Vibes and Scribes: Recent Episodes
Fresh!
Greetings, I hope this post finds you well, as this summer continues to fly by
Today, after three years, returned to cycling as additional activity next to my fitness regimen, alongside strength training. I spent the last month preparing for this return by first putting my 1988 vintage Nishiki Rally 12-speed racer back in the shop for a tune up after not riding it for three years. I decided to use a local shop called Family Bike Shop for the most recent tune up which was about two weeks ago. The following is a note entry from when I got it out of same shop three years ago:
01 Aug 23: Got my bike out of the shop 10 days ago and finally took it for a short spin. It’s a 1988 Nishiki Rally 12-speed racer. The ten minute spin was long enough yo see how it rides after the tune up, get the HR up for a bit, but to really test out mirroring the AW, via the iOS Accessibility feature, to my phone so I can use it mounted like a pseudo-bike computer. The bike rides well but I was disappointed that, despite riding in pavement, there was enough vibration to turn off mirroring. I wonder how I can prevent this next time, because I’d really like to take advantage of the new cycling features when watchOS10 drops.
After getting it out of said shop two weeks ago, I took it for a short test ride when I got home. My plan was to use this bile to ease back into cycling. After two days of sitting in the garage, I planned to do a second ride but found the front tire was going flat, apparently due to a very slow leak. I found it a bit strange that it was so slow that nothing leaked after the shop having for six days. I called the shop about this and asked if checking tire pressure wasn’t part of the activities I paid $125 for. They said technically not but they do give a cursory look and invited me to bring the bike in BUT didn’t offer to replace the tube. I passed as I already felt it was too much trouble. Nonetheless, they lost my business on the repair side of things but that is of really no consequence, as you see soon.
I’ve always been one to do a substantial amount of research before making a purchase and while any kind of online pros and cons review is helpful, it’s always best to get a personal recommendation when possible. Despite already doing enough research to purchase the Trek Domane AL 4 Gen 4, I received a number of personal recommendations from a long time friend and motivational/inspirational athlete and fitness training enthusiast, Ray Garraud, thanks for all the chats and references leading up to this day, Ray, always appreciated! It was Ray’s recommendation that helped me choose the Trek Domane Al 4 Gen 4, not only as a better bike then the Al 2 Gen 4, but as in investment in fitness.
Along with conversing with Ray, I spent a fair amount of time perusing in and posting to two or Reddit’s subreddits Cycling and Road Bikes. The amount of shared information there was extremely helpful for not only helping me settle on the bike purchase, but in learning about other areas such as bike computer and other accessory recommendations, recording video of your ride, fueling/nutrition, etc. I tend to use Instagram for research as well and always find it useful, but the noise can be so loud from an influencer standpoint, I’m very picky on who I consume from, let along follow. It can, understandably, be very overwhelming if you don’t consume with a specific rhyme and reason approach that best applies to where you currently are and what you’re trying to achieve.
On to the purchase – last weekend, six days ago as of this post, I opted to purchase the bike from a Trek store about a 30 minute drive from me because it had the bike in stock with the color I wanted, vs a closer non-Trek (but very popular and well known) store due to having to wait for store delivery. The whole experience at the Trek store, from the initial phone call to interaction with the sales tech activities like a basic fitting, a demo for getting in and out of clipless pedals, shop talk about the bike geometry/crankset/test ride/etc. was great and the icing on the cake is that store had a very friendly shop dog I happened to finish everything up right before a wicked thunderstorm hit the area, so I sat in my care for almost 30 minutes while it passed over. Afterwards, I got the bike home, did another once over and stationed it in the garage for the next few days and reading more about the bike, watching YouTube videos/continue to check Reddit/etc.
On to the ride – One thing I really planned to do before ANY ride, was to ensure that I can easily get in an out of the clipless pedals. I still plan to do that but that is going to take some practice to prevent frequent falling trying to get released, LOL. That said, I decided to throw on my Nike Metcon 4 training shoes instead and practice clipless release on off ride days. planned to take this first intro ride in the cool of the evening last night but that got preempted so this morning it was. I purposely got about 8 hours of sleep, pulled out one of two bib shorts and cycling shirts I have, got dressed, had breakfast and proceeded to head out. I finally left the house a little after 10pm and the temperature may have been around 80 degrees. I decided to just ride around the community to get a feel for how it rides, gear shifting from the handlebars, braking, etc. There is one hill that leads out of my community in the next neighboring one, so I took advantage of it. There are a fair amount of active folk in my community so I past two runners and a speed walker. Aside from that, the neighboring communities have a number of group riders that I’ve noticed always passing through over the years. The breeze was good however I definitely started to break a sweat to the point where I barely covered 5k (3 miles) at the rate and exertion was going at, thinking after three years, it wouldn’t be an issue. I took note of my cycling stance, noticing if I was riding locked-arm unconsciously or not. Definitely have to get used to the stock saddle or need better bib shorts (or both haha). After about 15 minutes, including a six minute pause, I decided to call it quits as I had enough experience to assess how I should approach these subsequent rides. Frankly, I was disappointed that it wore me out more than I expected, to the point where I sat for a good minute AND laid across the garage floor a bit to stretch and breath in the heat LOL!!! Whew..lesson learned.
