paint it black

So for the longest time I thought that the lyrics to Paint It Black were "I see a rainbow and I want to paint it black". Imagine my disappointment when I learned that "rainbow" was, in fact, "red door". Seriously, painting a rainbow black is way more poignant.

I think I'm doing this wrong and this should be a tweet.

books

I'm reading like 8 books right now which feels fun and daunting all at once. Like literally 8 books ...

• Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry by Marcus Thompson
• My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
• Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
• Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman
• Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

In this process, I did discover a little lifehacky trick, which is probably totally obvious to the rest of the world, but is a revelation to my idealist, completist brain.

So when I read a book, I really commit to reading it - to expend brain-cycles actually thinking about it. This means I read all the boring parts, footnotes and all. The downside is that I give up on a lot of books that I can't keep up with. Also, I'm not really big on "business books" per se. I sometimes feel like I need to read them, to keep up professionally and get the terminology down but it is hard to get excited about these books.

What I (finally) realized, as I tried to get through Lean Startup is that I don't actually need to read a 300 page tome that basically goes into a lot of detail on some pretty basic concepts. Most of these books have nicely summarized versions on the internet, and these versions along with some Wikipedia / Google foo will pretty much get you all the good parts. Now I can get back to my summer fun reading!

And as I write this, I realize that I just came up with Cliff Notes. 

sports nosports

OK - so I was wrong in my last post. The 2015-16 warriors were not the greatest team of all time. Turns out this year's version are even better (thanks to the new model KD turbo drive). Alas the season is over, and there are no real sports to watch this summer. Baseball seems utterly pointless to me, and this is a non-World Cup, non-Olympics summer. So enough about sports.

ball don't lie

Dubs play the Cavs tonight on MLK day in what seems like a regular season game with some deep implications. I decided to get some court time at Bushrod - I wish I had played more when I was younger. I coulda been a contender ... What else? My favorite 2 basketball players will always be Hakeem and Steph. One of my favorite sounds in the world is the "swish" in nothing but net. In an alternate reality I'd want to be a stats wonk for a professional basketball team. And I really think that the 73-9 Warriors were the greatest team of all time. They should have won the championship - but got unlucky at the wrong time. I guess 2016 was the year of these kind of stupid bad-timing low probability debacles (see also: the election of you-know-who). Almost makes you wonder if Zaphod Beeblebrox hooked up the infinite improbability drive to the year 2016.

Helvetia to Hellas

Switzerland/Greece trip (December 2016) as defined by my browser search terms (work and basketball related links left out)

switzerland, roger federer, lugano bus fare, nobody gonna break my style nobody gonna slow me down, giuseppe name in english, lugano hiking, lugano latitude, lugano weather, rit italian, how to watch nba in europe, knute rockne, chocolate lugano, monte bre, environments albums, lugano music venue, brunch, audium, crazy ex girlfriend season 1 review, what time is it in switzerland, i don't speak italian, convert seconds to hours, you, switzerland half franc, lizzy caplan rebecca bloom, lugano train station, arth goldau, prego bitte, athens metro schedule, athens weather, delphi greece weather, slovenia, greek word for christmas, nutella, onassis cultural center athens, helvet, dan simmons, temple of zeus, greek archaeological museum, yuri on ice

Prize for the most cryptic/intriguing search term: you

and today

I ended up (somewhat unplanned) at a Black Lives Matter protest with the kiddo. <redacted> some thoughts about race and privilege that will likely never leave my emacs terminal </redacted>. Kiddo's first question after we left - why are there so many police officers here?

treat yo self

Hi there! On a self imposed social-media break so I'm popping in over here because I need to get my message out there. Create brand awareness. Tell the world etc.

Seriously though - the facetweet hiatus has done wonders for my sanity, especially during the RNC. I could be fretting over you-know-who's latest round of garbagespeak but instead I'm just ... chill. I take my kid to camp in the morning. I get shit done at work. Do a bit of meditation (still trying to figure out if this is helping or if it is all in my ... ahem ... head). Make some dinner with E in the evening. Play some webgames (or phone games). Maybe indulge in a fancy beer or whiskey or gin.

This is good for me, but I do like the social part of social media and I like seeing what peeps are up to. If only there was a way to filter out fraught topics.

The political landscape still casts a dark shadow, but we'll have to nervously slog out that lead over the next few months. In the meantime, I'm just going to remind myself to

2015 redux

Most years fly by. This one didn't. Stuff that happened in March felt like two years ago.  It was a long, complicated year that had a bit too much - pain, excitement, new beginnings, sad endings etc.

The good:

• I switched jobs at work, and I feel rejuvenated in many ways. Almost took a startup job in the city, but I bailed out in the end. Which is totally fine - it made me think hard about what I wanted out of work and I ended up taking on a new role more in line with where I want to be.
• We bought a new car. I love our little Fit.
• Stability - I never want to take this for granted, even when things are good. Both E and I are gainfully employed; our child is happy and thriving at her school; and we have the love of good people in our lives.
• Warriors. NBA Champs. Wow - still feels unreal saying this. The Warriors got me through a lot of the chaos from this year and this will always be a special, special championship.
• I've been doing the little self-improvementy things that feel good. I've started running for the first time in my life. Doing my radio show again. Reading more.

