This episode is kind of all over the place — in the best way.
I start off by talking about a Christmas episode I ended up deleting, where I opened up about not seeing my dad on Christmas and some ongoing frustrations around our relationship, all while waiting for my friends to show up. Also, I’m pretty sure I saw a squirrel running around with either a frog in its mouth… or maybe just leaves.
After pausing the recording to hang out with my friends, I come back feeling awkward, nervous, and way too in my own head, talking about how bad I am at socializing and how tense I felt the whole time.
From there, I spiral into microphone talk — debating between the Sennheiser Profile USB and the Sennheiser MK4, including a clip of me using the MK4 at the Santa Rosa Central Library over the summer. Then things get important: my cats have what I can only describe as staple-remover teeth, which leads to what is obviously a billion-dollar product idea — a cat-shaped staple remover where the teeth are the remover.
I also talk about binge-watching Undercover Boss on the SoReal YouTube channel over Christmas, specifically the Oriental Trading Company episode. We get into the infamous voice-directed warehouse system “Jennifer,” how terrifyingly fast it talks, how it magically knew a product was damaged, and why the show clearly edited it to make the AI look smarter than it really is. Spoiler: a human probably said “damaged,” but that’s not as good for TV.
Between the strict “don’t touch the sports drinks” rule, a wildly out-of-touch CEO, a 25-cent raise presented like a miracle, and the company’s eventual bankruptcy, this episode might have done more harm than good to their image.
And finally, I wrap things up by questioning my dad’s snack recommendations — specifically why Sargento parmesan and oregano crackers are nowhere near as cheesy as I was promised.
It’s awkward, observant, a little bitter, and unintentionally funny — basically just my brain, recorded.