Episode 98 – Liv From New York, It's Saturday Night
Scott: Friends with brews
Peter: … Prepare to move out. What are you preparing? You’re always preparing. Just go.
Scott: Peter, just go. You’re always preparing.
Peter: Just go. Just go. You’re always preparing.
Scott: You’re always preparing.
Peter: What am I preparing? I was up until a few minutes ago preparing a cup of coffee for this podcast. That’s what I was preparing.
Scott: If you think it’s so great that you want people to listen to you drink coffee, tell us about it.
Peter: I will. Don’t make me bust out my corporate email logo mug.
Scott: Corporate email.
Peter: You can’t read it. It’s a little blurry. Corporate email l- lingo. That’s a great mug.
Scott: Per my last email.
Peter: Which, yes, per my last email, which I don’t have to use a lot now in my current role, which is nice. In previous jobs, I definitely had to bust this corporate lingo mug out. Maybe we’ll put a link to that in the show notes too.
Scott: Yeah, we have to. Would you just… W- were you just holding it up to the camera on meetings and hoping that they would notice your snark?
Peter: Pretty much. I was just taking long, low sips.
Scott: I like the one that says, “Kind regards.” ([laughs])
Peter: Kind regards. ([laughs]) Oh, man. Yeah. So you’re Scott.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: I’m Peter. This is Friends with Brews on a podcast where two friends talk about brews and other things.
Scott: Oh, yeah, I have news about that. Maybe I shouldn’t break this news. Maybe it’s not my place to break. I’ll just say that another friend of ours that you know, who may or may not have a podcast about specific alcoholic drinks that he has sampled and is, or sampling, contacted me to say, “I’m laying off the alcohol for a while, so that podcast will be on hiatus.” And I replied to him and I said, “I totally understand. There’s a reason why it’s been 100% coffee on Friends with Brews for a while now.”
Peter: I’m off of decaf. ([laughs])
Scott: ([laughs]) If I have one can of beer at nighttime for the first time in a month or two, just one can of beer, I’m not even buzzed, I’m not even… I just feel like crap. I, I can’t… I don’t know why. I don’t know what it is about getting old. Alcohol just sucks now, Peter. It just freaking sucks.
Peter: Yeah. We’ve known that. We didn’t, we… Maybe we didn’t want to change as a result of it, but I remember this. I was having a, a discussion, um, with a, you know, former… an, an, a, a then girlfriend of mine back in the days, who was a doctor, and, you know, we were reviewing all these studies and, you know, there was a meta study of the effects of alcohol, and the determination was, and this, this is going back 10, 10 years or so at this point, no amount of alcohol is good for you. In like… But, you know, people will say, “But it has these good benefits.” Yes, and in every single study you can find negative effects that outweigh the good. So, you know, like, “Oh, it helped me get a little bit of sleep.” Yes, but it also did liver damage. “Oh, it’s this,” but it’s also bad, right? So just, just keep in mind, like for every plus one you get, there’s like a negative two.
Scott: Right.
Peter: Think of it that way.
Scott: Yeah. And by the way, regarding that sleep thing, has alcohol ever helped me get sleep? Yes. Has it ever helped me get good sleep? No. Not one bloody freaking time.
Peter: Bingo. Speaking of good sleep, before we go, ([laughs]) go too far, but, um, yeah. So again, my Garmin for the last few days, like last night my Garmin watch, which is the only way I test… I track my sleep, right? My Garmin said, “Yeah, you slept for like six hours last night.” I was in bed at like 10:00 and I woke up around 7:00, so that math ain’t mathing. Now, I woke up a couple of times, right? Meanwhile, that data that Garmin reviews goes into my Apple Health, and my Apple Health app was just like, “Yeah, you slept really well.” ([laughs]) And it g- it, it had me down for, I don’t know. But essentially, Apple and Garmin, you know, looking at the same data, they’re seeing two very different things. Garmin continues to be, you know, the drill sergeant and Apple the cheerleader, I think. So I’m feeling good. Today I’m feeling more on the side of Apple. Yeah.
Scott: See, Garmin would be going Lee Ermey, whatever that guy’s name was from Full Metal Jacket, on me all the time because Apple, the one that’s kind to you, Apple is always telling me, “Dude, you slept like ([censored]). What is your ([censored]) problem?” And it just literally says that. It’s… That’s exactly what it says. I’m not-
Peter: Literally says that. ([laughs]) Can you guys send us a screenshot and put that in the d- in the show notes? You’ve got to. So…
Scott: No, it just says, “Poor quality. There are many reasons. Many people are saying,” rah, rah, rah.
Peter: So J- so John Siracusa is doing your reviews or your, uh, your sleep coach now?
Scott: Uh, says I, says I didn’t get good sleep. I feel like I got good sleep. I feel… Talking clearly. People can understand me. I never mumble. I feel like I got good sleep.
Peter: Oh, you think it’s good sleep. I don’t think that’s good sleep. You call that good sleep? ([laughs])
Scott: You can sleep at the beach. Your cameras are always outside.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: Okay, so I’m sorry. I totally derailed you from your coffee. W- you were about to start your coffee half an hour ago. You were gonna tell us what you’re drinking.
Peter: Right. So I am drinking a cup of Gregory’s coffee, dark enough, their dark roast blend. Now, Scott, you and I are, um… Are we pedants? Do we get pedantic, um, when it comes to apostrophe abuse?
Scott: We are ped-ant, apostrophe S’s. Yes, we are.
