I'm sure they're doing their best

Paul 00:00

How are you doing, Drew?

Drew 00:02

I mean, it's another week. I'm still above ground. Uh I'm not gonna make I'm not gonna make it to Drew show this week. That's okay. I got things to talk about. Okay. All right. Yeah, it's been a little bit, it's a little bit of a hectic week. Been a little bit of a hectic week for me. Uh but I I opened the I opened the dock. Uh-huh. And what's the first topic on the dock, Paul? Paul got a haircut. It doesn't look it doesn't look like you got a haircut.

Paul 00:31

Uh I did. I did. Very much so. So hold on. Let me let me let me just let me just show you the back here real quick. Okay. Okay, okay, okay, hold on. Oh. Oh yeah, you got a haircut. Yeah, I got a haircut. Okay. So up until this point, it had probably been a year and a half since I had gotten my haircut. And my hair was down to the middle of my back. Ew. It's okay. It was fine. It was a fine link. It was a fine link. But you know, it was good, it was getting it was getting long. It was getting long. And And ah I had to go pick up Zachary this afternoon from OU. He's on spring break. So I took I took the whole day off and I'm like, I'm gonna get a haircut. Okay. So it's been a very long time since I've got a haircut. So the first thing I had to do, Drew, was where do I go to get a haircut?

Drew 01:21

You know, I was gonna ask you because you have look you have very long um Particular hair. And I don't think a barber okay, yeah.

Paul 01:32

Yeah. So okay, exactly. So, okay. Yeah, so my hair is long, my hair is curly, my hair is thick. Okay. So I did not want to go to just a barber shop with just a bunch of dudes. All they do is just like buzz cuts and stuff like that. I figured that would not be good. In the past, I have gone to just regular alt salons that like women go to because they know hair. Okay. I found I'm not going to name this place because it was not a good experience. I found this place in Grove City that catered to men, but all of the employees were women.

Drew 02:11

Oh, so Lady Janes.

Paul 02:13

Okay. It was not Lady Janes. Okay, all right. I'll just say it was men's refinery in Grove City. Okay. Okay. Don't please don't go to Lady Jane's either. Okay. Okay. So uh it was and it was a it's a very nice place and had like leather sofas to sit and wait. Everything. It was it was like aesthetically very nice. Okay. So I go in there and I sit down with with my with my stylist. And she's asked me some questions, and uh I had kind of decided that I wanted it, which is not what I got, by the way. Um I wanted it like a couple inches past my shoulders. Something that I could like I could all I could pull back into ponytail if I would like, or I could like part down the middle and and just leave it off to the side. And I just wanted less hair, so I also wanted some layers, right? Some layers. Well Not to not to bury the lead, but uh I ended up ended up being tag teamed by two different stylists because my first stylist Fucked up. Fucked up okay. Fucked up how. So apparently when she was putting in the layers in the back, she did it wrong. And my choices were basically have a shitty haircut or get it cut shorter.

Drew 03:41

Okay.

Paul 03:41

So, like right now, and I'm not 100% sure she fully appreciated how curly my hair was. Because where I went at a couple inches below the shoulder, I really ended up with a couple inches above the shoulder. Above the shoulder.

Drew 03:56

Yeah, it looks like you have a really cute perm.

Paul 03:58

Yeah. And honestly, like the the the the second lady kind of like she had to help twice because there was there was just more mistakes and she had to come and and was it was it this woman's first day or

Drew 04:13

I I don't I the I don't know. Did you get somebody fired?

Paul 04:18

I don't I don't I don't think so I I was very nice about the whole thing. Like I I you know like I understand like it personally it's hair like Like give it a month. It'll probably be the length I want it to be at anyway. Like hair grows. It's fine. Well, some hair grows. Yeah, yeah. Well, my hair grows. My hair grows for sure. Yeah. So I was very nice, just very polite. I still tipped well. Like I'm not gonna be one of those people that like get angry and storm out, demand a free fucking haircut. And like, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's hair. It'll grow. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I had it down earlier. My wife recommended this, like, like, why don't you just take the top of it and put it in a pudding tail and leave the other half down? And that's what that's what I've done.

Drew 05:01

Uh I can't. So take take your headphones off for a second. I can't really tell with the headphones on. Okay, now turn to the side. Yeah, I mean it looks okay. It was okay. It's not the Paul I know, but it looks okay.

Paul 05:12

No, no, no. So it and you know, like, and I could tell. Like, I put my headphones on And I'm like, oh, these are too big. I have to, I have to, I have to adjust these. Like, so it's definitely like, and like when she did the first cut in the back, like I just felt like like two pounds of hair just fall off of me. It was like, oh Yeah, okay. Uh so my haircut kind of went s a little sideways, but it's okay. I I will live. This isn't gonna be what kills me. But my hair is my hair is it's still long, but it's sh much, much shorter.

Drew 05:52

I mean it's probably like more manageable more manageable, I would imagine.

Paul 05:56

Yeah, yeah, 100%. So

Drew 05:58

Do you feel do you feel better with your haircut? This bad experience aside, like do you do you feel better after a haircut?

Paul 06:07

Well, not this one particular. I I know, I know. Yeah.

Drew 06:09

Yeah.

Paul 06:10

So it it depends. Like In the past, I've always kept it like, you know, I've been w rocking the, you know, like ponytail for goddamn like a decade now, right? Yeah, it's been a while. So and like right now, all I all my my whole being is feeling hair on the back of my neck. That's that's that's everything is kind of just just muted and it's just like ooh, that's kind of itchy right now. Um But it it's it I am happy it is shorter. I wish I would have gotten what I wanted and not what I got. So Okay. It's okay. It's alright. It's all right. We're we're we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna live with it.

