WEBVTT 00:00:20.221 --> 00:00:21.423 Welcome to Community & Code, 00:00:21.523 --> 00:00:24.365 the podcast about the human beings behind 00:00:24.485 --> 00:00:25.246 the commits. 00:00:25.447 --> 00:00:27.067 I'm here today with Christos Paloukas, 00:00:27.468 --> 00:00:30.510 who is in the WordPress community, 00:00:30.711 --> 00:00:31.872 works at Procedium. 00:00:31.932 --> 00:00:33.234 Tell me, actually, why don't you, 00:00:33.394 --> 00:00:34.535 I'll let you introduce yourself. 00:00:34.574 --> 00:00:36.457 What do you do and who are you 00:00:36.516 --> 00:00:37.718 and where in the world are you? 00:00:38.655 --> 00:00:39.356 I'm in Greece. 00:00:39.515 --> 00:00:41.937 I'm Christos, and I do work at Presidium. 00:00:42.577 --> 00:00:43.998 It's so much easier when the host does 00:00:44.018 --> 00:00:44.678 the introductions, 00:00:44.739 --> 00:00:47.280 but I love as a host myself for 00:00:47.341 --> 00:00:48.961 podcasts I do passing it off to the 00:00:49.042 --> 00:00:49.341 guest. 00:00:51.084 --> 00:00:53.805 So I've been in the IT space since, 00:00:53.985 --> 00:00:55.447 I don't know, since school, I guess, 00:00:55.466 --> 00:00:58.389 but like formally since twenty ten or 00:00:58.429 --> 00:00:59.088 twenty twelve. 00:00:59.109 --> 00:00:59.869 Twenty twelve. 00:01:00.189 --> 00:01:01.930 Twenty ten was an iconic year for me 00:01:01.951 --> 00:01:03.752 when I moved to Greece from Chicago, 00:01:03.773 --> 00:01:04.152 Illinois. 00:01:04.593 --> 00:01:06.573 Born and raised in Chicago, Burbank, 00:01:06.655 --> 00:01:07.875 Illinois, to be specific, 00:01:07.914 --> 00:01:09.457 a suburb just outside of Chicago. 00:01:10.337 --> 00:01:11.637 Born in Evergreen Park. 00:01:11.938 --> 00:01:12.959 This is the part where I talk about 00:01:13.018 --> 00:01:14.200 long walks on the beach and how I 00:01:14.219 --> 00:01:14.740 like them, right? 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:16.121 Yeah. 00:01:16.722 --> 00:01:17.921 I'm a cat person. 00:01:17.942 --> 00:01:19.904 There's not very many beaches in Chicago, 00:01:19.944 --> 00:01:21.484 though, right? 00:01:21.505 --> 00:01:22.206 Well, there are. 00:01:22.525 --> 00:01:22.846 Are there? 00:01:23.787 --> 00:01:25.650 Yeah, well, very many. 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:26.510 Does it count as one? 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:27.992 Like, you know, like Lake Shore? 00:01:28.531 --> 00:01:29.233 There's a lake. 00:01:29.332 --> 00:01:30.894 There's not an ocean. 00:01:31.594 --> 00:01:32.635 It kind of smells funny. 00:01:32.655 --> 00:01:33.835 I don't know. 00:01:34.656 --> 00:01:35.617 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the lake. 00:01:35.638 --> 00:01:36.838 We have a smelly lake here, too. 00:01:36.899 --> 00:01:39.120 Yeah, lakes are weird. 00:01:39.441 --> 00:01:40.262 Especially Chicago. 00:01:40.281 --> 00:01:41.802 Could you imagine how many corpses are in 00:01:41.822 --> 00:01:43.304 there from, like, the mafia days? 00:01:43.323 --> 00:01:46.667 Like, rolled up rugs getting tossed. 00:01:47.268 --> 00:01:48.709 Actually, go ahead. 00:01:49.168 --> 00:01:50.490 I was going to say, 00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:51.230 I'm in Salt Lake City, 00:01:51.272 --> 00:01:52.712 so we have obviously the Great Salt Lake, 00:01:52.753 --> 00:01:54.515 and that smells weird for completely 00:01:54.575 --> 00:01:57.078 different reasons. 00:01:57.117 --> 00:01:58.519 Not so much the mafia, though. 00:02:01.222 --> 00:02:01.763 Yeah, good point. 00:02:01.962 --> 00:02:02.843 Actually, when I was in school, 00:02:03.224 --> 00:02:04.183 fun random tangent, 00:02:05.004 --> 00:02:07.445 there was kind of a thing to... Okay, 00:02:07.525 --> 00:02:08.046 so, you know, 00:02:08.066 --> 00:02:09.486 people get shot in Chicago all the time. 00:02:09.546 --> 00:02:11.408 You kind of get desensitized to it for 00:02:11.608 --> 00:02:12.608 all the forced reasons. 00:02:12.968 --> 00:02:14.388 But it was a thing to, 00:02:14.968 --> 00:02:16.170 I don't know, have a shooting of sorts, 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:17.409 burn the car, 00:02:18.010 --> 00:02:20.451 and have the car disposed of in the 00:02:20.492 --> 00:02:21.611 lake. 00:02:21.691 --> 00:02:22.052 Okay. 00:02:23.673 --> 00:02:23.992 I mean, 00:02:25.254 --> 00:02:27.354 there's so many layers of messed up with 00:02:27.395 --> 00:02:27.534 that. 00:02:27.555 --> 00:02:28.975 Yep, yeah. 00:02:30.287 --> 00:02:30.606 Indeed. 00:02:30.646 --> 00:02:31.647 Greece is much more peaceful. 00:02:32.109 --> 00:02:32.968 Greece has nice weather. 00:02:33.509 --> 00:02:34.069 Greece is nice. 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:35.570 Got the islands. 00:02:36.853 --> 00:02:38.052 What took you to Greece? 00:02:39.435 --> 00:02:39.474 Oh, 00:02:39.495 --> 00:02:40.915 I just ended up coming to Greece so 00:02:40.936 --> 00:02:42.616 I can get some Cisco certifications to, 00:02:42.657 --> 00:02:44.199 like, I don't know, 00:02:44.378 --> 00:02:46.340 expand my knowledge in IT. 00:02:46.681 --> 00:02:47.961 And whether I did it in the States 00:02:48.002 --> 00:02:48.882 or whether I did it in Greece, 00:02:48.902 --> 00:02:50.123 it would have been the same kind of 00:02:50.204 --> 00:02:50.644 story. 00:02:50.743 --> 00:02:51.664 Everything would be in English, 00:02:51.685 --> 00:02:53.186 so it would have kind of worked for 00:02:53.225 --> 00:02:53.346 me. 00:02:53.485 --> 00:02:54.247 I do speak Greek. 00:02:54.326 --> 00:02:56.468 My Greek writing, it's not there. 00:02:57.068 --> 00:02:58.008 The military helped. 00:02:58.750 --> 00:02:59.729 There's conscription in Greece. 00:02:59.810 --> 00:03:00.849 So if you want citizenship, 00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:02.189 you have to go to the military as 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:03.330 if you were born a male. 00:03:03.350 --> 00:03:06.592 And for nine months, it was for me, 00:03:06.611 --> 00:03:07.252 twelve months. 00:03:07.592 --> 00:03:09.771 Now, for some reason, it's even longer. 00:03:09.792 --> 00:03:11.413 And we keep spending money on, 00:03:12.152 --> 00:03:12.453 I don't know, 00:03:12.513 --> 00:03:15.294 like F-sixteens and our military as if 00:03:15.313 --> 00:03:18.414 we're ever going to actually go to war. 00:03:18.474 --> 00:03:22.596 But I was talking about the Greek and 00:03:22.616 --> 00:03:23.556 the English and the speaking. 00:03:24.729 --> 00:03:27.171 yes and going to greece uh to do 00:03:27.211 --> 00:03:29.413 cisco certification yeah i ended up doing 00:03:29.454 --> 00:03:30.995 all that i but i ended up finding 00:03:31.156 --> 00:03:32.836 her myself in a relationship that i was 00:03:32.877 --> 00:03:34.198 kind of committed to at the time and 00:03:34.217 --> 00:03:36.900 then i found work and work turned into 00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:38.882 the military and i don't know time passed 00:03:38.921 --> 00:03:40.924 and i'm still here and it's been over 00:03:40.984 --> 00:03:43.186 a decade it's been fifteen years that's 00:03:43.225 --> 00:03:44.747 impressive twenty five now yeah it's been 00:03:44.766 --> 00:03:48.009 fifteen years um how's that cisco 00:03:48.030 --> 00:03:49.010 certification working for you 00:03:50.443 --> 00:03:51.906 I was just talking about this today with 00:03:51.966 --> 00:03:52.807 one of my coworkers. 00:03:53.530 --> 00:03:55.133 He was talking about getting the CCNA and 00:03:55.212 --> 00:03:56.956 I told him that the best thing I 00:03:56.977 --> 00:03:59.181 ever did in my Cisco career was to 00:03:59.282 --> 00:04:00.444 stop taking those exams. 00:04:02.425 --> 00:04:04.947 It was the most relieving thing. 00:04:04.986 --> 00:04:05.848 It was, I think, 00:04:05.967 --> 00:04:08.528 two or three years ago when I had 00:04:08.568 --> 00:04:12.050 to take the CCNP security or something 00:04:12.091 --> 00:04:15.252 greater to continue having my Cisco 00:04:15.271 --> 00:04:15.951 certifications. 00:04:16.532 --> 00:04:20.014 And I never used them ever in my 00:04:20.033 --> 00:04:20.835 professional career. 00:04:21.115 --> 00:04:21.814 Sure, it's great. 00:04:22.194 --> 00:04:22.996 That's what I told them, too. 00:04:23.395 --> 00:04:24.437 You get good knowledge. 00:04:24.456 --> 00:04:26.038 You learn about how networks work. 00:04:26.098 --> 00:04:27.579 We were talking about the OSI model in 00:04:27.598 --> 00:04:29.419 comparison to the TCP IP model. 00:04:30.020 --> 00:04:32.381 I hate that like we still use terms 00:04:32.461 --> 00:04:36.303 like volumetric and OS and like layer four 00:04:36.363 --> 00:04:38.865 and layer three attacks for Presidium 00:04:38.964 --> 00:04:39.125 Edge. 00:04:39.146 --> 00:04:40.446 We were talking about this, how like, 00:04:40.466 --> 00:04:41.067 you know, 00:04:42.815 --> 00:04:45.596 L-three and L-four attacks are cut off at 00:04:45.617 --> 00:04:45.976 the edge. 00:04:46.276 --> 00:04:47.778 But I hate it. 00:04:47.898 --> 00:04:49.398 I can't stand it because the whole world 00:04:49.437 --> 00:04:51.119 works off the TCP IP stack, right? 00:04:52.158 --> 00:04:54.060 OSI is great for troubleshooting. 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:55.660 You have to know it as an IT 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:55.959 guy. 00:04:56.300 --> 00:04:56.879 But I mean, 00:04:56.899 --> 00:04:59.000 why do we still have to refer to 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.661 things formally using the OSI stack? 00:05:01.802 --> 00:05:01.882 Hmm. 00:05:04.382 --> 00:05:07.023 There was a point in time when I 00:05:07.043 --> 00:05:10.105 was doing tech support where, 00:05:10.206 --> 00:05:11.706 and I was doing, well, 00:05:13.627 --> 00:05:15.988 so the long newer story is I used 00:05:16.028 --> 00:05:18.411 to do tech support for MSN when MSN 00:05:18.451 --> 00:05:18.930 was a thing. 00:05:19.451 --> 00:05:22.613 And when MSN was actually rivaling AOL to 00:05:22.653 --> 00:05:23.995 some extent, you know, 00:05:24.834 --> 00:05:27.877 as the thing that you click on to 00:05:27.937 --> 00:05:29.718 get internet, you know, 00:05:29.778 --> 00:05:31.339 like when that was a thing. 00:05:31.779 --> 00:05:33.120 Now everybody just has internet all the 00:05:33.141 --> 00:05:33.261 time. 00:05:35.122 --> 00:05:36.064 So I did that. 00:05:36.124 --> 00:05:38.646 And then I moved from MSN to basically 00:05:38.666 --> 00:05:40.449 the phone company that did DSL support. 00:05:41.831 --> 00:05:44.533 And a bunch of people that I knew 00:05:44.733 --> 00:05:47.877 had or were taking Cisco certification. 00:05:48.038 --> 00:05:49.238 And I considered it. 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:54.141 for a minute um but like at the 00:05:54.182 --> 00:05:57.923 time uh we had so there was a 00:05:57.983 --> 00:06:01.324 point in time where before i joined uh 00:06:01.564 --> 00:06:04.185 the phone company um they had given people 00:06:04.245 --> 00:06:07.007 cisco modems and so our cisco routers 00:06:07.067 --> 00:06:08.747 actually and so it would have been 00:06:09.588 --> 00:06:11.889 marginally helpful like you actually would 00:06:11.910 --> 00:06:13.250 be working with some of the things that 00:06:13.271 --> 00:06:14.490 maybe you would be talking about because 00:06:14.571 --> 00:06:16.173 no one really cares about the networking 00:06:16.233 --> 00:06:18.153 stuff in like what are you doing dsl 00:06:18.194 --> 00:06:20.535 tech support like you're not you're you're 00:06:20.555 --> 00:06:22.476 not doing networking you're doing like the 00:06:22.536 --> 00:06:25.319 networking hitting the the router and but 00:06:25.338 --> 00:06:26.879 you're not doing any internal networking 00:06:26.939 --> 00:06:29.321 right yeah um so it would have been 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.362 like kind of tangentially okay uh but we 00:06:32.382 --> 00:06:35.384 were also phasing that out um and rolling 00:06:35.464 --> 00:06:37.187 out this is when like sort of at 00:06:37.206 --> 00:06:39.108 the beginning of when phone companies were 00:06:39.148 --> 00:06:39.327 like 00:06:39.889 --> 00:06:41.310 like rebranding, 00:06:41.389 --> 00:06:43.072 like getting some vendor and rebranding 00:06:43.132 --> 00:06:44.973 the modem and putting their logo on it. 00:06:44.994 --> 00:06:45.694 And like, so it was, 00:06:45.834 --> 00:06:47.057 and there's a crappy robot modem that 00:06:47.076 --> 00:06:48.298 didn't let you do anything at all. 00:06:48.317 --> 00:06:49.519 And the Cisco let you do everything in 00:06:49.538 --> 00:06:49.860 the world. 