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8 Bits with jQueery!
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In this episode we are joined by self-taught web developer and drag queen extrodinare jQueery!
Join us to learn her career changing self-taught journey from business into C# and PHP!
- Follow Chloe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChloeCondon
- Follow jQueery on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jQueery_Queen
- Follow Brandon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCodeTraveler
We're back. We made it after a strange hiatus last week. We are. Brandon, how you doing? Welcome to eight minutes everyone. We are back after a strange hiatus from a interesting political situation that happened right as we tried to stream last week. And as Congress debates things on the floor, we're here to talk with very awesome guests. But Brandon, how you doing? How you doing in this very interesting week?
Brandon Minnick:Good. I'm so yeah, I've been getting into more of the joys of homeownership is, as you know, we just bought a house and moved up to Napa a couple months ago. Because, let's be honest, living in the city is amazing, but not so much during a pandemic. So, yeah, we moved up here and we got got a little chilly. So you know, we ran the heater for the first time and let it run for hour or two hours and whole house smelled like gas. I was like, That's not good. So yeah, my the last couple weeks for me have been well, first of all, everybody's fine. We opened the doors and windows, the Pacific Gas and Electric our gas company came out and check for leaks. And they basically said, Oh, yeah, your furnace in the attic is missing an exhaust pipe. So Oh. And and also turns out that the reason it's missing that is because the roofers when we bought the house, as soon as we bought it, we had a we put a new roof on. So literally before we even moved in, bought the house roofers came out, we moved in, they removed a roof vent, that connected the furnace, and you know, dispelled all the noxious gases like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. So yeah, for the last, I guess couple months we've been living in this house, fortunately, haven't been running the heater. And have been battling this problem for the last couple of weeks where the roofers acknowledge that they've removed event, but they're very insistent that the vent wasn't connected to anything. And that it's not their fault. And just like trying to get them to come back out here and say, Hey, guys, like you did a great job on the roof. But I need you to put the vent back on has been surprisingly difficult.
Chloe Condon:An event if you will. Sorry. I haven't told a bad joke in a week. Well, that is some drama. And I'm glad that you lived and did not perish from
Brandon Minnick:I learned a carpet. So yeah, when the gas guy came in, he had this monitoring tool, and immediately thing starts going off and he's like, oh, wow, like that smell you smell? That's carbon monoxide. That explains this headache like this. Like the worst headache I've ever had in my life. It felt like there was like a somebody's just driving a nail on the back of my head. And yeah, fortunately, I said no, no, no long lasting injuries. Well, I guess hopefully.
Chloe Condon:No, Brandon's were harmed. noxious gas emitted from his home. Oh my gosh. Well, we're so glad you're here.
Brandon Minnick:We survived almost only get taken out by our own furnace at the end of the year.
Chloe Condon:Is this our first stream of 2021?
Brandon Minnick:It is
Chloe Condon:it is oh my gosh, how the time flies. Well, I don't have any. Well, I do have a couple very important updates one as you can see, I have two very special guests in addition to our guests here today. Grow aka baby Yoda. I just wanted to introduce everybody to my my favorite new pal here. For those of you don't know, I'm very obsessed with toys. And this is the most realistic toy I've ever had. And motherhood has been just great so far. So thank you everyone. It also goes to sleep. It's my little son grew up having a little nap. Um, but yeah, not too much has been going on here other than taking care of this little guy sleeping. I let him sleep. But uh, gosh, what's been going on? Okay, you need to you need to hash out there. A lot too much going on in my world seasons and server lists of course has come to a click lose this week, our wonderful Microsoft student ambassadors from Africa, made a recipe tracking application using Azure. So definitely check out my YouTube for that really, really fun. It's been such a joy, to work with our Microsoft Student Ambassadors during everything going on in the world. I know I say this all the time, but to quote Whitney Houston, I believe the children love you. And with everything going on, it's so nice to know that there are I'm so glad. It's so nice to know that the future generation is building really awesome, amazing apps that are helping the world in so many ways. For anybody out there who's not familiar with Microsoft student ambassador program, it's a really, really wonderful program that students can join, get involved with, with Microsoft. But also the Imagine Cup is coming up, which I'm super excited about. We're doing a of course, a virtual Imagine Cup this year, since we're going through a global pandemic. But it's so amazing. I've been looking at these previous videos that Imagine Cup students have made getting ready for the next Imagine Cup. And it's so wonderful to see apps that are making a difference in the world being created by students who are at universities currently, like, there. There's not a lot of good news today, or just in general these days. But when I see like the amazing different things that help the blind see that help like people who who are able to participate in in different activities that they weren't previously able to participate using Azure using Microsoft products, helping the environment it really it, it makes a tiny little Grinch heart grow 100 sizes, so shout out to all the Microsoft student ambassadors, everyone involved in the Imagine Cup for restoring my faith in humanity. Thanks, y'all thing?