Peter: Okay. So, uh, Gregory’s coffee. This is-
Scott: Yeah, but Gregory’s doing us all a favor. Gregory is compensating for everyone else’s use of apostrophes is what I see.
Peter: Precisely. For those of you who don’t know yet, Gregory’s coffee, it’s spelled G-R-E-G-O-R-Y-S, no apostrophe So the way I read that is there are multiple people named Gregory who are producing this coffee, right? So there you go, Gregory’s Coffee. So I had the pleasure of stopping by Gregory’s Coffee, uh, right down in Manhattan. I was there for the bulk of this past week, uh, actually, because, uh, the lady’s birthday was last week, and she wanted to be in New York for it. And then while we were there, she got booked for a couple of, uh, fashion shows for New York Fashion Week. So we went back again, and, uh, so I spent the weekend down there to run in Central Park, among other things. And as we were scrambling on our way to catch our bus back from, uh, New York to Boston, stopped at Gregory’s Coffee and had an Americano, which I believe I sent to you. Uh, I don’t remember. Maybe I didn’t send it to you, but I did record a review of that Americano yesterday.
Scott: I think that’s the one– Was that the one? Oh, there was one you sent me where the– their pods were in hearing aid.
Peter: No, I didn’t send it to you. I did not send it to you. That was-
Scott: Okay. Got it
Peter: … that was different. Yep, that was, that was different. So this was yesterday. So I have another review to send to you for, um, coffee for yesterday, which I am-
Scott: I’m just gonna start a YouTube channel for us, and eventually, when we record these podcasts, we’re gonna be on video, and eventually, I’m gonna put up your mini reviews, and eventually, they’ll be three years old by the time I post them.
Peter: Doing that as well. Uh, it’s com- coming soon to a– coming soon to a new blog near you. Maybe it’s called something like peterdrinkscoffee.com. Hmm, I don’t know.
Scott: Oh, you’re gonna post those, too, to yourself? That’s a good idea. That’s a good idea if you don’t wanna wait three and a half years for them to get to the internet.
Peter: Yeah, well, there you go. ([chuckles]) So anyway, so I have had now the pleasure– I, I had Gregory’s Coffee. I had their Americano yesterday. And then as I was leaving, I saw, because my best friend’s name is Greg, I was like, “I have to buy some of this to take home and share.” Also, because you, dear listener, I bought some coffee because I wanted you to be able to share some of, you know, the joy. So I had that cup, and as I was going to check out, the, the guy behind the counter, the barista, the counter dude, whatever you wanna call him, he said, “Well, you get a free cup of coffee when you buy a bag of coffee.” I was like, “Oh, okay, I’ll take one.” And he says, “Oh, since you bought two bags, do you want a large?” I was like, “Sure.” I also had a cup of their dark roast in addition to the Americano. But today, I’m drinking it brewed in the AeroPress. I usually do it in the AeroPress Premium. Cup of their dark roast, dark enough, and I sent to you, Scott, the page on their website. And they have a decent website, this coffee company. Unlike beer companies, right, this coffee company have a good website pushing their stuff. So dark enough. More development means more sweetness, more body, and a touch of bitters and brightness to balance your cup. Don’t be afraid to darken up your morning. I think that’s a pretty good take on it, right? On the back of the bag, it says, “This blend, for our dark roast, we’ve picked coffees that can take the heat. More development, um, leading to a velvety body with intense notes of chocolate. A sip of this coffee is like a bite of rich chocolate cake covered in berries, bold yet familiar.” I agree with that sentiment. That’s good. Now, for my first, um– for the video review I gave you for earlier, I drank it straight out, just right out of the AeroPress into the cup and added some more water to make it a little more like Ameri- an Americano, and then I added a little more, uh, a little bit of half and half. And I built that one, I sort of built, brewed that one with the Prismo, the Fellow Prismo attachment to the AeroPress. This one I did pure AeroPress Premium, all metal, no plastic involved. Gotta say, this one tastes better. This one actually tastes better than when I used the Fellow Prismo in the last cup. So that’s, um, interesting. But this is definitely a drink it again cup. This is my second cup of this specific brew. It tastes better this morning than the one I had yesterday, which is to be expected, right? I brewed this one in an AeroPress as opposed to whatever, you know, brewing production they’re doing there behind the counter. And yeah, uh, so this is available on their website at gregoryscoffee.com. We’ll have a link to the show notes. Really would be kind of cool if we had some kind of affiliates link with some of these people too, so we could get like, you know, a little bit of a credit for all these referrals that we’re sending to them.
Scott: Are, are there such things, or would we have to contact them and work out a deal first?
Peter: I’m sure we would have to do it, and at this point, by the time that you’re listening to this, dear listener, it’s too late. We’ve already made no money.
Scott: We’ve already made no money, but not only that, I would have to get my act together i-in terms of editing and producing episodes, and we would have to get our a-act together in terms of doing this on a weekly basis for people to want to do that with us.
Peter: Yep, which is not outside the realm of possibility. That’s right. That’s right. So anyway, enough about me. What are you drinking, Scott?
Scott: I am drinking a Water Avenue Guatemala San… Well, Americans would say San Antonio La Paz. And this coffee claims, Peter, to be from Guatemala, and it claims, Peter, to have orange, caramel, and black walnut syrup. I can’t say for sure that I taste those things, but I can’t say that I don’t. Let me, let me take a sip here.