00:06:49.899 --> 00:06:50.600 Yeah. 00:06:50.781 --> 00:06:53.403 Um, so I never did it. 00:06:53.684 --> 00:06:53.824 Um, 00:06:54.605 --> 00:06:56.987 And I never actually thought that anyone 00:06:57.026 --> 00:06:58.588 who did take it used any of that 00:06:58.627 --> 00:06:59.149 information. 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:00.790 So you just confirmed that suspicion. 00:07:00.850 --> 00:07:02.151 I mean, it looks good, right? 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:03.552 It looks good to have a little like 00:07:04.132 --> 00:07:06.675 CCNA, whatever badge. 00:07:06.975 --> 00:07:09.396 Well, I mean, maybe not so much anymore. 00:07:09.416 --> 00:07:11.119 It was more impressive like ten years ago. 00:07:12.098 --> 00:07:13.060 I thought it was too, right? 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:14.841 So I had that cute little CCNA thing 00:07:14.860 --> 00:07:15.980 with a little, 00:07:16.221 --> 00:07:17.401 but then you learn at the end of 00:07:17.422 --> 00:07:18.601 the day that like, I don't know, 00:07:18.622 --> 00:07:20.002 there was this scandal, 00:07:20.083 --> 00:07:21.004 I guess it wasn't a scandal, 00:07:21.043 --> 00:07:23.605 but more of a realization where large 00:07:23.625 --> 00:07:24.185 companies like that, 00:07:24.204 --> 00:07:25.045 like Cisco specifically, 00:07:25.064 --> 00:07:26.586 I don't want to talk trash about Cisco 00:07:27.487 --> 00:07:28.166 podcast, 00:07:28.187 --> 00:07:28.286 but 00:07:28.367 --> 00:07:29.648 Uh, you, 00:07:29.687 --> 00:07:31.129 you figure out eventually that they get, 00:07:31.168 --> 00:07:31.928 make more of their, 00:07:32.088 --> 00:07:33.449 most of their money off their huge 00:07:33.490 --> 00:07:34.990 partnerships that they have like, 00:07:35.011 --> 00:07:36.531 you know, gold partner, silver partner, 00:07:36.552 --> 00:07:37.451 whatever of Cisco. 00:07:38.052 --> 00:07:39.213 And through training, 00:07:39.273 --> 00:07:40.314 I don't remember the percentage, 00:07:40.334 --> 00:07:41.875 but it was huge, like thirty, forty, 00:07:42.014 --> 00:07:42.254 fifty. 00:07:42.274 --> 00:07:42.555 Yeah. 00:07:42.675 --> 00:07:43.975 Fifty was probably too much, 00:07:44.415 --> 00:07:46.076 but they make it off training and training 00:07:46.117 --> 00:07:47.899 centers and certifications, 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:48.858 which makes sense. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:50.819 Cuz one of my problems then was I 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.262 paid for the CCNP security exam. 00:07:54.062 --> 00:07:55.624 And it was like three hundred and fifty, 00:07:55.744 --> 00:07:57.444 if I remember correctly, three hundred, 00:07:57.464 --> 00:07:58.545 three hundred and fifty euro. 00:07:59.846 --> 00:08:02.709 It's a lump sum to get certified in 00:08:02.750 --> 00:08:03.529 something you don't use. 00:08:03.870 --> 00:08:05.112 Plus, the other thing that bugged me is, 00:08:05.512 --> 00:08:05.851 I don't know, 00:08:06.031 --> 00:08:07.793 let's go back to the CCNA thing where 00:08:07.814 --> 00:08:10.636 I was talking to the coworker. 00:08:10.656 --> 00:08:12.177 Back then we would learn, you know, 00:08:12.197 --> 00:08:15.060 basic routing protocols and then EIGRP. 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:16.742 No one uses EIGRP. 00:08:21.065 --> 00:08:22.747 But it's good to theoretically know that 00:08:22.786 --> 00:08:23.827 things exist, right? 00:08:25.288 --> 00:08:26.189 Yeah, not EIGRP, 00:08:26.288 --> 00:08:30.512 but it's good to know how to work. 00:08:30.531 --> 00:08:31.932 They should really focus on what they 00:08:31.952 --> 00:08:32.673 should have focused on. 00:08:32.752 --> 00:08:35.154 It's been so long now, like, you know, 00:08:35.175 --> 00:08:37.596 routing protocols or maybe even expand to 00:08:37.636 --> 00:08:40.017 things like BGP that's widely used. 00:08:40.057 --> 00:08:40.517 But no, 00:08:40.577 --> 00:08:42.480 you have to be a CCMP level or 00:08:42.540 --> 00:08:44.980 maybe even higher than for BGP to actually 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:46.182 get into the curriculum. 00:08:47.252 --> 00:08:49.213 And for anyone who's listening who is not 00:08:49.252 --> 00:08:53.296 following the rapid-fire abbreviations, 00:08:53.716 --> 00:08:55.778 we will definitely move on from this part 00:08:55.837 --> 00:08:57.198 of the podcast. 00:08:57.219 --> 00:08:59.019 What do you do exactly at Proceedium? 00:08:59.400 --> 00:09:01.121 Your LinkedIn says you're a performance 00:09:01.162 --> 00:09:01.501 engineer. 00:09:01.522 --> 00:09:03.143 What does a performance engineer do? 00:09:03.644 --> 00:09:04.524 My LinkedIn is right. 00:09:04.703 --> 00:09:05.924 So performance engineers, 00:09:06.745 --> 00:09:09.528 we make shit faster. 00:09:09.628 --> 00:09:10.388 Okay, cool. 00:09:10.408 --> 00:09:12.450 How do you engineer speed? 00:09:13.625 --> 00:09:14.466 How do you engineer speed? 00:09:14.506 --> 00:09:15.586 You start from the ground up, I guess, 00:09:16.347 --> 00:09:18.109 by using high speed technologies or using 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:20.250 like, if you want to go really technical, 00:09:20.431 --> 00:09:22.192 you'd start at the probably operating 00:09:22.211 --> 00:09:22.692 system level. 00:09:22.773 --> 00:09:24.874 If not, even if we have like any, 00:09:25.855 --> 00:09:26.254 I don't know, 00:09:26.315 --> 00:09:28.537 machine geeks or like actual hardware 00:09:28.557 --> 00:09:29.216 geeks in the house, 00:09:29.518 --> 00:09:31.078 they would probably argue it starts at the 00:09:33.495 --> 00:09:35.355 machine level, which does make sense too. 00:09:35.576 --> 00:09:37.758 NVMEs do play a role. 00:09:37.798 --> 00:09:39.940 They're significantly faster than the 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:40.500 older SSDs, 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:43.322 the solid state disks and spinning disks. 00:09:43.361 --> 00:09:44.722 They do die out much faster. 00:09:44.923 --> 00:09:45.303 But anyway, 00:09:46.705 --> 00:09:48.446 the role of a performance engineer, 00:09:48.505 --> 00:09:48.745 I guess, 00:09:48.826 --> 00:09:51.828 is relative to what they're focusing on. 00:09:51.908 --> 00:09:52.830 So at Presidium, 00:09:52.870 --> 00:09:54.350 we do managed WordPress hosting. 00:09:54.370 --> 00:09:55.731 So I focus on WordPress. 00:09:55.932 --> 00:09:57.393 So I focus on web technologies. 00:09:57.413 --> 00:09:58.333 It could be database. 00:09:59.875 --> 00:10:01.436 It could be the server itself, 00:10:01.775 --> 00:10:02.535 the web server, 00:10:03.096 --> 00:10:04.498 whether it's Nginx or Apache, 00:10:04.677 --> 00:10:06.698 optimizing the actual web server for the 00:10:06.759 --> 00:10:08.379 specific site in question, 00:10:08.660 --> 00:10:11.682 because WordPress is a beast with many 00:10:11.722 --> 00:10:12.102 faces. 00:10:13.802 --> 00:10:15.623 you can do pretty much everything on the 00:10:15.643 --> 00:10:17.404 WordPress and people do do pretty much 00:10:17.445 --> 00:10:18.445 everything on the WordPress, 00:10:18.765 --> 00:10:19.686 meaning that every time I get a 00:10:19.725 --> 00:10:20.506 performance audit, 00:10:20.547 --> 00:10:22.508 which is one of my responsibilities, it's, 00:10:22.928 --> 00:10:25.410 it's usually like everything from the 00:10:25.431 --> 00:10:27.052 beginning, uh, 00:10:27.072 --> 00:10:30.073 writing something like a SOP for audits, 00:10:30.134 --> 00:10:32.035 it would be very vague because then you 00:10:32.056 --> 00:10:33.456 have to find something and then rabbit 00:10:33.476 --> 00:10:33.657 hole. 00:10:33.956 --> 00:10:34.197 Sure. 00:10:34.216 --> 00:10:35.677 They're all like low hanging fruit. 00:10:35.738 --> 00:10:37.399 I don't know, slow queries, for example, 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:39.400 that you kind of knock out really quick, 00:10:39.841 --> 00:10:40.682 but yeah, 00:10:40.902 --> 00:10:41.381 As a whole, 00:10:41.422 --> 00:10:43.822 without changing or potentially ruining 00:10:43.842 --> 00:10:44.403 the website, 00:10:45.364 --> 00:10:46.764 performance work is kind of hard. 00:10:47.303 --> 00:10:48.445 If you asked me, 00:10:48.485 --> 00:10:51.385 what are the most common things you or 00:10:51.405 --> 00:10:52.865 no, the most common I can answer. 00:10:52.946 --> 00:10:54.307 But if you ask me what are the 00:10:54.366 --> 00:10:55.267 best practices, 00:10:55.687 --> 00:10:57.248 I would tell you there's no such thing. 00:10:57.427 --> 00:10:59.347 I mean, it really depends on your website. 00:10:59.548 --> 00:11:01.609 Sure, there are again, like, I don't know, 00:11:01.629 --> 00:11:02.850 be careful with your images, 00:11:02.889 --> 00:11:04.190 be careful with how things load, 00:11:04.509 --> 00:11:06.331 be aware of what the critical 00:11:08.212 --> 00:11:11.076 or the critical rendering path is be 00:11:11.096 --> 00:11:12.197 careful with your CSS. 00:11:12.577 --> 00:11:15.240 But if you don't actually get your hands 00:11:15.280 --> 00:11:15.600 dirty, 00:11:17.043 --> 00:11:20.187 you're not going to be able to identify 00:11:20.246 --> 00:11:20.567 anything. 00:11:22.215 --> 00:11:23.275 Yeah, 00:11:23.336 --> 00:11:26.256 I think that's a really interesting take 00:11:26.397 --> 00:11:27.477 on performance. 00:11:27.538 --> 00:11:29.798 I think that's really grounded in reality. 00:11:29.859 --> 00:11:31.279 I think we both work at hosts. 00:11:31.340 --> 00:11:31.940 And obviously, 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.282 hosts want to say that ours is the 00:11:35.322 --> 00:11:35.861 fastest. 00:11:35.922 --> 00:11:38.322 But how you define fast depends largely on 00:11:38.443 --> 00:11:40.865 what you're emphasizing. 00:11:41.504 --> 00:11:43.267 One of the things that Pantheon emphasizes 00:11:43.847 --> 00:11:45.770 is that everything should be in the 00:11:45.811 --> 00:11:47.152 caching layer, in the CDN, 00:11:47.251 --> 00:11:49.654 and we give everybody a CDN from the 00:11:49.695 --> 00:11:50.035 get-go, 00:11:50.056 --> 00:11:51.116 and that's a thing that we've done for 00:11:51.136 --> 00:11:51.857 a really long time. 00:11:52.238 --> 00:11:54.341 And so to really benefit from 00:11:55.321 --> 00:11:55.561 you know, 00:11:55.640 --> 00:11:57.883 the speed that Pantheon can give you, 00:11:57.903 --> 00:11:59.182 like, yes, obviously we have, like, 00:11:59.202 --> 00:12:01.085 containerization and we use Google Cloud 00:12:01.125 --> 00:12:02.826 and whatever and those things are, like, 00:12:03.086 --> 00:12:04.966 help things be fast, but, like, 00:12:05.427 --> 00:12:07.028 ideally you're never hitting the 00:12:07.067 --> 00:12:09.509 application server at all to make those 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:10.610 database queries or whatever. 00:12:10.629 --> 00:12:12.652 You're just hitting a cached page in a 00:12:12.672 --> 00:12:14.613 CDN somewhere that stays there for, 00:12:14.812 --> 00:12:16.073 you know, an extended period of time. 00:12:16.793 --> 00:12:17.815 And then you don't need to worry how 00:12:17.875 --> 00:12:19.655 fast the machine is because the machine 00:12:20.096 --> 00:12:21.697 can be slow and it's only hopefully going 00:12:21.716 --> 00:12:22.758 to be serving, you know, 00:12:22.837 --> 00:12:24.458 a request to a single visitor who just, 00:12:24.619 --> 00:12:24.839 you know, 00:12:25.298 --> 00:12:26.059 gets the short straw. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:28.081 Yeah. 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:28.240 Well, 00:12:28.321 --> 00:12:30.663 offloading things to see what's funny is 00:12:30.682 --> 00:12:31.803 that like in performance, 00:12:31.844 --> 00:12:33.625 lots of the solutions end up being the 00:12:33.644 --> 00:12:35.186 problem in some way, shape or form. 00:12:36.386 --> 00:12:38.107 You mentioned caching CDN, 00:12:38.168 --> 00:12:39.969 which basically is caching for, 00:12:40.269 --> 00:12:40.548 I don't know, 00:12:40.589 --> 00:12:44.692 static assets that can help you alleviate 00:12:44.711 --> 00:12:46.173 like what's going on on the actual server 00:12:46.212 --> 00:12:46.552 itself. 