Wendy Hurst

This is Ship It Anyway, the podcast that's part game show, part conversation, and predictably unpredictable, just like real world tech can be. Two guests will compete in a series of games about real tech quirks, fails, and features with hot takes in between. I'm your host, Wendy Hurst. Today we have two guests to compete for the winning title. 

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In one corner we have Joelle Soparriwala.

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She joins us from Orlando, Florida. Besides being a tech sales powerhouse since 2012, she's also been a chambermaid, a craft foods intern, and somehow even a secretary in wealth management, despite spending most of her money on travel and fine dining. When she's not mentoring foster youth, she's racking up contest wins like a game show champion or playing bass drum in a fife or what the heck is a fife?

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Joelle Sopariwala

It's like Pandromcore.

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Wendy Hurst

Okay, Or playing bass drum in a fife and drum core. If luck is a skill, she's got it maxed out. Welcome, Joelle.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Happy to be here.

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Wendy Hurst

Joelle, are you a tea or a coffee person?

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Joelle Sopariwala

Neither, I am naturally caffeinated.

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Wendy Hurst

In the other corner, we have Melissa Gonzalez joining us from Utah. Melissa is a community and social media manager at Hero Devs, but started her career picking strawberries and making homemade jam From beauty brands like the Body Shop to the fast-paced world of Utah's tech, she's mastered everything from marketing strategy to community building.

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Melissa, welcome to the show. When you get the mail, do you throw out the junk stuff right away or do you let it sit for a while?

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Melissa Gonsalez

Thanks Wendy.

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I throw it away immediately. I know, I grew up with a drawer that was full all the time and I'm like, I'm not doing that. So we toss it real quick at my house.

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Wendy Hurst

Good for you. I also grew up with a drawer like that.

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We're going to jump into our first game today called Patch Me If You Can.

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Software updates are weird and so is this game.

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Each contestant will get three chances to guess which of the absurd patch notes is real. For those who don't know, patch notes are comments that go into technical documentation that lists changes, updates, and bug fixes made to an application. Right answers earn one point, and the contestant with the most points wins this game and gets to go first in the next one.

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Joelle, you're up first. 

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Which of the following patch notes is actually real? Is it A, added a feature allowing players to teleport using only their thoughts? B, fixed an issue where players could become permanently stuck in bear traps? Or C, introduced a new ability that lets characters walk through walls at will?

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Joelle Sopariwala

I'm torn between the bear traps and the walls, but I think I'm gonna have to go walls.

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Wendy Hurst

The answer is B, fixed an issue where players can become permanently stuck in bear traps. I'm sorry, you got that one wrong. But you get another try, here we go. Which of the following patch notes is real? A, players can now manually adjust the trajectory of their bullets midair. B, dragons occasionally flying backwards. Or C, added an option to pet dragons, increasing their loyalty.

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Joelle Sopariwala

I guess I'll go with C.

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Wendy Hurst

Incorrect. The answer was B. Dragons occasionally flying backwards. Not the wonkiest one, but still interesting. That one was found in The Elder Scrolls 5 for Skyrim.

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Joelle Sopariwala

I like game of Thrones. I like Harry Potter. I like stuff like that, but, have yet to find my own dragon in real life.

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Wendy Hurst

Alright, Melissa, this is your chance. This is your chance to shine. Are you ready? 

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Which of the following patch notes is real? Is it A. Added a no gravity mode where all in-game objects float aimlessly. B. Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player's wedding dead. Or C, introduced time travel mechanics to allow players to undo their worst decisions.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Hmm. Let's go with B.

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Wendy Hurst

The answer is B! Fixing an occasional issue where a guest would arrive to a player's wedding dead. That is in the game The Sims 3. Did you guys ever play The Sims when you were younger? Or now? I mean, it's still around.

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Melissa Gonsalez

I love this.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Yeah, love the Sims.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Yeah. I love The Sims. We actually spent the summers. We would spend the summers at the pool. And then, you know, when the pool would have the two-hour break, we would go to my cousin's house, and we would just play Sims for an hour or two, and then go back to the pool. So we did that every day. So I played The Sims a lot. Yeah.

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Wendy Hurst

That's a memory and a lifestyle right there.

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Melissa Gonsalez

And we had it like in a, my aunt had the computer like in this little like a hutch. And so we were, we only had a desk, one desktop. And so we would take turns and you know, a bunch of chairs around the Sims, like the computer. And we were just having so much fun. I think we were like in elementary school playing Sims. So good times.