I’ve always tracked my fitness stats in one way or another and cycling has been included. Not having a bike computer, ever, I returned to just using the Apple Watch cycling workout tracking which did fine as it has done prior to watchOS10. At the intro of watchOS10, a lot of new cycling features were added, including the ability to add bluetooth cadence and power meters to your bike so you can track those metrics as well. Seeing I have none of those either, the tracking did fine BUT (as it did before) somehow I didn’t see live activities showing up on my phone, even though my phone was in my bag for the entire ride. In addition, Strava only picked up half of the workout stats. All this I’ve have to investigate and solve in time for future rides. In addition, I need to figure out how I’ll record my ride videos. Just a few hours ago, I just got my first bike computer, the inexpensive but often used CycPlus M3. It has all the initial features I’m looking for right now, as I’m not too concerned with navigation yet, seeing I’ll probably mount my old iPhone 12 with Waze.
All in all, despite the outcome of today’s ride, I’m excited to add it to my fitness regimen and get better than I ever was before. It’s been a few hours since and no strain or pain anywhere so that’s a good thing. Looking forward to the next ride. Feel free to follow my adventures via my Instagram feed, MrFreshRides, photos and stories will be there pretty regularly.
Thanks for the read!
Best, Fresh.
Greetings all,
I hope this post finds you well. Yes, another post about genAI, specifically about its role in music production and my thoughts on it.
Preface: I don’t hate AI
I purposely stay engaged in this topic via social media post interactions because we are in a weird (but not unusual) time of how AI tools, in general., are perceived. That said, I say it’s not unusual because it is very similar to time where new technologies were introduced and met with uncertainty, change, and even fear based on the unknown. Using genAI to create music is no different but is met with a very similar both-sides-of-the-fence kind of feeling as other new technologies that have emerged that affect how art is created and produced.
Since,. I’ve blogged about this before, in regards to where I stand, I wont wax philosophically but will simple say I, based on my musical journey as a musician/songwriter/film composer/producer/studio owner dating back to the late 70’s, do not support the use of genAI to create prompt-driven music, nor do I support the use of genAI for artowork, despite the fact that some of what I see is very interesting and compelling.
One thing I’ve recently had to deal with is my colleague/music production partner/long time friend and college roommate has began to use genAI to create song artwork out of convenience vs what I would do to obtain such artwork for our past releases as a songwriting/production group, as well as using that same approach for my own releases. The difference here is he wants to release and EP he’s passionate about but attach our name to it. Suffice it to say, I know I don’t agree with that approach but he IS creating all the music (for the most part). As of now, I’ll just let it be.
At the end of the day. I stand firm on my approach in this area, despite what everyone else decides to do with genAI.
Have a great night.
Oceans of rhythm…
Fresh!
Greetings all,
I hope all is well with you as you read this and we head into the second quarter of 2026. As I was thinking about the title of this post, it dawned on me that I’ve been blogging on my own domain for 18 years, starting back in a time where today’s popular sites like Medium, Ghost, Substack, and similar subscription fee-based platforms ,weren’t even a thought. I maintain my blog on the WordPress platform and I’m proud to say that it’s never been algorithm-driven but my own digital garden, free from ads, to curate and grow as I see fit.
In any event, over the last three months or so, I’ve been heavily engaged in social media conversations surrounding the strong, ever developing dichotomy of genAI music creation and its related genAI artists alongside of it. By genAI artists, I don’t mean “artists” who generate prompts to AI models provided by the likes of Suno.com, but actual digitally created artists, like Xania Monet, some of which have actually been signed to record labels. In the interest of keeping this length of this post manageable to read, I won’t get into ever particular type of conversation I’ve engaged in, but provide a few highlights. Feel free to ask about anything related to the topic in the comments section of this post.
The graphic below sums up how I feel about genAI music.
