This is the launch episode 49 for 01/06/2026.

Streaming from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast, we greet you all a good morning, good evening, or whenever your time line may fall.

Time appropriate greetings indeed to one and all.

This is The Launch.

My name is Chris.

And I'm Angela.

Hello, Andrews.

Hello.

Two things to let everybody know about before we get going.

You could call us live or after the fact.

We like it a lot.

(774) 462-5667.

Yeah.

You can call a podcast.

That's (774) 462-5667.

Did you know we're live on Tuesdays?

Why not make it a vibe?

11:30AM Pacific, 02:30PM Eastern, 07:30PM UTC at jblive.tv in your podcasting tutorial app of choice or at jblive.fm.

Then we come out Wednesday mornings for your ear holes on demand.

You can check out links at weeklylaunch.rocks.

We have a mumble room always going and the launch HQ.

That's our matrix chat room.

You'll find that over at weeklylaunch.rocks.

I think that's all the news.

Right?

That's all the biz?

Yep.

The 411 is the kids used to say?

Mhmm.

Now they would have no idea what 411 even is.

Mhmm.

So it's that time of year, Andrews.

It is the time to talk New Year's resolutions.

Alright.

Get ready.

Alright.

Are you making a New Year's list?

Okay.

Yeah.

I actually have a couple different lists.

Right?

Because there's like list?

Yeah.

Like, I have Time for a master list, clearly.

Right.

Well okay.

Well, because there's, like, long term things.

Like, so I have a list for things around the house.

Uh-huh.

Right?

Like, I wanna get a garage door opener for the 3rd Bay.

I want to build a 2nd Floor deck.

Mhmm.

There are a bunch of other types of things around or, like, I guess, around the house is also Bella.

I wanna get her Invisalign started.

She got her cavities filled so she can start We just have to have the money to to get that started.

And then I have a personal list that I've been doing since the first.

And so I'm just gonna run through that.

So for the last, I don't know, year and a half or two years, because I'm on like let me look at what So there's like a rolling list you're saying?

Or Oh, no.

No.

No.

Oh.

So I've been I've been learning I've been learning Spanish Right.

On Duolingo.

Right.

I'm gonna look up my I'm on day 1,155.

Woo.

So but I've just been maintaining that streak by, know, like That's wicked streak.

For like a year and a half or two years.

Oh my god.

Really?

And so I I have recommitted as of January 1 Oh.

To go ahead and actually learn.

And so I'm at level 36.

That was like, day one, I got to level 36 with just one exercise.

That's all I needed to do.

Was to get to level 36.

That feels good.

And, anyway, so it's interesting because a lot of the exercises I've been doing for the last two years are on everything.

But the current stuff is only on what is brand new, so I don't really remember a lot of it.

I'm doing really good.

Like, I'm still scoring between, like, 7587% on on this content that I learned two years ago.

That's a good sign.

Yeah.

That's the first thing.

So minimum one new lesson each day and then additional ones to try to earn the chest and bonus because I am a gamified girl.

They get you.

They get you with that.

I am.

Okay.

So the other thing is I need to lose 20 pounds.

Oh, jeez.

That's not insignificant.

Fat and happy.

That's what I'm not really.

20 pounds is work.

It is work.

I mean, was work getting here too.

It was a lot of eating, a lot of good food.

So encompassed in that, less sugar.

Right?

That's the obvious one.

A lot of people do that.

It's been super easy.

Yeah.

I I mean, I did have food.

Long?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I I will update you next week.

Like it's one of those things that gets exponentially harder, but we're roaring.

No.

No.

Because if you're eating better, your sugar cravings go away.

That's true.

Right?

Yeah.

And that's what I am experiencing.

I did have chocolate cake last night, though, for Abby's birthday.

Yeah.

She's 15.

For those long timers that are listening Can you leave?

When You didn't even have kids?

When my water broke while you were on a show.

So anyway with when it Abby.

Anyway.

Mhmm.

So then no alcohol.

Oh, yeah.

That's temporary.

That'll help.

Yeah.

So I just I'm just gonna say that right here.

For now, no alcohol.

Well, you tend to like the sweet drinks too.

I do.

Right?

So that's the sugar.

Yeah.

But also alcohol can wreck your sleep, and sleep is another focus area of mine.

I actually just interrupt really quickly.

I I think one of the my biggest areas is I drink a lot of my calories.

I don't have I think I drink sodas or energy drinks and occasional beer, but a lot of my calories are via Mhmm.

That kind of thing.

Yeah.

Mayhem said that they quit using Duolingo because it stops whatever's playing in the background.

I got tired of restarting podcasts.

So what's interesting about that is That's awful.

My my Apple home can play the music, you know, while I do Duolingo.

Yes.

For the longest time, I wasn't speaking it.

I was just doing the word exercises while walking the kitchen.

I don't know.

It was kind of a slog.

And once I found that I could speak it, it was way easier to walk the kitchen.

Mhmm.

Mhmm.

And I getting better at pronunciation.

I mean, that I'm not listening to them say it first.

So I'm I did say the a a word wrong for a very long time, but or at least one.

It is nice for that setup.

So what the reason why that works is because AirPlay is handling the music playing to the HomePod while the app is using the local speakers.

Right.

But the downside is that I can't speak Duolingo while I'm on the phone.

Yeah.

Or doing other you know?

So Mhmm.

That is that is a challenge.

Alright.

Back to the weight loss.

I also lowered caffeine, not on purpose.

It's just that I stayed up till midnight on the first Mhmm.

Actually till 1AM and slept in till, like, nine and then didn't have my first caffeine till ten.

And then I thought, you know, I think I'm good.

I'm on a roll.

Might as well keep it going kind of thing.

Yeah.

I think I can just not have a second or third caffeine.

Mhmm.

And I drink Mountain Zevia.

Yeah.

You do.

So it's already sugar free, but it but I do wanna have less loaded.

But there's what?

Thirty, forty milligrams in there?

You'll drink a few of those?

I think it's fifty five.

50?

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, that adds up when you're drinking two or three of those a day.

Light.

Right?

Yeah.

So then I was eating fast food, like, almost every day.

And with that, I would have a giant Doctor Pepper, full sugar.

And then I'd refill it.

Sounds delicious.

So it I was just really maxing out on caffeine and sugar and crappy stuff.

Sugar maxing.

So drinking more water, better sleep, spend less on eating out, eat in more.

It's really easy for me to go carb free except for like potatoes.

Right?

But like no breads or anything like it's easy for me to do that.

Bread's tough for me.

Yeah.

So that's I'm already down five pounds.

Wow.

Okay.

From the first.

So you just have to really keep that momentum rolling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nuts?

I normally yeah.

Caffeine maxing.

I normally get like between 12,500 steps per day, and I'm trying to go back to my 10,000 minimum.

That'll definitely help.

That'll help combo.

Yeah.

It'll add up.

Yep.

