Episode 100 – 12 Beers, One Flight: Friends with Brews at Medford Brewing

Peter: Friends With Brews.

Scott: Friend. Friend. I am Scott Willsey, friend of

Peter: Peter Nikolaidis, and this is the Friends With Brews podcast. Coming to you live, I think, for the… Well, not live. I mean, well, we’re live at the time we’re recording this. I think for the first time in a brew pub that we’ve recorded ([laughs]) together.

Scott: This is not Weekend at Bernie’s. We are live-

Peter: This is not ([laughs])

Scott: … at the time of recording.

Peter: So we are at Medford Brewing, and y- knowing that Scott is from Oregon and I’m from Massachusetts, we could be in either Medford, Oregon or Medford, Massachusetts.

Scott: I don’t wanna go to Medford, Oregon.

Peter: The odds are that it’s Medford, Massachusetts, ’cause that’s where I’m from.

Scott: Much nicer than Medford, Oregon. Sorry.

Peter: Medford Brewing Company, Medford, Massachusetts.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: And we are here ([laughs]) with a flight of 12 beers. However, they’re not 12 distinct beers. They’re not even… Yeah, you can’t even fit them all. That’s pretty impressive. That is a big flight.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: So, uh, yeah. So I have an, a West Coast IPA, a, two shots of a Belgian white, two flights of two shots of a Mexican lager, and one dry Irish stout. And you?

Scott: I’ve got one of the PoWit white, uh, you had. I’ve got one of the Irish stout. I’ve got a bitter that I can’t remember-

Peter: Yep

Scott: … what was it?

Peter: An English bitter. I don’t know that one.

Scott: English bitter. I’ve got two of the Mexican ales. Mexican ale? Mex-

Peter: Mexican lagers

Scott: … Mexican lager, yeah.

Peter: Yep.

Scott: Thank you.

Peter: Yep.

Scott: And I’ve got the porter-

Peter: And the Rude Panda porter

Scott: … yep

Peter: … which is 8% some odd I- I- alcohol by volume.

Scott: Oh my God, I can smell every bit of it, too.

Peter: That one’s a strong one.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: So I’m gonna start with the West Coast IPA. This is not nearly as offensive as I was expecting it to be.

Scott: That’s the bitter?

Peter: No, the IPA.

Scott: Oh, really?

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Wow.

Peter: I’m kind of surprised.

Scott: Wow.

Peter: It’s, it’s a little darker than most IPAs I’ve usually seen.

Scott: Hmm. It’s very much darker.

Peter: Yeah. It’s actually pretty good. It looks a lot like your bitter, actually. I wonder-

Scott: It’s pretty close. No, it’s not the same. See the difference?

Peter: No, it’s not the same, but yours smells better. Mine smells more like an IPA.

Scott: We’re talking about the beer, people.

Peter: Prost.

Scott: Prost. Alain Prost?

Peter: Kanpai.

Scott: Four-time world champion, Alain Prost.

Peter: Ah.

Scott: Was he four or five? Four.

Peter: So I believe these are five-ounce pours, or are they four-ounce pours? They might be four.

Scott: I don’t know.

Peter: I should have-

Scott: I don’t know that.

Peter: Either way, we’re gonna be either drinking 24 or 30 ounces-

Scott: That, somebody fell down

Peter: … ounces of beer. There was a large crash out there. I don’t know if our noise isolation will pick that up or, or not.

Scott: Somebody fell down and hurt themselves, yeah.

Peter: Possibly. So, uh, yeah, we, we’re gonna talk mostly about the beers, I think, but we might talk about other things on this episode.

Scott: I love the way that, you know, we’re not sitting bolt upright. We’re sitting comfortably.

Peter: Yes.

Scott: We’re not slouching, but we’re not bolt upright.

Peter: Right.

Scott: And we’re hidden behind beers.

Peter: We’re hiding behind… Well, we can sit up straight, bolt upright, if we have to. Then you can actually see us. But, I mean, who’s the real star of this show?

Scott: The beers.

Peter: The viewers or the brews.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: The brews. Are we gonna go sips through, or are we just gonna plow through these one at a time?

Scott: Uh, that’s up to you.

Peter: Very good.

Scott: That’s up to you.

