279: The One About The House Purse

Overtired 279

[00:00:00] Brett: Hey, welcome to overtired. We, we we’re short, we’re short a man we’re short a woman this week, so it’s me, Brett. Turkstra here with Jeff Severns Gunzel uh, hi. Hi. Hi,

[00:00:16] Jeff. We, we are, we’re lacking Christina. She’s she’s going through some transitions at work and she needed a week. Uh, without overtired, I guess, I guess this show was just the, the one thing too much in her week.

[00:00:34] Jeff: I will just say I’m new here, but Christina, I’m a see today.

[00:00:39] Brett: We all will. It’s just you and me left to fend for ourselves. It’s like a.

[00:00:45] Jeff: to systematic.

[00:00:50] Brett: Oh, you know, I, stopped, I stopped doing systematic. I put it on hiatus and then decided it was, it was gone because it took so much [00:01:00] effort to schedule gas plan, interview questions, uh, execute, interview questions, edit.

[00:01:07] Jeff: to ask you a question about systematic, um, as, as the final guest on that podcast, why did you stop talking so much to developers

[00:01:19] Brett: Um, my interests went elsewhere. Like, uh, well, I mean, I love developers and I talked to a lot of, of my favorite developers. Um, I really wanted systematic to, uh, reach a non-tech audience. I didn’t, it was a tech show, but I wanted it to be about human interest and I wanted to talk more?

[00:01:47] about mental health and queer issues and, uh, just things that weren’t necessarily developer centric.

[00:01:57] It was, that was my vision for the show. [00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Jeff: But what was interesting is you, you made a hard switch into those topics rather than, you know, entering them through, uh, the, you know, broad and endless and diverse developer community. It seemed like you just want to, I, as a listener, cause we weren’t, we weren’t friends yet. Um, as a listener, I was like, wow, he must have just really needed to get away from talking about being developer, a developer or talking to developers.

[00:02:25] Brett: I don’t know at what point in the Pantheon you entered, but from the very beginning, systematic had organic farmers and actors and, and a lot of non-developer people.

[00:02:40] Jeff: Yeah. Well, let me look at my, um, updated overcast app. I’m going to actually look back and tell you how this is such a great app, by the way. I’m just going to say that. Um, but we’ll keep, we’ll keep talking. So I’m okay. So here’s, cause here’s why I ask is I came on, it must’ve been 2013 [00:03:00] that I started listening to systematic, I think.

[00:03:03] Um, and for me that was a Renaissance period in how I used my computer. I was returning to ways in which I had loved to use my computer, um, and making my computer more sort of central to my work and my life. And, and a lot of that was I, I hate the term, but a lot of that was about becoming sort of a power user.

[00:03:25] Right. Um, I don’t love the term, but I totally, I embrace it for the sake of its universality.

[00:03:32] Brett: Sure it’s easily understood.

[00:03:34] Jeff: Yes. And, and I think probably I was listening to, um, the accidental tech podcast, which was fairly young at the time, mostly because I’m just love listening to John Syracuse to talk about, um, the tech and talk about, you know, like the real, like, sort of inner, um, computing business that he, he seems to understand and have a sort of history with the lived [00:04:00] experience of love that stuff.

[00:04:01] And I listened to too, um, oh, oh, Mac power users, I suppose that would have been it. And your name would just come up over and over. Like, I wasn’t listening to you first. I was listening to all these other power users. I think I was listening to Gruber’s show or whatever. Um, and, and your name, who the hell is this Turkstra character.

[00:04:21] And so then I went to your podcast and what I loved about it was that not only. Did I learn about a million apps that would become total staples for me, Scribner’s a great example. Like you had such a great in-depth interview with the creator of Scrivener and I was still kind of inspired just by the story of how it was created.

[00:04:42] And by listening to the two of you talk and what I most loved about listening to developers talk to each other, was that like, so I’m a journalist and I mean, by training, I, don’t not really a journalist anymore, but what I love about being a journalist is letting the language of an unfamiliar world wash [00:05:00] over me and, and kind of pick up the seashells as the tide goes away.

