Dead by Tomorrow

Coding Challenge Finale, Bret Kenney Round Two, and Vertical Improvement Challenge (#55)

DxT

There's almost too much going on here. In this episode, we've got the finale to our second challenge, the coding boot camp, and how everything shook out. 

We also have our first "second" interview with the self-proclaimed (and probably accurately so) #1 fan, Bret Kenny!   

To round it off, we announce our third challenge for the year that Dead by Tomorrow will be working on- the vertical jump improvement!   

For show notes and more, check out www.deadxtomorrow.com/episode/coding-challenge-finale-bret-kenney-round-two-and-vertical-improvement-challenge  

Thanks for listening!

Much Love, Fam!

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Website: deadxtomorrow.com


[00:00:19] Andrew: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to dead by tomorrow. We are as always thrilled to have you. It is a beautiful spring day over here in Amarillo. I don't know about Dallas, but it has been some nice weather this weekend. So I am honestly glad we are not doing the couch challenge anymore because I need to be outside.

[00:00:40] Andrew: So we are finishing up our SQL challenge. Uh, this is the combo episode where we tell you about the challenge number two, which was learning how to code SQL for Daniel Nye and Python for Brett. And then after we do a little bit of review, see how it went. Uh, I'll probably make fun of Brett and Daniel A.

[00:00:58] Andrew: Little bit. for their consistency, uh, we will jump into what we're going to be doing for challenge number three, which is, uh, spoiler alert, a outdoors jumping kind of challenge. I think we're going to call it the vertical challenge. So Brett, Daniel, how y'all doing.

[00:01:15] Bret: Good. I'm I'm back guys. I'm less nervous this time. I was a little nervous. The first go round. I don't know. 

[00:01:23] Daniel: Yeah. Maybe it's a difference in scenery. I don't know. Like, do you, are you nervous in your office? 

[00:01:30] Bret: Yeah, we did record my office on often nervous there. Yeah, that's true. Good point.

[00:01:37] Andrew: That makes for a rough week. I bet.

[00:01:39] Bret: Rough weight, just nervous all week,

[00:01:42] Andrew: Just five days. It's there's those other two where you're not nervous.

[00:01:46] Bret: weekend and just get out of the office. I feel great. I'm like. Do that more often? No, doing good. We also have awesome weather here in Dallas. It's been nice. 

[00:01:55] Daniel: Yeah. I got to get out and do a little track workout, do a little, uh, yard work. So it's been a very full weekend 

[00:02:04] Bret: for, sorry, Andrew.

[00:02:05] Bret: When was the last time you sprinted? 400 meters a lap.

[00:02:11] Andrew: Uh, it has been a hot minute. I would say it may be years. It might be in the, uh, the pre knee injury timeframe more than likely.

[00:02:22] Bret: Daniel sprinted

[00:02:23] Bret: for hundreds today. 

[00:02:24] Andrew: Yeah. I saw it like 10 of them. Right. Daniel.

[00:02:27] Daniel: I only sprinted five of them. A geography 

[00:02:30] Bret: with them still.

[00:02:33] Andrew: That's still rough. Uh, you okay.

[00:02:37] Daniel: Yeah, I'm good. I mean, I love the warm weather. It was pretty brutal at the time. I probably would have. Considered laying down on the track and passing out or throwing up, except right. As I finish, there was a maybe middle school track meet that was about to start happening. So it was like, okay. I, I can't embarrass myself like that.

[00:02:59] Daniel: [00:03:00] I need to.

[00:03:04] Daniel: Yeah. So I'm good.

[00:03:06] Andrew: Right. You're wild, man.

[00:03:08] Daniel: Brett, and I are going to

[00:03:09] Daniel: have ice cream sandwiches after this, to commemorate the running. And Kimra commemorate. I think Brent did some jogging 

[00:03:14] Bret: today. Yeah. Yeah. I jogged for up.

[00:03:17] Andrew: that's uh, that's. That is just as hard with a bum knee. I think, uh, I bet bread is hurting just, well, maybe not as much because sprints are just a whole demon of their own, 

[00:03:28] Bret: no, 

[00:03:28] Andrew: you know, what prompts you to Brett? I didn't, neither of them. I went on a walk today, uh, briefly and. I have a lot of coffee and did some cleaning.

[00:03:38] Andrew: So I had not been a very physical day for me, which is kind of atypical for a Sunday.

[00:03:43] Bret: Sounds like a nice restful Sunday though. 

[00:03:46] Daniel: Yeah. I need a 

[00:03:47] Daniel: Sunday 

[00:03:47] Bret: like this. 

[00:03:48] Andrew: it. I, I recommended. Okay. Um, how'd y'all feel about the challenge. How'd y'all enjoy the end of our coding. Uh, it's been 15 days, ish, I guess like closer to like 16 or 17 since we last talked. Um, how to finish out for you guys. Cause I assume that, you know, the charts only one, a perspective of the equation.

[00:04:15] Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. I, so I was able to finish the two sort of free programs that I did, so it was SQL zoo. And then I think it was called SQL basics or something along that line. So I, I feel like I have a pretty decent handle on the most basic aspects of SQL joining tables, um, using select using where statement some of those types of things, uh, I have to say that I did not secure access with my it group to be able to actually play around with SQL at my work.

[00:04:50] Daniel: I've kind of gotten a little bit busier again on the work side of things. Um, so once I finished my courses, I, I kind of dropped off the cliff a little bit. So I would say that. I was happy to finish the corporate coursework. I feel like I have a pretty decent handle on SQL. I have a better understanding of some of the things that maybe I should ask for with our reporting team, if I'm requesting reports, uh, but have not had an opportunity to put things into practice, which is why I asked you to, to send me over the stuff.

