Fantastic. That has got to feel good. Taking decisive action... taking control... setting your own terms for how you are going to be in this weird, weird time. Congratulations, man. If I were within 100 miles of you, I'd come in just to support your biz and decision.
My wife bought our house years before she met me. Her first roommate still lives with us. He's a black man in his late 50's now. He works in one of the cafes in one of Amazon's buildings downtown. He also suffers from a disease called CIPD that affects his immune system, and requires monthly blood infusions to keep it from getting worse. (It doesn't ever get better.) For two months now, he has been home, and our little quaranteam of 3 work very hard to keep us safe. We do it for him, and for my parents who are in their 70's and 80's... and are people I would really like to hug again some day. Despite the Amazon building he is in being almost entirely unoccupied, his company has asked him to return to work 2 days a week. His CIPD keeps him from driving, so he has to take the bus - well, THREE buses - to get to work, and then the same thing coming back. To keep him safe(r), my wife and I are driving him in to work. ... Now, the Seattle Police Department is rioting, and doing so every single night. We have curfews from 9:PM to 5:AM every day, through the weekend. Because a black man, like my housemate, was murdered by a cop. While three other cops watched it happen over 9 minutes. Yesterday I had to rush INTO the downtown area, to pick him up, because Amazon Security decided to close the buildings ahead of the impending nightly police riot, and kicked everyone out of the building. So I had to drive INTO the riot zone, to pick up my immunocompromised, black, male, housemate, and get him home safely. He has to keep this job. The CIPD has destroyed his fine motor function, so he isn't capable of performing a lot of jobs. And the health insurance from this job pays for his monthly infusions, which are something like $5k a piece. ... I've gotten good at painting my nails. I was chewing my nails down to bloody nubs, from the stress of every-fucking-thing. So I started painting my nails, so I wouldn't chew them. It worked. People ask me why I'm stressing. They laugh and smile at my blue fingernails. I smile back. ... But I can't spend all this time on Hubski; I gotta get back to work. I've got 4 government contract bids I am working on right now for work (oh yeah... still working full time, from home) that are all due next week, and would normally take me a week EACH to get done "right". Man. This timeline. It's stressing me out. But my new office chair arrives sometime today. So there's that. And the new washer/dryer arrive tomorrow. And my new bass amp will be here this weekend. (... can you tell that I have replaced biting my nails with some 'retail therapy'...?) I don't even know what's going on any more.
Have you used this model before? it's only got 22 reviews, and I am nervous about buying things I wear or sit in for long periods of time without a test drive. You're not alone on that one friend.But my new office chair arrives sometime today.
can you tell that I have replaced biting my nails with some 'retail therapy'
Short version: HOLYCRAP THIS CHAIR IS AMAZING!! Slight diversion: The chair was due to arrive on Tuesday. It was "On the truck; out for delivery". Then it was back in the warehouse. Then it was "on the truck; out for delivery" again, on Wednesday. Finally, on Thursday, at 8:PM, it arrived. And my only thought throughout all of this waiting and all the updates was, "Holy shit that driver has a massive workload on his back." I mean.... it's a CHAIR. It ain't medical supplies, or food, or anything even slightly important. So waiting an extra day or two for delivery was fine. My only thought was of the driver, who left the depot in the morning with a full truck, and wasn't able to deliver everything in it for TWO DAYS. That dude is working HARD, man. Much respect. Chair Review I bought the chair sight unseen because of the recommendation from my boss, who got his 5 years ago, still loves it, and says it is still like new. (He is seriously anal about stuff. Does ridiculous amounts of research on things. And when all his analysis and research produces a good result, is happy to share the info. I've learned to trust him when he says something is good.) My butt was annoyed with the dilapidated Ikea chair I'd been sitting on since... well... I got it from a garage sale maybe 5-7 years ago...? I have no idea where it came from. It was here, it was a chair, and I sat on it. The Bungee Chair is seriously surprising. And, as summer should be arriving any moment now (...looks out the window at 50 degrees, overcast, and slight dampness...) this chair has the added benefit of immense breathability. That will be really nice when it is hot. And when its cold, I can simply throw a Pendleton blanket over it, sit on that, and get all the bungie goodness while also being warm. Today will be my first full work day in the new chair, and I am sensing great things for my butt and back. :-)
Since like early march, if someone hit me with a "why are you so stressed?" there would be a 0% chance I could stop myself from immediately saying "because you're a fucking idiot".People ask me why I'm stressing.