[00:05:05] Right. And, and your podcast when you were talking to developers was so great for that. And I was learning about these different kinds of people doing this work in a way that I could never have imagined. So I loved it when you switched. I loved all the topics I loved the people you were talking to. I enjoyed the conversations, but man, I missed you talking to developers.

[00:05:27] Brett: So, so, okay. So the interview with Keith Blount, uh, happened what year? This was 2013. The very next interview was with a playwright

[00:05:39] Jeff: Oh, no, I know you sprinkled it in, but like, I felt like there was a period with systematic where you just straight stopped talking to developers.

[00:05:47] Brett: then that Merlin man character was next.

[00:05:50] Jeff: Okay. Yeah. I’ve heard of him.

[00:05:51] Brett: I never, it didn’t happen. You’re wrong.

[00:05:55] Jeff: I’m wrong. It wasn’t a sweat. It wasn’t that much of a switch. I feel like you went away and when you came [00:06:00] back, it was much more focused on kind of, it was like a humanities podcast in a good way.

[00:06:05] Brett: That is, that is, that is, that is what I wanted to do with it. Yes.

[00:06:10] Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And somewhere in there you did the John Rodrick, uh, open. That was fun. And that was what I loved about that is it was very similar to your, the way you talk to developers. You just, you were kind of breaking down a story into its, into its fundamental parts and, and the person who lived that story was telling it, right.

[00:06:30] Like that’s how the developer interviews felt to me. Cause they were always about like the lived experience of having created this great tool. I’m not lamenting. I’m just, I was just curious the question I’ve always had, maybe some of the listeners have had that question too.

[00:06:44] Brett: So I feel like this dovetails into mental health.

[00:06:48] and to our mental health corner. Like,

[00:06:50] Jeff: Everything dovetails

[00:06:51] Brett: let it go of systematic was a mental health decision for me. So, um, how’s your mental health, Jeff.

[00:06:59] Jeff: Um, it [00:07:00] is, it is very good. I’m I, I, I think I said last week, there’s a sort of a medication transition and like, it seems to be working for me. Um, and. I feel very even, and I feel very able to just kind of attack my work from day to day attack is too strong a word, but because it actually is way too strong a board because what’s nice is, you know, sometimes like you have to just like really, really force yourself to do the work that’s necessary.

[00:07:33] Right. Like I have this thing I need to do. It’s it’s been too long. I’m I’m at, or past the deadline. I got to grind and do this work. Right. That wasn’t how last week felt last week just felt like, yeah, here are these four things that are really important that I really struggled to like really wrap my arms around for too long.

[00:07:53] And I’m just gonna like take them one by one and go through them. And it was one of those weeks where that worked and. [00:08:00] Really, um, it felt great. And I also, I have this thought about mental health and, and, and how are you and that kind of stuff. Right? Like a friend of mine who I haven’t heard from in awhile reached out, said how you doing?

[00:08:14] You know, and I, I answered in terms of kind of similar to what I just did. Like, you know, there’s, there was a sort of diagnosis, confusion. I’ve, I’ve changed some medication. Oh, I’ve got a new therapist, you know, and that friend’s response was so beautiful because it wasn’t direct, but what it, what it made me feel so completely was that’s not really the way to answer, how are you doing, right.

[00:08:41] Like, there is not a wrong way, right? Like it’s a really important part about how I’m doing right. It’s like a critical, critical part about how I’m doing, but it’s only in the terms of symptoms and, and not something more sort of core to who I am. And I haven’t. [00:09:00] I’m trying to digest this. I got this response just yesterday and I’m like, man.

[00:09:03] Yeah, I did respond only in terms of sort of systems and like very like human centered frameworks. Right? Like this is a problem and this is how we’ll fix it. And, and I’m not really sure. I know how to answer the question from a different space.

[00:09:21] Brett: I was going to say like, I don’t, I don’t know what the alternative is either. I’m going to, I’m going to brush you off with a, Hey, I’m fine. Or I’m good. Or I’m going to list out symptoms. I’m going to list out like the very, the, the details of why I am the way I am. I don’t know how else to answer that question.

[00:09:41] Jeff: But in a way, what you just said is like, there’s two ways I can answer this. I can lie to you to get this over with, or I can give you a list of symptoms. Right. And like, it feels like there’s definitely something in there. And I would imagine that for many people, that’s a, probably the. pathway to answering that question is through [00:10:00] religion or a form of spirituality.