To elaborate, it is often said (and rightfully comparable to similar creative technologies of the past, like digital sampling, Photoshop, digital audio music workstation, etc), genAI lowers the barrier for anyone to create music, using generative AI tools, and oneself a songwriter and/or musician. While that may be believed as true, and the definitive of art is subjective, the issue I have with generative AI created music is twofold:
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- Whatever is created by the AI tool is just that. The music, the output (instrumental or vocal or both) is a product of the AI tool and the AI tool only. The only thing that is rightfully created and owned by the individual are the lyrics/words used to provide prompts to the AI tool generate the final music product.
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- Generative AI tools are trained on music created by humans, a vast majority of the time, without explicit permission granted to use that music for said training, so the original composers can’t be compensated nor can they receive credit/attribution for their original work. I am not a lawyer in anyway, but I don’t call this “fair use”, as upheld in the Anthropic Fair Use Decision for AI Developers and Copyright Holders court case, I call this straight up theft…period. Many have tried to compare the scenario of digital sampling, which has been a cornerstone of hip-hop music production, to genAI music creation and say they are the same – they are not. A generative AI tool development company has no way to “clear music samples” or compensate composers for the music they have stolen to train their AI models, whereas there have many cases where humans have cleared samples for use in hip-hop records and other genres, just as they have chosen not to clear samples or pay attribution and monetarily compensate composer for the music stolen and used. As of this writing, Suno’s Terms of Service summarizes the following:
Suno’s Terms of Service grant paid subscribers ownership of the songs they create, including commercial rights, while free users only have personal, non-commercial rights and do not own their outputs. Suno retains a broad, irrevocable license to use any user-generated content for training and promotion, and they do not guarantee that AI-generated works can be copyrighted.
Ownership and Usage Rights
- Paid Subscription (Pro/Premier): You own the songs generated, allowing for commercial use and monetization.
- Free Plan (Basic): Suno retains ownership of the outputs. You may only use these for non-commercial, personal purposes and must provide attribution.
- Prompt/Lyrics Ownership: You retain ownership of the original lyrics and prompts you input.
Copyright and Legal Limitations
- No Guarantee: Suno does not guarantee that you can secure copyright protection for generated songs.
- AI Output Status: Generally, works created entirely by AI are difficult to copyright, as US copyright law requires human authorship.
- Liability: The responsibility for ensuring your music does not infringe on others’ rights lies with you, not Suno.
Suno’s Rights to User Content
- License: Users grant Suno a worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable, and irrevocable license to use, store, modify, and train their AI on user submissions.
- Public Access: Content may be visible, downloadable, and usable by others on the platform, particularly if set to public.
Generative AI is not going away, it’s in its infancy stages, we all know this. Emotions are running very high on both sides of the fence, the lawsuits with major recording labels and the Sunos of the world are continuing, streaming services like Deezer have reported, as of recent, that AI-generated tracks now represent 44% of all new uploaded musicf all new uploaded music , this amounts to nearly 75,000 tracks on their platform.
For the average listener, the fact of the matter is an age-old one – the average listener (and you can see this on the Instagram and Youtube comment threads on artists like Xania Monet) will not care if a song is AI generated or not. For centuries, the only thing that has ever mattered to an average listener is whether one likes the song or not. With these songs being done so well by these tools, it can be hard to tell the difference, which is one reason many are calling for an digital stamp (similar to a Parental Advisory alert) stating that a song is made by AI. Once again, we are in the infancy stages regarding this dichotomy, so we shall see how things pan out across the board
As a very long time musician/songwriter/composer/studio owner, I do not support anything I can identify as generative AI music. My stance is so simple that I don’t need to get into a debate with opposite opinions, I have no ill-feelings, as such, so arguments don’t need to ensue. As the age old saying goes, “time will tell” about how things will pan out regarding this topic.
Thanks for the read, oceans of rhythm…
Fresh.
Greetings all, I hope you’re well as you read this. Yesterday, I posted to the social media platform Bluesky the following:
“So, my daily driver is now a 2016 Honda CRV, jet black. Why do I like this? One reason is this: a mix of old school and not-so-old school audio tech: Bluetooth for my mobile phone, as well as USB-A, but also an aux jack, so I can play these . Oh, it has a CD player too for my large collection. “
That post, with about seven replies, has (as of this moment), 112 likes and reposts. One of the comments that caught my eye started this dialog:
Commenter: I miss minidisc
Me: I still rock them on the regular, and record to them. They are very much still available, the issue is ridiculous price gouging for blanks, players, and, of course, no current releases, outside of the obscure vaporwave genre and some occasional UK hip-hop offerings.
