Episode 5 – The Loosely Intentional Marathoner

Scott: Spooky Friends with Beer.

Scott: Your face says a lot.

Peter: Is that what that was?

Scott: Yeah, that was spooky Friends with Beer.

Scott: Peter, it’s been a while.

Peter: It has been a while.

Scott: Now, while we’re recording this, it is very close to Halloween.

Scott: And I almost bought a pumpkin ale, but most of the pumpkin ales I’ve had have been pretty terrible, so I opted not to do that this time.

Peter: I also have not, I did not buy a pumpkin ale.

Peter: I have had good ones, but I did not buy one for today.

Peter: And I also did not go to my fallback Octoberfest, which would still be technically seasonally valid.

Scott: Relevant, yeah.

Peter: Instead, I’m drinking, well, not yet, but I will be drinking.

Scott: Well, go ahead and crack it open.

Peter: A Breckenridge Brewing vanilla porter.

Scott: Oh, very nicely done, sir.

Peter: So, dear listener.

Peter: And now I will pour.

Scott: Actually, so here’s the, listen to this and see what you think.

Scott: This is the sound effect I have now for, instead of the bubble bleep for swearing.

Peter: That’s a lot of cussing that you can cover with that.

Scott: Right.

Scott: So we better do a lot.

Scott: Okay.

Scott: I have.

Peter: So we got to swear a lot, right?

Peter: If we’re going to swear, swear good.

Scott: I have a Ninkasi or Ninkasai.

Scott: I don’t know how they pronounce themselves.

Peter: Ninkampoop.

Scott: Otis oatmeal stout.

Peter: An Otis oatmeal stout and a port.

Peter: What’s it?

Peter: This is a dark beer kind of episode.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Sweet.

Scott: We were doing lighter beers for a while there.

Peter: Well, it was a lighter temperature and time of year, etc.

Scott: It’s actually pretty nice here today.

Peter: It was, well, here today, as you said, being very close to Halloween, it’s late October, and we definitely have rounded the corner.

Peter: We are in autumn, fall time.

Scott: We have been that way, and today has been a major exception to that.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Although it seems to be cooling back down again, even as I speak.

Scott: It was really sunny and warm out there.

Peter: Cool.

Scott: Now, also because it’s Halloween, I raided the Halloween candy bowl and have a little tiny Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup miniature here for me.

Peter: So I do not have a Halloween candy bowl, but a few months ago, several months ago, vendors sent me some swag, including a bunch of candy, like that kind of candy that you’re eating, like the garbage crap candy that I never eat.

Peter: So if I do get some trick or treaters, they’re going to get like full sized candy bars and full on bag of Reese’s pieces and things like that.

Peter: So we shall see.

Scott: I admit, I love chocolate, I really do.

Scott: Usually better chocolates than that, but Reese’s peanut butter cups are pretty good.

Peter: Reese’s is pretty good, but I greatly prefer the ones that I make.

Peter: Although I will say I did buy, so every time I’m in like a CVS or a Rite Aid or something and I see Reese’s stuff, I will pick one up for the owner of the yoga studio that I teach at because she loves peanut butter cups.

Peter: Normally, I’ll make my own, but lately, I just haven’t been motivated to do that for a bit.

Peter: So I did pick up two for her this year.

Peter: One is a Halloween-themed one, so it’s like pumpkin shaped.

Peter: I don’t know if it’s pumpkin flavor, but it’s pumpkin shaped.

Peter: And the other one is Reese’s organic peanut butter cups.

Scott: Really?

Peter: I’m tempted to try it myself just to see if it’s any good, but I don’t know.

Peter: I might.

Peter: I might.

Peter: So Jenna, if you’re listening, and I know you’re not, and you only get one peanut butter cup in the next two weeks, then that means I ate the organic one.

Scott: Give me the name of the brewery and the name of the beer again.

Peter: This is Breckenridge Brewery, Vanilla Porter, and it’s good.

Scott: Now, I want to say something about Ninkasi.

Scott: Anyway, a lot of the breweries around Portland or around Oregon, because this is a Eugene Brewery, I think, and Washington.

Scott: A lot of the breweries that I will be drinking beers from as we do this for the next 25 years.

Scott: They’re kind of like frenemies.

Peter: Yep.

Scott: Like, they don’t have a lot of stuff that I like.

Scott: In fact, they have some stuff that I actively dislike, but every now and then they have like one or two goodies.

Scott: You know what I mean?

Peter: Wait, wait, wait.

Peter: They’re frenemies with you or with other breweries?

Scott: I’m frenemies with them.

Peter: Oh, I thought you were saying like the breweries had like a friendly enemy relationship with each other or something.

Scott: No, I don’t care about their personal lives.

Scott: What I’m saying is, there’s a lot of them that make beer that I really don’t find that appealing, and I feel is overrated.

Scott: But then every now and then they have like one or two good ones, you know?

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: Insert every IPA ever.

Scott: Oh, yeah.

Scott: Well, yeah.

Scott: And I’m not I wasn’t even counting IPA yet.

Scott: Well, I kind of was.

Scott: But yeah, yes, IPA.

Scott: That’s a whole other topic.

Scott: But yeah, even without the IPAs, there’s several that are OK, but I don’t know why they seem overrated.

Scott: And then they have a couple.

Scott: Then maybe if they’re lucky, they have a couple of good ones.

Scott: Another one that comes to mind is Breakside.

Scott: I think it’s called Breakside Brewing, which is a local one here.

Scott: And they’re OK.

Scott: They’ve got some OK ones.