[00:10:02] I’m not even sure that’s true for me at this point, but I just like, I like the puzzle of being like, can I, what can I access? And, and what can I sort of, I don’t have to communicate it. Doesn’t have to be turned into words. Like that’s probably why we don’t have an answer. Is that the, like, how am I doing that?

[00:10:19] Can’t be expressed. Can’t be expressed. It’s like something that’s felt right. I don’t know if I’m getting way, way out there and we will land, but it was a thought I had. Ha how has your mental health Brett?

[00:10:32] Brett: Oh man. So I, I went from on the Vyvanse. I went from like, uh, a little bit overwhelmed by it. Like Keith grindy to it. Once again, basically doing nothing. Um,

[00:10:46] I am. I am okay with that. It’s better. It’s better than truly nothing. And it’s not triggering bipolar episodes. And for me, that [00:11:00] is that’s going to be the sweet spot.

[00:11:01] It might not be the most, uh, focus, uh, friendly place emotion, or like mentally, but it is far more productive than like weeks without sleep and, and depression. And if I can remove those from the equation and still have a little bit more focused than usual, that’s that’s, that’s going to be, I’m pretty sure after years of experimentation, I’m pretty sure that’s the best I can hope for.

[00:11:34] Jeff: You, when did you first start taking medications related to mental health and, and not counting like drugs, right. But like stuff that’s prescribed. Well, no seriously. Right? Cause like that’s an

[00:11:48] Brett: Yeah. Yeah, no, I was, I self medicated for a long time with undiagnosed issues, but I started taking meds for bipolar when I was 22.

[00:11:59] Jeff: [00:12:00] Okay.

[00:12:00] Brett: I can’t give you a year, but I can give you an age.

[00:12:03] Jeff: So here’s the questions because for me, I didn’t, I started taking, um, sertraline or Zoloft, um, right at the beginning of the pandemic. I mean, not because of the pandemic, but literally right at the beginning of the pandemic. And that was my first, that was the first time I had any kind of medication prescribed to me for my mental health.

[00:12:22] And, um, now that I’ve gone through kind of a transition recently, I have different medications and I have more and, and I am realizing that I am constantly conscious of the fact that I am, uh, running on medications. And, and I know that that. That’s not a really, like, it’s not really a healthy way to think about it.

[00:12:49] Right. Um, and I do recognize that, like, there’s a F I totally took the opposite view. I would say I’m, I’m working because of medications and not, not like I’m running [00:13:00] on them. Right. It’s like, it’s like, uh, you know, like diabetes, you’re not producing enough of this. So you, you add a little bit of insulin.

[00:13:08] Right. Like, I know that that’s kind of how to think about it, but I’m, I’m still in a phase where every time I pick up the pills to take them, I just feel a little bit like heavy. Cause I’m just like, Oh, I have to do this. Like if I don’t do this act right now, it’s very unpredictable. What will happen? Just because they’re not medications, you can just stop.

[00:13:30] Right. It’s not so much like my mental health, but like, and so I’m curious if you have had phases where you feel that way, where you just feel that, that much, like you kind of, you have these things running through you and they’re, that’s why they’re part of the answer of how are you, right. Or having done it for so long.

[00:13:48] Is it more like you’ve taken a vitamin.

[00:13:51] Brett: So I never had this stigma, uh, this like I’m with, if I’m on medication, I’m not really [00:14:00] me, this idea that, um, that it’s like that it’s, uh, a crutch, we’ll say, um, I never had that stigma. In fact, I like of my own accord came to believe that, uh, I had to be on drugs. And this was like, you know, after years of heroin addiction and years of cocaine abuse and drinking, and like, I didn’t think I could function without something.

[00:14:31] So when I was first prescribed drugs, that actually helped me without intoxicating me. Like that just immediately felt right to me. Like I never had a period where. Like I’ve had periods where I questioned, okay. Is this actually doing its job anymore? I wondered what, what would happen to me right now?

[00:14:53] If I stopped taking this, like, I’ve always had those questions, but I’ve never had that, like that feeling [00:15:00] that I exist. I oh, the current me only exists because of drugs. Like I’ve always considered them just an enhancement, I guess.