Brandon Minnick:It's, I found it's so it's so easy to kind of get caught up in all the other stuff and what we do, right, it's like, you know, how many hours did you work this week? What are your Okay, ours? Like, what do you get your performance reviews and you kind of lose? It's easy to lose track of or lose sight of the fact of why why you got into this in the first place. Like, we can really change the world, we have the tools that can make these amazing things. And yeah, so far, so refreshing watching, watching Imagine Cup, and if Oh, if you haven't heard of Imagine Cup, it's a global global competition, where groups of students come together, and they make products using the Microsoft tools. So there, there's all sorts of crazy things like drones that can detect wildfires, or remember, there's one for like diabetes and insulin analysis in real time. And it's just these amazing tools they put together. And then it's a competition. So kind of, like all our Shark Tank a little bit were very Shark Tank. Like they stand on stage. And there's there's local, regional, national, and then global competition. So I helped out with one in San Francisco here a couple years ago and mentored a team. And yeah, we went through their pitch because you get this five minute pitch where you have to show off your, say, your tool, whatever you created, and also kind of sell it right, like here is what our growth plan is here much. Here's how much we think it's gonna cost. Here's how many users we're gonna get. And it's very, very inspiring, and truly incredible. And, and yeah, as you win the local regional competitions, you move on, and eventually Yeah, there's this global competition. I guess the finale is held in Well, probably not this year, but every other year held in Seattle, where yet the winners from all these countries from around the world compete against each other. And then there's a giant trophy. And I want to say scholarships or money. Like there's stuff like Azure credits, I think, like$1,000 in Azure credits, it's all of it. The scale of it is truly amazing. And I'm almost disappointed. I didn't know anything about it.
Chloe Condon:You should talk because I am this close to doing what is it 2021 Jump Street never been kissed kind of situation where I go and disguise as a high schooler and like try to redo all of this over again and compete in the Imagine Cup because the jealousy that I feel I'm like, how did I not know like, similarly with the Jimmy awards, which is kind of the Microsoft Imagine Cup equivalent in the musical theater world, there's this new competition for high schoolers to like, compete in the musical theater Olympics, essentially. And I'm like, gosh, I just need a pose as a high school student. I look kinda young. Maybe we can like your hair's a little bit longer. Now. Brandon, I can like I can I can we can. I think we can do this. I think we just need to go into sky. compete. No, I'm just kidding. Well, we'll let that But
Brandon Minnick:why don't you stay lit all the time? Yeah.
Chloe Condon:You know, but I couldn't agree more. I'm just like, I think this is the coolest thing. If there's a video that I had that I will tweet out later of me at build two years ago, interviewing some previous finalists from the Imagine Cup, and I want to do an edit of that video, where I'm just zooming in on my face because I'm holding the microphone in my face is just like, Oh my gosh, these people are gonna be my boss someday. Like they're so incredible and smart.
Brandon Minnick:Just hand over the emcee job to them.
Chloe Condon:Yeah, like okay, so Oh, my goodness. Well, any other any other updates before we bring in our guest? I of course have some some fun theme park news to share later that we'll get into but uh,
Brandon Minnick:let's let's jump right into it.
Chloe Condon:Let's do it. Okay, y'all, I've got a, I've got a preamble for this one. Because I am such a fan of our guests today. For those of you who don't know, or maybe don't even know who I am, or don't follow me on Twitter or anywhere on social media, I absolutely love the art form, that is drag. I attend drag con every year, with the exception of last year, because obviously it was canceled due to Corona. My mother was a costume designer. She I grew up in a household where very elaborate, fantastical costumes were being created. And as a woman myself, I know the power of transformation with makeup. I wake it's hard to believe but I wake up every single morning looking like a garbage trash pail. And then I put makeup on and I'm able to create something beautiful for the public eye. And I admire so many people who do drag Viet on RuPaul drag race be at our local drag bars and communities that are now live streaming these events because it's not only a performance art, but it's really an act of self expression. I love Love, love everything about the drag community and what it stands for Brandon, you and I have been to a lovely drag performance of tricks events all together credible, one of the most incredible concerts I've ever seen. And today, we have a very special guest who's going to talk to us about a bunch of things. But they are a technical drag queen which I only know of about five that I can count on my on my hands so people have eight beds welcome our very wonderful special guest Jay query. Hello. Welcome to the show. Fabulous. We made it may be our are not tuning in live and are viewing this as a back episode we try to do this episode last week and a coup obstructed us from participating in this conversation. But we were so
jQueery:that's how bad they wanted to keep us apart. The government wanted people people didn't want this to happen, but you know what is happening?
Chloe Condon:I'm like keeping a close eye on the news here. But we are here we're talking about it. Welcome to the show. jQuery Do you want to introduce to the audience at home give a little intro of yourself?
jQueery:Oh yes, I'm jQuery. I do drag mainly for fun. I'm not very good at it. And I'm also for like a job I guess you want to call it I also am a web developer. So yeah, that's that's me. I I'm still I'm gonna be honest with you as a drag queen. I'm still kind of a baby. I mean, so I'm still figuring things out. And my girlfriend is also a drag queen and she's she's my drag She's my girlfriend and my drag mom so it's sort of weird not not like that not that weird guys not like
Chloe Condon:a lot of people are usually tuning in to the Microsoft developer channel maybe you don't know to drag mom is so let's break that down. Maybe Brandon doesn't even know we can kind of explain what this means if anybody if you're looking for a great history lesson highly recommend Paris is burning. Great, great documentary on the origin and history of the drag club and scene. But yeah, let's let's talk real quickly about houses and drag mothers and what that is and what that means because I'm sure a lot of people are scratching their heads going
jQueery:to classes and development right so a class people know but like a drag model be someone who typically put you in drag for the first time, essentially and how you perform. So a drag mom and they have these drag houses that basically People who kind of like it's kind of like clubs, essentially, right? I mean, really, yeah. Especially we talk about the houses, because they're these are all people that kind of like, are there, that's their family of drag people and have typically one person who was the person that started everything off. So it ended up. I mean, I know I'm oversimplifying it, but like, that's basically it. So the person who puts you in drag the first time is essentially thought of as your drag. Now, that's not always the case. There are a lot of drag queens who don't do the drag mom thing, and that's fine, too. I know, I've heard Trixie talk about that. She doesn't want to ever be a drag mom. Which is fine. I get that too. Oh,
Chloe Condon:motherhood is a big responsibility in the drag queen world. And
Brandon Minnick:you're bringing them into the world? Yeah, you're almost everything then?
jQueery:Absolutely. So. So that's basically what it is.
