Plotlines & Fiber Lines

[00:00:00] Speaker A: On the June edition of the Local Clique, we welcome Ms. Kathy Hendrickson from the Justin Potter Library, as well as Leah Gregory, our DTC engineering clerk here. And Justin is back with lots of tech news as well as some translation of jargon that we need his help with. And we might even talk about the Smithfield Fiddlers Jamboree. So stay tuned, learn more about fun local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown in for good measure. The Local Click starts now. Welcome to the Local Clique. The Local Clique is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology and local people. And as always, I have Justin Malden with me here today. My co host, Justin. How's it going today? [00:00:53] Speaker B: I'm doing very, very well, Nick. How are you? [00:00:55] Speaker A: I'm doing great. Appreciate you being back with us. You must be a glutton for punishment. We haven't run you off in three years. That's pretty good. [00:01:01] Speaker B: I haven't been given an option in three. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Well, yeah, yeah. I did tell you to be here, so maybe that's part of it. [00:01:08] Speaker B: I didn't know. I didn't know there was an option not to be. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't mean to. Yeah. Falsely give you that impression. No, you have to be here. We have a lot of fun. In all seriousness though, and appreciate you helping out. You do a great job with it. So before we get into talking about some of our guests that we have on the program today, June is here, which means July is actually just around the corner and something big always going, going on in July in our neck of the woods is the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree. Are you ready, Justin? [00:01:42] Speaker B: I am never ready for the Fiddler's Jamboree. [00:01:45] Speaker A: It is a long but good weekend. [00:01:47] Speaker B: Yes, yes, It'll be a long weekend. Be lots of people. Lots of music. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Yes. [00:01:52] Speaker B: Lots of vendors. Yes. The crafts, Lots of good food. [00:01:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:01:57] Speaker B: And I, I don't know, at some point we need to figure out the over under for how many times Sally Gooden is gonna be played. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Man, that. That's almost impossible. [00:02:08] Speaker B: We, I think we, I think we need to project. I think it's gonna be played how many times you think so be played? [00:02:15] Speaker A: Oh, man, I don't know if I count that high. [00:02:20] Speaker B: You're gonna do the calculator. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Let's. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Let's think of a number. Let's think of all the categories that will use it. They're not playing their own Songs [00:02:31] Speaker A: gonna be tough. [00:02:33] Speaker B: 400 times. [00:02:34] Speaker A: 400, you're going 400. [00:02:35] Speaker B: I know. It could be way over. [00:02:37] Speaker A: The fun part is not only do you get to hear it the first time it goes on, you get to hear it a second time. When you get to count those 400 times to see if you're right. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll just say it's 400. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Okay. Close enough. Is that what you're saying? [00:02:51] Speaker B: Yes. The funny thing about that song is I don't know that I had ever really heard that song or probably had, but hadn't thought of it. But now there is no denying anytime [00:03:02] Speaker A: I hear it, I know you know it well. That's right. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Know that song through and through. The house band will play it just a few times. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Down there on the square in Smith. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Hey, you got to have some good music for those dancers. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Then the dancing will be great. All the different types of dancing. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Everything about it is great. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Flat foot, buck dancing, clogging. They're going to have it all. [00:03:23] Speaker A: You sound like an expert. [00:03:25] Speaker B: There's been, you know, as, as much as I have seen it. Now I can tell you the difference in the flat foot, in the buck dancing and the clock. Maybe not exactly specified the rules, but I've got the general gist in the idea. [00:03:37] Speaker A: I can, I can talk to Ms. Kim, see if I can get you on the judging team. You know what's going to be there though. It's very special this year at the jamboree for the Blue Blaze award segment, we have a 14 time Grammy Award winning artist who's going to be in Smithville, Tennessee on that Saturday, July 4th at 5. Mr. Dan Taminsky. Pretty awesome. Yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker B: No, he. Yeah, it is. It's very special, the people that they get on the stage each and every year. It's not often that you get a Grammy award winner, let alone somebody who's won Grammys in double digits. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Yes. [00:04:15] Speaker B: That gets to play for you. And I think I saw a video not too long ago of him promoting the jamboree. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw that as well. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that he, he's, he's even promoting it. So he's excited about it. [00:04:27] Speaker A: He's excited about being here. [00:04:28] Speaker C: Man, oh man, listen. Smithville, Tennessee, Fiddler's Jamboree, July 4. The Dan Tominski Band. I know you want to be there. You know you want to be there. You know what I want you to do? Go find a friend who doesn't think they like bluegrass, bring them along and prove to them that they love bluegrass music with The Dan Taminsky Band. We're going to have a big time. I just found out I'm going to receive a Blue Blaze award. I'm honored and I know that does not happen without you fans showing up. So we can't wait to see you. July 4 Fiddler's Jamboree, Smithville, Tennessee with a Dan Tominski Band. [00:04:57] Speaker B: He's excited to come. Come to Smithville. Which tells you the the official festival of the state of Tennessee, Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Craft Festival means that much. [00:05:07] Speaker A: If you've ever seen the movie oh Brother, Where Art Thou? You've heard the song man of Constant Sorrow that George Clooney pretends he's singing during the movie. That's Dan Tomitzky's voice actually right there. Pretty neat. [00:05:19] Speaker B: That's pretty. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:20] Speaker B: I did not know that. Yeah, I know the movie now. I'm gonna have to go back and, and, and watch that and listen. [00:05:26] Speaker A: That's right. For that amazing singer. And he has spent most of his career actually on the road with Allison Krause in Union Station. So he's got his solo gig going now with his band. But we're very excited to have him. It's gonna be a lot of fun. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be entertaining. It's gonna be awesome. Will have live wall to wall coverage. [00:05:46] Speaker A: That's right. [00:05:47] Speaker B: If you can't be there. [00:05:48] Speaker A: That's right. [00:05:48] Speaker B: But get down there to the square in Smithville because we'd love to see you in person. [00:05:54] Speaker A: What we'll say is for those times you can't be there because we know you're going to be there, but you can't stay the whole time. Maybe for those times you can't be there, you can go to DTC3TV and you can watch all the action there or on our YouTube channel, even so. And of course on DDTV on Channel 3 for DTCTV customers. So there's lots of ways you can stay in touch with the Jamboree this year as always and we hope to see you down there. It's gonna be a lot of fun. In just a few moments, we're going to continue our speaking with DTC employees as we celebrate 75 years of service. And we'll have Ms. Leah Gregory here, the engineering clerk at DTC, one of [00:06:33] Speaker B: those behind the scenes people that you don't know how important of a role in a job that, that Leah has as an engineering clerk. And in order for you, if you are a customer, to have our Service. She plays a vital role in making sure that you have service. Yep. [00:06:51] Speaker A: You're going to really get to learn kind of what she does a little bit behind the scenes and what it takes to get that service turned on for you. So stay tuned for that interview. But first, before we do that, we're going to speak with, with someone. I don't know where this lady gets the energy from. I don't know where she gets her energy from. I wish I had half the energy she does. She's one of the hardest working people I've ever met. Just a great person. It's going to be a lot of fun. We got Ms. Kathy Hendrickson from the Justin Potter Library. Thank you so much, Ms. Kathy, for being with us today. [00:07:22] Speaker D: Well, Nick, thanks for having me. I always enjoy the, you know, DTC is always great to us. [00:07:27] Speaker A: Well, we try to do our part, you know, when we can. So. One thing, I know you've got plenty to talk about because there's always something going on at Justin Potter, right? [00:07:36] Speaker D: Most of the time we're pretty busy. Yes. [00:07:38] Speaker A: So before we dig into the nitty gritty on some of the All Things Library type things, tell us more about yourself. There's probably a lot of people that recognize you and know the name, but may not know a lot about you personally. Tell us about yourself and your family and your ties to DeKalb County. [00:07:53] Speaker D: I was born, as they say, born and raised in DeKalb County. I was born at DeKalb County. Well, people born in the 50s and 60s were born at Van Hoosier Hospital Clinic, which is Love Cantor Funeral Home now. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:08:07] Speaker D: Oh, yes. [00:08:08] Speaker A: So, yeah, one in the same. [00:08:09] Speaker D: Yeah. One of those Van Hoosier babies there. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:11] Speaker D: Yeah. And I went to School in DeKalb County. Graduated from DeKalb County High School and 71, married my high school sweetheart. We've been married 53 years in June. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:08:23] Speaker D: We have one son and we have two, two grandchildren. One's 10 and one's graduating from Tech in the fall, so. And I have four step grandchildren and four great step grandchildren. So big family. I have been a member of Bright hill Church for 58 years, since I was 14. So like I say, raised here. I went to school a little while in Illinois maybe one year. But I like the south, love living here. So, yeah. Back home. Back home. [00:08:51] Speaker A: Very strong ties to the area. That's great. That's great. I always like to kind of dig deep into what makes a person tick as far as what they do for a living. What they love to do. Now you are a librarian extraordinaire, I will call it. Well, I try, but you have to. There has to be some early memories as far as reading or books you like to read, you know, growing up, that made you maybe want to go down this career path is. Plus, you know, current things you like to read. Kind of tell us more about some of those interests, if you would. [00:09:23] Speaker D: Well, reading probably started in high school. You know, my husband was a reader, and he got his love of reading from one of his high school teachers, Ms. Maddie Franklin Cheatham. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:33] Speaker D: And he was in a book club, and so he got me started reading. And the first books, I guess, besides what you had to read in school, you know, had to read the classics and, you know, all of that, what you had to read, what you had to read. But I enjoyed them. But the James Bond books, the Ian Fleming books, so I started reading those and books like that. And then later on, of course, you know, in high. Out of high school, I was an avid reader. I loved to read all different kinds of books, from James Patterson to Danielle Steele, Nicholas Sparks, you know, making all the sad movies. And it's books like that. There's so many good authors. My favorite book, I guess when I started the library in 2000, was the book Harry Potter came out. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:10:15] Speaker D: I love those books. I guess that was my favorite books to read. [00:10:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:10:19] Speaker D: A lot of adults were reading those books. [00:10:21] Speaker A: More. [00:10:21] Speaker D: More than actually the young people were reading them. There's just books that sometimes just. Just. It takes one book to get somebody hooked on reading. So. [00:10:30] Speaker A: And when you read that first one in a series, a lot of times you're hooked for whatever comes out past [00:10:34] Speaker D: that, and you don't want them to end because they do. [00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah. You just said you started in 2000. I think 2000. Tell us about your beginnings as well as kind of what a typical day looks like. [00:10:43] Speaker D: Well, if you'd have told me probably when out of high school that I was going to be a librarian or be the director of a library, I would have thought, no, no, that's not. [00:10:52] Speaker A: So you never would have thought that. [00:10:54] Speaker D: No, I never would have thought that. I was coming into the library and reading quite a bit. And at the time, June Vaughn, she was the library director. There's only been four library directors in the history of Justin Potter Library. It was built in 67, and June was the first one when the library was built. And then Ms. Avedale Spann. Everybody remembers Ms. Avedale. She was there for a long time. And then June came back in the early 90s, and then she left in 2004 after the library was. The addition was built on. [00:11:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:22] Speaker D: That was her dream for the, you know, for the edition. And then Kathy Winchester took over and I took over as director in 2007. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:30] Speaker D: So. And I've been director ever since. So. Yeah. [00:11:33] Speaker A: That's a long time. [00:11:33] Speaker D: It is. And it depends on what I do. Like, this morning I came in, I'm the first one there. So I open the library, I turn everything on, and if the custodian hasn't been there, I usually clean the library. I vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the front door and cleaned the bathrooms. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Other duties as a sign, all of those things. [00:11:55] Speaker D: Sometimes I'm out there waiting. And I mean, a lot of nice people while I'm out there waiting. I could wait every day, but I don't. But a lot of people to stop by and talk to me and carry on a conversation. So you kind of get outside your, you know, the library sometimes. You have to go outside. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:09] Speaker E: Yep. [00:12:10] Speaker A: You don't think meeting people that way. That's a good way. That's a good way to put it. You got to mingle a little bit. [00:12:15] Speaker D: Mingle a little bit. You've got to get outside. You got to take the library outside the library. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:18] Speaker D: And so we. We do a lot of that. Of course, I'm on the Chamber board. I'm president of the Chamber board. So once a month, I'm, you know, have a meeting there. I'm on the DeKalb Prevention Coalition board. I'm vice president. So I'm attending those meetings. I attend the DeKalb emergency planning meeting. That's probably every three months or something like that. [00:12:37] Speaker E: Every quarter. [00:12:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:39] Speaker D: And then other meetings in between. You know, I'm always. Sometimes I'll have phone calls. Like, I'm going back today. I'm getting the back room cleaned out because we were going to have the carpets and the floors clean. So everything has to be moved around. [00:12:51] Speaker A: As a director, that's some of the things you have to do. A lot of people just don't realize, [00:12:55] Speaker D: well, there's come with the territory you have to do. You have to do a little bit of everything. And then, of course, I'm doing reports different times of the year for the state and the government. And so we do training. I have to have 24 hour, 25 hours of continuing education every year. As it does, my staff, they have to have so many hours, starting in March, start the sending letters out to the businesses and organizations about our Older Americans day celebration, which 46 years this last. Just last week. [00:13:23] Speaker A: Really? [00:13:23] Speaker D: Yeah. So we had about 160 people, and that was counting our vendors last week. Could not do it without the businesses and organizations. And it's a partnership. I love partnerships. Partner with the senior centers. Both senior centers. Pam at the Smithfield Senior center and Jennifer down at the Alexandria Activity center down there. [00:13:42] Speaker A: That's right. [00:13:43] Speaker D: Yeah, it's activity center. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Exactly right. [00:13:45] Speaker D: And then the businesses that furnish everything. I have a wonderful library board and staff. I mean, they're so supportive of, you know, and staff's always into something. In fact, I left them doing projects today. They're always trying to find new ways to serve the public and enhance what we do for the public. We also do the literacy night at Northside. We do that once a year. And we go to the Head Start. They have their open house. I started Story Times back at the elementary school. So we try to get out into the community and, you know, and kind of spread the word of what we do. [00:14:18] Speaker A: Spread the word that's gonna be. [00:14:19] Speaker D: And all this and all the services that we have to offer. I don't think. I think the library is the hub, the community. I mean, we really are. Because especially in rural and small communities like ours, you know, I don't know of a place that you could go and do faxes, copies, prints. We are a notary. We have two notaries there. Myself and Wendy Crotty are notaries. We do interlibrary loans. That's where we borrow books. If we don't have the book in the library and somebody needs something, and we really don't want to buy just one book if it's just one person going to read it. Because we're so small. We'd love to be able to do that. So we borrow from other libraries and they borrow from us. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:54] Speaker D: Yeah. And it's a free courier service that we have. We also have the tax forms during the tax year. I think that we're the only place in town that carries the tax. [00:15:03] Speaker A: That's convenient, too. Yeah, yeah. [00:15:04] Speaker D: And they only send us so many. They only send the 1040s, so, you [00:15:08] Speaker A: know, that's the only thing if you need them. [00:15:10] Speaker D: And then we have scanned email, and then we set up. During COVID We set up a email where. That they could send directly to us off their phones or whatever, and we would print it for them. So we're still doing that. People love that. They'll send it. We'll have a whole slew of those, [00:15:24] Speaker A: you know, I wouldn't have thought about that. Makes sense. [00:15:27] Speaker D: They do. They will send them to us, and that way they don't have to get on the computers and, you know, download their samples. It is. It's a lot easier for them. So. And then we have voter registration forms that they can fill out there at the library. So it's. And then we have a wonderful genealogy room. So, you know, and that's all because of Mr. Tommy Webb and his others. And, you know, that he started all of that. [00:15:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:47] Speaker D: And he's left it for us. And so I do a lot of that because he's, you know, he hit it all in his head. [00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:54] Speaker D: I'm having to look things up if. As long as I've got it and I can look up. But we have people call all the time wanting to information on, you know, certain family t. Family Ties. It's DeKalb County Family Ties. So we have the Reeds program where it's. You download from Libby. It's free audiobooks and ebooks. [00:16:11] Speaker A: Oh, that's pretty neat. [00:16:12] Speaker D: Yep. And that's through the state. And a lot of people, I don't [00:16:15] Speaker A: think, realize some of these things that you're. You're saying that these resources are just there for the taking. [00:16:19] Speaker D: It is. And we have about 1500 downloads a month, and that counts toward our circulation. [00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:24] Speaker D: You know, there's a lot of people that maybe can't get out of the house or, you know, are homebound or sick. [00:16:30] Speaker B: And. [00:16:30] Speaker D: And this is just a way that they can, you know, have access to it at home and don't have to leave their home. [00:16:35] Speaker A: So if you've never been inside Justin Potter Library before, tell us kind of how the layout is and. And where everything is as you walk in there. [00:16:43] Speaker D: Well, as you come in the front door, of course, the registration desk or the circulation desk is right in front of you. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Okay. [00:16:49] Speaker D: And on the right side, we have. We have six computers of desktops for people to use. Of course, we have Wi Fi 24. [00:16:56] Speaker E: 7. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Right. Okay, that's good to know. [00:16:58] Speaker D: And then if you look further past that, we have our fiction books that's out on the outer walls. We have our movies straight ahead on the racks. We. We are a video store almost where. I think we're one stop shopping. We have everything but food. And we serve that probably during our older Americans day. And that's over the county complex. So. But. And then we. You go on past that and you have. The children's section is. If you go into the next, the add on where we added on several years ago. You go into the big bright room with a tall ceiling, and on the right is the children's books, the easy books and the juvenile books and the graphic novels for juveniles. And then straight ahead is our young adults. And to the left is our restrooms. And we have a card catalog just before you turn to go into the restrooms. And then in the new room on the left is Mr. Webb's. It's called the Thomas Webb Genealogy Room. [00:17:56] Speaker A: It's actually named after him. It is. [00:17:57] Speaker D: And he was not. Yeah, well, he was not very happy about it, but, you know, he accepted it. [00:18:04] Speaker A: He reluctantly accepted it. [00:18:05] Speaker D: He reluctantly accepted it. And of course, everything's online now, the census books, but there's a lot of things that are not. And that's Mr. Webb's files. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:14] Speaker D: And so it's just a wealth of information that he's left for us. [00:18:18] Speaker A: And I'm sure if someone comes in and they got a specific thing they're looking for, you've helped me and a lot. I know the reason I bring this up is I'm sure it's just a question away. Right. Don't feel like you can't come in if you don't know where to start. You can ask anyone there at the library. I'm sure they'll be glad to help. Right. [00:18:34] Speaker D: Staff is willing to help. And if not, you know, I've been there a lot longer, so sometimes they'll ask me and I might know something. You know, of course, we have the. We have the microfilm. We have all the smifle reviews and some other things on microfilm that they can use. Microfilm reader we have there. So they can use that. We have Mr. Webb's books. He's written several books, the Bicentennial History, which people still ask about, but it's out of print. But they can check out a copy of it in the library. Especially new people coming into the county. They want to learn a little bit about the county and what's going on and why it started. So they can check that out and find out some information on that. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Dig deeper kind of thing. [00:19:09] Speaker D: Yeah, get into that. But we have so many things going on and especially summer readings coming up. [00:19:14] Speaker A: That was one of the things I really wanted to ask you about. I want to know more. More about the summer reading program. It's such a big thing that you do every year. [00:19:20] Speaker D: Well, summer reading, we started in. We'll start it in June. And what they do is they come in and we have, in fact, I made up the goody bags last week. They get a bookmark and they get pencil, and then they get a reading log. So they come in and they're either a reader or a listener, and they sign up. That's where the parents read to them, or maybe siblings might read to their younger siblings. Which is great if you can get them to do that. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. [00:19:44] Speaker D: And so they just set a goal of how many books they want to read and then, you know, they keep up with them on the list. We have programs every Thursday in June at 2 o' clock at the county complex. We have science guys and we have the park rangers and we have a magician. And at the very end, we have this Nashville zoo. And then the kids, they will get a goodie bag. They'll get their reading certificate and they'll get items in their goodie bag. They'll get a little backpack. It's dinosaur theme this year. [00:20:10] Speaker A: Oh, that'll be fun. [00:20:11] Speaker D: Unearth a story this year. So they'll get a little drawstring bag. It's nylon bag. And they get some goodies in there. They'll get some coupons from different fast food places. [00:20:21] Speaker A: They've got to love this. [00:20:22] Speaker D: They did. And they get a free book. [00:20:23] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. [00:20:24] Speaker D: They get a free book at the end. So it's just a wonderful time. We just want children to continue their reading. You know, they have to be proficient in reading by third grade, and so we want to encourage that. And we thank the parents and grandparents for bringing the kids in and just instilling, you know, reading in them. When I started 26 years ago, the young people that were coming in, that were their young children at that time are now grandparents. [00:20:48] Speaker A: That's right. [00:20:49] Speaker D: And they're bringing, you know, their grandchildren in and those, those children that they had at that time are bringing their children in. So it's. I've watched a whole lifecycle go through [00:20:58] Speaker A: in 26 years, and amazing how it sticks to that. A lot of times it is. [00:21:02] Speaker D: And people, people become like family. You know, there's people coming in that's been coming in 26 years. [00:21:07] Speaker A: I love that. [00:21:07] Speaker D: You know, and you talk to them about their family and, you know, just grandchildren, or you get, you get interested [00:21:13] Speaker A: and have a real connection with these people. [00:21:15] Speaker D: After that long, you get invested in their life. [00:21:17] Speaker A: That's exactly right. You talked about some of the events, but I know you, you have other events that you're involved with, especially ones that are maybe centered around different holidays and things like that. Can you tell us about some of those. [00:21:27] Speaker D: I do a story time once a month and that's for the pre preschool children. In October we have the, we have the Smithfield Boo bash. And so that's where children can come downtown. They block off the streets and they can come downtown with their parents and they can, they have a safe environment to, to, you know, to trick or treat. So they go all the businesses in town and get candy. And we usually give out, we give out candy and then we also give out the little glow in the Dark bracelets to the kids every year. So they have those. And so we have probably 700 to 1,000 kids come in, buy a lot of candy. [00:22:03] Speaker A: That is a lot. [00:22:04] Speaker D: It's a lot of candy. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, yeah. [00:22:06] Speaker D: And then at Christmas time, which is usually the first Saturday in December, they have the Christmas parade and then after that they have the Christmas on the square. And so we always have Santa every year and the kids get to sit in Santa's lap and tell them what they want for Christmas and he'll give them a candy cane. And then we give them a little Christmas craft to take home with them. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:26] Speaker D: Then we have book signings, you know, local authors, sometimes we have that. And we don't have computer classes anymore, but we do a lot of one on the staff does a lot of one on one with. [00:22:34] Speaker A: That was going to be one of my questions. You guys do kind of help with technology a little bit when they. [00:22:39] Speaker D: People need to learn. They want to learn how to download a book from the Reeds program. And so the staff is there to help them, show them that, walk them through it or how to send an email to our email so we could print out for them. So we do a lot of one on one instead of computer classes one on one. They want to learn just how to do certain things. And so the staff can help them do certain things on the. How to get into something. But Internet is such an important part of our integral in our lives now. [00:23:04] Speaker A: Sure. [00:23:05] Speaker D: 26 years ago I would have never thought we would be where we are in the Internet now. [00:23:09] Speaker A: We really can't really function day to day without it, to be honest with you. [00:23:13] Speaker D: In most circumstances our operating system is, you know, online. [00:23:17] Speaker A: It's all tied in. [00:23:17] Speaker D: It all tied in together. And the things that we can do on that, the cataloging that we could do. And you've got to keep current. You've got to adapt to the situation. You've got to adapt to what people need so that they can do everything that they need to do so really, [00:23:29] Speaker A: that reliable Internet there's at the library is very important then, just to keep things going. [00:23:34] Speaker D: And that's from dtc. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Oh, we try to do our part. [00:23:36] Speaker D: There you go. We have Wi Fi 24. 7. I have come in on the library, maybe on the weekend, and there's cars out there from Colorado or, you know, places like that. We even had someone several years ago that was staying down at the lake from Australia. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Oh, well. [00:23:51] Speaker D: And so they were coming into the library to check their email for back home and, you know, conversely. Yeah. So, you know, you get all kinds coming. It is a handy thing. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Well, if someone wants to learn more about some of the things we've talked about, there's so much going on. I know we can't probably mention everything, but there's got to be a way that they can kind of keep up more with what you're doing. What's a good way to keep up with things at Justin Potter or at the Alexandria branch? [00:24:13] Speaker D: Well, we have Facebook, we have Instagram, we have a website which is dekalblibraries.net so you can do that or you can call us. We're at 5961-559-74359 or 529-4124. At the Alexandria Library, we are open six days a week. Alexander Library is open four days a week. [00:24:32] Speaker A: You've got to be one of the hardest working people that I've ever had the joy to me. And we appreciate everything you do for DeKalb county and the library system. [00:24:40] Speaker D: Well, I appreciate, you know, it takes all of us working. I've got a great staff, so I could not do it without. They make me look good. They're techie. I am not. [00:24:48] Speaker A: So it takes everybody. [00:24:49] Speaker D: It takes us all working together. And, you know, we just have to get out there and adapt to what we need to do in the community. And we're there to serve the community. So, you know, I tell the staff, you know, if you give someone, someone comes in, we always speak to them and smile at them. You know, smile at somebody. Your smile is free, you know, and if you smile at someone, they have to smile back at you. [00:25:09] Speaker A: That's right. [00:25:09] Speaker D: Even if they're having a bad day, you know, a smile. [00:25:12] Speaker A: That's usually the best way to start a relationship of helping someone there. So. [00:25:15] Speaker D: And you'll get somebody come in, maybe they look like they've just had, and then you smile them and their whole face is lights up. So, you know, treat people the way you want to be Treated and it'll work out. [00:25:23] Speaker A: Hey, a lot of wisdom there. A lot of wisdom. Thanks. Thanks, Miss Kathy. I really appreciate you being with us today and great luck on everything that you're doing and you're welcome back anytime to inform us on all the latest and greatest going there. [00:25:36] Speaker D: Well, thanks, Nick. I appreciate you letting me be on today to talk about all the things I love. [00:25:39] Speaker A: There you go everybody. Stay tuned. We've got more of the program coming up in just a moment. [00:25:46] Speaker D: Ooh, I'll get it. Grandpa. Grandpa, wanna play my new game with me? Well, sure, I'd love to. [00:25:52] Speaker B: To your new game. Let's go. [00:25:56] Speaker D: Got you right over there. [00:25:59] Speaker B: Get here. [00:26:04] Speaker D: I'm going to catch you. I'm going to catch you this time. Sharing memories while staying connected. DTC Internet makes it all possible. [00:26:17] Speaker F: My name is Kyle Owen. My wife and I own and operate Kyle Owen farms here in Carthage, Tennessee. I guess for our area we're a large scale operation and sort of forced to be that way. You know, large amounts, acres and small profits per acre. Having the high speed Internet down here from DTC has just been amazing. There's a lot more aspects of the farming side that uses the Internet than people realize. Whether we're in combines, tractors, sprayers, wherever we may be, we're constantly transferring data. All of our equipment now is equipped with satellite guided gps. It's much easier on the operators. You're nowhere near as fatigued as you would be if you were actually driving the machine by hand. We can monitor our equipment, our grain system, everything wirelessly. So the high speed Internet has just been a blessing to us. We love DTC simply because of the speed and reliability of their Internet service, the dedication they have to the rural community and the dedication that they have to their customers. [00:27:18] Speaker A: I'm going to give the microphone over to Justin right now for our segment called the Tech Translator. [00:27:24] Speaker B: You know Nick, you have probably heard someone say, man, our Internet is just so slow because of our bandwidth. And I think a lot of people go, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's your bandwidth. Yeah, your bandwidth. That's, that's what it is. But I'm not so confident that everybody knows what bandwidth actually is because I think, I think people get confused between bandwidth and speed and different things. [00:27:49] Speaker A: That's a valid point. [00:27:50] Speaker B: I want to try to simplify this for you. [00:27:52] Speaker A: Okay? [00:27:53] Speaker B: And you, if you think in terms of some water and you, and you try to put it through a half inch pipe, right? Is that water going to be restricted in its flow? Is it going to flow the fastest that it can, you apply the same amount of pressure through a small pipe and the water pressure will be higher on the other end. But the flow of water itself isn't going to be that fast. Okay, but if you get a little bit bigger pipe, you go to a one inch pipe, you go to a two inch pipe, you go to a three inch pipe. Or where I live on our water main, we have a 12 inch water main. [00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:26] Speaker B: Okay, so we've got a very large pipe that water is flowing through. And the reason why they want a 12 inch pipe on that main water main is because it can handle the bandwidth of water that's going to be going through it. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Okay. [00:28:39] Speaker B: The amount of water as that pipe increases, the wider that pipe is, the more water can flow through it. Unrestricted. Well, how does this relate to Internet? [00:28:50] Speaker A: That was going to be my next [00:28:51] Speaker B: question you may be asking. All right, so, okay, well, you've explained these things to me. Well, say you've got a normal size pipe coming into your house for your Internet. You know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, five years ago, you know, pre Covid, you may not have needed as large of a pipe coming into your home to facilitate your Internet usage. But as we're going to talk about on before the WI fi here in a moment, the way that we consume things is not the same that it used to be. So now in my home, if I check. You know what, let's, let's, let's check this. Fun question. [00:29:32] Speaker A: Okay. [00:29:32] Speaker B: How many devices do you think I have connected to WI fi in my house? [00:29:35] Speaker A: 50. [00:29:36] Speaker B: 50. Currently, right now I have 66 devices. I tried, I have 66 devices. [00:29:42] Speaker A: I thought I was high at 50. [00:29:43] Speaker B: So yeah, I have 66 devices connected to my Internet connection. [00:29:49] Speaker A: Wow. [00:29:50] Speaker B: And I think the average now is getting closer to 50 by the time you add everything because you have cel phones that are connected, you have streaming [00:29:58] Speaker A: devices that are connected. [00:29:59] Speaker B: I have smart appliances that are connected. I have a security system that is connected through, through the Internet. I have cameras that are connected through the Internet. I have something that monitors my energy usage connected to my refrigerator. I do have a refrigerator connected to the Internet. I do have a refrigerator. It is not, it doesn't tell me when I'm out of stuff, but it gives me basic alerts like, hey, I left the thing. You left your refrigerator door open. [00:30:26] Speaker A: Which is a good yes. Yeah, yeah. [00:30:28] Speaker B: You know, but, but as, as technology advances, we need a bigger pipe, right? We need more bandwidth. Because it's not just I have one computer who that I have hooked up to a dial up connection and it's physically hardwired and it's, it, it's the only thing that's connected. You know, we've had as we've talked about these 75 years and we've had different employees talk about the progression in Internet speed, in bandwidth and how we, how we thought when we went to 10 meg lines, that's it, we broke through, we're good, we never need anything faster. But unfortunately everybody, when you get into a home with children like me, I have children, I have a spouse, we're all fighting for that same bandwidth speed and we're all connecting with different things. So I may be watching a television show, my wife may be searching the Internet. I may have a child who's playing a game on, on a tablet and another child is streaming something or they're, they're Internet gaming as well. All that's coming through the same pipe. So what do we want the larger the number that you have and you hear it and you hear gig speed. And we love to talk about gig speed because we've got world class technology right here. Thankfully we can offer bandwidth that we can meet your needs. Bandwidth is not as complicated as it sounds. [00:31:54] Speaker A: And for this segment of the Local Click, we continue our visit with some of our very important DTC employees who keep things running smoothly. We appreciate them very much and we're lucky to have Ms. Leah Gregory. How are you today, Leah? [00:32:08] Speaker E: Great. How are you? [00:32:08] Speaker A: I'm doing great. And you are the engineering clerk. Let's get to know you a little bit better. Tell us about yourself and your family and your ties to the area. [00:32:18] Speaker E: I'm a lifelong resident of Smith county other than right after I got married I lived in Murfreesboro for a few years. [00:32:24] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:25] Speaker E: But my husband and I have lived in smith county for 20 plus years now. [00:32:30] Speaker A: Oh wow. [00:32:31] Speaker E: Have two sons that are grown. Campbell who's 26, Kate who is 23. We're both big in sports in Smith county. So that was a big part of our life. They now each have their own business and are out doing their own thing. They've graduated college, still living at home, but doing their own thing now. My husband works in the healthcare industry in Murfreesboro. Travels some, but all of our family is in the Smith county area. So that's home to us. Of course, my husband's family, they grew up in the sale barn in Carthage. That's his family ran that for years and years. So that was a big part of our Lives. [00:33:10] Speaker A: So everybody knows them, I'm sure. [00:33:12] Speaker E: Pretty much, yeah. [00:33:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So how long have you been at DTC and what made you interested originally in working for a cooperative? [00:33:21] Speaker E: I am working on my 22nd year in June. I'll be here 22 years. I grew up in Gordonsville. We had DTC service my whole life. After I graduated high school, never crossed my mind to go to dtc. I just. I don't know, it just didn't think about it. I went to Nashville and worked. Drove back and forth for a while, realized that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Came back home, got into banking. I worked in banking for 16 years. [00:33:52] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:33:53] Speaker E: Okay. So after I got married, had my first child, I decided to stay home for a few years. I stayed home, got ready to go back to work and I was like, I don't want to go back to Nashville. I want something local so I can be close. And I thought about dtc. I knew several people that worked here. A prime place to work. But I thought that would fit me well, being close to home and, you know, a good place to work, a good family oriented place. [00:34:19] Speaker A: Talk about some of the different positions that you've held while you've been here, because you've been here for quite a while. And then talk about your current position too. [00:34:26] Speaker E: At the time, we had DTC wireless. So I started in the wireless department. [00:34:31] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:32] Speaker E: And that was very interesting. Completely nothing like what I had ever done before. Being in banking, it was completely different. But I had a lot of good mentors that I worked with and it was a fun place. We all had a good time. I then transitioned out of that into customer service. Worked in customer service, doing residential new services. So if you came in to get service with us, I could be one of the ones that you would talk with. From there, DTC decided to bring their tech support in house. We were using a third party outsourcing at the time and they decided to bring it in house. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Okay. [00:35:11] Speaker E: And myself and two others were chosen to start that department. So we started tech support. It eventually became part of DTC Dispatch, what we call tcc, but it's dispatch, tech support, that sort of thing, troubleshooting. So it all kind of got rolled into one. But I worked in that department probably maybe 10 years, and the position in the engineering department opened up. So I've been there since March of 2021. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Okay. [00:35:41] Speaker E: And that's where I'll probably spend the rest of my days. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Oh, good. [00:35:44] Speaker E: I'm getting close to retirement. [00:35:45] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome. [00:35:46] Speaker E: In June it will be 22 years. [00:35:48] Speaker A: What does a typical day in the life of an engineering clerk consist of? I know there's some days that probably are not typical. [00:35:56] Speaker E: Right. Most days there's two, two clerks in the department. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Okay. [00:36:02] Speaker E: That's when a customer comes in, applies for service, the order is taken. It then comes to our stage. If it's never had service before, we determine, of course now it's what fiber strand it used to be, what cable pair and when we were on copper. But that's all changed now. So it's fiber. We determine what fiber strand, what remote the services are going to work out of, what splitter port, what kind of ont they use. When the techs are out building the fiber in the, in the field. They actually made a spreadsheet for us that says this address will be using this fiber strand and it's going to be working out of this remote. So if somebody comes in, we're service and the address is on our spreadsheet, we can say, okay, we're supposed to use this virus strand. So. [00:36:51] Speaker A: So you kind of know sort of. [00:36:53] Speaker E: Yes. [00:36:53] Speaker A: What connection to make for that, what [00:36:56] Speaker E: remote it's going to work out of, what services available based on that, whether you can get multi gig or whatever. But we assign the facilities at that point the ont and then if it has to be spliced that it's sent on into the engineering department and they get that done from there. [00:37:14] Speaker B: Wow. [00:37:14] Speaker A: You mean so when someone orders new service, they don't just say I'd like new service and then you hit one button and it just turns on if [00:37:21] Speaker E: there's been service there before? Sometimes. [00:37:23] Speaker A: Possibly sometimes. [00:37:24] Speaker E: But yeah, I think that was the big misconception. Everybody thought there was a switch that you went and you flip the switch and poof, it worked. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Just hit one button and it's automatic. [00:37:34] Speaker E: Eventually, one of these days it may get to that point after everybody has had service at least once. At least once. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Location. Yeah. [00:37:42] Speaker E: But now it's not just flip a switch. [00:37:44] Speaker A: Well, you get to see a lot of projects before they ever hit the ground. Then it sounds like, what does that make you feel like to watch that map go for someone that's going from, you know, previously underserved or not served at all. Really? [00:38:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:00] Speaker A: And then all of a sudden here they are having really some of the fastest technology available in the country. [00:38:05] Speaker E: There's an area in Smith county that I'm familiar with. I go to church there and it was a dead zone. Nobody wanted It, I mean it was just, you cell service was terrible. There was no Internet. [00:38:18] Speaker A: You just had no options. [00:38:19] Speaker E: You had no options because there just wasn't that many people there to justify the cost it would be to serve. That was one of the areas we went to first and I had lots of friends, lots of people that I went to church with. So that was kind of a weekly thing when I'd come in. How close are we? When are we going to be getting service? Because they would see the trucks rolling out the door. [00:38:41] Speaker A: People were excited about it. [00:38:42] Speaker E: Oh yeah. I mean it was amazing that they went from nothing to high speed Internet and TV and phone and. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's gotta be exciting to see. [00:38:51] Speaker E: It was, it was, it was, I was, I was kind of their hero for it. Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Well, you kind of had a part, you know, I gave a part of [00:38:59] Speaker E: it, kept them up to date, you know, that's about all I did. [00:39:01] Speaker A: But yeah, we have a segment here on our podcast called the Tech Translator where we try to take some kind of phrase or acronym that sounds like some foreign language and basically break it down to a language that, you know, normal people can understand. Do you have any kind of terms like that that you deal with? [00:39:16] Speaker E: I mean, we talk about O&TS and we talk about fiber strands and splitter ports and G ponds and, and all [00:39:23] Speaker A: that stuff and so you got a few. [00:39:24] Speaker E: Do I know what all the technical terms are? No, but I know what, what they are. You know what they do. But yeah, people say I don't know what you're talking about. It's kind of like WI fi, you know, nobody really knew for a long time what WI fi, like what wifi [00:39:40] Speaker A: was, you know, what is that weepy. From permits to project tracking, there's, we kind of talked about it a moment ago. There's probably a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to get service started and that kind of thing. What's a common misconception that people may have about getting started with service from your side of it? [00:40:00] Speaker E: From the aspect of going into a new area, like if we're building service to a new area, you can't just go and say we're going to put service here. I mean there's lots of regulations, there's lots of permits. [00:40:13] Speaker A: That's right. [00:40:14] Speaker E: I mean it, that's probably one of the biggest holdups is getting all the permits and the approvals. It's not before you can ever start scratching the dirt, getting the line there, [00:40:22] Speaker A: there's other things way before that. [00:40:24] Speaker E: I mean, one prime example, we did an area in Smith county that's over by the lake and it runs across the Corps of Engineers property. You don't just go put up poles that even if there's polls there, you just don't go string your, your lines on their poles. You have to have permits and I mean, that was a big, big undertaking. [00:40:46] Speaker A: A lot of approvals. [00:40:47] Speaker E: Lots of approvals. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Emails, phone calls. [00:40:49] Speaker E: Yes. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Follow ups. [00:40:50] Speaker E: Took. Took a while to get some of that done. [00:40:52] Speaker A: So DTC is celebrating, as you know, 75 years this year, which is a pretty big milestone for sure. What are some of the drastic technology changes that you've seen, especially as far as how you deal with keeping up with records and maps and that sort of thing. [00:41:11] Speaker E: Of course, we've been computerized the whole time that I, that I've been here. But everything now is mapped. Every, every line, every pole that we have is mapped. [00:41:26] Speaker A: Thousands and thousands of miles of. [00:41:28] Speaker E: Yes. [00:41:29] Speaker A: Connections. [00:41:29] Speaker E: The engineers, not me personally, but the engineers can go in there and say this customer service works off a poll number. So and so if you've ever noticed on the polls, there's little stickers on it with numbers. Okay, yeah, that's, there's a route number and a poll number. [00:41:45] Speaker A: So that's how they keep up with that. [00:41:47] Speaker E: Like you give an installer a route and poll number and they would, they could take you right to the location. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Yeah. [00:41:55] Speaker E: So that's how they know where services work out of more so than street addresses. But yeah. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Can you imagine literally going from no options to all of a sudden now you can stream, you know, movies, live tv, you can use the Internet, you can do big downloads. You can. Yeah. [00:42:11] Speaker E: You know, it's, it's life changing. I mean, a lot of people, especially during COVID Yeah. We immediately saw an increase of people needing service yesterday because they were being sent home. [00:42:23] Speaker A: Working from home. [00:42:24] Speaker E: Working from home. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:25] Speaker E: Yeah. So we did lots. I said I worked, I worked probably some of the longest hours I've ever worked from home. But we were trying to get people installed and as fast as possible. As fast as possible. In the safest manner possible. So it was, it was interesting. [00:42:40] Speaker A: But you survived it. [00:42:41] Speaker E: We made it. [00:42:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [00:42:42] Speaker E: We did it. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Well, we appreciate all those hard hours because I know that was not easy and it was very stressful too. But let's take a break from some of the hard questions. It's time for a fun question. Okay. Hypothetical, of course, if you could, if you could take a month out and do some engineer clerking in another place in the world that, you know, they just need fiber. It could be a beautiful place. It could be a place you've always want to visit it. Where, where would you go for a month and try to help them out? [00:43:11] Speaker E: I mean, I've traveled some and I've. I've never been to Greece. I would love to go to Greece. [00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:18] Speaker E: The pictures I've seen are beautiful. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:21] Speaker E: But, yeah, I think I'd like to go to Greece and spend a month. Maybe I could work poolside or. [00:43:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:43:27] Speaker E: Overlooking a beautiful ocean. [00:43:29] Speaker A: Oh, you need a laptop? [00:43:30] Speaker E: All I need is a laptop and a telephone. Absolutely. [00:43:32] Speaker A: Yeah. I'll see if I can talk to some folks here and see if we [00:43:35] Speaker E: can't work that out. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Send you out there for about a month or so maybe, you know, just to make sure connections are good. [00:43:41] Speaker E: Yeah, that would work. [00:43:44] Speaker A: Last question before we go today. What has it meant to you personally to work for DTC for all these years? You've been here a very long time. Obviously it must be a special place for you to stay with us that long. We appreciate that. But what does it mean to you to be here? [00:43:59] Speaker E: They're family. When I started here, I had already been through one career. My children were young, like 2 and 4 years old. So my children have grown up here. They've grown up with my fellow employees children. They've played ball against each other. We've gone to picnics together. You know, I mean, it's just, it's a big family. It really is. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:22] Speaker E: Of course, a lot of them have gone on now. [00:44:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:25] Speaker E: And it's changed tremendously. But yeah, it's. It's just a big family. [00:44:31] Speaker A: Well, we're very proud to have you part of this big family and thank you for everything you've done throughout all the years because that's a, that's a lot of hats that you've had to learn to wear. And you. One thing I know about you personally is no matter what the task is, you're always willing to roll up your sleeves and jump in. So we appreciate that. [00:44:49] Speaker E: Thank you. Thanks for having me. [00:44:50] Speaker A: Hey, no problem. Everybody stay tuned. We've got more of the program coming up in just a few moments. [00:44:57] Speaker G: Great communities attract talented people to live, work and raise their families. We've deployed a high speed network that helps the best and the brightest enjoy better lives in our smart rural community. Great small businesses provide jobs that help workers earn a good living and provide for their families while strengthening local economies. We deploy fiber Internet that helps those businesses succeed. Great doctor and patient relationships create bonds that lead to healthier lives. We deliver secure connections so every home and rural healthcare provider can connect to the best health care options. Great schools help knowledge hungry students learn, think creatively and follow their passions. We've built a network that helps their dreams take off. Great farmers provide the food that sustains and nourishes our nation and the world. We keep those farmers connected to the technology that ensures their crops can thrive. We've planned, engineered and constructed a cutting edge communications network. We're committed to delivering future proof broadband so our friends, families and neighbors can live rich lives in smart rural communities across America. Your community is our community. We're your rural broadband partners. You do great things, we make great things possible. [00:46:41] Speaker D: At D2C, we connect you throughout your home, powering how you live every day. And now that connection doesn't stop at your front door. With Trilight Mobile, you stay connected. Wherever life takes you, at home or on the go, it all works together. Because today connection isn't just something you have, it's something you rely on. DTC Internet and Trilite Mobile stay connected wherever you go. [00:47:15] Speaker A: It's time to hand the microphone over to Justin again. Take over, walk back down memory lane, if you will. For our segment we call before the [00:47:24] Speaker B: WI Fi, music used to be a different kind of experience. It wasn't just a digital experience. [00:47:33] Speaker A: True. [00:47:33] Speaker B: It was a physical experience. [00:47:36] Speaker A: Right? [00:47:36] Speaker B: Right. You owned the media, you held it in your hands, you got to fight with it. The good old days, you got to flip it over. [00:47:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:45] Speaker B: And then you got to store it and hopefully you stored it properly and didn't ruin it. Okay. So the format that you used to listen to music in told would tell a lot about the era that you were in. So for me personally, I do remember cassettes, but mostly when I hit my teenage years and stuff, we were CDs, right. We had the jewel case CDs and you know, we had Walkmans and things of that nature. But you know, before the cassettes there were other things. And so I'm going to ask you, what, what did you listen to in your childhood? What about eight tracks? Did you ever have a vehicle with an eight track in it? [00:48:26] Speaker A: Technically I did. [00:48:28] Speaker B: So going back even further than eight tracks, what came before eight tracks? [00:48:31] Speaker A: Remember the primary records? [00:48:32] Speaker B: Yep. Vinyl. Vinyl records. You would play that record and when it got to the end, what'd you do? [00:48:38] Speaker A: Flip it? [00:48:39] Speaker B: Yeah, flipped it over. Right. And then what'd you do with Eight tracks and cassettes. [00:48:43] Speaker A: Yep. You've. [00:48:44] Speaker B: You, you got to the end and hey, we got to listen to that other side. [00:48:47] Speaker A: Yep. Technically, on an A track, it's called the program button. I don't know if you've. You've probably never used an eight track. [00:48:53] Speaker B: I never used an eight track. That was before my time. [00:48:56] Speaker A: There was a button labeled program and you had. If I remember correctly, you have four programs. And so that whole album was broken down into four segments. Every time you hit program, it'd play another part of that tape off that eight track so you could hear that portion of the music. And if, by the way, if that song was in the middle of a long segment and it was running out of space on that program before it went to the next program, it would fade out in the middle of the song. You'd hit program where it would click itself and it would fade back up where you left off. [00:49:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that, that is actually in my notes, something that had. Yeah. That they were infamous for fading out a song mid chorus to switch tracks, which drove people crazy. [00:49:36] Speaker A: So if you're, if, if you're listening to Freebird on the eight, you can almost guarantee you're probably not going to get the entire song. [00:49:42] Speaker B: No way you're getting through the full. Yeah, the full rendition of Free Bird. So, Yeah, I was. CDs. But then even after CDs, MP3 players, I saw a buddy of mine on social media who still uses an Apple ipod, really, and they took a picture of the song they were listening to. But you think about the experience of physical media in that regard. You know, you listened to the whole album because now, what's it, CDs, it changed because you could skip tracks. [00:50:14] Speaker A: Sure. [00:50:14] Speaker B: But you didn't. You couldn't just skip to the next track that you wanted. You listened to an entire album that was part of the experience. You went through the whole thing. Skipping wasn't convenient. It meant more then because you had to put a little bit more effort and work into it. [00:50:29] Speaker A: I would totally agree with that. [00:50:31] Speaker B: So, yeah, so, yeah, before, before the WI Fi, we had a whole different experience with music. [00:50:37] Speaker A: Now it's time, though, to figure out what have we missed in the previous month as far as technology. I'm going to let you take it over again for Tech News Roundup. [00:50:48] Speaker B: Elon Musk has been involved in actually a lawsuit with OpenAI. And so OpenAI is chat GPT. [00:50:58] Speaker A: Right. [00:50:59] Speaker B: And a lot of people don't know that Elon Musk was actually part of the board of OpenAI. Years ago. But OpenAI was initially founded as a non profit and they shifted and became a for profit entity. And he's actually part of a lawsuit trying to return them back to that status. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:19] Speaker B: And unfortunately he lost the lawsuit and he lost it on a standings ruling that you, you did not. This was not timely filed and so it wasn't dismissed on, on what would be considered merits, you know, or the arguments of it. It was, it was more of a standing thing. And he says he's going to appeal it, but it's interesting that he's going after that, which it could be because they are a competitor to his own company now with X or xai. But that, that, that's been a very, very interesting case. You've seen a lot of other stuff going on. AI wise Meta, who is responsible for WhatsApp and Facebook and Instagram has shifted 7,000 employees strictly to AI development. [00:52:00] Speaker A: Wow. [00:52:00] Speaker B: So pretty significant chunk. But then also about the same time they did that, they are also laying off 8,000 employees. So it's, it's interesting we see the shift to AI and putting so much emphasis on AI, but then we've got a lot of people who are losing because really that's 15,000 jobs that, that, you know, you shifted 7,000, you laid off 8,000. So there's 15,000 jobs that were being done that aren't anymore. [00:52:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:52:26] Speaker B: And always raises the question how many of those were related to AI? [00:52:28] Speaker A: Sure. [00:52:29] Speaker B: You know, because of AI. You know that, that's something here. Did you see recently the video of the Way moves in Nashville just driving around the cul de sac? [00:52:41] Speaker A: I did not see it, but I did hear about it. [00:52:43] Speaker B: So. [00:52:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:43] Speaker B: So recently there was a video that went viral, especially here because it was in our area. So Waymoo, which is owned by Alphabet, which, which used to be called Google, but Alphabet's the parent company now, they've launched autonomous taxis in the Nashville area and this video went viral of they come to this cul de sac and it's like a takeover of them and there's multiple that just start going in a circle around, around this neighborhood. And I say that because that's interesting because it happened about the same time that Tesla announced that full self driving is going to, they're going to attempt to have beta status removed and it's going to be a full functional, you know, component. Yes. Of Tesla vehicles. Okay. And you know, is this in response to Waymu? Because Waymu has it. Uber's got an offering that they're starting to roll out and test of autonomous vehicles. Now Waymo does have fallback. If it gets into an odd situation, they can have somebody remotely control the vehicle. [00:53:51] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:53:52] Speaker B: With Tesla, with full self driving, you're still supposed to be in the driver's seat, you're still supposed to pay attention, be aware of your surrounding those kind of things. But we're to the point now where mass full self driving, autonomous vehicle, self driving cars is not science fiction. That it's, you know, it's those piece like we see the stuff that was on the Jetsons and it's like these are one of those things like, okay, this is becoming a reality now. [00:54:22] Speaker A: It's still a little worrisome to me personally because I just know that there's still some bugs possibly to get burped out. [00:54:28] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's why I say the piece of you still have to be there paying attention. Yeah, right. Like I, I mean personally, I would never fully rely on it. Yeah, so. So yeah, you've got, you've got to be careful and there's still a lot of room to grow and growth and things to be able to make that possible. But the last thing that we're going to hit on, and this goes back to the AI space and it's actually something recently here in our local area that was brought up with local government is a new Gallup poll shows that 71% of Americans do not want an AI data center near them. So almost three out of four of Americans don't want an AI data center. And so we talk about all this artificial intelligence stuff and how great it is and what all it can do. But in order for it to function, you've got to have the infrastructure side, right? The hardware side that powers it. Now with that, you've got a ton of electrical use, you have a ton of water use because most of those data centers are using water cooling as the way to, to cool down and to keep the, you know, the energy usage is through the roof because you've got all these CPUs and GPUs constantly running full throttle and you got to have a way to cool them down. [00:55:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:55:41] Speaker B: Well then you've got water usage implications. Well then you got water discharge implications and sewer discharge, wastewater. You know, there's just all kinds of things that are going in in addition to, we live in rural America and rural Tennessee. Well, what does a data center end up doing to the landscape? What does it do to the land? [00:56:01] Speaker E: Right? [00:56:02] Speaker B: It changes the land from, you know, an agricultural site because that's where these are going, they're having to go in large areas where there's nothing else there. But then they're loud, too. You know, they make a ton of noise. So there's all these considerations that are being given. So, yeah, there's a pro. There's the benefit of it. There's a lot of cons to having an AI data center. There's a price to it in your backyard. Yes. And, and again, that was very, that poll was very interesting because there's been a lot of local governments in our area who have been looking specifically how do we regulate AI data centers? Because, again, because of where we're at, there's a lot of interest in putting them in rural areas. And then even our state legislature also passed some legislation about how if there is an AI data center from the utility side, that that data center can't negatively impact the other users on a utility network. So if you have an AI data center that comes in and it jacks up the electrical cost or jacks up the water cost or things like that, they have to absorb that cost themselves [00:57:06] Speaker A: instead of passing it on to everyone else. Yeah, so that makes sense. [00:57:09] Speaker B: So there's some interesting things. So it's. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:57:12] Speaker B: So that survey is interesting, but it has a, it has a real impact to you and me and our listeners and watchers as well. [00:57:18] Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. Stay tuned for what that's going to evolve into, because that's a very fleeting, fluid situation, so. Well, thanks, Justin. I really appreciate the, the tech news as well as the walk down memory lane before the WI Fi a moment ago. That was kind of in my wheelhouse. I appreciate that. And before we wrap up this episode completely, I do want to let you know where DTC will be for the month of June. Starting on June 3rd, the Smith County Senior Day at the Ag center in South Carthage. Then the very next day on June, June 4, the DeKalb Summer Reading Program, which we talked about a little bit on this program with Ms. Kathy. And that'll be at the DeKalb Community Complex on June 22nd through the 27th. That's right. It's fair time. The DeKalb County Fair is back on June 25th. The Smith County Library program will be going on at the event center and we will be there for that. And round rounding it out is another fair, June 29 through July 4, the Smith County Fair. So we hope you'll come to some of these events and if you are there and you see us there, we hope you'll stop by and say hello and on that note, that's going to do it for the month of June. Justin, appreciate you being here and for everything that you do for the program. Had a great one today. [00:58:34] Speaker B: Hey listen, it's a pleasure to be here and it's a pleasure to be here with a great host who helps keep everything rolling for us. [00:58:42] Speaker A: I appreciate that and we thank Ms. Kathy and Ms. Leah for being here as well and always we thank you, the viewer and the listener for being a part of this podcast every month and we hope that you will join us next month when we have a brand new episode. But until then we hope you have a wonderful June and we'll see you very soon. Learn more about the show by visiting us online@the localclick.com also be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast or video platform so you won't miss our next episode of the Local Click. See you next month.