00:12:46.592 --> 00:12:48.335 But then other sorts of caching, 00:12:48.375 --> 00:12:50.576 maybe like full page caching on the edge, 00:12:50.615 --> 00:12:53.097 something like Presidium Edge does. 00:12:53.798 --> 00:12:54.479 It's relatively new. 00:12:54.538 --> 00:12:56.159 It's pretty cool with the static and 00:12:56.179 --> 00:12:57.341 dynamic caching on the edge. 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:00.442 Only tells me that, okay, yeah, 00:13:00.523 --> 00:13:01.643 you can really, 00:13:01.702 --> 00:13:03.104 really benefit your site if you don't have 00:13:03.124 --> 00:13:07.047 like logged in user traffic or it's not 00:13:07.086 --> 00:13:09.567 an LMS kind of deal or it's a 00:13:09.587 --> 00:13:11.769 WooCommerce shop that's not necessarily 00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:12.350 built. 00:13:12.710 --> 00:13:12.889 Yep. 00:13:12.909 --> 00:13:14.410 Those are all the things that fall down. 00:13:14.572 --> 00:13:14.711 Yep. 00:13:15.518 --> 00:13:16.217 Yeah, exactly. 00:13:16.298 --> 00:13:17.178 I mean, with WooCommerce, 00:13:17.418 --> 00:13:18.399 you can always do that. 00:13:19.340 --> 00:13:20.321 I always forget what it's called. 00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:21.280 The adaptive caching. 00:13:21.341 --> 00:13:21.942 Not adaptive. 00:13:21.981 --> 00:13:23.883 What's the word for when you cache only 00:13:23.962 --> 00:13:25.043 certain parts of the page? 00:13:25.203 --> 00:13:26.303 Like caching fragments? 00:13:26.345 --> 00:13:26.664 No. 00:13:26.825 --> 00:13:28.466 Yeah, fragment caching. 00:13:28.546 --> 00:13:28.966 Exactly. 00:13:29.466 --> 00:13:30.226 You can do that. 00:13:30.287 --> 00:13:33.948 But you have to be in sync completely 00:13:33.989 --> 00:13:35.029 with the developer. 00:13:36.269 --> 00:13:38.572 You have to know that a certain banner 00:13:38.672 --> 00:13:39.812 or a certain part of the page is 00:13:39.832 --> 00:13:40.852 going to be served from the cache. 00:13:41.052 --> 00:13:42.933 And you have to identify those parts of 00:13:42.953 --> 00:13:43.315 the page. 00:13:44.014 --> 00:13:44.174 Yeah. 00:13:44.615 --> 00:13:45.816 And you can't change those either. 00:13:46.556 --> 00:13:48.035 But like caching is one of the best 00:13:48.076 --> 00:13:49.636 and worst things ever because it's like 00:13:49.657 --> 00:13:51.697 the easiest way to hide all your 00:13:51.738 --> 00:13:52.538 performance issues. 00:13:52.998 --> 00:13:54.458 On the other side of things, 00:13:54.558 --> 00:13:55.119 it's the easy, 00:13:55.318 --> 00:13:56.879 maybe the easiest way to make your site 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.461 significantly, significantly faster, 00:14:00.961 --> 00:14:01.941 you know, closer to the user. 00:14:01.961 --> 00:14:02.360 Yeah. 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:03.402 Yeah. 00:14:03.461 --> 00:14:04.341 That's why we always do our 00:14:04.381 --> 00:14:06.143 troubleshooting without caching. 00:14:06.602 --> 00:14:07.102 Like if you want 00:14:07.485 --> 00:14:08.585 Yeah, fix the root cause, 00:14:08.605 --> 00:14:09.505 and then you don't need to worry so 00:14:09.525 --> 00:14:09.706 much. 00:14:09.846 --> 00:14:11.125 You don't need to rely so much on 00:14:11.166 --> 00:14:11.686 your caching. 00:14:12.285 --> 00:14:12.726 Exactly. 00:14:14.027 --> 00:14:14.647 What's a good term? 00:14:15.006 --> 00:14:17.967 I've used this in a WordPress meetup in 00:14:18.028 --> 00:14:18.388 Athens. 00:14:19.548 --> 00:14:22.450 Caching is a smart way to do less 00:14:22.509 --> 00:14:23.090 steps. 00:14:24.169 --> 00:14:24.890 for certain things. 00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:26.552 But I don't know, I make pizzas. 00:14:26.831 --> 00:14:28.552 And I've been doing it like religiously 00:14:28.633 --> 00:14:28.952 lately, 00:14:28.972 --> 00:14:30.214 because it's becoming an obsession. 00:14:30.533 --> 00:14:32.716 If I do less steps in my pizza 00:14:32.755 --> 00:14:33.515 making process, 00:14:33.816 --> 00:14:35.417 my dough isn't going to come out right. 00:14:37.239 --> 00:14:38.539 So I don't know, 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:40.039 it doesn't apply to every situation. 00:14:40.059 --> 00:14:41.942 The cat thing. 00:14:41.981 --> 00:14:43.482 Yep. 00:14:43.503 --> 00:14:45.783 What took you what what took you into 00:14:45.903 --> 00:14:46.865 the WordPress world? 00:14:48.123 --> 00:14:49.344 Honest to God, it was just an ad. 00:14:49.985 --> 00:14:51.586 There's no fun or cool story here. 00:14:51.706 --> 00:14:53.929 I'm not an old WordPress contributor. 00:14:55.010 --> 00:14:55.552 Sure, okay. 00:14:56.452 --> 00:14:58.774 I was taught to use WordPress as a 00:14:58.855 --> 00:15:00.157 go-to in high school, 00:15:00.857 --> 00:15:02.438 but that's just because I think 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.081 It wasn't part of the formal curriculum 00:15:05.501 --> 00:15:05.861 back then. 00:15:06.001 --> 00:15:07.543 I graduated high school in two thousand 00:15:07.582 --> 00:15:07.783 nine. 00:15:08.283 --> 00:15:10.684 But I think it was because our electronics 00:15:10.924 --> 00:15:13.506 slash computer science teacher used 00:15:13.586 --> 00:15:15.408 WordPress at some point in his life. 00:15:15.447 --> 00:15:17.168 So, Mr. Nichols, Richard Nichols, 00:15:17.288 --> 00:15:17.669 great guy. 00:15:17.970 --> 00:15:18.450 Awesome guy. 00:15:18.690 --> 00:15:18.990 Loved him. 00:15:19.331 --> 00:15:20.871 Shout out to Mr. Nichols. 00:15:20.912 --> 00:15:21.731 Hi, Mr. Nichols. 00:15:24.153 --> 00:15:25.274 I think I can call him Richard now, 00:15:25.335 --> 00:15:25.634 can't I? 00:15:26.855 --> 00:15:28.136 It's always weird with teachers. 00:15:28.157 --> 00:15:30.758 Yeah, you get over it. 00:15:33.461 --> 00:15:33.880 But yeah, 00:15:33.900 --> 00:15:35.884 I think it was because it was his 00:15:35.943 --> 00:15:36.404 go to at the time. 00:15:37.706 --> 00:15:38.969 And you were telling me earlier that 00:15:38.989 --> 00:15:41.393 you're now involved in the WordCamp Athens 00:15:41.513 --> 00:15:42.214 organization. 00:15:43.014 --> 00:15:44.076 Tell me about how that happened. 00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:45.750 Yeah, I'm a co-organizer. 00:15:45.931 --> 00:15:46.750 I was asked if I wanted to be 00:15:46.791 --> 00:15:47.231 part of it. 00:15:47.511 --> 00:15:50.354 I gave one of those really sure yes, 00:15:50.573 --> 00:15:51.894 I definitely want to be part of it. 00:15:51.914 --> 00:15:54.076 And now, towards the end, 00:15:54.275 --> 00:15:55.636 there's a lot of work. 00:15:55.657 --> 00:15:56.638 Yeah, yeah. 00:15:56.658 --> 00:16:00.379 So for someone who doesn't know what's 00:16:00.500 --> 00:16:03.042 involved in organizing a camp, 00:16:03.741 --> 00:16:05.682 or even a local meetup, 00:16:05.702 --> 00:16:06.923 but we'll talk about camps. 00:16:09.131 --> 00:16:09.692 I've done this, 00:16:09.712 --> 00:16:10.974 so I already sort of know this story, 00:16:10.994 --> 00:16:14.956 but what does that look like for you, 00:16:15.475 --> 00:16:17.376 especially maybe if this is like your 00:16:17.456 --> 00:16:19.418 first WordCamp that you've been involved 00:16:19.458 --> 00:16:19.599 in? 00:16:20.859 --> 00:16:21.759 It's the first WordCamp. 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:25.662 I was a volunteer for WordCamp Europe, 00:16:25.822 --> 00:16:27.683 yeah. 00:16:27.703 --> 00:16:32.105 Twice, once in Athens and once in Torino. 00:16:32.125 --> 00:16:33.366 That was good because it was all very 00:16:33.386 --> 00:16:34.727 structured and I just had to pick a 00:16:34.768 --> 00:16:35.388 role and do my role. 00:16:35.408 --> 00:16:36.448 You just had to show up, yeah. 00:16:36.969 --> 00:16:37.830 Yeah, pretty much. 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:39.631 And you wear your different colored shirt 00:16:39.711 --> 00:16:40.032 or whatever. 00:16:41.874 --> 00:16:43.375 Now, we did do that. 00:16:43.414 --> 00:16:44.475 We did something similar like that. 00:16:44.495 --> 00:16:45.476 We did spread out roles. 00:16:46.157 --> 00:16:48.298 But you have to fill in blanks all 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:48.940 over the place. 00:16:50.181 --> 00:16:51.562 You just have to keep helping each other. 00:16:51.962 --> 00:16:52.243 And sure, 00:16:52.263 --> 00:16:53.724 there's always going to be an imbalance. 00:16:54.043 --> 00:16:55.905 We've got twelve different organizers. 00:16:56.005 --> 00:16:57.528 All twelve are either running their own 00:16:57.567 --> 00:16:58.889 business or working somewhere else. 00:16:59.428 --> 00:17:02.412 They're all busy half the time. 00:17:02.471 --> 00:17:03.533 The other half the time, they're, 00:17:04.134 --> 00:17:05.215 I don't know, living their lives. 00:17:05.395 --> 00:17:06.155 Let's not forget that. 00:17:06.317 --> 00:17:08.839 And then they have WordCamp organizing 00:17:08.999 --> 00:17:10.360 going on too. 00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:12.102 And I'll be straight with everyone. 00:17:12.523 --> 00:17:13.024 In the beginning, 00:17:13.183 --> 00:17:14.565 I was one of the most inactive out 00:17:14.585 --> 00:17:15.046 of the twelve. 00:17:15.645 --> 00:17:17.226 And now these past two weeks, 00:17:17.706 --> 00:17:19.347 I'm the guy responding to emails, 00:17:19.528 --> 00:17:21.729 which responding to emails like for the 00:17:21.769 --> 00:17:23.989 sponsors team doesn't really mean like, 00:17:24.028 --> 00:17:25.569 you know, you write a five minute email. 00:17:25.609 --> 00:17:26.809 You have to look all over the place 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:28.651 to gather the information that you need 00:17:28.691 --> 00:17:30.771 for that particular person so you can be, 00:17:30.991 --> 00:17:32.573 again, aware of their situation. 00:17:33.393 --> 00:17:35.336 before you can formulate a reply. 00:17:36.356 --> 00:17:38.740 And if something is taking long with this 00:17:39.261 --> 00:17:42.025 confirmation process that is going on with 00:17:42.086 --> 00:17:43.166 WordCamp Central now, 00:17:44.749 --> 00:17:47.212 it's our fault that it's taking too long. 00:17:48.269 --> 00:17:48.609 It's not. 00:17:48.829 --> 00:17:51.291 We're the direct point of contact. 00:17:51.553 --> 00:17:54.454 It's like you go to a restaurant and 00:17:54.474 --> 00:17:55.035 you have a problem. 00:17:55.435 --> 00:17:57.037 I worked in service for a long time 00:17:57.676 --> 00:18:00.799 and I use service based analogies very 00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:01.079 often. 00:18:01.339 --> 00:18:02.520 But you go to a restaurant and you're 00:18:02.540 --> 00:18:04.282 not happy with something or you find like 00:18:04.303 --> 00:18:05.022 a huge hair, 00:18:05.143 --> 00:18:07.025 multiple pieces of hair or even something 00:18:07.045 --> 00:18:08.326 that's moving that shouldn't be moving on 00:18:08.346 --> 00:18:08.726 your plate. 00:18:11.448 --> 00:18:12.607 The waiter's going to take the shit. 00:18:14.209 --> 00:18:15.430 And then it kind of goes up the... 00:18:16.109 --> 00:18:18.151 Yeah, 00:18:18.191 --> 00:18:19.451 and then you have a Karen that asks 00:18:19.592 --> 00:18:20.811 to talk to the manager, 00:18:20.832 --> 00:18:21.893 and then the manager pulls out the head 00:18:21.913 --> 00:18:22.153 chef. 00:18:22.192 --> 00:18:22.353 Yeah, 00:18:23.574 --> 00:18:25.755 and it just makes everyone's day really 00:18:25.775 --> 00:18:26.015 bad. 00:18:26.154 --> 00:18:27.455 There has to be a lot of patience. 00:18:27.496 --> 00:18:28.635 There has to be a lot of, 00:18:28.655 --> 00:18:29.276 from what I'm seeing, 00:18:29.317 --> 00:18:30.696 there has to be a lot of understanding. 00:18:31.877 --> 00:18:33.979 Things do magically seem to work. 00:18:35.076 --> 00:18:36.538 Because we have to do it. 00:18:38.159 --> 00:18:39.440 We're at the point that we have to 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:39.779 do it. 00:18:39.940 --> 00:18:41.481 I think there's a certain demarcation 00:18:41.521 --> 00:18:43.563 point where if you really can't handle, 00:18:43.583 --> 00:18:45.065 which I think I was there at that 00:18:45.105 --> 00:18:45.964 demarcation point. 