205 – Freeze Your Own Poop

Daniel and Adam kick off with late-start jokes and “10/10” chatter, then dive into cake economics: Zach’s plan for a pricey Cake Bake Shop “Meet Santa” dinner (three courses, cocktails, photo, gift) gets the thumbs-up. Daniel recounts Big Fatty’s 14-second “lost episode” and teases Adam about Big Brother spoilers, lobs love at Critical Role’s new campaign, and laments not being able to dish on Strange New Worlds yet. A long catch-up follows: Adam’s brutal illness (two weeks, 17 pounds lost) and the truly cursed lab quest—freezing and chilling stool samples at home—followed by Daniel’s syphilis treatment saga (penicillin shortages, $1,700 quote, doxycycline workaround), an unwanted no-show fee, and the Drury Hotel refund survey cherry on top.

Contact arrives with a flood of voicemails for the Celebrity Death Phone (callers insist “Giorgio Armani, 91” among others), plus a chewing-gum-behind-the-ear query and HOA confusion from abroad. Daniel explains why HOAs are ubiquitous in U.S. suburbs, including the uglier history; Adam shares how that plays out for his partner while Daniel compares fees across neighborhoods. The hosts shout out Level 13 and especially Brian for valiantly stirring Discord conversation.

They spin up the Technology sting to answer Brian’s LLM prompt question: Daniel shares his “checklist, revise, validate” instruction pattern and suggests asking the model to draft stricter prompts that don’t blow smoke. Instead of The News Game, Adam runs a speed-round trivia burst (Back to the Future aliens, New Orleans Square, etc.). Adam closes with Switzerland highlights—Zurich chocolate, Lucerne, Grindelwald in the mist, panoramic trains, Interlaken lake cruise—plus high drama: leaving a bag with his passport on a train, scrambling for an emergency passport in Bern, then miraculously getting the bag (and Ray-Bans) back after returning home.

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