[00:15:12] Jeff: Yeah, I guess I wonder why I’m not there as much as I would think I would. Cause I don’t,

[00:15:17] Brett: it sounds like you had a pre-existing stigma, like, uh, some kind of resistance built up.

[00:15:23] Jeff: Yeah, I think, but I had a stigma. I didn’t ha here’s the thing that’s confusing about that to me is like the stigma. I don’t believe the stigma was either. I shouldn’t take medications and if I do, it’s a weakness and it certainly wasn’t something I directed at other people. Like I’ve, I’ve been most people in my life on some kind of medication, and I’ve never thought isn’t that sad that you’re powered by medicine, right?

[00:15:47] Like, or whatever, by medication. And, and yet for me, it clear, it’s clear that there’s some other definition of stigma that I’m operating under. Cause when you first started talking, I thought, well, it’s [00:16:00] really just about relationship with myself. Like I didn’t do drugs for a long time. Um, I mean, I’ve never done hard drugs.

[00:16:06] Like I’ve, I’ve had some edibles and only in the last year. Um, and until then I know drugs, I’m going to surrounded by people using hard drugs, much of my life. Um, but just never did it for whatever weird reason why was not straight at just purely clear. It wasn’t like a ideological thing. It just didn’t happen.

[00:16:26] And so it might in part be that I had internalized some sense of almost purity or something that when I started taking medications, I was glad for it from day one. Right? Like there was never a point where I’m like, oh, it’s so sad that this is what it takes to make me feel good. I was all on board, but something about adding a medication, switching medications recently, I’ve just felt like I am Jeff who walks around with medication in him.

[00:16:59] [00:17:00] And, and I, I want to note that, cause I’d like to, I’d like to note when I don’t feel that way anymore.

[00:17:08] Brett: Yeah. Yeah. It’s got a R I feel for you that’s that’s gotta be a bit of a weight to carry. Um,

[00:17:16] Jeff: And I’m honest about it. Like I’m not, I tell people I’m on medication. Cause I just, I really believe in normalizing it, you know? Like, I mean, look at what I’m doing here. I don’t know who the hell is listening now or in the future. Right. I kids. But, um, but anyway, uh, here’s the transition though? Part of it is that in my house purse.

[00:17:37] Brett: Okay. Wait, I want to tell you about home security and then we’re

[00:17:40] Jeff: yeah. Go, go, Go, go,

[00:17:41] Brett: we’re going to dive into Jeff’s house. Pers

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[00:19:10] The House Purse Revisited

[00:19:10] Brett: I would just like to note that when people hear that read, I did that in one take did not mess up a single line. There were no

[00:19:18] Jeff: yeah, that’s true. That’s true.

[00:19:21] Brett: I could easily be lying. I could easily have thoroughly edited what people just heard, but vouch for me.

[00:19:28] I just did that basically perfectly.

[00:19:31] Jeff: You could have, for example, as one of the hosts of this show, did describe the benefits of simply save through describing services. They do not provide.

[00:19:41] Brett: Yeah, W w we’ll call it aspirational descriptions.

[00:19:46] Jeff: Yeah, man. Yeah. Consider it feature requests. Um,

[00:19:52] Brett: So anyway. Well, okay. Yeah. Let’s Jeff talked about in, I believe it was your first [00:20:00] episode on overtired. You talked about this idea of a house purse, a bag containing everything. Well, okay. Let’s we got a lot of questions about it in discord and on Twitter. Let’s rewind. Tell us what the house verses, and then we’re going to dive into it because people had a lot of questions about what was in it, what the actual bag was, et cetera.

[00:20:23] Jeff: I really appreciate people’s interests. I’m actually trying to locate the bag. Now. There it is. Um, okay. How’s pers, first of all, why are we talking about a house purse? Why is there a guy in Minneapolis, Minnesota who has one and happens to also have a podcast, uh, accessibility to talk about it? The Husky.

[00:20:45] 14 inch supply bag, which you can buy at home Depot or other places is my house purse. So if you want to kind of get it, we’ll put a link in the show notes. We’re want to look at it. Basically what you’re talking about is like picture like a, I’m not exactly a [00:21:00] tote bag, kind of like a, how would you describe this thing?