Exactly! The next thing to say to them (do NOT break eye contact) is "release the murder hornets" while beckoning furiously to absolutely no one behind you
Fuck this week. I'm fine, personally. Work isn't going great, but whatever - we're in a pandemic. I'm lethargic and unmotivated, but I'm an ass in a seat and I'm meeting deadlines so fuck em if they want more right now. A black man, James Scurlock, was killed by a private citizen in Omaha last Saturday while he was protesting. The shooter was an avowed white supremacist and business owner who ignored repeated warnings from the police to avoid the downtown area and trust law enforcement to protect their property. He had an expired CCP, but brought a gun anyway. He started firing on protestors in front of his store ("Warning shots" evidently), and when a 22 year old man tackled an active shooter to try and disarm him? He was shot twice through the neck and killed. The shooter was released after less than 24 hours with no charges filed, and no bail paid. That's less time in jail than some protestors I know. For killing a man after he tried to defend himself and his friends. Read about it, if you're curious Citing the state's self-defense law, Wayne tweeted, "NONE of these circumstances were present. NONE. The State of Nebraska does NOT allow you to use deadly force to defend property. Further it is NOT a valid defense if you could have retreated." Protests here have been peaceful since the weekend, during which some glass was smashed downtown and an insurance building was set on fire. It's a shame to see property damaged like that, but it doesn't change my views of the movement as a whole OR the urgency with which I believe we should be protesting. I've been out every night except last night, when my still recovering ankle was too sore for me to march. Since I couldn't donate time, I donated money to my city's bail fund. The leadership here has been fucking incredible; the protests are being led by a handful of young black advocates who have effectively led marches, kept protests peaceful, controlled crowds with their voices, and guided the city's frustration into a positive and useful direction. I'm so fucking proud of these people - teenagers, some of them - and yet frustrated that my city has such POWERFUL young leaders in it who will never hold public office, because 'Nebraska Nice' only exists in face-to-face interactions and I don't trust people not to bring racism and prejudice into the voting booth with them. I know shit's going down nationwide this week. I've been involved in my local community, and I've been trying to use my social media platforms to amplify the voices I think need to be heard. It's tiring, but I feel I have no right to complain when I view much of this work as a self-imposed moral imperative. Hope everyone is staying safe and wearing masks / social distancing. Black Lives Matter, y'all."In this community, we prosecute black and brown individuals a lot more for things like we just watched," Wayne said, referring to the surveillance footage. "It's easy to talk to someone when they're alive. It's easy to get their version of the story when they can talk. We don't know what James would've said."
I put up some new music. Also, apparently the town cops are extra shit. I nearly drove through this on my way back from work.
I engaged my dad in a discussion about systemic racism and racial inequality in the UK today. He doesn't believe it exists. It's only a problem in the USA apparently. Most of the arguments I made were dismissed with the reasons of "that's the way they choose to behave" or "they're genetically predisposed to be that way". I pressed him on evidence for those claims but couldn't really nail anything down. I was more forthcoming with the basis for my claims but I don't think my arguments were good enough. I am committed to reading more and gaining more knowledge so that next time I am in a better position. Still, I was saddened to see this reaction from my dad, even though I half expected it. The 38 days since I posted this poem have been a blur. I wrote it not long after we got the news that my aunt had committed suicide. I live with mum and game daily with my cousins so I encountered a lot of powerful emotions in the weeks following. Never have I felt empathy-based emotions so strongly before. The initial rawness appears to have passed now but I have no doubt that there's a lot of healing still to happen. Otherwise, things have been good. My exercise and strength training has been going well. I'm really happy with how my music is sounding at the moment, even if I could be working harder. Nearly all the houses surrounding our communal garden are now occupied, which is nice. It really feels like a community now and seeing people in the garden every day helps lessen the isolation of lockdown. But most importantly, I am going to go kayaking again soon. I can't wait.