00:18:46.546 --> 00:18:50.269 I think I was the weak link until 00:18:50.469 --> 00:18:52.009 I had to not be the weak link. 00:18:52.391 --> 00:18:53.692 And now I'm quite tired. 00:18:55.192 --> 00:18:57.673 But there's still some pushing to go. 00:18:58.273 --> 00:19:00.414 There's a lot of last minute things to 00:19:00.454 --> 00:19:00.634 go. 00:19:01.174 --> 00:19:02.375 And we're actually getting a lot of 00:19:02.615 --> 00:19:04.976 engagement from people, mostly positive. 00:19:05.195 --> 00:19:10.917 People asking to sponsor, obviously. 00:19:11.417 --> 00:19:12.478 People asking to volunteer. 00:19:12.518 --> 00:19:14.459 Volunteering seems to be a lot easier. 00:19:15.898 --> 00:19:17.519 Finding volunteers seems to be a lot 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:19.320 easier than it is to find sponsors. 00:19:19.661 --> 00:19:19.881 Yes. 00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.442 WordCamp Central has been very good about 00:19:23.481 --> 00:19:25.462 the portion that they've given us for the 00:19:25.502 --> 00:19:25.803 event. 00:19:25.823 --> 00:19:27.003 I'm not going to lie there. 00:19:28.284 --> 00:19:29.845 Yeah. 00:19:29.865 --> 00:19:29.944 Yeah. 00:19:30.204 --> 00:19:33.146 When is WordCamp Athens? 00:19:33.166 --> 00:19:33.686 When is? 00:19:33.946 --> 00:19:34.346 Yeah, when? 00:19:34.967 --> 00:19:35.627 November eighth. 00:19:35.867 --> 00:19:36.307 November eighth. 00:19:36.367 --> 00:19:36.627 Oh, yeah. 00:19:36.667 --> 00:19:37.048 My birthday. 00:19:38.769 --> 00:19:40.309 Happy birthday, WordCamp Athens. 00:19:40.329 --> 00:19:41.190 Yeah. 00:19:42.049 --> 00:19:42.530 Unfortunately, 00:19:42.550 --> 00:19:43.631 I won't be going to Athens for my 00:19:43.671 --> 00:19:44.211 birthday this year. 00:19:46.894 --> 00:19:48.076 keyword this year. 00:19:48.176 --> 00:19:49.179 I'd like to go to Athens for my 00:19:49.199 --> 00:19:49.519 birthday. 00:19:51.598 --> 00:19:53.500 Um, but yeah, so no, I, I, 00:19:53.721 --> 00:19:55.442 I did, um, I was organized, 00:19:55.582 --> 00:19:57.324 I was involved in WordCamp Salt Lake City 00:19:57.344 --> 00:19:59.184 for, for a long, long, long, long, long, 00:19:59.224 --> 00:19:59.645 long time. 00:19:59.685 --> 00:20:01.767 I started out as a volunteer, um, 00:20:01.867 --> 00:20:04.910 and then I was, um, 00:20:04.970 --> 00:20:06.391 and then I get more involved and then 00:20:06.431 --> 00:20:08.252 eventually I was doing like just, uh, 00:20:08.353 --> 00:20:10.314 working with like speakers and stuff and 00:20:10.374 --> 00:20:10.994 sponsors. 00:20:11.434 --> 00:20:13.757 And then I was co-organizing and I 00:20:13.797 --> 00:20:16.519 co-organized for two years and then I solo 00:20:16.619 --> 00:20:18.280 organized for two years and then I was 00:20:18.500 --> 00:20:19.480 pretty done. 00:20:20.001 --> 00:20:21.602 And that also like that last year, 00:20:22.722 --> 00:20:25.463 that last year that I that I organized 00:20:25.503 --> 00:20:29.545 was also probably twenty eighteen. 00:20:29.565 --> 00:20:31.586 So like just before covid. 00:20:32.066 --> 00:20:33.266 So like, yeah, 00:20:33.326 --> 00:20:36.548 then then then covid happened. 00:20:36.847 --> 00:20:37.008 Well, 00:20:37.248 --> 00:20:38.969 a we didn't have one in twenty nineteen 00:20:39.009 --> 00:20:39.628 because nobody, 00:20:40.288 --> 00:20:43.250 nobody in the community was like able or 00:20:43.269 --> 00:20:44.871 willing to pick up the reins after I 00:20:44.931 --> 00:20:45.371 basically 00:20:45.810 --> 00:20:47.673 carried it for I mean at that point 00:20:47.813 --> 00:20:49.173 close to four years like I mean it 00:20:49.193 --> 00:20:51.875 was it was me and one other person 00:20:51.895 --> 00:20:54.678 were lead organizing and uh the two years 00:20:54.698 --> 00:20:58.181 before I was just fully organizing but or 00:20:58.201 --> 00:21:00.942 lead organizing but um but yeah nobody 00:21:00.982 --> 00:21:02.983 else was was willing to to to pick 00:21:03.023 --> 00:21:05.326 up the the the reins and then and 00:21:05.365 --> 00:21:07.867 then COVID hit and that kind of decimated 00:21:08.567 --> 00:21:10.630 our like local meetup group like 00:21:12.901 --> 00:21:14.243 We still haven't really picked up. 00:21:16.448 --> 00:21:19.974 Somebody posted in our Utah WordCamp Slack 00:21:20.817 --> 00:21:22.380 last week and it was the first time. 00:21:22.914 --> 00:21:24.776 It had gotten to the point where Slack 00:21:24.856 --> 00:21:28.920 cuts off after the first message in the 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:31.362 general channel after the last cutoff. 00:21:31.622 --> 00:21:33.603 It had been that long that it had 00:21:33.623 --> 00:21:34.163 been quiet. 00:21:36.385 --> 00:21:38.186 And it's sad. 00:21:38.686 --> 00:21:39.887 I would like to have a community, 00:21:39.928 --> 00:21:41.970 but it's a lot of work and I 00:21:41.990 --> 00:21:44.291 don't want to do the work involved in 00:21:45.772 --> 00:21:47.673 lifting the community on my own shoulders. 00:21:48.694 --> 00:21:49.976 has it like kind of fixed you guys 00:21:49.996 --> 00:21:51.718 do meetups because i know the athens oh 00:21:51.758 --> 00:21:53.659 this was before i was like really involved 00:21:53.679 --> 00:21:55.280 in wordpress aside from making a website 00:21:55.340 --> 00:21:58.383 using wordpress uh the athens community 00:21:58.403 --> 00:22:00.285 had the same issue like after covid we're 00:22:00.585 --> 00:22:02.666 probably still not back up to speed since 00:22:02.686 --> 00:22:04.828 the before christo stays yeah 00:22:05.236 --> 00:22:07.376 Yeah, no, we haven't. 00:22:07.457 --> 00:22:08.277 I mean, if there are meetups, 00:22:08.297 --> 00:22:09.576 they're not happening through our Slack. 00:22:09.876 --> 00:22:12.597 There used to be like a Salt Lake 00:22:12.637 --> 00:22:14.117 Valley meetup and there used to be like 00:22:14.258 --> 00:22:15.317 a couple of people that would meet up 00:22:15.337 --> 00:22:16.058 in like Park City. 00:22:17.239 --> 00:22:18.959 And I mean, a lot of those people, 00:22:19.038 --> 00:22:21.259 to be fair, moved out of Utah. 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:23.059 So like that also, 00:22:23.099 --> 00:22:24.381 it's not just the COVID that killed 00:22:24.421 --> 00:22:24.800 everything. 00:22:24.840 --> 00:22:25.480 It was also like, 00:22:25.641 --> 00:22:27.280 I think there's almost like a COVID exodus 00:22:27.300 --> 00:22:27.980 that happened too. 00:22:28.041 --> 00:22:28.521 Like people, 00:22:28.961 --> 00:22:30.342 like when everybody was remote working, 00:22:30.362 --> 00:22:31.582 then everybody decided that they could 00:22:31.642 --> 00:22:33.542 like move other places and live other 00:22:33.563 --> 00:22:33.923 places. 00:22:35.865 --> 00:22:39.127 And so that, I think, affected things too. 00:22:39.248 --> 00:22:40.848 But yeah, 00:22:41.210 --> 00:22:43.571 most of the people that were leading the 00:22:43.592 --> 00:22:45.653 charge for making sure that the meetups 00:22:45.673 --> 00:22:47.816 were happening and the WordCamps and stuff 00:22:47.836 --> 00:22:50.617 were happening kind of got burned out. 00:22:51.638 --> 00:22:52.298 No, that makes sense. 00:22:52.459 --> 00:22:54.759 But what surprises me, like I pulled up, 00:22:55.180 --> 00:22:56.181 that's why I'm looking around. 00:22:56.340 --> 00:22:57.421 I'm on the laptop. 00:22:57.800 --> 00:22:59.561 I pulled up the results of last year's 00:22:59.642 --> 00:23:01.122 WordCamp Larissa. 00:23:01.462 --> 00:23:02.563 I'm sure you've never heard of Larissa, 00:23:02.603 --> 00:23:03.782 right? 00:23:03.883 --> 00:23:05.763 Yeah, it's I think the third. 00:23:06.124 --> 00:23:06.443 Oh man, 00:23:06.463 --> 00:23:07.744 the Larissa people are going to get upset 00:23:07.765 --> 00:23:07.964 with me. 00:23:08.505 --> 00:23:11.967 It's either the third or I think it's 00:23:11.987 --> 00:23:13.749 the third or fourth largest city in 00:23:13.769 --> 00:23:14.048 Greece. 00:23:15.349 --> 00:23:16.851 It's up near Mount Olympus. 00:23:17.530 --> 00:23:20.452 And they had two hundred and forty two 00:23:20.613 --> 00:23:21.153 attendees. 00:23:21.874 --> 00:23:23.954 And it's got some other fun stuff from 00:23:23.994 --> 00:23:25.115 twelve different cities in Greece, 00:23:25.155 --> 00:23:26.656 fifty percent newcomers, 00:23:28.637 --> 00:23:30.519 thirteen speakers, fourteen volunteers, 00:23:30.659 --> 00:23:32.921 two hundred and forty two for a very 00:23:33.060 --> 00:23:34.001 local, I'd say, 00:23:34.902 --> 00:23:36.702 not even in the first or second largest 00:23:36.883 --> 00:23:37.104 city. 00:23:38.131 --> 00:23:40.051 And everything went really well. 00:23:40.551 --> 00:23:41.731 We were all very surprised. 00:23:41.872 --> 00:23:42.011 Well, 00:23:42.592 --> 00:23:43.833 I don't know if they were because I 00:23:43.853 --> 00:23:44.932 wasn't expecting it. 00:23:44.972 --> 00:23:46.834 But I was very surprised to see that 00:23:47.153 --> 00:23:49.714 smaller part of Greece that geographically 00:23:49.755 --> 00:23:51.115 kind of works for everyone because it's 00:23:51.134 --> 00:23:51.795 kind of in the middle. 00:23:53.036 --> 00:23:55.635 If you don't count the Philippines. 00:23:56.797 --> 00:23:58.096 It went very well, 00:23:58.797 --> 00:23:59.798 which was very inspirational, 00:23:59.837 --> 00:24:01.337 especially for WordCamp Athens this year. 00:24:02.637 --> 00:24:06.420 Yeah, location matters a lot. 00:24:06.619 --> 00:24:07.259 It's like... 00:24:08.212 --> 00:24:09.693 And it's interesting, 00:24:11.775 --> 00:24:15.176 the WordPress events versus and how they 00:24:15.217 --> 00:24:18.919 have or have not come back after COVID 00:24:18.959 --> 00:24:21.619 versus Drupal events I'm learning. 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:24.942 Because I think that for the most part, 00:24:25.701 --> 00:24:25.862 Like, 00:24:25.882 --> 00:24:27.884 Drupal events are still smaller than 00:24:27.904 --> 00:24:30.048 WordPress events or than they used to be 00:24:30.068 --> 00:24:30.710 before COVID. 00:24:31.250 --> 00:24:33.093 But they are happening. 00:24:33.153 --> 00:24:34.234 And, like, the local, like, 00:24:34.535 --> 00:24:36.137 sort of regional or city-based sort of 00:24:36.357 --> 00:24:37.680 meetup groups are, like, 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.263 making Drupal camps. 00:24:40.825 --> 00:24:40.845 I... 00:24:42.238 --> 00:24:43.999 I just came back from Bay Area Drupal 00:24:44.038 --> 00:24:46.980 camp, bad camp last month. 00:24:47.099 --> 00:24:48.559 And it was a pretty nice, I mean, 00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:49.601 it was a cool turnout. 00:24:49.661 --> 00:24:52.082 It felt like a small word camp and 00:24:52.102 --> 00:24:52.721 that was cool. 00:24:54.782 --> 00:24:56.663 And there's been a couple others that I've 00:24:56.723 --> 00:24:56.923 seen 00:24:58.124 --> 00:24:59.105 For the most part, 00:24:59.226 --> 00:25:01.588 there are very few of those things 00:25:01.628 --> 00:25:04.692 happening in the WordPress space in the 00:25:04.732 --> 00:25:07.757 States outside of the flagships, 00:25:08.577 --> 00:25:10.380 which I find interesting and 00:25:10.421 --> 00:25:11.020 disheartening. 00:25:11.602 --> 00:25:13.263 And there's... 00:25:13.964 --> 00:25:16.246 Possibly drama involved in that. 00:25:17.027 --> 00:25:19.748 I know at least in a couple cases, 00:25:19.867 --> 00:25:23.509 some folks have chosen to make their own 00:25:23.549 --> 00:25:26.511 event as opposed to doing a WordPress 00:25:26.531 --> 00:25:29.693 community support WordPress WordCamp 00:25:29.993 --> 00:25:30.354 event. 00:25:31.515 --> 00:25:33.135 Like, you know, 00:25:33.256 --> 00:25:36.277 instead of like the organizers of WordCamp 00:25:36.718 --> 00:25:37.438 Minneapolis St. 00:25:37.458 --> 00:25:39.618 Paul decided to make some conf instead, 00:25:39.959 --> 00:25:41.119 which I'll be speaking on in a couple 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:41.359 months. 