[00:21:02] It’s like, it’s a bag that is, um, you could probably fit, uh, two gallons of milk in. And, and it has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 pockets on the outside that you could fit in any one of those, you could fit a water bottle. It’s like, it’s almost like it’s shaped for that. Right. Or a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in my case, which we’ll get to, I had this problem where I was leaving shit all over the house.

[00:21:34] The book I was reading would be upstairs in the bedroom. The journal I had been writing in would be like kicked underneath the couch, downstairs in my office. I’d have my meds. You never have a scissors Parris scissors. Right.

[00:21:48] Brett: That’s such an Minnesota, a scissors. Thank you. Thank you for correcting yourself like the

[00:21:54] Jeff: Yeah, no problem. No problem.

[00:21:57] Brett: what do You call what do you call to scissors though? [00:22:00] Is that a is that a pair of a pair of scissors?

[00:22:03] Jeff: You call that a Queens riddle.

[00:22:08] Brett: All right. Continue.

[00:22:10] Jeff: So I had this problem, which is like, I’m leaving stuff all over. I never have what I want at my side, wherever I’ve settled in and where I’ve settled in would have been my bed, my couch, my office, or the basement where the video games are. And, um, and so I thought, well, I had this Husky tool bag. I wasn’t using it.

[00:22:29] And I’d thought, I’d try it out. Put let’s just like put everything and let it lay out what I think I need find a place for it in the house purse. This is fascinating content. Um, and, uh, and, and test it out. And so I have, now I can proudly say that I’m three or four weeks into this current layout of my house person, I suppose, the best way to give a tour of it is to tell you what’s in it.

[00:22:53] Brett: Yes.

[00:22:54] Jeff: So we’ll just take it external pockets first. Okay. Again, these are about the [00:23:00] size of seeing put a water bottle in them. Okay. Um, What we have is I have my belt in one, because not all my pants require me to wear a belt because one of my medications is causing me to gain weight. So I don’t ever have my belt when I need it.

[00:23:17] Cause I wasn’t wearing it previously. So that goes in one pocket. Okay. Next pocket. I’m just going through it here. We got, oh, every kind of pen and marker you would ever want. Even my, um, my apple pencil for my shattered screened, iPad.

[00:23:34] Brett: does that work?

[00:23:36] Jeff: it doesn’t, it just works to make me sad. Uh, so I got markers, pens, pencils, right?

[00:23:41] Can’t can’t have enough of those. Then I got a water bottle. I got a USB speaker, roughly the size of a can of soda in there for if I want to listen to a podcast. And I don’t feel like, you know, fake. How to make Siri understand me, because apparently we don’t speak the same language and apparently she has no [00:24:00] knowledge of my preferences or habits after almost a decade of being together.

[00:24:04] Brett: It’s your thick Minnesota accent throws her off.

[00:24:07] Jeff: That might be it. Then we’ve got a pocket that just has my wallet. I throw my watch in there when I’m tired of wearing it. It’s got my headphones, my AirPods in it. Right. And it’s where my phone goes. Got another pot packet. We got some Kleenex, tuber, Kleenex, like those tubes, like you put in your, uh, your, uh, your soda carrier and your car.

[00:24:24] God, I feel like this is how many listeners are you going to lose because of the second episode dedicated to the house pers uh, then, and this is important. This is very important. Then I got a roll of gaffers tape. Okay. Not duct tape. Gaffer’s tape. Right. Okay. Brett, why is gaffer’s tape? Great. You seem excited.

[00:24:44] Brett: doesn’t leave residue. It will a fixed to anything without being permanent. It’s easier to cut. It’s less messy. I just, I love Gavin. It costs like three times as much, but I used to [00:25:00] work in the theater department at the university of Minnesota and I fell in love with gaffer’s tape And I, I love duct tape.

[00:25:08] It’s great stuff. But if I want, if I want to be classy, I’m using gaffer’s tape.

[00:25:16] Jeff: And you can go to gaffer power.com/over tired for 15% off your first half inch black roll of

[00:25:22] Brett: Oh man. I just, I got my first eight pack of half-inch rolls for the first time in 2021, I had always only ordered what

[00:25:32] Jeff: you are a gaffer tape person.