Peter: Can’t say that I do. Can’t say that I don’t. ([chuckles])
Scott: I can believe the black walnut syrup just ’cause I imagine that black walnut syrup would add a slight amount of bitterness to it or some kind of strong-ish, not sweet flavor. I, I can’t imagine that black walnut syrup is sweet unless they dump tons of sugar in it. So I think I, I– I’ll go with that. Sure. Whatever. I can taste the orange a little bit, yeah. So it’s not bad. It’s a, it’s a good cup of coffee. It’s not the world’s best coffee, but it’s certainly a tasty drinkable coffee, and it’s got caffeine, and boy, do I need caffeine.
Peter: I’ve never had, uh, walnuts.
Scott: You’ve never had walnuts?
Peter: Walnuts. I’ve just never had them in syrup form.
Scott: I haven’t either. And I don’t think you would put it on your pancakes, but it seems to be fine in coffee.
Peter: Oh, yeah, I don’t know. Huh, interesting.
Scott: So-
Peter: So, uh, so what’s your verdict? Thumbs up, thumbs down?
Scott: I give it a thumbs up, yeah. I’ll buy this again. Here’s the thing. I have been buying a lot of Water Avenues because a bag is just under $14 at New Seasons, and everything else is at least 17 and sometimes more. And I like the Water Avenues. There’s one Water Avenue that I’ve had, and the episode hasn’t been released yet, but it’s a, a dark blend. That one is very much my favorite of theirs, but all of theirs are pretty good, and they’ve got a good decaf that I drink, so yeah, I’m, I’m down with Water Avenue, and they save me a little money compared to the ones that are $88 a bag, and that’s good. What about you? How much did y- how much did Gregory charge you for your bag?
Peter: Uh, 16.95 for a 12 ounce.
Scott: See? Got ([censored]) Gregory.
Peter: And, and if you… Now, their deal is if you subscribe, they give you free shipping, and that’s actually, that’s actually pretty good.
Scott: But wait, did you buy this at the store, though? Uh, do they have it near you?
Peter: Yeah, in the store, in, in person.
Scott: Yeah, so you didn’t pay shipping.
Peter: No, I didn’t. But, but normally when you’re online, and if you’re just buying a 6.95 bag of… a 16.95 bag of coffee, you’re looking at 7.95 to 10 bucks shipping to get it to you also.
Scott: I do agree. I do-
Peter: So here, if you subscribe, even if you subscribe on a, um, monthly basis, you can get it for basically free shipping, which is, compared to however things are going, that, that’s, it’s pretty good.
Scott: Gregory claims a lot of… I’m… Greg- Gregory’s woke. Somebody needs to tell people that Gregory is, uh… I need to get ahold of J.D. Vance and point him to this website ’cause he’s got some shouting to do and some threatening of Gregory’s to do ’cause they seem to be woke. They’re family-owned and operated, not corporate-run. They have handcrafted specialty coffee, not mass-produced coffee. Their innovative trend-forward menu, not standardized offerings. They have locally sourced ingredients, Peter. Like, who gives a crap about local? You’re supposed to support America.
Peter: ’Merica. You gotta s- say it right. ’Merica.
Scott: They don’t use the global supply chain. Barista-driven experience. They’re not automated and fast-paced. They’re community-focused. How woke can you get? My God.
Peter: Can you focus on the community? Ugh.
Scott: How can you focus on the community?
Peter: Man, that’s terrible.
Scott: What does J.D. Vance sound like? I wish I could do-
Peter: Don’t even… No, let’s not even go there. His… Oh, God, it’s bad.
Scott: Well, my daughter’s got some dark eyeliner I’m pretty sure I could borrow for the occasion. It looks like a demon.
Peter: You know, actually, I, I, as I mentioned, I was in New York for New York Fashion Week, and, um, I did see, um, a lot of, um, a lot of models, and they had the, the dark, you know, dark eyeliner thing going on, the, the, the makeup.
Scott: Men and women?
Peter: Um, I think I saw one guy with, with the eyeliner, the, the dark stuff.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: My daughter wears a lot of dark makeup. She actually… My daugh- I like my daughter’s style. She’s… One thing about my daughter that’s different between when I was her age, you know, and her is that she just at a, at an early point in her life just decided, “This is who I am. I’m gonna own it, and I love it.” And I like her style. She, she wears dark eyeliner, and she wear… She kind of looks Egyptian. You know the Egyptian thing with the little-
Peter: Yeah
Scott: … she does patterns like that with her eyeliner, and I like it. I think it looks cool. So anyway, uh, by the way, you were part of the fashion of New York, I believe.
Peter: No. No, this time I was not. Um, I was just, I was just an observer this time.
Scott: Oh, you sent me a picture of that pass, and I thought that you were… Okay, got it.
Peter: Yeah, yeah. Well, sort of. Uh, no, I got in. I was a guest of one of the designers actually, who was the lead, the opener designer. Yeah, no, I was a guest of Pia Bolta. My, uh, lady friend was, um, walking for her, wearing some of her fashions and stuff. So yeah, so I got in there, and, uh, actually, I don’t know if it’ll ever, if it’ll see the light of day, but I was interviewed ’cause I was sitting there in the second row, and, um, this, uh, camera crew and a, a reporter were coming around, and they asked if they could interview me and get my ideas on the, ([chuckles]) on the fashion show. So I’m becoming more steeped into fashion with every passing week it seems. ([chuckles])
Scott: Well, it’s, it’s a good thing, Peter, uh, that you’ve had some experience having a microph- microphone shoved in your face.
Peter: Indeed. So yeah, that was kind of funny, so. So that was my, that was my trip to New York summarized really quickly, so.
Scott: Very quickly.