Peter: I’m gonna continue to… I’m gon- I, I’m… I dunno, I think I’m gonna do it one at a time. I’m gonna just finish this off. This one’s not offensive. This is pretty good.

Scott: This bitter’s not too bad.

Peter: No, I changed my mind. I’m gonna sample. I’m gonna sample.

Scott: This bitter, this bitter is not too bad. I w- having said that-

Peter: I changed my mind

Scott: … having said that, I don’t think I would, uh-

Peter: Get it again?

Scott: Huh?

Peter: Get it again?

Scott: Right. I wouldn’t seek it out on purpose.

Peter: If you were desperate?

Scott: If I was desperate, I might.

Peter: Yeah. I’m, surprisingly, I think I’m gonna give this West Coast IPA a thumbs up.

Scott: I’m gonna give-

Peter: It’s not what I was expecting

Scott: … I’m gonna give this bitter a 45 degree thumb.

Peter: 45 degree? Okay, that’s good though.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: That’s, that’s more positive.

Scott: It’s not a bad beer.

Peter: Okay.

Scott: It’s just not something I would-

Peter: I’m moving on to the-

Scott: … definitely

Peter: … PoWit. Yeah, I know, that’s why I was grabbing this one. I’m moving on to the PoWit, the Belgian white. Ah, much better. This is a nice Belgian white. Very smooth, very Belgian-y, very white. Lots of yeast.

Scott: That’s the PoWit?

Peter: PoWit, yes. Very yeasty. So yes, very wheaty and yeasty. I like this. Ah. Really curious how the noise isolation is with, with crosstalk and other noise in the background.

Scott: We’ll still be louder.

Peter: We will. Very well.

Scott: So one thing I will say, people, is that today we have done a five-point-x mile trail running. How many miles was it?

Peter: It’s about five point… Five, a little over five and a half, yeah.

Scott: Just over five, yeah, five and a half mile trail run.

Peter: Mm-hmm.

Scott: And then we ate very little otherwise, and then we stuffed ourselves with some, uh, dons, some rice bowls with different toppings. I had the gyudon, which is the beef don. And what did you have again?

Peter: I had the mix of tuna, yellowtail, which is also tuna, and salmon don. So it was like a hamachi don, sak Don, and maguro don. Maguro, saba… No, not saba. Sake.

Scott: Sake.

Peter: Maguro, sake, maguro-

Scott: Was it maguro or was it toro?

Peter: It was not toro.

Scott: Oh, okay.

Peter: Not the fatty tuna.

Scott: It was maguro.

Peter: Yeah. Maguro, hamachi, sake.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: On a big bowl of sushi rice. That was at least two cups of sushi rice, too. That was a generous portion of rice, which is great, ’cause I love rice. So, but that’s not where we are now. We’re here with beer.

Scott: Yeah. We’re at… Tell them where we are.

Peter: We, I, I did. Medford Brewing Company. I opened up with that. You’ve forgotten that already?

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: So did they.

Peter: You’re drunk. They did, too. Hell, I’m, I’ll forget next.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: I wanna take a taste of the Mexican lager.

Scott: Peter and I, when we were in Vermont, we had a flight at some place or other. That was with Kim. Was her name Kim?

Peter: Yes.

Scott: We had the burgers.

Peter: And… Oh, that was the Harpoon Brewery. Yes.

Scott: Yeah. At Harpoon Brewery we had a flight, and it was way too much for me, and I, as I’m looking at this, I’m already knowing it’s way too much for me

Peter: Hmm. The Mexican lager. Crisp, light, refreshing.

Scott: That’s what I’m thinking. That’ll be my favorite. I don’t know if I can drink that thing that you forced me to get, you…

Peter: I did not force you.

Scott: Oh, my God. Why did I agree to a porter? I, I don’t like porters that well. I like stouts.

Peter: That’s an imperial porter, too.

Scott: I’m not gonna like it. I’m probably not gonna finish it.

Peter: Oh.

Scott: I wish the video would insert all your notifications right into the video.

Peter: Well, we could rec- do a screen recording to ([laughs])… Ah, I think I’m gonna sleep well and early today.

Scott: I think I’m gonna sleep in about five minutes today. I think this more than negates the run that we did. I mean, look at this.

Peter: Oh, absolutely. No, we’re definitely… We’re, we’re maintaining this whole week of overeating and overdrinking.

