissa: That is a bonus for mental health. Brett: every day now I put on my suspenders and it makes me happy. Um, Melissa: wonderful. It’s almost like a, like a mobility aid. Brett: Kinda, yeah. Melissa: yeah. Brett: of, I– So I, I have a monopod, um, like a tripod that folds up into a walking stick, and it’s nice and light and it is an adjustable height ’cause it’s designed to be used as a camera tripod. Um, and I’ve started walking with it Melissa: yeah. kinda like you’re Brett: I c- yeah. Yeah. Like one of my fat friends has s- literal like ski poles. They’re like half height ski poles and they walk with them and it helps them a ton, and I Melissa: Yeah, hikers use those. Brett: try that out. But a walking stick [00:20:00] really does help with my stenosis, but I can still, even with a stick, I can only walk for about five minutes, which is about .3, Melissa: Yeah. Brett: 3, .3 miles. Um, and then I have to stop and sit, and it’s been a real pain, literally. Mobility And Home Hacks Melissa: And is standing difficult, too? Brett: standing is worse than walking. Melissa: thing, yeah. Standing’s worse. Brett: Yeah. Like if I am in the kitchen and I’m at the stove cooking, before the onions start to brown, I have to sit Melissa: Yeah. Yep. Brett: Uh, so we now have a stool in our kitchen, Melissa: Do you have one in the shower? Brett: yes. Well, our shower, our shower has a nice, like the back of the tub is a seat. Melissa: Oh, okay. Yeah. Brett: I don’t know if this house was designed by old people or not, but, um, but it’s certainly everything is relatively [00:21:00] accessible in that way. Um, but the stool in the kitchen means I can cook dinner. Emptying the dishwasher is the worst for me. That just like bending over, picking stuff up, and then just moving back and forth, like the five feet across our kitchen. My– I, it takes me three stops, three rests to get a dishwasher emptied. Um, and then I’m kind of ruined after that. I hate it. And I hate that I Melissa: stress mat? Brett: What’s that? Oh, you mean Melissa: mat to stand on? Gotta get, gotta Brett: think that would help? Melissa: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have Brett: used to have one Melissa: and one in front of the kitchen, and I don’t even, I don’t even, do the cooking. Brett: Ha. I used to, I used to have one of those in front of the stove when I w- when I didn’t have pain, but just because I was really getting into cooking and I was spending a lot of time, and I was starting to feel it in my knees. Um, yeah, maybe I should do Melissa: I think it’s a fatigue [00:22:00] mat, I think they call it. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah, Brett: That sounds Melissa: plus they look cool if you get little designs on them and stuff. Yeah. Oh, we could spend the day talking about just mobility aids and ergonomics and all that kind of stuff. Melissa Health Update Brett: Well, it’s your turn. Talk about whatever you like. Melissa: Yeah, you give me some ideas to talk about. Um, yeah, I struggle with a lot of the same things that you do. Um, I’m always like kinda comparing notes every time you post something. I’m like, "Oh No, ‘Cause you talked about Have you … You haven’t started the injections yet, have you? Brett: No, and they just delayed those. I don’t get them until like June 20th or something. Melissa: nervous about those for you, because I’ve had those and I’ve decided to just swear off them, so I’ll just kinda give you just a heads-up. I mean, it does raise your blood sugar, so that’s not great, and, um, it can give you the roid rage, kinda make you angry, so that’s something to watch out for, and more weight gain, so …But it’s like one of those things where you just have to kinda try [00:23:00] it and see if it works, because if it does work, then you could be more mobile and then maybe drop a few pounds and get some of that weight off of your spine. But if it doesn’t work, just know that that can happen, Brett: my doctor did not mention any of those side effects, so good to Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s the chronic life, so that’s, that’s what, that’s what, uh, affects my mental health, so I’m, I’m really good at faking it. I am actually … I will say I’m actually feeling a little bit more even. ADHD Meds And Mutations Melissa: I’m on, uh … I love when you talk about different prescriptions and stuff. Uh, I just mentioned, so I’m taking Adderall. That is, ugh, it’s a mixed bag. Um, I wanted to ask you about Vyvanse, cause that’s the next thing for me, but it’s, like, super expensive, so I’m trying to make Adderall work as best I can, but I’m, I’m in the process of playing with the dosage. But I think she told me, like, the highest was 30. The thing is, uh, I’ve had genetic testing done, and [00:24:00] I have this condit- not a condition, but it’s a I’m a mutant. It’s a genetic mutation called, it’s, it’s just initials. It’s MTHFR, lovingly known as Brett: you process your, your, chemicals twice as … fast. I have Melissa: Yes, faster processing in the liver. So that’s when she told me, ’cause she started, uh, me out on methylphenidate, and I was like, “Well, what about Adderall?” Because it, I see it work for my kids, you know? The kids are chip off the old block, right? And so I’ve had them tested too, and all three of us are positive for that. It’s lovelin- lovingly known as the motherfucker gene mutation. Um, yeah, so, and it is. It’s, it’s quite a bitch, um, ’cause it causes a whole bunch of other problems. And of course, we’ve talked about Ehlers-Danlos, so I have, uh, hypermobile Eh- Ehlers-Danlos. I’m having a hard time … I’m just having a hard time with that in general, mental health wise, because there’s just not enough awareness about it, enough people, and doctors, doctors and nurses. And you know, I’ll, I’ll say I wanna, I would love to be able to get [00:25:00] to a point where I can just say, “I have H-E-D-S,” or heads or what- however they’re gonna pronounce it, and, like, somebody know what that is when I go in for an appointment. But I still have to explain it, you know? And then that, that cuts into my time. ‘Cause they only … When you’re, when you’re our age, they only give you, like, 15 minutes, if that. When you’re much older, ’cause I’ve had to take, I’ve had to take family members to the doctor, they get a whole lot more time. But, uh, you know, it’s like, "Oh, you’re, you’re too young to be this sick. You’re too young to be this old," Brett: Right. Yeah. Curious Doctors Matter Brett: Um, I did– I found that doctor for me that knew exactly what all those acronyms meant, knew exactly, like, not only did they know what POTS was, they knew like seven different kinds of POTS and what tests to use to narrow it down. And then she got called up to National Guard Melissa: Oh, I wondered, I wondered, what happened to that doctor, ’cause it sounded so Brett: I waited. I was on a, I was on– I w- I had an appointment scheduled that was gonna be six months from the time she [00:26:00] left. Um, and I had it scheduled, and it was on July 7th. And then I got a letter in the mail saying that her Guard duty had been extended, and now I can’t see her again until September. And, like, I’ve, I’ve tried seeing other doctors that work with her, but none of them have the knowledge she has, and it was such a relief Melissa: Is this the curious one? Okay. I always think about you whenever I’m either looking for a provider or in the, in the midst of, of getting, you know, shuffled around to a new provider. I’m like, “I hope they’re curious,” ’cause that made– that meant so much to me when you explained about how a doctor needs to be curious. I’m like, “That’s what I need.” I need somebody… Or even just my therapist. I have a new, a new therapist that I see, and she’s really curious, and I really, really like that about her. That’s something that helps with mental health, is when somebody’s curious, ’cause I’m Brett: it goes h- it goes hand in hand with credulousness. Like, [00:27:00] first they have to be willing to believe you, and like, especially when it comes to invisible issues like EDS. Like, you have to be willing to believe a person and then be curious enough to look for answers. Like, the first step is believing, and the second step is curiosity. Melissa: Yes. I’ve already had my patient record marked as… Have you ever heard this one? Worried well. Brett: No. Melissa: I looked it up. It’s basically hypochondriac. Brett: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna guess. That Melissa: Yep. I actually– I was proud of myself because I actually did confront the doctor about it and I said, “What does this mean?” I said, “I, I looked it up and it kinda concerns me ’cause it makes me look like a hypochondriac.” And she said, "Oh, no, no, that’s just a, a code that we use when we don’t have something else to assign to it so that insurance will pay." Bullshit. Brett: Yeah, right? I feel like that’s exactly the kind of [00:28:00] thing insurance doesn’t pay. Melissa: Mm-hmm. so Vyvanse Vs Adderall Brett: what do you wanna know about Vyvanse? Melissa: Um, a- and I know it’s different for everybody, but I just kinda wondered what your take was on it. Um, how– can you compare it to Adderall at all for me, Brett: Yeah. Melissa: no comparison? Brett: it’s basically a non-abusable, I would call it lower lying version of, of Adderall. Like, it’s in the same family of stimulant as Adderall, but it can’t– It isn’t processed or it’s… I don’t remember how the mechanics of it work, but you can’t snort it basically. Like, it doesn’t, it doesn’t do anything Melissa: Which I wouldn’t wanna do anyway ’cause there’s nothing up here. Brett: Sure. Sure. And then, yeah, I’m not suggesting that was gonna be a problem for you. Um, but it’s also, like, it’s way, um, for me anyway, it’s way calmer. [00:29:00] Um, and there are people that say it doesn’t do anything at all. Um, especially a lot of people, a lot of people say the generic version doesn’t do anything, um, and that the name brand version does, but I haven’t found that to be true. Like the generic, which you’re correct, still costs like 200 bucks a month, um, for the generic. Um, but it is– It’s not my favorite. Melissa: I wondered why– what made you stop taking it. Did it just not work for you? Brett: No, I still take Vyvanse. Um, yeah. Um, I used to take, um, Focalin, which I loved. Melissa: That really worked for my kiddo, yep. Brett: but it also triggered my mania, Melissa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Brett: so I was always walking this line of like, do I wanna be super productive and manic with like weeks of depression in between, [00:30:00] or do I just wanna be somewhat productive and stable? Um, which is why I’ve stuck with Vyvanse, and my doctor loves it enough for me that she won’t, she won’t prescribe anything else for me at this point. Like, I’ve asked about switching. I’ve asked about moving back to Adderall and things like that, but, Melissa: It seems like you’re, like you’re kinda on an evening out. Brett: Yeah, I haven’t had a manic episode for a couple years now. Tracking Mood With Data Melissa: Do you track it? Do you– Like, have you ever seen those– I keep seeing these ads for it ’cause, you know, the algorithm feeds us the stuff for wearables that are, um, called– I think it’s called Visible, so it makes your symptoms more visible instead of invisible. Like, do you track it? Do you Have you nerded out on your own data? Brett: like my mania and depression? Melissa: Yeah, like do you track it and look at graphs or anything like that to Brett: See, I’ve never had to use an external tool because I can just look at GitHub contribution graphs, and I can look at [00:31:00] my RSS feed, and I can see exactly, like for a period of like eight years, I can pinpoint exactly where my manic episodes were, um, because that data is historically preserved out there on the internet for all to see. Um, it’s, yeah, it’s– Well, and that’s, like I built tools that gathered that, those various sources of data. Um, and then there was a, a tool called, um, I forget. Melissa: cool, though? Hmm. We’ll think Brett: But it could pull, it could pull in all that data. Um, Bell Beth Cooper, Hello Code, I can’t remember the name of the app. Melissa: Yeah, it’ll come to you eventually. Brett: sure. Uh, but it could pull in like your GitHub, uh, commits along with like what the weather was at the time, how many songs you listened to that Melissa: Oh, day one sorta does that, yeah. Brett: Does it now? Melissa: A little bit, yeah, your locations, [00:32:00] um, if you turn on some of those things. Like not– I don’t think it does the music and things like that, but Brett: I haven’t used it for a while. I haven’t used it for a Melissa: I was gonna switch to the journal app. I was actually really… I held off on upgrading to Tahoe for the longest time, but that one kept nagging at me ’cause I thought, oh, you know, maybe. I mean, as much as I love Day One, I, I thought about, I thought about actually switching over, but no. I tried it. I’m, I’m gonna stick with Day One. Brett: Cool. All right. Cane And Somatic Therapy Brett: Um, so did you have, did you have more to add to your Melissa: Oh, I was gonna, I was gonna add on to what you were talking about with the suspenders. I did start… I think you probably… Well, yeah, you commented on it. Um, I started using a cane, and that I have mixed feelings about that. Um, I should have brought it in here so I could show you. I’ll show you later, ’cause, uh, anyway, it’s, it’s purple. I did get a pimp cane. That’s what my husband calls it. I thought, damn it, if I’m gonna use, like, a cane, then it’s gonna be [00:33:00] purple, and I’m gonna like looking at it, as much as I hate to use it, so. So I’ve been trying to use it. I… What you were talking about with, uh, with finding a curious doctor, I do have new physical therapist, um, so I’m really happy about that. Same kind of thing where she’s super booked. I think that’s just how it is. Like, the really good ones, they’re good, and, you know, it shows because it’s, it’s hard to get in to see them. So yeah. So I’m, I’m looking forward to that. We’re gonna be doing… Have you heard of somatic therapy? Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah. So ha- have you tried it? Do, do you like it? Okay. That’s, that’s what I’m embarking on. Brett: I actually have a friend who teaches classes in it. Melissa: Oh, Al probably knows about that. Brett: y- yeah, Melissa: Yeah, I’ll, I’ll Brett: and it is, it is amazing how hard just doing things, doing motions you’re used to, but doing them very slowly and intentionally. It is like you– Just like, Just like, doing y- like a clamshell where you drop your knee, you’re [00:34:00] on your back and you drop your knee down to the side and bring it back up. Like that motion, most of us, even infirmed people can do that okay. You try to take… You try to do that and take like five breaths in each direction, and you’ll start shaking. It’s very Melissa: Ah, uh-huh. Yep. Brett: Yeah, but it’s good. Like it’s g- it really retrains your muscles. It really, it strengthens, retrains, and helps with, uh, finer motor control. Melissa: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I, I’m, I’m a little bit on the skeptical end of it, so that’s why I’m, I’m glad that, that you, you vouch for it too. It’s like I know that it works, but I just… I guess I wanna understand the science of it a little bit more. Like, for example, I’ve tried, uh, acupuncture, and I just didn’t feel like it did, did anything for me. I think you have to be, like, a believer, and I just Brett: think so. Melissa: I, I, I even did that on purpose knowing that I kinda felt like it wasn’t gonna work. I was like, well, what if I just go into this? ‘Cause, [00:35:00] ’cause I talk to people and they’re like, "Well, you have to believe in it." I’m like, but what if I don’t? I just don’t, you know? I’m, I see it Brett: it’s not medicine if you have to believe in it. Melissa: Yeah. I mean, I see it work for other people. I know there’s, you know, such a thing as placebos and things like that, and I don’t know, it’s, it’s woo-woo and I, I, I like woo-woo stuff. I, it just, it didn’t do anything for me, so… It’s not to say that it doesn’t work for other people, but it just did not work for me, and I, I kind of, I, maybe I just, uh, did that on purpose when I, I try- probably just tripped myself up going into it thinking, well, I just don’t believe it, so if it works, then there must be science behind it. And then, then, I’ll believe. But it didn’t work out, so. So the, I’m a little bit on the fence about the somatic thing, but the, the, the gal that I’m working with is just so, she has EDS herself, and like, like what you were saying, like, she, she knows all about it and she could even, you know, tell me the, the type that she has, and I was like, I met, I met, actually last week I met two zebras in one week. [00:36:00] You, you’re familiar with the, the zebra mascot? If you, uh, the saying goes, if you hear hooves, think horses. But we’re not horses, are we? Yeah, so Yeah, so that’s, that’s our, our Somatics For EDS Melissa: EDS Brett: somatic– somatics you don’t have to believe in for them to work. Melissa: Okay, that is Brett: it’s an actual physical therapy method that trains the finer muscles, um, that surround your larger muscles and, and strengthens those, and it– Yeah, it’s for real. It’s, yeah, it’s not like a… It’s soma- I think, Melissa: w- totally Brett: ’cause I I had the same reaction when someone said somatics, ’cause I think, “Oh, that’s some holistic idea of the body, um, of soma,” and it’s… No, it’s, it’s got legit physical therapy behind it. Melissa: And, Yoga Modifications Melissa: you used to do a lot of yoga too, so that probably makes Brett: I still do. Melissa: Yeah? That’s [00:37:00] wonderful. Brett: it’s gotten really hard. Um, I can’t, I can’t– So I get dizzy Melissa: Yeah. Brett: going from sitting to standing, um, and my back gives out if I am in, like, horse or warrior two for more than a couple minutes. Um, and I can’t do cobras because I have a belly like a nine-month pregnancy. Um, so I have to do, like, prenatal yoga, um, which is actually a thing. Melissa: that’s a good idea. I’m glad you brought that up. I should look Brett: a- and I do chair yoga, um, where I I take the class that everyone else takes, but I modify it to work with… Like, there, there are defined moves that you do with a chair instead of. Instead of doing down dog, you do, like, a 90-degree down dog holding the back of a chair. Um, and you put, like, a knee on the chair to do warrior two, so you’re actually [00:38:00] resting. And Um, and you can do it fully seated too and get at least the arm exercises out of it. So I’ve been trying to maintain, maintain flexibility and some endurance. I’m not doing yoga the way I used to do it, but I am still Melissa: I’ve seen some of your poses. It’s pretty impressive. Brett: Yeah, back in the day. Melissa: W- when you could be upside down. Polycystic Liver Shock Melissa: I should look into that because I, you know, although I’m done having babies, like far done having babies, I have… You probably know about this too, I have polycystic liver disease, which is a really rare type of liver disease, and it’s not fatty liver. Oh my God, I have to keep telling doctors that. That’s the other thing. It’s like, it is not fatty liver. It is not. It- they’re cysts. It’s a totally different thing. I’m basically full of bubbles. So I… But it feels like that’s why I went in to get it. I didn’t actually get that checked. I found it accidentally when I went in for an heart, for a heart CT. That’s when they found it, and for a, a breast MRI, so [00:39:00] both those, those types of scans caught it. The other parts were fine, so my heart’s fine, so that’s a relief. But yeah, so this was a bit of a shock. And so I don’t know exactly what it means moving forward, um, but my entire liver is, like, engulfed in cysts, so. Right? But my blood work is, is fantastic right now, so I’m just gonna keep Brett: That’s good. Melissa: hoping it stays that way. Brett: That’s something. Fatphobia In Healthcare Brett: Um, I I have heard for a long time about, um, doctors being fatphobic and, and always assuming that, um, always assuming that your health i-issue is because you’re fat and not even looking for underlying issues, which has been an interesting experience for me because that really never happened to me. Melissa: Mm. Brett: Um, at least not once I switched to Gundersen from, like, a local clinic. Then I realized that it’s not just being fat that gets you [00:40:00] stigmatized, it’s being a fat woman. Melissa: Mm, I was gonna say try having a uterus and being Brett: yeah. Yeah. Um, like I talked to one of my best friends, April, who he’s, has been on Melissa: by, women doctors. Brett: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, that’s what April tells me. She tells me all these horror stories. Even after finding care she trusted, she still has to deal with people saying, “Well, if you just lost some weight.” Like, she’s been fat her whole life. She’s in better shape than most skinny people Melissa: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Brett: I mean, she does sit-ups with 50-pound plates and does, like, five, 10 miles at a time on her, like, on her bike and, like, she’s in great shape and still has to walk with the ski poles, and she’s getting her second knee replaced this week. And, like, it, it’s just infuriating to hear the way that doctors dismiss Melissa: You know what the problem is, Brett? Brett: goes through [00:41:00] when Pole Dancing Reality Check Melissa: Not enough doctors have watched fat pole dancers. That is the problem right there. They need more education. Brett: Um, yeah. There’s, there are a couple of, um, queer burlesque shows Melissa: shows, yes. Brett: in my area that almost always include a plus-size pole dance, and it is amazing to Melissa: Oh, it’s mesmerizing. It should be an Olympic sport. Remind me to send you the, the link to, unless you’ve already seen it, have you seen the Deadpool pole dancer? Brett: No, I don’t think Melissa: you are in for a treat. We might just have to put that in the show notes, but I don’t know, I don’t know if your listeners are that, are into that It’s fully clothed, but it’s, there’s even blue Crocs involved. Brett: So this is nobody that you’re seeing on the Melissa: I wondered, yep. I wondered, yeah. Aw, he looks so soft. Mm. Mechanical Keyboard ASMR Brett: So you’ve [00:42:00] gotten really into mechanical keyboards. Melissa: have, I have. In fact, uh, I was gonna, I was gonna see how this might sound, but I, I brought my little box of key caps to show you so that I could say, welcome to my ASMR channel. Brett: That would… is is that a thing? I bet there are ASMR, like, key switch testing. Melissa: yeah, yeah. I’ve run across a couple of videos where, you know, they’ll have a hashtag ASMR in there, and that’s, that’s what it is. Do you experience ASMR yourself? Brett: No. Melissa: No? So when you listen to those videos you don’t get like the s- the tickling of the spine and stuff? Brett: No. Melissa: I do. It actually, it goes, it… I forget. I always forget what the acronym stands for, but it, you know, has something to do with the meridian. So if you can i- imagine your brain like split in half, and I feel it right on this side. It goes, it goes like the, down the back of my head, behind my ear, and down into my shoulder. It [00:43:00] is the funkiest feeling, and I love it. I love it so much. Even when we were talking about animals in the, in the beginning and I even had a cat that would come and just like kind of lick my ear and, oh, I just, I love that. Most people cannot stand that sound. They have the opposite condition where they can’t handle somebody chewing gum. My grandfather had that. Um, some, some kinda, it ends in a tonia. Misatonia or something like that, um, where… I don’t know. Do you have any of those like sound sensory issues? I have a lot of Brett: really don’t. I’m very, I’m very, like, sound Like, I like loud, heavy music. Like, that does something for my psyche. Um, but general sounds, they neither bo-bother me nor stimulate me. Melissa: imagine what that’s like. I just can’t. I’m So bothered, and my kids too, and you know, ugh, God, Brett: So El Melissa: has been problematic. Brett: El is, El is, definitely sensitive to sound, um, in a way that Like, even my [00:44:00] mechanical keyboards can’t be, can’t be on the same floor of the house as Elle. We pretty much live in silence, and that’s fine for me most of the time because, like, it just doesn’t affect me either way. So, like, keeping things quiet is easy, and I focus well in silence. And then when Elle’s gone, I blast my music, and w- when I’m in the car, I blast my music, and then the rest of the time I live in the quiet place. Melissa: Mm-hmm. In The Quiet Place. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah, we have- something a little similar, but m- my husband and I have, uh… We have our his and hers kind of setup here in, in the, in our den, in our inner study. So he’s got his side and I’ve got my side. So we’re together, and he does a lot of grading papers, and he’s really good about putting his, his earbuds in and just tuning the whole world out. He’s… It’s fascinating to watch that man just [00:45:00] execute. I mean, I just am so envious of people who can just execute. But the, the, the, yeah, the sensory, it’s all about the sensory stuff for me when it comes to keyboards. I actually thought about… I don’t know how popular it would be, but I also thought about making a podcast, a video podcast, that would highlight the intersection of nail art and mechanical keyboards. Because I’ll tell you, that’s actually what… I’ve always loved mechanical keyboards, but yeah, the, the one that I had, someone had given me a, a Matias, and oh, it’s, it’s so loud, but it’s like high-pitched. It’s kinda sharp. And it was even kind of annoying to me after a while. And then it does not, it’s not a mechanical keyboard in that you can’t pull the switches out, so you’re kinda stuck with what you got. Like, you might be able to change the key caps if you could find them, but couldn’t change the switches. And something happened to the S key, and I was like, “All right, it’s over,” so. But I can’t get rid of them either, so one of these days I wanna have like a display of, of keyboards. [00:46:00] Nail Art And Picking Melissa: But what got me, what got me into saying, “Okay, I’m finally, I’m just gonna invest in a keyboard because it’s ergonomically important to me,” is I have… And I can’t pronounce it, so I’m not even gonna try, but there’s a condition, and it’s a self-diagnosed thing. But I, I am a picker. I pick my skin a lot. Um, I think it’s called derma something Anyway, so I wasn’t gonna try to pronounce it. But, uh, I’ve always had that condition since I was a kid. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I just thought everybody get, uh, picks. But then during the pande- during the pandemic, it got super bad. Like, I had, I had, um, some panic attacks and, you know, as a lot of probab- people probably did. But it got so bad to the point where I had picked my fingers and they were bleeding and they were throbbing and they were hurting. And I said to one of my kids, I said to my youngest, I said, “Can you just, like, if I, if I’m picking, can you just let me know?” And then I regretted doing that because then he took it on as this, like, full-time job, you know? And it kinda [00:47:00] gave him anxiety, and I thought, “Oh, okay, that, that was a bad thing to do.” So I s- I let him off the hook. I said, “No, you don’t have to tell me anymore.” Um, because, yeah, ev- even if I went to, like, just kinda, like, clean under my nail or something. So it was actually causing a real problem for the family that I was just picking so much. And it’s not just my fingers, it’s, like, other parts of my body. So I thought to myself, “Well, what can I do about this?” And so I started putting fake nail tips on. And I hate to be all, like… I don’t know, I’m not, I try not to be, like, a very vain person, but I really started kinda falling into the nail art side of things, and I, I just recently learned how to do gel and work with, um, uh, what’s it called? Uh, not resin. So I… Oh, that’s another ASMR thing. Do you like to watch resin pours? Brett: I do, actually, yes. Melissa: that’s… Okay, so if you like resin pours, if you like to watch the viscosity and the way the, the chemicals, like, form together and when they, when they mix colors in and stuff, [00:48:00] that’s what it’s like with nail art but on more of, like, a macro level because it’s, you know, you’re working with small stuff. Like, just, just recently I learned how to do… So I’m showing Brett this on, on camera, but I recently learned how to do the kind of nail polish that you take a magnet and you run the magnet along it, and it makes this, like, a cat’s eye. Brett: Yeah, that’s cool. Melissa: I love it. So, so that, so combining nail art then, and I thought, “Well, now I’ve got these long nails,” but all of my keyboards have been these flat, really low-profile keyboards. And, you know, I just, I started to dread it. So then I was kinda caught between a crossroads. Like, either I leave nails off and I can type really, really fast and have high accuracy with no nails, but then as soon as, as soon as I get, like, a little snag or something, then I start picking and then it’s just, it’s all over then. Or I try to find a way to work with these nails. So that’s what I started thinking, “Well, maybe if I had higher keys.” And so then I just, yeah, rabbit hole. [00:49:00] Went down the rabbit hole, and I’ve, I’ve just kinda been there ever since. And, uh, it really, I think, uh… Let’s see. How long ago did this start? It’s only been about maybe like six months or something like that, so. Keyboard Layout Rabbit Hole Melissa: But in that time so I’ve started, um, building a collection of switches. So I’ve been really interested in both the key caps and the switches. Um, I’ve got my baseboards. I like my Royal Kludge the best. This is… I’m gonna show Brett my Royal Kludge. So, so this is what it’s looking like right now. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: It is very purpley. Um, I did post some pictures. I can… I don’t know if you do pictures in show notes, but I could take some pictures for you It’s got a knob. It’s got, um… Let me see if I can do it real Brett: Do you use the knob. I have a couple keyboards with knobs and even a joystick, and I never actually use them Melissa: Good question. Um, I, I use it, I try to use it for volume at [00:50:00] times, and that’s probably what I use it for the most. But this one does have a… Let’s see if I can get this into focus here, backwards and upside down. It’s gonna be upside down, but you see how you can put, you can put your logo Brett: Oh, yeah. Nice. Melissa: got my The Mac Mommy little logo on there. Otherwise, it gives you the time in military format, so that’s kind of handy to have. Um, but yeah, it’s… To be honest, I, I love the, I love this Royal Kludge because it’s nice and heavy, and I love the form factor. It’s got a number pad, um, because I’m, because I am a grown-ass adult and I need a number pad. Um, but it’s nice and heavy. It doesn’t, it doesn’t move around my desk a lot. I kind of have to type, like, kind of crooked, ’cause that’s just the way my neck goes to the wrong way and stuff like that. So I like being able to fit it on my desk. I have a, I had a larger one made by Red, uh, what is it? Redragon. This is the one that I started [00:51:00] out with. Gonna make lots of noise here. But as you can see, this one is way bigger. And it was, as much as I liked it, I mean, I fell in love with it, but what was happening was my accuracy was, like, really thrown off because I fe- I kept feeling like it just needs to be, like, a couple centimeters to the right or a couple centimeters to the left. It just wasn’t centered very well. So this one, my husband gets all the hand-me-downs, so that one went over onto his desk. Uh, and then I also have a baby keyboard here, and this is another Redragon. This is my little mini one. Brett: that’s, that’s the kind of keyboard I mostly use, like a 70% keyboard. Melissa: Yeah, I think this one’s even 60. Um… Brett: My– The one I’m using right now is, uh, 60. There’s no, there’s no function row, there’s no arrow, there’s no keypad or, like, arrow pad. Um, Melissa: No [00:52:00] arrows? How do you live without arrows? Oh, do you, you mapped your keys to something Brett: so it looks like this, Melissa: nice. I love the Brett: that the, the space bar is split in two. Yeah, my, my, my partner says it looks like, uh, gay ’80s. It’s all pink and blue and purple. Um, but the, the space bar is split, and the right half of mine functions as something called a mod key, and when I hold that down, then my I, J, K, and L keys become arrow keys. Melissa: Oh, wow. Brett: once you get used to it, you never have to take your hand off the home row. Melissa: Oh my God, that must be amazing. Brett: It– Yeah, once you get used to it, it, it’s so… Like, g- moving to a keyboard that doesn’t have that is kind of tortuous. On my MacBook Pro, I have remapped it using Karabiner so that Melissa: [00:53:00] That’s what I’m using. Brett: if I hold, the semicolon down with my pinky, then H-I-J-K-L become, Melissa: Oh, nice. Brett: become arrow keys, so I still don’t have to move my hand all the way down and to the right. Like, that’s such a inefficient movement that then I have to, like… Because I don’t have great feeling in my fingers, so finding, on a low-profile keyboard, finding the, the homing buttons again Melissa: Oh, do you use the humming buttons? See, that’s the thing, I was never taught that. I mean, I took like a ty- I took like a typewriting class back in high school, and I just didn’t like it. I, I just taught myself. I just… I’m an autodidact that way, so I just taught myself. Brett: my dad, back in 1984, we had a typing program on our PCjr, and I Melissa: It wasn’t Mavis Beacon, was it? Brett: remember. I don’t remember. All I know is, like, It taught you touch typing, and it would give you [00:54:00] these lessons, and you would basically just mirror what was on screen. And at the age of seven, I was typing at about 68 words per minute on an, on an old IBM PCjr keyboard. Um, got a lot faster through high school and everything. But yeah, I was, I was, from day one, I was raised to be a touch typist, and, and I took all the classes they had in school. Melissa: But you still touch Brett: labs. Yeah. Melissa: Uh-huh, yeah. So you don’t do the home rows. Brett: No, that is touch Melissa: Oh, touch typing, so you do feel… for the bumps. Brett: Yeah, I feel for the bumps, and then I just, like, my f- my key, my fingers never really leave the Melissa: Oh, yeah. See, I wish I could do Brett: centered home row. Yeah. It’s, it, it’s good. Um, Melissa: And you’re using the split, so my gosh. Brett: What– You get used to that too. Um, like, [00:55:00] I can’t do it with the split far apart. I’ve seen people use, like, splits, like, way out to the sides, and I can’t, my, my brain doesn’t do that. Like, my hands have to be within, like, six inches of each other. Melissa: I always thought, it would be so cool to have something where you could have it, like, raised up like this, right? And use your hands sideways. Brett: Yeah. Well, that’s I mean, that’s essentially, I have, on the bottom of this keyboard, I have these risers. Melissa: Oh, uh-huh. Oh, Brett: So it sits, right now I have it at about a 45-degree tent, tent, tent. Um, but it can go up to more like an 80-degree tent, where you’re actually Melissa: Wow. Brett: uh, almost like you’re clapping, you’re typing. Um, I don’t Melissa: of that. I have a, a, handshake mouse. Brett: Vertical mouse. Melissa: You like… Is that what you have for a mouse too? Brett: no, I, I love Melissa: Trackballs. Oh, trackpads. Oh, okay. Brett: Apple’s Magic Trackpad changed my life. I’ve never used– I’ve never gone back to a [00:56:00] mouse since the first Magic Trackpad came out. Melissa: So you’re all about the gestures then? Brett: yeah, Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Brett: Bet- bet- better touch tool for the win. Melissa: You know what it is for me, is because of the type of work that I do, and this is very much true for both of us, you do these things because of the type of work that you do. The type of work that I do, I’m in everybody’s homes, so I have to ty- I have to be able to type and use their mouse and, I mean, it’s actually a very dirty job. So I keep hand wipes with me everywhere. Um, that, that was why during the pandemic I was like, “I am not coming to your house and I am not touching the stuff that you just picked your nose and…” Yeah, mm-mm. But, so, so i- it’s been kind of keeping me almost like a purist in a way as far as keyboards have gone all these years. I, I finally just kind of let go and embraced this recently, th- which is why I’m so excited and why I’m just kind of nerding out on it, because when, when I worked [00:57:00] in, like, I’ll call it the industry, um, I got my f- my start in prepress. So I worked in prepress, I was a typesetter, and we had… That’s what I kind of miss. We had the old clunky beige keyboards, and I had my muscle memory such that I think my o- my Option key would have, like, the indentation of my nail on it. You know? ‘Cause I had, just like you have, keys that are programmed. I could… I was a Quark queen. I don’t know if you’re familiar with QuarkXPress? Brett: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was a graphic designer. I I know Quark. Melissa: Yeah, I loved it. I was… And, and I used it back in the OS 9 days, OS 7 really, is when I started out. Uh, I did not like the OS X vers- OS 10 version of Quark. Did not like it at all. Brett: No, but that’s Melissa: it was slow. Brett: Adobe came out with, what was, what was Adobe’s… InDesign. Yeah. By the time I had started, by the time I had started my own ad agency, we were all InDesign. Melissa: Oh, [00:58:00] nice. Okay. I mean, it was a Brett: and none of the, none of the print shops expected Quark files Melissa: Yeah. Oh, it was so expensive. I remember I had to buy it when I was in college, and I remember it cost, like, $800. I’m probably still paying for that, damn it, in interest. Yeah, so that, that’s how I got my start originally, and that’s how I was doing… I, I went to… So I have, I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I went to college in order to be a designer. I wanted to be a designer designer, and that’s what I, what I thought I was good at and thought that I liked doing, ’cause, you know, “Oh, you’re a girl. Go to art school. You like to draw.” You know? I’m always bitter about that because I really wish that I would’ve been able to go… I mean, this was, you know… I’m, I’m 51, so this was back in the day where girls, girls don’t do computers and girls don’t do coding. G- girls don’t do computer science. They didn’t even call it computer science. They didn’t even call it graphic design back then. It was commercial art. Um, so I studied that and, you know, I liked it ’cause I thought, “Well, this is what I could, I could take my art and make [00:59:00] a living into it.” And then fast-forward, um, I just started to fall in love with the technical troubleshooting side of things. So as, as good as I was at the technical typesetting and the technical, like, putting prepress things together, you know, um, uh, key sheets and s- you know, things like that. Do you remember, was there, uh, did you ever use a program called Quick Keys? That was one of the ones Brett: familiar. Melissa: you could map your own keys to things. So w- when I was in prepress and doing typesetting, I used that program and I, I mapped all my keys, and I had all these quick keys and stuff so I could go really, really fast, you know? So when they wanted something done fast, they gave it to me, and I could just fly through documents with this. But then as people learned that I was good at this kind of stuff and troubleshooting, they’re like, “Oh, hey, Roger needs, you know, has a problem. Can you go help him?” So I’d go over to his cubicle, I sit down, and he’s got nothing. You know, he’s got [01:00:00] no quick keys, no nothing, and you just kinda get lost because your muscle memory just adapts to it. And I couldn’t help people the way… And, and that was what it was about for me. I really liked more helping people and troubleshooting and the technology side of things than the actual design process. So I kind of went to the other side with it. And so I just kind of, like, vowed that, okay, I’m not gonna do any kind of, like, customization on my own workstation because then I’ll, my, my muscle memory will map to it, and then when I go to sit down to help somebody else, I won’t… You know, I’ll be so much in my own world that I won’t be able to help them. And so I just kind of, like, remained a, a purist for the longest time. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t make too many keyboard shortcuts. You know, a few here and there, but I tried not to make too many ’cause I just didn’t wanna be lost when I sat down at someone else’s machine. And so then, you know, fast-forward to today and now I’m like, “You know what? Screw it.” I think I, I know enough about, about people’s different setups and stuff that I can kind of float between the two. I’ve gotta take care of me now, so [01:01:00] it’s more, more of a self-care thing. Shortcuts And Muscle Memory Brett: my s- my, my– The story that comes to mind about using other people’s computers when you’re used to using your own shortcuts is for 20-some years, I have always remapped my Caps Lock key to be an Escape key. And this is, this is before I ever… Do you know what a hyper key is? Like now, now I have a hyper key, but if I tap it, um, my Caps Lock, it’s still an Escape key. And I was working for Engadget, and I had been brought in to, I don’t even remember. I was fixing something on a server And it required me to SSH in and use Vim to edit a file while the new– The company they had just bought, I was in their offices and they handed me a computer and they’re like: "Can you do this? We’ll watch." And [01:02:00] so I don’t know if you use Vim, but you have to use the escape key all the time in Vim. Um, like there, Vim has three modes and you switch back to normal mode by hitting, uh, the escape key. Melissa: Already sounds Brett: so I’m y- I’m just super used to w- hitting it with my pinky to the left, and I’m using someone else’s computer and it’s not remapped. So while they’re watching over my shoulder, I’m like, I’m hitting caps lock, typing the wrong things, uh, having to like backspace, and then I just keep doing it ’cause it’s such muscle memory for Melissa: you can’t fight Brett: eventually… It was a Mac and I eventually remembered I can just go into system settings, into keyboard settings, and I can remap the modifier key. And I like, I pulled myself out of the fire at that point. But yeah, it was Melissa: To, do that on a client’s machine, and I always have to make a note of it to remind myself to put it back because I, ’cause I, I’ve done that before. I’ve screwed somebody over ’cause, [01:03:00] “I can’t use my computer. What did you do?” Yeah, yeah. They ca- like, some people, they just really like their mouse cursor to go really, really slow, and I’m like, "We’re on a, I’m on the clock here, man. I gotta speed this up." Can’t get anything done. Yikes. GrAPPtitude App Picks Brett: should we uh, should we wrap up with a, uh, GrAPPtitude, Melissa: yeah. Brett: So I, I have two picks and I’m gonna… They’ll be short. The first one is by the time this episode comes out, Bartender 6 Pro will be officially released. Melissa: love Bartender. Brett: yeah. Well, and they went through a bit of a rough patch when the company got acquired and they had like beacon software in it and, um, they explained all of that and they made amends and they took the beacon software out and, uh, became a very transparent company. So there’s no reason not to use Bartender anymore because it really is the best of all of the [01:04:00] menu bar managers. And one of the nice things that 6 Pro adds is a notch. It’s called the top shel- top shelf, and when you hover over the notch on, like, your MacBook Pro, or it can actually add one for you on a non-notch computer, uh, you hover over the notch and it opens up a shelf that shows you, like, the weather and your now playing, uh, like, music info, and then it has a file shelf you can drag files to as Melissa: Ooh. Brett: like, move around your computer and then drag them out of to a new location, and a clipboard manager. And it kind of, it kind of doubles the utility of Bartender. Plus they made groups, uh, like… So Bartender’s always been good about creating a second Melissa: Mm-hmm. Brett: bar, right? Um, but n- but as of 6, they added groupings, so you can have icons in your menu bar that open up smaller [01:05:00] Melissa: I have, a little, I have a little unicorn emoji. Brett: Nice. I have, I have four or five groups, and I keep my menu bar very trim. It all fits on the right side of my MacBook Pro’s notch, even though I run well over 30 utilities. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s a, that’s a top pick. Then there’s this new app called Sort, Sortio or Sort IO. Um, there have been a bunch of these, um, AI file sorting apps that have come out. Like, it’s a– There’s been a glut of, of, of apps in the… It’s become a really crowded space, these apps that can, like, purport to, uh, read your files, determine what kind of file they are, and then sort them into subfolders for you. Um, kind of like Hazel, but without creating all the rules. They’re never– They don’t work with the way I file my stuff. [01:06:00] Like, I have a very project-based filing system, and I use something called Tag Filer that I wrote decade ago that I can just add tags, descriptive tags to my files, and then Hazel picks up on those tags and sorts it into a shallow folder hierarchy for me. So I’ve never had a use for these AI file moving apps. But when I mentioned this system to the developer of Sortio, we’re gonna go with Sortio for now, he took me seriously. I had mentioned it to every developer that had come to me with one of these apps asking me to write about it, and, and I’ll, I’ll give him a link, whatever. Um, but this guy was like, "I took you seriously and I just shipped a file tagger, or a ta- a Tag Filer compatible AI. And what it does is you give it, like, a source folder. So I give it the folder where, where Tagfiler had [01:07:00] always filed things, and all of those… drag what? Melissa: Can you drag the source folder into the place, or do you have to type up the whole thing? Brett: No, you, you you just use, like, a file open dialogue, um, and then it will build a corpus. It’ll read all the existing files and all of their existing tags and develop a corpus of, like, files that match this description get this kind of tag. And if it has this in its file name or this in its content, or it’s located at this location, like, it determines, like, a hieristic of– a heuristic of what, what constitutes a tag. Melissa: like high-res better. Brett: can, then you can apply that to untagged files, and it’ll give you a list of like, “Here’s what we think this file should be tagged and here’s why.” It’ll give you a description. “This is why we determined this.” And then you can check on or off. You can say, “This is correct, this isn’t,” and it learns from your decisions, [01:08:00] and then you just hit a button and it applies the tags. Instead of filing it in places where you don’t have full control, you control what tags it gets, and then my, my Tagfiler script files it for me. Um, and this is, it’s not perfect yet, and I– well, I’ve only been using it like this for a day, so I don’t know how much better it will get. Melissa: well, it sounds like you’ve been using it for a lot longer. Brett: well, I’ve been using my Tagfiler system forever, but, like, but this new, this new, uh, AI system I’m describing, I literally just, like, fired up this morning. Um, but yeah, Melissa: doing something like that in C- in Claude, except that gives me a great idea, ’cause I just have … Right now I have folders that are just called File These, and one is File These Images, File These PDFs, File These Pages, you know, well, file, file these whatever type of file it is. ‘Cause those are the main types of files that I work with. [01:09:00] And I thought about writing something using Claude to … I started the process, but then I got pulled away to something else, ’cause ADHD. Uh, and I started sta- telling it, like I want it to go through all of those folders and take out … It’s the medical records, of course, that I save. Like, ’cause I, I download and I keep copies of all my medical records in case I have to move to some other place. I mean, MyChart is really great. Do you use MyChart? You’re familiar with that? It’s really great, but what happens if, you know, the system d- if, they decide to go somewhere else? ‘Cause I’ve already had my medical records lost. So anyways, so I have all those, but the way that you’re describing tags … Because right now I use folders that I consider categories, but maybe tags would be a better way to do it. I could just leave them in these big bucket folders, Brett: here’s my old pitch. Here’s my old pitch. A file can exist in one folder, or, or you can maybe alias it into multiple folders, but that’s a pain in the [01:10:00] butt, as you’ve been using a Mac long enough to know that’s not an ideal Melissa: It’s not, not good. Brett: tags, you can have as many tags as you want on one file, and then using Spotlight and searching for tags instead of for folders, you can find all the files that are related in one way, and then the subsection or cross-section of files related in another way, and you can combine tag searches. You can say, “Only show me PDFs that were from this year that match this topic,” like this Melissa: Yeah, like when was my last mammogram, or when was my last …Yeah. This would be amazing for medical files. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Okay, Brett: I highly recommend tags. Anyway, okay, your turn. Melissa: My turn. So since y- since you did two, I added on another one, ’cause you reminded me about it. Um, but the first one I’ll talk about is Sketch Party TV. And you said you’ve, you’ve played this. Have you, have you played it with your friends? It is so much fun. It’s like Pictionary. [01:11:00] And then have you customized … You can customize the word lists. Have you done any of that, or do you just use the built-in words? Brett: I did know you could do that, but I haven’t done it, no. Melissa: Oh, yeah. So you can make up your own word lists and put them in there. It’s really great for… It’s, it’s all ages seem to like it. I mean, my, my, my stepfather is, like, 80 years old, and he at first was like, “No, I don’t wanna play. I don’t wanna play.” And then we kinda like made him, and then he started to really enjoy it, so you definitely have to give it a try. But it’s basically like Pictionary. You pass around an iPad. Um, you… There’s an app that’s on your Apple TV and an app that’s on the iPad, and it has, you know, teams. I, I wanna say you can have four teams maybe. We’ve only ever done it with two ’cause we haven’t had enough people. But you can create your teams. You can color code it, and then, uh, you pick from either a pre-populated list of words or you can make your own list of words. And so the kids that come over really like that because one time, um, you know, for New Year’s [01:12:00] Eve they said, “Well, let’s make a list that’s all about foods,” ’cause there is a New Year’s Eve list. But let’s make a list that’s all the types of foods that we would eat at a, at a party. And I made it a little bit easier. But, uh, oh, my God, some of the laughs that we’ve had and, you know, you’re… It’s, it’s a family-friendly game, but the ones, of course, I mean, we’re twisted, so that’s… It’s okay. But some of, like, the really what would be considered very inappropriate in someone else’s family has gotten, you know, the biggest rise out of things that people have drawn, and I’ll just let everybody use their imagination. Yeah. And that’s what it’s all about is using your imagination. So I, I pass around styluses and, and an iPad, and we just have a great time with it. Brett: so drawing on an iPad, is not It’s not ideal, uh, for me anyway. Um, and in the times we’ve played it in a party setting, it is what it is. Like, you, you kinda, you– it becomes almost a handicap, the, the quality of the drawing. Um, and if everyone’s at the same disadvantage, it’s fine. [01:13:00] However, we played it with my brother, who is a professional artist and, like, has been drawing since he was very small and is very Melissa: yeah, we suck. Brett: yeah, while we’re all doing these, like, scribbles and, like, arrows and, like, “Err,” like Pictionary style, and then he sits down and, like, draws out a forest with a deer and it was infuriating. Melissa: The, the, the trick is to use