And then the last major one that I wanted to discuss was I think I can package it together as showing up more, less procrastination.

Right?

Sometimes I delay participating in something when I could just get it done with.

And part of the problem with that is or part of the reason why that happens is because checking one thing off means I have five other things to do then after that.

Like, a it doesn't end there, but I'm just delaying the inevitable.

Like, so why?

So I'm just I'm trying to take a more thoughtful approach to the things I mean, I'm doing a lot of things.

Right?

I am I'm on the board at LinuxFest Northwest, and so I am one of the organizers of the conference.

There's a ton of stuff I need to do there.

Getting close.

It is.

And then, you know, everything with the kids, extracurriculars.

There's always more with the kids.

Yeah.

It's always more.

It's never less stuff with the kids.

No.

So, yeah, just a lot of juggling and I'm just gonna, yeah, try to try to show up more in the areas that I'm already currently invested in.

I like that.

Showing up more is a good way to kind of Yeah.

Dash less procrastination.

Right?

Like, it really is paired together.

Yeah.

So alright.

I see that you have like this whole big thing here.

But If you got another one, I mean, I like them.

If you got if you got another one, wanna do.

Because mine are you know?

Well, yes.

I didn't really go into like the sleep, but just I just Sleeping little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I need minimum eight hours.

And I I can tell, like, when I'm not functioning well or like I forget words or Yeah.

Isn't that funny?

It sucks.

Yeah.

It sucks.

Funny bad.

It it even gets worse.

Like, there's been some hallucinations, like, where I yeah.

Mhmm.

It's it's weird.

I can tell that I'm not a 100% and I hate it.

So It can be really frustrating.

Say I'm sitting down and I'm gonna read some and do some ads, and I just Blink.

My brain says one thing and my mouth says another thing.

Uh-huh.

And I can I listen to what happened, and I and I think, who just said that?

What is wrong?

There's just this weird disconnect that happens when I get tired.

Mhmm.

So thankfully Yeah.

I don't have to talk for a living.

Oh, wait.

Oh, know what?

One of my other it's more like a long term goal, but it's not a house thing.

I have a calcium deposit on the side of my nose that I want to go to the derm dermatologist and get removed.

Do they, like, shave it down?

Like, how do they do that?

So I think they would I don't know.

But I think they would cut it open and just pull it out.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then you'd have just a little spot there that'd have to heal.

Temporarily.

But then you wouldn't be able to probably wear glasses while that's I don't know.

I don't know.

But I have some contacts, but they're not comfortable for me, so I I'd rather not.

But I would Yeah.

That you know for a few days I with have to have my glasses adjusted a certain way so that they're because it's right where it sits.

Well, what you need to do is just wear it in a little bit, then it's like a hitch.

So that way your glasses don't fall off.

My eyelashes are too long.

Yeah.

My eyelashes are too long.

So maybe you could give him just move it down a bit.

So then it just feels weird.

So as a person that doesn't wear glasses, when you wear glasses, there's that weird weight on your face.

Definitely.

That is what happens if I wear them too low.

Of course.

So and yeah.

It it just doesn't work that way with wait for me with glasses.

Gotta get that calcium deposit removed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm hoping to do that.

Well, that'll be interesting.

You'll have to let us give us an update on that.

I will.

Well, okay.

I wanna know.

But when on the record, come on out.

Admit it.

You got some goals.

You got some resolutions.

I wanna know it.

And I think, why not hold yourself accountable by putting it on the record, boosting it at the launch.

Support the show and tell us your New Year's resolution or theme.

We'll get to that in a moment.

And we'll read it on the end.

I also wanna read at least 10 books.

Woah.

10?

Yeah.

That's that's probably doable over the year.

Right?

I think I bought 35 last year.

Red Zero.

So Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

That's a good one.

Alright.

So now I I I don't really have any problem with resolutions other than I suck at them.

I suck at resolutions, and so I was always looking for a better way.

And my friends, it's the yearly themes.

So this is there is I'll link to more resource zones because it's not something I invented.

But it came from, I believe, the Cortex Podcast, which might no longer be around anymore.

But think of it like this, instead of defining exact goals, a theme sets an overall intention for the year.

So it's paired with a broad ideal outcome.

And these outcomes will will be your signal of success without dictating how it happens.

So it's like a thinking filter.

So as as you have to make a decision, you run it through a theme filter and see if it matches your overall theme for the year.

It's a guide without rigid KPIs or specific requirements that come out of it.

Motivating, not stressful is the idea.

A thought filter.

And, so this came about because Hadee and I at the end of last year started estate plan or started started talking to someone who was encouraging us to do state estate planning.

And I don't really have I I I actually didn't really think, well, what's the point?

What am I, you know, what am I what am I estating?

There is no estate.

But I started thinking about, like, the business, but also just from a technical standpoint.

Like, there's a lot I need to document for the family if something were to happen to me.

There's a lot that I would need to take care of for Hadiya's business if I had to spin it down for her, if something happened to her.

And so so sort of a sobering conversation and that got us to a wiggly part where we realized that we probably need to think about establishing a full time legal domicile.

And so then we got into from estate planning to, alright, let's look at domicile planning.

And before COVID, we were also looking at this.

We almost found a spot that we really, really liked, but it just didn't fit the RV.

And boy, I should have just bought it anyways because now I think it's like it's at, you know, at least double in price.

Yeah.

I still have a Redfin filter that sends me possible Yeah.

Pots of land.

I you know, if I would have thought of it more, I was thinking about a home base and out of investment.

But anyways, so this has been something that is sort of becoming a problem for this year for us to solve.

Because in order for us to knock off a few other things, we need to solve this.

And we live in an RV full time here in Washington State.

So this is particularly tricky because Washington State doesn't recognize an RV as a legal domicile.

They expect a sticks and bricks physical address for everything, for your for your licensing, for your taxes, for your voter registration.

PO box won't work.

No.

Every For most of those things.

And frustratingly, a lot of things like loans and other things in society also ask how long you've been at a location.

Right.

So length of residency is also a factor here.

So there's a lot of challenges that we've been trying to just avoid for a while.

And so looking into this, we wanted something where we could do it legally, and there was a support infrastructure system around us that would also so like the county is aware of, like, RVs and full time RVers, and they accommodate that with, say, licensing and registration and jury duty and voting, and they have accommodations for all those kinds of things.

Because we're not leaving Washington, so that had to be something that we could manage from Washington.

And we narrowed it down to, three states that do this.

And it's South Dakota, Florida, and Texas that you can do this and where you can legally domicile, but still spend the majority or all of the time in another state.

And So do you have to buy a property there?

No.

Not in those three places.

Well, so how do you what do you do?

So there's a company called Escapees and they offer a domicile and residency service where they have like a little RV park and you go down there and they have all of the paperwork and you register to be part of their county.

You change over your licensing and your plates, and you legally change your residence to Texas or Florida or South Dakota.

Oh my gosh.