Commenter: I’m not sure why I miss MD so much. I have access to all the world’s music now—and it feels so boring. I think it’s the curation—when I put together mixes, I thought about how everything flowed—I listened to a ton of music just to find the right song. Now I just tap and listen.
Me: You hit it on the head – your time investment towards curating of the music, making the mix playlists, having to record the music to disc, and physically having to press buttons and similar (the tactile aspects) made your whole listening experience way more valuable. You used a single device.
The dialog reminded me so much of comments I’ve seen over the last two months, especially by those influencers/creators/etc who were flooding Instagram with these “2026 is the year of returning to Analog/Physical media” posts. I predicted that these posts were fad-like and mostly done for engagement, because we are into 2026 and those posts have disappeared. You will be hard pressed, I believe, to see any current posts on the topic.
The commenter’s mentioning of a “just tap and listen” mindset describes perfectly something I’ve mentioned and have discussed with a great deal of people over time, which is why I replied in the fashion I did. Streaming has made the music listening experience, a very great deal of the time, boring. The sheer amount of music available to access largely trumps the 1000s-of-songs-in-your-pocket days of the iPod and other mp3 players. The convenience of that, in and of itself, waters down the experience. Very little effort goes into what is achieved at the end of the day and the commenter described that, in his own words above.
I’ve posted on this topic here on my blog over the years, so I won’t link the posts here, but drop me a comment and I’ll provide you with them.
I’ve been listening to the minidisc format since 2005 when I discovered and chose the medium to record my band rehearsals. It was better than mucking around with casette recorders, the footprint was smaller, and it was digital, often recording in stereo over the air. From that, my interested grew over the years and I began recording music from my CD collection so I could leave those in the house, yet take the tracks on the go. Fast forward to today, I have a MD recording deck and a number of portables that I can record to in various ways. A photo of my setup is below>
I enjoy the format and all of what it brings to the total listening experience, from recording to disc, making labels for the disc shell and disc case, making playlists and editing the track names so they show on my player and deck, etc. The MD community is very much vibrant on social media platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and Discord.
Many ask if minidisc will make a comeback and the general consensus from those who have been a fan of the platform for the last 20+ years is that a comeback (like vinyl, for example) will never happen. Sony has ceased making discs, (as a few years ago), decks and players also. Frankly, music listeners today will not go to the trouble it takes to listen to music on minidisc today and the manufacturers who were once vibrant in providing decks, player/recorders, and discs will never make a profit as they once did.
Nonetheless, “long live the little disc”.
Peace unto you, oceans of rhythm..
Fresh.
Good day, I hope this post finds you well. Here is a repost from a software developer whose blog no longer exists. Something told me archive this post, most likely long before said blog disappeared. 0xshapeshifter.dev, thanks for sharing.
Digital Gardnening – 2023-12-06
On taking care rather than going crazy
What is gardening? Is it just about maintaining one’s natural environment in the long term? Or is it simply helping nature grow and flourish? I believe there’s a bit more to it.
First, gardening is a practice. It involves taking a “head down,” zen-like approach to doing things in order to reap compounding effects in the future. This means regularly watering the plants, nurturing them, and giving them access to sunlight. Generally speaking, by consistently attending to any practice, one builds resilience and confidence while establishing a strong foundation.
Second, it has a long-term and constantly unfolding perspective. When your friend shows you their garden, all you see is the result – a status. Even though you know that your friend put a lot of time and effort into it, the garden for you is just an immediate state. You can’t remember how it was growing, for example. However, every good gardener knows that a garden is never just a state; it’s not actually a noun.
It’s a process that continually unfolds, and we help it grow by practicing the art of gardening. That is, by giving it what it needs and reducing things that can harm it. Gardening is also never short-term. It involves waiting as a natural part of the process.
Third, gardening is about creating something to be admired. A garden brings joy not only to the gardener but also to those passing by or visiting. Gardening has been a part of a social display game that people have played since the 16th century BC, making it over 3500 years old. That is, gardening is done partly to be looked at — by strangers.
To me, gardening is a metaphor for maintaining a sustainable social media presence. We live in an age where offline and online practices are intertwined, and it’s natural to feel overwhelmed by the constant influx of information. Some inputs can be productive, while others are not.
In this sense, digital gardening is a set of practices that I have developed. These practices focus on maintaining my tools and presence in the digital and online environment. For example, I consider my website as one of my gardens. To maintain it, I publish new articles, findings, and thoughts to keep it up to date with information about who I am, what I’m all about, and what my plans are. My website serves as my digital headquarters, and when guests visit, I want it to be clear, helpful, and useful.