[00:05:27] Daniel: So I can play in the, your database based, which I think you were successful and, or in them on the challenge.

[00:05:35] Andrew: Yes. But before we get into that, because I might talk too long about that. I want to hear about Bret stuff. I want to hear about a Python for Bret because, uh, I'm going to toot my own horn a little bit.

[00:05:48] Bret: we're going into the challenge. I was real excited about it as excited to be on the podcast. I like the idea of having a daily, like I'm going to learn a little bit each day. And I started off actually looking at the [00:06:00] data. At first couple of days, I started off considered. And then it was just one of those months where if we did not, if we weren't doing this together and we weren't doing a challenge together, I would have not even thought about coding, learning a new skill, just craziness with work.

[00:06:18] Bret: Um, but the last week I came back, I was consistent. The last somewhat week I had to pivot a little bit instead of going, you know, following YouTube tutorials and the book I was reading, I was like, I just need to try a project and learn that. So I I'm still working on it. It, it, my goal was to make a program that would automate something at work.

[00:06:42] Bret: I haven't quite automated it, but I have Frankenstein some different, different, uh, codes and models together to convert some files that I can use at work. So I can convert, um, like images I download into JPEG. And other documents that I have to, you know, I have, when I download them from our, um, from our system for work and then I have to email them out or send them out to my install teams, like to just convert them to PDFs or whatever.

[00:07:13] Bret: Um, I'm able to convert those files with a program, but I haven't automated it. I have to like click each file, click and track. So I'm excited. I have a little project I've learned some Python. Um, I wasn't consistent every day. Um, but I've got some next steps and it's been.

[00:07:32] Andrew: So since I did not, I didn't learn Python and that's, that's cool. That trip will do your thing, uh, or at least got some, as you said, Frankenstein, uh, slept together. And us, what exactly did you Frankenstein together and how much code was actually involved in making your, I guess in project? Like how much actual hours, how much, how much time do you?

[00:07:53] Andrew: Me the whole breakdown of what you do. And how it came about and how long it took and what it does for you. If you can.

[00:08:00] Bret: Oh, wow. Okay. If I had to break down my, my little baby program right now, I probably put three hours into it, three, three, and a half just on this program. Um, and it can do two things. It, um, converts. It was the, the, the high efficiency image files. Apple products use that dot each GIC. It converts those into JPEGs and then it converts, um, basically it, it converts a document.

[00:08:29] Bret: I downloaded online to PDFs, but I have to select each file. So what I did was a lot of Googling and a lot of, um, Python is cool where the community there's a ton of libraries of just. And codes that you can import into your code. So right now my program is very little of like, I mean, I did not start from scratch or anything, but I import it probably about three or four different modules, um, and kind of piece them together and then kind of directed them to, um, my own file [00:09:00] folder of documents I'm using to test this.

[00:09:03] Bret: Um, but I'm pretty proud of it. Um, my next step is to figure out how to. Um, have the program actually look in the file, identify what needs to be converted and do it on its on its own rather than me clicking it, or rather than me typing out the file name to actually fucking meet it. Um, but very little like Brits own code.

[00:09:22] Bret: It's just pieced together other it was trial and error, trial and error.

[00:09:27] Andrew: Well, I think that's, I think that's what a lot of, especially on the beginning front of coding gets you, is the ability to go borrow other people's stuff and make something of it. Spend hours and hours writing out your own code. It's Hey, I actually understand what I'm looking for and I can read what I'm looking for.

[00:09:46] Bret: For sure, for sure.

[00:09:48] Andrew: I've got to brag a little bit on the end results of the CQL challenge for me, because I finished up my Udemy class and we'll get into the concepts that we like, the routes we took and why I thought mine might be more of an incentive, at least in my opinion, but finished up the. You Demi course, uh, three days before, um, the drop dead day.

[00:10:14] Andrew: And I was like, okay, three days is plenty. I haven't really dug deeply into getting this file cracked open, but I like, I've got a pretty decent handle on sequel. Now I can, I can play with SQL. And so I started looking around and tried to import it into Postgres SQL, which is what I was. And it wouldn't work.

[00:10:32] Andrew: And which is like the user interface that I was using to access databases. Um, I was like, okay, well, this is unfortunate Googled. Hey, why can't you do this? And it's like, oh, it doesn't take dot SQL files. You basically have to do a CSV file. You know, like your typical Excel file and then you have to import it.

[00:10:52] Andrew: And then you've got to have the database database preset. Be ready for that data. So I have to build out all the tables and the columns for that data to come in. I was like, that is just impossible. I don't know. There's just no way. There's thousands and thousands of, uh, tables. And I didn't even know how many columns, like it's massive, massive, massive file.

[00:11:16] Andrew: It's a text file. And as a text file, it's like 30 gigs. it's huge. There was no way I was going to manually recreate this database to import. And I was like, well, that's, that's the end of that. So it's like, okay, there's gotta be a better way. So I'm digging around. We're now day two of this. And basically, uh, to fast forward, what could be a long story?

[00:11:39] Andrew: I spent a lot of time. Basically deciding to give up on it, like, couldn't figure it out. And everything I found online was like, oh yeah, here's this, this, and I she's like, I can't do it. It's either going to cost me like two or $3,000 or it's going to cost me weeks of my life. you know, messing with this.

[00:11:55] Andrew: So I, instead the last day I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna hop on destiny. I'm gonna play some video [00:12:00] games. So I hop on, I'm playing like, you know what? I just can't give up on this. I've got to check one more thing. So I reached out to my cousin. I was like, Hey, uh, Derek. Pirate my SQL. And, uh, he was like, uh, he was like, uh, we can look at it that that's kind of sketchy to do though.