You could you could avoid the Washington pay tax, wouldn't you?

Yeah.

That too.

The taxing is a lot more accommodating in those places too.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

There's a lot of Washington tax things.

Hack.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, so the bottom line is that the the future I feel like for small business taxing and estate taxing and property taxing and capital gains taxing all likely is going up in Washington Mhmm.

Over the next few years.

Even over just the next year.

Yeah.

Right now.

Yeah.

Right now.

Yeah.

Happening right now, actually.

In Olympia.

So yeah.

Plus also insurance rates get impacted by this choice.

So for example, here, South Dakota, super low insurance rates.

Nice.

So if that's what you wanna optimize for, you go South Dakota.

And I that is initially, I was like, oh, that'd be great.

But the problem with South Dakota is you have to return every year, and you have to be there for a little while while you establish residency.

And last year, they tried to change the legislation to make this not the the the legalese to make this not a viable thing.

So so there's, you know, again, little political uncertainty there.

So is this list a lot larger and it's whittled down to these three?

Or is it going to okay.

It used to already be the span.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

But now they're like, ew.

Florida's obviously too far away.

Yeah.

Oh, but fun.

Texas Texas seems to be the clear winner here because it's sort of centralized.

We go there from time to time anyways, a couple times a year, once a year at least.

And they have all of this so in this county where this Escapees organization is.

Escapees.

I love it all.

I know.

The Escapees RV Club.

The RV dwellers are the largest contingent in that county.

Uh-huh.

So the whole county has really kind of over the years Embraced it.

Embraced it.

Yeah.

And so even for things like jury duty, you can say like, I am traveling right now, and they will actually defer it.

So all your plates, all your vehicle plates are gonna be Texas?

They would be if we go which I think we're going to do.

So we're all gonna yell at you.

Go back to Texas.

Go back to Texas or Florida.

But I don't think I'm doing Florida because I just too far away.

Interesting.

So the idea and I this is a massive task.

So you this is so much paperwork.

Yeah.

It's gonna be a huge huge thing.

And at some point, I think I'll have to get down there to do the pay some of the paperwork physically.

But Mhmm.

They do have a process.

You can stay there and then you visit like the licensing department.

Then you visit these people and you you know, visit them.

When you do it all, you just kinda get it all banged down like three days.

Mhmm.

Then that'd be legally domiciled in Texas.

So then on, you know, all of my paperwork and everything like that, I'd have a legal address.

They forward and scan the mail Mhmm.

That you receive there.

Mhmm.

So you can do that too.

This is like leaving Washington State without leaving Washington State.

Yeah.

Good for you.

I'm stuck here.

I don't have an RV.

So this is, I don't know, probably five projects that I'm just as an overall theme, it's like the year of the cowboy is the theme.

It's the year of go of of transitioning and getting this paperwork done.

Then coming back around to estate planning, figuring out that just simple stuff, real basic stuff like if a dad dies, if I die, that kind of thing.

Mhmm.

And I don't know.

I like maybe one day when the kids are, you know, in their 20 early twenties or something, maybe I move.

I don't know.

It depends on how well this is working.

But it is a possibility one day too.

Or what is actually a real possibility is I spend the winters down south and I spend the summers up here because Mhmm.

It's a great place for summer.

Yeah.

So I wanna recommend this systems process because I have, you know, I've gone through the year of the estate planning there.

Oh, no.

Actually, it's now the year of the cowboy.

And I've already been doing all of this research for the last well, since we started the estate planning stuff early December, late late through Christmas, and now early New Year's, like going through all this and trying to figure all this out.

Watching lots of videos and all that kind of thing.

And, yeah, it's gonna probably not be super cheap because there's a little bit of a cost involved in the switching, and then there's gonna be a monthly rate for the mail scanning, but it's it's pretty reasonable.

And I think the idea of yeah.

It's like $20.

Mhmm.

If and then they will also destroy some stuff if you want, so you don't have to keep it all.

A lot of spam.

But Well, and USPS as a backup, USPS has a service where you can get an email of your daily mail scanned.

They scan it already.

You should check that out.

Yeah.

I already have it.

Do you like it?

I do.

I do.

They even they also text me when packages are arriving and when they've been delivered.

So yeah.

I do like it.

That could be handy.

Especially like in communities where your mail gets stolen.

Right?

Which the box next to mine, that happened about a year ago.

Yikes.

Mhmm.

Yeah.

It's a good idea.

I'll look into that.

So when I think about this, I think about how not to get overwhelmed and not not really get pissed at myself if I take a little while.

So there that's that's a whole project.

But then I think when I zoom out, I could use a little tightening up in a few areas.

And I think I could do a lot more of build once, use repeatedly.

So I also have a second theme, the year of systems where I'm going to try to build some repeatable systems.

Like when it comes to sponsor management or acquisition, or creating little bits of audio or post production things for the show or for the members that could just use a little tightening up that manually they have a manual process right now.

And anything I can also do to automate audience feedback, especially from Matrix and other places that I start I usually fall behind on monitoring where I can sort of pull that in and have like a review type dashboard.

I almost called it the year of dashboards, but I actually think it's gonna be my ultimate goal.

The way I'm gonna measure success is if I ended up spending a little bit less time per episode to just tighten it up a little bit per episode and and see if I can't gain, you know, a little efficiencies there.

And and maybe there's some AI in there, maybe there's not.

It's called USPS Informed Delivery.

Ah, thank you.

And I sent you the link and then I put it in the chat.

I as I am going back to work, yesterday was my first day back to work, every process I'm doing, I am thinking about how can this be better.

Mhmm.

For sure.

That's my that's my filter.

And so I've just been making action items like so I've already requested a report have two numbers side by side in columns instead of stacked because I have to undo it every time.

Yeah.

And it's stupid.

Why waste time?

Takes me, like, a couple minutes.

But But you have to it every time.

Or yeah.

Every every month.

Like, no.

No.

Thank you.

Yep.

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

Then the so so now I'm gonna have like this just to do list.

Like, what do I need to do?

Oh, here's all the things, all the inefficiencies or better ways that I can do.

Oh my gosh.

The best one I have let's see.

Let me pull up a okay.

Let's say a 100 fields with formulas.

Right?

And they're all pointing to twenty twenty five data.

And so each each of those cells has a formula that has twenty twenty five mentioned in multiple areas.

Right.

But I need it changed over to twenty twenty six.

And last year, I had this thought, but I didn't implement it because I didn't wanna mess with it all.

But right now, it's clean slate.

Right?

There's nothing is looking at this data.

There's no data loaded into it.

Right.

So I'm I put 2026 in a cell up here, and then I just locked it in and pasted it in into, I don't know, 12 cells and then copied it down and then copied that over to the months.

I mean, it's just it's so many cells.

But now all I have to do is go to that one cell next year And change it.

And change it to twenty twenty seven.

And or if I wanna revert it back to twenty twenty five, I yeah.