Peter: Oh, wait, before I leave New York, I have to take this one. I have a, I have a soapbox. I have a platform. It’s a small platform, but I have it, and I want to use this platform to give a, uh, shout-out. I- does shout-out, does, does shout-out imply a good thing, or can you give a negative shout-out?
Scott: Yeah, shout- shouting out… A shout-out is usually a, “Hey.” It’s a, it’s usually a positive.
Peter: Okay.
Scott: It’s usually a positive.
Peter: Okay. What if I want to shout at?
Scott: You can do a shout at.
Peter: Is that what I want?
Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Peter: Okay. Live Hotel in the Bronx, unquestionably the worst hotel that I’ve ever stayed at.
Scott: That good?
Peter: Yeah. Yeah, so we got there on Saturday. Uh, technically it was Sunday morning by the time we got there ’cause it was after midnight. So I had… I was looking for a budget place because it was Valentine’s weekend and also New York Fashion Week. A lot of hotels were booked up solid. So I took this place in the Bronx because New York has excellent public transportation Well, despite that, we were still about half hour to an hour of, like, the city proper, where all the fun was going. But I was like, “Look, once we get on the train, who cares? It doesn’t really matter.” So we got there sometime after midnight. It was probably closer to 2:00. Checked in, gave my, you know, uh, gave the card for incidental charges, gave my ID to prove who I was. Go up to our first room. Now, I had booked a king size bed with a non-smoking room. We get in. Those two things were true. However, the room had not really been made up from the previous occupants, as was evidenced by the makeup stains on the pillowcases.
Scott: But was it dark makeup, Peter? That’s important. It’s the theme of this New York, uh-
Peter: It was dark makeup-
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: … and light colored pillowcases, which is how we could see them.
Scott: Mm.
Peter: So we’re, you know, walking around, and the lady’s like, you know, s- she’s, she’s starting and she’s nitpicking a little bit, and I’m like, “Okay, okay.” And then, like, I start to see the dirt and the evidence that this place has not been made up. I was like, “Okay, we’re not gonna settle for this.” I go back downstairs. I’m like, “Hey, sorry to bother you. That room has not been made up.” There were makeup on the pillowcases. They were arranged, right, so it looked like someone came in and just, like, reorganized and straightened stuff out and then left, but they didn’t change the sheets and stuff. I was like, “I’m not sleeping on that.”
Scott: I wouldn’t either, especially when you, you gotta wonder why somebody was face down in their pillow. ([laughs])
Peter: Yeah. So, um, she, she sends us to another room, so we go up to the eighth floor. First one was on the fourth floor. Now we go up to the eighth floor. We go up there, open up the door, reeks of cigarette smoke. The, the AC and the heat, you know, it’s blasting, and it’s, like, blowing out smoky air. I looked even just to see, like, you know, is someone standing outside smoking in front of the vents? N- not this… It was terrible. So I’m like, “All right, I hate to be that guy, but gonna do it.” So I go back downstairs, and I’m like, “Hey, sorry to bother you again, really, you know, but I need a non-smoking room. That place, that room reeks of cigarette smoke.” And the front desk said, “Okay, well, this is the last room we have, so… ’cause Valentine’s Day, we’re busy.” So she sends me to room 804, so now we go up- or, sorry, 704, so one, one floor below. We go in. This one also smelled of cigarettes, but not quite as bad.
Scott: Oh my God. But it’s, but it’s bad.
Peter: And also, also had not been made up. So someone had, like, you know those little paper heart cutouts that you have, like, for confetti for Valentine’s Day? There were a bunch of them littered on the floor. There were some of them in the sheets. And the, and the toilet had not been flushed-
Scott: Oh my God
Peter: … since the previous occupant. And I was like, this is the last room. It’s 3:00 AM at this point. We were, we were both very unhappy, but we took out our dirty laundry and laid it out on the bed-
Scott: Yes
Peter: … and used that as sheets.
Scott: Yes. I was about to say I hope you slept in your clothes.
Peter: In, in, well, in my workout gear too, yes, on top of that.
Scott: Jimmy Christmas.
Peter: And, um, then promptly the next morning, went downstairs, complained, and there was nothing she could do about it because I booked online. And I was like, “Well, all right. I will, you know, I’ll, I’ll take this up with the travel, you know, website that I booked through.” And then we left. After we left, an hour away downtown, realized I didn’t have my driver’s license when we were checking into the new hotel because the rocket surgeon behind the counter took my driver’s license to scan it-
Scott: And never gave it back
Peter: … never handed it back.
Scott: Ugh.
Peter: But she did hand me back my credit card, so you know, it’s almost 3:00 AM. I’m half asleep, but my body is like, “Oh, I gave something. I got something,” right? I gave two things, but I got one thing back, but I was not processing. So when I went to check in to the new hotel that we booked, which was far and away better, this was a much better, pleasant experience. I’ll talk about that separately. We get there and I’m like, “I don’t have my driver’s license.” Luckily, I did have my Massachusetts license to carry firearms permit, which is an acceptable form of ID, so I gave that to her. Was-
Scott: Oh, I, I thought, I thought you at this point brandished your firearm.
Peter: No, ’cause in New York City, that would not be, uh, permissible. So fortunately, they took it and checked me right in. While I’m doing that, my lady called the, um, the Live Hotel back and confirmed, yep, they have my dr- my license, my ID. And I was like, “I’ll just call them and ask them to just mail it to me,” ’cause, you know, it’s like 45, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes round, out each way to get there and back, right? So I’m looking at a one to two-hour trip to go back and get it. I’m like, “I’m not gonna do that. I don’t have time, frankly,” you know? So I called them yesterday after we got home to request them. I was like, “Hey, you’ve got my addre- my ID. I’m like wondering if you could mail it to me.” “Oh no, we’re sorry. There’s nothing we can do.”