[00:12:17] Andrew: You might get something, a developer stuff is not the best to, pirate because when I was looking at my SQL. Uh, it was very expensive. It was like $3,000 a year and it was just not going to do that ends up. They just hide the free stuff in the back of the website. And there was no, it wasn't actually that bad, but like there was a free my SQL download and I had the work bench that goes with it and then I had to upload it.

[00:12:39] Andrew: And then we'll fast forward again. There's lots and lots of headaches I gave up again. And then like late that night I played too much destiny. What is this air that it keeps giving when I employed this file. And so this is really dumb, but I just wasn't creating like a separate new schema is what it's called to bring that file in.

[00:12:56] Andrew: Did that told him to go, and then it like just looked at me like it acted like it was important, but it said like starting import and nothing else, it didn't give me like a status bar or anything just said, starting in port for like an hour. I was like, well, it hasn't aired out like it was doing earlier.

[00:13:12] Andrew: So maybe it's doing so. So I plugged it, flipped the laptop then came back the next morning and I had imported everything worked and it was, I was ecstatic, honestly, like I was on cloud nine. I think that was like Wednesday or Thursday. I'd given up, like for three days I was like, well, the subs is going to be disappointing because I'm just going to have to say that, like, we can't get into the file because I don't have the resources and whatever, but we got in and I'm super proud and excited that we were able to get in and be able to touch it.

[00:13:41] Andrew: So I would call this a success for me.

[00:13:45] Bret: I'm 

[00:13:45] Daniel: excited. Yeah, that's amazing. I was already somewhat excited to get in and kind of play around in the database. And now I'm really excited about it. I really need to get in there and play around with, uh, things that, you know, maybe screw it up so that all your hard work.

[00:14:05] Andrew: Don't worry. I already thought about that and that's why you're going to have to download your own my SQL, and then you'll load your file in because then we'll have separate ones. And then if something breaks, I don't have to redo it on my end.

[00:14:16] Bret: nice. That's a good call.

[00:14:18] Andrew: So that'll be good. I also don't know, like besides hosting my, uh, laptop as a.

[00:14:23] Andrew: Server, which would not be a great idea. I don't think it would be difficult without getting a static IP. Anyways, we won't get into that as technical. There's not a good way for you, me to do it without again, spending a bunch of money.

[00:14:35] Bret: Andrew. You have to tell us though, you, you unlocked this hidden, all this hidden data. Tell me there's like a treasure map. What's part two of your adventure.

[00:14:44] Andrew: See, that's, what's also disappointing about this. this is not the Goonies. There is not like buried treasure in there. Uh, basically, and I, I maybe I didn't explain this in the first episode or when we were talking about it, but we swapped our CRM, like the [00:15:00] billing system, customer relationship management system.

[00:15:02] Andrew: We used, we swapped it from this thing called power code and we went over to sonar and. Uh, 90% of it came over. Fine. Uh, now I understand where some of the problems came from because basically if the things didn't map right to what they were doing in their CRM, when I brought it over, like they were having to go find that table or that column, that wasn't mapping.

[00:15:24] Andrew: Right. And making sure that data was doing its thing. And I just can't even imagine that that would be a treasure hunt, but like with the lameness of treasure on the back end, like, oh, this phone inventories. You know, ID is this, and it's not mapping over here because we don't have it set as that phone inventories like primary key or whatever, I assume.

[00:15:44] Andrew: So like really boring, really terrible. I feel true. So some of the stuff didn't come over. And honestly, I don't know the things that didn't come over, I'm going to be able to find any ways. Um, but one of the things we've run into is like invoicing. Like people are like, Hey, um, back in September of 2018, I think I paid you $90 instead of $80.

[00:16:03] Andrew: Can you confirm that? Um, and I don't know who these people are that think that they want to check that, but, uh, those are some of the calls we get. And so look for the past couple of months, we've been like, um, We don't know, sorry about you. If it was before, uh, October, uh, we don't have that data, so I hope it's not important for you to know.

[00:16:21] Andrew: So, uh, and I don't think it'll come up. Uh, but that's kinda why I wanted to get in is in case we have that situation where I need to be able to look at something in our old database. Uh, I'm uh, hoping that it will be in this cul file that I got as a backup. The people who brought us over to the new system that we use.

[00:16:41] Andrew: So no, nothing exciting, no treasure.

[00:16:44] Daniel: I mean, previous data is kind of treasure at this point. I, this week was working on some RFP stuff and was being asked to go look three years back for data that it just, I don't have a way to get to it anymore. And it'd be pretty nice. Like I would actually be pretty excited if I could pull some of that data, not as much for the RFP, because I don't know.

[00:17:09] Daniel: Go with recent data and spin it. But I would love to be able to do comparisons across our various telephony vendors and be able to definitively say, okay, at this point in time, like this data change, this was what was happening in our world of our company and kind of map out like behavior metric teams sort of stuff to previous data.

[00:17:33] Daniel: So I don't know that that's going to come up in this certain case, but don't downplay date. It's kind of a

[00:17:40] Andrew: data is important. It is. I just, you know, we'll see if I ever need it. but if I do I'm one step closer to being ready to make it happen. So before I launch into my little sermon about you, Demi, I guess, what did y'all think it was like learning, like take out the coding side because I did have a complaint that we might've gotten [00:18:00] too technical last time, which I would not have expected, but.

[00:18:03] Andrew: listen to the people, I guess. So what was it like learning something new for you guys? What do you regret? What are you really excited about? Brett, especially, I know you kind of jumped in on this. what would y'all have changed or what would you do again? What would you recommend?

