WEBVTT - How Shannon Morse Works 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.040 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.720 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:24.880 tech are you. I have a special treat a beloved 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:30.040 friend peer peer is doing injustice. She does so much 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.000 more than I do. I have a dear friend who 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:38.960 has agreed to give up her precious time to agree 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.159 to my whim of appearing on one of the final 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.960 episodes of tech Stuff I'll ever be hosting. It is 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.760 Shannon Morse. Welcome back to tex Stuff. 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.080 Shannon, Hello, Jonathan, how are you? 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.519 I am? I'm great. Like the closer I get to 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.920 the end, the more i'm I got a little spring 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.600 in my step. Not that I not that I hate 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.240 doing stuff, but I'm looking forward to what comes next. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.919 Yes, I'm always excited to see what's coming next. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.399 Yeah. For Shannon, what comes next is that before too 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.840 long she's going to be packing for Las Vegas to 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:12.080 head off to CES. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:14.880 Yeah. In a whole like I'm counting down the days 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.280 right now. I think I have ten days. I'm in 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.039 panic mode where I'm like scheduling the last minute sponsorships, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.640 last minute schedules of like booth tours, and I'm like, 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:26.679 oh god, oh god, I have to make sure that 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.360 I leave enough time in between all these meetings so 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.160 that I can, you know, get down the Las Vegas 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.120 Strip from one one hotel to another, because you know, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:36.280 it's an entire maze. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.360 Oh yeah, yeah, No, it used to. When I first started, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.000 it was the majority of the stuff I wanted to 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.560 see was actually in the Sands Expo Center before before, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.640 like I mean, like for a while, I was like, 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.640 oh wait, there's a convention center too't even I was 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.880 such a nube. And it's funny that I that were 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.080 even starting off about this because honestly, like our story, 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.560 like the first time I met you in person was 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.280 at a CES. It's probably two thousand and eight or 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.480 two thousand and nine, Yeah, somewhere around then. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:13.400 Two thousand and nine, I believe was my very first CES. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.280 And that's right after I started working with Hack five. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.480 So we went down there as a crew and I 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.519 believe that year we recorded like forty something segments at CES. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.040 It was insane. It was bonkers, No wonder I got 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:29.040 sick every year after that. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.840 I'm getting sick just thinking about it. I was there 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.280 by myself, and I was largely directionless. Because while you 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.720 are talking about strategizing and planning things out and having 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.560 you know your schedule and making sure one of the things, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.680 By the way, if you ever do get into the 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.160 world of covering ces, one of the most important things 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.520 you can do is make sure you have built in 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.519 time between different appointments, because, yes, getting from point A 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.240 to point B is never straightforward, even if it's the 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.400 same convention center. It can carry to you half an hour. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.359 The casinos are huge, and it takes forever to get 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.680 like an uber or a lyft or even a shuttle 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.320 or one of the monorail transportations if you can do 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.560 the monorail between the different places. So you always have 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.320 to like plan that into your schedule to ensure you 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.680 have time for traffic and for all the people, because 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:27.000 CEES ends up bringing in over one hundred thousand extra 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.480 people into that city, and almost every single person is 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.720 on the strip or at the convention center, so it 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:34.639 ends up being crazy, crazy packed. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.640 Yeah, to the point where like they moved all the 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.920 press events. At least the last time I went, all 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.760 the press events were down toward like the Mandalay Bay side, 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.080 So that's that's about as far on the strip as 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.600 you can get from the Convention Center. Obviously there are 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.120 other parts of Vegas besides the Strip, but that's like 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.920 the heart and soul of where Cees happens. Anything that 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.240 happens off the strip, that's a huge commitment to have 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.840 to go off because you know it's going to take 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.880 you quite some time to get back. But my first 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.800 memory of you, Shannon, is that I remember being I 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.880 think it was like maybe Convention Center North at the 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:15.200 Las Vegash Convention Center, and I see you and I 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.560 had never met you before in my life, and for 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.640 some reason our paths had crossed and we introduced each other, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:24.400 and then you gave me a hug, and I was like, 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.719 you have no idea how badly I needed that, because 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.120 I felt so directionless and so out of my element. Yeah, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.719 and this is not one of the reasons I wanted 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:37.920 to have you on from one of my final shows. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.920 Is this is not me blowing smoke. You are one 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.680 of the reasons that I wanted to stick with podcasting 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:47.960 because I had only been doing it for about a 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.080 year at that point. Oh my gosh, And you know, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.760 you start feeling like you're you're talking into a void 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.320 if you don't have a lot of audience feedback right away. 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.000 Let's have the method, right We didn't want to give 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.719 out our personal emails on the show, and we didn't 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.640 have a show email for a while, so, but having 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:15.560 someone who was also working in communication tech communication and uh, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.080 trying to synthesize complex ideas and then communicate them in 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:25.479 a way that's easy to understand and to digest. Like, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.520 you know, meeting a kindred soul like that who not 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.280 only was a kindred soul, but someone who is outwardly 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:36.240 just welcoming and friendly was a huge impact on me 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.320 and was just an enormous. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.880 Yeah, made me cry. That's really sweet. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.279 And y'all have to remember too that I'm approximately seventy 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:45.720 years older than Shannon is. 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:47.599 That's a lie. We're the same age. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.040 We are not the same age. We're both Okay, I 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.440 like okay, I like your version. I like your version 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.440 a lot. So, but that's that's that's getting way too 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.640 far ahead in your story. That's just where our friendship began, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.200 and we would typically reconnect at cees pretty much like 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:07.719 that was the one time of year. I think I 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.159 met you at a dragon con. Once it came to 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:11.599 one dragon con I did. 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.520 My friends got married down there, so I flew out 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.800 for their wedding because I was one of their bridesmaids 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:18.840 or something I don't remember. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.240 Yeah, that was cool, though seeing you like on the 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:27.680 other coast was neat. But let's talk about your journey 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.960 into becoming what you are today. So let's just start, like, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.360 can you tell me kind of your earliest memories of 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.719 even being interested in technology as a concept, let alone 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.200 as this is something I want to pursue as a career. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.919 Oh my goodness, I would love to. 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:46.039 So. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.760 I grew up in a military household. My dad was military, 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.839 and I think that's why I'm so friendly with people, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.280 because I had to force myself to make friends every 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.159 single time we moved somewhere new or I would be 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.360 walking into a new school with apps no friends. So 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.120 that was always a thing for me, is like, I 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.200 want to surround myself with friendship, and I forced myself 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.679 into it. But when I was young and a nerd, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.440 my dad would always watch like Star Trek and X 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.160 Files and like all those nerdy shows after work, So 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:20.840 I would always like sit in the living room with 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.760 him and watch those and eventually I think he noticed 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.320 signs that I was into the same things he was, 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.360 so he would invite me to eventually build a computer 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.960 with him, and I think that was around eight years old. Wow, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.240 I do have photos. I don't remember it personally because 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.160 I was way too young to remember this, but I 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.760 do have photos of me sitting on his lap and 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:49.200 banging at his keyboard on an old like IBM type PC, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.320 like something that he had built in the eighties, way 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.480 way way before my time. When I was just a 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.240 little teeny, tiny toddler. I had no idea what I 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.840 was doing. I have pictures of me playing on this 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.400 computer and not really knowing what I was doing. But 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.440 I think him inviting me to do that as a 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:15.480 little baby influenced my direction as a child and gave 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.440 me that interest in PCs. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:18.680 So when he. 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.320 Gave me the opportunity to help build the family computer 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.360 when I was, you know, a little eight year old kid, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.880 I was like absolutely So I remember building this computer, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:33.040 having this huge tower, huge motherboard, the ramsticks were gigantic, 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:35.679 like everything was big back then. We had a floppy 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.840 disc reader like all that stuff, putting all that together 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.520 on the dining room table, and we had this old, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:46.200 like wooden nineteen nineties dining room table, like very quite 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:51.200 ugly nowadays, but very very you know, classic nineteen nineties. 