00:25:43.586 --> 00:25:44.827 Which, I mean, I think that's great, 00:25:44.907 --> 00:25:46.789 but also, like, there's stuff there. 00:25:46.809 --> 00:25:47.550 There's, I think, 00:25:47.891 --> 00:25:49.451 Brad Williams announced a while ago 00:25:50.553 --> 00:25:52.515 Wordadelphia to do, like, 00:25:52.535 --> 00:25:55.196 a small WordPress event in Philly. 00:25:56.758 --> 00:25:57.919 Wordadelphia, yeah. 00:25:57.999 --> 00:26:00.060 Because Philadelphia, Wordadelphia, 00:26:00.221 --> 00:26:00.540 I don't know. 00:26:00.621 --> 00:26:01.142 It's a weird name. 00:26:03.261 --> 00:26:05.962 And I think there's another one that was 00:26:06.042 --> 00:26:12.625 done by the WordCamp Buffalo organizers 00:26:12.664 --> 00:26:14.924 that's I think it's color code or 00:26:14.964 --> 00:26:15.964 something to that effect, 00:26:16.925 --> 00:26:18.226 which is actually going to be like in 00:26:18.286 --> 00:26:19.086 different places, 00:26:19.125 --> 00:26:21.807 but it started in Buffalo. 00:26:22.967 --> 00:26:24.626 And so like there's these other things and 00:26:24.646 --> 00:26:25.688 obviously pressconf 00:26:27.067 --> 00:26:29.147 But that's not really like, I mean, 00:26:29.167 --> 00:26:32.509 that was descended from Pressnomics. 00:26:32.769 --> 00:26:33.669 So it's sort of, but like, 00:26:33.709 --> 00:26:35.230 it's nice to see that there are other 00:26:35.269 --> 00:26:38.049 things happening outside of just the 00:26:38.089 --> 00:26:39.730 WordCamp ecosystem. 00:26:39.750 --> 00:26:39.990 Plus, 00:26:40.090 --> 00:26:43.090 I like things like PressConf specifically 00:26:43.111 --> 00:26:43.692 that you mentioned. 00:26:43.872 --> 00:26:44.892 Or, okay, 00:26:44.932 --> 00:26:46.132 so there's the WordPress community and 00:26:46.152 --> 00:26:47.571 there's WordPress community events where 00:26:47.632 --> 00:26:48.752 we're supposed to be, 00:26:48.792 --> 00:26:49.633 from my understanding, 00:26:49.972 --> 00:26:51.732 and maybe the point of view of a 00:26:51.792 --> 00:26:53.834 relative newcomer is like, you know, 00:26:55.354 --> 00:26:56.734 For my understanding, 00:26:56.775 --> 00:26:57.835 it's supposed to be a little bit more 00:26:57.875 --> 00:26:59.816 community-based than it is business-based, 00:27:00.236 --> 00:27:03.597 kind of like WordPress or Slack, right? 00:27:03.817 --> 00:27:05.118 It's definitely community-based. 00:27:05.990 --> 00:27:08.330 But then you have people turning these 00:27:08.371 --> 00:27:11.011 kinds of events that are geared towards 00:27:11.031 --> 00:27:16.294 community into more commercial events. 00:27:16.614 --> 00:27:17.354 Whereas PressConf, 00:27:17.394 --> 00:27:18.255 they're there to make money. 00:27:18.375 --> 00:27:19.494 You're there to make connections. 00:27:19.515 --> 00:27:20.316 You're there to make money. 00:27:20.395 --> 00:27:21.655 And it's clear, right? 00:27:21.715 --> 00:27:23.477 So kind of like post status and the 00:27:23.517 --> 00:27:24.156 WordPress org. 00:27:24.497 --> 00:27:25.438 Yeah. 00:27:25.478 --> 00:27:25.718 Yeah. 00:27:26.978 --> 00:27:29.179 I really like when it's clear, 00:27:29.358 --> 00:27:30.019 when it's clear cut, 00:27:30.038 --> 00:27:31.378 like you know you're there to make 00:27:31.419 --> 00:27:32.420 connections, to make money, 00:27:32.460 --> 00:27:34.440 to progress your business. 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:35.560 Whereas with WordCamps, 00:27:35.601 --> 00:27:36.520 I'm kind of confused. 00:27:36.760 --> 00:27:37.780 I think it's a bit of a mix 00:27:37.921 --> 00:27:39.662 and I don't know where the balance should 00:27:39.701 --> 00:27:41.761 be, would be, 00:27:42.241 --> 00:27:43.903 or people even want the balance to be. 00:27:44.343 --> 00:27:45.443 That's a really fair point. 00:27:45.523 --> 00:27:49.246 I know when I was wrangling speakers for 00:27:49.526 --> 00:27:50.707 WordCamp Salt Lake City, 00:27:51.386 --> 00:27:53.387 the Salt Lake City meetups often had a 00:27:53.468 --> 00:27:57.849 very strong small business sort of focus. 00:27:58.009 --> 00:27:59.671 And part of that or a large part 00:27:59.691 --> 00:28:00.372 of that is 00:28:01.571 --> 00:28:02.853 Salt Lake City in particular, 00:28:03.073 --> 00:28:04.473 Utah broadly, 00:28:05.074 --> 00:28:07.095 and even more broad than that, 00:28:07.174 --> 00:28:09.356 I would say like the dominant culture in 00:28:09.396 --> 00:28:12.838 the state is very big on sort of 00:28:12.878 --> 00:28:14.539 small business and kind of do it yourself 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:15.099 kind of things. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:19.582 So obviously that filters down into a lot 00:28:19.602 --> 00:28:20.823 of people that go to the meetups, 00:28:20.843 --> 00:28:21.903 a lot of people that are interested in 00:28:21.943 --> 00:28:22.364 the camps. 00:28:22.903 --> 00:28:24.806 are small business oriented or small 00:28:24.846 --> 00:28:26.527 business owners or whatever. 00:28:26.547 --> 00:28:30.930 And so obviously as an organizer trying to 00:28:30.990 --> 00:28:32.090 come up with a schedule, 00:28:32.151 --> 00:28:33.652 you want to cater to that, 00:28:34.833 --> 00:28:37.275 but also balance with like, 00:28:37.914 --> 00:28:39.855 also we should have some dev tracks too. 00:28:40.237 --> 00:28:40.457 Also, 00:28:40.477 --> 00:28:41.877 we should have some other things that 00:28:41.978 --> 00:28:43.239 aren't businessy that are like, 00:28:43.638 --> 00:28:45.500 And how to like balance that so that 00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:46.843 you have like, I mean, 00:28:46.903 --> 00:28:49.326 it's almost like an art to really get 00:28:49.506 --> 00:28:51.008 the right sketch. 00:28:51.127 --> 00:28:52.930 It's like making the perfect playlist. 00:28:53.210 --> 00:28:56.693 I'm really big on making play. 00:28:56.713 --> 00:28:57.894 Like I used to be a DJ. 00:28:58.635 --> 00:29:00.357 If you've ever seen the movie High 00:29:00.377 --> 00:29:02.059 Fidelity, he like, you know, 00:29:02.099 --> 00:29:03.060 there's this like. 00:29:03.101 --> 00:29:03.821 I haven't. 00:29:04.001 --> 00:29:06.462 all through the movie uh john cusack's 00:29:06.563 --> 00:29:09.724 character like talks about like um how he 00:29:09.744 --> 00:29:11.965 like like making the perfect playlist is 00:29:12.006 --> 00:29:14.127 like a common sort of thread and like 00:29:14.167 --> 00:29:16.249 he would sit down and like just like 00:29:16.429 --> 00:29:18.589 spend hours listening to records and like 00:29:18.690 --> 00:29:20.830 organizing things in the right way um to 00:29:20.851 --> 00:29:23.211 get the perfect flow it has to start 00:29:23.272 --> 00:29:25.314 this way it has to like you have 00:29:25.334 --> 00:29:26.334 to come down a little bit then you 00:29:26.374 --> 00:29:27.535 go up a little bit you know like 00:29:27.954 --> 00:29:29.415 like just like making, 00:29:29.915 --> 00:29:31.317 making it into an experience, 00:29:31.336 --> 00:29:33.638 which I think, uh, you know, obviously, 00:29:33.679 --> 00:29:36.480 uh, that is a, maybe a relic of, 00:29:36.740 --> 00:29:40.943 of, of records and cassettes and CDs and, 00:29:41.144 --> 00:29:42.685 and not streaming services. 00:29:42.705 --> 00:29:43.465 Um, 00:29:43.486 --> 00:29:45.247 but like the same thing is true for 00:29:45.346 --> 00:29:49.269 like crafting a, a, a schedule for, 00:29:49.450 --> 00:29:50.750 for an event like that, 00:29:50.790 --> 00:29:51.672 like where you have to like, 00:29:52.326 --> 00:29:55.249 understand who your audience is uh and 00:29:55.368 --> 00:29:57.932 figure out like and also like timing makes 00:29:57.971 --> 00:29:59.873 a difference end of the day talks 00:29:59.932 --> 00:30:01.795 everybody's tired everybody's sleepy 00:30:01.835 --> 00:30:03.836 especially at like post lunch like you 00:30:03.876 --> 00:30:04.978 need to like have something that's going 00:30:04.998 --> 00:30:06.259 to bring a lot of energy otherwise 00:30:06.299 --> 00:30:07.861 everybody's going to fall asleep like you 00:30:07.881 --> 00:30:09.323 know there's all sorts of stuff like that 00:30:10.221 --> 00:30:11.883 Yeah, there's definitely like risk too. 00:30:12.124 --> 00:30:14.085 So like we got a bunch of newcomers 00:30:14.125 --> 00:30:16.326 for speakers and we wanted newcomers for 00:30:16.346 --> 00:30:17.567 speakers under the idea. 00:30:17.788 --> 00:30:19.229 But then you have the thought in the 00:30:19.249 --> 00:30:19.828 back of your head, 00:30:20.329 --> 00:30:23.932 if that X well-known person isn't giving a 00:30:23.992 --> 00:30:26.954 talk, are people going to, I don't know, 00:30:26.974 --> 00:30:28.115 actually sit in the auditorium? 00:30:28.502 --> 00:30:29.143 Mm-hmm. 00:30:29.222 --> 00:30:30.463 Yeah. 00:30:30.523 --> 00:30:32.704 Yeah, you have to, like, you can maybe, 00:30:32.785 --> 00:30:33.765 like, if you, like, 00:30:34.484 --> 00:30:36.865 sandwich them with other talks that people 00:30:36.945 --> 00:30:38.547 do know or something, like, you can, like, 00:30:38.586 --> 00:30:39.788 kind of find ways to cheat. 00:30:40.768 --> 00:30:41.208 But, yeah. 00:30:41.567 --> 00:30:43.689 Or, like, yeah, 00:30:43.828 --> 00:30:45.150 it's a really interesting... Like, 00:30:45.170 --> 00:30:46.250 that was actually one of the things that 00:30:46.269 --> 00:30:48.530 I thought was really fun about, like, 00:30:49.070 --> 00:30:50.652 the speaker stuff is always something I 00:30:50.692 --> 00:30:52.833 really enjoyed working with, like, 00:30:53.012 --> 00:30:54.913 both from, like... 00:30:55.634 --> 00:30:57.114 because this is also like how you're 00:30:57.193 --> 00:31:00.134 presenting in some ways your local 00:31:00.154 --> 00:31:03.296 community right and like um it's not just 00:31:03.756 --> 00:31:07.057 we're not just here independent of of time 00:31:07.096 --> 00:31:09.417 and place and just talking about wordpress 00:31:09.438 --> 00:31:12.919 we're also putting on a show for for 00:31:12.959 --> 00:31:15.839 buy-in for the people of our city in 00:31:15.900 --> 00:31:19.201 our community yeah and so you you want 00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:20.621 that to to you know 00:31:21.521 --> 00:31:22.462 look good. 00:31:22.542 --> 00:31:24.224 You want your community to be cool. 00:31:24.464 --> 00:31:25.946 People will walk away and be like, 00:31:26.007 --> 00:31:26.928 you want people to come from out of 00:31:26.989 --> 00:31:29.371 state even or out of the city. 00:31:29.471 --> 00:31:30.353 It gets difficult. 00:31:30.452 --> 00:31:30.813 I don't know. 00:31:30.893 --> 00:31:32.776 I don't even know if I should be 00:31:32.816 --> 00:31:33.436 talking about this, 00:31:33.457 --> 00:31:34.417 but I'm going to do it anyway. 00:31:34.438 --> 00:31:36.039 Sorry, WordPress, if you don't like it. 00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:37.641 One of the issues that we face is 00:31:37.820 --> 00:31:39.821 not having enough submissions from 00:31:41.782 --> 00:31:42.222 females. 00:31:43.784 --> 00:31:44.545 So at the end of the day, 00:31:44.585 --> 00:31:46.165 the speaker's list is going to be, 00:31:46.625 --> 00:31:46.826 you know, 00:31:46.846 --> 00:31:48.406 there's not going to be the diversity that 00:31:48.446 --> 00:31:49.027 we'd want. 00:31:49.448 --> 00:31:50.107 Yeah. 00:31:50.428 --> 00:31:51.969 But it's not necessarily our fault. 00:31:51.989 --> 00:31:54.170 So we want to what we talked about 00:31:54.269 --> 00:31:56.731 was that we want to take some time 00:31:56.811 --> 00:31:58.853 during the event to encourage more female 00:31:58.893 --> 00:32:00.493 people to, you know, 00:32:00.534 --> 00:32:01.894 submit submissions for talks. 00:32:03.089 --> 00:32:05.270 I found, I had that same problem. 00:32:06.132 --> 00:32:08.252 And the solution to that problem is 00:32:08.452 --> 00:32:10.114 asking. 00:32:10.574 --> 00:32:10.674 Oh, 00:32:10.714 --> 00:32:12.415 like going straight to people and being 00:32:12.455 --> 00:32:12.756 like... Yes, 00:32:12.796 --> 00:32:14.557 going to people and just inviting them, 00:32:14.596 --> 00:32:17.739 say, hey, I'm the organizer for WordCamp, 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:18.539 blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:20.760 Do you want to come and speak? 00:32:21.402 --> 00:32:23.182 And oftentimes... 