Drew 06:53

So yeah. So back when I had hair, I did something very similar to you. My hair started thinning out in my sort of late 20s. And when you and I worked together, I I hadn't shaved my head, I don't think, the whole time we worked together. Yeah, it was after. Yeah, yeah. It was short. I kept it short, but in the back I had a pretty good, you know, visible bald patch, and I held on as long as I could. For all those years, I went to a stylist. I didn't go to a regular barbershop. And um the woman that cut my hair was really good. And she was pretty honest with me. She's like, you probably got like Five years left on this hair. Okay. You know, you probably want to think about maybe changing up your style or, you know, doing something about it. And she had She was really good at what she did and she had given me given me some shampoos to help like, you know, my scalp health and everything, hoping that maybe it would slow things down. It didn't. So I I shave my head and I haven't set foot in a barber shop in

Paul 08:04

Five years. Yeah, just do it yourself. Yeah.

Drew 08:07

But I will say there have been times where I've been traveling and I never pack a razor when I travel. So if I'm gone for an extended period of time, I have found like barber shops and gotten my head shaved just to kind of keep it kind of tight. Because what happens is like I get like my hair still grows, but it just grows out like a tiny little bit. And I get like a peach fuzz thing over most of my head. And it doesn't look bad, but I like to keep it. I mean, I just shaved tonight. You could actually see all the light hitting my head right now. Like it's I got a I got a good little chrome dome thing going on here. Well, um so th so the family took it okay?

Paul 08:56

Yeah, they're they're yeah, they were fine. Except you know, yeah, yeah, no. My my my My wife did laugh at me a little bit before I before I figured out this particular thing. She's and and like she's like, that's that's like I I think she would prefer if I had a traditional male haircut. But like if she saw she's all like like that's too short, isn't it? I'm like, yeah, it's that's it's too short.

Drew 09:19

I'm curio I'm curious where Arabelle's thoughts are on the matter.

Paul 09:22

She liked my hair. She wanted me to go full on like Keanu Reeves, which is a look I do not think I could pull off with curly hair. So yeah. Yeah.

Drew 09:33

Oh buddy, I'm I'm really bad that I'm really sorry you had a bad experience. It's all right. It's all right.

Paul 09:38

Um life goes on.

Drew 09:40

Life goes on. I mean it it it it doesn't look bad. I mean I I've your hair your hair is amazing. Like I don't yeah. Alright. So uh after we were done recording last episode You said something crazy to me. And I looked through the doc after we were recording last time. You haven't talked about this.

Paul 10:03

Okay.

Drew 10:04

Okay. All right. Just just just explain this to the listeners.

Paul 10:07

I'm gonna shut up. Okay. So I I have we have my my I have pre I know what my vacation this summer is going to be My daughter and I are flying to the Los Angeles area to go to HellmouthCon. Which is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan convention. And I am very excited about this whole trip. Okay.

Drew 10:41

So let's let's let let's let's let's pull back the curtain a little bit because you said this to me after we were recording. We were we were we were off the air, we were having our our little afterglow session as we call it our aftercare. Yeah. And you said this to me, and I had so many questions. And I w I wish Okay. I wish I would have written them down.

Paul 11:02

Okay.

Drew 11:02

So let's let's hit the ones that I remember. And the first one is does actual Buffy show up?

Paul 11:09

No.

Drew 11:10

No.

Paul 11:10

Okay. Sarah Bashogeller hasn't done conventions. ever, ever. She just doesn't, she doesn't do them, uh, which is fine, which is fine. I mean, maybe we'll There the the there is going to be a continuation of the Buffy story. It does look like Hulu has ordered a season of Buffy Coleman New Sunnydale. So it's gonna be a continuation of the story, but she does not she does not do conventions. Neither does like David Borneo, who played Angel. He doesn't do that shit either, but a lot of the other cast does.

Drew 11:45

Well, she did Comic Con in 2024.

Paul 11:48

Okay, okay, okay.

Drew 11:49

I did I did I did my homework, right?

Paul 11:52

Okay.

Drew 11:52

So she she does things. She just doesn't do this.

Paul 11:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Drew 11:58

So uh you you had I I had asked you about other characters.

Paul 12:03

Okay. So but I I forgot the most important thing, Drew.

Drew 12:07

Oh, the most important thing.

Paul 12:08

Okay. the location for this conference. Mm-hmm. The conference is held at Torrance High School. Which is the high school that they filmed Buffy the Vampire Slayer at.

Drew 12:25

And I feel like That alone is worth the price of admission to you. Yes, yes.

Paul 12:30

Uh fun fact, it's also the same high school they filled Beverly Hills 90210.

Drew 12:36

I feel, I feel like Outside of this convention, you're the kind of person that would fly to Los Angeles to visit this high school anyway. Oh, yes, 100%. Okay. Yeah, I just want a level set. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Who's going with you?

Paul 12:51

Okay, so though there's a link in the show notes. And if you click on that bad boy, uh you can scroll down about the middle of the page and you can see the guest. Now this this list is growing So there are so from we first my daughter and I first talked about it, there have been some additions to this list. The the the the if there so there's currently what 10 10 different people between uh some of them are from Angel, some of most of them are from Buffy. Uh There there is one one actress in particular that we are the most excited to see.

Drew 13:33

Ooh, I don't know them well enough.

Paul 13:35

Okay. Okay. So My daughter's middle name is named after a Buffy character. Okay. Her middle name is Cordelia, who is played by Charisma Carpenter. Okay. And she will be at Hellmouth Con. Okay. Yes. Yeah.

Drew 13:56

So yeah, you you you s you said your daughter is going with. you.

Paul 14:00

Yes, my daughter is going with me. Yes. My son and my wife are not. I think my my wife would go, but she she j does not like long she doesn't like airplanes. She doesn't like long flights. So she's like, she's like, no, I don't want to fly all the way to to California and I get. And my son, while he likes the show, he's not doesn't like it enough to go to a convention about you know uh two solid days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Uh so yeah.

Drew 14:27

Okay. So um on the webpage

Paul 14:31

Mm-hmm.