Those responses themselves are literally expressions of systemic racism, not that you'd get your dad to recognize it. I suppose it's completely unsurprising that someone who "doesn't believe" in systemic racism would be perpetuating it."that's the way they choose to behave" or "they're genetically predisposed to be that way"
Yep, it's bad. I hope that I can sway his viewpoint but I don't hold out much hope. He is quick to anger and get defensive. Arguments quickly stray off topic and turn into rants. My skills in arguing and knowledge in the subject aren't currently good enough to pin him down. But I'm learning about both so maybe someday.
Good on ya. I know these conversations can be tough. I eased in to a conversation with my wife today about similar issues (between you and me - she's a little bit racist). It was a good conversation. I wish you well.I engaged my dad in a discussion about systemic racism and racial inequality in the UK today.
There's still a few things to do on this one but here is the track I have nearest to completion currently: https://clyp.it/djfcuy12?token=eedf8aa88b8b39b135575e46b766ac3f
I loved the septuplet (do people dare say the proper "sextuplet", nowadays?) groove. The snare ghost notes! The outro buildup was probably my favorite part. Really good, dude. My high school friends and I used to live on triplet/sixteenth timescales together when we practiced the Blue Devils' "Ditty". Classic case of when a jargon gets hijacked. Really did enjoy your track, though :). I'm finally making new material again, it feels perhaps too good. My main problem is overcompressing everything. Separating volume from timbre. P.S. Have you ever heard of Louis Cole and/or the band "KNOWER"? P.P.S. Made a post:
Thanks! I'm glad you dig it. I'd call it a sextuplet groove. Septuplets would be 7, right? The snare ghost notes come from an EQd, stereo delay on the drum buss. And yeah, compression is easy to abuse. Outside of the instances of Neutron and Ozone I slapped on the mix buss for this quick bounce, there's not a single compressor running on that track. I try to get most of the way there with arrangement and fader levels, then use EQ as the icing on the cake. That percussion piece was rad. I never understand how people are sitting motionless watching stuff like that. It makes me move. Were you playing in that vid? I had drum lessons for years as a kid so I know all the weird drum rudiment jargon. And I have heard of Knower! Louis Cole is a very talented musician. I especially enjoy the live versions of Overtime and Time Traveller.
I dig both of these! The first one has a real classic feel to it. I think it must be that saturated Rhodes type sound (like in this track). I look forward to hearing them fleshed out.
Thanks for listening! :) As for the classic synth, I messed with the settings of a preset named "Asia" of Arturia's emulation of the 1974 Oberheim SEM synth. Bass guitar was played on a five-string bass guitar. Will be revised. The bass synth in the second song is built from native ableton oscillators (operator), which I just kinda fiddled with until something OK happened, but it still needs work. I'm trying to always consider CPU optimization for eventual live performance, and native is the way to go. edit: NOTE: not "Native", in this instance. I'm sure you know, this is for posterity. In the modern age of cheating with youtubb tutorials, it's an entirely different ballgame than when I stopped producing five years ago. It's like finally getting cheat codes. And then crazy great software updates, too. I am not worthy.