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Wendy Hurst

I love that game. Mm-hmm. I love that game. It was so fun. My favorite thing was just to build the buildings and then I would use whatever cheat code that was required in order to like boost my money so that I could buy it for that character and I could just live in the house.

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Melissa Gonsalez

All the cheat codes.

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Joelle Sopariwala

…or mother load. Those are the two codes I remember. So we're different kinds of people because there are people like you and my sister who like building the houses. I hated that part. I would always pick the pre-constructed house. I just wanted to go straight to controlling people's lives. That was that was why I was there.

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Wendy Hurst

All right.

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Which one's real? Is it A, players can now use their voice to command NPCs to fight for them? B, fixed an issue that could cause a team to be trapped in a child's body while traveling to the future at the exact moment of a birthday? Or C, added an in-game AI that can automatically complete quests for players?

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Melissa Gonsalez

I'm going to go with B again.

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Wendy Hurst

The answer is B.

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Fix an issue that could cause a teen to be trapped in a child's body when traveling to the future, the exact moment of their birthday. I feel like, well, one, let me clarify. That is also Sims 3, but two, like, what would that be like in real life?

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Melissa Gonsalez

I'm trying to visualize that, like what?

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Wendy Hurst

What would you call that like as a syndrome if you had to, if it happened in real life?

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Melissa Gonsalez

Maybe just like, maybe we could call it the birthright. Birthright syndrome.

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Wendy Hurst

The Birthright Syndrome. Congratulations, you're 13 now, but you still look like a child. (laughs)

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Joelle Sopariwala

Dang. We're like 13 going on 30.

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Wendy Hurst

So now I wanna talk a little bit more seriously.

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Patch notes are kind of a way to leave little breadcrumbs about the changes that you make in something. What is a patch note that you remember from your own life?

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Melissa Gonsalez

In Utah, there has been kind of a, I want to call it like a revolution of like women in tech. And there's an organization called Tech Moms. And their entire focus is to help women re-enter the workforce after taking a break from being a mom or just like any career break it could be, you know, you're a caregiver. There's so many things that could happen in life in general that, you you take a pause. And there's also like the power pause that people are calling it now.

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I met the CEO of Tech Moms. Her name is Trina. She's amazing. Her and her team are awesome. And this was right after I had my son. was like, I was like six weeks postpartum. And I was like, I want to, you know, get into tech. And in my first time as a mom thinking I'm going to have like so much time and this, I can do this. And it was so hard because, you know, reality hit me in the face.

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Tech Moms is a program that you have to go in person at the time. You have to go in class and you learned how to code a website and you basically got introduced to a bunch of tech topics and I still was able to do it. It was 10 weeks long. Um, thanks to my husband and his support because it was really hard, um, with, you know, being six weeks postpartum and doing that every weekend. But that's kind of what opened up my eyes to the tech world. And after that, I was just like, I really want to do tech to just challenge myself and learn new skills. 

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And then during that time, it was that weird COVID like post COVID layoffs and my company, they actually laid off the entire US team. The body shop closed operations in the US and so our US team was laid off and then I was like well this is kind of like the best time to make a pivot and make a change and then I had an opportunity to work at a local venture capital firm in Utah which then opened up my eyes even more to the tech world because this VC firm specifically invests in Utah tech in early early stage.

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And so yeah, after that I was like, yeah, I think this is the way that I want to go. There is a portion where other women in tech come and speak to you at the class. And they tell you about their experience. And there was just so many times that all of these women were like, tech is for women, it's for moms, it provides flexibility. And there's so many opportunities for growth and earning potential. It's really the best.

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If you have the skills to find your way into it, it can really support your lifestyle.

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Joelle Sopariwala

I had originally gone to a university that specialize in business because I wanted to get into advertising. basically wanted to be like mad men and make commercials and do that kind of marketing campaign and all of that. that's right when streaming and everything was becoming big and suddenly people weren't really watching commercials as much and people were switching from cable had always done sales from when I had first sold Girl Scout cookies as a little girl and just every school fundraiser we had, I was always top seller. I really enjoyed that. 

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When I was a senior in college, I applied to this company called EMC. They're a storage company for companies to be able to store data and backup data. I just kind of fell into tech, honestly. I've switched around a lot. started in hardware. I've done resellers. I've worked, you know, for services. sold, cybersecurity services to casinos. That was pretty cool.