Drew 14:32

So tickets.

Paul 14:34

Tickets. Yep. The tickets were dirt cheap. Like.

Drew 14:39

They're more than I thought they were gonna be. Well, okay, they're not, they're not so

Paul 14:44

So my ticket was um 162.

Drew 14:48

Or did you get the VIP?

Paul 14:49

No, the VIPs are sold out. They've been logs and sold out. Yeah, so my ticket was $162. Uh I was able to get my my daughter will still be uh 17 or under. Actually, she'll suppose be 16 when she goes. So I was able to get her badge for only $32. Okay. So yeah. So I mean if if you consider that, you know, we got we got an Airbnb, because sh she wants her own room. And uh I couldn't find a hotel that did suites and she's less than she's not underage, so having her being in her own room is is not Not something they're they're going to allow. So we fund an Airbnb. Happens to be after talking to the host, it is a seven-minute walk to the high school. So I think that's pretty freaking good. So we're gonna be right there. Uh and then, you know, flights. So a after this, like, you know, a couple hundred bucks for the tickets. And granted there will be additional costs like the the the meet and greet experiences with the with the cast those all cost extra like because you know they're they're they're there to make a little bit of money like i get it so there's gonna be additional costs but like the the badge to get in was basically free compared to the rest of the trip. So yeah.

Drew 16:03

Okay. Uh so There's there's terms on this page I don't understand.

Paul 16:13

Okay, okay.

Drew 16:14

All right, so help me with something. Why is it named Hellmouthcon and not BuffyCon?

Paul 16:21

Okay, okay. So first of all, Buffy's trademarked.

Drew 16:23

Oh, well.

Paul 16:25

So one of the Re okay. In the lore of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the reason there is so much supernatural activity In Sunnydale, California, where the show takes place, is because Sunnydale has a hell mouth. That hell mouth, it's literally a mouth to hell.

Drew 16:51

Okay, that I mean I very descriptive. Yep. Okay. Hell mouth. Hold on a minute. I'm taking notes. Hell mouth, mouth to hell. Okay.

Paul 16:58

All right. So the the hell mouth. Okay. So A lot of the sh so the early parts of the show when they were high school, a lot of it take took, you know, took place in the high school. Buffy's watcher, which is basically her mind or her keeper. basically like liaison as the school librarian. So a lot of the the show took place in the library. Well they just happened to realize that the Hellmouth is actually underneath the library of the school. Okay. So so it being at the high school where the hellmouth is, therefore hellmouth con.

Drew 17:35

So answers my first question. Under okay, so mm-hmm. I I'm I'm reading the page.

Paul 17:46

Mm-hmm. As one does.

Drew 17:47

The Scooby roster and big bads.

Paul 17:50

Okay, yes.

Drew 17:51

What does that mean? Okay. So I want to understand. I'm asking because I want to understand.

Paul 18:00

I'm not I'm not poking fun. So we'll do the last one first, the big bats. Okay. So uh Buffy was it's a very it is a kind there it's a very formulaic show. Most of the episodes are what we fans call monster of the week episodes. In fact, I think there's actually a tabletop role-playing game called Monster in the Week inspired by this. It's some random supernatural baddie that Buffy has to fight. Okay. Every season also has a main villain. Okay. An overarching villain that she encounters throughout the season and eventually defeats at the end. We always call those the big bad. So every season has a big bad in them. Okay. So that's that's where the the big bad comes from. Okay. Okay, the Scooby roster. So there is a core group of friends that Buffy has that helps her throughout the show. That is called even in the show, they call themselves the Scoobies or the Scooby Gang. Direct reference to Scooby-Doo, you know, you know All that stuff. So the core group is the Scoobies, and the Scoobies fight the big bad. So that is why it's called the Scooby Roster and Big Bads. So technically Yeah, technically there's only three Scoobies and exactly no big bads, but that's okay.

Drew 19:36

No big bads are currently on the roster.

Paul 19:38

Yeah. No. Yeah. So there's only uh what's this? Doug Jones is going to be there. He played he played a bad guy in exactly one episode.

Drew 19:49

So interesting. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. Huh. Okay, what else do I want to know? All right. So I'm looking at the schedule here. Get to know your fellow Scoobies before the mouth of hell officially opens. Join us for Trivia Karaoke. Welcome night shenanigans.

Paul 20:11

So a little meet and greet mixer the night before the conference. You're gonna do that, right? We'll see, we'll see. We're having committed to that, but we'll see. We'll as we learn more, we'll figure things out. So Okay.

Drew 20:23

And then Saturday is the convention. Um campus is open, 9 30. Food trucks. Oh, wow. Okay. Food trucks for you guys. Okay. Uh, let's see. More details. We'll call open Sunny Doll Mall. Oh, you're gonna buy a lot of merch. Yeah, that's

Paul 20:42

Sunday Dale Mall, so is what what they call their vendor hall. Yeah, I've already decided I'm taking an extra suitcase. So okay. Okay.

Drew 20:52

Yep. Claim your slayer badge. Okay. Okay, wow, there are okay, I'm looking at the picture. Oh, those are the oh, volunteers and fans gathered.

Paul 21:04

Yeah, I believe that picture is mostly volunteers. Fo what I could tell on Reddit, there's about like three to five hundred people that attend this. So it's not comically small, but it's not a big convention either. It's very, it's, you know, it's it's quaint. It's quaint. But like the difference between this and a Comic-Con is people go to Comic-Con for Infinite number of reasons. Everybody here is is, you know, we know what we're going to do. One particular thing. Yes, exactly. It's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer that convention. So yeah. Huh. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yep. Yep. In the past, like I know they have been, they've had tours where uh you actually can go and uh visit the house that Buffy lived in, quote unquote. So you can you can see that and and uh a trip to the actual mall where they film some of the stuff.

