Episode 15 – The Pivot

Scott: Friends with Beer!

Scott: I didn’t play your beloved…

Scott: Have you been scouring the internet for music, Peter?

Scott: For a theme song for this podcast?

Peter: No, Scott, I have been scouring my cupboards for a great cup of coffee.

Scott: You’re gonna make me invoke the name of Mark here.

Scott: It’s Mark.

Scott: Yes, it’s Mark.

Scott: It’s Marko!

Peter: So, Scott, what kind of beer are you drinking on this episode?

Scott: It’s interesting that you should ask me that, Peter, because we are not drinking beer today, but we are drinking brews.

Peter: Friends with Brews?

Scott: Friends with Brews.

Scott: Oh, that sounds like an even worse podcast.

Peter: That sounds like my Croff Maga.

Scott: I was going even darker.

Scott: I thought that sounds like…

Peter: Oh, you were going Friends with Bros.

Scott: No, I was going Friends with Brews, but people who are into pain.

Scott: Like, people who pay others to punch them.

Peter: Wait, there’s a word for that?

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Oh, I mean, like I said, I used to practice Croff Maga, so I was paying for other people to punch me, so…

Scott: That’s true, but in theory, you were supposed to get to where you could fight back.

Peter: Oh, I did.

Scott: Anyway, we are drinking coffee today because it’s the middle of the day, roughly, and you have things to do and I have things to do, and neither of us wanted to contaminate ourselves with beer at this point, with alcohol, I should say.

Peter: Contaminate, yeah, with beer.

Peter: Well, yes, exactly.

Scott: Correct.

Scott: And so, we are drinking brews called coffee, which we also are fans of.

Scott: Your coffee is much lighter than mine, mine’s very black.

Peter: That’s because I put cream in mine.

Scott: That’s because you like the dark oily beans, and that requires cream.

Peter: Do indeed.

Peter: It does not require it, but it does taste better with it.

Peter: So, yeah.

Peter: What coffee are you drinking today, Scott?

Scott: I am drinking a Trailhead Roasters Light Subtle Beauty Columbia.

Scott: And it says aroma, date, pecan roll, cinnamon toast, flavors, apricot, pie crust, and brown sugar.

Scott: Don’t ask me how they think that those aromas come from those flavors, but that is their contention.

Scott: It is a very good coffee.

Scott: I really like it.

Scott: It’s a lighter roast than what we normally get, but it’s super good.

Peter: Okay then.

Scott: And I want to tell the people how I prepare this, though.

Scott: So, I take somewhere between 18 to 20 grams of this to produce about 24 ounces of coffee.

Scott: And I grind it on a medium-ish setting, but that means nothing to you unless you have my grinder, which, hey, we had a grinder story a while back, so.

Peter: We did.

Peter: I was there when you got that grinder.

Scott: The grinder is stack.

Scott: I won’t.

Peter: The what?

Scott: The grinder is stack.

Scott: I won’t.

Scott: You don’t remember?

Scott: That’s what Anna.

Peter: Oh, yeah.

Peter: Now I do.

Scott: Messaged me and that’s what the name of the episode was.

Peter: I do remember that.

Peter: That was pretty hilarious.

Scott: Yeah.

Scott: So, what coffee are you having?

Peter: I am drinking a Wegmans store brand decaf whole bean espresso roast.

Peter: Although it is decaf, it does taste like coffee.

Peter: I don’t know if you remember back in the day when decaf did not taste like coffee.

Peter: It tasted like decaf.

Scott: It did taste like decaf, and it was bad.

Peter: I am so glad that we have passed that, like we’ve come beyond that, because this decaf tastes like coffee.

Peter: From the Wegmans website, bold decaffeinated dark roast coffee that is smooth with notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, and spice.

Peter: 100% arabica coffee sourced and roasted with care to deliver a delightful coffee experience in every cup, perfect for espresso shot and espresso based drinks.