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And then I ended up in software. I think my trajectory changed because technology changed the way that people consumed entertainment. And so when I thought I was going to have a career focused on making commercials and people stopped caring about and watching commercials, that's how I ended up in tech.

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Wendy Hurst

Speaking about HeroDevs brings us to a little word from our sponsor over to me.

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[Ad]

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And back over to me. Welcome back to our show, Ship It Anyway. We're ready for our next game called Feature Creep.

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Maybe you've never coded an application, but you've definitely used one before. Take a perfectly good simple product and ruin it with too many features. The goal of this game is to make a feature as over-engineered as possible. I will present a single object and each contestant will add three seemingly useless features.

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The winner earns one point and will be selected based on creativity. Melissa, you were the winner of our last game, which means you get to go first. Are you ready for the object? Which I did not bring with me, but I kind of wish that I did. 

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Today's object is a toaster.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Okay, here we go. Maybe I'll have it.

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Useless features. My brain only goes to like useful features.

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Wendy Hurst

Yes, you get to add three useless features. Hey, sometimes something that seems useless actually is kind of helpful. A side handle on the front, the back, the side.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Like a squishy side handle on the toaster.

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The side. Yeah, on one of the flat sides. Nothing. It's just a handle. You know, like, I don't know if that's happened to you before where you like almost accidentally like let go of the toaster when you're trying to put it away. It happens to me. I make toast every morning for my son. So I like very quickly.

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Wendy Hurst

Okay. What does it do? It's just a handle. It's just a handle. Perfect. That's one.

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Melissa Gonsalez

When I do things, maybe that would help me not drop it.

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Wendy Hurst

That's good idea. I mean, I typically just leave my toaster on the counter, but maybe that's just me.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Yeah.

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Melissa Gonsalez

I know, I have this thing where like my counters have to be like there's nothing on them so I always put it away. Just my clean freak mind.

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Wendy Hurst

Same, okay, so no junk drawer, no toaster. Got it. Handle, that's number one. What's another thing?

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Melissa Gonsalez

Thanks. Maybe freezing your toast? Instead of heating it up, you're freezing it. You're freezing your bread.

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Wendy Hurst

Okay. Freezer Feature. And number three.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Let's see. Ooh, a, like a sprinkle feature.

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Wendy Hurst

Sprinkle feature.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Yeah, like a cinnamon sugar sprinkle feature. It's for children, you know.

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Joelle Sopariwala

I like eating toast like that. Why is it for children?

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Melissa Gonsalez

I've just let you know what my toddler likes. Anything with sprinkles, he'll eat. So I'm like toast, little sugar, little cinnamon. Quicker than French toast on the stove.

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Wendy Hurst

That's true. Though I feel like it's not necessarily the sprinkles, it's more the sugar. But I could be wrong. Good for you. All right. Joelle, the object is a toaster. Three seemingly useless features.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Well, my toaster is going to glow in the dark because I feel like that's really important when you're making toast. So you can see it with the lights off. Yeah, think that's important. I think another feature that my toaster would have, it would obviously have to come in a neon green.

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Wendy Hurst

Toasting in the dark, got it. Number two.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Because I think it will just make the toast taste better somehow. And everyone will want that in their household. And the third feature that my toaster would have is a really, really short cord so that you have to have it right next to the little outlet. That way you never lose your toaster.

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Wendy Hurst

Okay.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Mm-hmm.

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Wendy Hurst

Do you, hold on. (laughs) Let me back up. Do you typically lose your toaster when it's plugged in?

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Joelle Sopariwala

Well, you know, some people like to conserve energy Wendy, so they don't always have their toasters plugged in.

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Wendy Hurst

Okay, so you unplug your toaster when you're not using it. Melissa just puts it away. I'm the dirty one over here and I just leave it alone.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Yeah.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Yeah. This toaster is for you, Wendy.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Wait, there has been another feature that I thought of now. I could get like a toaster cover that makes it invisible on the counter.

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Wendy Hurst

An invisible the cloak of invisibility from Harry Potter, but it's for your toaster. That is a good bonus feature, but it doesn't count because you already gave three. But I love that idea. Unfortunately, it makes it harder to find. Like, how would you ever know that your toaster was on your counter or put away?

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Joelle Sopariwala

Yeah, I was like, what is this?