Drew 21:55

And yeah, so we're just we're just gonna go and Yeah, enjoy. So of all the people that are gonna be attending this, who's the most Famous? I don't know if that's the right word. Who's the most like who's who's the big get right now?

Paul 22:12

I mean, definitely to me it's Chris McCarpenter. Uh though she really hasn't done didn't do a whole lot after Buffy, except for this one really weird Uh we're trying to be fifty shades of gray, but uh with more nudity.

Drew 22:26

Uh uh can you can you maybe point that one out to them?

Paul 22:30

Uh Chris uh ChristmaCarpenter that's Chris McCarpenter. No, no, though the 50 shades agree with D. I I just look her up on IMDb. You'll see. I am, and there's a lot.

Drew 22:41

Okay. Uh which one was it? She did a Pegasus movie.

Paul 22:44

I can't remember which one what it was called

Drew 22:46

Dynasty? No.

Paul 22:48

Maybe. I don't know. Yeah.

Drew 22:50

Okay, Slayer's a Buffyverse story. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The Good Father. Uh

Paul 22:58

No good Nick, Melwater Monster. I mean, so like if I was gonna pick my personal big three, uh, obviously one, Chris McCarpenter, I did name my daughter after her character in the show. Uh uh Amy Acker, I'm excited to see her. She actually was not on Buffy, she was on Angel. She played Fred. I especially I loved her character, except for the last season when they did something stupid. Okay. And uh I would say my number three is Emma Caulfield. Uh she plays Anya. Uh and when I was younger, I had a huge crush on her. So there you go. Okay. Mm-hmm. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Drew 23:38

And okay, so this is um where's the date? Oh, it was down here at the bottom. Oh, okay. So it's June 12th. It's in June.

Paul 23:46

Yeah, it's in June.

Drew 23:47

Okay. Well cool, buddy. I mean I'm not here to y I'm not trying to yuck you down. I'm really not. Like I know you're a big fan of the show. Hey, there's no way you can make a fun of me as much as you want. I am excited. I am excited for this. I'm legitimately not making fun of you.

Paul 24:02

Yeah, this this is gonna be an absolute, absolute great time.

Drew 24:06

I'm gonna be grinning ear to ear the whole time. Do you think they will add more people every now and then? Yeah.

Paul 24:11

They've already added a couple more people uh to the list from when my my daughter and I started talking about it. So uh yeah.

Drew 24:21

And to sort of bring this back to why your daughter wants to go, yes, she is named after the character, but you said she's also styling her hair.

Paul 24:29

Yeah, she's a big Buffy fan. She's actually considering doing cosplay one of the days. Uh, okay.

Drew 24:37

Who would she cosplay as?

Paul 24:39

Uh as Buffy. Uh okay, so there is uh There's a a small little sh short story arc where uh Buffy runs away from home and actually goes to LA. And when she's there, she's a waitress. And she goes under the name of Anne, which is technically Buffy's middle name. So she's thinking about getting a waitress costume and an Anne badge. And she already, like, she's got the blonde hair. Like Though she did die it a little darker recently. Uh, but that's great. Yeah. So she's thinking about doing that. So yeah. I will not be cosplaying because I don't, I that's not, that's not me. Uh

Drew 25:19

So who okay, but uh okay, uh y you brought it up.

Paul 25:23

Okay.

Drew 25:24

If you were gonna cosplay though Spike?

Paul 25:28

Maybe. Yeah. I get a long, long, like bleach my hair blonde, pull it back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Drew 25:34

I think I think you could do that.

Paul 25:35

I think I really think you could do that. Yeah.

Drew 25:37

Yeah.

Paul 25:38

No, the actor who plays Spike does do conventions, and I would not be surprised to see him here. Apparently he has done it in the past. So Okay. Yeah.

Drew 25:48

All right. Well, buddy, I'm happy. I I really hope you enjoy yourself.

Paul 25:52

I I am. I'm gonna have a good freaking time. I'm gonna buy so much shit that I don't need, and it's gonna be wonderful. Um it's gonna yeah. Just just so happy. Okay.

Drew 26:03

All right. Paul. Mm-hmm. Let's talk about 3D printing briefly. Okay. I'm here for this. Okay. So right now, how many spools of filament do you have?

Paul 26:16

Twenty.

Drew 26:17

Okay. Where do you keep them?

Paul 26:20

So okay, so I ended up buying cheap dry cereal boxes. So the base basically it's it's it's designed to put like bulk cereal in, but they're perfect for filament. They seal, they have a tight seal. Like top water. Yeah, yeah. So I throw I I put the filament in there, I throw a bag of that moisture-absorbing beads in there as well. And that's that is where I I keep them.

Drew 26:49

Now before like if you were to if you were going to go right now and say, hey, I've got filament in one of these containers that I want to print with, would you just take it out and go?

Paul 27:02

So y I know where you're going with this. Yes. Yeah. But I have had issues with uh with m moist filament in the past. Moist. Yep. Yep. So uh in fact I I did a print today and I'm like, I think that filament's a little wet. It didn't come out quite as good as I would like.

Drew 27:23

Okay.

Paul 27:23

And in those cases, if I have a bad bad print, I have a filament dryer that I put the filament in.

Drew 27:30

Perfect. That's what I want to talk about. So what filament dryer do you have?

Paul 27:35

Oh, let me get you the link. I bought it off Amazon.

Drew 27:40

I did too.

Paul 27:41

Okay. Uh, switching for filaments, not gonna Okay, hold on. I have the Creolity Space Pie Filament Dryer Plus. Two spools. Yep, two spools.