Chloe Condon:There's a lot of history also to be learned. Or, I mean, of course, this is a fictionalized version of it. But if anybody out there is is looking for an education in this pose, kind of brings up a really interesting concept of especially back in the 70s. And even today, a lot of people who get involved in the drag community get ostracized from their families. So being part of a family chosen family, I noticed something I believe very strongly, and it is a big, big word and the drag community, chosen family and creating these, it's almost in the same way that we have communities and tech like JavaScript community, or Gosh, like the whole Kubernetes community. I feel like it's almost a drag house in itself, right. Yeah. And
jQueery:in cold waters. Yes.
Chloe Condon:Let's see, I'm going to share my screen. Let's see if we, and also you have a YouTube channel as well, that you're doing really awesome stuff on.
jQueery:We do, we do have a YouTube channel. And it's, it's unknown drag queens, if you want to go check it out. It's myself and my girlfriend. Her dragon is Black Rose. And so with our drag channel, we just started this last year, it is a result of being at home for I don't know, for the last year, every single day. So we we started this drag channel, we try to kind of get a feel for like what we wanted to do, we're still working on those things. But we really started getting our footing about two or three months ago when we started doing these reaction videos. And that has been huge. Yeah, so we we started doing, we started off doing like, reviews of drag race, which is a market that's pretty flooded, there's a lot of very popular drag means that do all those things. No one's ever gonna see our channel. Reviews of drag race. So we were like, we kind of did some, like, kind of try some different things. And then I personally, I do love some reaction videos, especially music reaction videos, like people who have never seen, like a certain genre of music or something or things like that.
Chloe Condon:I bought jQuery, you had the baby metal. Once I saw the baby metal video, I was like, subscribe for life.
jQueery:They're so they're so amazing. And that's been a thing. Music in my myself and music throughout my life, like it's kind of been like, I'm either really into it, or I'm just don't i don't sweat at all. Like, you know, I I love music, but I don't isn't like it isn't like, it's not a part of my normal day. I just don't think about it. That's all you know, I love it. But I don't care about that much. I know, a lot of people would just like, the whole thing. So watching these videos have been great. The reactions are authentic, because we find things that like we definitely have never seen before. And so that makes it fun too. Because there are you know, there are things I was just, you can watch the videos, there are bands and groups. And I was just talking to Chris about this yesterday, like it's been a little bit like traveling because what we've kind of noticed is that we started out getting a lot of us watching the Rammstein videos. So we were getting a lot of views from Europe and Germany, like right away. And then we sort of like have been bouncing around. But last week, we did a we watched a video from a drag queen who's from Brazil. And it was an amazing video and amazing song too. So we're kind of like jumping around. But it's nice to see. You know, as far as the analytics are concerned, like, see, like, we're we're actually be getting views like in different countries in different areas and regions. And then you get comments from people from everywhere. So you get to learn different things, which is really cool, too. So
Chloe Condon:yeah, well, I definitely want to loop back about comments because I'm sure we have a lot in the area of comments. Um, but something that we love to talk about on this show are people sort of like Marvel origin story of how They got here on this show today how they got into tech. So tell us a little bit about how you are sitting here with us today as a drag queen in tech, how did you learn the tech part?
jQueery:Absolutely, ya know, I'd be happy to excuse me, I'm a little, I'm gonna get some water one second here. It's dry here in the desert. So my journey to tech, basically, is, after I finished two different degrees in business, a bachelor's and a master's degree. Like literally like a week after I finished my MBA, I stumbled across a website that had something to do with code. And I instantly fell in love. And I knew as soon as that I started to write some of it knew immediately, I just wasted six years of my life on to business degrees. And Mike, this is what I want to do. It was like that, that quick. And so that was it was several years ago, kind of like just took off from there. So basically, I'm self taught, I mean, I sort of learning using solo learn, in code pen in front end things. And this is kind of interesting, because as someone who had no technical background, I had to figure out, you know, basically, this is problem solving, I had to figure out how am I going to get my foot in the door? Yeah, the skill. So I spent a big part of the first year or two, learning C sharp was my was my because, in my mind, the first time the first time I love it, I love sushi. I love C sharp, I really do. So I spent a lot of time learning C sharp as much as I could anyway. And I even I did go sit for one of the Microsoft exams, I'm here see this, but I, I feel like six months, I went and I went to take one of the exams and I just missed it. Looking back now I'm like, I'm surprised I even did that, though. Because it was so much information for someone who didn't have a technical background at all. So, but I that was my focus, I was like, Okay, I'm going to learn C sharp, and I'm gonna get into a position mean good to a job using that. And then about three years later, or three and a half years later. This is very ironic. My first job was writing PHP. So C sharp, but like, I don't even use it anymore, unfortunately. But and I don't know how that happened. That was the day that I landed my job. I was like, okay, there's, there's more luck involved with all this thing. I think we're good. We're all giving credit to like, like, they were like, Yeah, do you know, I mean, I did. I had been working with PHP, but like, not as, as hard as much as I'd been learning C sharp. So it was weird to get a job using PHP as my first developer job. But that was basically it. I mean, that's there's a lot of little little details. But that's, that's the gist of it. That's how I got. Yeah, oh, my
Brandon Minnick:gosh. And it's, it's, I don't wanna say I love hearing that it took three years. But I love that you're willing to share this journey with folks, because that's something that's always so tough in and I don't know, how to solve this problem. But it's very well known in the community that your first job is always the hardest. And that once you get that first job, then you're you're kind of in and like the next job, like, is much, much easier. So yeah, I'm curious. How did you spend those those three years? Was it? That's,