[00:18:18] Bret: I think, um, after barely doing any coding in the past and it being so long since I did it, I think going into this, I just felt like there was a huge hurdle as far as even just to be able to get to a point where I could, on my own, pull up my laptop type in print, hello world, and even get to that point and just run a PR.

[00:18:39] Bret: Like, I, it just been so long and it was cool. How quickly and specifically with Python and some of the tools. Again, my experience is very little, that was easy and it was just kind of off to the races at the very beginning. Just being able to type in code and see that code out text or do simple math equations.

[00:18:57] Bret: Um, so that was cool. Um, and then I kind of jumped ahead rather than doing like y'all did kind of a class or a curriculum. Um, just cause I was struggling to learn and be able to produce something practical. I needed a project. Um, so that's where I was like, I looked up a couple easy things to automate with Python, Google for a bit, wrote down a few things that could help me with work or just day-to-day and just picked one as far as converting files.

[00:19:28] Bret: And that, that kind of helped me, um, Just quickly learn how to, um, use and kind of modify code. So I'm reading through advanced code that I could not create on my own, but could at least follow and modify for my own purposes. And then take advantage of, you know, pythons, um, libraries and modules. And, um, it's cool.

[00:19:49] Bret: Even on like the, the free software I'm using, I could invite you guys to come. Work in my programs. Like if it's cloud-based so we could free software, um, write out code together and edit and review it. And man, it'd the, there's less hurdles than I thought to being able to learn Python or even sequel or some of these other coding languages.

[00:20:11] Bret: So, pretty, it was a, it was a cool challenge, even though it was a, it was a crazy week or a month. I wish it had been. Different month. I took it on with you guys, but still learned a lot. Yeah. 

[00:20:23] Daniel: I mean, those things definitely happen. And at least you, you did more than you would have otherwise, like you said, right.

[00:20:31] Daniel: So there there's value to it. And I actually, similar to Andrew got, got a complaint that things were a little bit. Technical and the last episode and the people want to hear more about Brett and Brett's life. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:20:45] Bret: My life's pretty technical, so yes, that's, 

[00:20:51] Daniel: that's fair. So sorry to disappoint. Anybody who wanted us to move away from technical breaths?

[00:20:55] Daniel: Bread is a robot apparently. Um, no.

[00:20:59] Andrew: That explains [00:21:00] so much.

[00:21:02] Daniel: so the projects that you ended up doing within Python, talk us through why image converting as something that's important to you at work. And then just, you know, you've mentioned a few times at work has been kind of crazy. So like what's, what's been going on. That has been a little bit crazy. What have been some of like your, your day to day?

[00:21:23] Daniel: I don't think we've had a project manager on before. I know there's a lot of people that are interested in hearing more 

[00:21:28] Bret: about that. Yeah. well, day to day, so project management, uh, I'm planning projects and I'm managing the scope, timeline, budget, and plan plan plan. And then we execute on a project and something doesn't work and then your react, you problem solve.

[00:21:46] Bret: and then you learn from it and move on to the next project. And I'm managing. A lot of usually smaller projects at once. Um, so even going back to the program that, um, I created a lot of times I am pulling information, um, and sending it out to my install teams that are actually installing equipment executing on projects.

[00:22:08] Bret: And so this will help me do that better, do it quicker. Um, cause a lot of times once we're actually installing their equipment and operating. I'm like the tick guy in a van, like just saying, okay, we're missing parts. I'm ordering it right now. Or, you have an issue with this equipment. Let me talk to this engineer.

[00:22:26] Bret: He's sending me photos. He's telling me pull documents from here. Uh, I'm sending them resources while kind of planning for the next few projects. Um, so this program, it will, once I automated it will help me with that. Um, but yeah, I feel like that's at least my experience as a project manager. Play a whole bunch and then something doesn't go wrong right.

[00:22:45] Bret: And react and figure it out. And that's kind of the fun part though, is when things don't go right, is how do we make it work? 

[00:22:54] Daniel: So I'm hearing that. For those of y'all that have seen Spiderman, this, this will kind of resonate. Like you are the guy in the chair, like what, what Nate wants to be the guy in the chair he's telling people what, what to do and directing like yeah.

[00:23:06] Daniel: That's 

[00:23:07] Bret: you. Yeah. Yeah. And actually I could totally use some of that technology as far as you know what spider man's got his suit. I could use that art insulting could use that. That would be huge. That'd be my next project just decided I'm going to get our install teams, a tech suit. So I can just, I'll be in there.

[00:23:27] Bret: There'll be my eyes and ears. And that'll be, you seen the movie and you're tracking the Andrew. You get what I'm saying? 

[00:23:33] Bret: Oh, 

[00:23:34] Andrew: Yes, I am just hoping to see Spiderman in the room, uh, or at least your text dressed as Spiderman when they're installing stuff.

[00:23:42] Bret: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure Marvel and Disney would be cool with that. If we just copy it. Exactly the look and the. 

[00:23:49] Daniel: Well, yeah, they're in hospitals. So, I mean, that brings joy, like children's hospitals all over it. Yeah, exactly. Okay. One other thing I do want to ask you when we were, when we were [00:24:00] working out earlier this week, uh, you, you had to take a call or something going on with, uh, with, uh, with a room.

[00:24:08] Daniel: And I heard you say something along the lines. You know, I don't normally think this, but I'm starting to wonder if, if this was like built over, uh, ancient Indian burial ground or something like that. Oh yeah. 

[00:24:20] Bret: What was going on? We, uh, we just wrapped up a 15 or a building expansion. so the, uh, this hospital well-staffed big hospital, um, they're basically doubling their operating room capacity.