Peter: Our food you feel good about, Yellow Banner, is your shortcut to great tasting products with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Peter: And I must say, I agree with that assessment.

Peter: Do you?

Scott: You agree that there’s no preservatives?

Peter: I agree that it is perfect for an espresso shot or espresso based drinks.

Peter: Now, technically, that is not what this is because I use an Aeropress.

Peter: Technically an Aeropress is not espresso because there’s not enough pressure to qualify for that.

Scott: Correct.

Peter: But the method I use is I grind close to an espresso grind, not quite that much, with my good old fashioned little Cuisinart or Mr.

Peter: Coffee or KitchenAid grinder.

Peter: I don’t remember which it is now and I don’t remember exactly how much grind.

Peter: And I use the inverted Aeropress method, so I pop the bottom off the Aeropress, flip it, put the thing above the plunger in by about an inch, put the coffee in, pour the water in, stir, let it sit, flip, flip, flip.

Peter: When you’re done, when you’re ready, you press it down to expel all the air, flip it over, expel in two cup.

Peter: Boom.

Peter: Drink.

Scott: Let me ask you about that because with some people, the inverted method is a bit of a religion.

Peter: Why?

Scott: Who cares?

Scott: Is it just so that none of the coffee is dripping down into the cup until you’re damn well ready?

Peter: That is one reason.

Peter: That is my main reason.

Peter: Other people, however, other people will say it’s because all of the nasty, bitter gases get expelled before you put them into the cup.

Scott: If you’re, so even if it’s right side up, if you pour water over it, it will bloom anyway, because you can watch the bubbles appear on the top of the coffee.

Scott: If you just cover it with water and let it bloom, it will still bloom.

Scott: I don’t think it has to be upside down.

Scott: I don’t I don’t buy that.

Peter: Yeah, I’m more in the I don’t like to see any precious valuable drippiness get contaminating the cup prior to being forced out of the thing.

Peter: I don’t want if I’m going to if I’m going to make coffee, I’m going to be kicking it out.

Peter: Damn it.

Peter: You’re not going to leave when you feel like it.

Peter: You’re going to leave when I say you leave.

Scott: I guess I can see that it’s just that I’ve tried both ways with the air press, and I can’t tell any difference in taste at all.

Scott: And here’s the other thing.

Scott: When I use the Kalita Wave to do the pour over, which I always do unless we go somewhere and then I use the air press, the pour over ones, they inevitably drip some in there anyway when it’s blooming.

Scott: When you first cover the grounds with just enough water to let it bloom, some of it drips down into the cup anyway.

Scott: But it doesn’t matter.

Peter: But pour over, there’s no pressure involved.

Peter: You’re just letting it fall through on its own accord, even though you’re going for the bloom, I get that.

Peter: But you do let it just sit.

Peter: Whereas with an air press or espresso, the whole idea is that you’re expressing.

Scott: But you don’t do that until after you let it bloom.

Scott: And so the air press, you’re already letting the gases out before you start the pressure.

Scott: In that sense, there is no difference.

Scott: And therefore, being upside down or not doesn’t matter.

Scott: That’s my contention.

Peter: I like it because if, God forbid, I get distracted by, say, a phone call or knock at the door, I can leave it there and it hasn’t all fallen through by the time I get back to it.

Scott: No, no, I’m not saying there aren’t valid reasons to control when it drips.

Scott: There absolutely are.

Scott: I just don’t believe all those people that say-

Scott: The religion.

Scott: The gas.

Peter: Yes.

Peter: Like I said, that’s just what I’ve been told.

Peter: The gas.

Peter: So, what are we talking about?

Peter: The last few episodes have been rather Peter-centric.

Peter: This is supposed to be a Scott-centric episode, so let’s hear it.

Scott: First of all, let us talk about whether or not-

Peter: Okay, great.

Peter: Let me tell you what I’ve been up to.

Scott: Good to talk to you, Peter.