00:32:23.911 --> 00:32:24.872 The answer is yes. 00:32:25.211 --> 00:32:26.211 And that's cool. 00:32:26.251 --> 00:32:27.913 And then you can kind of curate that 00:32:28.252 --> 00:32:30.193 speaker list because for a long time, 00:32:31.654 --> 00:32:33.915 our WordCamp was in a hundred percent 00:32:33.955 --> 00:32:36.416 reliant on the submissions that we got. 00:32:36.817 --> 00:32:37.157 And yeah, 00:32:37.178 --> 00:32:38.637 there's only so much that you can sort 00:32:38.678 --> 00:32:42.920 of coerce the submissions and, you know, 00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:43.621 because 00:32:46.049 --> 00:32:49.050 the dominant culture is largely white 00:32:49.070 --> 00:32:51.531 males then the speakers that you end up 00:32:51.612 --> 00:32:54.292 getting are predominantly white males i 00:32:54.333 --> 00:32:57.554 presented actually at a um at uh open 00:32:57.594 --> 00:33:01.474 west back in like i don't know twenty 00:33:01.494 --> 00:33:02.736 eighteen twenty nineteen or something 00:33:02.796 --> 00:33:03.576 before covet again 00:33:04.516 --> 00:33:07.678 And I was presenting on being an ally. 00:33:09.298 --> 00:33:11.838 And the way that their speaker submission 00:33:12.038 --> 00:33:12.339 worked, 00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:13.599 and I think it's actually similar to the 00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:16.221 way WordCamp Europe does it now, maybe. 00:33:16.340 --> 00:33:17.882 Maybe there's just other things that they 00:33:17.922 --> 00:33:20.063 add to that that I don't know about 00:33:20.123 --> 00:33:20.742 behind the scenes. 00:33:20.782 --> 00:33:23.564 But the way that Open West did submissions 00:33:23.723 --> 00:33:25.164 is it was sort of like you entered 00:33:25.204 --> 00:33:28.425 into a system and then names and stuff 00:33:28.506 --> 00:33:30.346 are removed from all of the submissions so 00:33:30.366 --> 00:33:31.968 that it's judged purely on 00:33:32.627 --> 00:33:34.851 the content of the submission, 00:33:35.730 --> 00:33:37.192 so you don't know who submitted it. 00:33:38.034 --> 00:33:41.356 And the idea is that that's more 00:33:41.438 --> 00:33:42.337 egalitarian, right? 00:33:42.378 --> 00:33:44.941 Because you're just basing your acceptance 00:33:45.121 --> 00:33:47.743 or rejection based on the subject matter. 00:33:48.305 --> 00:33:51.127 The problem with that that I observed was 00:33:51.188 --> 00:33:51.508 that 00:33:52.628 --> 00:33:55.329 Eighty to ninety percent of the speakers 00:33:55.349 --> 00:33:57.230 that were selected for that conference 00:33:57.250 --> 00:34:00.093 were male and most of them were white 00:34:00.133 --> 00:34:00.393 male. 00:34:01.432 --> 00:34:03.213 And here I am giving a talk on 00:34:03.354 --> 00:34:03.973 allyship. 00:34:04.714 --> 00:34:05.934 And like, I'm like, 00:34:06.575 --> 00:34:08.276 I told I told the organizer, like, look, 00:34:08.435 --> 00:34:08.675 like, 00:34:09.076 --> 00:34:10.136 I'm giving this talk and I'm going to 00:34:10.156 --> 00:34:11.557 blast you because. 00:34:12.397 --> 00:34:14.519 like all of the keynotes were men except 00:34:14.539 --> 00:34:17.321 for one um like most of the talks 00:34:17.342 --> 00:34:18.803 were by men and i was like you 00:34:18.823 --> 00:34:20.864 know i i think that there are better 00:34:20.884 --> 00:34:22.204 ways of doing this and i i see 00:34:22.224 --> 00:34:24.747 what you're doing but also i have a 00:34:24.807 --> 00:34:26.188 counterpoint and i'm going to talk about 00:34:26.228 --> 00:34:28.269 that is that okay and it was like 00:34:28.289 --> 00:34:31.731 he said yes um and uh but yeah 00:34:31.751 --> 00:34:33.273 i mean like i think i think if 00:34:33.293 --> 00:34:34.795 you just rely on 00:34:35.434 --> 00:34:37.155 on the submissions and you don't do sort 00:34:37.195 --> 00:34:38.076 of your own outreach, 00:34:38.115 --> 00:34:39.036 then you're going to get, 00:34:39.637 --> 00:34:40.896 you're going to just get it naturally 00:34:40.916 --> 00:34:42.617 because that's kind of how the tech 00:34:42.797 --> 00:34:43.978 industry just works. 00:34:43.998 --> 00:34:46.318 And it's upsetting too, 00:34:46.378 --> 00:34:48.199 like all the other teams volunteer wise, 00:34:49.239 --> 00:34:50.099 organizing wise, 00:34:50.501 --> 00:34:52.400 where we have a great mix and, 00:34:52.581 --> 00:34:53.722 you know, without great mix, 00:34:53.822 --> 00:34:54.702 everyone knows this already, 00:34:54.742 --> 00:34:55.521 but without diversity, 00:34:55.541 --> 00:34:56.322 you don't have innovation. 00:34:56.362 --> 00:34:58.123 Without innovation, you don't do anything. 00:34:58.262 --> 00:34:58.523 I mean, 00:34:58.724 --> 00:35:01.385 it's been proven over and over and over. 00:35:01.684 --> 00:35:02.144 Yeah. 00:35:02.204 --> 00:35:02.364 Yeah. 00:35:02.983 --> 00:35:04.443 Yeah, I feel strongly about like, 00:35:04.545 --> 00:35:04.885 you know, 00:35:05.726 --> 00:35:07.947 like I don't I don't I don't even 00:35:08.027 --> 00:35:10.369 think it's like it's not about like it's 00:35:10.429 --> 00:35:12.132 not equal or giving some people like 00:35:12.172 --> 00:35:13.733 special, special access. 00:35:13.773 --> 00:35:14.514 It's like, no, 00:35:14.574 --> 00:35:16.436 we need to just make the table bigger. 00:35:16.496 --> 00:35:17.697 And if that means we need to invite 00:35:17.737 --> 00:35:18.657 people to the table, 00:35:19.077 --> 00:35:21.059 like the white guys are going to come 00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:22.661 to the table like they are. 00:35:22.802 --> 00:35:25.543 They're just gonna because they're like 00:35:25.644 --> 00:35:27.666 that's that's their their 00:35:28.347 --> 00:35:30.248 perspective that's their their privilege 00:35:30.268 --> 00:35:31.570 that they've lived with their whole lives 00:35:31.590 --> 00:35:32.550 they just know that they can go out 00:35:32.570 --> 00:35:35.653 and do things and it's harder when there's 00:35:35.755 --> 00:35:37.817 not an actual invitation like no you can 00:35:37.936 --> 00:35:39.297 you can come to the table too and 00:35:39.478 --> 00:35:41.559 we like you are welcome at this table 00:35:41.579 --> 00:35:42.942 like we don't want it to just be 00:35:43.782 --> 00:35:45.945 a bunch of white dudes at a conference 00:35:46.025 --> 00:35:48.206 at a event like anything yeah 00:35:49.286 --> 00:35:50.447 I know. 00:35:50.507 --> 00:35:50.668 I know. 00:35:50.708 --> 00:35:52.170 I don't want to fall under any like 00:35:52.190 --> 00:35:52.969 stereotype stuff. 00:35:53.010 --> 00:35:53.951 But no, I totally agree. 00:35:53.971 --> 00:35:56.193 And I mean, 00:35:56.253 --> 00:35:58.175 that's how inclusivity like starts, right? 00:35:58.434 --> 00:36:00.516 Inclusivity doesn't mean like doors open, 00:36:00.536 --> 00:36:01.777 you can enter because no one's gonna come 00:36:01.838 --> 00:36:01.918 in. 00:36:01.938 --> 00:36:03.059 Yeah, right. 00:36:03.079 --> 00:36:04.440 It's more of a we have to go 00:36:04.500 --> 00:36:05.199 to them. 00:36:05.219 --> 00:36:05.721 That makes sense. 00:36:06.516 --> 00:36:07.115 Yeah. 00:36:07.396 --> 00:36:07.577 Yeah, 00:36:08.697 --> 00:36:11.679 I think one of my first posts that 00:36:11.798 --> 00:36:12.619 I, when I moved, 00:36:13.159 --> 00:36:14.820 when I went to Blue Sky, 00:36:14.900 --> 00:36:16.141 I have it as a pinned post. 00:36:17.001 --> 00:36:18.003 One of the first things that I, 00:36:18.302 --> 00:36:20.643 I don't know if you bloot or bleat, 00:36:20.804 --> 00:36:22.385 or I don't know what the right word 00:36:22.425 --> 00:36:23.666 for posting on Blue Sky is. 00:36:26.208 --> 00:36:26.608 Bleeding. 00:36:26.648 --> 00:36:26.887 Bleeding. 00:36:26.907 --> 00:36:27.188 Yeah, sure. 00:36:27.228 --> 00:36:27.949 Definitely bleeding. 00:36:30.389 --> 00:36:31.050 Um, um, 00:36:31.110 --> 00:36:32.190 one of the first things that I, 00:36:32.289 --> 00:36:35.449 that I posted was, um, was about like, 00:36:35.489 --> 00:36:37.030 you know, things that were happening and, 00:36:37.210 --> 00:36:40.150 and, and the discourse in, uh, 00:36:40.170 --> 00:36:40.831 the United States. 00:36:40.851 --> 00:36:43.072 And I was just saying like, you know, 00:36:43.152 --> 00:36:46.952 inclusivity is not about people taking 00:36:46.992 --> 00:36:48.092 your piece of the pie. 00:36:48.552 --> 00:36:50.293 It's about saying, Hey everyone, 00:36:50.434 --> 00:36:51.454 there's pie here. 00:36:51.534 --> 00:36:52.594 Do you want some? 00:36:52.673 --> 00:36:54.775 Yeah. 00:36:54.815 --> 00:36:55.735 Share the pie. 00:36:55.775 --> 00:36:56.474 Yeah, exactly. 00:36:58.342 --> 00:37:00.003 I share and actually invite people into 00:37:00.063 --> 00:37:00.985 eating the pie with you. 00:37:01.144 --> 00:37:02.465 It's not just about saying, you know, 00:37:02.485 --> 00:37:03.646 putting a sign up there that says, 00:37:03.666 --> 00:37:05.048 and if you need more pie, 00:37:05.068 --> 00:37:06.309 you can make more pie. 00:37:06.329 --> 00:37:07.411 It's not like there's people that are 00:37:07.431 --> 00:37:08.192 going to take your pie. 00:37:08.211 --> 00:37:08.431 Yeah, yeah. 00:37:11.114 --> 00:37:11.394 I don't know. 00:37:11.494 --> 00:37:11.855 Fear. 00:37:11.934 --> 00:37:13.257 Fear is a big topic. 00:37:13.396 --> 00:37:14.557 I think we could talk about fear for 00:37:14.577 --> 00:37:15.639 like ten different podcasts, 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:17.981 but fear really gets everyone back on 00:37:18.101 --> 00:37:19.543 everything at the end of the day. 00:37:19.563 --> 00:37:20.043 Yeah. 00:37:20.182 --> 00:37:20.943 Yeah. 00:37:20.983 --> 00:37:21.704 Fear and comfort. 00:37:21.905 --> 00:37:22.846 I guess they go hand in hand. 00:37:23.447 --> 00:37:24.547 Yeah. 00:37:24.568 --> 00:37:24.708 Well, 00:37:24.728 --> 00:37:27.170 I did save some time because I definitely 00:37:27.210 --> 00:37:28.411 want to talk about cats. 00:37:28.893 --> 00:37:31.275 Yes. 00:37:31.516 --> 00:37:31.576 Yes. 00:37:31.596 --> 00:37:32.157 So you go first. 00:37:32.456 --> 00:37:33.217 Tell me about your cats. 00:37:34.244 --> 00:37:35.324 Um, well, I, I wanted to, 00:37:35.445 --> 00:37:36.867 I wanted to, cause I, I still, 00:37:37.146 --> 00:37:39.228 I still like, uh, so we talked, uh, 00:37:39.309 --> 00:37:41.652 previously about, um, 00:37:41.711 --> 00:37:43.713 like you take your cat camping, uh, 00:37:43.813 --> 00:37:45.496 and I think that's awesome. 00:37:45.835 --> 00:37:47.358 I would like a camping cat. 00:37:47.978 --> 00:37:48.117 Um, 00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:49.340 I also think that you're a little bit 00:37:49.380 --> 00:37:51.322 spoiled because you can just like take, 00:37:51.561 --> 00:37:51.702 uh, 00:37:51.722 --> 00:37:53.403 you can just go to a beach in 00:37:53.463 --> 00:37:54.744 Greece on an Island and, 00:37:54.864 --> 00:37:57.148 and then kind of be remote. 00:37:58.369 --> 00:38:03.233 But talk about the story of how you 00:38:03.813 --> 00:38:07.456 first took your cat on a camping trip. 00:38:07.992 --> 00:38:09.813 and how that's worked since. 00:38:11.693 --> 00:38:15.114 I see videos every once in a while 00:38:15.134 --> 00:38:16.335 of people who have taken their cats 00:38:16.414 --> 00:38:18.916 camping or taken their cats to the beach 00:38:18.996 --> 00:38:19.235 even, 00:38:20.155 --> 00:38:24.518 but most people assume that cats and 00:38:24.557 --> 00:38:26.677 beaches and camping are not a thing that 00:38:26.697 --> 00:38:26.998 you do. 00:38:27.099 --> 00:38:28.639 Dogs and camping seem fine, 00:38:28.679 --> 00:38:30.860 but cats and camping always seems weird. 00:38:32.121 --> 00:38:33.784 don't know okay i'll give you the story 00:38:33.824 --> 00:38:35.644 before that david abella one of our most 00:38:35.704 --> 00:38:38.108 recent partners uh him and his wife were 00:38:38.367 --> 00:38:41.010 totally shocked when they went out to the 00:38:41.050 --> 00:38:45.813 rockies and they saw more cats than dogs 00:38:45.835 --> 00:38:47.235 sure they were leashed which i don't know 00:38:47.295 --> 00:38:48.556 how i feel about like a leashed cat 00:38:48.577 --> 00:38:50.177 but my cat was like a crazy cat 00:38:50.217 --> 00:38:51.699 that was i don't know some family that 00:38:51.719 --> 00:38:53.742 couldn't handle him uh they ended up 00:38:53.782 --> 00:38:55.202 finding some vet that was going to 00:38:55.282 --> 00:38:56.664 euthanize him for being uh 00:38:57.844 --> 00:38:58.684 too aggressive. 