[00:24:37] Bret: And so we wrapped up a huge project. I mean, they've been building. Three years. Um, it was a whole lot of planning for us, but about a two month installed, we're doing all the booms lights and then something Duscovy equipment. And we had one room where it was just our problem child at the tail end. They're actually going live Monday in these operating rooms.

[00:24:58] Bret: It was a fourth quarter seconds left on the clock Friday afternoon. We're still banging our heads against the, or maybe it was Thursday. We were still having issues with. One specific room. So I'm not usually this way, you know, I'm, I'm pretty practical, logical, you know, what's the next thing we need to check on the list.

[00:25:14] Bret: What's our, do we play something? What can we test, um, swap things from other rooms. How do we, you know, troubleshoot figure this out. I started to think that it was cursed, that the room was cursed. I was about to call the hospital. Don't, don't send patients in there. We should probably build a new building.

[00:25:30] Bret: I was almost to that point, but luckily we, we, uh, we figured out the issue, rewired, some things. Um, and we're good. We're good. There's probably no curse. I won't mention the hospital, but it's going to do great next week. There's going to be lots of successful surgeries. yeah, that the curse was probably not, not real.

[00:25:47] Bret: So 

[00:25:48] Daniel: probably not real. Like if I, if I tomorrow, you know, pops my Achilles, would you be okay with me as a friend go into that hospital or, 

[00:25:57] Bret: uh, the hospital? Yeah, I do feel kind of weird, like telling people, uh, To be the first patient in a brand new operating room. I feel like. Um, but Hey, our equipment works is our equipment has been tested, validated.

[00:26:13] Bret: QIP our equipment's good. So it's the, it's the other vendors that maybe, maybe wait until Tuesday and don't pop your toes. But yeah, I'd love, 

[00:26:21] Daniel: I'd love to not do this career in 

[00:26:22] Bret: their career ender. 

[00:26:26] Andrew: Wow. That just sounds painful.

[00:26:31] Bret: Oh, So, yeah. 

[00:26:34] Bret: uh, uh, Andrew, have you ever seen an Achilles tear? Sorry, now I'm just picturing it.

[00:26:41] Andrew: uh, I don't think I've seen one, but that is, I've seen a video. I think of somebody stepping weird and the attendant, you could see it inside their ankle move. 

[00:26:51] Andrew: Um, and for some reason that's always been one of my. Bigger fears. It was knee injury, um, which, you know, knocked that one off the list. And [00:27:00] then, uh, blown in Achilles was the other one.

[00:27:02] Andrew: Oh. And compartment syndrome. I really don't want compartment syndrome. Those are my three big things.

[00:27:06] Bret: Do you want to a quick peek behind the curtain? As far as when it comes to operating rooms and especially where they're doing lots of orthopedic surgeries. So I don't spend any time in active ORs, but I'm there kind of working next to them sometimes or working in hospitals all the time. Uh, a lot of times you would think.

[00:27:29] Bret: If you listen to the sounds in, you would think you're in like a mechanic shop. Um, it, a lot of these orthopedic surgeons, they are blasting rock music and, um, just cranking out surgeries, uh, one patient after the other. So, um, that was kind of a shock to me. I just thought hospitals were very, I don't know, ultra professional, very quiet, clean plate.

[00:27:54] Bret: And sometimes that's that's. Always how it is. So as a striker, as, as we are integrators, we always need to make sure that our, um, audio system is working or else everything else could be working in the room. Like the functional equipment, you know, medical get, you know, all the signals that they need. Um, all the power, all that.

[00:28:12] Bret: But if, if a surgeon can't blast his, uh, 1980s heavy metal, um, then it's, it's not going to flat. We're going to get some angry phone calls.

[00:28:24] Andrew: That's good to know. And I'm, I like to, I like to think that's how it goes. I'm glad they're having a good time.

[00:28:32] Daniel: we need to follow up with Jason asked him what his surgery playlist is. 

[00:28:36] Bret: Yeah, he's a young doctor though. He probably also doesn't have to use YouTube to play music, probably like gas, like just connect with Bluetooth that the Stryker rep showed 

[00:28:47] Bret: me how to do this dance. 

[00:28:49] 

[00:28:55] Andrew: okay. I want to jump back to SQL real quick or a coding, I guess, depending on how it looks. And so this is probably partly me not having a child. I have more free time than both of you do possibly combined. I don't know. I think, I think, but also, I wanted to talk about you damn it, because I like sincerely enjoyed the course. SQL is pretty dry. It is not, uh, it's dry and the applications you use, it are very dry. Honestly, you're doing business like related activities. It's Excel on steroids. but I paid $14 for a course. Um, so it came out to costing me about, uh, 50 cents a day. Uh, Learn SQL for a month. And I don't know if it was just the time thing, but I mean, there was only a couple of days that I missed, um, hopping and, and taking it and working on the course.

[00:29:51] Andrew: And it was just, it was so well planned out. It was these little sized chunks. I don't know. I feel like that had a impact on my [00:30:00] ability to continually show up to practices instead of just doing like what you guys were doing, where it was. Self-learned self-taught, um, having. 50 cents a day course. Um, I think gave me that extra edge on being able to show up and not have to worry about what am I going to do next?

[00:30:15] Andrew: What am I going to learn next? And then also there was, you know, it wasn't much money, but I had like a minor financial incentive to keep doing it because I paid for the course. So I don't know. I, I truly enjoyed it. I think I bought like a dozen SQL SQL it doesn't you Demi courses after this one, because I was like, that was a blast. I truly enjoyed it. it really covered a lot of bases.

[00:30:36] Bret: did it give you like assignments as well as you.