Drew 27:56

I bought the same thing. Okay, good. We're on the same wavelength. So he I don't have a ton of filament right now. When I bought my 3D printer, I was very targeted about the filaments that I bought. And then I made a mistake and ordered some filament from bamboo, but didn't click the option to get the spool. Oh so I so I have Uh yeah, I could. Um so I just have two boxes of filament sitting over there that I haven't opened yet. But anyway, I have I have four spools of filament right now. I have uh just some regular ass PLA and then I have uh a carbon fill like a carbon filament like a P-E-T-G-CF okay the P E D the P-E-T-G CF, it's just inland brand. I got it from Micro Center. And I haven't printed anything with it yet.

Paul 28:44

Okay.

Drew 28:44

I I've been reading about it like my Printer has the right nozzle to do it, although Bamboo recommends a slightly bigger nozzle for that. Because I have the point four. Yeah, they recommend the point six, but I think I'm gonna try it anyway just to see what happens. Um, but they're very clear on the fact that these carbon-infused filaments, you gotta dry the fuck out of them before you try to print. Okay. And all the instructions that I read is grab your filament, throw it in your oven for eight hours.

Paul 29:21

I've heard that as well.

Drew 29:22

Yes. I'm not putting plastic in my oven. So I went shopping for filament dryers. Now bamboo sells one. Yeah. And and for the record They tell you that there's a lot of different ways that you can do it just with your 3D printer. Like put the spool in your 3D printer, close the door, let the bed heat up. That's supposed to be able to help heat it up and dry it out. The AMS2, which holds the spools, can also do some drying. But I'm with you. I want a dedicated device that actually dries the filibit out, and I went with the same one. So it's actually back there running right now. I'm gonna try to do, I'm letting it run for eight hours. I think it's on hour six right now. Okay. At like 65C. So I'm gonna try to do a carbon print tomorrow to see how it goes. So okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And Vapu sells one too, but it's like way more money. Yeah.

Paul 30:18

So like for what I've heard what I what I've read and heard is like those like the the silica gels, right? That will prevent more moisture from getting into your filament. But it won't dry it out. It won't dry it out. If there's and and like from what I like a lot of times depending on the factory, especially like with bum bamboo, which actually I believe is technically just a rebranded uh Sun Lu filament, like those typically come pretty

Drew 30:44

Pretty juicy from the manufacturer. Yeah. Yeah, I've noticed that too. Yeah. Now I might thankfully my basement's a pretty cool dry place, which is where I have all the stuff in my unfinished basement. Um The relative humidity in my AMS2 right now, like I'm looking at it here on my app, is like 24%, which isn't terrible. No. Um, but yeah, I I threw I threw that carbon filament in there and it was like I think it was like at forty something when I took it out when I took it out of the bag.

Paul 31:13

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, yeah. So yeah, I it's You know, I generally like I'm mostly doing PLA and a little like PET G stuff. I will generally try a print and if it's like, ooh, this is pretty bad. I'll throw it in the dryer and and do it again. Like I had a print where like it's so stupid, like printed a fidget for a kid of like one of my wife's friends, and then her sister also wants one. And she went in blue and I printed it. And like at the end, it just kind of went like a little, a little, little, a little squiggly. And I'm like, mm-mm, mm-mm, nope, nope, nope. That's going in the dryer tomorrow morning. And I'll do that one again.

Drew 31:52

Yeah. So I have so two more questions for you. So when you're drying those, how long do you dry them for?

Paul 31:59

I do what it's the manual recommends. I think for like PLA, it says like two to four hours. So I usually split the difference and do three. Uh I think the damn thing was for like PEG, but I have heard that that some of the the ones that have additives in it, like the wood fiber ones, the glow-in-the-dark ones, the carbon fiber, you gotta cook the fuck out of those things to get a good print. Yeah. Yeah, like it because I think just those additives just hold on to moisture more. So you really have to bake it out. And then from what I've heard, generally if you put it in a place, a dry like a sealed box with like s like the silica jet beads, it won't generally won't absorb any more moisture, but you really need to just get that shit out of there. Like yeah.

Drew 32:42

Now when you're printing PET G, what plate do you use?

Paul 32:46

Uh I use the one that came with it, the the textured. Yeah. Okay.

Drew 32:50

That's what I was gonna do. Because I bought I bought one of those like super cool plates or whatever. Um And it w it were it worked for PLA great. Yeah, but I I like the I like the pattern that the texture puts on the finish print.

Paul 33:02

I do, I do too. Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Drew 33:06

Okay, cool. So we we basically bought the same thing.

Paul 33:09

Yep. Yep. And it's a great little and also you can also like I guess like put a tube in it, connect it to your printer, and use it as like a little which I'm not I haven't done yet. I don't have room. Mine's under like mine's underneath the table. I don't keep mine.

Drew 33:21

I don't keep mine near the print. It's in a different part of my workbench. But even then, I think technically I would have to buy one of those devices for the well, I think I actually have a spare pace on the back where I could put the tube in. I I I'd be curious how how good it would work though.

Paul 33:38

Yeah.

Drew 33:40

So all right. All right, cool. So that's the only question I had for you. Now speaking of buying things, what do you got here?