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.200 I just remember how proud I was when we plugged 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.959 it into power and it powered on and it worked, 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:04.280 and he let me install video games. So I learned 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.320 so much through him. I really have to thank my dad, Like, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.440 even though we don't necessarily have a great relationship now, 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.680 back in the day, like, I have to thank him 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:19.440 for so much of my nerdiness and my interests that 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.080 I kind of delved into as just a little kid. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.640 I think it really influenced what I do today. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.880 Wow, I'm hearing a lot of parallels of my own experience. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.800 I mean, granted, for me, my first computer was a 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.240 Texas Instrument trash machine. But then I went to Apple 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:39.480 to E and then eventually got my first IBM competible. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.640 When I say I, I mean the family I didn't 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.400 have it. It was the family computer. My dad writes 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.240 science fiction. In fact, he's written books in the Star 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.960 Trek series, so there's a lot of overlap here. Yeah, 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.880 he wrote in the young adult Star Trek series. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:58.199 Brad Strickland, look it up. Brad Strickland. He wrote several 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.880 books in the young adult Star Trek series, which was 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:05.400 like Starfleet Academy talking about you know, Spock and Kirk 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:10.800 when they were students at Starfleet that kind of stuff. Yes, cool, yeah, yeah. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.720 So I grew up going to these science fiction conventions 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.760 and meeting the various people who were in the shows 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.960 and the movies and stuff amazing, you know. Oh yeah, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.160 there's so many great stories, running into people like George 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.360 de Kay and it was fantastic. Yeah, oh wow, it 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.920 was great. But same sort of thing where my dad 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.600 kind of instilled in me this joy of geekery and 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:40.280 technology as well as literature. Like Dad taught American Lit, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.040 which I thought was respectful, but I ended up majoring 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.040 in English Lit because I had to do one better. 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:50.000 But so similar stories there. So were you drawn to 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.959 any classes or anything when you were going through school 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.520 in the field of tech, Like when I was in 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.160 high school. Well, first I was going to high school 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.640 in rural George, so yeah, our resources were somewhat limited, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.679 but I seem the closest, the closest for me was 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.600 a data processing class, which was essentially learning to type 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.040 on keyboards and do spreadsheets and that kind of stuff. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.680 Nothing particularly, you know, nothing close to coding, but that 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.800 was as close as I could get in school. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.840 Luckily, the schools that I went to were either on 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:29.560 military bases and they generally had pretty good financing to 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.400 have a lot of computers and stuff like that, or 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.400 I was going to school right off of a military 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.319 base once my dad retired from the military. So every 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:40.959 school that I went to, even though it was in 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:45.280 Missouri and our educational system was not the best in 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.360 the United States, we still had a lot of access 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.040 to technology. So I don't remember what year it was, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.520 but I do have really early memories of having a 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.760 typing class where, you know, we played Oregon Trail and 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.280 we played mathematical games, and we had typing days. And 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.040 I noticed that when I was in those classrooms, and 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.319 then I would go home and be able to practice 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.480 typing at home too, because I was playing on that 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.000 computer I built with my dad, I noticed that I 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.840 was one of the fastest typers in the class. So 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:20.920 it ended up being a passion for me where I 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:22.880 was like, I want to play on computers more because 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.240 this is something that I can tell that I'm good at. 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.400 And it was weird because not a lot of girls 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.960 were into that when I was growing up, a lot 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.400 of the girls in my classes wanted to do other 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.000 stuff like play instruments and band, which I never got into. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.240 But I was really into singing and acting, so I 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.320 really wanted to do that too. So it was like 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.400 all the little electives I got very passionate about, but 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.040 I had no interest in literature. I had no interest 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.800 in math sciences. I was like, I was okay at science, 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:54.720 but I didn't really want to do it. So I 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.280 just really wanted to focus on like the media side 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.000 of the electives as well as the technology sides because 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.440 those were the things that I found were things that 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:06.760 I was very interested in. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.040 Wow. So that yeah, like literally at an early age, 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:14.280 it's the components that make up what your career is today. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.960 The community, you know, being able to communicate. There's a 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.560 skill to that that I think goes largely unappreciated until 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.319 you see someone who perhaps is early on in their 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.400 journey into becoming a communicator, where you can see the 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.600 sausage being made a little bit more. They're not as 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.640 not quite as as polished. Perhaps they might have a 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:42.320 great perspective, they might be have great insight, right, but 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.920 maybe their communication skills need a little more work. Nothing 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.079 wrong with that. Actually I prefer that to the people 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.440 who are very polished but have nothing to say. Yeah, 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:53.880 those are the ones that I'm like, well, that's kind 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.400 of unless you have a teleprompter feeding them the stuff 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.960 they need to say, they aren't going to communicate anything 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:02.199 particularly useful. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:04.840 That's kind of how I feel, like, kind of awkward, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.360 a little bit weird, but at the same time, like 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.160 I want to share things that I'm learning with people. 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.200 I think part of that might be because I'm the 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:16.560 oldest out of three kids, So my little brother and sister, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:18.920 they would come to me if they had a question 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.160 if I wasn't beating them up at the time, So anytime, 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.800 like they wanted to learn, you know, how to plug 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.400 in and play the new Mario game on the Nintendo, 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.760 or if they wanted to learn how to play a 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.200 video game on Dad's computer on the family computer in 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.080 the family room, like I would, I would be the 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:37.720 one that would be teaching them how to do this 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.680 stuff since my dad would be at work until you know, 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.480 five or six PM. So I think part of part 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.880 of the reason why I'm you know, have this nerdy 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.920 representation of like awkwardness, and I'm totally fine with sharing 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.680 that on camera because we're all a little bit weird 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.200 and I think that's perfectly fine, but also wanting to 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.040 educate people and wanting to share things that I have 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.040 learned and gotten excited about. Like, I'm sure part of 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.440 that is because my little brother and sister, like I 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.440 wanted them to be nerds too, So I was like, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:10.360 let me show my nerdy things to you. 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.760 Yeah, I love that you were teaching them both how 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.000 to interact and interface with technology as well as how 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.960 to take a good left hook. Yeah, it's I mean. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.760 Too when they go in your room and try to 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.000 overwrite your safe game on the Lion King or something. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:25.240 You know. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:31.800 Oh oh yeah, that's crut back in the day. But no, no, no, yeah, 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.360 I think we're actually finally getting back into a realm. 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.240 Not finally, it's happened over the last couple of years, 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.280 but like a lot of independent games, they're being made 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.440 by the people who grew up playing those Oh yeah, 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.840 incredibly challenging, unforgiving games. And so now you get things 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.280 like UFO fifty or even older ones like super Meat 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.720 Boy or whatever, where it's clearly pulling from that ethos 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:03.040 of let's make this game brutally hard and okay't save well, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.680 then where do we go from there? So you're going 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.360 through the elementary, middle school, high school. Yeah, you're developing 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.520 this interest in media as well as in technology. What 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:14.320 happens next? 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.480 I ended up doing like a lot of plays when 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.000 I was in high school. I got really into theater 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.920 and got into choir. I ended up finding a really 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.880 good talent for those, so by the time I was 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:29.120 a senior, I got in a word best actress for 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.920 a class out of three hundred people. So that's quite 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:32.240 a bit. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.800 Okay, well, quick favorite play? I got to know your 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:35.320 favorite play? 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.840 Oh, I would say Into the Woods. 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:41.280 Okay, excellent. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.200 I love Into the Woods. I played Cinderella, so I'm 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.360 kind of biased there. And I had such a blast 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.880 doing that because it was my first, like really major 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.880 role when I was in high school. So I loved 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.760 it so much. It was incredible for me. And it 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.000 was incredible too because it kind of took me out 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.480 of my shell quite a bit because I was a 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.920 nerd I didn't have a lot of friends, so that 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.199 show and the fact that my drama teacher was really 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.200 he wanted to see me succeed and he really trained 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.760 me to be really good on stage. He was like, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.560 you're going to train yourself. You're going to learn these things, 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.600 and you're going to go on stage and you're going 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.840 to blow everybody's minds, Like people are going to cry 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:23.480 when you sing this song. And I was like, oh 