Scott: I know people that really are crazy about them and put them on a pedestal.

Scott: But they do have some that are good, but they’re not, you know, I don’t know, whatever.

Peter: Well, there is no accounting for taste.

Peter: It is and are not a science.

Peter: So to each their own, you know, let people.

Scott: That is true.

Peter: Let people drink their beer.

Scott: But are even IPA?

Scott: So you’re telling me that you don’t silently judge people to think IPA is the greatest thing ever.

Peter: I said nothing of the sort.

Peter: I’m judging them from here to kingdom come.

Peter: But if they want to doom themselves to drinking crap beer, let them.

Scott: Yes, yes, that should be their right.

Peter: Actually, it’s their wrong, but you know.

Scott: It should be their wrong.

Peter: It is their wrong.

Scott: Like I said, we’re recording this near Halloween, but I’m not sure exactly when it’s going to come out.

Scott: I have six days off.

Scott: During that six days, I plan to finish moving our website from one server to another.

Scott: Now, why does that take six days?

Scott: Well, because I’m, I was in the bubble sort website, and now I’m creating my own website.

Scott: But anyway, I’m getting there.

Scott: I like what I’ve done so far.

Scott: I’m pretty close.

Scott: I have a task list that’s getting smaller by the minute.

Scott: And hopefully I will finish that this week.

Scott: And then all of our previous episodes will be there, as well as this new episode.

Peter: Excellent.

Scott: So, migration.

Scott: And by the way, I just want to say that programming is something that you can go down rat hole after rat hole for an entire career.

Scott: And web development is triply so.

Scott: There are so many frameworks, so many languages, so many tools, so many utilities, so many religions.

Scott: And, my gosh.

Peter: So, what you’re saying is you’re doing this a new way every week just to learn something new because it gets old so fast?

Scott: No, I didn’t want to use Hugo again because I don’t like the Go programming language and because I particularly don’t like Go’s templating language.

Scott: I think it’s the Go templating language that Hugo uses.

Scott: Either that or it’s a custom one that they made up.

Scott: Either way, I don’t like it.

Scott: It’s got Yoda syntax.

Scott: It’s annoying.

Scott: And one thing about Hugo is, although they did seem to think of everything, they didn’t actually think of everything.

Scott: And if you want to add something that’s not in the framework, your SOL, whereas with 11D, it’s a JavaScript based thing that is built on top of Node.

Scott: And guess what?

Scott: Node has tons and tons of utilities and packages.

Scott: And if you want to add a feature that’s not in 11D, there’s probably an NPM install for that.

Scott: And it’s great.

Scott: I’ve already done several things like that, where I’ve either installed some utilities or created my own plugins.

Scott: And man, it’s really nice.

Scott: You can create your own filters, your own plugins.

Scott: It’s super flexible and nice.

Scott: I’m enjoying it because it’s just freaking JavaScript that you’re typing in instead of a stunted version of Go.

Peter: I have never seen or written anything in Go, so I can’t judge.

Peter: I mean, I can.

Scott: Well, I think I was judging Go based on this templating language that Hugo uses, and I think that was unfair because I think Go is actually a fairly normal, fairly decent language, but its templating syntax is insane.

Scott: Anyway, enough of that.

Scott: But anyway, we’re not dead.

Scott: We’re just resting.

Peter: Well, sometimes it’s important to rest, like after you run a marathon.

Scott: You did run a marathon, did you not?

Peter: I did.

Scott: I was going to talk about Marathon Man.

Peter: That’s me now.

Scott: You’re Dustin Hoffman now.

Peter: I don’t know the reference, but okay.

Scott: You never heard of Marathon Man?

Peter: Not ringing any bells.

Scott: You’re a young, youngster, aren’t you?

Scott: Marathon Man is a 1976 American suspense thriller film directed by John Schlesinger.

Peter: Schlesinger.

Scott: Uh-huh.

Scott: Adapted from a 1974 novel of the same title and stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, you may have heard of him.

Peter: I have.

Scott: Roy Scheider, you may have heard of Roy Scheider.

Scott: And a bunch of other people.

Peter: Cool.

Peter: Not to be confused with Rob Schneider.

Scott: No, and eventually Dustin Hoffman gets his tooth extracted as a form of torture.

Peter: Ah, yuck.

Scott: Pretty good.

Peter: Great.

Peter: So yeah, I ran a marathon.

Scott: Why?

Peter: I am a marathoner.

Peter: I did the verb until I became the noun.

Scott: Yeah, let’s talk about that.

Peter: It was long, and it was fun.

Scott: What led up to you doing the marathon?

Scott: You are an accidental marathoner, if I may make a reference.

Peter: The AMP, the Accidental Marathon Podcast?

Peter: I would say I am accidental.

Peter: I don’t know what accidental is the word.

Peter: I certainly wasn’t an unwilling marathoner.

Peter: A loosely intentional marathoner.

Peter: I meant to do it.

Peter: I didn’t just wander into the course, hero starting gun and start running.

Peter: I did deliberately sign up for this.

Peter: But I had been just running on my own.

Peter: My normal routine was usually 10K every other day.

Peter: And then some months, I would mix it up.

Peter: I would do a 5K, 10K, 15K, sort of like staggered ladders and stuff.

Peter: But generally, I just fell back down to around 10K every other day.

Peter: And my friend Greg, my running buddy, with whom I would run usually once, twice or more times a week, was training.

Peter: He had signed up for the Bay State Marathon.

Peter: And I had zero desire to actually run a marathon.