Scott: Yeah, I have to, I have to become a monk when I get back to Oregon.

Peter: I am going to move on and taste the stout. This reminds me, like every time when, when, when I go out with my friend and we order pizza, we always get the largest pizza, and I always say, “You know, really, we should get the small pizza.” But we don’t, we never learn, and we get way too much, and we eat way too much.

Scott: We got down. I think we each have one more than we had on that flight at, uh, what was it called? Handcrafted Harpoon.

Peter: Yeah, we each had, I think we had five then. This is six here.

Scott: By the way, people will notice I say things like Oregon and Portland. I hope they understand I’m doing that ironically.

Peter: Hmm. So this is a dry stout, but it’s not that dry. It’s not like super hoppy.

Scott: No, it’s, there is some liquid in there. It’s a good-

Peter: It’s a… Yeah, it’s, ([laughs]) it’s a wet stout.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Uh, it’s like a Guinness but stronger.

Scott: Hmm.

Peter: This is probably closer to like the one you had at Harpoon.

Scott: Peter hates Guinness. He makes fun of Guinness.

Peter: It tastes watery. It’s weak. That’s all. For something that looks that dark, it looks like it should be stronger. That’s all.

Scott: Hmm.

Peter: Guinness must make like imperial variations and stuff like that, stronger versions. They make the blonde version, which is apparently brewed in Maryland, ([laughs]) which is funny. Um-

Scott: Well, we need to talk about stuff

Peter: About what?

Scott: We need to talk about things or we’re boring the viewer.

Peter: Well, yeah. I mean, we’re talking about Guinness. Oh.

Scott: What do you hate so much about Guinness besides the fact that it’s water?

Peter: That’s pretty much it.

Scott: Oh, okay.

Peter: Yeah. Yep. Have you ever had the drink known as the Irish car bomb?

Scott: No.

Peter: If I recall correctly, correctly. Wow. If, if, if, uh…

Scott: If you freak recall correctly

Peter: If I freak recall correctly, it’s a, uh, a pint of Guinness, and you drop a shot of Bailey’s into it. And I guess you have to drink it fast, otherwise it explodes all over the place, and that’s the name of it, which I think that’s a really problematic name if you ask me. I think there was some-

Scott: PoWit. Uh, what is this? Some kind of Belgian white?

Peter: Belgian white.

Scott: This is, this is a good beer.

Peter: It is.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Yes.

Scott: Very easy to drink.

Peter: Yep.

Scott: I feel like I could have two of these and not fall down and hurt myself.

Peter: Oh. Yeah, okay. Now I’m not as partial to the, uh, the IPA.

Scott: Now you’re-

Peter: Now it’s tasting more IPA-ish

Scott: … after drinking the PoWit and the Mexican?

Peter: Yep.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Yep. Now it’s, now it tastes more like an IPA again. I’m like, “Eh, not, not as much of a fan.”

Scott: That’s where I’m at with the bitter. I, I like it, but this is more me.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Now, the bitter, the bitter is close to some sours that I’ve had.

Peter: Interesting.

Scott: Which I do like sours, but I wouldn’t drink them all the time.

Peter: And they have sours here, too.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: They have a sour, tree sour.

Scott: They did, yes. I purposely didn’t choose it because I kind of burnt myself out on sours a while back. By the way, does everybody see my shirt? John, do you see my shirt?

Peter: Yeah, tag-

Scott: John’s watching

Peter: … tag Siracusa in this episode.

Scott: It’s like, ah, the bitter is nothing like sour. Ah, I don’t care when you have a sour.

Peter: Indeed. Oh, wow, this is good. I don’t… You know what? I, I might, I might not be able to finish. This is, woo, yee. Oh.

Scott: I thought that your eyes were bigger than your bladder.

Peter: Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t thinking this one through. Ah, but I thought-

Scott: The good new-

Peter: … like, “Hey, 12. It’s gotta be cheaper. I’ll get a bargain.”

Scott: The good news is neither one of us has to drive back.

Peter: I live a mile and a half from here, and we drove. Someone has to drive.

Scott: Peter, I was trying to cover for you.

Peter: Oh, thanks. I might have to be here for a couple of hours to let this all go. I’m starting to slouch underneath the video again. Hi, video. If I, if I have my head down here, I’m hiding behind the, the beers.