Paul 33:48

Okay. So I don't have a lot. I don't have a ton of smart home stuff in my house. But the stuff I have, I'm all in on HomeKit. Uh I have a HomeKit enabled doorbell that's that saves its video to what iCloud secure storage. I've got some the lights in my office are all smart. And I'm a big fan of smart locks. I'm actually technically on my third smart lock. So the one I the one I I I basically I bought a new I bought a new lock for my front door. The one I had before was an Aquara Smart Lock U100 or something. And it was it was fine. It was a little older of a model, but it like it had it had uh sported a home key, which basically uses the NFC reader in your phone to be able to unlock your door, which is some the feat the feature I wanted. It's got thumbprint readers, it's got a t a touch pad. Uh but it had two two big issues that that really pushed me to something new. Uh one, it used double-A batteries. Yeah. And uh Which is fine, but you have to buy like if you want them to last at all, you have to buy those really expensive lithium-ion, those lithium batteries and and whatever. And the second one is the lock just sucked when it was cold. Just sucked. Did not would it stick? Yeah, it would stick. It wouldn't close. It wouldn't latch all the way. It was just, it was just awful. So I was like, screw it. I'm gonna get a new one. Uh, you know, I I started uh I started a conversation with Chatty G, did my research on stuff, and I was like, okay, so like You know, I wanted one that was generally well-regarded as being reliable, especially in the cold. I wanted one that had a rechargeable battery. Some like a charger battery that you can replace, right? So you can like you have two batteries, charge one, put one in. And uh a lot of smartlocks now are doing they basically have a face ID sensor in there. them where they shoot infrared and they do face detection and then lock. But I did not want one. So but a lot of those are also doorbells because they could put a camera in there, put the doorbell right on the lock. I already have a doorbell alike. I did not want the doorbell. Uh so after a lot of searching, I ended up with the Lockley Viz Viz Viz edge? That's a word I've never said out loud before, only read. Luckily Visage Xeno series facial recognition deadbolt. Uh last weekend was like the first weekend where I felt comfortable leaving my door open for a while to actually change the lock. Uh And I installed this yesterday, and dude, it's it is, if you're looking for a home kit lock, this is a really good lock. It's great. It is absolutely great. Uh it was easy to install. It comes with two big fat ass batteries. So you can have one in there. You can charge it. And so it has all the features I want. It's got a touchpad if I want you to give a code to a guest. It does fingerprint recognition. And it's got facial recognition facial recognition. And so like if you give the lock kind of like a death stare, you have to it it must have some sort of attention. So you have to actually be looking at the lock and it scans your face and it's like, oh, I'll just open. And it also comes with a little door sensor so it knows when the door is closed. And after whatever time you set, mine's 30 seconds. If the door is closed and it's not locked, it just locks itself. It's you know it's it's it's a it's a smart door lock, but it's a really good one.

Drew 37:41

Okay. Yeah. So when we had our front door replaced, we had a new smart lock put into, and I specifically didn't want facial recognition. Uh It's it's a separate app you gotta have for this, right? So there is to set it up. To set it up.

Paul 38:00

So technically, no I did install it just because the the interface for adding people is a little easier. But in theory, like you can set this completely up only in the home app. Okay. Because it's a home kit enabled. Uh so I currently have it in both to only simply because I like the UI. The home kit UI for like adding people to the door is a little clumsy. Even though like everyone in my house is In the family. So they automatically, when I installed the new lock, they all automatically got a home key So they can use their phone to unlock it, but no, nobody does that but me. But even now I don't do it now because I just look at my door lock and it opens. Okay. Yep. So I wanted one that did not just do like a camera. It actually did like the infrared face mapping thing. Yes. So that's yeah.

Drew 38:56

So I'm looking at pictures of this thing and I'm mad. Okay. Why are you mad? There's numbers on it. Okay. But they're but they're not in order.

Paul 39:07

Yeah. So So what's not sh shown is there's this little optional cover for the touchpad, which I have installed, so it that's covered all the time. That does not turn on unless you touch the touchpad. Right. So right now, like the only person who has like an actual access code is me because I'm the I'm the lock administrator. So like no one uses the touchpad. Like it's it's yeah.

Drew 39:36

But why are the numbers like that?

Paul 39:38

It so that is very common in touch screen pads because it'll randomly put the numbers in certain places so someone can't walk up and see your fingerprint smudged on it. So that is a that is a very common feature of the. Mine doesn't do that. Yeah, my even my previous one did that. Like you can turn it off, I believe. You can turn off the randomization and have them all in the same place. But again, this is one of the ones where like each number doesn't have its own thing. There's like a group of three numbers, and you can even set it up so like the numbers move every time you touch. But The the randomization is a very common feature of smartlock the smart locks that have touchscreens for the code.

Drew 40:26

Okay.

Paul 40:26

Yeah.

Drew 40:27

All right. I was getting angry. I'm like, why are there why are there four circles with three numbers? There's no some of the numbers are duplicated. Like I was very confused. Okay.

Paul 40:38

Yeah. So and if like When you walk up to my lock, there's actually a little cover over that touchscreen, so you never even see it. So got it. Got it. Yep.

Drew 40:48

All right. Let's get to let's get to some other let's get to some more tech stuff then.

Paul 40:53

Yes. Apple Apple announced well, they announced a bunch of shit, but I really only care about the Macs. Okay.

Drew 41:02

I only know about the Macs. Let's start. Let's start with the one I'm most excited about. This is the MacBook Neo. The MacBook Neo?

Paul 41:08

So Apple Apple did it. Apple did what people have been wanting wanting to them to do for years. They have a brand new low-cost entry-level MacBook. It is the MacBook Neo. It comes in some pretty adorable colors. And it starts at $5. 99 or $4. 99 with education pricing. You can spend $100 more to get some more storage and a touch ID sensor. So, I mean, don't bear the lead. It is not super configurable. It uses an iPhone chip, the i18 Pro, A18, A18 Pro, and it only comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM. However, I still think this thing is gonna sell absolute bonkers amount. Yeah, this is gonna be the best-selling Mac. Very quickly, I believe. Yes. Like it's Yes. Yep. And I think a lot of them are gonna be what they want. They're gonna be people Who are new, like uh they have an iPhone, they've been Mac curious, but the thousand-dollar price tag has always kind of set them off. I think they're gonna sell a lot of these to people who have iPhones and a PC. Yep. A lot of them.

Drew 42:26

A lot. It's an extremely capable device to get you in the Mac ecosystem. Yeah, yeah. And if you're not doing it, and it's aluminum, it is. It'll be, it'll be, it'll be well built. Yep. Yeah. I I love, love, love that they're doing colors again.

Paul 42:41

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Drew 42:42

I love that.