Peter: That was not my plan.

Peter: Wasn’t, you know, no goals, nothing to prove.

Peter: I’m like, I’ve read several books now, and a lot of them talk about how people, they get into running, and then they run a race, and then they just run for fun.

Peter: And I told him, I said, I think I just sort of skipped right to step three.

Peter: I just run for fun, you know, fun and health.

Peter: But then he invited me out a couple of months ago, a few months ago, I guess, to go with him on his weekend long run.

Peter: And he was doing 13.1 miles, which I had done once before in 2019.

Peter: So I said, well, you know what?

Peter: I haven’t done a long, I have not done that long of a run since 2019.

Peter: I’ve done a couple of 10 milers, but why don’t I join him?

Peter: So I did.

Peter: And it felt easier than 2019, and my time was slightly better.

Peter: So the next week, he was doing 14 miles.

Peter: So I said, I’ll run with you too.

Peter: And then after I did that, I was like, you know, this is kind of fun.

Peter: Why don’t I just sign up for the marathon?

Peter: And he was stoked that I would run the marathon with him.

Peter: So I was like, all right, fine.

Peter: And we just, you know, build up, build up.

Peter: We did 16 miles, 17 miles.

Peter: And then the week we were supposed to do 18 miles, we actually did 20.

Peter: And then the following week, we did 20.

Peter: And then it was tapering down for two weeks until the actual race, which was not this past weekend, but the weekend before October 17th, 18th.

Scott: So when we talked, and I know I am fully aware that running is not the same as cycling, and the longest run I’ve ever done is a half marathon.

Scott: But was two weeks too long to taper down, or do you think that actually worked out pretty well?

Peter: I think it worked fine.

Peter: Now, here’s the thing.

Peter: He had a training plan to which I was loosely sticking.

Peter: But one thing we did not do is his original plan included tempo runs and included speed work as well as just distance.

Peter: And we did not focus at all on speed.

Peter: So when people ask me, how was your time?

Peter: I’ll tell you my time.

Peter: It was a little over four and a half hours, but that’s really irrelevant because I was just going for, really, the intention was just to finish.

Peter: If I could have done it faster, that would have been great, but that wasn’t the intent, nor was it what we had trained to do.

Scott: Well, let’s face it.

Scott: There’s a lot of people in this marathon that, if you’re going to get all competitive, you’re kind of wasting your time.

Peter: Oh yeah, yeah.

Scott: For a first marathon.

Scott: Oh, hell yeah.

Scott: And let’s be honest, with people like us, probably forever because there’s people that are so friggin fast at marathons.

Peter: Right.

Peter: And that’s the thing, people will ask me, like, oh, did you run the Boston Marathon?

Peter: And I’m like, ha ha ha, very funny.

Peter: Because Boston, that’s for elite athletes.

Peter: I look at those times, and I would have had to be moving a hell of a lot faster than I was.

Scott: But don’t they have average shows?

Scott: I mean, regular people sign up for the Boston Marathon too, yeah?

Peter: Somehow you can get in.

Peter: Like, apparently, they’ll let certain people in.

Peter: You know, there’s competitions or contests or something like that that you can get in.

Peter: But normally, like, I forget, my time for my age, I would have had to be in, like, the seven-something minutes per mile or maybe eight minutes per mile.

Peter: And I was over ten, right?

Peter: So that’s a significant jump.

Peter: That said, I think that the training we did was perfectly adequate and prepared me for where we ended up.

Peter: And there you go.

Peter: Good.

Scott: Excellent.

Scott: So you didn’t, like, you didn’t start suffering mightily at mile eighteen or something just because, I mean, I’m sure that you suffered, but…

Peter: I was fine.

Peter: My running buddy, unfortunately, he started having trouble, actually, around mile eighteen.

Scott: Why?

Peter: He would start to, you know, getting cramps and stuff.

Peter: So at around mile twenty, twenty-one, I stopped to wait for him.

Peter: And then he caught up.

Peter: I had a few minute lead on him at that point.

Peter: And we just checked in because our agreement was that we were running it together.

Peter: But if one of us started to lag, he had permission to set the other one free.

Scott: Right.

Peter: So I invoked that, and he assured me three times, go, it’s cool, see you at the finish line and stuff.

Peter: So around mile twenty-one, that’s when I broke free and beat him by about eight minutes in the end.

Scott: Was Rocky Music playing when you broke free?

Peter: Rocky Music was not playing.

Peter: There was music playing for a little while, but then after about, I guess, no, it was before.

Peter: I think it was right before we split the batteries in my Jabra, but earbuds died.

Peter: So music stopped playing at that point.

Scott: You know, one thing we haven’t done yet is we haven’t detailed for the listeners what marathon this actually was.

Peter: So I mentioned the Bay State Marathon.

Scott: Oh, you did mention that.

Peter: It was the thirty-third annual Bay State Marathon, and it starts and finishes in Lowell, Massachusetts, and it runs north along the Merrimack River.

Peter: You go north for about…

Peter: I forget how far north.

Peter: You go north like ten miles or so, and then it…

Peter: or maybe it’s eight, eight and a half miles or so.

Peter: You go north, and then you come back down and do a loop, and then all the way back.

Peter: So it’s like you make an eight, which obviously ends up at 26.2.

Peter: So yeah, that’s what we did.

Peter: And it’s one of the flattest marathons in the country, apparently.

Peter: So it’s no super duper hill climbs.

Peter: There are certainly hills, don’t get me wrong, but not a gratuitous amount.

Peter: So that’s actually kind of nice.