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Wendy Hurst

All right, so we got Battle of the Toasters. 

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Melissa's has got a handle. It freezes stuff. You can add sprinkles and then on the side, like as a bonus feature, she wants to be able to make it invisible, which makes it really hard to find. 

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And then over here we have Joelle. Hers glows in the dark because she doesn't want to lose it. It has to be neon green for the flavor. I don't know what the flavor of neon green is, but I kind of want to try it. And a short cord also so you don't lose it. 

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She has a problem or a worry, a fear of losing her toaster. And I will say, as someone who has ADHD, I also have a fear of losing objects. So for that reason alone, I'm going to give it up. Joelle's the winner! Yay!

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Joelle Sopariwala

I'll send you that toaster, Wendy. One day.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Nailed off toasters.

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Wendy Hurst

I want to see it. I want to see it. I'm going to try it and I will. be your first reviewer.

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What's a small everyday problem that you wish had a solution?

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Joelle Sopariwala

One thing that I'm thinking of, I'm a very efficient person. I mean, you know, I drive a lot because I'm always going after work to different places. And I don't know why we can't just make all stoplights be motion censored. I really hate when I'm in a light and there's no one going the other way for so long and I'm just stuck there because it's on some weird timer that doesn't even make sense for the amount of traffic that we have.

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Wendy Hurst

Alright, that brings us to our final game. Are you ready?

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Melissa Gonsalez

Let's do it.

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Wendy Hurst

This is a game of limericks. Limericks are ones where, like little rhymes, where the last word is blank and you just have to say the word that fits there. each one that you get right earns a point Each one of you gets two limericks to respond to. Today's topic is women's history. And Joelle, since you were the winner of the last one, you get to go first. Are you ready?

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Joelle Sopariwala

Okay, I'm on the job.

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Wendy Hurst

Here we go.

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She fought for a right long denied, refused to step meekly aside. Through struggle and might, she won us that right. And now we can all vote with great... Blink. Pride! Good! This one's referring to Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists who fought tirelessly for women's right to vote in the United States.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Pride. 

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Wendy Hurst

Which was granted in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. All right, here we go, number two.

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She piloted planes in the sky, a fearless young girl aiming high. She flew out of sight, then vanished one night. A mystery still makes people.

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Joelle Sopariwala

Cry?

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Wendy Hurst

It is. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. In 1937, she disappeared while attempting a flight around the world, sparking decades of theories and searches.

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Alright, that's two for two. Melissa, are you ready?

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Melissa Gonsalez

I think so.

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Wendy Hurst

Her words lit a powerful flame. She shattered old rules of the game with passion. She wrote on rights and the vote and history still knows her.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Do we get a hint? I can't.

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Wendy Hurst

Yes, it rhymes with flame and game. Those are your hints. History still knows her.

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Melissa Gonsalez

This is hard. Claim, game, name…

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Wendy Hurst

Name!

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Melissa Gonsalez

Wow.

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Wendy Hurst

I'm not gonna give it to you, but I like that you answered the question.

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That's okay, it's tricky. This one is about Mary Woollstone craft and Betty Freiden. I really hope I'm saying their name correctly. Mary Woollens' crafts, a vindication of the rights of women in 1792 was a feminist milestone. Frieden's The Femin Mystique in 1963 ignited second wave feminism.

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All right, here we go. Number four.

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She painted her pain and her grace with flowers, self-portraits and space. Her brush told the tale both haunting and frail. Her art left a lasting blank.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Embrace.

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Wendy Hurst

Technically the word is trace, but I like that you said embrace because it rhymed and it still makes some sense. I'm gonna give it to you. This one's about Frida Kahlo. She was a Mexican artist known for her deeply personal and surreal self-portraits, which often depicted her physical and emotional pain, her identity and her political beliefs. Did guys know that she had a prosthetic leg?

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Melissa Gonsalez

Yay!

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Joelle Sopariwala

Yeah.

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Melissa Gonsalez

No, I didn't know that.

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Wendy Hurst

Joelle's total is three and Melissa just barely, just barely inching it a lead with three and a half points. Yay, Melissa! Congratulations! You're the winner!

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Melissa Gonsalez

Thank you.

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Wendy Hurst

Thank you for listening to our episode of Ship It Anyway. We hope to see you in the next one. Goodbye.

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Melissa Gonsalez

Thanks, Wendy. Bye, everyone!