the damn colors. The Brett: Yeah, for Melissa: thing with, um… Have you ever played Cranium? I love Cranium, and, and that, um, I, I leveled it up by bringing Play-Doh to the, to the game with that. Instead of just having the purple clay that they use, I actually played it with Play-Doh one time. ‘Cause one time, one time the, uh, the word that I had to sculpt out of the clay was remote control. So all I did was just grab a piece of black clay and took one little piece of red and just made the power button on it, and like, [01:14:00] you know, easy to guess, you know? Stuff like that, so yeah, I really dig that. So that’s a good one. I definitely recommend that. That’s a… It would be a good gift app to share too. Brett: sure. Karabiner Power Tips Melissa: And then the next one we can both talk about is Karabiner, ’cause you mentioned it, and that’s what’s enabling me to, since we’re talking about keyboards and stuff, that’s what’s been enabling me to, um, take what are typically always PC keyboards and map them to a Mac. And, um, so yeah, I’ve been having a lot of fun with that. I did wanna ask you one thing that I, I did get stuck with that I haven’t figured out how to do yet, and I wanted to know what your take would be on it. Uh, so Karabiner lets you make, uh, simple remappings and complex remappings and macros and all of that kinda stuff, and hyperkeys, like you mentioned, which I haven’t used yet, but I, it sounds like I really need to learn that. Uh, but for example, I really… I have one key down the center here that I use for my calculator. And like for the emoji key, you know, you map the globe key. The, the globe key is [01:15:00] the emoji key. I mapped it to a different key. When I press that one, I can open and close the emoji picker, but the calculator just stays open. So like a cave person, I have to go and press Command + W. But I would really like one key. Can I make a Brett: emo- the emoji picker is designed to be transient. Like, it, it, by default it comes and when you pick an emoji it goes. Uh, but Calculator is actually an app. So it would be possible, yes, with a combination of something like BetterTouchTool and Karabiner to actually create an app toggle. Melissa: A toggle. Brett: Maestro Keyboard Maestro does it well too. Um, and then you would just map A key to a Keyboard Maestro. Um, BetterTouchTool is probably actually more intuitive, um, than using Karabiner to do it. Um, or be- or just do the whole thing in Keyboard Maestro and just assign, like make it into a [01:16:00] hotkey and trigger a script that if the app is running, it quits it. If the app isn’t running, it launches it. Like that’s, that’s your basic, uh, system event scripting with AppleScript, Melissa: Oh, Brett: uh, Claude can definitely write for you. Um, in fact, um, I have had– Well, I use Cursor, and I have had Cursor write me some complex modifications for Karabiner, uh, which are just JSON files that you can then import. Um, so I’ll just tell it, like I had it do one I wanted when I press A and S simultaneously within like 50 milliseconds of each other, then my D and F become… That becomes a Command key, and D and F become Tab and Shift+Tab. So from the home row with just my four fingers on the home row, I can put down my pinky and my ring finger and then use my index finger and middle finger to switch apps, Melissa: Oh, wow. Brett: [01:17:00] which is just one more, one more way I don’t have to move off the home row. Melissa: Nice. Oh, that sounds amazing. That’s like music to my ears Brett: Yeah, no, Karabiner is, Karabiner is endless fun, and it is really easy to put yourself in a position where you can’t use other people’s Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, that’s why I wanted to kind of be careful with it. I haven’t done a whole lot with it ’cause I feel like it could be dangerous. Next thing you know, everybody’ll have Karabiner on their computers, but yep. So that’s, those are my GrAPPtitudes. Very grateful Brett: All right. Wrap Up And Thanks Brett: Well, thank you for joining me today, helping me get an episode out when no one else could make it. Melissa: I love it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This has been a little bit of a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to be on your show. You’ve been on mine, and now I’ve been on yours. Brett: this has been great fun. Um, so as we always say, get some sleep. [01:18:00]

2. 

   24 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   444: Projects and Pitt-falls

   Hosts Christina Warren, Jeff Severns Guntzel, and Brett Terpstra discuss personal updates, app development projects like Terminal Widget, and the challenges of AI integration in this interview episode.

3. 

   2 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   443: Mixed Climate January

   Jeff and Christina are out of pocket this week, so Erin Dawson heroically steps in to keep the show afloat during trying times. Life, religion, dating, blogging… an everything bagel of a show. Sponsor Copilot Money can help you take control of your finances. Get a fresh start with your money for 2026 with 2 months free when you visit try.copilot.money/overtired (https://copilot.money/?utm_source=overtired&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bbm-podcast_web25&utm_term=OVERTIRED). Chapters 00:00 Erin 00:04 Introduction and Guest Introduction 00:44 Siri Mishap and Water Troubles 05:20 Mental Health and Daily Struggles 11:00 Physical Health and Exercise Challenges 18:45 Productivity Tools and Sponsor Message 21:57 Sponsor Break: Copilot Money 23:59 On Aging 24:53 Vision and Aging 26:55 Intelligent Design and Evolution Debate 28:58 Blogging and Social Media Verification 29:13 The Cost of Verification 30:18 Embracing the Content Game 33:12 Exploring Blogging Platforms 48:10 The Decline of Blogging 50:54 Navigating Employment and Content Creation 55:54 The Art of Dating and Bits 58:30 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts Show Links Gestimer (http://maddin.io/gestimer/) In Your Face (https://www.inyourface.app/) Ghost (https://ghost.org/) Join the Conversation Merch (http://bit.ly/ot-merch) Come chat on Discord! (https://discord.gg/CqTqP9D) Twitter/ovrtrd (https://twitter.com/ovrtrd) Instagram/ovrtrd (https://www.instagram.com/ovrtrd/) Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpin1SywlYeYvPodSm9WXHA) Get the Newsletter (http://overtiredpod.com/sendy/subscription?f=O1OzoiRhl9nKXc3gWNrbNuS0Z1bhd59sd11vii13ypeCaKAucTTUT7632X763dS7lFhC) Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network (http://web.cachefly.com/CDN-BackbeatMedia) BackBeat Media Podcast Network (http://www.backbeatmedia.com) Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com (https://overtiredpod.com/) and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff (https://twitter.com/ttscoff), Christina as @film_girl (https://twitter.com/film_girl), Jeff as @jsguntzel (https://twitter.com/jsguntzel), and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd (https://twitter.com/ovrtrd) on Twitter. Transcript Erin [00:00:00] Introduction and Guest Introduction Brett: Hey, welcome to Overtired. It’s me, Brett Terpstra. Um, Christina and Jeff are both out this week, but I have Erin Dawson here to fill the void. Hi, Erin. How you doing? Erin: Hi Brett. I’m well. How are you? Brett: I’m, I’m, I’m okay. So before, like, for people that haven’t tuned in with an episode with you before, give your, give yourself a brief introduction. Erin: Hey folks, my name is Erin. I, uh, make art under the name Genital Shame. I’m based in Los Angeles, California, and I used to work with Brett Terpstra. Siri Mishap and Water Troubles Erin: I’m doing, I’m doing, uh, you know, that broadcast voice, but I’ve started to. When I’m using CarPlay, I’ve started to speak to Siri in my own Siri kind of as a bit, but I really enjoy doing it.[00:01:00] Hey Siri, play REM. Oh shit. It just, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry. That activated mine. Um, oh no. And now my home pods are doing it. Can you hear that? Brett: I can Erin: I literally have to turn that off now. I really apologize. Ready? Brett: we’ll wait. Erin: Anyways, that’s, this is a shit show. Okay. I’m turning it off. Uh, that’s who I am. I’m someone who activates, um, the, the dingus. Brett: activates digital assistance. That’s amazing. Um, so update on me. I got water back after four and a half days with no running water. Um, but now I’m showering and washing dishes like a pro. Erin: Oh my God, I’m so that, that truly sounds horrific. Brett: It was, you don’t realize exactly how much of your life [00:02:00] revolves around just running water. Um, it’s true of like anything, when your power goes out, when your internet goes out, when your water goes out. We’ve had all of those things happen frequently over the last year. Um, and you, you realize exactly like how handicapped you are without these kind of. The modern conveniences we take for granted? Erin: Did your pipes break? Brett: No, uh, they did freeze. Uh, the solution to the water problem was heat lamps on the well pump. On the on the pipe, the underground pipe that goes from the well pump into the house is about a foot underground, and that’s where the freeze happened. So we had heat lamps on the ground for two days while we were waiting for a plumber to show up. We just decided to try heating things up and after two days it finally creaked [00:03:00] into life, and then we ran a bunch of water and got it all cleared out. And then you Erin: have a TLC show. Now you’re Brett: you know, Erin: solving Pioneer Living. Uh, Brett: You know what happened because of that, to flush the toilet while that was happening, we were melting snow on the stove and on the fireplace and dumping it into the toilet. But when I first started, I didn’t know you could just dump like a gallon and a half of water into the bowl and it would flush. So I was filling the tank up, which takes about twice as much water. And because I was doing that, I was putting a bunch of silt from the snow. Into the tank. So the little, the rim holes around the inside of the rim of the toilet where the water swirls in those filled up with silt. So once we got running water again, the toilet wouldn’t flush all the way. And I had to go in with a coat hanger and try to clean out all of those holes in the toilet. And I got it [00:04:00] clean and it flushed all the way twice and now it’s. Stuck again because I’m just pushing shit in with the coat hanger. And the silt Erin: by shit you mean you mean silt. Brett: silt? Yes. The, the, the silt is still there and as the water runs it just fills the holes again. And I don’t yet know how to fix that, so that’s gonna be a thing. That’s what I’m doing after this. ’cause, uh, the toilet. It sounds like it flushes all the way, but then you leave and the next person comes in and says, oh my God, why didn’t you flush? Because you know there’s floaters in the toilet. Erin: I. Just watched a Todd Salons movie and, and there is a scene in which, um, a character is, is being sort of abused by her family and the abusive family says, we’re laughing with you, not at you. And she [00:05:00] says, but I’m not laughing. You know, and I apologize. I don’t mean to laugh, but that, that sounds truly horrific. Brett: Yeah, that, Erin: I mean, the shower alone, I, I don’t know about you. I use showers to process, Brett: sure. Erin: you know, showers and walks. That’s where I do it most. Mental Health and Daily Struggles Erin: And like I, yeah, I need it to, this is a very 2019 way to frame mental health, which we can pivot to. Um, but I use it to regulate. Do you remember when we used to say, I feel unregulated? We don’t say that anymore. Brett: I do remember. That was a while ago. Erin: Yeah, it’s 2019 to me, but it maybe had a shelf life beyond that. I don’t know. Brett: Yeah. Erin: but yeah, I use showers to regulate. So even if you’re kind of like me, I, my heart goes out to you that that is really not just inconvenient, but like bad for your mental health. Brett: Your quote reminded me [00:06:00] of an and or quote that’s been going around where it, it’s so, uh, I can’t remember who, but someone says, uh, if you’re doing nothing wrong, what do you have to fear? And the response is, I fear your definition of wrong. Erin: Mm. Brett: I’m like, yeah, nope, that, uh, that’s very apropos to the current situation in Minnesota. Um, but yeah, let’s do mental health. Tell me about your mental health. Erin: Yeah. Uh, I’ve seen better days have been the star of many plays. Do you remember that song, Brett? Brett: No, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Erin: All right, cool. Um, I don’t believe in resolutions because I, I went to college, but, but I do believe in the power of January as a moment of. [00:07:00] Intentional reflection and yeah, goal setting, which can be different than resolutions. And for this January, January, 2026, I put a lot of pressure on myself to sort of remake my physical life, which I hoped would have knock on effects for my mental life. So what’s that mean for me? Every year for the last three or four years, I have done dry January dj, and in the past, the keto diet has worked well for me. So I thought in January that I would, with, with these powers combined, I would become, you know, a superhuman. I’m like 20, 26. I’m getting