Peter: And it’s apparently a pretty popular first marathon.

Scott: Did they have their own website?

Scott: All I can find is…

Peter: baystatemarathon.com And you can find the finalists there.

Peter: You can see that I was in the top 83% of finishers.

Peter: basestatemarathon.com.

Peter: I think maybe you don’t know how to spell Basestatemarathon because I see a web page.

Peter: So the 2022 Basestatemarathon kicks off in 351 days, nine hours, 21 minutes, and 35 seconds at the time of this recording.

Peter: I don’t know if I’m going to run that one again, but I am looking at another one.

Peter: So now I’m looking at ultramarathons, trail runs in the woods and stuff.

Scott: Yeah, I saw that.

Scott: That sounds like a puking good time.

Scott: I don’t know about the ultra part, but the running in the woods part, the trail running does sound more appealing than pounding on concrete for 26 miles.

Peter: It’s way more fun.

Scott: I actually when I was young, I came up with knee injuries because I was running on trails.

Scott: And there’s probably a lot of factors to that.

Scott: I probably didn’t have the right shoes, blah, blah, blah.

Scott: But the point is your legs have to do a lot more adjusting and tilting and twisting.

Scott: And you do get lateral forces on your legs that you would never get on the concrete.

Peter: I believe the current thinking, though, is that it’s better for you because the variety addresses and mitigates things like repetitive strain injuries.

Peter: That’s the beer coming through.

Scott: Repressive, repetitive.

Peter: Repressive, repetitive.

Peter: Yes, repressive, repetitive, repetition.

Peter: The beer is working.

Peter: Good job.

Peter: Breckenridge Brewery.

Peter: Toast to you.

Peter: So I don’t know if you noticed.

Peter: Our listeners will not notice, but did you notice anything different about my video?

Scott: Oh, hold on.

Scott: I got to go back to your video.

Scott: You’re short.

Scott: You’re tall.

Scott: You’re standing.

Scott: You’re moving.

Peter: I’m playing with center stage on my new iPad Mini.

Scott: Go further to the side.

Scott: Oh, yeah, that’s cool.

Scott: That is cool.

Scott: I like that.

Peter: It is pretty slick.

Peter: So I’m excited about this.

Peter: It’s fun.

Peter: I have an iPad Mini back in my life, and I’m happy.

Scott: But is the iPad Mini happy?

Scott: Are you happy together?

Scott: I guess is what I’m asking.

Peter: We make quite a pair right now.

Peter: Yes.

Scott: A pair of running shoes?

Peter: Yes, we made the last night.

Peter: That’s what our hobby was.

Peter: We were knitting shoes together in my iPad Mini.

Peter: I did get the Apple Pencil 2, and I do use it for sketching a lot.

Peter: I use it for taking notes, but I’m not super duper thrilled with the text recognition.

Peter: The handwriting recognition is amazing.

Peter: It’s like 90-plus percent accurate.

Peter: It’s definitely one of the best handwriting recognition systems I have used.

Peter: But the facility for typing or writing into text entry fields, that’s where I have trouble sometimes.

Peter: So I’m still working on that.

Peter: It’s kind of cool, though, if I’m writing something and I get a message pop up, and I just want to do a quick reply, I can use the stylus to tap the messages app and write in, like, see you tonight and hit send.

Peter: It’s kind of neat.

Peter: I do like that.

Scott: It is kind of neat.

Scott: I don’t use it enough.

Scott: I should use mine more.

Scott: Obviously, I edit podcasts on my iPad Pro, and I use my pencil in Fairlight for that, and I love it for that.

Scott: It’s amazing.

Scott: And I have used it for handwriting, and it’s good for that.

Scott: Where I fall down on the handwriting is, I don’t use it enough to remember how to correctly take care of mistakes and make edits and stuff, and I just wind up getting really mad.

Scott: Bingo.

Peter: And that’s the thing, is for any serious, long writing and stuff, I find it’s not sufficient.

Peter: But I will just take all my notes as sketches instead and just say, like, no, I’m just writing, and forget OCR, just as if it was a piece of paper.

Peter: And I do like that.

Peter: I’m still a little disappointed that I can use the, I forget what they call it, but the split pane view, so I can have two apps side by side.

Scott: Multitasking, yeah.

Peter: I’m a little disappointed that when I go into a, say, a Zoom call and I enable the split view, my video freezes.

Scott: I thought they fixed that.

Scott: I thought they fixed that.

Peter: It happened in Zoom, and it also happened in Slack.

Scott: Oh, that’s interesting.

Peter: So I was kind of disappointed because I want to be holding the thing, seeing the person I’m talking to and jotting notes down on the iPad, which although I did find another problem is that I want to have it rotated in landscape mode, so I have an easier area to write in.

Peter: And then no matter how I hold it, I’m then obscuring the camera.

Scott: You’re blocking the camera, yeah.

Scott: That is annoying.

Peter: So it’s not perfect, but…

Scott: I mean, honestly, why is the camera…

Scott: Because you’d have to pick an orientation.

Scott: I always hold my iPad Pro if I’m in landscape mode so that the cameras are on the top left back.

Scott: I say top left, top right if you’re looking at the back, but top left back if you’re looking at the screen.

Scott: And that’s because it goes on the Magic Keyboard that way.

Scott: So if everybody would pick an orientation, and Apple could just put the camera on the top of that orientation in landscape, that would be great, because actually the camera should be in a landscape mode, I think.

Scott: Maybe Apple doesn’t think so.

Scott: Maybe a lot of users don’t think so.