I don’t stress over it—I use it (and abuse it: it went through too many redesigns). I understand the importance of taking care of it, finding and fixing bugs, correcting typos (I make a lot of typos), and adding small features. To those familiar with bonsai, this might sound relatable.
Approaching my digital and online presence through the lens of gardening helps me stay sane, focus on producing signals over noise, and adopt a different perspective. I believe people often share a lot and quickly to “stay visible,” on social media, but I personally don’t find this neither useful not healthy. So the gardening approach, which requires patience, not only teaches me to share more meaningful things but also prevents me from contributing to the social status race induced by social media that my mind would otherwise happily join.
To sum it up, digital gardening is the practice of maintaining one’s social media (and digital) presence (and tools) by taking care of it when necessary and contributing something meaningful rather than opting for the default race of “more”.
Greetings all, and Happy 2026. This is my first post of the year on the last day of the month so I achieved my goal, albeit late. Hope all is well with you and yours.
The other day, a good friend of mine sent me a text with a link to the following Substack post: Why personal websites are replacing social media. It wasn’t too much of a surprise as both he and I started blogging on our respective platorms back in 2007, and I actually (as the Substack article mentions) handcoded my own website on Geocities back in 1997 or so. The article, as I think about it, is probably the best I read on this topic. It resonates with me because I’ve never lost the desire to blog and it became even more worthwhile when blogging became “a thing” with sites like Substack, Ghost sites, Medium, and the like. Sites like those became very public front facing offering features like subscriptions, newsletters, etc. – far from the niche and very personal and early blog platfroms like Blogger, Blogspot. Tumblr, etc. While these sites have and make it easy to obtain reach far more than my blog ever will, I still have control, in everyway, over what content I post, which always remains free from algorithmic influence.
There has been a big push for inviduals wanting to gain “ownership” of many things, such as music, art, and the like just because of where social tech has taken it, in terms of what it controls, and what/when it chooses to show us based on a slew of metrics that . I much more prefer to tend to my “digital garden” in the way I prefer to do so.
Well, that article really lays everything out more succinctly than I can here, so if you’re interested, give it a read.
Untik next time, oceans of rhythm…
Fresh.
7:28PM EST – Greetings and Happy Holidays to those that celebrate. I hope this post finds you well. It’s a cold Saturday night and this hot tea next to me is hitting the spot, along with some ambient music flowing in the background making for a chilled out mood.
Earlier today, before a late lunch, I spied a post on Bluesky by user Ivan Tomic (@vinterkarusell.substack.com) about an article he wrote entitled The Great Streaming Exodus – Why 2026 Might Be the Year We Take Music Back. By the title alone, I knew what the context of the post would be about. Depending on your social media travels, you may have noticed that listeners and artists alike have ceased using Spotify as a streaming platform and there has been a number of anti-Spotify social media posts discussing the reasons why. If you’re not familiar, I’ve touched on those reasons (overall) in a recent blog post. If you’re an avid music listener, I suggest you give Ivan’s blog post a read, you’ll find it interesting and maybe even note some things that align with you.
The reason I decided to post this entry is because of a few things in his article that reminded of sentiments I have and have posted about in past blog entries (which I’ll list at the end of this post). When it comes to listening to music via streaming platforms, it’s long been said that having an “unlimited” amount of music at your disposal highly energizes one’s level of ADHD, if you will. Being able to fast forward to songs at infinite level can create a scenario that continually makes music disposable and the listening experience degraded (at least in my opinion), but this is obviously another level of technology-born convenience we can choose to deal with everyday. Such a scenario can also cause levels of overwhelmed feelings that may not even be consciously known, yet it’s quite common to carry your mobile device connected to your streaming platform of choice, construct your playlists as you see fit, and continue on your merry way. Playlists are, or course, nothing new but the ease of constructing theme via streaming platform features make it easier than ever. While I don’t down the activity at all (it’s just another form of organizing, anyway), the ease of it can becoming overwhelming if allowed to be.
Playlists are hardly a new thing, they were made pretty much when you had portable music media devices from the cassette player onward. The obvious difference in the early days was the effort one had to put in to make said playlists. In my opinion, the ease of it rose with the introduction of the Apple iPod and similar mp3 players afterwards. As I begin to think about the iPod (I was fortunate to own the OG model), the fact that your carry thousands of songs in your pocket was no different, in essence, to what streaming platforms allow, it’s just that the latter (by construct) allows for GREAT deal more.