Scott: I’m just going to go jump out this window over here and-

Peter: Let me tell you about the time I jumped out a window.

Scott: All the way down, I’m going to be screaming, Peter is my friend.

Scott: What happened here?

Scott: Well, he jumped, officer.

Scott: What did he say?

Scott: Peter is my friend?

Scott: That explains that.

Peter: Sounds awfully incriminating.

Scott: Peter was my friend, too.

Scott: So anyway, I think that we should talk about whether or not we are going to pivot to Friends with Brew, because if this podcast goes from Friends with Beer, which is fun, but limited, but limiting in terms of brew and therefore time of day and sometimes even the whole day, if we pivot to Friends with Brew, is that something we actually want to do?

Scott: Because then we could drink tea, we could drink coffee, we could drink beer, we could not drink toilet water.

Peter: What other things can you brew?

Scott: I don’t know.

Peter: What drink?

Peter: Let me just ask the computer.

Peter: What drinks can you brew?

Scott: What does the word brew mean?

Peter: That’s a good question too.

Peter: Drink recipes, all recipes, mixed beer drink recipes, beer cocktail recipes, 18 different coffee drinks, things you can make with an espresso drink.

Peter: The best whiskey drinks at home?

Scott: Do you brew whiskey?

Scott: Is whiskey a brew?

Scott: Is whiskey considered a brew?

Peter: And, of course, the word brew shows up nowhere when I search this search result for whatever.

Peter: But I did get some ads for some sectional sofas, which I am in need for, so I’m going to just let you talk for a little while while I go read these advertisements.

Scott: For sectional sofas.

Peter: I do need one, yeah, because Elvin will be here by the 25th, so I gotta have it waiting for me by the time I get back from my race.

Scott: I was going to say two days after your watch gets picked up by you in person, we’re supposed to be talking about you though.

Peter: So so back to you, Scott.

Peter: Oh, this is a nice sofa.

Peter: This was a great in my living room.

Peter: Let me tell you all about it.

Scott: Okay, Peter, why don’t you do that?

Scott: Why don’t you tell us about the sectional sofa that you’re going to need next time you get drunk on Friends with Beer?

Scott: Brews?

Scott: And call Weggemanns and sit there calling your friends saying come eat pizza with me, and everyone says no.

Scott: You need a sofa to sit on.

Scott: No, I’m curious.

Scott: Are we going to are we going to pivot?

Scott: Is it going to become Friends with Brew?

Scott: Brews.

Peter: Why don’t we finish this episode first before we make that determination?

Scott: Okay, that’s fine.

Scott: I just want the listener to realize that we’re more incoherent today drinking coffee than we ever are drinking beer.

Peter: Which is kind of funny.

Scott: Yeah, let that sink in.

Scott: Let that sink through your filter, people.

Scott: I guess what I wanted to talk about was you have recently gone back to using a Mac.

Scott: You’ve bought yourself a nice MacBook Air M2.

Peter: Oh, yes, sir.

Scott: And you are enjoying it very much.

Scott: My Mac is a late 2015 iMac, a 27 inch 5K, beautiful monitor.

Scott: However, it is definitely advancing in years.

Scott: It’s not super bad performance because it’s a core i7 3 gigahertz and it’s got all SSDs in it.

Scott: It’s got a lot of memory, but it’s no modern Mac, that’s for sure.

Scott: And I can’t upgrade to whatever it is they’re working on right now.

Scott: Veronica, what’s the name of it?

Scott: Ventura.

Peter: Betty Veronica, I don’t know.

Scott: Archie Jughead.

Peter: Archie.

Scott: Yeah, I can’t upgrade to Mac OS Jughead.

Scott: So it’s time, even though I can’t afford another Mac right now, it’s time for me to start really thinking about getting another Mac.

Scott: And as you know, I’ve had this desktop Mac, and I’ve had a 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Scott: And as you know, I can get quite a bit of work done on my iPad Pro.