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:27.800 my god, okay, and it worked. Like it really helped 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:33.080 me get out of my awkward, like self conscious shell 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:35.160 when I was in high school, and that was one 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.800 of the big turning points for me going into this 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.719 career later on, you know, after college days. So I 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.440 was doing that on the like artist side, and then 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.160 on the technical side, I was trying to get into 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.560 classes like JavaScript. I learned that I was building websites 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.399 at home, like in HTML, and eventually I learned a 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.320 little bit about C plus plus. So there was some 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.199 programming involved in a lot of self teaching that kind 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.000 of stuff because we didn't have all of those types 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.280 of classes available. We just had a few here and there. 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.320 And I took some classes on journalism because it was 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.320 something I was kind of wondering if I should dip 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.760 my toes into so I tried to learn about journalism 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:16.800 and see if it was something I would be interested in. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.920 So once I got into college, my agreement with my 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.160 dad was if I go to college in the state, 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.520 he would help me with my tuition. I would cover 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.760 everything else, but he would help me with my tuition. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.960 And this is way back in the day when tuitions 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.760 were not super expensive. They were much much cheaper than 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.440 what they are today, so we're talking not too bad. 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.240 I still had three jobs when I was in college 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.560 to afford living on my own, buying my books, buying 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.199 meals and stuff like that. So I worked at like 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.040 a Domino's Pizza so I could get free pizza every day. 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.640 Not the best diet, but you know what I survived. 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.600 Yeah, I think it's admirable already, because, like, as you 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.600 point out, like even though it's not as astronomically expensive 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.000 as it is today, I mean, it's still a big 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.120 chunk of change. Oh yeah, and you know, going out 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.760 and being able to hustle so that you can. 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.880 I had to, Like I bought my first car, and 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.720 I remember one time a tire blew out while I 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.879 was on the highway driving home so I could do 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.159 my laundry at my parents' house, and I didn't know 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.399 what to do. I had to pay for a new tire, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.960 and like little things like that, those little emergencies you 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.520 run into. You don't realize how expensive that stuff is 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.600 until you're living on your own and you're in charge 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.639 of those expenses. So that was a major growing pain 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.600 for myself, is just moving out of my parents' house 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.199 and becoming very independent and learning how to take care 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.560 of myself. It was tough, but you know, those were 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.600 the college days. It was hard. But I'm glad that 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.600 I had so many jobs and I'm glad that I 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.000 did it, and I'm glad I learned even postage was expected. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.960 I remember like having to mail a check for something, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.879 and I remember how how I was just like what 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.280 the stamp price went up? It went up from like 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.159 thirty nine cents to forty one cents or something, and 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.240 I was just like, what this is more expensive now? 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:17.360 Like I didn't budget for this. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.480 I did not budget for this two cent increase on 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.040 a stamp, Like what the what the I do not agree? 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.439 Yeah, well, I mean, like like to your point, like 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.880 those emergency things Like I remember when I first got 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.280 out of college, I was living so close like it 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.240 was literally paycheck to paycheck. Yea, where you're living so 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.399 close to what you're making that anything that happens out 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.720 of the routine is. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:43.400 It really screws up everything. 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.360 It's monumental, Like yeah, like even if you've saved up 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.840 to do something, if something unexpected happens on top of that, Yeah, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:52.880 Because I'm thinking, I'm thinking about how I found out 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:57.680 I was severely allergic to lobster, which was aboard a 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:02.400 cruise ship docked it. Now saw that you don't want 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:04.119 to be you don't want to be docted at Nassau 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:08.320 when you're having a medical emergency. Uh. But you know, 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.959 my partner works for in the travel industry, so we 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.679 were able to get this cruise ticket for like a 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.560 severely marked down price, which is the only reason we 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.040 were able to go. This was like a luxurious vacation 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.280 for us. And then I have a medical emergency on 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:30.439 board that literally doubled the price of the cruise. Uh, 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.679 because we had to pay so I wouldn't die. And 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.600 so because that's how that's how healthcare works in our country, 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:44.040