Yyyyup. We almost assuredly never said "sextuplet" 'cuz "sex". Welcome to the southern U.S.! No no, I never played for the Blue Devils, lol. Just high school drumline, but about five or six of us got realllllly technical with it. I learned that version of "Ditty" for snare, and then tenors (also called: "quints") and then partially bass, but the 'Devils have since changed it, perhaps even several times. I think, ideally, it'd get sprinkled in with rudiments and time signatures from each year's marching pieces. Sidestory, sorry: Went to high school summer drumline camp twice, and on the second time was kicked out, because I was caught at 10 pm by the local college campus police with two of my bandmates while they were smoking cigars at age 16 or 17. Sent home, the next morning. Parents furious. Ahem. Anyway, we'd make up phrases, like triplet cheese pataflafla para flam-flam, and pretended like it was code for something, by responding "AHHH... ohhhHHH. Yeesssss...". Then someone would protest by scatting trap set drum sounds as accurately as possible, like "tsi-tsi-brrr-cah-brrha-brr-ahpp-prrr-KAH!" or whatever, it was all totally normal. Ozone addict, here. I'm trying to make it the only plug-in I use besides Ableton's native stuff and Arturia's synths. Going for live performance, with two ex-drumliners, from above stories. Latency is a concern, obvz. It may be that I end up processing my master track and even some processing chains on a central rasperry pi hooked up to three synchronized instances of Albeton. Gonna have to work that out fully when our new "band" can actually meet up. I built a little studio in the past few months, so that's online now, and woooooooo! Been fun. Still getting my DAW legs back, though. My overcompression is perhaps at least semi-intentional. I think it's the genres I listen to that influence me, like vaporwave, futurefunk, and countless other electronic solo "french touch sampling disco tracks from mother's basement" type acts. I at least somewhat compress each track individually, then sidechain compress individual instrument tracks pretty liberally to the kick and snare, and then even introduce a little bit of Ozone's maximizer in the master. And it doesn't help that I still mix/master in headphones, because I live with someone that I care about, who, assuredly, doesn't appreciate hearing the same sample 153 times within one minute while I attempt to fine tune it. Even if they're on the other side of the house. And I've seen good mastering practice, but right now, for me, it's all about smashing things together and seeing what sounds come out ASAP, all the way down the chain. I've done some of this before, but going for original vox, now, and working towards a trio live performance, and so many more things, it's an entirely new scenario. Fun. Yeah, "Overtime" is great, longtime fave, but hadn't seen/heard "Time Traveler" yet, thanks :).
Even my little town is protesting police violence right now. I'm planning to go to the next one now that I know they're happening! It feels like there's a particular kind of brain rot endemic to academia. I know far too many intelligent, driven folks who cannot think clearly and have little long-term memory because something is always on fire and anything without a short deadline never gets done. I'm not really sure what to do about this but it sure does make my life difficult. The cherries on our cherry tree are just about ripe and I am pretty excited for whatever we end up making from them!
Prioritization is difficult in academia because everything carries an extra layer of pomp, circumstance and bureaucracy. Attempts to simplify and humanize prioritization generally make the situation worse because they cannot be applied uniformly. This is why so much actual progress in academic situations is accomplished by walking up to someone unannounced and asking them for a decision or approval face to face - it knocks them out of their academic register and forces them into a managerial fight-or-flight situation. We would throw drafts, proposals, papers, whatever at any number of academic clients and would get total dialtones until someone would get in the car, drive over (sometimes dozens of miles), and knock on the door. Obviously this approach comes with an unacceptable risk in the COVID universe which, I would imagine, makes the situation even more infuriating.
This is how I handle the academics I work with, if I need their sign-off or a decision I just go to their office. If I email anything, they will either take weeks to respond or flat out ignore it. They don't appreciate me always dropping by but I always say "it's better than being ignored and having to clean up the mess you made by ignoring me". Edit: My experience is that of administration of course, but your words certainly echoed that experience for me. This is why so much actual progress in academic situations is accomplished by walking up to someone unannounced and asking them for a decision or approval face to face - it knocks them out of their academic register and forces them into a managerial fight-or-flight situation.
Took this week off to take a well-needed break and to work on my academic paper. Finally saw my parents who I haven’t seen since early February. BBQ’ed with my gf’s family which was almost as if nothing had happened. Banal in a way that I quite longed for. We didn’t really hold onto the distancing; we figured after months of not seeing anyone, sitting outside and them being careful too, risks are pretty low. I’m still running and after getting new Nikes have been going very fast for my doing. Did a 40 minute 6k today without really going for that, so I’m very pleased. I did however drop under 150lbs for the first time today. So if y’all have lactose-free ways of getting phat lemme know.
