Resonance

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Midnight made it to our slice of the globe. Happy New Year, Everyone!

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The annual retrospectives reviewing who has left this mortal coil continue to become more poignant and painful.

Easy to get lost in dark thoughts.

The challenge is to shine brighter.

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Half-day at work, then cleared the drive of snow. Grateful for snow throwers. Husqvarna has been good to me.

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Last night I told a speaker to play 80s New Wave. I remembered the future I once dreamed of included rack stereo systems and Nakamichi Dragons.

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I miss getting to know the contestants on The Voice. These short seasons seem too rushed and it’s getting harder to care.

I also miss being able to buy the killer performances on iTunes.

#TheVoice

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What I have realized is that photos can’t capture thoughts or feelings. Not exactly. They don’t capture the love we feel, the joy of a certain moment, the sense of place we may feel, or a feeling of belonging with family or friends. They just capture the light in the moment the shutter is released by causing a chemical reaction in a film or sensors in an array to record their states.

In this, photographs lie to us by showing an objective truth.

The image evokes recollection, or the image transports us through time, or invites us into a new way of seeing, challenges notions or perspectives.

The art in photography is that it makes us think and feel, even though our thoughts and feelings may only be loosely related to the subjects of our gazes.

All this from photons, transformed, in the tiniest slices of time.

When I snapped this image, I had been enjoying the contrast of the dark tree limbs against the orange and amber of the sunset.

By the time it occurred to me to attempt to capture it, launch my camera app on my phone, and frame an image I hoped might not be hideous, the sky changed.

The image doesn’t show any of that. Just an amateurish shot by someone who intended well.

But I remember.

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Trust no political party.

The evidence continues to suggest they are more interested in having us fight each other than in enacting lasting beneficial change.

Territories

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Spent some time this morning watching shows about politics and shows about the consequences of political conflict.

Any time we think of groups of people that include friends, neighbors and family as an enemy, I wonder if we aren’t then the problem. I’m including myself, here.

I do hereby disavow political parties. I will continue to study and learn. I will be performing my civic duty this fall to the best of my ability.

I’m neither happy nor hopeful.

The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don’t feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can’t really feel
What international means
In different circles
We keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles
We keep spinning round and round

—Lyric by Rush

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“The Greeks had no original sin and no eschatology because they saw nothing inherently wrong with the world in the first place.”

Things you find reading papers from Academia for the joy of it

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Music can return me to times, places, and states of mind in a way that almost no other carrier-of-meaning can. I spent time in motion behind a lawn mower this afternoon while listening to music and letting my mind go free.

I have realized that I am still everything I have become.

But I assert that I am not done becoming.

To speak is to risk being misunderstood.

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Please allow me to quote heavily from The Bard Terence McKenna—this selection comes from a discussion about language:

We use rapidly modulated small mouth noises. As primates we have incredible ability to make small mouth noises. We can do this for up to six hours at a stretch without tiring. No other thing we can do approaches the level of variation with low energy investment that the small mouth noises do. A person using a deaf-and-dumb language is exhausted after forty-five minutes.

But a problem with the small mouth noises mode of communication is: I have a thought, I look in a dictionary that I have created out of my life experience, I map the thought onto the dictionary, I make the requisite small mouth noises, they cross physical space, they enter your ear, you look in your dictionary, which is different from my dictionary, but if we speak what we call ‘the same language’ it will be close enough that you will ‘sort of’ understand what I mean. Now if I don’t say to you, ‘what do I mean?’ you and I will go gaily off in the assumption that we understand each other.

I stand behind my words.

What do I mean?

Preserving Audio Formats

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Thinking about old forms of media, I am torn about attempting to digitize old formats versus (re)buying. Something like an old movie on a DVD is low hanging fruit, as is music on CDs. I’ve long had CDs ripped and am working on movies.

But cassettes and vinyl—there is a labor of love. Transcribing happens in real time, then editing is necessary to separate tracks dubbed during the session…

There is great equipment available to do a good job of this, even for a home hobbyist.

The issue is time.

And releasing music I can find no other way.

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Imported just 7 posts from an old blog into my current home. Exported from Blogger, imported to WordPress, exported from WordPress, then imported to Micro.blog. It’s just that easy. Then I spent hours re-linking media and switching categories.

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Status

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Having dietary concerns is a minefield. I dangerously assumed a special order I made for home delivery was correct. But the worst part is that I didn’t confirm and I ate it.

#celiac

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Just dumped out a bunch of water at my desk. It doesn’t happen often, but every time it does I’m frustrated that I’m not more cautious, that I’m not using lids.

Water bottles are kinda tippy.

Lids are frustrating.

And around we go.

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Is it just me with the disappointment that now even our TV screens must be rebooted?

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Music is such a strange, personal journey. In my twenties I really didn’t think I could get enough fast, noisy techno. Today I’m seeking out shoegaze and dream pop at about half of the tempo. But still loud. Still has to be loud enough to feel.

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The universal plea of the person with more than one device talking to the same service: Can’t notifications go away over here when I acknowledged them over there?

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DISC assessment at work, today. The difference between my perception of myself and the perception others have of me is instructive and astonishing at once.

I’m a C when I’m in novel situations or under stress. I’m an I when I’m confortable and in my element.

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That feeling when I’m searching iTunes and my music collection for an album that I know I own. Except I don’t. I did have the artist right, and I was close to the correct year of release, but 100 percent wrong on the album cover art.

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Dear Coffee,

I am just writing to let you know how much I appreciate all that you do for me.

In gratitude,

Hjalmer

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Noted:

It’s a privilege to learn about racism rather than to experience it.

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So, yeah. I’m on the east side of St. Paul and I’m lucky not much has come close to me. But I started to cry when I saw this advice on screen.

Here is the full list

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Is Memorial Listening a thing?

I think a bunch of old guys like me are thinking about Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, The Spirit of the Radio and similar topics whilst playing giant drum kits in our heads.