jagibson.org


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Man, this hits hard. Arstechnica and AnandTech were the primary drivers for me in my tech education in the late 90s. RIP AnandTech

End of an era. I literally started reading this site in middle school. RIP. anandtech.com/show/21542/end-o

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I haven’t recorded in a bit. Was futzing around with tuning, it can be meditative at times to tune a drum and other times it’s the most frustrating thing one can go through.

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Glad to see Apple are finally selling the refurbished iPhone 13 mini. Just placed my order to downsize from my 13 Pro Max. Portability, music, reduced screentime, and texting. Those are my goals. No YouTube, minimal web browsing (probably just NetNewsWire and micro.blog feeds).

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During these next few weeks my focus is going to be staving off burnout.

Balancing crazy work hours and making sure I’m available for family has resulted in very little rest or pursuit of hobbies and such.

I’m not really stressed but can feel my body starting to reject the status quo I’m in.

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Poser.

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Dave Abbruzzese, Pearl Jam drummer for the Vs. and Vitalogy albums dropped a comment in one of my YouTube covers.

A comment by Dave Abbruzzese offering a tutorial link is shown under a post about practicing drums for the song "Animal" by Pearl Jam.
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I’ve been going down a Pearl Jam rabbit hole, especially the Vs. and Vitalogy albums with Dave Abbruzzese on drums (my favorite PJ records and all time favorite drummer).

I’ve never really played along to or tried to learn their songs in my youth. I’m focusing on learning Vs. first, starting with Animal. Such a foot work out. So much energy in this song.

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Purple corn, with occasional flowers.

How Far the Song has Fallen from the iTunes Tree

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an iMac G4 with iTunes Music Store on the screen and and iPod sitting to the right of it on a flat surface.

I have nothing against streaming music (I do so on occasion), but I prefer buying my music and downloading on to my device. iTunes used to be really great at this. In the last two or more years, I keep running into this glitch where 1) I buy an album from iTunes on my iPhone. 2) The tracks all go through the “Downloading” motions and successfully download. 3) New album or songs don’t show up on my Apple Music library for anywhere between 2 - 24 hours.

Rebooting or killing Apple Music process does nothing to accelerate anything showing up on my library.

Yesterday, while accidentally deleting a song off of a playlist, the album I purchased not 3 hours prior magically showed up.

“Could it be that by manipulating a track list in a playlist resets the library somehow to show the recently downloaded track(s)?” - my brain

Yes, my friends, this is indeed the case. I tested this by buying a track, creating a playlist called “Test” and adding a random song from my library.

Bam, track shows up in my library immediately.

What was once a service I never had to think about on my phone, now requires multiple steps to get a purchased piece of music to show up in my library.

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Man, I sure miss Bowie.

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Today I posted a Stone Temple Pilots drum snippet and a lame attempt at playing samba.

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My go-to beer is the Run Wild IPA from Athletic Brewing but it’s hit or miss finding it in the stores here (or any NA beer besides like O’Doules). Today they had Stella NA and I was skeptical but it tastes great!

A hand is holding a bottle of Stella Artois Liberté, which is a non-alcoholic beer with 0.0% alcohol content, in front of a grassy background.
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Summer, signaling its beginnings.

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I’ve been enjoying posting little short snippets of my drum playing on YouTube but I think I’m going to transition to hosting them here instead.

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Frozen fruitcicles

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Friday last week, we installed the pedals on my son’s balance bike and he didn’t skip a beat, was successfully pedaling on his first try.

my almost 4 year old son, riding his bike on a gravel road after we installed pedals
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I posted another drum cover short on YouTube. Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins) is a great drummer but I never loved the Pumpkins that much. This song is from Jimmy’s jazz/fusion/rock band Jimmy Chamberlin Complex and Billy Corgan provides the vocals. Wonderful song.

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Trying this out, my first YouTube short playing drums.

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Incredibly disappointed I missed Godzilla Minus One in the theaters but super happy it was released on platforms today. It was excellent.

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My (other) tribe

Three cats, two black and one tortoiseshell, sit and lounge on a gravel path with a grassy area, tree, and garden cart in the background.
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I’ve discovered an excellent new blog, arun.is by Arun Venkatesan. Today I read a mini first impression of the Daylight Tablet Arun posted back in March of this year. Long story short, I ended up pre-ordering the device, as it seems to be a promising take on e-ink tablets which is something I have been intrigued with since the first Kindle came out back in the 2000s.

Of particular note in his commentary, I appreciated this the most:

In my previous post, Why we crave healthier computing, I explored how the evolution of computing over the last century has made our devices both more powerful and more burdensome. Technology progressed from large mainframes to ever-connected smartphones. Concurrently, users have been presented with an ever-increasing number of questions they must ask when using their devices. I called these the “Six User Context Questions”:

  1. “What do I plan to do with this computer?”
  2. “Which applications should I use?”
  3. ”How may I best arrange my workspace and workflow?”
  4. ”How should I collaborate with others?”
  5. ”When will I use this computer?”
  6. ”Where will I use it?”

I appreciate the approach of having the technology be limited in order to constrain some of the time consumption our gadgets bring today, in this case a device with no cameras, black and white screen, and limited (?) application availability. On the flip side I’d like to think we as humans can overcome this without the need for outside restraints. I’m sure this device will have its quirks outside of the constraints it naturally has but if they nail the interaction model along with the balance for simplicity, it could be successful (ironically as discussions of turning the iPad into a full fledged computer continue to make the rounds).

I’ve been trying (somewhat successfully) to not be consumed by the technology around me. I hope that some day I am completely free from all temptations and dopamine hits that our tech world brings and truly come to full control of my tech vs. the tech powering me, at the very least as a model for my son as his future evolves.

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I am this close to some day capturing a lightning bolt.

Dark thunderheads after a lightning flash.
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It’s so silly, but I love that Call and Oates is still active, many years ago I saved the number in my contacts and tried it today and it worked! For those not familiar here’s the npr story from 2011.

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Lots of jumping and rolling in the grass today.

My boy, jumping from a backyard platform/stage and rolling onto the grass.
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Wild asparagus, with occasional grapes.