[00:25:34] Brett: Yeah.

[00:25:35] Jeff: Okay. So you can understand why someone would want this on a thing. They call their house

[00:25:39] Brett: Yeah.

[00:25:40] Jeff: Yeah. Because you’d never know. And I got two kids, teenagers for God’s sake, you know, you need to tape those guys up sometimes. So the other thing I use this for actually is I label like storage bins and stuff with gaffer tape and a paint marker.

[00:25:53] Thanks for asking. Uh, okay. Now we’re into what my transition was, which is I’ve had to use one of the two [00:26:00] large outside pockets for my meds. I. Uh, I had added one, one thing of meds. And so I’ve got, this is where it looks a little bit like an old man’s like this should be like, basically hung on the back of my Walker.

[00:26:14] Uh, it’s got my prescription pills and then there’s another one that’s just dedicated to Pepto-Bismol because one of these medications gives me heartburn. Oh God. So that’s the outside, right? Like it’s the kind of stuff that like, you would have to get up off the couch and put your book down and I have to go walk and find, or you’d have to ask when your kids they’d grab it for you and they’d Huff and puff.

[00:26:36] And then you lost a little bit of your cache for the next time you need something. Cause they won’t forget that they got you. That Pepto Bismal right

[00:26:44] Brett: Yeah.

[00:26:44] Jeff: inside. I got two books. I’m reading. I got one main book I’m reading and then a book that’s more of a kind of, if I got 10 minutes to read, I pick it up and read it.

[00:26:54] I got a planner. I got a. I got, this is where I’m insane, but it’s only there because I think it’s [00:27:00] funny. I have a flashlight, but I also have a UV flashlight. We’ve had a bit of a, we’ve had a bit of a mouse problem. And the thing about UV flashlights as the packaging told me was that it’s helpful for seeing body fluids.

[00:27:15] And when you have boys, when you have boys, it’s helpful to demonstrate just how much of the pee doesn’t go into the toilet. Okay. Uh, and we have a little bit of a mouse problem here, and now they mostly don’t get anywhere because of our cats, but I’ve used this to kind of discover where some of the mice might be.

[00:27:32] All right. Then I got a big old charge and battery, a lot of different cables. I got a pair of scissors just as I spoke of before. And finally, finally, and tell me, you haven’t been in a situation where you could not find your deodorant and you did not smell good.

[00:27:48] Brett: I have an extra, I have a miniature, it’s like two inches by two inches stick of deodorant that I keep in the car because that’s the place that I always am.

[00:27:58] Jeff: Oh yeah,

[00:27:59] Brett: I [00:28:00] realize I forgot to put on deodorant.

[00:28:02] Jeff: that’s right. So I have a thing, a deodorant. That’s the house person, everybody. Now I’m going to tell you right now, I recognize already from the get, this is an eccentric thing that I have a house purse, but I will tell you I never feel more eccentric and maybe a little bit embarrassed than when I go to bed with my house purse, because it’s kind of like I say goodbye to people, but I’ve got like my work bag and I go upstairs, set it down by the side of the bed, go to sleep.

[00:28:29] My laptop’s in there too.

[00:28:30] Brett: That just seems efficient.

[00:28:32] Jeff: I think it’s brilliant. You know, my in-laws are in town and I, I told them all about the house. I showed them. They were very impressed, very impressed by this idea.

[00:28:40] Brett: it is impressive. Thank you for detailing. I feel like, I feel like that tour of its current contents gives people probably a better idea than any summary description could of what exactly this is and what purpose it serves.

[00:28:55] Jeff: And I’ll say that I’ve never said the inspiration, the inspiration is the mom [00:29:00] purse of the 1980s, those big ass purses that had everything you could ever imagine in them, no matter where you were. That’s that’s what I wanted, but I wanted it at home.

[00:29:09] Brett: Right. And with more pockets. So it didn’t take you five minutes to find the crackers.

[00:29:14] Jeff: Yeah, you can look down on this. You could see everything, nothing closes up, nothing zips up. It’s all visible.