It's incredible.

And there's other there's other things like that that I can do.

And I'm just yeah.

I'm excited to to streamline.

Streamline.

Because the thing about overachievers, which I believe we both fall into that category, is that we look for the efficient ways to do it, the smart ways to do it, and we can complete something in a fraction of the time of an average person.

Right?

And so this is more free time.

That's true.

And more time to think or do other things.

Mhmm.

I wanted to mention the the theme system journal.

I don't use this, but the folks that over at the Cortex Podcast created this to kinda go along with this.

And they also have explanation of a yearly theme.

Like a good theme could be, the year of reading, and maybe when you envisioned it, you thought you were gonna read 50 books.

But as the year went on, you actually just ended up maybe reading a lot of published papers.

But it was a net overall increase of your reading.

So goal is still accomplished.

They've designed the theme system journal to kind of help you navigate your yearly themes.

Never used it myself, but I've heard really good things about it.

And it's at the themesystem.com if you'd like to check it out.

I I've never been a big journaler.

Hadiya, big journaler.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah.

She likes to write down some ideas for work and draw out diagrams for herself.

Oh, yeah.

For sure.

She takes it with her so she can refer back to her notes.

Mhmm.

All that kind of thing.

Me, I I think I I don't I don't know.

I think I just sort of picture it in my head and that's good enough for me.

Yeah.

How do you feel?

Do you are you a big I used to be.

I used to have just a spiral notebook and just page after page, and it was chronological.

Right?

Which is cool.

Like, oh, this was like three months ago.

That can be nice.

You know?

But but for the most part, no.

If I'm having a hard time with the concept or a formula, I will get out a piece of paper and draw it out.

Like, this is the outcome that I want.

This is what I have.

How do I make this, you know, how do I make this look?

But for the most part, a lot of my troubleshooting is, like, with live charts and modifying them as opposed to drawing it out.

Nice.

Like, I just do it live.

Yeah.

Do it live, as Bill O'Reilly says.

Well, you know what that means, Andrews?

It's time for our track of the week.

Now's the time.

It's the song of the week.

Remember, you can boost the track.

They sure like that.

They sure do.

And 95% of your stats go to the artist.

I don't know if the last couple episodes a week they got any of that love.

So if you like this this song, if you like this episode's track, consider giving them a boost while the music plays.

This week, it's Nowhere Anywhere by Survival Guide.

Well, I'm just gonna make a quick call to my lunch.

I haven't checked in since yesterday.

(774) 462-5667.

That's it.

Alright.

(774) 462-5667.

Call now.

Well, the last time I checked the inbox for the old voicemails, we had eight voicemails in there.

Gracious.

And now I'm ready.

I never got I never think I still don't think I got Dama's voice down right.

Not voice.

Name.

Dama is what I think I had.

Oh.

I wrote it down last time.

No.

It's in yeah.

Well, last time it was in there was a boost.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's oh, right.

Right.

Too.

I know I did write it down.

But here we go.

He gets the honor of being our first caller.

Hey.

It's Dalma from Michigan here calling you guys on thirty one December.

I recently heard that, apparently, we're gonna have a double ball drop tonight because the twenty two hundred and fiftieth celebration of the signing of declaration of independence.

So in in celebration of America and everything American, I got a question for you guys.

What is up with apparently freedom loving America not loving free and open source software?

Why does this seem to be such a a battle to get Americans on board with something like FOS?

I'd love to hear what you guys' thoughts are.

Peace.

Well, I don't know if this is still the root of it, but I noticed a vibe back in the day.

Microsoft was a local company and so there was pride in, you know, US made commercial software.

An industry, technology industry.

And it's a big big industry at that.

I mean, look at the way the Meg seven drive the market.

So I think maybe that's part of it.

There's too much money to be made.

There are some in the industry that think that the natural path of vibe coding will be that it gets so good that essentially the cost of software comes to zero.

And that these companies like Microsoft and others that make money on software are gonna be SOL because software is relatively gonna be free.

I don't know if that who knows?

Yeah.

I think it's a there's a couple things.

A misnomer that there would be a lack of regulation.

Mhmm.

Yep.

You know?

And The Wild West kind of a thing.

Yeah.

That anybody could hack it because everybody's contributing to it or whatever.

I don't know.

Like, there's that.

And then what was the other thing?

Oh, a lot of people just question anything that's free.

Nothing is free.

Everything has strings attached.

Yeah.

I must be the customer.

Yep.

Yep.

You know?

I mean, really, like okay.

So Why would somebody work on software and put all that effort and give it for free?

What's the scam?

Right.

Yep.

Exactly.

So, like, you know, with one like, a really good example or or I think I think it's a good example is when the COVID shots were given to everybody for free.

Right.

You know, for your health.

Yeah.

That's true.

To to save you.

It almost creates like a distrust.

But we can't help diabetics with insulin at a reasonable price or people with cancer.

Like, you know, so, of course, yeah, there's just a natural questioning of why.

I got that a lot from my old boss at the bank.

That was like their first thing is like, well, this Linux thing is free.

How can it be any good?

And what do they come back around and try to get you on IP infringement later?

Like, that's what they thought.

Well, and a business would want your dollars, so they're going to keep you happy.

What Right.

How is open source gonna keep you happy?

Are they gonna stop supporting it?

Are you gonna be are you gonna have to switch everything back to a paid software afterwards?

Like a contract too.

There's a lot of in app purchases now, so I think software could be offered for free.

But with In app.

You know?

Yeah.

So In support contracts in IT can do it too.

We need some big names behind it.

We need somebody's garage and a the birth of an OS.

There you go.

Right?

And then something small.

Start small.

Alright.

Nick from Ecuador called in.

He's our next caller.

Heck.

Take it away, Nick from Ecuador.

How cool is that?

Hey, lunch crew.

This is Nick from Ecuador.

And I'm just calling in on, like, New Year's being like, hey.

What are y'all's tradition for New Year?

I know some people get luggage, run around the house, eat grapes for wealth, that kind of thing.

Down here, we burn an apogee.

And if all the energy is a old year going out, that you can start fresh.

The thing is is we stuff the pockets full of firewood and then try to jump over it before they go off.

So it's okay if it's fractured, you know, it's been a fun tradition, and it certainly has been for my family.

Just curious.

Hope y'all have a wonderful year.

Talk to you next year.

Okay.

Wow.

That makes our fireworks tradition seem tame, man.

So was that I was I was like, is that a backfire?

Was that a gunshot?

Now it what is Fireworks, I think.

Did he was he jumping over a firework while he left that voicemail?

He's on the phone.

I made it.

Yeah.

Holy moly.

I mean, obviously, we got fireworks here in The States, but we're not doing anything like that these days.

Well, they're illegal in most of the counties around us.

Like, we have to They don't go crazy, though.

They still go crazy with the fireworks.

But yeah.

Is does Skagit County ban fireworks?