Scott: But the truth is, I do a lot of work with modern web frameworks, and you really can’t do that on an iPad Pro.

Scott: You have memory limitations.

Scott: You can’t even do a real FTP for crying out loud.

Scott: Still, you know, there are apps that will do the FTP, but you can’t be guaranteed that it won’t just stop right in the middle, that the app won’t be kicked out of memory, all these things.

Scott: And you can’t have an editor that uses a language server processor, so you can’t support a lot of current things like TypeScript.

Scott: You can’t support a lot of TypeScript-based development environments.

Scott: It’s just a whole lot of limitations that make it not worth it for me anymore.

Scott: And so, my plan now is to replace my 2015 iMac with whatever next version of the MacBook Pro comes out, and then to get an Apple Studio display.

Scott: However, that combination is going to be like, you know, because I want two terabytes of storage, because I want as much RAM as I can afford, because I want to get a computer that I can keep for many, many years, that combination is going to cost me like five grand.

Scott: That is the downside.

Scott: That’s the downside of going to a laptop, dude.

Scott: They’re freaking expensive compared to the desktops.

Scott: But I can take it with me anywhere, and when I want to sit on my bed and do my web stuff, I can do that.

Peter: That is the price of portability.

Scott: Yeah, and then I think I will use some sort of iPad for like reading and stuff like that, because the iPad is still…

Scott: I’m not going to go into why I’ve used the iPad for so long.

Scott: Either people like it or they don’t.

Scott: For everything but things like programming and doing technical work, the iPad is just a way more enjoyable experience.

Scott: It just…

Scott: A laptop always has that stupid hinge with that stupid keyboard there, and the screen is never quite as good, although the new MacBook Pro screen should be pretty amazing.

Scott: And it’s just like…

Scott: It’s not something…

Scott: I’m not a guy that wants to sit and watch my movies or TV shows or read a book on a computer on a laptop or even a desktop.

Scott: I just don’t want to.

Scott: Those devices aren’t best for that.

Scott: They’re not fun for that.

Scott: It’s not a good experience for that.

Scott: So anyway, blah, blah, blah.

Scott: But anyway, the long story short is, I’m going to ruin my daughter’s future by taking whatever tiny bit of college money she could have had and put it towards a MacBook Pro at some point.

Scott: Not really, but sort of really.

Peter: Well, as knowledgeable as she is with Google Chrome apps and stuff, I think she would be way more effective on a MacBook.

Peter: So I would say I would support that.

Peter: How’s your coffee, by the way?

Scott: No, I just, no, I meant the Mac that I’m buying for myself.

Peter: Oh, you’re just going to buy it and not give her anything.

Scott: I only have so much money, Peter.

Scott: I only have so much money, and buying an Apple laptop plus a monitor will take all of the money and then some.

Peter: Have you thought about making more money?

Scott: No, Peter, that never occurred to me.

Peter: Well, think about that.

Scott: Brilliant observation.

Scott: I’ll wait for you to tell me exactly how I’m going to do that.

Peter: Fair enough.

Peter: Tune in next episode for the big reveal.

Scott: Yeah.

Scott: Apparently, I have to go hijack Adam’s farm and…

Peter: You could steal his business and my business while you’re at it.

Scott: See, I don’t know if…

Scott: Do you still listen to Darknet Diaries?

Peter: I do not.

Peter: I stopped.

Peter: You told me that he got better after a while, but I stopped when…

Peter: Yes, but there was an extended period of time when it felt like all he was doing was like, you know, I know this douchebag did a bunch of really stupid things and broke all these laws, but we should give him a second chance.

Peter: And I was like, I’ve had enough of that.

Peter: So, that was literally like episode after episode after episode.

Peter: That’s the vibe I was getting.

Peter: And I’m like, I can’t.

Scott: I was somewhere in between because I’m not…

Scott: See, I think people should be hacking things.