[00:30:39] Andrew: Yeah. And so those things, I think the course itself was technically only like six hours long, maybe seven or eight hours long. but I split up when I was doing it, basically I would do the thing, like, uh, I'd watch the video. And kind of follow along on my keyboard. So I was pausing a lot and I'd go do my own thing.

[00:30:56] Andrew: And then the editor come back, start the video again, and I'd follow along during that. And then whenever the challenges and the assignments came up, um, they would take me, they'd usually be close to a 30 minute thing. So I'd have these little challenges that were basically the next day is like, The next day, I'd come back and then start the challenge.

[00:31:14] Andrew: I'd do the challenge. And that was my, my 30 minutes that day was relearning it and working on it. So it felt like it stuck pretty well. so just, uh, just thought I'd put out there was, you know, there's a lot of free resources out there. but finding that course, especially something that cheap, I think was really beneficial to me compared to. Tried to do it just on a, a web application at, as self-taught level also don't have a kid again. So that helps. So, but all right, uh, let's hop into the quick rundown of what the latest challenge is going to be. And I don't believe Brett is going to be technically doing it with us, but hopefully he will still be following along and helping Daniel at least, and, uh, working 

[00:31:58] Bret: Yeah, I'll be, I'll be the coach. I'll be the coach

[00:32:01] Andrew: Good. I hope you have a whip, like a nice long Indiana Jones 

[00:32:04] Andrew: with, 

[00:32:05] Bret: Nick. You'll get a whip and a whistle within the whistle. Coach. Brett, would've been whistle.

[00:32:11] Andrew: going to come home. And Angela is going to be like, what is happening here? also, actually a sidebar on this, uh, nothing to do with Angela, but. Uh, your project management. I had a friend of mine reach out and say he was working with you. So I thought that was pretty cool. I know I you about it, but I wanted to give Derek his own shout out, not my cousin, but when I was trying to get me to pirate software, Um, but here at Gardner he's a old college friend and I just thought that was wild.

[00:32:39] Andrew: That one he's willing to listen to a podcast of a guy he hasn't seen like 10 years and two that you worked together. 

[00:32:45] Bret: Yeah, we were literally like when you text me, uh, like 30 minutes before we were on a call together, I have no idea. So we caught up after that was awesome.

[00:32:54] Andrew: That's so cool, man. I love that so much. Okay. It is almost [00:33:00] summertime. Spring is here, so we are going to be doing a physical check. Uh, it is going to be vertical jumping improvement, something that Daniel already has me beat by miles and spades and whatever idiom you want to use. That means Daniel is kicking my butt at his ability to jump higher than me, but that just means that I'm going to have that much more improvement than him because he's already peaking out.

[00:33:24] Andrew: I've got a lot of space to work with. So. Daniel. What do you think this challenge is going to do with you? What are your techniques you're going to follow through on, uh, besides Brett whipping you a bloody, what's your plan?

[00:33:40] Bret: Yeah. 

[00:33:41] Daniel: So I do have a little bit of concern that I'm at a bit of a plateau. So it is what it is I at at this point, like, I'd be thrilled if I could add. Two or three inches to my vertical. That that would be pretty awesome. So aside

[00:34:01] Andrew: That'd bring you into full dunking height. Wouldn't it like legitimate dunking? Not just like tipping the ball in, right.

[00:34:09] Andrew: Or am I misunderestimated your power's already.

[00:34:12] Daniel: yeah, probably would with, with the basketball, cause I can, the biggest thing on dumping this really hard honestly, is. Being able to pull on the ball so I can dunk a volleyball cause I can Palm it pretty easily. Like within my gather, like I don't lose the ball. Um, it is a little bit of a smaller ball as well, but the basketball, all the problems, like I can't calm it.

[00:34:35] Daniel: So I lose some of the opportunity to gather and like explode up with both arms. the ball is a little bit bigger, so 

[00:34:43] Bret: that's probably the challenge. So if we had three inches to your vertical. Like you dunk or two hand dunk. If you get three inches, 

[00:34:51] Daniel: maybe, maybe like three inches might like they might put this.

[00:34:56] Daniel: So, yeah. So that's, that's what I would love to do is get three inches, be able to dump. That would be awesome. I think what I'm going to go for is I'm already lifting pretty consistently with breasts. I just need to be. More consistent on that. deadlift squats, you know, lower leg explosiveness kind of thing.

[00:35:15] Daniel: So that will stay in the mix, continue to do track workouts, like all that kind of stuff. That that's probably more maintenance than much of anything else, but I'm going to use a little bit of a throwback. It's something I've done in the past to help with my vertical. it's a program called air alert.

[00:35:30] Daniel: You basically just for several weeks, do progressively more. Jumps over the course of time. It's kind of split it between, uh, jumping and resting and things like that. So, yeah, I'm just going to kind of go with the route of doing the thing that I want to do more often in hoping that I get a little bit better at it.

[00:35:52] Daniel: as far as tracking, you know, I'm going to try to keep track of, protein intake. I think that's something that you have on your list. I think that's a good one. [00:36:00] Um, I'm actually going to try to keep track of my weight. Um, And ideally, I actually probably want to see it go up just a little bit. Cause I think I'm going to need to add some muscle, but I want to keep track of that and then consistency and the working out.

[00:36:15] Daniel: Um, and the last thing I think is a little bit different than maybe what you were doing, or maybe I could convince you to join me in this, but with the vertical measurement, um, I'm not just doing it. Standing still leap because that's not what you do in most sports. Like if I was going to dunk a basketball, I'm not just going to stand still and dump it.