If they do, nobody's respecting Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They must not because they go off like crazy.

Poor dogs.

Yeah.

So my tradition is eat a nice dinner and watch all the TV channels barely staying up.

Mhmm.

Actually, I missed it just by a half hour.

I was still technically awake at midnight, but Yeah.

Drifting.

Yeah.

I did Your Move.

Oh.

And I watched, like, the East Coast at 9PM.

Nice.

And that was actually pretty good.

I'm I'm I'm set.

Yeah.

The rest is I thought I wouldn't even make it, but then I just kinda did.

Then the wife made me go to bed so that way she could stay up and journal and things like that.

Get out of here.

Go to bed.

No.

That's fine by me.

Happy new Yeah.

Both of Get out of here.

Wow.

Jumping over fireworks.

Thank you, Nick.

Appreciate that call.

Mark from Northern Michigan called in.

Did you want Mark from Northern Michigan?

Happy here.

Quick check-in.

I didn't get to do that over the holidays.

Delma.

It's not Dom, but Delma, I'm gonna try and find you.

Unfortunately, there's no venison to share.

It caused $5,000 worth of damage, but it just got a headache.

Oh, right.

No deer to be found.

So, yeah, got that that got that going for me.

Anyhow, couple cool things that have happened.

I can try to find you on The Matrix because over the holidays, I switched from a Windows user to I've now using PopOS with Cosmic, I was diving into the Linux desktop problem and all the little nuances there that I'm working.

And so when I did that, I also figured out how to do the matrix thing and actually listen to part of the last Linux on Slack live.

Oh, nice.

I gotta figure out that whole one thing.

Anyhow, heading back home to 16 inches of snow.

Woah.

We've done nothing but plow, plow, plow.

But I guess I'd take the snow over the rain that you eventually got kinda soaked.

Happy New Year, and we'll talk to you soon.

Happy New Year to you too, Mark.

Yeah.

I technically, we have gotten a a snowflake.

For ten minutes, it snowed on December 26.

Ten minutes.

But other than that and it was the slush.

I haven't yeah.

You saw snow.

I haven't seen snow.

No.

That might be all I see this year.

It's It's so stupid.

It's 50 degrees outside.

Yeah.

We have yeah.

It has been warm.

It's warm.

It's muggy.

Yeah.

Freaking muggy in December.

So I I don't know.

Yeah.

Boy, that's alright to hear about the damage though, Mark.

Mark had a little bit more to say, so he called back.

Mark from Northern Michigan calling back.

Sorry for a second call, but I'm doing this while driving.

Talking about cars.

I'm in the auto industry, and we are seeing a market trend from our our customers on shifting back towards hybrid and ice.

And just coincidentally, my wife and I just purchased a new vehicle in the past week due to some issues with the car that I'm currently having.

And I was looking at some hybrids and ended up the one with the brand new Subaru Forester.

I do almost all highway driving, and for the equivalent vehicle with the hybrids, I get the same gas mileage Yeah.

With flex complexity Yeah.

On the ice.

So that's why I went that route.

And I also went Subaru because, hey, I live in Northern Michigan where there's lots of snow, but that's a Northern Michigan type vehicle just like it's a Northwest US type vehicle.

So, anyhow, have a good one.

Gotta love that all wheel drive too.

Forester's a classic as well.

Mhmm.

Yeah.

So interesting, Mark.

I'd love more insights on why you think people are transitioning back to ICE.

And here's my my theory, and I'm curious if you think I got it right.

I think the traditional auto manufacturers made really crappy EVs, and consumers didn't like them.

And the charging setup was really bad, and they didn't get the charging right before they tried to sell a whole bunch of cars for 60,000, $70,000 that were hard to charge.

But I'm curious to know what your insights are, and what vehicles do seem to be, popular.

Mhmm.

And I have the Subaru Ascent.

Yeah.

That's and I really enjoy it.

I the thing about the Ascent that surprised me when I first saw it is just it's it's pretty big.

It's their longest one.

Yeah.

That surprised me.

Mhmm.

It's like, oh, man.

But, like, you know, you're hauling around teenagers.

Yes.

Yeah.

I needed I needed a seven seater that had a third row that kids could actually sit in.

The next call is a first time call by uncle Chuckles Clown from Southern Michigan.

Hey, Chris and Angela.

Uncle Chuckles clown from Southern Michigan.

First time caller, long time listener here.

Couple comments here on the this week's episode on the AI generated content.

That is actually was actually forecasted in Fahrenheit four fifty one.

Chris, I know you like to read a lot.

Go read back and reread that book.

Yeah.

There was many things foreshadowed there about AI content being created in a customized watcher.

Really?

Also in regards to die hard being a Christmas movie.

If die hard is a Christmas movie, then so is gremlins and all of the home alone movies.

Catch y'all later.

Love it.

You know, I had considered gremlins.

You know?

Or the fact that every home alone series is during Christmas time.

I that hadn't occurred to me.

Like, original home alone is the only one I consider, really.

Yeah.

You know, two's okay, but one's really the classic.

The gremlins famously is set during the Christmas season.

Yep.

That's funny.

Okay.

The reason why that surprises me is I did a I don't really want to admit it, but a lot of time searching for, like, the best Christmas movies or movies that take well, maybe I didn't look for movies that take place at Christmas.

But every Christmas year, I take a crack at building out, like, the ultimate Christmas libraries.

Mhmm.

And this year, I extended that to our favorite TV shows that have Christmas episodes.

Oh.

So, you know, like, Cheers has a Christmas episode.

The Office.

The Office.

Yep.

Guy, Parks and Rec like Simpsons.

Simpsons.

Yep.

All of the all of the classic Seinfeld and the Festivus episode.

Get all of those.

And then then I I have a Christmas movies library and a Christmas TV episodes library that I turn off when it's not Christmas season anymore.

And I'm just a little miffed that gremlins never showed up on all of my searching because I put some effort into that.

And I am What was the thing he mentioned before the Die Hard?

Because that took the focus.

But I had a comment on the thing before.

Well, Home Alone.

The Home Alone No.

Before the whole is Die Hard a Is Die Hard a movie?

Oh, we could play it back.

We'll find out.

Let's let's go back to uncle Chuckles.

Oh, there about AI content being Oh, yes.

Serenade four eleven.

Right.

So either Abby or Dylan, they had that in their list of books they were gonna read that year.

And I read whatever they read, right, in in school.

But a holocaust book that I read in April 2024 killed my reading.

Like, stopped reading at that point.

And so I know that this Fahrenheit four five one is like a classic English whatever, and I was looking forward to reading it.

And I should read it.

So I will read it.

I will I will read that this year as one of my 10 books.

You could say made a movie out of it.

Don't know if it's as good.

I couldn't say.

No.

That's Fahrenheit nine eleven.

Oh, I'm thinking of Fahrenheit four fifty one too, maybe.

No.

That's what I said.

451451.

Yeah.