Scott: I don’t think people should be ruining businesses and stealing confidential information and stealing money.

Scott: There are lines.

Peter: There are lines.

Scott: Exactly.

Scott: I’m absolutely okay with…

Scott: Not all laws are there because they are 100% moral and just and the absolute right thing.

Scott: They’re there because some asshole doesn’t want to be inconvenienced.

Peter: I understand and appreciate that.

Peter: I’m just saying that the tone of multiple successive episodes was just not resonating with me, so I stopped.

Scott: What bothered me more was there were many episodes in a row where it was some idiot who was not much more than a script kitty, and somehow that was worth talking about.

Scott: I was like, no.

Scott: But he’s gotten a lot better again.

Scott: And anyway, the most recent one was about this guy who read about Facebook buying something for a billion dollars or whatever it was.

Scott: I don’t even remember.

Scott: Maybe it was something cheap.

Scott: Maybe it was only a million.

Scott: Anyway, he started wondering who at Facebook writes those checks?

Scott: Who says, I’m going to buy this thing for a million dollars?

Scott: Does Zuckerberg have to?

Scott: Of course, Zuckerberg has to sign off on it, but who does?

Scott: Anyway, he got to thinking, how can I get money from Facebook?

Scott: And he wound up stealing tens of millions of dollars from Facebook in this clever scheme.

Scott: But he eventually, of course, inevitably got caught and got arrested.

Scott: My point being, I can’t do something like that where I will eventually get caught and go to prison.

Scott: So my only option is to kidnap Adam and take over his lavender farm.

Peter: That tracks.

Peter: Yeah, I think that works.

Scott: Either that or I can hijack your yoga practice from you.

Scott: I can force you to do the yoga on screen at, I mean, people have been forced to do worse things on screen for other people’s financial gain.

Peter: There was that.

Scott: So does that work for you?

Peter: No.

Peter: So we don’t have a lot of time left.

Peter: This is an admittedly short episode.

Peter: You know, call it the pivot if you like.

Peter: But I am curious, have you been observing a day of rest with respect to your exercise regimen?

Scott: I have been.

Scott: So after like four and a half years of exercising every single day, I finally got to the point where it didn’t take a lot.

Scott: All you said was you need to take a day off, and I said, damn straight, I do.

Scott: So I took a day off.

Scott: I think I might have taken two days off.

Scott: Now, I’m to where I take a day off every…

Scott: Somewhere between six to 12 days.

Scott: It’s not exactly weekly or anything like that, but roughly in that timeframe, I will take a day off.

Scott: The hard part right now is that I also am restricting my calories a little bit more to get back down under my drop dead weight.

Scott: And that makes it really hard for me to not go over my calories and not exercise.

Scott: It really starts getting into…

Scott: Obviously it’s not fasting territory, but it definitely gets into damn I’m hungry territory.

Peter: Damn hungry territory.

Peter: Yes.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: Well, you know, it’s a challenge.

Scott: So there have been days where I think I’m going to take a day off today, and then I don’t take a day off because I eat those calories.

Peter: Got it.

Scott: What do you do on days when you’re like, I’m not going to work out, but I don’t want this to be a cheat day?

Scott: Do you just starve?

Peter: No, I end up eating probably a little more than I would want to, but I don’t worry about it.

Scott: What are we talking, like a couple hundred calories over, 300 calories over, something like that?

Peter: Probably, yeah, somewhere between two to five, you know?

Peter: But I generally make up for it later.

Peter: So I’m not terribly worried about it.

Peter: Like we’ve talked about in previous episodes, I’m currently more interested in my cholesterol levels than anything else.

Peter: And as I’ve been tapering for the last week or so, and my big race is this week, I’m noticing I’m still eating like I was.

Peter: Not quite as bad.

Peter: I’m still going over, you know, my normal allotment by maybe a couple hundred calories per day or so.

Peter: Really not worried about it, you know?

Peter: It’s because I’ve got a big race coming.