00:38:58.724 --> 00:38:59.925 The cat wasn't aggressive. 00:38:59.965 --> 00:39:01.027 And I picked up on it through the 00:39:01.106 --> 00:39:03.570 animal welfare volunteering that I do. 00:39:03.929 --> 00:39:05.132 And I said, no, I'm taking this cat. 00:39:05.152 --> 00:39:07.554 So I basically stole the cat. 00:39:07.693 --> 00:39:09.175 Yeah, I basically stole the cat. 00:39:10.097 --> 00:39:11.757 And there were some legal implications for 00:39:11.818 --> 00:39:13.960 the veterinary in question, 00:39:14.041 --> 00:39:15.362 which that's how it should have been. 00:39:15.581 --> 00:39:16.003 But anyway, 00:39:17.083 --> 00:39:18.664 it all came down to necessity at the 00:39:18.704 --> 00:39:19.206 end of the day. 00:39:19.266 --> 00:39:20.327 I couldn't find someone to take care of 00:39:20.347 --> 00:39:20.646 my cat. 00:39:21.407 --> 00:39:24.670 uh he had gotten much better like behavior 00:39:24.731 --> 00:39:28.634 wise the first year or two actually were 00:39:28.693 --> 00:39:32.297 very difficult but uh we ended up going 00:39:32.336 --> 00:39:34.938 to camping and i figured it'd be okay 00:39:35.458 --> 00:39:37.221 i don't know there's always risk 00:39:38.590 --> 00:39:39.672 Because he's not a leash cat. 00:39:39.972 --> 00:39:40.932 You can't put a leash on him. 00:39:41.012 --> 00:39:42.755 I tried during like the first days or 00:39:42.775 --> 00:39:45.077 the first weeks maybe of COVID when they 00:39:45.097 --> 00:39:46.338 said we can go out if we're taking 00:39:46.378 --> 00:39:47.880 our pet out. 00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:49.503 That didn't go well for the leash or 00:39:49.543 --> 00:39:50.023 for the cat. 00:39:53.106 --> 00:39:54.409 But I just got to the island. 00:39:54.509 --> 00:39:55.831 I let the cat out and I was 00:39:55.871 --> 00:39:56.110 dumb. 00:39:57.331 --> 00:39:58.534 It took a long time to get there. 00:39:58.914 --> 00:40:00.356 And I felt bad for the cat. 00:40:00.396 --> 00:40:01.538 So I was like, okay, cool. 00:40:02.038 --> 00:40:03.400 Now that we took this tiny little boat 00:40:03.420 --> 00:40:05.302 to get to Kato Kufonisi, 00:40:05.342 --> 00:40:06.884 it's down Kufonisi. 00:40:07.425 --> 00:40:08.485 I thought it'd be a good idea to 00:40:08.505 --> 00:40:10.708 take him out as soon as, you know, 00:40:10.809 --> 00:40:11.110 I could. 00:40:12.090 --> 00:40:13.833 Rather than finding a spot to, you know, 00:40:13.853 --> 00:40:14.293 make cap. 00:40:15.003 --> 00:40:16.945 and then be like, here, this is home. 00:40:17.965 --> 00:40:18.806 Dumbest idea ever. 00:40:18.827 --> 00:40:19.646 The cat freaked out. 00:40:19.748 --> 00:40:20.447 He saw the water. 00:40:21.548 --> 00:40:23.251 There was like a whoosh of the wave, 00:40:23.371 --> 00:40:25.313 and he just ran up this side of 00:40:25.373 --> 00:40:26.994 this really steep hill. 00:40:27.514 --> 00:40:28.596 And I tried getting him down, 00:40:28.695 --> 00:40:30.097 but eventually I was going to either 00:40:30.958 --> 00:40:32.699 maybe get the cat down and have like 00:40:33.141 --> 00:40:34.623 hurt myself severely. 00:40:35.784 --> 00:40:36.505 And I don't know, 00:40:36.545 --> 00:40:37.306 I had to abandon it. 00:40:37.326 --> 00:40:38.827 So I kind of slept close there. 00:40:38.947 --> 00:40:40.570 I made camp somewhere further back and I 00:40:40.610 --> 00:40:41.891 slept close to that area. 00:40:43.554 --> 00:40:44.635 And I went for it in the morning 00:40:44.795 --> 00:40:46.637 and I was basically just, you know, 00:40:46.657 --> 00:40:48.039 climbing the side of this really steep 00:40:48.079 --> 00:40:48.239 hill. 00:40:49.201 --> 00:40:50.681 with a can of tuna in my hand 00:40:50.722 --> 00:40:52.282 to get the cat down. 00:40:52.822 --> 00:40:53.342 And fortunately, 00:40:53.382 --> 00:40:54.623 I did get the cat down and everything 00:40:54.643 --> 00:40:54.983 went well. 00:40:56.443 --> 00:40:57.005 Since then, 00:40:57.065 --> 00:40:59.206 the second time was kind of difficult. 00:40:59.246 --> 00:41:00.326 We went to Donusa, 00:41:00.346 --> 00:41:02.786 which is an island that's conquered by 00:41:02.827 --> 00:41:03.166 cats. 00:41:03.228 --> 00:41:04.387 There are countless cats there. 00:41:04.788 --> 00:41:06.889 And my cat's kind of fighter slash killer. 00:41:07.369 --> 00:41:08.530 So he didn't have a great time there. 00:41:08.670 --> 00:41:11.110 Anafi was the island that he kind of 00:41:11.231 --> 00:41:11.530 loved. 00:41:11.731 --> 00:41:14.373 And even if he's been three times to 00:41:14.413 --> 00:41:14.773 Anafi, 00:41:16.213 --> 00:41:17.414 When I take him out on that one 00:41:17.454 --> 00:41:18.813 particular beach that I camp on, 00:41:19.534 --> 00:41:20.315 he's like, all right, cool. 00:41:20.614 --> 00:41:21.375 I know where I am. 00:41:21.594 --> 00:41:22.195 I hate you. 00:41:22.295 --> 00:41:23.255 I don't know why you do this to 00:41:23.315 --> 00:41:23.516 me. 00:41:23.675 --> 00:41:24.516 I don't belong here. 00:41:24.795 --> 00:41:25.836 Why are you taking me here? 00:41:25.876 --> 00:41:26.217 Fine. 00:41:26.637 --> 00:41:27.416 Screw yourself. 00:41:27.878 --> 00:41:29.318 But he's like, okay, cool. 00:41:29.378 --> 00:41:29.697 I'm good. 00:41:30.077 --> 00:41:31.838 And since then, like this year, 00:41:31.878 --> 00:41:32.998 we went to Ravavos, 00:41:33.159 --> 00:41:36.320 which is the most southern point in 00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:36.721 Europe. 00:41:37.501 --> 00:41:38.340 It's this island, 00:41:39.262 --> 00:41:41.422 maybe two and a half hours from Crete. 00:41:43.143 --> 00:41:45.744 uh everything was fine actually he's kind 00:41:45.764 --> 00:41:47.586 of getting older too and he's got fiv 00:41:47.726 --> 00:41:50.628 uh he's got the feline leukemia and he's 00:41:50.648 --> 00:41:54.472 got the uh it's another autoimmune disease 00:41:54.813 --> 00:41:58.436 the gingivostomatitis is that how you say 00:41:58.456 --> 00:42:00.016 it i don't know it's another feline one 00:42:00.456 --> 00:42:02.599 that really messes with him uh so he's 00:42:02.619 --> 00:42:04.059 a lot calmer because of all that i 00:42:04.099 --> 00:42:06.442 guess too and the drug but uh he 00:42:06.481 --> 00:42:08.364 would just stick around the tent and 00:42:08.643 --> 00:42:09.684 basically be a guard dog 00:42:11.603 --> 00:42:11.864 So, 00:42:12.043 --> 00:42:14.045 so basically what I'm hearing is immersion 00:42:14.085 --> 00:42:17.628 therapy, like kind of just did it. 00:42:18.188 --> 00:42:18.608 And then, 00:42:18.748 --> 00:42:20.670 and then he eventually figured it out. 00:42:21.291 --> 00:42:22.210 No, totally organic. 00:42:22.291 --> 00:42:22.530 Totally. 00:42:22.811 --> 00:42:23.751 I did see some other cats. 00:42:23.771 --> 00:42:25.193 Like there was this girl on the, 00:42:25.673 --> 00:42:25.893 on the, 00:42:26.233 --> 00:42:28.655 on the boat on our way back to 00:42:28.755 --> 00:42:30.197 Athens and she had her cat, 00:42:30.217 --> 00:42:31.777 she was sleeping and she had her cat 00:42:31.858 --> 00:42:33.958 out of the crate on her chest while 00:42:33.978 --> 00:42:34.579 she was sleeping. 00:42:35.300 --> 00:42:36.221 And I was thinking, wow, 00:42:36.260 --> 00:42:38.282 like on the boat, 00:42:38.722 --> 00:42:40.003 not even on a beach or anything on 00:42:40.043 --> 00:42:40.324 the boat. 00:42:41.242 --> 00:42:42.563 And I did meet another person. 00:42:42.764 --> 00:42:43.684 I just remember this too. 00:42:43.764 --> 00:42:45.047 I did meet another person that had a 00:42:45.106 --> 00:42:47.469 cat that brought the cat with them. 00:42:47.528 --> 00:42:48.750 It wasn't a cat that was at the 00:42:48.909 --> 00:42:50.972 island of Gavdos for camping. 00:42:51.012 --> 00:42:53.875 So it kind of works sometimes, I guess. 00:42:53.894 --> 00:42:55.016 There's something that you mentioned in 00:42:55.036 --> 00:42:57.277 there that I wanted to pull out a 00:42:57.297 --> 00:42:59.320 little bit is like you did some animal 00:42:59.780 --> 00:43:02.963 sort of rescue kind of stuff or animal 00:43:03.083 --> 00:43:03.884 advocacy kind of thing. 00:43:03.923 --> 00:43:04.664 Like, tell me about that. 00:43:05.394 --> 00:43:06.016 I haven't stopped. 00:43:06.576 --> 00:43:08.157 I did distance myself at some point. 00:43:08.197 --> 00:43:09.577 I haven't stopped since I got my first 00:43:09.617 --> 00:43:09.958 dog. 00:43:10.259 --> 00:43:12.840 And that's like, fuck. 00:43:14.561 --> 00:43:15.902 Since twenty twelve, 00:43:15.963 --> 00:43:17.925 I think when I started working at Codex 00:43:18.025 --> 00:43:19.927 and some office down in Athens, 00:43:20.987 --> 00:43:23.509 my first dog was a rescue and my 00:43:23.628 --> 00:43:24.570 all my cats are rescues. 00:43:27.081 --> 00:43:27.382 I don't know. 00:43:27.601 --> 00:43:29.342 Okay, so rescuing and everything. 00:43:29.782 --> 00:43:32.103 Some weird stuff happens in the world of 00:43:32.264 --> 00:43:33.143 animals and humans. 00:43:33.204 --> 00:43:35.224 Some really messed up shit, though. 00:43:35.324 --> 00:43:36.625 I mean, even down to rape. 00:43:37.125 --> 00:43:37.846 And at some point, 00:43:37.925 --> 00:43:38.965 I had to distance myself. 00:43:39.405 --> 00:43:41.706 Like humans raping animals. 00:43:41.746 --> 00:43:44.148 Sometimes I had to distance myself at some 00:43:44.188 --> 00:43:46.248 point because Greek law at that point was 00:43:46.349 --> 00:43:48.889 not sufficient enough to punish cases like 00:43:48.929 --> 00:43:49.108 that. 00:43:49.128 --> 00:43:50.190 And we had a case like that. 00:43:50.650 --> 00:43:51.369 And unfortunately, 00:43:51.409 --> 00:43:53.030 the case got into the hands of the... 00:43:54.400 --> 00:43:56.320 Boys and girls in the animal welfare 00:43:56.721 --> 00:43:58.481 group, which because, you know, 00:43:58.501 --> 00:43:59.740 the courts didn't do much at all other 00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:01.641 than a three grand fine. 00:44:03.101 --> 00:44:05.242 The law has been changed since not so 00:44:05.282 --> 00:44:06.443 long ago, maybe two years ago. 00:44:06.543 --> 00:44:07.603 Now, at least fines, 00:44:07.623 --> 00:44:10.063 they stack and there is potential prison 00:44:10.083 --> 00:44:10.324 time. 00:44:10.724 --> 00:44:12.023 Back then it was kind of whatever you 00:44:12.043 --> 00:44:12.244 did. 00:44:12.304 --> 00:44:12.704 Oh, fine. 00:44:12.744 --> 00:44:14.045 You get a three grand fine and you're 00:44:14.065 --> 00:44:14.445 off the hook. 00:44:14.804 --> 00:44:16.445 That didn't work for the people of the 00:44:16.626 --> 00:44:17.365 animal society, 00:44:17.505 --> 00:44:19.346 the animal rescue society or whatever you 00:44:19.365 --> 00:44:19.565 want. 00:44:20.085 --> 00:44:22.007 And it turned into violence like 00:44:24.610 --> 00:44:25.512 individual violence. 00:44:25.731 --> 00:44:27.351 And I had to distance myself at that 00:44:27.391 --> 00:44:27.652 point. 00:44:28.112 --> 00:44:29.373 But sooner or later, 00:44:29.592 --> 00:44:31.614 I would find a cat and I would 00:44:31.653 --> 00:44:31.934 keep it. 00:44:32.235 --> 00:44:32.735 That's Duke. 00:44:32.914 --> 00:44:33.635 That's my biggest one. 00:44:34.195 --> 00:44:35.335 There was another one, Maisie. 00:44:35.376 --> 00:44:36.456 She's a total ditz. 00:44:36.695 --> 00:44:37.617 She's my partner's cat. 00:44:39.157 --> 00:44:39.577 My partner, 00:44:39.597 --> 00:44:40.717 she found her outside of my house, 00:44:40.737 --> 00:44:42.079 which was totally my fault because I 00:44:42.139 --> 00:44:43.659 removed her from the bakery. 00:44:44.500 --> 00:44:45.639 It was across the street from my house 00:44:45.659 --> 00:44:47.061 because they had issues with the cat twice 00:44:47.081 --> 00:44:49.121 in the same day and put it in 00:44:49.161 --> 00:44:49.882 near my apartment. 