The bad:

• My grandfather passed away last month. He was an amazing man and a huge influence on who I am. I love you and miss you, Nana. The last six months have been hard on my family - my parents had become his caretakers as he started to need more and more assistance. I've been flying back to visit them quite a bit, and I'm just amazed as to how much my mom was able to do for him. It is hard to say goodbye, but as he deteriorated things were becoming increasingly unsustainable. Small consolation, but maybe we can all find some peace in moving forward.
• Our beloved cat passed away this summer. I felt really lost after having had her in my life for 16 years. My daughter is the one who probably felt this the hardest, but I was also impressed with how she processed it all. She built a shrine for the cat, and made sure we said a proper goodbye and got to talk about what an awesome kitty she was.
• It has been a tricky time at work. Even though I landed on my feet, I had to deal with a ton of stress and needed to do a fair bit of soul searching before I could figure things out.
• I broke my ribs. They are still broken and it kinda messed up my Christmas break. But it is fine. I'll be ok.
• Lots of terrible stuff happening around the world - more mass shootings, idiot presidential candidates, a broken police system, religious fundies across the world. I miss the heady optimism of 2008 and the first Obama inauguration. Election cycles are never fun for me. I'm not going to bother with wishing everyone an amazing 2016 - that is too simplistic a notion, and things are too fraught right now. If we can just come out of the next year with a modicum of hope and positivity, I'll take that as win.

what does one watch in post golden-age era of television?

lots of good shows on the telly interwebs these days, including

• Mr. Robot
• Peeky Blinders
• Wet Hot American Summer
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
• Jessica Jones
• The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
• Master Of None

data nerding on my KALX playlists

Playing around with Tableau and Pandas.

Here are my top 30 most played artists since 2007 along with the number of plays:

Tuneyards                    13
Jens Lekman                  11
The Mountain Goats           10
Flying Lotus                 10
Kishore Kumar                10
Goldspot                     10
Veronica Falls                9
Wax Idols                     9
Television Personalities      9
Aphex Twin                    9
Charanjit Singh               9
Dreamdate                     8
Jay Reatard                   8
Thee Satisfaction             8
Wire                          8
Radiation City                8
Devendra Banhart              8
Why?                          8
Mogwai                        8
Battles                       8
Mount Kimbie                  8
Bishop Allen                  7
Dog Faced Hermans             7
Das Racist                    7
Vampire Weekend               7
State Of Bengal               7
Sonic Youth                   7
LCD Soundsystem               7
Thurston Moore                7
Six Organs Of Admittance      7

And here are my top 11 new records from 2015 based on airplays

 
Film Student       SLC035                    5
Thee Satisfaction  Earthee                   4
Piano Movers       Girlfriend's Lover        4
Cold Beat          Into The Air              4
Girlpool           Before The World Was Big  4
Kamuran Akkor      Kamuran Akkor             3
Robert Glasper     Covered                   3
Colleen            Captain Of None           3
Battles            La Di Da Di               3
Michael O          Really?                   3
Ben Khan           1000                      3

free as in beer

I've been keeping a beer log ('b'log?) on Evernote for the past couple of years and I just discovered that I could publish it.

Beer me!

insomnia

Lying awake at 3am and having random thoughts ... Why is my Chromecast blinking? I really hope that is the sound of raindrops. Also, why don't they call illegal defense in the NBA anymore? And is it any more or anymore?

Top 5 Tabletop Games

Time for a random list.

• Carcassonne
• Munchkin
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride 
• Settlers of Catan

2014 Music List

OK - finally had some time to collate my shit. Here is my list:

2014 - Best Records:

1. Andrew Jackson Jihad - Christmas Island.
   http://sideonedummy.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-island
   The weirder, more neurotic cousin of the Mountain Goats. Sooo good.
2. The Rentals – Lost In Alphaville
3. Lunchbox – Lunchbox Loves You
4. Tacocat - NVM
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXbZle8VNk4
5. tUnE-yArDs – nikki nack
6. Dark Beach - Scream Queen 7”
   http://darkbeach.bandcamp.com/album/scream-queen-7
7. Perfume Genius – Too Bright
8. FKA twigs – LP1
   FKA Twigs is awesome! This is the evolutionary Bjork with the whole perf. art meets music thing.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99YyWeqHaBo
9. Divorcee - S/T
   Yoni Wolf (aka why?) from Anticon doing a nice little side project
   http://yoniwolf.bandcamp.com/album/divorcee
10. The world is a beautiful place and I am no longer afraid to die - Between Bodies
    A bit like Slint … spoken word emo?
    http://theworldis.bandcamp.com/album/between-bodies

2013 Records that I dug this year

• Bleached – Ride Your Heart
• Terry Malts – Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere
• The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Whenever, If Ever
• CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe

Random Genius Record that I discovered 34 years later:

• Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth
  Haunting, spare, minimal, dark. Taking the whole no-wave thing and turning it inside out.