[00:36:37] Daniel: If I'm going out, I'm playing ultimate. I'm trying to high point. Like I'm not just standing still volleyball. If I'm trying to spike it, I'm not just standing still. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna measure, with a gather with a run-up and part of the. Y, I would maybe argue for you to also do that because I know if you do the stand still, it is a little bit more static and you can maybe see like the raw power increase that lets you jump higher.

[00:37:04] Daniel: But if you're doing that run up, you also have the opportunity to better train your jumping technique and the skill that goes into getting, you know, a launch there there's not as much you can do on a standard vertical, it's basically just having more muscles and jumping higher. 

[00:37:19] Bret: So yeah. What are you doing?

[00:37:21] Andrew: Let me see where to start. we obviously talked about the, you know, we're going to be testing vertical, so I'm going to try and test close to every day. I don't know because I haven't tested yet, so I don't know how much of a pain in the butt that's going to be, but, uh, that is currently my plan. protein intake, I think, is going to be important because that is something I've been lacking on.

[00:37:42] Andrew: And since the goal here is going to be both. Mind muscle connection, but also building that muscle up to be able to jump. And I say, muscle, the jump muscle, you know that one that's there. So obviously building up a better posterior chain. Yeah. Pinky toe one. So that whole chain of lower body plus some upper body I've heard help.

[00:38:03] Andrew: So I'm going to really try and focus on my protein up to. And intake, excuse me, or protein intake and a lot of health benefits. And that's why I was a little hard. It was hard for me to start on. That was everything came into my mind at once. So I'm taking a really holistic approach on the backend. Um, I'm going to try 30 days, no alcohol.

[00:38:24] Andrew: Uh, I'm going to be also changing up my diet, which this could actually be really detrimental, but I'm going to try and go, carnival or Q2. sorry, show me. I know that's going to be fun. so I'm going to be doing that. And hopefully that helps, uh, make me more aerodynamic, I guess you could say, and really at the body build that muscle better without any distraction, for the actual building part of the program.

[00:38:51] Andrew: I'm a huge.

[00:38:53] Andrew: Fan of the knees over toes guy, which is funny since I've really not done anything of his. And I only found out about him a couple months [00:39:00] ago, but that's his big claim to fame was he basically went

[00:39:02] Andrew: from a bad injured

[00:39:04] Andrew: to being able to play basketball like in his thirties. And, uh, Hey, that sounds familiar.

[00:39:09] Andrew: so big fan of him, one of the things that he talks about is really building up your hamstrings and doing, a lot of like, Asymmetrical work, including sled, push and pull. So those are going to be kind of my two big things. I'm going to be doing a lot of sled, push, pull stuff, and jumping a lot, uh, preferably off one or both legs depending on the day.

[00:39:31] Andrew: And that'll be kind of my main attempt there. So, uh, beyond that, I really just business as usual. hopefully everything else will. Be able to work out. I'll try and keep track of the reps and the pounds

[00:39:45] Andrew: and the gym that I'm hitting and what exercise I was exercises I was doing that day, or at least the main one for

[00:39:52] Andrew: jumping, 

[00:39:53] Andrew: I guess. So we'll see how it goes. I'll just try and be consistent. We'll see if just tracking it and working towards that specific goal changes. Anything.

[00:40:01] Andrew: Uh, so Brett, if you've got any, you know, two to 25 cents, all the way up to a dollar, even of sense that you want to throw in on this, you know, you're the strongest of the three of us.

[00:40:11] Andrew: So you must know the most.

[00:40:12] Bret: I don't know if I'm the strongest right now, I'm trying to catch up. But, no, I I'm. I'm excited for y'all. I think it's going to be a good challenge. Um, one thing I would recommend is if you're going to do, whenever you do your vertical test, whether it's once a week, twice a week daily, if I'd be curious to do a few tests, like before you went on.

[00:40:32] Bret: And then do a few tests after you do a little bit of warmup and then do a test after you stretch or something, just to see if that makes a difference. And then even, um, you know, as y'all are working on getting, you know, stronger intro, cleaning up your diet, test some of the techniques, as far as, you know, using your arms swings, changing up some of your steps.

[00:40:52] Bret: Um, cause I bet that's where you get the most bang for your buck on the vertical tip. but now that's, uh, I'm pumped. I hope y'all are both dumping by the end of the month. 

[00:41:01] Daniel: Oh, we're going to definitely both be dunking there's there's no, no doubt about it. even if it's Andrew, like standing on my shoulders, we'll find a way to dump.

[00:41:09] Daniel: We'll get 

[00:41:09] Bret: there. Yeah. Vince Carter and Clyde Drexler by the end of the month. That's what I'm 

[00:41:15] Daniel: expecting. That's right. I mean, there's a lot of things that would have to happen to get us there. It's fine. One step at a time and dunking and step one. okay. Well, before we close out the episode, we're keeping Storytime.

[00:41:30] Daniel: It's a staple of our guest episodes, but since, you are here on back to back episodes, we get to flip the script a little bit and I'm going to actually tell a story about you, Andrew. Doesn't doesn't get to tell a story. He doesn't know you well enough yet. And did that right. Maybe someday. so in our last episode, you came in and share a couple of the nicest stories that have ever been told publicly about Andrew and I.

[00:41:59] Daniel: So first of all, thank [00:42:00] you. Thank you for doing that. you're a true friend and the stories that I want to tell, I think. Highlight again, how generous you are and how thoughtful you are. And so for anybody that doesn't know, Brett, Brett is an epic party planner like an ethic, is it planner it? And maybe that's not actually true.