Squats and oats did the trick for me. You'll have a hard time putting on mass by running 5ks, as opposed to doing resistance training. It's also easier to consume calories in liquid form, like protein shakes. Whey isolate is nearly lactose-free, and non-dairy powders would be completely lactose-free.
I lost all respect for food in the UK as soon as I was presented with a Welsh Rarebit. "This is cheez whiz on toast." "...yeah, mostly" "See I was willing to consider a Scotch egg to be a one-off but you guys really do just eat fried garbage and pretend you're better than everyone, don't you?" "Well, not to each other just to you lot." What I love about the Great British Baking Show is it's largely colonized minorities making French, Austrian, Italian and German delicacies in a tent in Yorkshire somewhere.
Protest Friday. I'm planning on going. It is really, really difficult to be at work lately. It's hard to feel like what I do for $$$ actually matters or is making a difference in the world or even my community because, you know, it's not. Not compared to a whole lot of more important things going on. But it does give me $$$ to donate, which I have been. The unfortunate side is knowing that some of the management here are doing some positive things because they know they have to, not because they actually believe any of this (true for COVID and BLM, the latter of which they don't give a shit about). Lots of talk about property being destroyed, staying safe, etc. and little to no talk about the reasons for these protests, the deaths of Black Americans across the nation...nothing. I don't know what else to do. If there's one thing the past 4 years have taught me it's that the people in power right now do not give a fuck and we have one political party who does not give a fuck and there's a surprising amount of people who just do not get it. Having a debate this morning with a friend (white) over the fact that I am painting cops as not being your friend, and that many good cops doesn't excuse some bad cops - we all know by now that there's plenty of bad cops to go around. I'm fully prepared to lose friends over the state of our country.
I'm sure you've seen it enough times that it's almost cliche at this point, but I liked the tweet so I'll paraphrase it: The way people speak is indicative of their priorities, and it's sad to see so many saying, "It's a shame that an unarmed black man was killed by police, but I can't support property damage," rather than, "It's a shame that people's property has been damaged, but I can't support the killing of an unarmed black man by the police." I'm sure that could be worded better, but you get my point. I don't like that property has been damaged either, but, y'know: And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. MLK said it bestLots of talk about property being destroyed, staying safe, etc. and little to no talk about the reasons for these protests, the deaths of Black Americans across the nation...nothing.
...It is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.
"War is the continuation of policy with other means" - Carl von Clausewitz Every fuckin' rhino-humper out there knows Clausewitz. Plenty of 'em have tattoos. His is the rhetoric of "you won't listen so I must crush your skull." Good for me, but not for thee.
To be honest, there was a shooting in my apartment complex this past weekend and so I've been blissfully out of the loop on national news for like half of the time the protests and riots have been happening. No worry: I'm perfectly ok and wasn't involved in the scene (beyond living next door and being a witness). According to the newspapers, it's actually almost a textbook case of effective gun use for self- and others'- defense. It's also a rather horrific story of road rage and white male privilege/violence that, sadly, began w/an aggressive group of 3 dudes (with one, young, female 'accomplice' or hanger-on) targeting a girl who looked like she was vulnerable and alone and had committed that heinous crime of pissing aggressive white men off. I decided NOT to share any articles because, well, they're just gonna make you feel horrific and they identify specifically almost exactly where I currently live. I am training for a half-marathon in Sept. My goal is to run 102.5 miles this month. This path is a great diversion of some of my energy. I breadwatch'd a little more -- some very delicious pizza, some naan. I have begun apartment complex short-listing and will go to VA for "housing scouting mission" late June. It is exciting and nice to have things to look forward to...bonus, we are now in the final 3 months of our lease so we can start to play the game of, "That? Does it really bother you? How much does it bother you -- less than 3 months' worth? OK then, just ignore that then." I like that game, it's a fun one.
-- Recipe: Binging with Babish
-- Recipe: budgetbytes.com
america can have little a revolution, as a snack