Scott: Who knows?

Scott: Maybe grannies are holding them in portrait mode, staring at their grandkids.

Scott: I don’t know.

Peter: Might be.

Peter: But overall, despite that, I still like it.

Peter: And despite the fact that I…

Peter: Because I told you that I was toying with the idea of using it as a laptop replacement, because 90% of what I do is just remote desktops.

Scott: I couldn’t use a mini as a laptop replacement.

Scott: Minis are too small.

Peter: I’ve actually been doing it a lot.

Peter: It’s not optimal by any stretch, but there have been plenty.

Peter: I’ve done full days of work where I sit down at my breakfast bar with that and with that little iPad mini-sized CanX Bluetooth keyboard that I reviewed like however many years ago.

Peter: And, you know, it’s in a pinch.

Peter: It works.

Peter: It’s not great, but it works.

Peter: And, you know, a lot of what I do just involves Slack and email.

Peter: You know, I’m just coordinating my team, answering questions, sending correspondence.

Peter: And I do that plenty on my iPad.

Peter: And then, like, I might have to pop into something really quickly to look something up.

Peter: Then I spawn a Citrix window or remote desktop session, look up what I need, then I come back.

Peter: So it’s actually more functional than I thought.

Peter: That said, I probably will genuinely, for real this time, bite the bullet and buy a new MacBook Air when they come out in a couple of months.

Peter: I hope.

Scott: A lot of the web development that I do, like I do some on the Mac and I do some on the iPad Pro.

Scott: And there’s no reason not to do…

Scott: Actually, an iPad Pro is perfectly great for web development.

Peter: I don’t do web development anymore, though.

Peter: I do very little web development.

Scott: No, but I’m just saying.

Scott: You can do actual work on it.

Scott: It’s not just for email and web browsing.

Peter: Right, but even when I use a web browser, I’m often using it as a portal into enterprise software or splunk enterprise security.

Peter: And the iPad, the Safari on iOS, Mac OS, whatever, or iOS, iPad OS is not capable of…

Peter: It doesn’t work.

Scott: Even if you turn off content blockers and stuff for those pages?

Peter: It just doesn’t render stuff the same way.

Peter: There’s something about the…

Peter: It doesn’t work.

Peter: I don’t know if…

Peter: It’s one of those, this site really, really, really is best viewed in Chrome or Firefox kind of thing.

Scott: Let me ask you this.

Scott: If it works in Safari on your Mac, but it doesn’t work in Safari on your iPad, probably if you just disable content blockers, it’ll probably be fine.

Scott: That’s what I find is 99% of the time, if I just turn off content blockers for that site, I have no more problems.

Peter: So I highly doubt that our Splunk Enterprise Security instance has any content blocking going on.

Scott: No, no, no, content blockers in Safari, Safari’s content blockers.

Peter: Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything that would be getting blocked by Safari.

Scott: You’d be surprised, though.

Scott: It screws up all kinds of, some of it’s even just CSS or HTML5 stuff.

Peter: And B, I’ve never actually accessed it on my Mac because it’s an internal system only, and B, I don’t have a Mac.

Scott: I gotta admit, I’m not a laptop person, but the new MacBook Pros look pretty good.

Peter: I’ve heard mixed reviews.

Peter: Some people are like, this looks amazing.

Peter: I can’t wait to get them.

Peter: And the one thing I do like is like they undid all of the Johnny Ivysms that just were like gratuitous Ivysms.

Peter: And I’m cool with that.

Peter: But, you know, like for, it just underscores really.

Peter: I wish I had just gotten a MacBook Air a year ago.

Peter: I would have been perfectly happy with it.

Peter: I just, I was actually just setting one up for one of my clients today, and the CEO of one of my clients got his own new one, so I was doing his personal migration for him today.

Peter: And going from an old, like a 2016 MacBook Pro, I think, 2016, 2017, to this guy, to the new, you know, the M1 MacBook Air.

Peter: It’s amazing.

Peter: You click on Word, it’s like click, open, and it’s like, wow, that’s pretty cool.

Peter: I like it.

Scott: If I’m not mistaken, Clay is using an M1 MacBook Air, and he’s doing photo editing and stuff on it.

Scott: I think he has an Air.

Scott: I don’t think it’s a…

Scott: Yeah, it has to be, because they didn’t come out with M1 version MacBook Pros until now.

Scott: Yeah, he’s using an M1 MacBook Air.

Peter: Well, you remember when they came out, Marco and Syracuse were comparing benchmarks and stuff, and how fast Marco’s MacBook Air was compared to Syracuse’s new Mac Pro.

Peter: That was pretty hilarious.

Scott: Well, the new MacBook Pros, especially with the M1 Macs, those are basically a Mac Pro with a flip lid.

Peter: Yeah, at a fraction of the price.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: So, yeah, I’m excited.

Peter: I really love when I have to have a laptop.

Peter: I love the super lightweight, and now to get something that’s going to be super powerful, that’ll be cool, too.

Peter: I just looked at it and thought, of course, the MacBook Pros start at $2,000 each.

Peter: Could I afford it?

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: Do I need it that bad?

Scott: No.

Peter: I’ll wait.

Peter: I’ll pay $1,000 for the new one.

Peter: Whatever.

Peter: And then, of course, I’ll end up adding things on it, and it’s going to end up being like $1,500.

Scott: Yeah, I’ll probably wait to see what they do with the larger iMac before I make any Mac decisions.

Scott: I need to wait anyway.

Peter: Correct me if I’m wrong.