That is the book.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Is there a movie?

I don't wanna watch the movie.

I wanna I'll read the book.

Yeah.

Alright.

Matt from Florida is next up on our voicemail.

Hi.

This is Matt from Clearwater, Florida, and I wanted to respond to what you're asking about on Linux unplugged this last weekend about the quality of landline phones.

I remember very vividly as a kid talking to my friends from my parents' landline to theirs, and the quality is definitely not as good sound wise as a lot of modern cell phones, especially there are there's this HD calling that I see sometimes happen.

But what was better, I am a 100% certain, was latency.

There was no added latency.

And I remember going to the Science Museum of Minnesota and learning about the analog multiplexing that the phone system used to use.

And I remember the conversations would flow perfectly from one landline to another.

But now that everything is VoIP, I don't like talking on the phone as much because the conversation does not flow as much.

I think there's almost always at least That's what it is.

200 of latency, possibly up to a second.

So that's that's my 2¢ about the whole landline, analog phone conversation stuff.

Thanks a lot, Chris and Angela, and I hope you have a good day.

I love this.

Analog multiplexing.

Yes.

Yes.

I experience that all the time, that latency.

And and so I just I've gotten to the point where I just can't be upset about being interrupted Mhmm.

Because it is not an intentional thing.

They're not yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I I had forgotten about that transition.

Mhmm.

You you know, I also remember when we switched to digital phones for a little while, it would be really common when the other person would pick up, you'd hear a echo of yourself come back.

Yeah.

Remember that?

Yeah.

It was so annoying.

Yeah.

That doesn't happen much anymore.

But the latency was it.

That's that was it.

The quality is better because also not only do they have higher bandwidth now with cell phones for like the digital phone calls, like you said, they also have the HD, but they, have just better microphones Mhmm.

On the cell phones and landlines too.

But that latency I would take lower quality audio because it was still very understandable.

I would take that crappy phone system pots line codec if it meant true, you know, duplex audio.

That'd be great.

Mhmm.

Thanks, Matt.

Alright.

Caleb from Pittsburgh is up next.

Hi, Launch Crew.

This is Caleb from Pittsburgh.

I guess, first of all, how bad or good are the drivers in the Pacific Northwest?

I lived in a few different places, California, Colorado.

Oh.

Now Pittsburgh.

I think everyone kinda says their drivers are the worst.

Yeah.

But I just had some crazy incidents today on the way to work.

So I was just curious if the Pacific Northwest has a reputation, or it's just kinda everyone, you know, everyone thinks the drivers are the worst.

But it's a crazy world out there.

But, anyway, the reason the real reason I wanted to call was to ask about RAM prices.

I guess I'm kinda out of the loop.

I bought some RAM back in July, July for a media server build.

16 gigabytes for $28.

And I guess I've been a little bit out of the loop, then I went working on a router build, NICSOS router build right now.

And I was like, oh, I'll get I'll get that same RAM.

It seemed like, you know, I was I got it off eBay.

Right?

It was crucial.

RAM is pretty good.

Same RAM, same vendor, $96 now.

I was like, I I I kinda didn't I thought their vendor was just messed up, and I was like, oh, I guess I'll check somewhere in place.

They must be just wrong for some reason.

But, yeah, that's that seems to be pretty much the normal.

So I guess I'm out of loop, but it seems like it's AI related.

So I wondered if, Chris, you had any special insight into that, but I was just kinda shocked.

Actually, I content.

It's painful, isn't it?

Yeah.

But first, the the bad drivers.

Mhmm.

I mean, obviously, I'm a little biased.

Let's see.

I would describe the Pacific Northwest drivers as passive aggressive and Or stupid.

Yeah.

Dumb.

Or I they lack basic survival instincts.

Right.

Yeah.

So you can't count on human nature when you're driving in the Pacific Northwest because people just merge without ever looking.

Mhmm.

They don't merge anywhere near freeway speeds.

They don't care if there's somebody there, and the people that are there don't care if you're trying to merge.

Yep.

It's surprising too that people that are perpetually living in the rain still don't manage to learn how to drive in the rain.

And then god forbid it snows since it snows so infrequently here that when it snows, it is an absolute slaughter zone on the freeway.

It's embarrassing how bad it is.

Yeah.

Basically, I'm not worried about my driving.

I'm worried about everybody else.

100.

Yeah.

For sure.

And then additionally, our roads are pretty low if you look up.

We're ranked pretty low on the on the roads.

And, that adds to it.

And then traffic, we generally you know, we show up number four, number five traffic.

But I think what people don't really appreciate is It's all at 05:00.

No.

I'm just kidding.

Well, that's when you look at it statewide.

But what really gets jammed up is between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

There is this narrow stretch of land, and there is a couple of highways that run east to west.

And then there is one freeway for Washington State that runs north to south, and it sits between the Cascade Mountains and the ocean on this tiny stretch of land where almost all of our population is.

And that jams up perpetually now.

There's never not traffic anymore.

It's part of the factoring and driving.

Yep.

And all of those combined with density, poor weather, poor roads, natural instincts seem to be missing from the drivers, all of that into what is a pretty bad situation.

And Yeah.

They're not skilled jerks No.

About driving like California probably has or it suggested Las Vegas as well.

You know, I've driven through California.

They're not great, but they're what what they are down there is they're intentionally aggressive at times.

Exactly.

Right.

Yeah.

Mhmm.

There's that that's not what happens here.

No.

They're just unaware and slow.

Maybe I don't know.

They're they're high.

I don't know what's going on.

And I say this having driven around a good portion of the western half of the country, just a tiny bit of the East side.

In a boat.

In a boat and in cars.

And it is down to and I I I don't I cannot explain this.

I I do not know why it works like this, but it is down to the moment you cross the state line.

And and as you get progressively closer to the West Coast, the worse it gets.

So say you're coming from Texas or something like that, as you cross towards the West Coast, the drivers get worse and worse and worse.

And I noticed this a couple of times, but I can now every time it is demonstratively provable on every single road trip I take, and the passengers with me notice it too.

It's not just me.

It's yeah, man.

You really got me going.

I'll stop right there.

But, Caleb, I'd love to know how the NICS OS router goes.

The RAM.

Oh, yeah.

And the RAM.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you got it.

You mentioned you had something you wanna No.

I was just joking.

I don't know anything about RAM or the prices or anything like that.

You know, I think what it really comes down to is they had these RAM makers, like Micron and a couple others, had a really sweet deal from guys like Sam Altman and others to come in and write a check for a year or two of manufacturing.

And now they don't have to deal with the worst thing of running a business, which is customers.

They just manufacture for somebody that's paid ahead of time.

And so what's actually happened is people are either really tight on inventory or they're pulling out of the consumer market altogether.

Editor Drew in Linux Unplugged actually predicted that we would not see a consumer NVIDIA card released this year.

And then just yesterday, Tom's Hardware wrote for the first time in five years, NVIDIA will not announce any new GPUs at CES.