Scott: Yeah, you’ll be fine.

Scott: Plus, you look great.

Peter: Well, gee, thanks.

Peter: You’re not so bad yourself.

Scott: My problem is, you still have to do those things on video for me.

Scott: I mean, yoga, of course.

Scott: My problem is I go up to my calorie limit every day.

Scott: So it’s not like on my day off, let’s say, I don’t want to exercise, but I want a day off and I go three to 500 calories over, I’m probably not going to recoup those calories realistically on my other days.

Peter: Right.

Scott: I did have a 1700 calorie maximum right now, I put it down to 1500, and I’m not, I’m probably actually eating more like 1600.

Scott: I’m probably not, I don’t think there’s been a day where I’ve actually only ate 1500.

Peter: 1500 is really low, though.

Peter: That’s diet.

Scott: It’s not sustainable at all.

Peter: Ketosis.

Peter: It can be.

Peter: It can be.

Peter: When I was on MetaFest, I was taking about between 1000 and 1200 calories per day.

Scott: Yeah, but you can’t be…

Peter: But you gotta be eating the right stuff.

Scott: You gotta be eating the right stuff, and I don’t know how you could be as active as you are and be on that calorie.

Scott: There’s no way.

Scott: Like, you could not be doing what you’re doing right now and be on that calorie limit, I don’t think.

Peter: That’s quite possible.

Peter: I mean, it’s possible.

Peter: You’d be in pain.

Peter: No, and I was nowhere near as…

Peter: But that’s the thing is, though, that’s a baseline to which you add on your exercise.

Scott: Right, net calories.

Peter: Burning calories.

Scott: Yeah, net calories.

Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott: You’re not saying I’m going to run 10 miles plus literally only 1500 calories.

Peter: No, I am not saying that.

Peter: I’m just saying that you make that your baseline.

Peter: I think you can, you know, an average adult male can safely do a baseline of 1000 calories, not 2000 calories.

Scott: I would be so hungry, dude.

Peter: It’s hard, but it can…

Peter: I did it.

Peter: I did it.

Scott: Even if I ate 1000 calories of celery and carrots, which would be a lot of celery and carrots, I think I might still be hungry.

Peter: But if you ate four hamburgers, you probably wouldn’t.

Scott: Yeah, but four hamburgers is so far past 1000 calories that it doesn’t even remember where 1000 calories was.

Peter: Four impossible burgers is almost exactly 1000 calories.

Peter: So think that about that.

Scott: Is that without…

Peter: Nothing.

Peter: No toppings, no tomato, no lettuce, no bun.

Peter: Just the patties.

Peter: Exactly.

Peter: On that note, I have to go.

Peter: But I have enjoyed this episode of Friends with Brew, and I say we do another one real soon.

Scott: I say so too, but you’re leaving us hanging as to the future of this podcast.

Peter: Yes, I am.

Scott: And the future of all podcasts.

Peter: You’ll have to tune in next time or all podcasts may be damned.

Scott: Okay.

Scott: There are some that need to be damned.

Peter: People can still find us where they found this podcast until further notice, and I say we leave it at that.

Scott: You can currently find us at Friends with Beer Pod.

Peter: Never gonna get old.

Peter: We’re gonna stay at Friends with Beer Pod even when this becomes Friends with Brew Pod.

Scott: Right, it might become Friends with Brew Pod, yeah.

Scott: We’ll keep the Twitter.

Scott: We’ll keep them.

Scott: They’ll just talk to each other.

Scott: They’re the only ones that will interact with each other is those two Twitter accounts.

Peter: That makes perfect sense.

Peter: That tracks.

Peter: That tracks.

Scott: All right, Peter.

Scott: You’ve been a host.

Scott: You’ve been a host.

Peter: It is.

Peter: It is a host.

Peter: All right, in that case, I say we hit the big red button and get the hell out of here and back to work.

Peter: Beep.