really, I’m gonna get really hot. And I’m going to [00:08:00] be very critical about the role that alcohol plays in my life. And what had happened was, without getting too much into it, I had a bad first week and it kind of snowballed, reverse snowballs. How does a snowball, what is it? I don’t know. It just got a lot of your, your, your toilet silt in it. Yeah. And, um, and I had no release valves for dopamine. Um, because on keto you’re not eating bread. You are not having sugar. I wasn’t having any alcohol. Um, also, and, and I’ll, I’ll shut up about this in a second. I have a foot injury. A right foot injury, something called turf toe, not TERF, but TURF. [00:09:00] Um, it’s basically what happens if you kind of stove your big toe. There’s a in the ball of your foot that’s like a repetitive stress injury. I’m not a p uh, podiatrist, but that’s, that’s my beat. Very basic understanding. And so what does all this mean? That mean this means that it was like a perfect storm of like. I can’t exercise and I exercise is really, plays a really huge role in my mental health. I am in two different basketball leagues, you know, uh, I take a lot of walks. I’m a runner. Couldn’t do any of that. And I couldn’t have Alfredo and I couldn’t have fornet. And so no wonder. And in hindsight with therapy, I’m like, yeah, no wonder I, I just didn’t have any release valves, um, for joy. So in the third week I’m like, fuck [00:10:00] it, I am gonna have fries and I’m going to have a tiki drink. And I don’t regret doing that, but I fear. That, and I think, I think you have this too, Brett, the like, puritan guilt, complex guilt for just like not organizing a particular corner of your fridge correctly, just like that level will give me, be like, oh man, I, I really do suck. Huh. Um, so that scales, you know, that feeling and that complex scales and so it’s easy for me to be like, man, I have no integrity. Huh? I really just. When I got tough, I just, uh, which is also an unhealthy way to think about things, but, um, but I’m, I’m kind of over it now. Uh, but uh, I was pretty disappointed in myself for a while there. I still kind of am. That’s how I’m doing. Brett: Wow, that sounds, that sounds pretty rough. [00:11:00] Physical Health and Exercise Challenges Brett: I, uh, I don’t, I, so I haven’t had a drink in as long as I can remember. Um, because I have a very short memory. It’s only been a matter of months, but, um, I do, I don’t miss drinking. I miss having that release. Um, and I, my only substitute has been CBD. Which is, you know, doesn’t do jack shit. Uh, it’s like a mental game for me. Um, have a, I I I’ve switched to drinking CBDT ’cause it’s way cheaper than like CBD carbonated beverages. Um, so for like 50 cents I can have a mug of five milligrams of CBD and pretend I feel okay. Um, that’s. It’s alright. Um, I do, so my release has been consuming [00:12:00] these outshine coconut bars, which. I find a perfect blend of fatty and salty and sweet and, um, they, as of like two weeks ago, outshine has discontinued them, which had an outsized effect on my mental health. Erin: Yeah. Brett: I bought the last three boxes that were at the grocery store, and those lasted a little bit, and then I was down to two bars and I decided, I, I I would ration them. And night after night, I just looked at those bars, but I wouldn’t, ’cause if I ate one of them, that would mean I only had one left. So it’s easier for me to have two left. So I had two sitting in the fridge, and then yesterday l went to a different grocery store and I said, just on the off chance would you check. And she came home with seven [00:13:00] boxes, six to a box. So yeah, I, I got, I hugged her. They were not expecting it. I like jumped up, just effusively, Erin: What do you, I have never had even this affinity for like my favorite meal. What do you like about these bars? Brett: Oh my God. They just like, I don’t know my, they like dopamine rush, pupil, dilate. Um, Erin: D filled? Brett: no, they’re just sugar. It’s sugar and coconut. Sugar and coconut. Dairy free. Gluten-free. Like it’s a, it’s a sugary snack and. Uh, so I’ve been like my, I don’t know what happened. Uh, it somewhat coincided with my last weight gain, but not exactly. But now I can’t stand up for more than about five minutes. [00:14:00] Um, just like if I empty the dishwasher, the, the act of bending over a few times, I have to sit down and I have to recover for 10 minutes. My back just freezes up and I’ve gone through physical therapy and I have, I like push myself every time it happens. I like, without injuring myself, I try to push it and try to strengthen and nothing helps, like nothing changes at all. That combined with my dizziness, which is still a thing, means the only exercise I’m getting is like half an hour a day on a recumbent bicycle, um, which gives me leg exercise and a little bit of cardio and not much else, and it doesn’t seem to strengthen my back at all, and it doesn’t seem to help me sleep and I keep doing it because I have that guilt thing. If I don’t do anything then. I’m a piece of shit. Um, but [00:15:00] man, I, yeah, the coconut bars are like the only, the only way out. Erin: The Brett: all I’ve got. I’m working, I’m working on finding something new because seven boxes will last a while, but not forever. It’s still a finite amount. Um, Erin: of spring, maybe you Brett: yeah, no way. I eat, I eat a couple a day. Erin: Oh, okay. Brett: a once a week treat for me. Um, so, so I, I’m trying to like ration and I’m trying to find an alternative that is more healthy, not less healthy. Um, we’ll see. I’ll keep you posted. Erin: The guilt thing. I’m gonna, I’m gonna be thinking about the, uh, digital device dingus thing later, there are people for whom, you know, but wait back to the, the treats and living a treat based [00:16:00] lifestyle, which I’m really trying not to do. I’m really trying not to Brett: reinforcement. Erin: I think I, this is the second time I’m, I’m bringing up therapy, but I think I, I brought up that I live a treat based lifestyle up to my therapist and she didn’t, doesn’t love that paradigm of thinking. Um, but it’s kind of all I know. And for me, you know, given this month the treat that I have had before breaking. And now I’m in this habit, and now I’ve, I’m in a trap. I have taken two using, having heavy whipping cream in my coffee each morning. Um, and it’s like adding ice cream to coffee. And so I make my coffee and I have my heavy weapon cream, and I get my little frother that [00:17:00] looks like a vibrator. A very small vibrator, and I do vibrate heavy whipping cream with my coffee in a deli container. And that, unfortunately, I, I’ve tried going back to black coffee, which is my norm. Can’t do it now. I, I really, I’m trapped and unfortunately that is the height, that is the best part of my day. Brett: Do, do Erin: coffee. Brett: I have a suggestion? Um, have you ever tried barista blend oat milk? Erin: I don’t do oat milk. I’ll just say it. Brett: Okay. Erin: Yeah. Brett: It’s all I do. I, I like for me, whatever milk I’m used to is the milk. That’s good. Um, and like I got used to soy milk and everything else tasted crappy. And I got used to almond milk and then I finally like switched to oat milk, got used to that. And [00:18:00] now every other milk tastes terrible. But once Erin: Yeah. Brett: I switched to oat milk, I no longer could like make a good, um, like latte. And I like, it didn’t, uh, it didn’t foam at all. But then I found Barista Blend from C Calisa Farms, and it’s like a full fat oat Erin: Oh Brett: for as much fat as you can get out of oats. And it, it, it fros. You can put it in a steamer and get a nice big frothy latte out of it. Um, but just a suggestion. I can’t do the heavy cream, or I probably would just by lactose intolerance and Erin: Yeah. Brett: lactose allergy. Productivity Tools and Sponsor Message Erin: We talked about, I’m gonna try to combine two topics right now. We talked about Gude and you also suggested before we started recording that I stop you at a half hour [00:19:00] for the A read. We’re not quite there, but as soon as you said that, I pulled down on my. Menu bar, a little app called Just Timer. Brett: I love that app. Erin: Do you Brett: yes. Erin: I, I have, I do have not upgraded to the sequel. Just Timer two, I think it’s Brett: I haven’t tried that. Erin: I think I, I think I tr I did a trial Brett: It’s just such a good idea. Erin: it’s great. And so. have about nine minutes before you’re requested, but I, I just wanted to, I guess, shout out Jess Heimer because it rules. Brett: Yeah. No, it’s such, it’s so for anyone who hasn’t used it, it’s just a way to like, it’s almost like pulling a cord. To set a timer, and it’s just this simple, like you reach up to your menu bar and you just pull down and you pull down the amount you want and you let go and you’ve got a [00:20:00] timer running and it’ll remind you in that amount of time Erin: The main use case I had for that when we worked for the Borg together on the Borg team, was using text expander to, you know, if we had a meeting at three o’clock, I would pull it down for 2 55 and type. MTNG, and that would create a, a string that just says meeting in five exclamation mark. Um, it’s just, it’s just a great time saver and, and keeps you honest and yeah, it’s a great app. Brett: I, uh, I’ve written a lot of command line utilities, so I can like, just on the command line, I can just type, remind me five minutes and then a string, whatever to do, and it runs in the background and it uses like terminal notifier, whatever’s handy at the time to like pop up a reminder. But I kind of gave that up. So now I use just timer. And have you seen in your face. Erin: I don’t know in your [00:21:00] face. Brett: In your face ties into your calendar. You tell it to go off, say five minutes or one minute, or on the time, and anytime an event happens, it blocks out your screen. Pops up a little dialogue telling you what you’re supposed to be doing at that minute and you have to like say, join call or dismiss. And, um, ’cause I, I miss notifications all the time. And when we were working for the board, I would just completely miss meetings because I’d get into coding. I wouldn’t notice the little. Things in the corner, I’d be focused on code and I’d look up two hours later and be like, oh God, I gotta text someone. Sorry I missed the meeting. So in your face stops me from working and like, takes over the screen. Erin: That Brett: So those are, that was our gratitude. I’m gonna do a, a quick sponsor read. Sponsor Break: Copilot Money Brett: This episode is brought to you by [00:22:00] copilot money. Copi copilot money is not just another finance app. It’s your personal finance partner designed to help you feel clear, calm, and in control of your money. Whether it’s tracking your spending, saving for specific goals, or simply getting a handle on your investments. Copilot money has you covered as we enter the New year. Clarity and control over our finances have never been more important with the recent shutdown of mint and rising financial stress for many. Consumers are looking for a modern, trustworthy tool to help navigate their financial journeys. 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Download copilot money on your devices or visit, try. Do copilot domo slash Overtired today to claim your two free months and embrace a more organized, stress-free approach to your finances. Try that’s, try copilot money slash Overtired. On Aging Brett: Ugh. [00:24:00] people are, people aren’t gonna know how many edits I put in that. had a rough time with that one. Erin: Reading’s hard. Brett: I’m, I’m, I’m working on my two big displays. I have two, like 27 inch high def displays, but I, I’m used, I’ve been working on my couch on my laptop for months now. Um. Like Mark II was written entirely on my couch, not, not at this fancy desk I have. Um, and on this desk everything is about three feet away from my face, and I don’t have the resolution set to deal with the fact that my eyes are slowly turning to shit, so I can barely read what’s on my screen anymore. I have to like squint and lean in, and. Vision and Aging Brett: It is so weird that I, I’m told this is just a normal thing that happens at my age, but when I try [00:25:00] to read small print on something, I can’t see it. But if I lift my glasses up and remove my glasses, everything within a foot of my face is clear as day, and that never used to be the case. But now I can see way better without my glasses than with my glasses at very close range. Which means when I wear contacts I really can’t see either. They gave me a, a special kind of contact that the eyes are interchangeable. I have different prescriptions in each eye, but it doesn’t matter which. So the contacts are kinda like universal. I don’t know how it works, but they’re supposed to give you pretty good distance and pretty good closeup while not being especially good at either. And they’re okay. Um, I can’t really, I have to squint to read street signs and I have to squint to read medication bottles and I just spend a lot more time in glasses. Now. Erin: This is one of those [00:26:00] moments where I cannot relate, but I am here Brett: Do you have 2020 vision? Erin: I believe I do. Brett: Wow. Must be nice. Erin: It is nice and I’m gonna own that. Yes, I’m