Drew's a genius.

Drew may have nailed that prediction.

Wow.

Yeah.

Alright.

Is that gonna be in love this week?

Well Like as a follow-up?

I'll mention it.

I'll probably hold it for you.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

It's there's another prediction.

It's also already come true.

Wes' one of Wes'.

Oh.

I think.

I think it's Lisa Cummings.

It's it's trending true.

Alright.

So, yeah, it is bad.

I saw I blew it.

I have been thinking since October, November that I needed to upgrade my storage on my home media server because it's I got a four terabyte array and I basically have like, you know, no space free.

And so the eight terabyte disk that I was gonna replace it with, essentially just double my storage Mhmm.

Was I think $600 earlier in the year.

And it is now almost $1,500 for the same exact disk.

Oh.

So I blew that.

You snoozed and you lose.

I when I saw that, was just like, womp womp.

Right?

I blew that bad.

Wow.

Alright.

Here's our last caller.

And, yes, it is mister Mayhem, and he's still working.

Hey.

It's Mayhem.

So two things.

One, sorry to disappoint.

I thought I was gonna have to die off, but my first day off is gonna be on Thursday, so I still haven't watched wow.

That woman just walked into a gas station balancing a cell phone on her shoulder.

It's weird.

Anyways, I still haven't watched that hard.

Sorry to disappoint.

Anyways, the second thing is that it's just me or is, like, the community in really good shape recently.

Like, I'm I'm just, like, looking to the matrix chat, there's, like, there's all kinds of people with projects in here, all kinds of new faces that I've never seen and stuff like that.

Like, I I don't know.

I I've only you know, I've been listening for a long time, but I've only really been in the the the, quote, unquote, community for a few years now.

I don't remember it being this active before, especially not this this this this actually, like, in-depth active.

No.

It just it it makes me feel good.

Makes me really happy.

But, yeah, still no opinion on Die Hard, and it's in January.

So sorry to disappoint all that shit.

Anyway, bye.

Well, get it on it, man.

Come on.

I'm glad to hear that community seems to be I you know?

Yeah.

I honestly wonder if shows like when we do the launch or the Friday stream or the foe show.

Mhmm.

I get I think it is good for the community because we're making this show for the community.

Like, there's no advertiser here.

Participatory.

No sponsor knocking on our door.

Like, if I was doing this the right business decision, it'd probably be like some AI tech show because I'd probably sell like hell.

It's a social experience.

You might say.

Mhmm.

Thank you everybody who called in.

Really do appreciate that.

Some great voicemails this week.

And, you know, some of them really got me thinking.

I like that.

So that's a winner winner for everybody.

Chicken dinner as they say.

The phone number, of course, will be on our website in the show notes, in your podcast app, all of that.

Call in for next week.

And with that, we're gonna get to the booths.

Alright.

Hey, Richard.

I'm stuck.

And we are gonna start with mister adversary seventeen.

Adversary seventeen across three booths sent us 96,923 sats.

Make it so.

Doing the heavy lift for this episode, he says, here's a solution to the EV range problem.

Just put a few RTGs into them.

Only side effect would be a higher chance of death due to radiation exposure.

Who cares?

He says after some research, the RTG idea might actually work.

Wait.

If you ignore the cost to produce, the ones on the Mars Rover are less than 30 square inches in size and weigh only a 100 pounds and are capable of outputting a 100 watts for fourteen years.

Wow.

Your EV will cost 84,000,000 US greenbacks though, so there's that.

Here's what I was thinking.

Why not subsidize the cost of the RTG by first designing them to power homes and communities?

And that's the initial use case.

And then once they age out, you recycle them into car RTGs where they would presumably need less power, but you would you wouldn't have to, fork over that initial cost.

I think adversaries, you and I should work together.

Maybe there's even a Bitcoin mining angle here.

You know what I'm saying?

Mhmm.

And we get this idea down.

We make a business out of this 2026, buddy.

Mhmm.

The RTG company.

Thank you adversaries for that baller boost.

You are, very much appreciated.

I hoard that which you're kind covet.

And hope you're doing well.

Woodland Geeks comes in with 8,222 sats.

Alright.

He's coming in hot saying die hard is a Christmas movie.

Harry Potter is not.

It has a movie that has a scene set around Christmas.

Yeah.

I think that could be fair.

That's why I don't consider Star A scene.

Yeah.

Not the whole movie.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

I could subscribe to that.

So typically, Star Trek Generations would not consider that a Christmas movie.

But Star Trek Generations has a scene during Christmas.

Now, there is a second category.

And that is if you're a genre person and you want to know that genre's Christmas episode or movie, then you have to change move the bar a little bit.

So then if you're looking at Star Trek Christmas movies, well then obviously Generations is the Star Trek Christmas movie followed by Wrath and Con.

Everybody knows that.

But I think you're right, Woodland.

Just a scene alone doesn't doesn't count.

That's it.

That's it.

That's all the boost this week.

Was a short it was a short list, but adversaries helped make it really have an impact there.

Thank you everybody who supported us with a boost.

We had two of you, just just two of you stream sats.

And you collectively, you rascals, you stack 3,510 sats.

Thank you very much.

When you combine that with our boosters, we stacked a total for episode 49, a 108,655 stats.

Yeah.

That's right.

You could support this show with the boost and get your message read right here on the show.

In fact, one of the great things about the boost technology is that it's all open source.

The mechanics of it are open in our RSS feed.

There's really nothing there but just RSS standards and lightning making it all happen and yet somehow it freaking works.

Split goes to me.

It goes to Ang editor Drew, the podcast app creator and the podcast index directly.

No settlement required.

We don't have to ask anybody for your funding, and you get to send a message.

If you send it above 2,000 saps, we're gonna read it on the air.

Of course, you can also support this production by becoming a party member at jupiter.party.

That bootleg promo code may still be active for an savings.

I don't even wanna say the amount on air.

So go try that while it's still active.

That's jupiter.party.

And thank you everybody who supported the show.

We really appreciate you.

Well, you know what time it is.

Well, they've done it again.

I don't know.

Maybe this is gonna be a thing for the year.

This one, this beautiful property, this investment, if you will, is coming in at $91,900.

It's located in Philadelphia.

Okay.

I'm surprised you didn't look for something in one of the three states.

Oh, yeah.

Well You know?

Like, because wouldn't that be better?

Bullish on this one for a trend.

There's a trend I'm bullish on.

Okay.

And I think this one represents it.

We we actually uncovered this in a recent episode, and I think we're onto something, Andrew.

In fact, it could be a new business model here.

So this is just an investment property.

It could be an investment business.

So three beds, one bath, 36 square feet.

Just blocks from the new Amazon distribution center.

So Oh.

If you wanna work in that warehouse, you can then just walk to this place.

It's got lots of natural light because there's holes in the wall and full unfinished basement for you to dream.

Now here's what you need to know.