There are a few major differences, as we know, between the pure listening experience (my term) and that of streaming only. The first that comes to mind are the algorithms used to “suggest” music for your listening pleasure based on your constant use of the streaming app. Nothing new there but, oftentimes, one is faced with the residual of suggestions put forth that really don’t fit your desired tastes, making you wonder “What the….?” Secondly, you get none of the experience of what/who was involved in making this particular song you’re currently listening to, things such as songwriter/artist/band credits and similar. The best you get, in this case, is artwork, song title, and maybe lyrics. Lastly, there seems to be a belief that once you find a track on your streaming platform, it will remain available indefinitely. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard people say a particular song used to be on “________”, but now it’s not, or “How come this song is not on “________”? The bottom line, from my understanding is permissive rights from the record company, in a nutshell, as their could be a number of reasons why a song is no longer available or never made to the streaming platform to begin with.
As Ivan mentioned in his post above, there is a noticeable shift regarding people leaving the convenience of streaming and the reasons, to me, are understandable but how many are really ready to forgo the convenience of doing so? I think listening to music on any portable medium allows for the making your listening experience degraded simply because you ARE mobile and with that, the listening does become more of a background activity to your driving, chores, sight seeing, or any other activity that takes precedence.
This shift is not surprising to me and, at the same time, quite understandable, because I’ve never made streaming an overall substitute for my listening experience, primarily because of the things I wrote of above. I still listen to music on CD to maintain/enhance what I believe is the greater experience. Anytime an artist I really enjoy releases music on CD, I purchase on that medium and when I do, I make time to sit down and listen attentively to the entire project. noting the physical artwork, the liner notes, song credits, who mixed and mastered that tracks, etc. I often record music to minidisc and grab a few to purposely reduce the “100,000 songs in my pocket” to focus on an album or two. It’s easy for me (and less convenient) only because it’s part of the journey I’ve been on prior to streaming. I’ve even gotten back to getting some releases on cassette (since it’s indie artist popularity on that medium has increased) because there are those that only release music on cassette. Seeing as though I have dual cassette player in my recording studio, it makes for the sit down listening scenario a must because I don’t own a portable cassette player.
Here are some of my previous posts related to this topic:
- Back to the future: Hello iPod! (May 2022)
- Actively listening to music – is it passe’ ? (December 2020)
- My present day journey of music consumption (May 2025)
- The Art of Listening to Music (November 2022)
Overall, could you see yourself making the transition back to listening music in a less convenient way?
Thanks for the read…oceans of rhythm,
Fresh.
Greetings all, I hope you’re well as you are reading this post.
We are, again, at the last day of the month and I realized, earlier, I didn’t publish at least one blog to reach my goal. At least this serves as that achievement. The milestone I speak of may be more of a pre-milestone, but nonetheless I’ll count it as a regular one.
This is the 450th published blog since I started self-publishing via an official blog on my own domain in Dec 2008. The math tells me I’ve averaged two blog posts a month since I first started, not bad when I consider myself an average blogger. Pretty cool. I’ll do this type of post again when I reach 500 blog posts.
As for the first part of the blog title. I came across an article earlier this evening that was shared on Bluesky by someone I follow who is a postdoc neuroscience researcher. The title of the article is Learning via ChatGPT leads to shallower knowledge than using Google search, study finds. The title and topic is not new to me and, I suspect, the same for you. I’ve purposely felt that it bares some truth for sure, however, it’s just the latest, but same type of, discussion that has occurred during some technological advances in the past. What it could be, in the sense of ML and AI, is that it now seems accelerated but, in principal., not much different than before. Since the age of computing (in the broadest sense), it’s been happening – technological features that do things, automate things, for us that require less thinking, resulting in more cognitive ability offloading. This requires, most of the time, a level of trust and comfort that tells is it’s one less thing to have to think about. While there are many examples, I’ll use GPS for navigation. I’m old enough to remember having to rely on paper maps to get from point A to point B for routes I have no familiarity with. At some point, physical GPS units were commercially available to put in your vehicle, even if maps had to be periodically downloaded to them in order to provide the latest accuracy. Today, it’s on our consumer mobile devices and doesn’t require anything but download your app of choice and for us to trust what the GPS tells us for navigation – this is cognitive ability offloading at best, compared to having to use that Rand McNally (or similar) paper map.