00:44:51.222 --> 00:44:53.005 you know before we can contact people to 00:44:53.164 --> 00:44:54.465 see if someone can take the cat and 00:44:54.485 --> 00:44:57.027 take care of it uh i ended up 00:44:57.427 --> 00:44:59.469 not being at home the time my partner 00:44:59.489 --> 00:45:01.811 she returned home and she just called me 00:45:01.831 --> 00:45:03.914 and she's like i found this wonderful cat 00:45:03.934 --> 00:45:06.315 downstairs and i brought it upstairs and 00:45:06.356 --> 00:45:08.637 i'm thinking oh hang on what color is 00:45:08.679 --> 00:45:11.320 the cat and she says white and orange 00:45:11.340 --> 00:45:12.382 and i was like i know the cat 00:45:15.139 --> 00:45:16.039 And she would ask, too, 00:45:16.298 --> 00:45:16.800 could we keep it? 00:45:16.820 --> 00:45:17.300 Could we keep it? 00:45:17.320 --> 00:45:18.019 And I said, well, 00:45:18.059 --> 00:45:20.981 it's already in the house. 00:45:21.101 --> 00:45:22.360 Once it's in the house, 00:45:22.380 --> 00:45:23.362 you can't kick it out. 00:45:23.422 --> 00:45:23.882 I know. 00:45:24.001 --> 00:45:24.322 I know. 00:45:24.382 --> 00:45:25.521 It's a law of nature. 00:45:25.561 --> 00:45:28.202 The cat distribution system itself never 00:45:28.262 --> 00:45:28.762 fails. 00:45:29.583 --> 00:45:31.023 I don't know if she understood the concept 00:45:31.043 --> 00:45:32.063 when I said it's in the house. 00:45:32.164 --> 00:45:33.545 I think she thought that maybe we can 00:45:33.644 --> 00:45:34.425 put it back outside. 00:45:34.445 --> 00:45:36.606 And I said, it's not a thing now. 00:45:36.706 --> 00:45:39.025 Now it's our cat. 00:45:39.206 --> 00:45:41.166 And now I've got two other blind ones. 00:45:41.387 --> 00:45:42.387 One has one eye. 00:45:42.606 --> 00:45:43.487 It's kind of a pirate. 00:45:43.527 --> 00:45:44.168 Her name is Lala. 00:45:44.967 --> 00:45:46.690 And her brother Mimi has no eyes. 00:45:46.909 --> 00:45:47.449 He's blind. 00:45:48.010 --> 00:45:49.711 And he's the first blind animal I've ever 00:45:49.751 --> 00:45:50.251 had, actually. 00:45:50.331 --> 00:45:51.532 But they do everything. 00:45:52.072 --> 00:45:53.114 He literally goes around. 00:45:53.554 --> 00:45:55.315 So one of the bathrooms is relatively old 00:45:55.335 --> 00:45:56.096 in the house. 00:45:56.637 --> 00:45:59.077 And it's got like those external pipes for 00:46:00.918 --> 00:46:02.501 water plumbing going around. 00:46:02.740 --> 00:46:04.442 He goes and climbs on those tiny little 00:46:04.661 --> 00:46:06.483 pipes that are like nailed to the wall. 00:46:06.724 --> 00:46:07.983 And I'm thinking, how can you do this? 00:46:08.003 --> 00:46:08.724 You don't have eyes. 00:46:10.706 --> 00:46:12.668 How did you get involved in animal rescue, 00:46:12.688 --> 00:46:12.887 though? 00:46:14.266 --> 00:46:15.545 I got a dog. 00:46:20.114 --> 00:46:20.574 You just got a dog. 00:46:20.594 --> 00:46:21.373 You just rescued a dog. 00:46:21.393 --> 00:46:23.135 Yeah, it just kind of happened. 00:46:23.175 --> 00:46:24.635 I'm a total softie for these things. 00:46:24.715 --> 00:46:25.536 I can't handle it. 00:46:25.695 --> 00:46:27.197 If I ever killed a human, 00:46:27.237 --> 00:46:28.938 it would probably be over something like 00:46:29.077 --> 00:46:29.777 animal abuse. 00:46:31.318 --> 00:46:32.639 I'm a total softie for that. 00:46:32.719 --> 00:46:33.960 I can't help myself. 00:46:34.420 --> 00:46:36.820 They're so perfect. 00:46:36.860 --> 00:46:37.942 Literally, that's how I started. 00:46:38.001 --> 00:46:39.302 No fun story or anything. 00:46:39.463 --> 00:46:40.302 No family. 00:46:40.483 --> 00:46:41.443 We didn't have pets. 00:46:41.804 --> 00:46:43.945 I was raised with strictly birds. 00:46:46.034 --> 00:46:49.516 and nothing more I didn't have pets until 00:46:49.596 --> 00:46:54.077 I was early teens and then we my 00:46:54.157 --> 00:46:57.760 stepmom's sister was breeding Yorkshire 00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:01.342 Terriers and so we got one of her 00:47:01.461 --> 00:47:05.003 Yorkie pups and then I had a dog 00:47:06.043 --> 00:47:10.246 from zero to from zero pets basically to 00:47:10.346 --> 00:47:12.367 dog and 00:47:13.867 --> 00:47:15.929 yeah that was that was good he was 00:47:15.969 --> 00:47:19.891 cool uh his name is pirate um and 00:47:19.911 --> 00:47:21.132 uh because that was the name of the 00:47:21.172 --> 00:47:22.873 game that we played it was sort of 00:47:22.893 --> 00:47:24.114 like a white elephant like everybody 00:47:24.153 --> 00:47:25.715 brings a present and then you can steal 00:47:25.735 --> 00:47:27.275 the present but like we called it pirate 00:47:27.876 --> 00:47:29.996 um and he was a pirate gift that 00:47:30.056 --> 00:47:31.498 nobody else wanted to steal from me 00:47:34.271 --> 00:47:38.155 So he was named Tiger. 00:47:38.275 --> 00:47:40.777 And then nothing until after I graduated 00:47:40.996 --> 00:47:43.077 and my partner got a job at the 00:47:43.097 --> 00:47:45.480 Humane Society of Utah. 00:47:45.679 --> 00:47:47.181 And she was in receiving, 00:47:47.221 --> 00:47:48.862 which is where all of the surrendered 00:47:48.922 --> 00:47:49.583 animals go. 00:47:50.043 --> 00:47:51.043 And then there's a whole, 00:47:51.244 --> 00:47:53.144 in a shelter like that, 00:47:53.164 --> 00:47:55.306 there's a whole evaluation process that 00:47:55.427 --> 00:47:56.688 kind of boils down to, 00:47:56.768 --> 00:47:59.130 do we think this animal will be adoptable? 00:48:00.110 --> 00:48:00.650 Because... 00:48:01.809 --> 00:48:04.672 they get more animals surrendered than the 00:48:04.692 --> 00:48:06.594 number of animals they're able to adopt 00:48:06.693 --> 00:48:06.853 out. 00:48:08.795 --> 00:48:10.878 And there are no kill shelters in Utah. 00:48:11.599 --> 00:48:15.101 The Humane Society would like to be one, 00:48:15.143 --> 00:48:17.224 but they just don't have the capacity. 00:48:19.117 --> 00:48:20.757 So they do need to, like, 00:48:20.797 --> 00:48:21.898 make EARNA calls, 00:48:22.018 --> 00:48:24.338 and that was always kind of awful. 00:48:25.199 --> 00:48:26.599 She eventually moved into adoptions, 00:48:26.619 --> 00:48:27.980 and then she moved into the vet clinic, 00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:30.101 and those were much better. 00:48:31.081 --> 00:48:32.981 But obviously, through this process, 00:48:33.021 --> 00:48:34.722 we're, like, taking animals home, 00:48:35.722 --> 00:48:36.461 learning about, like, 00:48:36.501 --> 00:48:37.882 how the difference between, like, 00:48:37.922 --> 00:48:38.103 you know, 00:48:38.123 --> 00:48:39.623 an animal that doesn't do well in the 00:48:39.643 --> 00:48:40.963 shelter, that doesn't necessarily mean, 00:48:41.003 --> 00:48:42.003 like, your experience, like... 00:48:42.943 --> 00:48:44.585 it doesn't necessarily mean that they are 00:48:44.625 --> 00:48:45.025 aggressive. 00:48:45.065 --> 00:48:46.626 It just means that they aren't doing well 00:48:46.706 --> 00:48:47.326 in the shelter. 00:48:47.405 --> 00:48:48.586 Like this is a really stressful 00:48:48.626 --> 00:48:49.126 environment. 00:48:49.306 --> 00:48:50.047 And maybe this, 00:48:50.086 --> 00:48:51.507 this animal is a little bit more sensitive 00:48:51.547 --> 00:48:51.987 to that. 00:48:52.128 --> 00:48:53.809 And for humans, 00:48:53.889 --> 00:48:55.489 humans would act the same way. 00:48:55.670 --> 00:48:56.190 Exactly. 00:48:56.369 --> 00:48:56.849 Exactly. 00:48:57.771 --> 00:49:00.411 Um, so yeah, um, that's always been a, 00:49:00.612 --> 00:49:01.851 and so all of our cats have been 00:49:01.952 --> 00:49:03.092 either, um, 00:49:04.364 --> 00:49:06.184 quasi rescued like rescued from the 00:49:06.204 --> 00:49:10.268 shelter um or uh or they came from 00:49:10.327 --> 00:49:13.670 like an actual uh animal rescue uh and 00:49:13.710 --> 00:49:17.413 we currently have three um and our oldest 00:49:17.972 --> 00:49:20.635 has cancer but she's had cancer for like 00:49:20.954 --> 00:49:25.597 two or three years that's the thing about 00:49:25.637 --> 00:49:26.878 cats man they could be they could have 00:49:26.898 --> 00:49:28.880 like five three different uh autoimmune 00:49:28.900 --> 00:49:31.061 diseases duke and he's still a fighter and 00:49:31.081 --> 00:49:32.943 a camper literally yeah yeah yeah 00:49:34.364 --> 00:49:36.284 yeah and she's the sweetest thing she's my 00:49:36.344 --> 00:49:39.146 daughter's cat um she's she's like the 00:49:39.226 --> 00:49:44.007 most empathetic animal like she like in in 00:49:44.027 --> 00:49:48.708 the world um and so cute too cute 00:49:48.728 --> 00:49:50.128 but we can talk about cats all day 00:49:50.309 --> 00:49:51.949 we probably would talk about cats all day 00:49:52.389 --> 00:49:54.809 this isn't necessarily a cat podcast i 00:49:54.829 --> 00:49:56.391 mean it could be a cat podcast it'll 00:49:56.411 --> 00:49:59.771 be a different podcast but you have a 00:49:59.811 --> 00:50:00.751 podcast too don't you 00:50:01.530 --> 00:50:02.550 I do. 00:50:02.570 --> 00:50:04.251 I started Uncashed with Presidium. 00:50:04.271 --> 00:50:05.853 We only have one episode with Kareem 00:50:05.913 --> 00:50:06.512 talking about FAIR, 00:50:06.552 --> 00:50:08.193 but the context is kind of hard to 00:50:08.215 --> 00:50:08.695 find people. 00:50:09.074 --> 00:50:11.817 So you have to identify a problem in 00:50:11.856 --> 00:50:13.257 and around the WordPress ecosystem, 00:50:13.297 --> 00:50:14.458 and you have to be relative to the 00:50:14.498 --> 00:50:16.599 solution of the problem to be on the 00:50:16.619 --> 00:50:16.840 show. 00:50:17.280 --> 00:50:18.481 I hope it doesn't get stuck at Kareem. 00:50:19.161 --> 00:50:19.902 Good show, Kareem. 00:50:20.483 --> 00:50:22.023 And then there's an interviewee one, 00:50:22.063 --> 00:50:22.684 kind of like this one. 00:50:22.744 --> 00:50:23.804 Get another person behind the tech. 00:50:24.045 --> 00:50:25.206 I call it a three-queue interview. 00:50:25.226 --> 00:50:26.887 I probably have to change the title 00:50:26.907 --> 00:50:27.927 because it was supposed to be three 00:50:27.947 --> 00:50:28.507 questions, 00:50:29.047 --> 00:50:30.568 and now it's about thirty to forty-five 00:50:30.588 --> 00:50:31.030 minutes long. 00:50:32.291 --> 00:50:33.771 It just kind of evolved. 00:50:35.052 --> 00:50:35.893 That's how it works. 00:50:35.914 --> 00:50:37.594 That's why I don't make rules for myself. 00:50:38.516 --> 00:50:39.416 Yeah, I'm learning. 00:50:41.219 --> 00:50:43.039 I'm learning. 00:50:43.059 --> 00:50:43.219 Well, 00:50:43.239 --> 00:50:44.842 where can people find you on the internet? 00:50:46.072 --> 00:50:47.592 I guess I can Google Christos Palookas, 00:50:47.672 --> 00:50:49.333 but I mean, 00:50:49.353 --> 00:50:50.653 something would be I'm on Twitter, 00:50:51.275 --> 00:50:52.135 LinkedIn, kind of. 00:50:52.235 --> 00:50:54.056 I did a couple of posts recently. 00:50:54.096 --> 00:50:56.177 Not a huge fan, but Twitter for sure. 00:50:56.496 --> 00:50:57.277 Slash Palookas. 00:51:00.478 --> 00:51:01.619 I don't know where else. 00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:03.119 YouTube, I guess. 00:51:03.239 --> 00:51:04.581 There was like podcast there. 00:51:05.181 --> 00:51:06.242 I have an old podcast. 00:51:06.402 --> 00:51:07.681 version of myself that used to write 00:51:07.722 --> 00:51:10.523 classical music so if you find uh i 00:51:10.563 --> 00:51:12.242 kind of do it sometimes too secretly if 00:51:12.282 --> 00:51:13.923 you find some you i don't even talk 00:51:13.943 --> 00:51:15.204 about this man i don't even know why 00:51:15.264 --> 00:51:17.105 i mentioned this that's a whole other 00:51:17.144 --> 00:51:18.485 podcast we need to get you back and 00:51:18.505 --> 00:51:20.005 we can talk about your classical music 00:51:21.286 --> 00:51:23.646 yeah i abandoned that kind of but if 00:51:23.666 --> 00:51:25.626 you do search christopher lucas you might 00:51:25.646 --> 00:51:27.407 find some songs that's 00:51:29.143 --> 00:51:30.284 Well, thank you so much, Christos, 00:51:30.583 --> 00:51:33.485 for coming on and check out Christos' 00:51:33.545 --> 00:51:35.045 podcast or the one episode. 00:51:36.206 --> 00:51:39.427 And go find him at WordCamp Athens if 00:51:39.447 --> 00:51:41.947 you happen to be in Greece on November 00:51:42.047 --> 00:51:42.266 eighth. 00:51:43.568 --> 00:51:44.807 Thanks again for coming. 00:51:45.168 --> 00:51:46.489 And yeah, we'll see you on the internet. 00:51:46.509 --> 00:51:47.248 Thanks for having me. 00:51:47.268 --> 00:51:47.849 It was a pleasure. 00:51:48.268 --> 00:51:49.688 Hope to host you too. 00:51:49.809 --> 00:51:50.329 Absolutely. 00:51:51.469 --> 00:51:51.969 Take care.