This property is sold as is, including everything inside.

I'm a click on it.

Okay.

So what you see is what you get.

Could be great as a flipper.

Oh.

Aggressively priced.

It reminds me of The Netherlands.

Yeah.

It it has a Is it the whole thing, or is this one of one of the houses in this tight down.

Blame.

Yeah.

It's almost like a strip of houses, sort of like you might see from San Francisco, but, of course, this is Philadelphia.

Now this It's like a full house house.

This is where I am super bullish.

Because with modern technology, you don't have to fix the house to sell it.

You just generate.

The AI.

The staging.

Do that?

This is all generated staging.

The couches, the seats Oh my gosh.

The furniture is all AI generated.

That's hilarious.

This place is a dump.

They did not like, this ceiling is peeling for me.

Collapsing.

Though there's no there's no there's nothing on the walls.

Okay.

But you know what?

What?

They did post an original picture without the AI.

Yeah.

Can scroll and find better.

Yeah.

But like this bedroom Oh my gosh.

That's are peeling.

Okay.

There's piles of debris on the floor.

Detritus is strung everywhere.

The wall boards are hanging out, but then they generate a perfectly made bed with a lamp.

It's clean.

Oh.

A white white blanket.

I love this one too because they put some artwork on the wall.

So the ceiling's collapsed in.

There's not the floor has been ripped up.

The window is completely exposed, but they've got some nice artwork on the wall.

Oh my gosh.

They even put plants on a shelf that's not actually a shelf.

It is a structural horizontal piece of wood.

This is hilarious.

See, why even fix it up?

Why you could just all you do is take some pictures, generate some nice staging Yep.

And flip it.

I I kinda like this idea, though.

I do.

I this is really cool.

I they're not trying to be dishonest.

That is true.

This is a this is a crap hole.

You they're just trying to help you visualize.

They're just helping you visualize.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I guess so.

I just That's funny.

The thing the big shift here that is funny to me is they have gone from like we had to clean it up and we had to actually physically stage it and then maybe somebody in Photoshop would like touch up the lighting and the coloring a little bit and that would be the most.

And now Mhmm.

We don't even have to like put any furniture in there or anything like that.

Now that was in Philadelphia.

But if you want to get a place, say, maybe in San Francisco, in the Bay Area, squatting has become a big problem.

Mhmm.

Especially if you leave your place for a little while.

Well, there is now a service you can hire.

And maybe if we don't get into the fake AI staged real estate business, maybe, just maybe, we could get into this business because all you really need to be successful is a sword.

That's it.

This man who wields a sword is offering a squatter removal service to the Bay Area.

Mhmm.

And I think maybe we should consider expanding.

A company in the Bay Area offering help with removing squatters from properties, and they're doing it by using swords.

ASAP Squatter Removals CEO says the company has a 95% success rate.

Crown Force Rob Nesbitt reports on how they do it.

It sounds like an intense way to remove a squatter.

Go in with a samurai sword and scare the squatters out.

But the CEO of the company offering this service says it's more complicated than that.

Now anybody that's ever watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and knows the character Mac, this guy gives off Mac vibes.

And what I'm talking about is an adult man who likes to pretend he's a ninja, and he makes like moves when he does his own swipes.

So this guy is showing off for the reporters his badass sword moves in his dark leather trench coat.

The knat.

Diagonals to the side.

James Jacobs has been trained in martial arts for fifteen years, showing me what's called a trainer blade.

It would be illegal to have a real blade in public, but Jacobs started his company ASAP Squatter Removal to use real swords to clear squatters from properties.

The CEO says surveillance is done first to preapprove clients and make sure the squatters are illegally on a property.

After that's established, a process called breach and clear is done.

Breaching.

Breach and clear.

Wow.

PJ in the chat room says he likes swords, he's and in the California area.

PJ, this could be great for you because the breach and clear procedure man, you got this down.

All you have to do is be extremely annoying.

That's the breach and clear procedure is just annoy the crap out of them until they leave.

Illegally on a property.

After that's established, a process called breach and clear is done.

Breaching is breaking into the property Okay.

And then clearing is actively going through the rooms With this owner.

And making sure there's no active threat.

According to Jacobs, lease agreements are signed between him and the property owner.

So what he does is he breaches the property with his sword, and then he does an ocular pat down of the area to make sure that everything is secure.

To allow his team to go in and remove squatters.

And it's not just samurai swords used.

AR fifteens.

Oh.

We have m nine, five ninety, you know, shotguns.

He's been in the work of removing squatters for seven years and says it's a completely legal process.

Wow.

I talked with Cron four legal analyst Steven Clark, who says that might be the case, but that the tactics used to remove someone from a property could lead to a criminal liability.

Absolutely.

Sword is a deadly weapon.

And if there was a confrontation with a tenant or someone overstaying on the property and that samurai sword was used to inflict injury, that could result in a criminal prosecution.

Clark recommends going through law enforcement and the court process required to remove someone from the property.

Jacobs disagrees, saying he's well aware of the risks, which is why he takes precautions to avoid legal battles down the road.

I have a million dollar insurance policy.

I have an in house attorney.

Heck, people make wrongful claims against my business all the time just to try and get money.

The cost of removing a squatter from your property using ASAP squatter removal.

What do think?

You got a guess?

You got a guess?

I don't know.

A thousand dollars?

$5,000?

I don't know.

Starts at $10,000.

Okay.

Yeah.

Alright.

Okay.

So next week, it'll be sword wielding man that offers squatter removal killed.

I know.

Because there's no way that none of these people have a gun I know.

And will not claim self defense.

I know.

Mister Bam in the chat says, what's the over under on this guy getting killed?

We should do a polymarket.

Yeah.

I know.

Well so, in the other reports that I watched about this, he goes into more detail about really they just make a lot of noise and scare them, and the weapons are there for more for like Show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you It's a crazy guy.

And he's he's welcome there just as much as the squatters are.

Right?

You know?

Like Well, technically, he was requested by the owner.

Yeah.

Maybe maybe you join the squatters.

Right?

Dude, that's right.

He comes in, you just join up with him.

Yeah.

Right?

That is clever.

Would be the way to squatting.

And then you know the insight.

Because like and then then you have a redemption story where it's like, used to be a squatter, but now I hunt the squatters.

Yes.

And I know the way they think.

Yes.

I mean, could be a good business until somebody gets killed because you're right.

Yep.

Alright.

So we'll scratch that one.

We're not gonna do Okay.

No.

We gotta you know, we just gotta try these things out.

Well, if you have a brilliant business idea, boost it in.

Why not?

Yeah.

We'll try it out.

Do anything for a week.

We'll evaluate it.

Links to what we talked about today at weeklylaunch.rocks.

You could join us next Tuesday for that live show.

Don't forget, we'll be out Wednesday mornings in your podcast app of choice from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast.

Thanks for listening.

Happy New Year, and we'll see you right back here next week.