A reminder.

It’s the Stupid, Stupid

Really good interview with Mike Bordin, drummer of Faith No More fame. The comradery of Bay Area musicians reminds me of my experience in Seattle in the late 90s and early 2000s.

pca.st/episode/4…

Soundgarden and Bill Withers played in the background today for most of the day…

I can’t imagine what job seeking must be like these days. This article calls out that roughly 60% of CFOs at companies have pessimistic views of the economy (they believe we will be in a recession as soon as the second half of this year).

Whether this administration forces a recession on us or through shear self-fulfilling prophecy, the likelihood of accelerated layoffs because of corporate austerity or actual economic events is becoming more real.

Since the elections I’ve amped up my rainy day fund savings and can’t shake the feeling that I need more. I had made some assumptions around ACA benefit needs but in researching the numbers tonight around coverage for me and my family here in the state of Nebraska, the outlook isn’t great: If I lost my job tomorrow I would be looking at anywhere from $1400-$2800 per month in healthcare premiums. Nebraska just doesn’t participate in ACA in the same way more progressive states do.

This is bananas. I am fortunate, and privileged, in that I work for a tech company (which also means highly volatile) and that I still have a job. I am considered a high performer in my current role. But I can only hope for the best and plan for the worst, and the ticking hands of that worst clock appear to be moving closer to that dreadful hour.

I am not economically rich, far from it. I am rich in the important ways, I have a wonderful wife and beautiful son, they help counter that clock and fill me with joy every day. All I have to do is show up for them every day and do one thing.

TV is on while I wait for my car repair. I haven’t had cable or a tv in 20+ years. Of course they set it to Fox News. The kool aid is just… wow

📷 The HTC U11 had a good camera as well (still have mine from when I worked at HTC, beautiful phone).

Cleaning up my photos and found some shots taken with the Essential PH-1 phone I briefly owned. Kind of wish I hadn’t sold it. The monochrome shots were pretty good 📷

I miss Seattle.

I’m a big fan of Becca Farsace’s YouTube channel. She’s a natural at vlogging and I miss her content when she was at the Verge. Today she posted about her two weeks with the Light Phone III and it echoes the review from Wired that I read previously. It all boils down to the gamble being: will you have a stable software experience with this (temporarily priced?) $600 phone and the answer seems to be no out of the box, in particular SMS issues (can send but not receive, quirkiness with group chats) and camera responsiveness.

I love the industrial design of the device (not sure how it feels in hand), with its Dieter Rahms-esque black box with a speaker grill. Also the photo quality (akin to mid-2015s aesthetic) drives a little bit of nostalgia while preserving perfectly serviceable shots.

The texting thing will be more difficult for the Light Phone crew to solve. Some of it could be carrier related, but in a world where your number is registered to iMessage or Google’s RCS service, things can sometimes linger even if you de-register the mobile from your previous service creating the “send but can’t receive” scenario.

I suspect I would enjoy the device, but no WhatsApp is a deal breaker (supposedly they are working on it), as this is the primary way I communicate with my parents abroad.

For the time being, I will stick with my minimized iPhone 13 mini and keep it stock/barebones with only essential apps and no social media.

Man, Clem Burke. Rest in Peace.

Turned off all notifications, minimized my home screen. Going for that Light Phone vibe.

A quiet day outside with my wife and kid.

American Brexit (members only article) from Taegen Goddard’s excellent Political Wire.

This has been my main source of political news for the past few months and my mental health is grateful for it. Highly recommend the subscription.

And Britain, according to independent estimates, is now 10% poorer than it would have been had it remained in the EU.

The public seems to agree. Recent polling shows more than two-thirds of Britons now believe Brexit has gone badly.

That’s not just buyer’s remorse—it’s the realization that an entire country willingly made itself poorer for the sake of ridiculous political slogans.

Now, apparently, it’s America’s turn.

Hoping that buyer’s remorse doesn’t last 10 years for the US.

Priorities.

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.