Stuff I wanted to like, but couldn’t get into:

• Aphex Twin - Syro.
  Here’s the thing - if you listen to old Aphex it is fucking mental. This album was really tame and I felt a little jobbed here.
• Flying Lotus - You’re Dead
  Too much dissonant jazz. Not enough hiss. I found this grating.

the power of non-habit

So for my mini-, randomly induced midlife crisis I decided to angst about my habits. As in routines. Or rituals. Or things that I do on a consistent every-day basis.

It turns out that I don't. I never have. No really - I don't know that there is a single thing that I've consistently done every day, for an extended period. I shave whenever I feel like. The brushing of teeth tends to happen at odd, random hours. I ride my bike to work when I can, but there are lots of exceptional days. Antibiotics? Let's just say that I usually finish my doses several days after the prescribed time.

What this means is that I'm really good at winging it - when I need to get a specific thing done, it gets done. But when something needs to turn into a habit, I honestly have no idea how to do it. I never have. I'm very good at improvising but terrible at the the set pattern.

So now I'm finding myself in need of having to do something on a set schedule, and I'm pretty much screwed. Help!

world cupping

top 5 players
5. keylor navas CRC (had to include a keeper)

4. james rodriguez COL (that's ha-mess to you)

3. robben NED (the raw speed-acrobatic diving combo)
2. neymar BRA (the tragic hero)
1. messi ARG (well - umm - messi)

top N moments (with a generous dutch bias)

• Robin Van Persie - The Flying Dutchman (best goal)
• The death of Tiki Taka
• Tim Howard's 16 saves vs. Belgium
• Neymar goes down 
• Van Gaal's mind games - Krul as substitute goalie in PKs vs. Costa Rica.
• Robben's expert dive beats Mexico
• Mmm ... tasty Italian ear (starring Luis Suarez) 
• 7-1

 

Also - I can't stop saying vɛ̃sɑ̃ kɔ̃pani

Almost at the end of the tourney. Will update this post

ron swanson birthday

Every year, I take a strange delight in turning off my Facebook wall and _not_ allowing a million birthday messages to inundate my wall. It might seem like a jerk move, but a bunch of my wishes come from people that I barely know ... people that I haven't been in touch with for a long time. It just feels vaguely disingenuous to wish someone, not because you remembered their birthday or needed to connect with an old friend, but because a computer program sent you a reminder. Anyway - for those of you that actually mean it, you know how to reach me. 

Notable things that happened in 2013

Dusting off an old unposted entry for the sake of posterity:

I got a road bike.
We went to NZ.
E got a job.
Tinu started 1st grade.
New Bay Bridge.

Fave 2013 records (actually done before the end of the year!)

I'll make a spotify playlist eventually … in the meantime 

Records I liked in 2013:
=================

My Bloody Valentine - MBV. A shoutout to their past that evolves into a futuristic sounding thing. 
http://pitchfork.com/news/49344-my-bloody-valentine-share-new-album-mbv-site-crashes-check-out-cover-art-and-tracklist-now/

Savages - Silence Yourself. A dark nervy record. And they are absolutely fantastic live. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuIB8HEmnoY

Devendra Banhart - Mala. Very underrated and cheeky album. 
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/mala

Bleached - Ride Your Heart. I'm a sucker for shambly C86 style indie pop
https://myspace.com/hellobleached

Kids On A Crime Spree - Creep the Creeps EP. A garagey take on indie pop. Oakland style. 
http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/253

Legs - Pass the Ringo. Can I say indie pop Oakland style again?
http://logladyrecords.com/ll012-legs-pass-the-ringo/

Lorde - Pure Heroine. I know she was overplayed, but this kid is only 16. and writes her own music. and she is good. and she is from NZ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc (Yes - you've seen this before, but listen to again anyway)

Daftside - Random Access Memories Memories. Daft Punk never really did it for me. This remix record by Nicolas Jaar et al. (Darkside) was much weirder and far more interesting than RAM IMO.
https://soundcloud.com/daftside-2/sets/random-access-memories-1

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City. They do well-crafted studio pop and they do it right. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANznirklths

Disclosure - Settle. Dark, dancey and british.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18091-disclosure-settle/


Older records deserving a shout:
=======================
Various Artists - Rocket Infinity: The Global Rise Of Rocking Music, 1942-62 - digs up allfthese gems from around the world interpreting early rocknroll. Ace Bunny Killer! 
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rocket-Infinity-The-Global-Rise-Of-Rocking-Music-1942-62/release/4219704

Suicide - S/T - Holy crap - this is so good and so different from anything else that came out of the 70s. Fuzzy distorted almost-electronic music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LayQ98lR8I

you down with btc?

is there a non-sketchy way to do bitcoin?