Peter: The only display Apple is making now is the gargantuan Super Pro XDR thing, right?

Scott: Right.

Scott: They didn’t even have any displays for a long time.

Scott: Now that’s the only one they have.

Peter: Unless it was attached to an iMac.

Scott: Right, which are beautiful displays.

Scott: That’s why I don’t like people to get…

Scott: First of all, I’ve had tons of bad experiences with Mac minis, and I know the M1 Mac minis, I’m sure they’re better, blah, blah, blah.

Scott: But the iMac screen is gorgeous, and they’re just aren’t…

Scott: Even if you buy a 4K monitor, it’s just not the same.

Scott: Like, I don’t…

Scott: I would never buy a Mac mini and stick a 4K monitor.

Scott: Let’s put it that way.

Scott: I guess that would be part of the problem.

Scott: If I bought a Macbook Pro, it’s like, what monitor would I use?

Scott: Any monitor that would satisfy me is already approaching iMac price anyway.

Scott: So, I might as well just wait for the iMac.

Peter: Maybe that’s what their strategy is.

Peter: They’re like, Scott, Scott, we know you want one of our displays.

Peter: Just pay the premium and get one of our Macs attached to it.

Peter: You’ll thank us later.

Scott: No, but I’m sure they know that people who buy Macbook Pros are using external monitors.

Scott: And they don’t set the prices for all these other people selling the best 4K monitors that cost so much money.

Scott: That’s out of their hands.

Scott: They don’t have anything to do with that.

Scott: But if you want a decent, something that would even come close to the iMac’s 5K monitor, you’re going to pay a lot of money, and by then you’re just in iMac price territory anyway.

Peter: There you go.

Scott: So, let me put it this way.

Scott: If I bought a Macbook Pro, it would cost me at least double the price of the Macbook Pro, just getting everything else I need.

Peter: Well, I’m looking forward at some point, hopefully in the not terribly distant future, to get rid of some of this plethora of display creep I have on my desk.

Scott: Who are you calling display creep?

Peter: You, because you’re on display.

Scott: That’s true.

Scott: I don’t want to be a creep, though.

Peter: So what else is new?

Scott: I don’t know.

Scott: I’m really enjoying my job, though.

Peter: That’s good.

Peter: That’s really good.

Scott: I’m really enjoying my job.

Scott: Did we talk about my change of job before in this podcast?

Peter: You mentioned some…

Peter: It’s been a while.

Peter: I don’t think we’ve…

Peter: I don’t remember hearing that you were really enjoying your job, though.

Peter: That’s a revelation.

Scott: Yeah, I love my job.

Scott: I really do.

Scott: I love my job.

Scott: I was very demotivated, very bored, very…

Scott: just burnt out at my previous job.

Scott: And a lot of it was just because I was doing it for a long time, but a lot of it was just because it was just insane, boring firefighting.

Scott: It had devolved into insane, boring firefighting.

Peter: I know the feeling.

Scott: So for listeners, I work in Semiconductor Test Group.

Scott: And I’ve been in a development group for a while, but the group that I was in before was really more of a development slash production environment, and it just became a lot of firefighting.

Scott: And now I’m in a group that is responsible for helping to steer the development of and do all the testing of new versions of the software for the semiconductor test equipment.

Scott: And I also do two different things.

Scott: One, I help the engineers test new versions of software, and there’s many different software stacks on many different servers that are involved with this equipment.

Scott: And then I also help do things like install the said servers.

Scott: And put the builds on there and do all kinds of things, install patches and all kinds of stuff.

Scott: So there’s a big variety because I’m basically serving two masters in a way, even though I have one boss.

Scott: But there’s a lot of divergent responsibilities in that group, and I get to mess with all of them.

Scott: So it’s a lot of fun.

Peter: That’s good.

Peter: I mean, that’s great progress.

Scott: Yeah, I like the people a lot.

Scott: I liked my people in my old group too.

Scott: I’ve been pretty lucky in my career.

Scott: I’ve worked with a lot of great people, but I like the people a lot.

Scott: I’m learning a lot from them.

Scott: They’re super smart, and I don’t know why they put up with me, but they do, so.

Peter: Maybe you make them look good.

Scott: I do.

Scott: I make them look good on a very, more than a daily basis, probably a minute lead basis.

Scott: I make them look like geniuses.

Peter: On a minute lead.

Peter: I love it.

Peter: I have a small win to report.

Peter: I have a new member of my team starting on Monday.

Scott: Nice.

Scott: Did you interview this member of your team?

Peter: I did, and she used to report to me at my previous job.

Scott: That is awesome when you have somebody good that you know and you like and you know what they’re going to give your team.

Peter: And furthermore, who runs rings around everyone else that you interview.

Scott: That is awesome.

Peter: And I did not like, there was no sugar coating and stuff.

Scott: Right, right, right, right.

Peter: I gave her the same exact scenario, same, didn’t help her at all.

Peter: It was just like, perfect, you’re what we’re looking for here.

Scott: Awesome.

Peter: Very happy about that.

Scott: So is she going to be a peer to you or work under you?

Peter: She reports to me.

Peter: She’s going to be one of our cybersecurity operations analysts at the hospital.

Scott: So how many people report to you now?

Scott: Do you have others reporting to you?

Peter: She will be the third, and then the fourth will be starting at the end of the month.

Scott: Oh, nice.

Peter: So four.

Peter: And those are direct reports, as opposed to a number of other teams, people just informally report to me on an ad hoc basis.

Scott: Right, right.