jQueery:that's good question. I appreciate that question, Brandon, because I'm, you know, I'm a little older. So I have a lot of perspective on life in general, and I have a lot of life experiences. So yes, I do hate that. It's so hard to get your foot in the door that first time, I have a lot of friends that have been trying to get into their first development role, you know, over the last four or five, six years, and it's, it sucks because I, you root for them so hard, and you do it and you want you hope you can help them but you know, it'll help us So, ya know, I spent Okay, so basically, I was working full time. And I had a university for the first for the first year of me just learning to code. I was working at a job I had been at fletc for years. As I was learning as much as I could from utilizing again, as many online free references and resources that I could. I also was trying to figure out this plan. So fortunately for me, I was I live near a place where we have some different companies that hosting facilities basically like I ended up getting a job with Bluehost so it was a different way in like could still kind of see that the prot you know how to get there. From there, I just had a piece together. So again, it was, it's a wonky way, and it's totally random. You know, so I got into Bluehost, I spent about two and a half years there spent, I spent about six months working directly with Bluehost. And then after that, within Bluehost, they had a team that was being built for WordPress, specifically with WordPress, and I ended up getting on that team. And that was basically how things took off. You know, just working on that, you know, on the WordPress team, still the entire time, I was always you can ask anyone that was on the WordPress team with, I would always have a browser open working on code, like just learning as much as I could all the time as much as possible. So and they know because I would be I would send everybody like, hey, check out what I made today are whatever it is
Chloe Condon:truly such a chicken and an egg situation. I think, you know, we see this with with PJ who were mentoring we see this with with the folks that I mentor who are self taught, how do you get the experience if you don't have the experience. And I think it's such an important thing to bring up because some of most of the best engineers that I know are self taught or have gone to a boot camp or whatever method it is that has gotten them here. And that diversity in it in perspective is so so important. So whenever I have people who come to me and say, Where are all these diverse engineers? Like Where can we find them? We can't find them on like, you're literally not letting them through the door recruiting software from out. It's hard enough. When I graduated from hackbright I was told you're gonna have no problem getting a job because your network is so large. And you know, so many people in the community. Well, guess what, no one wanted to hire me because they're like boot campers, I don't know about that. Like, they need to get a little bit experience first. So I think, you know, to get on my soapbox here, I couldn't agree more like it's it's a problem that we need to solve in this industry like to to get diversity in this industry, we need to hold the door open for these folks. Because how many amazing senior engineers do you know who are self taught? Like I know, so many,
jQueery:my boss is self taught, I will say this. He He's the he? He's, I'm in a very weird, my job is a very, I'm on a very small dev team. I'm on a dev team of basically three people. So yes, I work for a very I work in a very interesting capacity. Because the company I work for we we work for a company that have I put this it's not a company that sells products, like publicly like it's a it's basically like they only sell things to contractors, essentially. Does that make sense? Okay, so yes, yeah. So you want a website? Like for you and I to order things we can't you have to actually create, you have to actually pay to have an account? That kind of thing? Yeah, it's an it's a very big company, but like, so anyway, my boss is one of the nicest, most kind people I've ever met my entire life. He's also like, a super genius. Like, it's like, I think he's a genius. And I'm glad he's probably not gonna watch today, because like, you don't want his head to get any bigger than he already is. Now, he's just, he's just like most people, like you wish was your first person to help lead you in? Like, yeah, that guy. Unfortunately, he's not the kind of person that I don't think I don't think he's that, that there's not a lot of people like him, I should say, out there. And it's unfortunate. I'm very lucky in that way. And I think about that a lot I think about and it's frustrating, because I have, like I said, I have a lot of friends. We know people that I know, they can do what I do. Like, I know that they're as smart as I am. And I know they work as hard as I do. I know they can do this, like And so yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm just rambling. No, yeah, no, it's
Chloe Condon:there's, I see a lot of apprenticeships popping up, I see a lot of different methods and ways for people to get involved. But we need more like we need so many more if we're gonna make a difference. So if you're out there, and you're a hiring manager, or you make decisions, make sure that you I mean, I famously love to tell the story. I once tried to refer someone at a previous job for a role and they literally could not apply because the drop down menu under degree only had technical degrees. So I couldn't even apply for a job at my own country, given my theater degree. So think about these, you know, this is an industry that has been rebuilt these tools and most people in the room, you know, I'll say it again fleet. If there had been one person from the gay community in that room probably wouldn't have been called fleets. You can Google that thing later if you want. But I love I love Love, love to see someone like yourself being out there being proud about their non traditional background because the more we see it out there, the more We have to go look like there are people who, like there's one way to do this. So thank you for all the work that you do around that. And thanks for helping get more people out there who wait whenever
jQueery:I whenever I, whenever I see something come to my Twitter feed like I try to like dm my friends right away because it's like, hey, check it out. This is the position. And then just recently, I had a friend that a really good friend and that I worked with at WordPress. And she was just like putting herself now because that's what happens. Yeah, and I was applying like a machine gun like applying like crazy that for three years. I got to apply for anything. Yeah rejections, getting rejections, getting rejections, counseling it. So all you could do, that's all I could do, you know, just keep applying. And I know that, like, you hear that a lot. And it sucks. But I mean, it does work eventually. I think so.