Scott: The good news is we’re in Bath, so no one’s gonna be able to tell the difference in your driving anyway.

Peter: You can’t, you can’t tell if I’m falling asleep behind here. I’m just nodding off behind the beer.

Scott: Yeah. He’s just being wise and closing his eyes sagely. I often sit and close my eyes when I’m having conversations with people-

Peter: Me too

Scott: … ’cause I’m thinking about things. And usually when I open my eyes, everybody’s gone.

Peter: I hear our president does that too.

Scott: Usually when I open my eyes, everybody’s gone.

Peter: Ah, that’s the sign for the rude panda. Apparently, that’s a rude gesture that he’s giving you, so…

Scott: But see, but he does have his thumb out, so it’s not, it’s not this gesture ’cause he does have-

Peter: No, it’s not

Scott: … his thumb out.

Peter: It’s just two.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: It’s a peace sign, but apparently somewhere backwards, that means something else. So he’s being rude.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Oh. I think I’ve pretty much given a micro review of each of the beers already. Have you… You haven’t touched all yours though. You’re going sequentially.

Scott: I’ve gone one by one at the bottom.

Peter: You’re going serial or as I did some actual-

Scott: Right. Actually, what I’m gonna do, I still have, I still have this much of the Belgian wit or the PoWit. I’m gonna try some of this porter because I feel like I’m not gonna like this and I’m not gonna drink it. Remind me what this is called.

Peter: Rude Panda.

Scott: This is the Rude Panda?

Peter: Rude Panda.

Scott: Yes, you’re right.

Peter: Imperial Porter. Eight some odd percent alcohol. What’s up ([background chatter])

Scott: It’s not the worst porter I’ve ever had, but it is everything that a porter makes me not like.

Peter: Is it the worst porter that you’ve had today?

Scott: It is th- this is the worst porter I’ve had today.

Peter: That’s a ringing endorsement. ([laughs])

Scott: I don’t like it.

Peter: Nope.

Scott: I’m not drinking it.

Peter: The, uh, official rating on the, uh, porter, thumbs down.

Scott: But that’s mainly because it’s a porter. I don’t think it’s a bad porter, I just think it’s a porter.

Peter: It’s good, just, you just, there’s nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it’s a porter and everything else about it.

Scott: Porter reminds me of those things that people like when they taste like leather couch or whatever.

Peter: Notes of pencil lead, saddle leather, pomegranate seeds.

Scott: I’ve never understood the need to eat one’s furniture, unless you were a dog, in which case, go for it, until your owners come home and beat you. Go pugilistic on the-

Peter: The proximate-

Scott: … proximate residence canine

Peter: … residence canine. Oh, man, those are the days.

Scott: By the way, cheers, John. What’s his name? Nemo.

Peter: Nemo.

Scott: John Nemo.

Peter: John Nemo. Ha- shout out. Is he s- is he on, like, Mastodon or Bluesky or…?

Scott: No idea. I haven’t talked to him in decades.

Peter: Maybe we should look for him.

Scott: Anyway, cheers to you and-

Peter: To John Nemo and John Siracusa, if you’re watching this episode. We’re sure you’re not.

Scott: I used to make totally tongue-in-cheek jokes about people who would beat the neighbor’s dog, and he took exception to that, so Peter coined the phrase, “Go p- go pugilistic on the proximate residence canine.” ([laughs])

Peter: Correct. ([laughs]) That was good.

Scott: That made me laugh, even way back in 1981-

Peter: That was-

Scott: … or whenever that was

Peter: … no, that was, that was Pocket-Sized Podcast.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: That was-

Scott: That was probably 2008, ’9, ’10, somewhere in there

Peter: … I think that was, uh, yeah, that was after the Fresh Ubuntu time, and that wrapped up in, like, 2008.

Scott: 2000 who?

Peter: Eight or nine.

Scott: Yeah, so this is probably 2008 or ’9 time. 2009.

Peter: It was around the time when I moved down here.

Scott: Oh.

Peter: So that was 2012 when I moved down here, so it was in that era. Well, it was before that, ’cause the iPhone 4 came out when I moved down here.

Scott: We’d wrapped up… Pocket-Sized Podcast was dead well before 2012, ’cause I remember changing groups and going to the Ronald Reagan campus in 2013, and Pocket-Sized Podcast had been dead for quite a while before then.

