I finally feel liberated from my retirement account.

The likelihood of my pre retirement years succumbing to a “lost decade” in the markets has dramatically increased.

Yes, we seem to be surrounded by them these days don't we? I'm not referring to those vultures, but instead the John Mayer song from his 2006 album "Continuum". The drummer on the album is the great Steve Jordan along with Pino Palladino (gosh if there were ever a bass player that I wish I could jam with it would be Mr. Palladino).

I don't nor have I really paid attention to John Mayer, I have always paused however when I hear a song that have these rhythm juggernauts playing on the track. That was the case with this song "Vultures"*. It is a simple, tight bass and drum groove with tasty guitars and fairly decent vocals. I came across a live performance of Steve Jordan playing it and the groove hit hard.

So I decided to do one of my one take drum covers. I listen to the song once, chart out a basic form and get a sense of the feel and press record. It was nice to feel motivated behind the kit again, a nice distraction from what has been going on lately. Here's my drum performance of the song:

*Goes without saying that I hold no copyright or ownership of this music, the drum performance in this track is mine for my own musical education purposes. All rights are reserved by the respective copyright owners.

✅ Groceries

✅ Food for the week prepped and cooked

✅ Playtime w/ 4 yo

✅ Realization that tomorrow is Monday

☑️ Rest

The Light Phone III is the most interesting phone design I have seen in while. I’m seriously considering it (but that price though 👀). I’m also a sucker for working within constraints. Phone, Text (SMS), Podcast, Calendar, Contacts, Directions, Camera and super clicky buttons.

Per my previous post, you can pretty much validate this at every tech news site.

Joan Westenberg captures a lot of what has been on my mind over the past couple of years in this wonderful piece, The Future is More Stuff:

This, right here, is why labor-saving devices haven't saved labor, why communication technologies haven't created more connection, why abundance hasn't given us a 4 day work week. The gains get captured by the same system that produces the stuff, channeled back into making more stuff rather than improving our mutual - our shared - well-being.

Today I played with my boy. Puzzles, racing, matching games, hide and seek, reading stories. All day, my only focus.

Do One Thing | dansinker.com

Apparently ssa.gov website is only running during set hours. This is what shows up when I try to log in (to see my social security contribution statement). I decided to check it out after reading about this poor gentleman, whose benefits are suspended for no good reason.

Shutting down the government would have just accelerated Trump’s plans and power grab. It’s a tough pill to swallow, I get it.

The perceived leverage Dems seemed to think they had around the shutdown appears misguided and reactionary as far as I can tell. They don’t have a plan yet, plain and simple

The news ping pong cycle is the definition of insanity, whether the subject is eggs or Trump’s next bit of stupidness.

Peter Erskine, famous jazz drummer from the likes of Weather Report and other, put out some drumless tracks that are available for purchase on iTunes. I purchased a handful of them and have been enjoying coming up with parts.

The political equivalents of this tragic headline are both of these a). GOP states wondering why the guy they voted in is creating instability in their neck of the woods and b). Dems wondering why people aren’t donating money to their txt campaigns.

Nothing new, the GOP are cruel, full stop.

Department of Education Told Employees to End Support for Transgender Students.: propublica.org

Currently listening:

Deleted: Realized I am falling into the trap of propagating unnecessary negativity.

This, so much, this.

Hello non-technical people. Just a heads up. Musk isn’t a programmer, a systems architect, or anyone with experience building or running large systems of any kind. However, he’s taken credit for others building large systems which makes him think he’s That Guy. He is not.

Some geese, on a frozen pond.

More of this please

New “WikiTok” web app allows infinite TikTok-style scroll of Wikipedia. arstechnica.com

As a music listener, I want to press play on a purchased track in Apple music that says “downloaded”, so that I can…successfully listen to the song I had purchased and downloaded.

Apple music management just keeps getting more and more terrible. I just want to play the tracks I own.

Think I will take the train next time.

Trump Vows ‘Great Computerized System’ for Air Traffic politicalwire.com

The amount of attempts being made to sign in to my Microsoft account is pretty wild.

Dan Sinker explains why we have to write it down.

Part of the design of of all this is to overwhelm you and the other part is to deny that you are seeing what you’re seeing.

Never heard of this service but seems like a clean and easy way to blog, directly from the notes app in iOS or macOS, blog.montaigne.io

I decided months ago to really shore up our emergency fund. I’ve been recommending the same to friends, family, and strangers. Saving is hard, it can feel impossible, but even $10 a month is better than zero. Cheeto Prez is lighting his matches.