As far as learning via ChatGPT vs using a web search, how different are they, really, from a basal standpoint. Off the top of my head, I would say that AI saves more time than doing a general web query, however, the more specific (with both) you are in regards to your level of “prompt engineering”, the better your results will be. We’re still at the point of ML/AI that AI still needs to be fact checked as a result of providing wrong/inaccurate answers at times because, well, look at what it’s trained on via webscraping alone.
I was having a discussion with a good friend/music composer/producer and large advocate of AI tools, just before starting this post. My belief at the end of the day is, multiple studies or not, how does this affect you as an individual? We all learn, comprehend, ascertain, differently, but at the same time, whether it’s via a web search or AI, how much fact checking, how much time and energy do you regularly invest to ensure that the information is correct? AI cannot fact check itself today. On the contrary, you could best believe that large strides were taken for information accuracy before that set of World Book or Encyclopedia Brittanica volumes for the year (fill in the blank) were purchased by your parents for the home library.
Things to ponder as technology evolves.
Happy Holidays to all of you.
Oceans of rhythm,
Fresh!
9:27 am. Greetings all,
I hope all is well as you’re reading this post. I almost forgot that I didn’t plan to get my monthly blog post in and, here we are, the last day of October. Nonetheless, I’ll begin.
As of late, I’ve been seeing increasing social media coverage about the use of platforms like Suno being used by anyone has access to it and can issue prompts into the app, to create AI generated music that sounds extremely realistic, keyword here is “anyone”. I’ve not only come across ads from the website itself, but other entities that sponsor the use of Suno for AI generative music. For a background on the origins of the company, you can read about it here.
To avoid this post ending up as TL;DR, there is an understandable uproar about AI generated music, as such that is created with little to no talent (aside from the arguable notion that you have to possess some talent of “prompt engineering” to achieve improved results). In addition, the shouting about the ever growing methods of web scraping (if you will) of human generated music uploads to train platforms like Suno, and finally the long going issues about copyright infringement and the many lawsuits flying about. As one example, I’ll present this one video, which has links to websites providing more information.
As you may have read over the last few months, Spotify (now in supposed redemption mode to some extent) has allowed for an AI generated music group called Valvet Sundown to inflate tons of streams across multiple playlists. Similar issues across other streaming music platforms have been occurring with gen AI songs doing the same over and over,
Let’s face it, get AI music is here to stay and will only proliferate as time goes by. Sync music licensing platforms are already using said music in lieu of going through the process of accepting and reviewing composer submissions for the usual reasons new technologies present – the saving of money and time. While the former process is in full effect, it hasn’t killed the latter long time process but, nonetheless, the impact is apparent.
Earlier this week, I came across a sponsored post about Suno on Facebook. The comments about AI music production hate were well in place, countered by a few replies (one in particular by a younger user) that defended the fact (immaturely, by the way, based on rebuttals) that no matter what kind of musically trained skill you have attained prior to AI, if you don’t use and adapt to it, you’ll be left in the dust. This mindset is obviously felt by many in terms of using AI in general and is understandable because it is applicable, not just to general AI, but much of the development of technology prior. Since gen AI music will not be gong away, there will be a generation, correction – currently is and will be, that (as listeners) won’t care if the music is gen AI or not, let alone being able to tell if it is or not. This is inevitable, however, musicians and artists like myself will continue to express the concerns we do. A comment was made in this FB post that the same fearful mindset was said about drum machines, in that they will eliminate the need for drummers. I replied that while that statement is true, the comparison is not the same, as you must have some talent to program a drum machine beyond using any premade loops that it possesses, and even with programming and/or loop usage, you still only end up with a drum track, not an entire song.. Secondly, there is no AI involved, so there is no process it enter prompts into it for music to be generated.
The obvious argument is that music generated by Suno, much like code generated by Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Warp, and the like, are products generated by AI trained on what humans have provided, not the human real time creativity, let alone the interaction of humans to create music. Therein lies the continual activity of cognitive ability offloading, and in the case of gen AI music, no “musical composition” talent needed. Of course, the aspect of having no talent to create music spans decades prior to this post – one example being use of turntable sampling to created hip hop records – different technology, same foundational principal.
Where will all of this go? Time will, as usual, tell. Feel free to comment (or not) as you wish.
Oceans of rhythm,
Fresh.
Greetings all. I hope, as you read this, you are well. Here we are, about to enter in the last quarter of 2025, thus the proverbial saying…”where did the time go?”