Paul 42:43

You know, I really hope that this is one of those products where I mean Obviously, as technology improves and their chips improve, this will be a more capable laptop in the future. But I hope at a minimum every year they just come out with new colors. I want to see new colors of this every year. Just just just do it. Just do it, Apple. I dare you. Just do it. Yeah, I mean this is not a laptop for me. Uh I did I wouldn't even necessarily buy one of these for my kids. Uh, but then again, I'm also a nerd and I worry about shit like what are they gonna do with this in the future and the RAM, but man, like I I like the yellow one. I'm not gonna lie. A lot of people don't like the yellow one.

Drew 43:31

The yellow was not my first choice.

Paul 43:34

If I got one, I would get a yellow one.

Drew 43:36

I like I like I like the look of the indigo. The yellow looks more green than yellow.

Paul 43:40

Yeah. To me. Well what I've heard from people that's that have seen it, it's like a tennis ball with the saturation turned down.

Drew 43:49

Ha.

Paul 43:50

Yeah. So that neon like which a tennis ball is really like it's neon yellow, but it's it's it's a very greenish yellow. So yeah, I could I can see where you're coming from. But the indigo is nice as well. And they have a pink one.

Drew 44:03

And that's I know I know somebody that I know somebody that has been craving a pink Apple laptop for a while now.

Paul 44:11

Yeah. Yeah. You know, if if I had somebody who was just going to be doing some like, I want something to get on the internet, maybe watch some YouTube videos, check my email. Like this is a great Mac for that. Like, you know, I I got I don't I don't see this cutting into like MacBook Air sales. It might cut into like air iPad sales. Yeah. Uh but I think Because that was really like Apple's current like, oh, you want a cheap computer? Buy an iPad with a $300 keyboard edition.

Drew 44:44

Right. Right. And that's gonna and that's gonna totally cannibalize that market.

Paul 44:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I I think it's I mean, yeah, it is compromised in in certain ways. It doesn't have like the display is 60 Hertz. You know, bare bones L C D. It doesn't do any kind of like auto dimming. It's not a true tone display. It doesn't have mag safe. It's only got USB ports, no Thunderbolt. And one of the USB ports is hella slow. But then again, you look at the chip they put in there and they're like, oh, oh, that's why it has eight gigs of RAM and it only has USB ports because that's what that chip supported. Like, but Uh and I guess they're even like bin version of the chips compared to the chips they put in the phone. So it's got like one less core, I believe, than what they put in the phone. But I think, you know, especially education pricing, which honestly is not hard to get from Apple. Like at all. You could just say, yes, I give me the education discount and they will, uh, pretty much. So really s you think $4. 99 to get in get a Mac?

Drew 45:56

I mean why not? Why not?

Paul 45:58

Yeah.

Drew 45:59

Yeah.

Paul 45:59

Yeah.

Drew 46:00

Yeah, there are there are people in my life that this would be the compute the perfect computer for. I like I said I don't think it's for me either. Unless I wanted like a cheap laptop to carry around. Yeah. Like when we went to Europe. Um I didn't bring a computer, but I probably would have brought this. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wasn't gonna bring my pounds or something. Yeah. Yeah. Plus the fact that it's smaller, it would fit my my bag better. That would that would've that probably would have been a no. brainer. Because I if you remember we talked about it. I th actually thought about buying an iPad to take. Yeah. And I didn't. But now the other thing you have on here though, let's talk about that.

Paul 46:40

So they updated their they did a chip bump on the MacBook Pro. So now the uh M5, you can buy the M5 Pro or M5 Max MacBook Pro. Uh this is the first M series processor where they're leaning into the the chiplet design process from TM TMSC. So the uh Instead of having to make one huge chip, now they're uh because you know it's an integrated system on the chip, it's got the storage, it's got the RAM, it's got the CPU and the GPU. So apparently now the CPU and GPU are on d different chips, but they're fused together. with high bandwidth connection, which I believe allows them to make every instead of ha again, instead of having to print one big chip and if one error on that chip, like the whole thing's gone, it allows them to do two smaller chips. And hopefully have less issues, less bidding, you know, more more yield. Uh All in all, they look like pretty good, like pretty good bumps over the M4 or especially like the M3. Uh Technically, this is the first time where like the M5 Pro and Max are really the same chip. It's just the number of cores uh that you get. Uh Obviously, like Apple's RAM prices are already high enough that they're able to kind of eat that. Though I did hear the 512, the the Mac Studio with 512 gigabytes for RAM is no longer for sale. They pulled it. Because they can't those they can't get those RAM chips anymore. The 512. Yikes. So the highest you can go is 128. I did not buy anything, Drew. But I am not gonna lie, I had a $6,000 MacBook Pro in my cart. And I I really thought hard about pushing the button on it.

Drew 48:39

Yeah, like if you, if you, if you throw that M5 Max on there.

Paul 48:43

Uh-huh. Yep. It was I I took M5 Max, the the big one, because that gives you the 128 gigabytes of RAM option. Yep. Went up to like four terabytes to four terabytes of storage. It was like six grand. Yeah. Yeah. I did not do it. I did not do it.

Drew 48:59

I mean, that is that is the very definition of desktop replacement.

Paul 49:02

Yeah. Yeah.

Drew 49:03

And hey, don't look at me. Like I'm not going to tell you you don't have to spend that money. Right.

Paul 49:07

We've been over this. Uh-huh. Yeah. Uh but that but I really thought like no my M4 Pro is is doing absolutely just fine. I'm it's fine. Now You know, when I'm writing my app and I've run in a whole bunch of uh automated UI tests and and like against five simulators at once, I do watch my CPU and RAM usage go woo woo woo all the way up. And the fan spins for a little bit and then and then and then it goes back down to normal. Uh but I did not buy one. But it looks, it looks, I mean Apple continues to keep pushing, you know, the silicon and and it's those are those are freaking amazing chips. Yeah.

Drew 49:54

Yeah. I didn't I didn't realize they were doing the M5 max. I I'm so bad at following Apple these days. I don't know. I I it's really hard for me to follow what they're doing sometimes.