Scott: Do you have people that effectively report to you, even though their boss is somebody else, but their boss has no clue what they’re doing?

Peter: Technically, on paper, that’s everybody who reports to me.

Peter: Oh.

Peter: Because on paper, someone else has to sign all the things, but I’m the one…

Peter: I’m drafting all the performance reviews and handing them up, and he’s, like, remember stamping them.

Scott: Okay, but you’re not officially a manager then?

Peter: I am not officially a manager, because then they’d have to pay me more.

Scott: The books think you’re an individual contributor, but people actually…

Scott: You’re the one that knows what they’re doing, you’re the one that helps guide their priorities, and then someone else takes all the credit and gets a bigger paycheck.

Peter: Pretty much, yep.

Scott: Sounds good.

Peter: And he’s also operating above his level as well.

Peter: Sounds good.

Peter: Yeah, it’s a wonderful place.

Peter: That’s why I love working for this specific engagement.

Peter: It’s just wonderful, because they’re really valuable.

Peter: They value their team and their people.

Scott: I hope you like that guy.

Scott: I hope you’re not resenting…

Peter: No, that’s not it.

Peter: No, I mean, I call my own shots, I schedule my own schedule, I set the priorities for all…

Peter: I am functioning 100% as these people’s managers.

Peter: There’s no question about that.

Peter: And I even told my guy, my boss, I was like, yeah, this is why you have me.

Peter: He’s like, that’s why I have you.

Scott: Is your boss the guy that you take these things to and he stamps them?

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Or it’s okay.

Scott: But he’s not willing to entertain the idea of actually officially making you a manager, since you’re basically a manager?

Peter: We can’t, because the team is not big enough.

Peter: We’d need to have more than 10 people reporting to him before they would hire another manager person.

Scott: Right, right, right, right.

Scott: So he’s not trying to stiff you or…

Peter: Oh, it’s not him.

Peter: No, it’s the organization.

Scott: Yeah, yeah.

Peter: And it’s not his boss.

Peter: It’s his boss’s boss.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: So there you go.

Scott: And have you chased this guy down in the parking lot and showed him your boxing mitt?

Scott: The boss’s boss’s boss?

Peter: I have not.

Peter: I have not yet.

Peter: But it might be coming, you know?

Peter: It might be that.

Peter: Also, my consulting, you know, the other engagements that I’m doing, it’s really starting to pick up.

Peter: And so, you know, something might have to change soon.

Scott: I don’t know.

Scott: Really?

Scott: This is interesting, because when you went back, you were pretty happy to go back.

Peter: Well, that’s just it.

Peter: But I’m starting to get wind that there may be other opportunities that offer the same level of quality of life that I have now.

Peter: And pay twice as much.

Scott: I was going to say, you do have to take the quality of life into account, because you may have issues with some parts of your job, but your quality of life is pretty good.

Peter: Absolutely, and especially, yes, God beer, yes.

Peter: It’s pretty God beer good.

Peter: No, that’s the reason that I still keep this engagement, is because I get to do what I want.

Peter: And like I told my boss a few months ago, I registered for a marathon, so I might be vanishing during the middle of the day a lot.

Peter: And his response was he bought me two books on ultra running.

Scott: Your quality of life is better than mine.

Scott: I mean, let me put it this way.

Scott: I probably have more days off than you do, but on my work days, I definitely, my workouts definitely suffer compared to yours on your work days, I would say.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: That’s where my focus is right now.

Scott: As you well know, I would say that most jobs are like what you experienced when you went to that other company for a while, and it was sheer hell, and you hated life, and you hated them, and you hated everything.

Scott: That is probably the norm.

Peter: As I said, there’s a reason that I’m still here.

Peter: So yeah.

Peter: So I like to, it’s not always easy, but I try to see the good in this situation.

Peter: I’ve literally, I’ve made a career out of seeing the bad.

Peter: I am a troubleshooter.

Peter: That’s what I do.

Peter: So sometimes it takes me a very conscious, focused efforts to see, look on the bright side.

Peter: Like, there’s a bright side.

Peter: Oh, look at that.

Scott: That’s actually, I never thought about that.

Scott: Troubleshooting is definitely a very expecting and trying to find the negative.

Scott: Because if you don’t find the negative, if you know the negative is going to bite you in the ass later.

Peter: Or everything’s perfect.

Peter: Rainbows, unicorns, ice cream.

Scott: Yeah, we don’t believe that, though.

Scott: The guy, the engineer who gives me the software testing test is like, I really hope you find these problems.

Scott: I hope you have problems, because if you don’t have problems, we’re probably going to have those problems later, in a time that is very, very bad for us.

Peter: Yep.

Peter: So, yeah.

Scott: That’s cool.

Scott: So, who would you recommend running marathons to?

Peter: Everyone.

Peter: Excellent.

Scott: Everyone get out there.

Scott: You heard me.

Peter: Everyone get out there, go run a marathon and do it barefoot.

Scott: That’s right.

Scott: Do it barefoot.

Scott: Hey, I get my shoes on Sunday.

Scott: Finally.

Scott: I don’t even remember when I ordered them, Peter.

Scott: Should I look it up live here on the show?

Peter: Sure.

Peter: The Merrell Vapor Glove, what was it, Fives?

Scott: Right.

Scott: So, I think Peter and I on this podcast before, I think we talked about minimal running shoes, did we not?

Scott: Who knows?

Peter: I don’t remember.

Peter: It’s been so long.

Scott: I know, right?

Scott: Let’s see.

Scott: Your Ordors.

Scott: So, I actually ordered these on September.