Chloe Condon:You know, I almost feel like all the rejection that I faced in auditions as an actress prepared me for all the whiteboarding and doors slammed in my face. So I'll ask you that same question. Then you you went to school and you got this? You know, for six years, it sounds like you got this four year degree and then you went through you use your your business degree day to day in your in your role as a developer? Not really no.
jQueery:Like, my undergrad, appreciation for my undergrad just because of the of the extra curricular courses that I took. I think I did learn a lot about being a human person. And I think there's there obviously is value to college education. I believe a big part of it is are the humanities types course type of courses. They helped me a lot to develop just as a person. But yeah, no, I don't I don't really at all. So now it's it's one of those things where it's just it's hard to tell like it. I don't even know, I didn't really 100% know for sure what I wanted to do with my business degree. I just knew throughout your whole entire life, everyone tells you to get a degree.
Brandon Minnick:Why did I go to college? Right?
Chloe Condon:It's such an interesting thing that we do where we expect like children because I think I was under 18 when I decided my major what they're going to do for the rest of their life. Like I I'm a firm believer now of the midlife career change, obviously, cuz I did one myself. But I think you know, it's it's interesting because like, clearly my acting to class where I had to pretend to be like a cap for an hour doesn't necessarily help me as developer, right. But there's so many other ways that Paul's I think, things that I do. But I think even just the perspective, like I couldn't agree more, I have a BA so I took a lot of Native American studies classes, I took a lot of like women's history classes and just learning. Like, there's weird ways that my my degree sneaks in to my to my but it's it's such a people always ask me all the time, you know, would if you could go back in time, would you get your theater degree? And sometimes the answer is yes. Because I wouldn't change anything. But if I could, sometimes my answer is if I go back in time, I wouldn't have gone to university, I would have attended a bunch of free meetups in the Bay Area, lived off a free pizza and joined tech a lot early. But this is to say to anybody out there who maybe has done this who has gotten a degree in something completely different, who feels like well, I put all my eggs in this basket. My ship has sailed. I have to do it for some time and still do it.
jQueery:Yeah, absolutely don't, don't don't sit there and sulk. I did it late in life to essentially so I had to have that moment. Where I was like, I mean, they're gonna do I mean, they're all in, or I'm gonna, like, probably regret not even trying. Forever. So, yeah, I just think like, you know, you have to do it. I mean, if it's, if you love to write code, and you really want to do this, like you have to try.
Brandon Minnick:Yeah, I was listening to there's a, there's a great podcast called code newbie. And they're interviewing Danny Thompson, and as listen to that episode The other day. And he made a really, really cool point that it just clicked for me that this is super relevant to what we're just talking about. He said that he didn't go get his degree. Because the way he looked at it, that takes four years. So he's like, that's four years, where I will not have a job. And so the way he looked at it is if you can teach yourself to code and you can get a job within four years, you went like, four years sounds like a really long time to be searching for a job. And jQuery just said you've you search for three years and it is it's a slog, but yes got a job quicker than the traditional route? And it's a little bit. It's, it was like some really eye opening perspective for him. It's like, Oh, yeah, wow, yeah, I guess if you do a boot camp or take an internship, like, you're gonna, well, not that it's a race, but you're going to come out ahead.
Chloe Condon:And also just a barrier to entry. You know, for people like myself, I didn't have the time or the money or the resources to take four years out of my life to go to school for computer science, I was 25 or 26 when I did my boot camp. So I think there's a lot of interesting conversations that happen in tech around like, oh, a boot camp a 12 week boot camp, you can learn how to code but really a boot camp doesn't teach you how to be an engineer at a boot camp teaches you how to learn a language. So similar to what jQuery was saying, you know, learning C sharp and not even necessarily using that in your day to day. I mean, same for so many of my myself included and cohort mates, like learning how to learn a language is step one. And from there, you know, you can, you can go anywhere with that, that's kind of the beauty of tech, in my opinion is in theater, you work and you work and you work to become the best singer, the best dancer, you know, and you audition and so much of it is out of your control. But the most wonderful thing about tech is 110% that you put in, you get back and it's amazing to see people who have come from oh my gosh, I've seen people who've come from fast food backgrounds from there's so many inspiring people that I follow online that have joined us here. Thank you. It's, it's a wonderful, beautiful thing to see. But on the topic, let's circle back real quick to the topic of comments on the topic of being online being very online. So I wear this shirt today, Girls Just Want to Have fundamental human rights. I of course, a woman on the internet and I must imagine, it must be a really interesting thought experiment to present as a drag queen on the internet and to be a very forward facing drug not only on the internet, but in the tech community. Give us a glimpse into what that is like I'm so curious and scared.
jQueery:Oh, yeah. So yeah, the nail on the head is, is interesting. from four years having accounts as you know, face you know, as a boy as a man, you know, you remain relatively unnoticed, basically, if you're just a regular person, so as I am, so, when I started, when I changed my accounts over to my drag accounts, it was almost instantaneous that I was starting to get like DMS from men. I'm guessing hopefully, I'm thinking that they are men. You know, you'd never get really any real legitimate profile photos. But yeah, no, I have had DMS there was one on Instagram that offered me $400 for a night. That's all said. It didn't say what I mean. It could have just been like, me playing Uno. I don't know.