Peter: Okay. Well, but we were recording it when the iPhone 4S came out.

Scott: And when was that?

Peter: I thought that was around 2012. Let’s consult the oracle.

Scott: Let’s consult the oracle of death.

Peter: Someone just mentioned me on Ma- on, uh, Bluesky.

Scott: Oh, really? Bluesky-

Peter: All I see is just…

Scott: 2011, iPhone 4S.

Peter: I was close.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: All I see is a bunch of, like, @ name, name, name, name, name @ Bluesky. I have no idea.

Scott: I think we probably wrapped up Pocket-Sized Podcast not long after the iPhone 4S came out, so it was probably either really late 2011 or early 2012.

Peter: Well, ’cause I remember when Siri was introduced, Siri was a cohost of Pocket-Sized Podcast.

Scott: That’s true. Actually, you know what? I, I wonder if I, I wonder if I was already into 2013 before we… We might have had Pocket-Sized Podcast into 2013, now that I think about it.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Yeah, you-

Peter: Because-

Scott: … you did. You’re right

Peter: … but you also, you paused it, and then you, you, you discontinued it, but then you brought it back again after that too.

Scott: Yeah, to m- to much mockery and dismay.

Peter: But how is that any different? It was always that way.

Scott: It was always that way.

Peter: Oh, man. Do we have any other topics, or should we save our listener… Well, you’re, you’re still, you’re still reviewing. You haven’t tasted your stout or your Mexican lager yet.

Scott: Okay. Let’s do this, then, and these are not a commitment. These are not a statement of things that you are doing or would do or necessarily are invested in or involved in. Think of some businesses that, if you had all the time in the world right now, think of some business ideas, uh, let’s stick to… No, let’s not stick to computing. What, what are some business i- ideas that you would pursue right now given infinite time and, and not necessarily infinite financial resources, but may- close to your current financial resources, but infinite time?

Peter: Any specific goal in mind?

Scott: No.

Peter: Like-

Scott: But, like, okay, you know your area of specialty when it comes to computing. What would you do different, what would you do differently now? What, what other things would you branch into that seem like better opportunities or more interesting now? Or it could just be as simple as, “I wanna open a coffee shop again.” It could be anything.

Peter: I was gonna think, like, if money is not the object, owning a coffee shop/yoga studio still has an appeal to me. But I’m thinking also maybe a running store.

Scott: Okay. So you could do yoga for runners.

Peter: Yoga for runners, coffee for runners.

Scott: Coffee for runners.

Peter: The yoga studio upstairs, running store on one side, and coffee shop adjacent to it.

Scott: You could make a special line of running underwear called run-derwear. It’s probably been done, but sure. Most of my good ideas have been done. I once, Peter, I once invented… So I had a German shepherd, and in the winter, scooping poop was not a problem for reasons that seem obvious to you. The poops were frozen. In the summer, it was terrible. They would smear all over the shovel. It was just a bad idea to have a dog that pooped in the summer. So what I did was I said, I told… So having worked at Intel and having worked in semiconductor test, I was familiar with liquid nitrogen. I said, “I’m gonna invent a product called the poop-sicle.” ([laughs]) And you’d basically take the, the poop and blast some LN2 on it, and next thing you know, it’s hard as a rock, and you pick it up and just scoop it and it’s great It had already been done. I was not the first one to think of the Poopsicle. I don’t think it was called that-

Peter: I just feel like-

Scott: … but it was the same product. It was-

Peter: ([laughs])

Scott: … people spraying it with something that would freeze it into a hard form.

Peter: Right.

Scott: I was not the only dog owner that was out there in the summer going, “My God, this smelly poo is a bad idea.” ([laughs])

Peter: I love how you’re like, “It was a bad idea getting a dog that pooped in the summer.” ([laughs]) Right, you should get the kind of dog that only poops in the winter. ([laughs]) That’s gonna hibernate all through summer and not poop.

Scott: I mean, dogs do try to do their best to obey, so I’m sure I could have… Nikia was a good dog. I’m sure she would’ve tried her hardest not to poop in the summer.

Peter: Oh, God.

Scott: Anyway, that was a business idea I had that didn’t last very long. Someone had stolen my idea prematurely.

Peter: But that’s just proof that the business idea would work.

Scott: Yeah, but it’s also proof that almost all ideas are taken, so you have to… It can’t depend on being the first player in any market.