[00:29:20] Brett: Yeah, I love it. Yeah. So, um, I’m I’m uh, I get, I, I had a 65 inch television.

[00:29:31] Jeff: Whoa, that’s a nice

[00:29:32] Brett: Yeah, I, I, this isn’t a segue.

[00:29:34] like we’re talking about houses and we’re talking about stuff. We carry with us. Anyway. I had a 65 inch TV and it was too big for my artistic girlfriend. Um, she, it.

[00:29:49] would visually overwhelm her very easily and, and we could watch like one show in the evening and then.

[00:29:57] I’m just going to disappear to my room, [00:30:00] turn up the lights and I’ll be in the Derrick. I’ll see you tomorrow and not ideal. So I had traded that in for like a 32 inch, uh, TV that we mounted in our relatively small living room. Like 65 inches was too big for this room, but it was the kind of two big that me with my ADHD need for like excessive stimulation I could, I could get into she couldn’t.

[00:30:28] So we compromised, we got a, we got a reasonable sized TV for the size of the room and. I traded my 65 inch TV to my parents for their 55 inch TV. Um, they, they wanted a, they wanted a bigger TV. I said, I’m not going to use this outrageous. So I’ve had this 55 inch TV sitting in my basement for maybe eight months.

[00:30:56] Now. I finally cleaned out enough [00:31:00] space in my basement to set up the TV, uh, set up an area rug. And, uh, I’m using a moon pod. I need a couch, but I’m building a little den where I can go to watch TV on a big screen when I don’t, when I want to stay out of L’s way.

[00:31:19] Jeff: Building a den.

[00:31:20] Brett: Yes. And, and I just ordered a bunch of like, I want us, um, okay.

[00:31:26] I need to get a love seat, but I want a side table with outlets and USB ports, and I need an Ottoman. So I have a place to like kick back and rest my feet. I need a sound system, but here’s the catch is I need it to be a sound system that isn’t so Boomi that you can hear it upstairs.

[00:31:50] Jeff: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the thing.

[00:31:52] Brett: I want, I want shit to sound good with, without bothering people on other floors of the house.

[00:31:59] Jeff: [00:32:00] Do you have exposed a floor as your ceiling?

[00:32:03] Brett: yes.

[00:32:04] Jeff: So,

[00:32:05] Brett: is. It is a basement basement classic basement.

[00:32:08] Jeff: but that’s good. Cause you can, you can stuff that which will, which will buy you a little bit of extra volume. Uh, and you could, you know, you don’t have to put a whole drywall thing on, you can do whatever you want, but like, you know what the fiberglass fallen on you, but you stuffed that nice and tight.

[00:32:26] Oh man, you’ll be able to get a little more violent unless you’ve got a doorway that’s like a major and, and, and clear feature of this space meant a doorway to the upstairs. You got like some wind, wind and stairs. What’s your situation

[00:32:43] Brett: uh, the stairs come down, you turn left. It’s all open. There’s no walls. Uh, you walk one, the equivalent of one room over and you’re in my den. There’s no wall. There’s no door between me and the stairs.[00:33:00]

[00:33:00] Jeff: and what’s right above you.

[00:33:02] Brett: Uh, let me see the, the living room.

[00:33:06] Jeff: Okay. Yeah, that might be a tough one. Might be able to not a good use of money. But it might make a difference. I’m telling you it made him crazy, distant, different than we refinished our basement. I was amazed.

[00:33:17] Brett: I like I’ve considered building, like, so if I ran the cables out to where I sit, if this room is only ever intended for one person, the speakers don’t have to fill the whole room. The speakers could be directed to the one place I will ever sit in this room and I could build a little surround sound system around this like four foot square space. And then the volume could be low, but I could still get surround with like bass and everything.

[00:33:54] Jeff: I can ask you a cultural question.

[00:33:56] Brett: Okay.

[00:33:57] Jeff: Why are you calling this a den?

[00:33:59] Brett: Because [00:34:00] man-cave really bugs me.

[00:34:01] Jeff: Oh no, I’m I that’s great. Yeah. Kill the man cave forever. Um, but still you went to Dell. What is a den in your life? Did your, was there a den in your house growing

[00:34:14] Brett: I have never had a Denton. This is just what I assumed to Dan was

[00:34:19] Jeff: for me, dens are where your stepdads go to be away from everybody,

[00:34:23] Brett: right. Which is, this is a place I go to

[00:34:25] Jeff: but I guess, yeah.