Brandon Minnick:I don't need a website tonight. $400.
jQueery:That's not enough about that. But it's, it is interesting to see the dynamic of like, and I did have those moments of like, Okay, this is what women do go through, like probably on a higher heightened level than what I received. And I totally understand it, okay. Like for me, it doesn't, I don't get too rattled by it. Oops, I'm losing. I'm losing things. Sorry. Sometimes Sometimes, these boobs get in the way as will happen, but I don't get to like I I will usually take a screenshot of it and then just block the person cuz I just think it's funny to me. But, ya know, it's I've had marriage proposals. I've had a couple of those on on Twitter, just in the last few weeks. So yeah, there's definitely very different and very interesting.
Chloe Condon:I've considered making a coffee table book of all of the strange comments, and weird things. Coming soon a fun announcement about some stuff coming to my YouTube channel. But I couldn't agree more. I think as a as a woman on tech, women in tech, I should say not on tech, who who presents very feminine online. I find it fascinating. Actually, I tweeted something recently that said, there's anybody having this Twitter bug where anytime you posted an opinion online as a woman that someone either tries to right punch up on your joke or like has an alternative opinion. And it's been really interesting to me to see some folks in the community who who identify is male change their profile pictures for a month to see, you know what it's like to experience what this is like. But I am very vocal about what I experienced because I think it's important for I think, I think that should be a requirement, people have to experience a little bit of empathy and understand, you know, even when designing things like on Twitter, with the new introduction of fleets terrible name again, anytime that someone responds to my fleet, it goes directly to my DMS. And that is a lot of noise. And it also invites a lot of a new avenue of criticism and a new avenue of harassment, I posted a thread recently about having someone harass me in my DMS and then immediately make like five new accounts, and I've blocked each one, and they're able to come back like these tools exist where, you know, there, there are ways to prevent this. And I think the more people and the more voices that we have out there talking about these issues, and and making them a parent is important. But Gosh, I cannot even imagine like what that must in, in a community where there's already women are the minority. I imagine that drag queens in tech are also quite a minority in this industry. quick shout out to the analytical one of my favorite favorite. definitely give give them a follow. But I want to say thank you jQuery for being loud and proud and sharing your story with us not only of your your origin, your background, but also what you experienced online, because I can only imagine the the emotional burden that carries
jQueery:you Yeah, absolutely not. It's it's a it's also a kind of like, I don't, I guess I don't think about it that much. As much, but it's, it's definitely there. And again, I should think about it more, because it's it. I also I don't I try not to tweet too many technical things. I will, here's what you'll see from me on a technical side of things, because there are so many people who do drag better than I do, and do anything technical better than I do. Right. Like it. That's my mentality, like I do my best. But I know that I am not, like, the best either of those things. So usually, when you if you see a technical tweet for me, it's um, it will be some random thought about some error that I'm having in Laravel or something. Usually. Like, I'll just say this, no one's no one's gonna say anything, probably. But yeah, I totally. I just want to take a quick second to let you guys know that on the television, right now that Donald Trump was just impeached for a second time, I just wanted to. So last week, we tried to do it, and we didn't, we stopped because and then this week, we did it, did it we
Chloe Condon:did have a weekly show, because we're changing the landscape of American politics every time we have some time with you. This is quite quite a moment. Wow. Wow. So I will have no, no, that's an important thing to bring up on the show. Um, well, I right before this, but we Yeah, we have some people in the comments, who have taken my advice to Google what a fleet means in the gay community. And I will get on my soapbox and say, it is important to have diverse voices and perspective in the room, be it women, be it minorities, be it any, if we are building tools, we need to build them for everyone. And having those voices in the room is so so important. I think we're seeing that with the political landscape. Now. I think we're seeing that with a lot of stuff. So not my soapbox, but thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, we are in the final 15 minutes of the show. And I want to make sure we have ample time to talk about something that we talked about. I don't know how this started. But we talked about theme parks every time we do a theme parks in the end. First question that we have for you is jQuery. Do you have a favorite theme park or a favorite theme park ride? We didn't ask you this before the show started.
jQueery:I will admit it's been many years since I've been to a theme park and looking back this is something I actually just recently like in the last year have given like thought to like growing up as a kid. I went to several theme parks with my family but looking back now there was a summer where my my family took us to Dollywood. Oh looking back I actually did my mom like around Christmas time like You know what? I literally was like randomly like well, I just want to thank you because looking back now as a kid like that was such a cool thing. Like because because of who Dolly Parton is and how amazing she is as a person. And also like you know going to Dolly was it was super fun like that. So For me, Dollywood would be the best thing ever.
Chloe Condon:It's on my bucket list. Truly. I was having a conversation with my friend Amy who I'm starting to show a stream with next week about she's been to Dollywood. She's tell told me all the stories. It sounds like one of the most incredible theme parks. I'm shocked we've never talked about on the show before. Have you?
Brandon Minnick:No, no, I have it. I don't even know what ministers
Chloe Condon:are amazing. It's a Nash. Yes.
jQueery:Yes. In that. It's in Tennessee, in Nashville or just outside but yeah, I I have like, most of my childhood has been like deleted from my brain. But like, I do have like, vague memories of that place. The Grand Ole Opry is like that. I think it's in the park possibly. Or it's right there. And I remember going there and that was crazy. But the park is fantastic. Yeah, if you get a chance to check it out.