Peter: Bingo. Exactly. I was gonna say, sounds like you’re d- planning on depending on being first to market, so that’s an original idea. And I’ve never thought that originality was my strong point, so I’m not seeking that. Depending on that, I should say.

Scott: You’re not seeking the validation of being the first-

Peter: Not depending on the… Not depending.

Scott: So, so what else would you… Okay, so h- here’s a question for you.

Peter: I don’t know. I’m feeling the beer, though.

Scott: Here’s a question for you. I’m actually remarkably not that, feeling it that much yet.

Peter: Wow.

Scott: But I also put my porter down.

Peter: Right.

Scott: Uh, so here’s a question for you. I can understand, I think a business that had the yoga for runners and the running equipment, I, I could see that being… But putting the coffee, I’m not sure how well that would mix.

Peter: So when I was in Costa Rica at one of the tourist towns, I do recall distinctly a yoga studio over a coffee shop.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: I think that they’re complementary. I think that they can largely o-

Scott: You could certainly go for a nice coffee after your yoga session.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: So-

Peter: I think they can apply… They, they’re, they’re… It’s a, uh… They can attract similar demographics.

Scott: So tell the listener again what kind of stout this is.

Peter: That is a dry Irish stout.

Scott: Okay. I’m gonna see how dry it is and-

Peter: How dry is it-

Scott: … I’m gonna see how Irish it is

Peter: … or how wet is it? Maybe it’s a wet Irish stout.

Scott: It’s pretty liquidy.

Peter: Wet Irish stout.

Scott: That is good. It’s not too strong. It’s not offensive. This is not a leather couch. This is good. I like this. Stouts tend to be better than porters anyway.

Peter: Porters-

Scott: Porters have too much s-

Peter: Stouts are… I think it’s a misnomer. Stouts are not as stout as I would expect them to be. Porter, I don’t think of, you know, I don’t think of, like, a big, strong hit with a porter. Although, I guess, you know, if they’re carrying your bags for you.

Scott: See, porters are more opinionated. They have a you will like this peculiar strong flavor or you will hate this drink quality to them.

Peter: Fair enough.

Scott: This is more neutral, but it is dark.

Peter: It’s good.

Scott: I like this. I’m surprised that you said this was a, a less watery Guinness. And if that’s the case, then Guinness must be incredibly watery.

Peter: Yeah, it is. Guinness is weak. Listener, write, write in. Tag us. Let us know. Is Guinness relatively weak on the-

Scott: Uh-

Peter: … beer spectrum?

Scott: Think what Peter meant to say was-

Peter: Not saying bad, just saying weak.

Scott: I think what Peter meant to say was VLAN tag us.

Peter: Oh, man, you had to go there.

Scott: We just spent a week installing, uh-

Peter: Yeah, don’t talk to me about VLANs

Scott: … Sophos, uh, firewalls and-

Peter: I don’t know what you’re talking about

Scott: … due to some circumstances-

Peter: I was on vacation

Scott: … beyond our control, our VLAN tags weren’t making it from one place to another.

Peter: ([sighs])

Scott: So why, why does Sophos call them tagging when other people call them trunking?

Peter: Well, no, I mean, Sophos and, uh, Aruba… Aruba, Cisco… Wait, yeah. No, HP Aruba, I think they call it trunking.

Scott: They do call it trunking, ’cause that’s, that’s what Ryan was… He kept calling them trunking.

Peter: I don’t remember if Cisco calls it trunking or tagging, but there’s a… Yeah, some places call it, says trunking and tagging.

Scott: I think Cisco calls it trunking.

Peter: Yeah. It’s, it’s weird. VLANs were something I, I never really understood long ago.

Scott: Honestly, the word trunking is dumber to me than tagging.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Tagging makes more sense for what you’re actually doing.

Peter: Yeah, I think so. But I think, you know, I just wish someone had explained VLANs to me as, like, just imagine there are a bunch of… When you have a VLAN, it’s like having a single switch, and that’s it. Like, that bank of ports, whether it’s on one switch or several, it’s like a single switch. That’s all there is to it. That’s how I remember it now.

Scott: As long as you tag the entire chain, it’s like a switch spread across your campus or whatever.

Peter: It’s kinda cool.

Scott: Yeah, it is very cool.