[00:34:26] And I guess it’s got a T I always my, for me in my, in my life, it was always like, uh, you know, there was a desk and there was like a second office basically. And maybe there was like a reading.

[00:34:36] Brett: Yeah.

[00:34:37] Jeff: All right. All right. What you’ve got here is an entertainment room.

[00:34:41] Brett: Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine with that. But it is a secondary, it is an auxiliary auxiliary entertainment room. It is the

[00:34:51] Jeff: you a question? Do you intend to have a bulletin board made of wine corks?

[00:34:57] Brett: I do not

[00:34:58] Jeff: Okay. So it’s not a game room.[00:35:00]

[00:35:00] Brett: know. And that’s like, there’s There are no arcade machines. There’s no dartboard. There’s no bulletin board.

[00:35:07] Jeff: There are no other means.

[00:35:08] Brett: No other men and no one else will ever be invited into this room. It is split. There is a table with a yarn winder and a sewing machine that are not, they are not part of my entertainment room, but I did think the room to make the best use of the space should be split with ELLs craft needs.

[00:35:31] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. Well

[00:35:33] Brett: I doubt those.

[00:35:34] Jeff: dials down the like what people call a man cave. It dials that down

[00:35:40] Brett: It really does. It really.

[00:35:42] Jeff: as nice.

[00:35:43] Brett: It really, it really removes the, the gender specific, uh, uh, stereotypes from the room. I, uh, I will, it’ll probably never serve both purposes at the same time. Um, although her, her [00:36:00] yarn winder, I got it for her for like, I think Christmas or a birthday one year. And it is it’s it’s can crank, but it’s 10 times faster than winding yarn

[00:36:12] Jeff: That sounds

[00:36:13] Brett: into balls on your own.

[00:36:14] Yeah, it’s really cool. It’s almost silent. I actually enjoy watching it work. It’s very

[00:36:19] Jeff: I’m sure.

[00:36:21] Brett: Um, anyway.

[00:36:23] Jeff: Now I’m thinking what you got is kind of a craft room entertainment center.

[00:36:27] Brett: Yeah.

[00:36:28] Jeff: You don’t. Yeah.

[00:36:29] Brett: a crafter attainment center.

[00:36:31] Jeff: Yeah. Well, let me tell you, if you’re looking for a advice on speakers, there are plenty of men online who are happy to tell you both what you might do and what you’re an idiot for thinking you will do.

[00:36:42] Brett: Friend of the show, Victor, a graded Jr. Recommended Samsung Bluetooth speakers. So I didn’t have to run wires everywhere. Uh, that sounded good to me, but I didn’t ask him for a specific link. He just in general said, Samsung, Bluetooth speakers. My [00:37:00] cat is pointing at me right now and I don’t know what he wants.

[00:37:04] Um, I had breakfast with my folks, my breakfast with my folks this morning. We did not talk at all about evolution, which meant that the breakfast lasted a full hour. Um, but the topic of cats came up and then the topic of robotic vacuums. And obviously have you you know, sharp cat.

[00:37:26] Jeff: Yeah. I assume next it’s animals on top of robotic. Uh, what I want to know is what’s after that,

[00:37:34] Brett: that was taxes. Um, but I had the pleasure of showing my mom shark cat for the very first time. And it, it wasn’t, it wasn’t entertaining for me. I’d already had my run was shark cat, but it was delightful to see the look on her face when she realized that,

[00:37:53] sharp cat was a thing

[00:37:55] Jeff: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. It’s nice. When you can not only [00:38:00] manage to avoid the topics that tear you apart, but maybe even bring a little joy.

[00:38:06] Brett: I actually have on our topic list, a guy named Paul . And I’m not sure we’ve ever talked about, I think I mentioned apology before, but he’s a YouTube creator that he does. Uh, he, his name is Paul. And, and apology is a play on apologist apologetics abolished. Apologies. Apologies. No, I’m

[00:38:34] Jeff: didn’t do that in one take.

[00:38:40] Brett