Chloe Condon:It is honestly I have a group chat with a couple gals and our plan as soon as there's a vaccine and everything is safe. We're going straight to Dollywood. It's like what are you doing now? Wow. I love Dolly Parton. Shout out to Dolly Parton. Friend of the pod. No, I'm just kidding. I couldn't agree more. I also hear that the live stage performances like the live stage shows at Dollywood are really epic. And if anybody has watched the Dolly Parton Christmas special that came out, my theory is that that's just a movie version of one of those. So I can't wait to experience it in person someday. I'm gonna call you I call both of you. I'll be like, get on the car losers. We're going to
jQueery:I would love to go back. I'll be honest with you. I would love to go back and visit it again. Because it's
Chloe Condon:happening. We're gonna we will share this clip. And we'll be like, remember when we planned our trip to Dollywood. I have a special thing to share. That is I won't say theme park adjacent. I tweeted something over the weekend here. Let me share my screen here that had to do with this article that I read that I highly recommend checking out if you're Of course familiar with Fry's Electronics. There was this really interesting SF gate article about the disappearing history of the Bay Area's themes, Fry's Electronics stores. And I had grown up with a Fry's in Sacramento, California that was not themed. But I had a bunch of people in the comments here Tell me about their local fries. There's gosh, there's so many here there's one that is a slot machine. There's one that's Alice in Wonderland themed and Tiki themed in Woodland Hills. But I learned about something y'all that has blown my mind called incredible universe. So if you've never heard of incredible universe before, many of the early Fry's stores were turned into an incredible universe. And these were stores that basically were theme park tech electronic stores, hence the theming that many of these Fry's Electronics stores have had in the past. And I have to say, I am so depressed that this doesn't exist anymore. I want to go back into time machine and experience incredible universe. It is like a Disneyland theme park. This is their recruiting video here where they have a fake Siskel and Ebert talking about incredible universe, who here this will give us a nice little visual of what it looks like. But the amount of jealousy that I feel that I never got to experience they used to have live karaoke, someone commented on my tweet here saying, oh, here's some drag drag race tweets, that there was a karaoke that would be live. At the incredible universes, people would actually participate in storewide, karaoke contests. And I'm thinking to myself here, Brandon, why are we not working on an incredible universe?
Brandon Minnick:The thing I love about those video clips you just shared is they're they're just peak 90s. Yeah, because not only not only is everybody dressed in like, exactly how you picture the 90s with, you know, big clothing, like I would say, mismatching colors, but like bold, bright colors, like purples and greens. But then also, you think about it like that store could could not exist today, because look
jQueery:at her Polo and have the internet. How big is that polo shirt and the pleated pants Come on now. Yeah, that's
Brandon Minnick:all like very, like two sides of
jQueery:Peter Pan. Yeah,
Chloe Condon:it's fascinating rabbit hall where I was looking at all of these kind of like archaeological esque walkthroughs of former incredible universes and quickly discovered from the layout and the landscape of the Fry's Electronics store that I grew up with that it was designed to be a theme park and all of these things started clicking for me on, you know, the fries that we had in Sacramento had this big marquee that would Flash and like if there was and you look at all of these marketing materials, it was very much inspired it was by the people I believe, who were behind Radio Shack and a lot of the different employee guidelines and things you know, people were called cast members, the behind the store, or the backstage I guess, you know, we call that the Disney Store when I worked there assigned of like the let me go check in the back. The entire area was designed to give live tech demos to kind of show off it was based off of CES actually from something that I read that they wanted to recreate the see that consumer electronics expo floor, just basically in a retail capacity. And I'm so sad This
jQueery:is actually kind of cool. Yeah,
Chloe Condon:we love going to conferences we'd love so this is my pleats out there watching this video. I think we need another incredible universe when Corona is over. Because experience entertainment technology in its truest 80s 90s forum, we got to keep the 80s theme though, that's like my one stipulation. Definitely, if you're looking for a fun rabbit hole to go down, check out this incredible universe recruiting video from 1996. I am very upset that in the same way that I never got to experience Nickelodeon studios and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. I'm very upset. I never got to go to an incredible universe.
jQueery:I want to see Chloe in that giant Polo with those whom I got a chance.
Chloe Condon:Should I cosplayed I feel like this is gonna be for 12 people, but I'm gonna do it. Let's give the people what they want, Chloe. I mean, have you ever have you ever heard of this? This was like brand new information for me. Like I feel like I'm pretty into tech. But I've never I had never heard of the
jQueery:history of that. No, ever. I mean, obviously fries. We have them in here. Here in Arizona, we'll get to. and ours is the golf one. And as tech one. I had never been to the asset one. And so a couple of years ago, especially I got this chair. But I remember going there and thinking why why is this this? This could just be a square building. Why are there things all over the place? Like, but
Chloe Condon:find
jQueery:there's so many things inside of fries that you get distract for me? Like I I get distracted from that thought immediately though, because there's a million products. So yeah, so but it is, I always thought it was sort of strange that like, why is this? What has happened here.
Chloe Condon:And someone the official fries account I should also mention so one of our co workers, Brian Benz shared that the one in Vegas is a slot machine. And the official fries account commented and said that there's a button that actually lets the slot machine like do the thing. So I need to go to I need to I'm so tempted to do a road trip and go to every single themed Fry's store before they close because I was so upset to read this SF gate article that I never got to do the Silicon Valley one, which I believe is there's a Western one I also just learned I think there's one in Houston that's a NASA themed one where you can do like a rocket launch simulation inside of it. So let's find that theme parks to electronic stores, please I need I need this desperately. But oh my gosh, look at how cool this is. I'm so like it's really cool. There's also an Alice in Wonderland one in Woodland Hills that a bunch of people on Twitter were sharing with me so I think I gotta do it Fry's road trip, y'all. I think I'm ready.
jQueery:I don't have a reason to go to Vegas, but I'll take speaking of Vegas, we had tickets to go watch drag race on the strip for August.