Scott: My God, these people can’t do anything. They can’t clean rooms. They can’t hire staff. They can’t-
Peter: They don’t give a ([censored]). It’s very clear that the people working there hate their jobs. It seems like they hate their customers.
Scott: I’m positive they hate their customers more than they hate their jobs.
Peter: So they said the only thing to do is I could schedule like a UPS pickup and have them come and get it for me, and I said… and there’s a lot of bleeping to do on this call. I was like, “ ([censored]) that.“ And, um, instead, because for around the same price, I just went to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles and requested they send me a new copy of my license so… because that’s less hassle. You know it’s something when dealing with the DMV is less hassle than dealing with you. Live Hotel Bronx, you ([censored]) suck. So anyway, I just wanted to get that out. They just don’t, they just don’t give a ([censored]). They just completely don’t care.
Scott: But now p- somebody named Peter Nikolaidis works at Live Hotel. Well, apparently no one- Works at Liv Hotels. No, scratch that
Peter: No one works at Liv Hotel.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: They’re not working. They’re– They, you know, nope, mm-mm. So yeah, there you go.
Scott: By the way, I’m- I ([chuckles]) already wrote the title of this episode, “Liv From New York.”
Peter: Liv from New York, it’s Saturday Night. ([laughs]) It’s, uh… Oh, man. Yeah, it was, it was bad. It was, it was really bad, so.
Scott: That is bad. That is really bad, Peter. This– And by the way, their website kinda sucks ’cause at the top of their website, it doesn’t look like the start of a, of a hotel website page. But from the pictures, this doesn’t look like a total dump.
Peter: No, it didn’t. And the reviews that I got on the booking site that I used gave it an eight point one out of 10. I was like, “That’s generally good enough for me.”
Scott: Are you sure it wasn’t a one point eight? Do you have dyslexia ever?
Peter: No. Uh, I mean, yes, I have had dyslexia. No, this was definitely an eight point one. Yeah. So don’t recommend. Um, and so I had the, you know, the, the displeasure of, um, you know, leaving one-star reviews, you know, with my standard caveats. Like, you know, I don’t often leave one-star reviews, but this is one place that really, really deserves it.
Scott: Okay. Well, you’re not the only one. Kayla Abood, Lena, Kyla Forkey. Then there’s… They’re bookended by two five-star reviews, so I’m pretty sure those are people that don’t work there, but do work there, if you know what I mean.
Peter: Hmm. Indeed, I do know what you mean, so.
Scott: Wow.
Peter: Oh, boy.
Scott: Okay.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: Well, good to know.
Peter: So yeah, that’s that. Yeah.
Scott: The good news is, any place you go from now on is gonna seem amazing by comparison.
Peter: Oh, um, so Hotel Henri that we stayed at after that was great. Um, one of the cool things about it is they use an app online to unlock your doors. Um, I didn’t have time, and I didn’t wanna think about, like, the security ramifications and how that might be hacked ’cause they basically just send you a link, and anybody with the link can open up the doors.
Scott: Yep. Hey, how do you spell that? Hotel Hon-
Peter: Henri. H-E-N-R-I. In Manhattan.
Scott: I have to put links to all these things ’cause, uh, you’re, you’re giving them a kudo, so. Hotel Henri in NYC.
Peter: Yes. Yes, I am.
Scott: Oh, that one looks fancy.
Peter: All oui.
Scott: Well-
Peter: Yes
Scott: … I don’t know if it looks fancy or not. Has a red carpet though, so it looks fancy.
Peter: I mean, that means… That’s all you need, right? That’s all. Yeah. So, so it was, it was good. I liked it. And yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s that. That’s where I’m at with that.
Scott: What else do you wanna shout at, Peter? H- You’ve been shouting at or into or near something lately.
Peter: Um, I didn’t wanna shout at anything, but I did want to say that at your recommendation, uh, Christmastime, I did buy the Polar Verity Sense Bluetooth heart rate monitor. And overall, so far, I think that was a good purchase. It– I, I did blog about this on my website. I do think it feels like it gives me more accurate readings, right? It feels more consistent. Um, knock on wood, it hasn’t done any of the craziness that the, either the Wahoo or the Kuzco versions or even the built-in Polar Garmin sensors do. Seems very more con- you know, much more consistent. The quality of the band sensor is good. Um, charging experience is pretty good. It’s still a little weird with, you know, clipping the sensor out of the band and clipping it into the little charging disc-
Scott: Yeah
Peter: … kinda thing.
Scott: Right.
Peter: So it gets a little… It’s a little concerning ’cause I have, you know, like, two things to lose again. And, and every time I’m taking it out, I’m usually standing, I’m, I’m standing at the breakfast bar in my kitchen, and that’s right near the return air duct going down to my furnace and HVAC system.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And if I was to pop it out just right and drop it, I could see it going right down there, going straight down into, um, you know, the HVAC, which is not where you want your heart rate.
Scott: Peter, I’m sure that the engineers who designed this heat-tested it already, so you don’t need to do that. And by the way, what I do is I tend to pop it out of the workout strap, rinse it under the sink real quick, and then I wash the workout strap with a little bit of soap. And there was one time I almost lost it down the sink drain. It was, uh… Yeah. So anyway. But what Peter’s talking about is this thing comes with a strap, and then the sensor itself pops into a little bracket on the strap. Well, you pop it out of that to charge it. And the, the reason why he’s saying you can lose two things is ’cause the charger’s a little round thing with a USB connector on the end of it, and you pop the sensor into that, and then you shove it into a USB-A port. Yeah. Do I love having to keep track of one more thing just to have this thing? No. But overall, is it a really good optical heart rate sensor? Yeah, I would, I would say so. And by the way, you and I discovered a weirdness about the charging.