privileged. Ocularly, get off my back about it. Brett: I, I wasn’t giving a shit. I’m, I’m happy for you. I had 2020 vision up until I was about Erin: 2020. Brett: 10. Erin: Oh Brett: I got glasses when I was 10. I. Erin: mm. I bet you Brett: I guess no, I did not have 2020 vision. ’cause I remember at the age of 10 when I got glasses and realized that from a distance, trees had leaves, um, I was like, oh my God, I’ve been missing out on Erin: God is real, bro. Intelligent Design and Evolution Debate Erin: You know, Christians usually, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I, I grew up [00:27:00] with this idea that like. Intelligence, intelligent design is a thing because take something as incredibly complex as the human eye. Tell me that there wasn’t a designer for that, but also like if you’re over 30, like take something as complex as like the human back. it’s not that they’re not that they’re saying that eyes don’t have quality issued degradation over time. It’s a different argument, but it’s just like also like not everything’s that intelligent. I mean, Brett: but the other part that I grew up with was that our, we aged and our eyes went bad, and our back went bad because of sin. It was all like a result of the original sin, and according to like Young Earth creationists, like every generations of humans that get farther away from Adam and Eve. Get [00:28:00] are, are in worse health. They’re, they’re genetically deteriorating, uh, Erin: they’re genetically sinful. Brett: Yeah. And it, it is. I don’t know. It took a long time to unlearn a lot of that stuff, but my dad brings Erin: evil. Brett: it’s called the watchmaker argument. Um, and my dad brings it up anytime we start talking about evolution, which I generally avoid these days, but he brings up the idea of the, the eye, the human eye. Erin: They love the human eye. Brett: I explain to him the, the process of like light sensing cells on amoebas. Erin: Our skin Brett: how, and how they developed into maybe a light sensing cell with a water sack, and then that developed into over time a retina. And like it’s not designed. Um, dad, it, Erin: Oh dad. Brett: yeah. Erin: Anyways. Blogging and Social Media Verification Erin: Can I talk to you about [00:29:00] blogging? Brett: Could you please? Erin: Well, here’s, let me set the table so I not to brag. Became Instagram verified recently. Why? Brett: Must be nice. The Cost of Verification Erin: Yeah, Brett: More privilege. Erin: the first, the eyes are now $13 a month. I don’t know, I don’t know how the bank’s, you know, letting me spend all this, but, um, I did it because, as I said at the top, when the REM may have been drowning me out, I don’t know. Um, I make music under the name Genital Shame and. Over time, as my account has grown on that particular platform, I have had other people alert. I’ve had followers alert me that there’s a new genital shame that just popped up in their feed asking for, Hey, my account was just hacked. [00:30:00] Like, can you help? You know? And I just thought that like for $13 a month, you know Brett: That’s how they get you. Erin: That’s fine. Yeah, get me. I’ve, they already, they already got me. Um, unfortunately, Brett: Zuckerberg that cloned your account. Erin: I got sucked. Embracing the Content Game Erin: So I, so now that I’m verified, I’m, I’m kind of leaning into playing the stupid content game, which is this, which is how, here’s how I think about it. I believe in my art. I believe in what general shame is and I want the maximum amount of people to experience it. The maximum amount of people are in the primary world, which is to say the digital world and the folks with who would resonate with general shame the most are on a platform called Instagram. So it makes sense [00:31:00] for me to play the game, which is like get the. Aforementioned eyeballs on my stuff. ’cause again, I believe in it. So I’ll do whatever it takes. Inc. Like we live in the world of Caesar. We own to Caesar. What a Caesar, in this case, Zuckerberg is Caesar, whatever. So one of my January projects, you know the, the Capital G. Capital M, good month that I was supposed to have was to block out some ugh content. To record some videos, right? Some reels of me playing Bach, of me playing, um, my favorite carcass riff or whatever. And so I found myself writing little essays about each of these things. You know, for the Bach one, there’s, I started writing about how, you know, I don’t believe in God anymore really, but [00:32:00] if I was to cite one thing that gets me. Close to it, it would be Bach like. I’m not predictable like it is. It resonates with me so fundamentally and so deeply that like that is the one thing. And I ended up writing way more than can probably fit within an Instagram comment. And then I got bit by the bug, which is like, do I, should I? Extend this to a platform that is more appropriate for long form writing. So then I’m like, okay, Erin, be realistic about starting projects that you don’t finish or won’t be consistent with. So for me, I’m defining that as one blog per month seems reasonable enough. I don’t know, but I really, I’m a writer. When we were part of the [00:33:00] Borg, you know, we were writers partially, and I found that writing alongside these stupid reels was really satisfying. Exploring Blogging Platforms Erin: So then I’m like, okay, what in 2026, what levers do I have to pull? For this type of platform. We got Ghost, we got Tumblr kind of making it a comeback. We’ve got Substack, which has shitty politics. Um, I could do something on my GitHub pages or something if I wanted to, but I. Don’t know. I don’t know how to make this decision. This is, I, I’m just bringing this up as a topic. I don’t have anything further than that. I think you may have mentioned a platform that you like, but I just thought it might be interesting to talk about. Probably Brett: No, there are, there are a lot of options. I personally. Have gone the way of static site [00:34:00] generators like GitHub pages would be, um, and will probably never go back to anything that’s based on a database or requires an online subscription. Um, I just pay a few bucks a month for a shared host and our sync, my blog to it, um, which is a super nerdy way to blog. Um, but ultimately you get. A, a folder full of markdown files that you can do anything you want with, and you can turn it into a book. You could turn it into a searchable database in obsidian. Um, you could load it up in NB ultra and have full text, rapid search, and all these things that you can’t really do with something like WordPress or Ghost. Um, WordPress is still the heavyweight. as much as it’s kind of a beast and I don’t enjoy using it, um, but ghost, [00:35:00] I just, so I’ll tell you why I bring this up in a second. But, um, ghost seems like maybe the best intermediate option. Um, I, I don’t like blogger. I don’t like Google. Um, I don’t have a lot of faith in Tumblr. be, uh, to have longevity. That’s the other thing about a static site is. I am in full control, and if I want to sunset it at any point, I just cancel the domain. But as long as I have a web server, I have a website, and I’m not dependent on any service that, you know, showed up and failed to make a profit and then terminated, as we’ve seen multiple platforms do, um, or, or turn into like a heavily paywall system that is geared like medium. Substack where [00:36:00] ultimately it’s supposed to be a moneymaking endeavor for the writers and like I use my blog as a marketing tool, but I don’t expect a lot of people to pay to read my blog. That said, I am pay walling some content these days, um, just to get people to pitch in a few bucks a month because. I never got into Patreon or anything, but I’m building this tool. This is a side note. Um, I showed you the icon for it the other day, but I didn’t show you the tool. Um, it’s called blog book. And right now it works perfectly with WordPress, but I, this morning I’ve been working on adding Micro blog, which is another good option. Um, and it might, micro blog might actually be kind of, no, it’s not, it’s got like a 300 character limit for most posts. But, um, anyway, uh, [00:37:00] micro Blog and Ghost. I’m adding so that if you’ve had a blog for a couple years and you want some kind of hard copy. This app will pull in all of those posts, let you Filch them by author or by tag or category or a date range, and it’ll generate a markdown book for you. And you can load that up in Mark three, and you can create an eub that you could go sell if you Erin: Oh wow. Brett: Um, you could turn it into like a PDF for distribution or just for your own archiving. Um. I may add more platforms to it over time. Medium killed their API. Um, so I can’t, as much as I would love to have it work for Medium, I think it would be really useful for medium authors. Um, medium made that impossible, but, um, but yeah, I actually, I built that app in about a week and I’m gonna sell [00:38:00] it on the app store as kind of a companion to Mark three. Um, as like a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Um, but yeah, I, I love blogging and I love blogs. I’ve been blogging for 30 years and I, I don’t know what I would do for expression, ’cause I’m not, I, I, I use Mastodon and that’s about it for social media. Um, I still have, uh, uh. Instagram account and I log on and I, I love seeing your, your older reels where you would just like, just fuck around with a cord or a simple progression and the face you would make when you messed up. I love that. Erin: I’ve never messed up. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Brett: I would watch just to see you make that like grossed out face. Like, what the fuck sound was that? Um, um, [00:39:00] but. Yeah, I, social media is so ephemeral though. It’s, there’s no guarantee of your post being anything other than AI fodder and like, I left x, I left Twitter. Erin: Everything app. Brett: Yes. Um, completely deleted myself there. Um, deleted myself on threads. I still have a Facebook account. Um, Facebook and Blue Sky are actually surprisingly my political activity accounts. Um, Facebook is where I complain about billionaire. Um, about Zuckerberg’s and the what not. Um, and it’s where I share with my activist friends in the area, like it’s mostly for local people. And then Blue Sky is where I get like all my anarchists. News and all of the news right now from like the [00:40:00] front in Minneapolis, the people that are out there doing direct action and, and uh, mutual aid and seeing things live as they happen. And I never appreciated blue sky until the federal occupation of Minnesota and then suddenly it became my primary news source. Um, so Erin: pretty good for that. There’s a, there’s a journalist I follow there. I think she’s pretty, like the, the, the trans beat is her beat. Erin Reed. Um, she’s really great. Um, but you’re, you’re all, all that to say, I think blue sky functions really well. Yeah. As like a, a new, like, I canceled, I canceled my New York Times subscription, um, because god damn, Brett: Yeah. Erin: just their opinion section alone is just trash. Also, yesterday, um, you know, the time of this recording was, there was a protest in March yesterday, which very cool. I also. Canceled. The, [00:41:00] another, another dimension of that day was about, you know, anti consumption, not spending anything, not buying anything, and canceling subscriptions if you can. And yesterday I did cancel my prime subscription, which was hard to do. But, you know, I did, I and I, I was thinking about this a couple months ago before moving, but I was like, you know, I’m gonna move. I’m only human. Like the two day shipping thing is going to come in handy for real. Like ordering things to the new apartment knowing that it’ll get there. You know, I’m glad I did that. That’s cool. But like, now’s the time where I’m a little more settled and I can do that. And so I did that yesterday. Um, but anyways, blue sky’s cool for political stuff. Brett: I. I have been trying to cut Amazon out. I removed Alexa from my life entirely. Um, I had it, Alexa is a good [00:42:00] cheap solution for like whole home automation. Um, so, but I replaced that with home pods and, um, I only buy from Amazon if I absolutely can’t find something somewhere else. Um, because these days, because of competition with Amazon, almost every vendor will offer free shipping. Not always two day shipping ’cause they don’t have the infrastructure for that. Um, but, uh, but I’ll get free shipping and I’ll get comparable prices. And Prime doesn’t really save me anything anymore, and I never use Prime video and I’m Erin: terrible streamer. It’s a terrible streamer. Brett: I’m on the verge of canceling that as well, and once I do that, I will be mostly free of Amazon. Erin: That rocks do. I think that’s really cool. I, I was thinking about this the other day too, that like canceling Amazon [00:43:00] has knock-on effects that I think are really positive as well. For example, you know, I’m lucky to live in a city where, you know, I have within walking distance to me a lot of options. So if I needed packing tape or I needed. I don’t know, some pilot G twos or whatever, like instead of for let’s say, let’s say it’s a project specific thing, like I need a certain type of pen or whatever. Instead of being like, I will order