Chloe Condon:Yeah, I feel like everything fine. Event wise and maybe in the final couple minutes of the show. How does it as a drag queen for for folks who don't know, a lot of performances are live like there's a lot of live performances, drag bars. There's of course we're seeing kind of the transition into live performance right now with drive thru drag shows in Los Angeles and a couple other areas. What is it like as a drag queen to see this scene change with technology? Like how has that been from your perspective?
jQueery:I have very unique perspective because I just started doing drag this last year. Yeah, so for me, all I know is digital performances says really strange. So even just getting to Kiki with other people is actually crazy fun for me right now. So like so essentially See, to see the change. I mean, from what I understand from, like, people who have to drag for a living, you know, obviously, it's very difficult. It seems very difficult for, you know, it's a double edged sword, I do think, and I've watched some of the digital, you know, digital digital drag shows over this last year, I think visually, you do get a chance to do some things that maybe you wouldn't be able to do. If you were just going to someplace locally, which is really cool.
Chloe Condon:I mean, we love a green screen moment.
jQueery:Absolutely. But you know, and also just like different, like, places around the country and stuff like that, but, ya know, it's interesting, I think. I'm thinking back to like, the drag race season 12 finale, they had to do the entire thing. Yeah, Crystal method did. I was just
Chloe Condon:gonna say, yeah, hacking
jQueery:into each other. Like, you wouldn't ever be able to do that in a live show, because she had to play two characters. It was crazy. So for folks who
Chloe Condon:maybe aren't familiar has come out of it. The format of the drag face finale, usually it's this huge, it's in Hollywood, and they have a live audience and hundreds of 1000s of people, or 100,000 1000s of people come see it live. And there was this unique opportunity to do it. Well, they had to do it from home. And I was just gonna say crystal methods like green screen. Like it, we're seeing art that couldn't be previously created. And I think in times of struggle, like we create really beautiful art, I always used to joke around that I was always close had the closest friendships and bonding relationships with actors of the worst shows that I've been in because we had to kind of band together as a community. And I think it's been very interesting to see the entire Of course, the even as a presenter, and I'm sure you can agree Brandon, giving a live talk or presentation and getting that immediate audience feedback is so different than what we're doing right now. Like, it's lovely to see the comments but a laugh applause like few workers, so jQuery, I can't wait to see perform live. I'm going to be like first mine is my ticket. Like wherever it is on maybe it'll be in Vegas by then. I've been
jQueery:I've been practicing I've been practicing my first lip sync ever I did I did a few like a few weeks ago I did Fiona Apple fast as you can not a good song for your first listing. I love that song. But it really is so fast. I spent you can my girlfriend's pet, like all day in the bathroom shooting this thing. And I'm like, Fiona, you need to slow down girl I thought was gonna be a cakewalk. And I'm like struggling super hard. So no, I, I definitely want to go and perform some plays at some point. Once it gets once it gets to that point, you know, I like to think of myself as like. I'm like, I'm not in the NBA. But I'm like, in like the D league. I mean, like, I'm at a point in my life where it's like, I don't even I'll never probably be at the NBA level. And I'm okay with that. I do drive because I love it. It's fun. I feel like a superhero. When I get in trouble I get it is if you've never put makeup on before people. Try it because it is crazy the difference. And how you feel. It's really crazy. I'll do things in drag. I have spontaneously do things that God would never normally do. Which is fine for me personally, because I'm a pretty. I'm normally just a pretty boring person. But like when I get dragged, I feel like jQuery is cool. And then me as a boy is pretty boring. So I don't know. I heard Trixie and Katya mentioned that their day like they were like, if you invited us to a party as guys, no one K is going to care. But the we show up like this and drag that is the party. part of the fun thing about being a drag like you just instantly feel like a little extra Spark. I don't know what it is.
Chloe Condon:Well, you said that you're not an NBA player. You're my NBA player. Like I'm drafting you onto my fantasy league. I'm loving everything you're doing where can people find your stuff? I imagine Twitter YouTube where can people go follow you?
jQueery:Oh yeah, absolutely Twitter, you can follow myself or unknown drag queens or if you want to my girlfriend. She's the co host of the show meet her it's Black Rose. Queen is her is her tag on Twitter, also Instagram all those and then of course YouTube is where our if you want to watch to to knucklehead drag queens reacting to really cool music. And come check us out at unknown drag queens react on YouTube. We might be expanding out to different kinds of videos here eventually, but we're always going to kind of keep reaction videos in like this table because we love doing them and people I don't know people love I don't know if this has been a thing because of the quarantine too, but people love reaction videos for some reason. I love watching them myself. So they're just
Chloe Condon:a reaction video of your reaction video. It'll be like first reaction.
jQueery:I was gonna do a tech I was gonna do some tech videos and dry. I feel nervous about it analytical does so well. I mean, I feel like I would just be like, go fall analytical. She's crushing it in that regard. So I don't I don't I don't I get nervous about doing it doing something that well.
Chloe Condon:I'm gonna call you we're gonna do some collabs this the end of the show now, but I feel like this is just the beginning of doing really awesome fun streams together jQuery, thank you so much for coming and talking to us today. And yes, thank you. Thank you so much for coming, Brandon. I'm gonna like you It's the new year help me close this out. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the the honor.
Brandon Minnick:Well, thanks for thanks, everybody for for joining us yet again. If you want to catch up, we do have an eight bits podcast out there. So make sure to subscribe to the eight bits podcasts as well. That way you never miss an episode,
Chloe Condon:but I would recommend watching this one because the visuals
Brandon Minnick:and until then, we'll see you next week.