Peter: Charging? Or well, yeah, related to charging. Yes. Yeah. I… You mentioned this to me some weeks ago, and, um, this Friday morning, I was in my yoga class, and I was not wearing the sensor because, you know, for yoga, I generally just use the built-in sensor-
Scott: Same
Peter: … on my Garmin.
Scott: Exactly.
Peter: It’s perfectly fine.
Scott: Yeah. Right.
Peter: Um, same. Exactly the same. And what I did notice was that, you know, five, 10 minutes into my yoga class, my heart rate was zero beats per minute. Scott, what was going on?
Scott: Uh, well, you were extremely relaxed, and you’re very fit, so you had a heart… uh, you had the lowest heart rate possible while doing yoga. Actually, here’s what happens. You take the Polar-
Peter: No, I was dead, Scott. The answer, the proper answer is I was dead.
Scott: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. It’s probably ’cause you stayed at Liv Hotel in the Bronx. I-
Peter: Would do it to anybody.
Scott: Yeah. I had this happen to me one time ’cause normally I do yoga first, and I don’t use the Polar, and then I do the bike workout, and I do use the Polar. One time I did it in reverse, and after the bike workout, I took the heart rate sensor out of its strap, I put it in the little USB-A thing, I plugged it in, and it was charging If it’s charging, even if it’s supposedly no longer connected to the watch and you’re clear across the house from it, the watch is not gonna use its built-in heart rate sensor anymore because it wants to be connected to that thing, even though that thing is just charging and you powered it off. It’s not like you turned the power on the sensor. You powered it off after the workout, but you plug it into charge, and even though it’s just charging, in theory, because the, you know, the sensors on the back aren’t lit up, just the charging light is flashing, the watch still sees it, and now you’re not getting a heart rate for your other workout. It’s wild.
Peter: Apparently, that was enough to turn it back on though, right? I mean, it, it must turn it back on because-
Scott: I don’t think it is turned on though because again, the… I– Well-
Peter: The, the light was on though. When I popped it off of the, it was, the sensor light was on.
Scott: The-
Peter: So somehow it got turned back on
Scott: … the five sensors on the back or the, the light on the side?
Peter: When I popped it… Well, it doesn’t matter. I popped it out of the charger, and a light was on, so that means it was powered.
Scott: Yeah, but the sensors aren’t on. So that light, as far as I thought, when I’ve– I thought that light just means it’s charging.
Peter: I did-
Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I-
Peter: … out of the charger-
Scott: I know what you’re saying, but if it’s on-
Peter: … it could not be charging anymore
Scott: … but if it’s on, the sensor light should come on. That’s the thing. That’s what I’m saying. If it’s active-
Peter: It should. Right. But, but it wasn’t. It was not charging, and it was sending a signal, so-
Scott: Yeah. It’s dumb. It’s really dumb
Peter: … I was like, “Okay.” Yeah.
Scott: You can’t– Apparently, you can’t charge it without it thinking that it should also be active, which makes no sense. Makes no sense whatsoever. So Polar, here’s a little tip for you. If electricity is flowing into your heart rate sensor, the person might not be doing a workout at that time. Just letting you know. Just letting you know.
Peter: Well, if that is what’s going on.
Scott: And by the way, there’s a room for you at the LIV Hotel in the Bronx. You might wanna stay at, Polar.
Peter: I wouldn’t say it’s that bad. ([chuckles])
Scott: You don’t want me to send them to the Bronx? ([chuckles])
Peter: No, no. It’s not that bad.
Scott: Okay. All right. Anyway, yeah, I, I thought that was funny. It– I could not figure out what was going on at first, and then I was like, “What is happening?” And then I went on, and on a whim, I just pulled the Polar out of the USB slot that it was in, and then my watch started working again. I’m like, “I don’t freaking believe it.”
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: So-
Peter: I, I freaking believe it
Scott: … what else do you not freaking believe? This is what– The other thing that you wanted to talk about today is actually what I was referring to when I was talking about shouting out or shouting into.
Peter: Talk to me.
Scott: AirPods. You had AirPod problems. You had left, you had right, left, left, left, right, left.
Peter: And I still am having the problems. Yes. Exactly. Um, at the moment I’m wearing my AirPods Pro 2s paired to my Mac. But, um, generally I just leave these sitting at my desk. They’re my desk AirPods now. And I usually have the AirPods Pro 3, which I will say I did use Live for live German translation in New York of all places.
Scott: Oh, you did do it.
Peter: It works now. It took a long time, and a new phone, and a bunch of software updates, but I do now have live soft- live translation.
Scott: Hold on, German person. I just need to update my phone for a couple hours. ([chuckles])
Peter: Well, the funny– Well, no, I mean, I tried it. The– When I was back in Berlin in September, you may recall, I tried it, and I even called Apple, and they’re like, “Yeah, it doesn’t work yet. Uh, wait for a software update.” I’m like, “Yeah. Thanks a lot.” Um, and then when I went back to Berlin just a couple of weeks ago for my birthday, um, I didn’t even think about using it. I didn’t, you know, didn’t even try it when I was over there. But I was with, um, the, the designer that we were there at the fashion show with. She’s German. And so, you know, she had a bunch of her German friends there. So I had an opportunity to check it out. And it was kind of funny because it, um, you know, uh, it was essentially I was– I turned it on. I was like, “Oh, let’s turn this on.” And there were a bunch of people speaking German off to the side, and it was, like, picking up their conversation, but I wasn’t having a one-on-one dialogue with them. But it definitely did seem to pick up some stuff, and it– I recognized some words, and it translated them accurately. So I was like, “Okay, then that’s kinda cool.” But I wouldn’t call it a real test at this point. I still need to do a little bit of, uh, you know, a little bit of, uh, more, more realistic testing. So it, it wasn’t very good. But, but at least the function is now enabled on my phone, which is something I could not say previously.