Peter: ([sighs]) So what’s your latest Claude Code project?

Scott: I don’t have anything new at the moment. Uh, one thing I am gonna do is… I… Oh, one th- did I talk to you about my Obsidian Vault? So I do-

Peter: Mm-hmm

Scott: … following my brother’s lead, my brother is a prodigious reader. He reads tons of stuff online, and he saves it all. He saves it all to his Obsidian Vault. He is very organizational.

Peter: ([coughs])

Scott: And so he has set Claude on helping him follow a very specific system for tagging, organizing, relating, tracking his Obsidian documents.

Peter: ([coughs])

Scott: And so I have started turning Claude Code loose on my Obsidian Vault as well. I haven’t gone all in, and I still have work to do on it, but it is becoming a much mo- more cohesive space and a logical space. So that’s one thing that I’m doing. Another thing that I’m doing is, uh, I’m using it to, uh… Every, any time I have a specific venture that I wanna get into, I make a, a project in Claude. Not in Claude Code, but in Claude. ([coughs]) Make a project so I can organize all my chats around that.

Peter: Mm-hmm.

Scott: And so forth. So I had a YouTube one when I was setting up our YouTube channel. I have some that are related to, uh, a business that I’m working with, Paradigm Consulting. I have some- … for various things that I’m trying to do in my life in terms of where we want to go live, uh, and how we’re gonna get there and so on and so forth. So aside from that, as far as just coding goes, it’s mostly just the ones that I’ve talked about before.

Peter: I had an idea for one the other day. I don’t remember if we talked about this. What was it? Uh-

Scott: Let’s talk about it.

Peter: What?

Scott: Let’s talk about it.

Peter: Yeah. I’m trying to remember what it is now. Oh, so the last… The most recent one I did was I made a… I had Claude make for me a script to pull a Patreon creator’s Patreon page and download all of the files to which I’m entitled.

Scott: One thing that I was thinking about was, and I, I kind of feel bad because Robb Knight is a very nice man, and he runs a service that I use to cross-post to different places automatically when I do certain things, when I publish a blog post.

Peter: That’s not Master Feed, is it?

Scott: Huh?

Peter: It’s not Master Feed?

Scott: EchoFeed.

Peter: EchoFeed. Got it. Okay.

Scott: But I’m thinking about creating my own one of those.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Like, why not do some of those things and not… You know, just over time you pay for a few less things, you know?

Peter: Right. Well, actually, that was the more recent one I started doing, was… Yeah, I told… I, yeah, we talked about this. I told you this the other night. I started, Claude is working on a way for me to, when I post a YouTube video, scan the content of it and create a corresponding blog post in the appropriate blog that I posted that in. So-

Scott: Let’s see. Another one that I just thought of, because last night, lying in bed at your house, not in your bed, in the guest room, I found out about Matt Birchler’s app, his read later app called Quick Reads? I’m not sure what it’s called. Anyway, uh, Quick Reads, yeah. And so the neat, the neat thing about this one is he has an API. So this has a website, or you can use the iOS app, or you can use the API and pull the articles you read or push articles you wanna read. So I was thinking that I could, uh… Like, on my website I have a page that says what I’m doing now, and it has YouTube videos I’ve recently watched, podcast episodes I’ve recently listened to. And I have scripts that pull all that for me, uh, automate it, get the thumbnails, put everything in there the way I want it, and then all I have to do is compile my site as normal and push it. So I’m thinking I should use the API to have it, you know, document articles that I’ve recently pushed into here to read later. Things like that, little things like that. But there are some, there are some work related things. I w- I definitely have some LinkedIn related things I wanna do.

Peter: Mm-hmm. That’s cool.

Scott: But I think that, I think that I will have projects that relate to life change, trying to become an expat, trying to figure out a different life, just ’cause we need a change. The place we live in, in, near Portland is expensive, and there’s not really a whole lot of enjoyment return anymore. It’s so crowded that although there’s a lot to do around there, there’s no point in doing it because it takes four hours to get everywhere. Uh, so anyway, yeah. Projects like that. But in terms of programming projects, I haven’t started any new ones lately.

Peter: Fair enough. Yeah.