Scott: Oh, it hasn’t been as long.

Scott: It feels like it’s been forever.

Scott: It’s been a month.

Scott: I ordered these things over a month ago, a month and a week ago, and now they’re finally coming on Sunday.

Scott: Just, I don’t know what’s going on, but everyone is out of these shoes.

Peter: Well, everyone’s out of everything.

Peter: Supply chain issues.

Scott: Yeah, but I can order all kinds of other stuff and still get it.

Scott: Not computer equipment, but everything else.

Scott: Like, most stuff I order doesn’t say, you know what, we have no idea when this is coming in.

Scott: Don’t know.

Scott: We’ll give you a heads up.

Peter: So sorry.

Scott: These were like that, so.

Scott: But anyway, I’m going to get them.

Scott: I hope they’re…

Scott: I ordered half size bigger than most of my current shoes based on your advice.

Scott: And I really hope these are going to work for me, and then I’ll start slowly working my way into minimalist running.

Peter: Probably good advice.

Peter: I am really curious and looking at the Zero shoes, Xero shoes brand.

Scott: Oh yeah, I actually saw those.

Peter: I will probably try one of those for my next pair.

Peter: But right now I have two pairs of the Merrell Vapor Gloves and two pairs of the Merrell Trail Gloves.

Peter: I am good for at least a year.

Scott: You know, Amazon did suggest those to me.

Scott: Maybe I should have done that, and then I could have told you.

Scott: Okay, so which of these do you think you would get?

Scott: There is a Speed Force, there is a Prio, there is an HFS.

Peter: I haven’t looked yet.

Peter: I don’t know.

Scott: There is a TeraFlex.

Scott: Yours would probably be more like the Mesa Trail or something like that.

Peter: So I did buy a pair of their sandals, and I’ve been wearing those.

Peter: I thought I would use them for runners and for running because apparently some ultra runners will run in their sandals.

Scott: In sandals.

Peter: Not really impressed with them for running, but I do use them plenty for walking.

Scott: That sounds like a good way to get an injury.

Peter: But like, you mean like stubbing a toe or something?

Scott: That kind of injury, the tip of the sole catching on something and flipping under and you stubbing your toe or something.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: And I wore them, like before I even took them outside, I wore them around in the house a lot.

Peter: And just like I was catching it just on the carpet going upstairs and stuff.

Peter: So I was like, yeah, okay, I should probably, you know, not do that.

Scott: Not do that.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: So maybe don’t do that.

Scott: Sounds like a bad time.

Scott: Sounds like if you’re tired and you catch one of those, you’re going to go down on your face.

Peter: Big go.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: So but I do wear them as just for, you know, walking and just like regular old sandalware stuff.

Peter: And I’m pretty happy with them for that.

Peter: So that’s cool.

Scott: Hey, I have a question.

Scott: So we have talked a lot about how minimalist running shoes and ball of the foot striking are where you’re at, right?

Scott: And you told me to try not doing heel strikes, not doing flat footing, but landing on the ball of my feet.

Scott: And I tested it out, and it seemed like it completely avoided knee pain for me.

Scott: And so I said, OK, I’m going to get some shoes that I can easily do that in, because most running shoes, it’s very difficult to not at least flat foot it or heel strike at worst.

Peter: Let me interject one quick second too.

Peter: Flat footing, if you’re landing towards the mid-range and slash front is OK.

Peter: I prefer ball of the foot on gnarly terrain and stuff, but you can definitely land mid sole as long as you’re doing so on the outside and rolling towards the inside.

Peter: So, it doesn’t have to be all pads, all front of the foot all the time.

Scott: I was going to ask you about that because when I was looking at the pictures of your marathon, both pictures of your feet that I saw, your feet were…

Scott: The foot that was landing on the ground was completely flat, it looked to me like.

Peter: Yep.

Peter: And that’s OK.

Scott: You definitely didn’t have your heel off the ground.

Peter: Right.

Peter: But heel striking is the major…

Peter: That’s the bad thing.

Scott: Gotcha.

Peter: To not heel striking.

Scott: To not heel striking.

Scott: Mine’s already all gone.

Peter: Clink.

Peter: I’m about done with mine.

Scott: I think mine was a 12 oz.

Scott: Let’s see.

Scott: Mine was…

Scott: a 12 oz.

Scott: What was yours?

Scott: A 20,000 oz?

Peter: 12.

Peter: Just a plain old, regular old bottle.

Peter: 12 or less.

Peter: Maybe it’s…

Peter: Nope, actually 12 oz.

Peter: It’s not one of those 11.2.

Scott: Yeah, the rip off.

Peter: They just stick another little one in the middle and hope that you hit a decimal point and hope you don’t notice.

Scott: Yeah, they could just round up.

Scott: That’s probably what these guys did.

Peter: Yeah, just round it up to 12.

Peter: We’ll call it round.

Scott: Well, it has been very good to talk to you, Peter.

Scott: I think we should probably wrap this up.

Scott: I don’t know if you have time to do a very short beer sides.

Peter: Of course I have time for a beer sides.

Peter: I don’t know that I have time for another beer, but I have time for a beer sides.

Scott: I don’t either.

Scott: I don’t have time for another beer.

Peter: Cool.

Peter: Well, let’s do it.

Scott: Let’s wrap this up.

Scott: Do I have any music to play?

Scott: I don’t even know.

Peter: I don’t know.

Scott: I have a short modem.

Scott: I have poop.

Scott: You pooped your pants.

Scott: Let’s go ahead and end the episode.