Scott: Yeah, I thought maybe you had used it in conversation.
Peter: No. I, I, I, I wanted to, but it didn’t, didn’t quite get there.
Scott: I was curious what kind of delay there would be. Like, would you have to put your finger to your ear so they would know that you were listening to some magic voice in the sky? ([chuckles])
Peter: I mean, I would say that, you know, like, unlike the, the demonstration video where, you know, the person just, like, you know, like, holds the phone-
Scott: Right, right
Peter: … and then, you know, shows it to them. I would– I speak enough of the language just to say, you know, like, “I’m gonna use this for translation,” or something like that. And, and plus, I’m sure these Germans would, you know, speak plenty of English, so it wouldn’t even be necessary, but-
Scott: How do you say please hold in German? Please hold.
Peter: Please ho- Oh, halt. Halt. Uh, it’s a ho- uh… Oh, bitte warten. Uh, please wait. Had to think about that for a second, so.
Scott: Please wait while I get you a room at the LIV Hotel in the Bronx. ([chuckles])
Peter: Oh, God. Ugh.
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: Ugh.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: So here’s what I will say. Um, uh, th- so when using the AirPods Pro 3 though, lately, w- and I don’t know if this is a recent software update, sometime within the past few weeks or months, um, not the very latest software update that just came out a few, you know, like last week-
Scott: We’re at point three
Peter: … um, I forget what version we’re at. Not that, but before that, the AirPods are extremely unreliable in pairing both units. So I’ll put both in, and usually, like with my phone, the right one is paired and I hear sound, and the left one is dead. You know, clicking on it and the haptic feedback, nothing happens. Clicking the pl- you know, the little buttons, tapping, sliding up and down, nothing’s going on. I then put them back in the case, take them out, pair them with my MacBook. The opposite happens. It pairs with the left one and not the right. I’m like, “What the hell is going on?” And then sometimes I put in a different app and I hear both. Like I would put one and I hear music and I hear both. And then i- it’s like I, and I haven’t sat down to, to really exhaustively troubleshoot this, but I’m getting what appears to be very random results. For example, I would, um, like sometimes with a… Like if I play Overcast, for instance, I would hear it in both ears, but then I would go to Hoopla for an audiobook and hear it in one ear, or play music, it would be the other ear. It’s just… Dude. ([laughs]) It’s really bad and unpredictable.
Scott: I will agree with and amend your statement slightly. Instead of saying it’s unpredictable when pairing in certain situations, I will amend your statement to it’s unpredictable in all situations. I have had, a- again, about the same timeframe, I’ve had this, I’ve had weird problems with my AirPods Pro, mainly sometimes trying to pair with things, but mainly the way it’s been hitting me is I’ll be listening to something and all of a sudden it’ll just cut out for a second, and then it’ll come back. And it’s just all the time now. It just happens multiple times per day. And I’ve never had that before with AirPods Pro. Once I was finally connected, yeah, I might fight with it to say which device I want. “Stop, don’t go to my Mac. W- I’m actually on a phone. Why? Why?” But once I’m past all that, normally it works fine. But now it’s just like all of a sudden the sound will just drop out and I just keep thinking, “My God, if only Bluetooth had been around long enough for them to work out all the bugs of Bluetooth, Peter. If only this was an established technology and Apple had something to work with instead of being on the cutting edge of…” Wait, how old is Bluetooth?
Peter: 20… How many? 20-
Scott: Bluetooth
Peter: … 20-plus years.
Scott: History. The history of Bluetooth. Let us read the novel, the history of Bluetooth. Hold on. It goes back to blah.
Peter: More than 20 years. That’s all I know.
Scott: It was proposed in 1997 by Jim Kardach of Intel. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that company. I certainly never have.
Peter: Well, hold on.
Scott: Uh-
Peter: Oh, no, sorry. I was, I was thinking USB. I was, I was gonna say it k- got popularized by, with the iMac, but that was USB. That was not Bluetooth.
Scott: So the first Bluetooth device was revealed in 1999 at COMDEX. It was an Ericsson T36, even though it was never released. However, in June of 2001, the revised Ericsson model T39 was the first one with Bluetooth. It was the first commercially available. Actually, it was the R520. I don’t know. They’ve got who- It’s Wiki- Geez. How long has Wikipedia been around? Let’s talk about that technology. Anyway, Bluetooth-
Peter: Wow
Scott: … first production phone with Bluetooth was in 2001. So you can see why Apple needs more time to deal with this fledgling technology and get things working correctly.
Peter: That under bugs Apple loves.
Scott: Oh, they love bugs. They love bugs.
Peter: To have a… You wanna talk about that?
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: About bugs Apple loves?
Scott: Oh, God.
Peter: No. That was one thing.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: We did check. We did not find any bugs. There were no bugs in the sheets, so that much we were happy about.
Scott: There were no roaches-
Peter: But, uh, yeah
Scott: … living or other in that hotel room?