Scott: But-

Peter: I still am trying to… I haven’t touched it, ’cause I was out of, you know, away from my setup all week, but I haven’t touched my, uh-

Scott: Yeah, I didn’t

Peter: … keyboard video mouse sharing, or keyboard mouse sharing project for a week now.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Still trying to just get that ready so I can ship version 1.0.

Scott: Ship it.

Peter: I want to, but I wanna ship a working project. Call me kooky.

Scott: Real artists ship.

Peter: Ship it.

Scott: So this is the… These both, these two remaining ones that I have are both the Mexican lager.

Peter: Cheers.

Scott: Cheers.

Peter: I’ll take one of those now.

Scott: Yep.

Peter: Cheers.

Scott: Thank you, Jesus. De nada. Too soon? Ah. That’s a pretty good Mexican lager.

Peter: Yeah, I like it.

Scott: I think out of all the ones that I’ve had so far, I think that stout was my… I drank… Uh, where did the stout come from?

Peter: Where did it come from?

Scott: Oh, this one. Right. ([laughs]) I thought I had been drinking your stout.

Peter: Where did the stout-

Scott: The stout striker

Peter: … come from? Uh, Ireland apparently. It was an Irish stout. It was-

Scott: Yeah. So anyway, I, I think the Irish stout was by far my favorite so far. I’m not, I’m not drinking the rest of the porter. This is how much I have left.

Peter: Yeah. I never… Yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan myself of that one. It was just-

Scott: I can’t believe I ordered that considering that I don’t like porters. But you said Greg liked it.

Peter: Yeah. Well, he does.

Scott: Should we drive by his house and toss it on his lawn? ([laughs]) Why are there people leaving cups of liquid on my lawn grass?

Peter: ([laughs]) Oh, boy. Yep, we get silly when we drink beer. Sometimes we’re silly when we start. Wow, there’s some good sounds on these glasses.

Scott: They really are, yeah.

Peter: That was-

Scott: Oh, you can-

Peter: … way different

Scott: … clink. Oh, that’s beautiful. Okay, now do, do the trash that you heard earlier and just shove it all on the floor. ([laughs])

Peter: Oh, man. Have you tasted everything yet? I mean, you have.

Scott: I have tasted everything.

Peter: Should we wrap up this episode? Or were we gonna talk about something new and exciting next week?

Scott: Let’s wrap it up, but let’s give a rating. So, uh-

Peter: Okay. Let’s-

Scott: The Irish stout was my absolute favorite

Peter: I give it a thumbs up.

Scott: Uh, the bitter was okay. It wasn’t bad. I gave it a… Did I give it a 45 degree? Was that the one?

Peter: I thought it was 45.

Scott: Uh, it’s a tossup between the PoWit and the Mexican lager, which is interesting, because normally I would put a Mexican lager way ahead of a Belgian white.

Peter: Mm.

Scott: But in this particular case, this is a little watery. The Mexican lager is a little watery.

Peter: I give both of the PoWits thumbs up, and surprisingly, I give the Heist a 45 degree.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: But still overall positive.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: And the stout I give a thumbs up. So I like-

Scott: Yep

Peter: … everything here, some more than others. The PoWit and the Mexican definitely more than the others.

Scott: Yeah. So the, the Irish stout was my definite favorite.

Peter: And you have only one thumbs down.

Scott: I only have one thumbs down, and that’s the Rude Panda Porter. I’ll give him a red thumbs down. Yeah.

Peter: Cool.

Scott: He can put that in his panda hole.

Peter: On that note, do you wanna tell your friends? Tell your friends.

Scott: Uh, you can find us on friendswithbrews.com. You can find Peter at Peter Runs, Peter Drinks Coffee, Peter Does Yoga. And please look at the lists of equipment that he uses and buy… Unlike me, don’t be me. Use them. I don’t, I’ve never given… I’ve ordered things that Peter has, and I could have given in it, used his affiliate link, and I didn’t, and he reminds me every time.

Peter: It doesn’t get you anything other than the satisfaction of knowing that you might throw me up to maybe, like, a 4% commission. So if you order, like, a dollar product, I get 4 cents back. So just think about that.

Scott: So order enough product… Peter wants his $2, so order enough products that Peter gets $2.

Peter: Well, I wanna try to show a, you know, show a, some sort of income for this business that I have, so yeah, absolutely. All right. On that note, thank you. Cheers and-

Scott: Tell your friends

Peter: … tell your friends. Little red button.