these, do the two two day shipping and put off that project for when I have that tool. Instead, which shifts the nature of the project. Like on a project level, you’re thinking about differently already. And so instead, by not having the affordance to do that, I can get out of my house. That’s a good get sun. That’s another capital G. Good. See human beings interact with human beings, you [00:44:00] know, and then also do the project the same day and not give money. To AWS, which is the backend for a bunch of evil shit. Like, it just like, you know, it stacks. Brett: Yeah. Erin: So, I don’t know. Brett: Yeah. I don’t have options Erin: It’s a lot. It’s a privilege at see above, like I’m very ocularly privileged. Brett: Yeah, no, I, I mean, there are, there are some good. Stores in my little town. Um, we are, we are fortunate to have a community that will support some more esoteric type of stores. And I don’t shop at Target and I don’t shop at Walmart, so, um. I have to depend on the limited selection in small town stores, and a lot of times I can make due with what I can find locally. Um, but I do have to [00:45:00] order. Online a lot, which is why it’s been a slow process to wean off of Amazon. But Amazon is shit now too. Like you, it seems like you have selection, but you really don’t. It’s just a bunch of vendors selling the same knockoff thing and, uh, you don’t save any money if you’re buying like an original version of a product that Amazon didn’t already like bastardize and undersell, um, or undercut the seller on. Um, and it’s so much low quality and they tell you every time you buy Prime tells you you’ve saved $5 with Prime, but if you went to the actual vendor website, you would’ve saved that $5 anyway. Um, it’s shit. Amazon is shit, but yeah. So anyway, about, about, yeah. Erin: Um, uh, go ahead. Brett: I was gonna ask that we, we kind of trailed off on the blog discussion, but I just wanted to say [00:46:00] like, if you have questions about any platform or you do wanna do like a static site, I’m more than happy to help. Erin: Thanks Brett. I think I was gonna, I might take you up on that I, another direction I was going to go with this is like, I could also see someone saying like, systems order thinking. Like, what is your goal? Like, who is this for? And that’s also where I have some internal resistance because I’m on the precipice of being a douchey content creator or something in which this fits in. being cute about it, but like this fits into an ecosystem of like maybe a new career pivot for me. ’cause we’re not part, part of the Borg. So like I’ve started teaching guitar, like I went to school for music. I used to teach guitar a lot, classical and jazz guitar, and I haven’t done it for like 15 years. I just started doing that again and I can’t believe. [00:47:00] A couple things. How good I am at it. I’m a natural, like I, it sucks to be good at something, but you know, it, it doesn’t pay at all. So it’s like, um, so a couple things like do I want to start teaching again and do I want a blog to sort of be part of a funnel into a Patreon? And do I want the Patreon and. All these questions, you know, start forming around this. Like, well, I just want a blog. It’s like, why, why do I wanna blog? And I, I don’t think I have to have the answers to those questions right now. I don’t. But it seems like the choices you make, the very, like the zero width choice you make for a tool like this is really important. So that’s, that’s the other kind of. I’m having [00:48:00] internally about it, who cares? Like all the stakes. Ultimately, who, who gives a shit? Like, there are no stakes here. But I, I do think about it as a sort of like, you know, The Decline of Blogging Brett: I, I will say that everything about my career is due to blogging. Like since, since like the year 2000, um, every job I’ve gotten has been because people found me via my blog. Um, and when I have like applied for a job, they’ve used my, they’ve been like, oh, we went and read your blog and we think you’re a great candidate. Erin: But don’t you think the excuse my use of this term, the meta around blogging has changed? Or do you think it’s like that stalwart Brett: it, it, it really has like tremendously. Um, Erin: like just to be crude about it. Okay. Brett: Yeah. So like in, uh, maybe. [00:49:00] 2015, I was doing about a hundred thousand page views a week. Um, right now I’m down to more like, I think last time I checked I was doing like 8,000 page views a week. And if I look at the charts, it’s just been a steady downward trend. Um, people are not you, pe so, okay. That said, I still get about 30,000. Hits a week from RSS, which means there’s, for a nerd, for a tech site, for a tech blog. Like there’s still an audience that uses the ancient technology, RSS, um, and I get a lot of traffic from that. But in general, like social media has eaten my lunch as far as blogging. But that said, like, the only reason anyone knows who I am, and I’m not saying I’m famous, but like I, I Erin: I’ve been to Max. [00:50:00] You you have an aura? Yeah. Brett: and uh, it’s all because of 30 years of blogging. And I think, honestly think it takes like 10 years just to build up a name. So it’s not like a, oh, I’m gonna start a blog for my shop and everything’s gonna take off, Erin: Yeah, I think, I think if you, for, for the employment alone, it might, it might be worth it, I think. I think that’s huge. Like, you know, the Borg or Pre Borg, a OL where, you know, like if, if, if they were like, oh my God, yeah, you’re Brett Terpstra from Brett TURPs. Uh, like that’s worth it even if you’re getting zero clicks and they found, you know, Brett: What do you Nell from the movie Nell? Um, did you Did what? Oh. Did you give up on finding, uh, gainful employment? Navigating Employment and Content Creation Erin: no. But I give I [00:51:00] gainful employment. Um, no, but I’m taking it a little sleazy and I’m taking it a little easy. Um, unfortunately, it is a truth universally acknowledged. My version of every gainful employment that I’ve, that I’ve enjoyed is through blogging. My version of that is any. Job at that level that I’ve enjoyed has started with a dm. It’s never started with a, a shot in the dark application through Workday. Like it’s just, and I’m convinced that that’s true for everyone. Like I suspect that’s maybe the dark truth that. The it, it’s not what you are or what you can do, it’s who you know, unfortunately is an organizing principle for anything in life basically. And [00:52:00] being under someone’s employee is probably no different. So on one hand, the Puritan. Really creeps up on me here. On one hand, I’m like, oh, I’m not really spending a lot of time crafting my portfolio. I’m not really spending a lot of time crafting my resume and tailoring it to this position. I should really be doing that. I, the economy is be, my bank accounts are really behooving me to do that. But on the other hand, I’m balancing it with that truth, which is. waiting for the dm. I’m sending dms. I can play that game if I want, and I’m kind of trying to, but only to get the guilt monkey off my back, not because I have good. It’s a good faith bid for the universe, for some HR hiring manager, whatever, to be like, okay, I’m gonna Filch by this. I’m Filch by this. This is a cool candidate. It won. I’m convinced it won’t [00:53:00] happen like that. I could be wrong, and maybe that’s the case for you too, but like it’s more of a personal connection off of CRMs, know? Brett: I, uh, I stopped panicking. My, my app income is sufficient right now to survive, and I’m working to make it more than just survival. And like over the, over the course of a few months, I sent out prob, probably 150 resumes, like shots, shots in the dark. But I had, I had referrals, multiple referrals from. AWS Google, apple, like meta, like I had people at all of these places and I still, I could barely get a response. Um, I would apply for jobs I was wholly qualified for. I would, Erin: Probably overqualified Brett: I would craft the resume. I would take my time, and I wrote a different resume for each, at least [00:54:00] for the big ones. And, yeah. Yeah, I did it all. I had a whole, I had a whole workflow, an automated workflow where I could just write like in markdown and then hit a button. It would generate like a nice PDF that I could Erin: God damn right. Yeah. Brett: Um, and none of it, it didn’t do any good. And eventually I just stopped wanting it. Um, I would much rather just make my own way at this point. I couldn’t. I can’t wrap my head around being in a corporate environment anymore. I just don’t, I don’t wanna play that game. I want the money, I want the steady paycheck, but I just, I can’t play the game. Erin: Is the game to you doing the like, um, dom sub theater of like, I must respect my manager. My manager knows the way, even if they’re wrong, I ch raise my, you know, objections lest I Brett: know me, you know, I objected all the time. [00:55:00] I, I was full of objections and I, I don’t like, I don’t like the, I don’t like sitting in meetings. I don’t like pretending to care about someone else’s project. Erin: That’s it. That feels wrong to you, I feel like. Is that right? Yeah. Brett: Yeah. Erin: Yeah. I’m happy to do that for Brett: I’m not an employee. I can’t. Erin: Yeah. I don’t identify as an employee. I heard someone say, I think around. Last year’s pride as a bit, um, that we need to add con a content creator, stripe and color to the L-G-B-T-Q-I-A flag. And when I said that, I repeated that as I just said to you, to someone, and they didn’t laugh. I was like, oh no. Why have I surrounded myself with your life? Go away from me anyways. The Art of Dating and Bits Erin: I was on a date the other day. Brett: Yeah. Erin: And, um, Brett: Must be nice.[00:56:00] Erin: date privilege. Yeah. Being single. Mm. Love it. And, um, you know, I’m very sensitive to people who don’t do bits. Uh, I have an allergy to like selfer people. And, and this woman who was in like so attractive, like so attractive did a power move where she was like, we, we met at a coffee shop. And she was like, whatcha gonna get? I was like, oh, I’m gonna get a nice espresso. And when she went to order and I thought we were gonna do Dutch or whatever, she ordered her thing and then she was like, and a nice espresso as well. And I was like, oh, hot, cute. You harvested me for information and then used that as a power thing anyways, so that it was going well. But then we started talking and I was like, oh, she’s not really picking, I’m giving her, it’s like some like B [00:57:00] plus material and she’s not really responding at all. And we were talking about, I find it helpful on dates to acknowledge that we’re on a date and that we met on a dating app. So one way that I did this on this date was to say like, I saw someone with this word in their profile. What do you think it means? And the word was, or the phrase was, the desire was that they like to be corded, which I. I, I didn’t, I got into a sort of like debate with my other friend about what that means, what that means when someone puts that and they’re pan like, is that gendered, is that like a power thing? Is that like a noble abl thing? Like what is that? So we started talking about what it means to be courted on a date and she said something like, you know, a part of it too is probably that they like to be whined and dined. And I was like, in 69. She gave me nothing. I was like, [00:58:00] oh no, I forget why I brought this up. Um, Brett: I forgot too. Um, I like, I like that you associated corded with noble abl just. Erin: uh, Brett: As like a matter of course there, um, maybe they wanna gesture. Erin: oh, I think I brought it up because. I said that content creators deserve Brett: Mm, right, right, right. The bits we’re talking about Erin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts Brett: All right. Well, you gotta get going. I know we have like eight minutes. Erin: ooh, Brett: So we should give you some time to prep for whatever it is you’re cutting us short for. I’m not kidding. I’m just kidding. It’s like fif. We’re 58 minutes in. This is good. This was a good episode. Thank you so much for coming. Erin: I just did it ’cause I wanted to catch up with you to be Brett: Yeah. I feel like this was good. This was good for that. Erin: Yeah. Brett: Yeah. Erin: Thanks Brett. Brett: Well, good luck with everything. [00:59:00] been fun. Erin: Say the line. Brett: Get some sleep. Erin: Get some sleep. Brett, I.

Inside a recent episode

445: Nails and Keys with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy)

Published 13 May 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And of course, we've talked about Ellers Danlos. So I have hypermobile, you know, Ellers Danlos. I'm having a hard time, I'm just having a hard time with that in general, mental health wise. Because there's just not enough awareness about it enough people and doctors, doctors and nurses. And you know, I'll, I'll say I wanted, I would love to be able to get to a point where I could just say I have HDDS or heads or whatever they're going to pronounce it. And like somebody know what that is when I go in for an appointment. But I still have to explain it, you know, and then that, that cuts into my time. […]

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