Peter: We did not find any bugs in that hotel room. No bedbugs, no roaches. So yeah, that was… That, that would’ve been like, screw this for sleeping in the subway-
Scott: Oh
Peter: … or something at that point.
Scott: ([laughs]) Yeah.
Peter: Or going to a, you know, going to a nightclub or something like that, you know? And just stay there all day.
Scott: Yeah, I don’t know. I, there’s so many Apple software bugs now, Peter. It’s just like they don’t even care anymore. There’s just so many. I, I can’t even… I think every day… Oh yeah, today I had one. I fired up Logic Pro because the fact that we’re podcasting reminded me that I haven’t released a podcast in 12 years, and I thought I should at least work on trying to finish Episode 96 that I’m editing. I open up Logic Pro, and clearly there had been some kind of update, and it goes, “Oh, Logic Pro cannot find the Logic Pro Library.bundle.” And I was like, that sounds important for the functioning of Logic Pro. And they had a generate a new one or locate. So I clicked on locate and it opened Finder right to the folder containing something called Logic Pro Library.bundle. I clicked on it, I hit okay, and it opened happily. I’m like, you took me right to it. Right to-
Peter: Can’t find it
Scott: … it. But you could not fi- It’s too… Who can find things? Who-
Peter: Who could possibly-
Scott: How can we possibly know what this file is named that we just told you the name of? Who knows?
Peter: Nobody knows.
Scott: Apple.
Peter: Nobody knows. Uh, it just-
Scott: It just-
Peter: Man
Scott: … boggles the mind. I don’t know what they’re doing there at Apple. Tim Cook needs to go for many reasons, but-
Peter: Please.
Scott: Ugh. I want, what I want is somebody who gives a ([censored]) about software quality to come back in to power at Apple.
Peter: Yeah, but nobody does that. They care about profits and bottom line and that is it.
Scott: Right. And they’re making tons of money. That’s the problem is-
Peter: Yeah. It’s working. What they’re doing is working.
Scott: But see, it just shows you what people are willing to put up with, Peter. Most people just accept-
Peter: Yes
Scott: … that software doesn’t work. What do they do when they try to do something and it just flat out doesn’t work? Do they just give up? You know, like it’s some function-
Peter: Yeah
Scott: … that suppo- that they bought there.
Peter: They do.
Scott: I just don’t understand it.
Peter: They feel like they’re taken advantage of and they rage and that’s it. It sucks. It sucks.
Scott: I don’t think they do rage. I think people just give up. I just think they’re like, “Oh, well.” And I’m like When you’re trying to message your wife and it doesn’t even know who you are or who your wife is or what, what a message is, do you just quit? I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. Like, these are key features, and I guess people are just like, “Oh, well, huh, I guess I didn’t need to do that.” I don’t know. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Peter: Pretty much. ([laughs]) Yeah. I, I– A lot of the people just throw their hands up in the air and call you or me or Geek Squad or something like that and, you know, that’s it. Um…
Scott: Is there anything else you wanna talk about, or do you– What are you doing today, Peter? Yesterday was a holiday.
Peter: I’m working.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: Yesterday was a holiday. Today is a catch-up day. I’m booked solid. Like, I’ve got five minutes until my– four minutes until my next meeting, and then I have a hour lunch break, and then I’m gonna be working a little bit on my business plan for my, um, coffee and running, uh, blogs that I’m trying to put together.
Scott: Wow. Coffee and running blogs.
Peter: Yes.
Scott: Running with coffee?
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: Coffee with running?
Peter: Peter Runs, Peter Drinks Coffee. I mean, there you go.
Scott: Well, Peter-
Peter: That’s what he does
Scott: … I destroyed a tendon in my hand by doing nothing more than walking down a hallway with coffee. So I want you to know that running with coffee, I’m not gonna say don’t do it. You, you do what you wanna do. But I am gonna say please be careful.
Peter: If it’s in a travel mug and stuff, I mean, it should be okay, right?
Scott: By the way, I got my stitches out yesterday, and I got the main bandage off. And today I go in to get a formed splint where they heat form it around my finger, and then I think I’m in that for four to six weeks, and then after that it should come off.
Peter: Yay.
Scott: Oh, and I wanted to say something here. I have been making great use of– So I w- as you know, I was using Mac Whisper for dictation on the Mac and even the mobile version on the iPhone for a while because the built-in dictation, do, do I need to say anything, honestly?
Peter: Yes.
Scott: And that was fine because I had those products paid for. Now I am using Wispr Flow.ai. It’s called Wispr, but W-I-S-P-R. And it’s not super cheap. Let me look at the pricing here. It’s $12 a month. So not super cheap, but my God, is it fast and accurate. It is so fast, and it is so accurate. As soon as I’m done dictating, bam, it fills it, and it gets it right more often than not. It has a dictionary, and I can tell it, “This is a correction for something.” So look, if I said Nikolaidis, and it spelled it, you know, the way it l- I don’t know, sometimes dictation wants to spell it more like colitis or something like that. And I can say, “Hey, when you think you’re gonna spell this word, spell this word instead.” You can do things like that. It’s just a good product. So will I use it forever? I don’t know. But right now, when I don’t wanna type a lot, it has been absolutely amazing.
Peter: Excellent. On that note, I really need to jump to my next meeting, so I’m gonna let you take us out and catch you on the flip side.
Scott: Sounds good. This is Friends with Brews. Peter is Peter. I am Scott. You can find us all and more information about us, including show links, at friendswithbruce.com. And, uh, you should probably, probably, probably- Tell your friends