Paul 50:04

Yeah, you just need to listen to like three Apple related podcasts like I do.

Drew 50:10

I I used to be able to listen to podcasts while I work, but my schedule is just like prohibitive now. I'm on the phone. Constantly. Constantly. The only time I really get to listen to podcasts is in the car. And and I have the rotation. I've got my bim bam. I've got uh rectifs. Those those are the two that I listen to the most. So um I see yeah I mean what else did Apple announce? There's a new iPhone?

Paul 50:38

Uh the iPhone 17E. Yeah. It's just like a great phone, honestly. It's OLED now, it's got mag safe. Looks like a great phone. They uh a new Mac a new iPad Air, I believe.

Drew 50:53

New iPad Air, new MacBook Air.

Paul 50:55

And new uh new displays. So the Pro Display XDR, their their 6K monitor is gone. They did a minor revision to their current studio display. And now they have what they call the studio display XDR, which is a nice panel. It's a it's it's a it's a it's basically an upgraded version of the 5K studio display. It is 5K, but it does 120 hertz promotion. It's color graded, all that wonderful stuff that you would care about. Uh, you know, where the Pro Display XDR I think was like six thousand dollars plus extra if you wanted to stand. the the new studio display is like thirty-three thirty-three in the stands included. Yeah. I mean it's Again, I'm I I'm out buying it. I have my I have my Asus 6K Pro Art display. It's great. I love it. Uh if you're looking for a 6K monitor for a Mac, it's it's I think it's it's really it's really good. It doesn't look completely ugly. The speakers do absolutely suck on it. So if you listen to if you want speakers at all, go buy yourself a little pair of external speakers. But uh Uh yeah. And yeah, that was that was Apple's big week. But again, I think the the darling of the story is the MacBook Neo.

Drew 52:14

I think they're I think there's they're gonna sell they're gonna crush it.

Paul 52:17

They're gonna sell so many of those. Just so many. You're gonna see them everywhere.

Drew 52:22

I hope. I really, I really do hope so.

Paul 52:24

Yeah.

Drew 52:26

Oh buddy. Well, um I'm sorry you had a bad experience with your haircut, man.

Paul 52:30

It's all right.

Drew 52:30

It's all right. I'm getting y I'm getting used to this like

Paul 52:33

I don't know if Stephen Segal like little ponytail. The hair little little hair coming down. We'll see. We'll see. It'll grow. It'll grow and it'll be fine. I can wear a hat again, which is nice.

Drew 52:45

So like Are you a big you're not a big hack guy though, are you?

Paul 52:48

No, not not not very often, but now I have the option at least. So I do have I do have I do have hold on hold on see if you recognize. Hold on. Uh-oh. Oh I can shit over. Ooh, I should know that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. For the for the uh listeners of the audio podcast, I am holding up a black hat with a neo neon green circle with a small line in the middle of the circle. What am I missing? This is this is a typo negative hat.

Drew 53:19

Oh yeah, I would know that. I would know that. Yeah.

Paul 53:22

Yeah. It's my it's my typo hat. This is the hat I'm going to wear to Sonic Temple.

Drew 53:28

Oh right. Did they announce any more bands that you're interested in?

Paul 53:31

Uh no. I think all the lineup is It's set except I think one one artist is pulling out and they haven't announced a replacement yet. But an art and is it an artist you care about? I don't know. Uh no, no, not at all. No. No.

Drew 53:47

That's coming up too, right? Uh it's like over the summer.

Paul 53:51

I think it's in May. Okay. Uh let's ask the internet. May 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th. But you only care about like two of the days, right? No, I'm going all four. Oh. There's good bands all four days. Good bands, good bands all four days. Doing all four. Okay. No, the headliners, Matt, don't care, except for like I'll go see Tool on uh Sunday.

Drew 54:15

I a lot of my friends that are into music that you like say that going to a tool show is like a religious experience.

Paul 54:23

I've uh I've traveled, I think this one was in LA to see tool. It was the second time I've seen tool. Uh the first time it was like their second album and they were more just like a weird rock band. They they do a very interesting uh visual experience. Though I will say well I will say I saw nine-inch nails at the shot when they were in town. I've been to a lot of concerts. That show was the best concert I have ever been to.

Drew 54:57

Really? Just because it was nine inch nails or no.

Paul 55:01

Uh So if you've never been to an Ice Nail show, if if you vaguely like their music, I'd recommend going.

Drew 55:07

I've been to one a long time ago. A long time ago.

Paul 55:11

Especially like Now they really push the boundaries of like the whole presentation, right? So uh the very very quick summary and the and There was like there was like a little stage in the middle, which was just like synthesizers and keyboards. And then there was a main stage. And he started on the little stage, did a couple of songs there, and then went over to the the main stage. And then back and then back and forth, right? So, like the second act, the first time they're on the main stage, the stage is surrounded by this cube of very, very thin cloth. So if the stage was not lit, you could not see through it. But if the stage was lit, you could see through it perfectly fine. So, but what they did is there was a cameraman who was like on the stage, like doing kind of weird angles. So they would project black and white images from that cameraman. Onto this mesh. So you could see it on the mesh. You could see the projection going through the mesh behind them. And you also could see the the performance and they would also do just general light and visuals through there and like most of the time it was black and white but then it would hit you with like this burst of color. And the the the the way it was that it was ethereal is what it was. It was I have never seen anything like it. And and they're just it was Flawless execution. Like they are so good at what they do. Uh yeah, it was just an absolute freaking amazing show. Just amazing. Yeah. Cool, buddy.

Drew 56:49

Yep. All right. Well get us out of here, man, so you can go enjoy the rest of your evening.

Paul 56:54

Yeah. Uh doingTheirBest. com. You can find all the show notes. You can find links to the podcast. You can watch the video version there. And hey, thanks for listening.