[00:42:22] Daniel: Maybe he just like ethically. Angela. I know that that is true. That is true. Um, so since being friends with Brett, I've seen so many just really awesome events and parties and things like that that have been planned around, you know, Christmas, new years. Uh, I think. Uh, Christmas party where you created like several different things from Jimmy Fallon's like, uh, late night, like events that we got to do, Madlibs gifts, Madelyn's gifts for Christmas movies.

[00:42:55] Daniel: You also did, like, he does this thing where you reach inside of a box and like, you, you can't see what's in there. So you're like, yeah, you created a box where we did that. Yeah. Do you things like that, um, pretty recently you rented out an entire coffee shop to do a birthday party. Angela moved like tables, 

[00:43:16] Bret: uh, coffee, karaoke.

[00:43:18] Bret: That was awesome. Yeah, that was 

[00:43:19] Daniel: awesome. So epic events and the story I want to tell was an opportunity where we got to do one together, which was like a dream come true because I know how much you love doing events and planning events. I also really loved to. Just do elaborate over the top types of things.

[00:43:40] Daniel: And so, uh, this past December, um, we had the chance to go out to, I think, a Cedar Ridge reserve or something like that. So it's a lake near Dallas and there's just really, really awesome house. We'd actually been to once before where you planned an epic Lord of the rings weekend for a group of friends and cooked like pretty much single-handedly, um, an entire feast. So as we were there, we were like, we got to come back to this place. It's so awesome. Um, and we need to do it kind of in the wintertime when we talked about doing a Harry Potter theme. And so we were able to make that happen and, uh, We decided we were going to create like this Wizarding house games across the course of the whole weekend.

[00:44:27] Daniel: And it was just so much fun to take a Google sheet and throw all of these random ideas out there. Um, I started by just like, yeah, lots of random ideas. And then you came in and. Together. We're able to kind of put together all of these different events, sort of ranging from, uh, like rock paper scissors, but with spells and you did spell casting.

[00:44:53] Daniel: Um, we have four cruxes hidden throughout the entire house teams 

[00:44:58] Bret: had to find and destroy her [00:45:00] horcrux 

[00:45:00] Daniel: is throughout the course of the weekend. Um, we still had a Harry Potter theme, food floating candles. All that fun stuff. The best part was we ended up making this. It was sort of like a progressive escape room, I guess.

[00:45:14] Daniel: And at the end it was like a legit escape room where you had to go up the staircase with all these booby traps to get biased on the flood. The first book. Yes. Yeah. All of the different challenges that they had to, to clear in order to make it to the sources of stuff. Yeah. You had to get by fluffy going up the stairs.

[00:45:33] Daniel: Um, you put together this awesome, like ki uh, how would you describe that? Yeah, so the, 

[00:45:40] Bret: yeah, yeah. In the, in the book, in the movie, they had to find the key to get through, um, whatever it was to the next challenge. So the wind keys, so we had a drawer full of random. Antique looking keys and they had to match up the right ones to get through the door.

[00:45:55] Bret: That was, yeah. And you had to 

[00:45:56] Daniel: ride a broomstick to 

[00:45:57] Bret: the rider, broke down. You had to write a broomstick. 

[00:46:00] Daniel: So we had some, uh, some wizards chess. That was cool. You had to, you had to solve the, you had one move. Um, take the king. You had to solve it as quick as you can. All of this is timed by the way, uh, uh, potions challenge riddle.

[00:46:16] Daniel: Um, we, we did a toilet paper wrapping for the devil scenario and then like a true legitimate escape room. That was seriously like all you, you put together an escape room that was better than some professional escape rooms I've been to. Um, so really I, that is my story of Joe. The epic party planning in the extravagant efforts that you'd go to in order to, uh, yeah.

[00:46:47] Daniel: Just create awesome experiences for your friends, for your family. And it's something that I think is very unique about you and I very much appreciate, 

[00:46:55] Bret: appreciate it. Appreciate it. Eden and Riley, our daughters. They're going to have epic birthday parties get ready. I think everybody had a fun time with Harry Potter.

[00:47:05] Bret: We had a blast. There's no doubt planning the, uh, the events and challenges and then putting everybody through through them. So I appreciate that. And also part of the reason that I plan, I try to plan epic birthday parties for Angela is because she is the best at surprising me with parties. And so I, I try to try to hang with her, but no, I appreciate you sharing that story 

[00:47:27] Daniel: runs runs in the blood

[00:47:30] Bret: sort of thing, I 

[00:47:31] Daniel: guess.

[00:47:33] Daniel: All right. Well, thank you for joining us for two episodes. Brett. It's unprecedented. You're our first repeat guest. Yeah. 

[00:47:42] Bret: And still biggest fan throwing it out there. I know. Uh, there's been a couple of people have told me that they, uh, they feel like they're the biggest fan since our last episode, but I'm on the podcast flights.

[00:47:53] Bret: I'm the biggest fan I'm there. It's recorded. Forever archived. Documented. Yeah. 

[00:47:59] Daniel: You [00:48:00] can say scoreboard at this point,

[00:48:05] Daniel: we appreciate having you on, uh, feel free to, you know, observe or join the vertical challenge as much as you would like, and to all of our other listeners. We hope that you enjoy following along with, uh, the challenges, whether you're just kind of listening in or whether it's inspired you to do something similar.

[00:48:23] Daniel: Uh, we'd love to hear about those experiences. We'll shout you out on the podcast. Um, if you want to be like Brett and be on the episode a couple of times and, um, get to go through one of these challenges with us, we would love that as well. So look forward to hearing from us in a couple of weeks on. How the vertical leap is going.

[00:48:42] Daniel: Um, how close Andrew and I are to becoming Vince Carter and Clyde Drexler. And we look forward to connecting with you until then. Thank you.

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