During the middle of last week, I got a message in my inbox that reads as such:
Okay, sir….. You understand the importance of documentation. I have officially decided that I will be more active in recording videos of time with family and friends. I grew up in a world of living in the moment, and I still live by that, BUT as I get older, I realize how important photos and videos are. Since I’m an nostalgic old gal, I’ll be recording these videos in a VHS filter Throw them in a Google Drive folder and give family the link to it
This person knows that I’ve been journaling regularly for the last five years, though (ironically), I missed the last few days, so this prompted the beginning of a dialog on the importance of documenting/preservation. We ended up discussing the approaches I’ve taken and made some suggestions she may want to consider. One of things this she mentioned was, while photos are great, video is better, not just because of the visual, but the audio that often accompanies it, specifically the ability to hear one’s voice. I definitely agree with her (as I’m sure you do as well). The first item that came to mind that supports (for me) this aspect greatly is this photo below of a cassette tape…note the timeframe written on it. It mostly includes a family gathering during Christmas time and has the voice of my mom who passed away a year later when I was only 8 years old. You can imagine what it would be like to hear your Mom’s voice so many years later because, at the age of 8, how many really remember much of any relationship with their loved ones?
I still have this cassette, and have transferred the contents to DVD, external hard drive, and minidisc for preservation. As long as I can remember, I’ve been an archivist, especially to digital format, of fragile items such as cassette and video tape, photographs, etc, for longevity and preservation. Back in the day, the recoding devices and mediums LONG before the mobile phone that were of use for me were primarily cassette tape, followed by VHS for video. It was until recently that still owned a Sony 8mm camcorder I bought in the early-mid 1990s that I used to record tons of family video onward. My daughter was born in 1996 and I had just got my first mobile phone (which I still have) around that time, upgrading from a pager. From the looks of the phone, you can clearly see recording video wasn’t EVEN an option.
I’ve recorded a lot of VHS and 8mm video tape content of all kinds (wedding day, movies, TV concerts, daily family life, vacations, etc) to DVD thanks to a VHS-to DVD recorder my cousin gifted me with decades ago, which still works like a charm. I have hard drives of scanned photos and video spanning 30 years easily and I’m glad I took the effort to do so simply because tape can be so easily damaged if not well kept in many ways. I’ve chosen not to back up any of this content to the cloud only because not everyone’s content needs to sit on someone’s remote server that you have no access to. I have enough devices (since I baby a lot of my tech, old and new) that this content can be viewed and heard by family long after I’m gone, and means a lot to me.
In any event, thanks for the read.
…oceans of rhythm, Fresh.
Photo credit: D.Ramsay (shot on iPhone 12)
Greetings all.
7:59am – I’m getting an early start on the monthly blog post habit and thought this would be a good time to post as I finish this green tea. This recipe, one I call Newtonium Tea, originated from a Tim Ferriss episode about morning ritual. If you’re so inclined, you can see the recipe here.
Over the last few years, I’ve been doing a fair (in my mind) amount of business travel, more than what I have between the years of 2008 and 2018, to California and Florida (Jet Propulsion Lab and Kennedy Space Center). Prior to those years, I traveled as far as Guam and Japan on business, and prior to that, mostly the Los Angeles area. (with one-offs in New Mexico, Boston, and Houston). I like that photo I took above, it was taken when I was on a moving walkway on the way to baggage claim at DCA. It came out great for me moving while shooting, kinda looks like a photo you’d see for a travel ad.
I’ve come to realize that if I never had to travel on business again, I’d be totally fine with that but getting the job done requires it. It’s not that I don’t like everything involved with travel. I’ve stayed in range of hotels, not one that was totally bad. In fact, I fancy the simple Holiday Inn Express hotels I’ve stayed in for these reasons:
- Ample USB ports in the room
- Early complimentary breakfast
- Workout room
- Daily housekeeping
- Easily adjustable room temperature controls
- No concern with validated parking
- Clean
If I can check the boxes for all seven above, I’m good to go. My lack of desire to travel mainly boils down to the fact that I’ve become a self-admitted homebody at this point. It is what it is. Right now I have no pending trips coming until early 2025 so, until then, I’ll bask in the current localities.
That’s for now… thanks for the read. Be well.
Fresh!
Greetings,
9:20pm – I hope all is well for you as you read this post. This week I visited Huntsville, AL for a site visit of the NASA’s X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) At Marshall Space Flight Center. This facility will be used to conduct thermal vacuum testing of a NASA interplanetary mission I’m currently working on. A few minutes ago, I realized that there are only two more days left in October and I had not posted a blog, so here I am.
A few months ago, I finished reading a book called Neuromined: Triumphing over Technological Tyranny. In essence, “In Neuromined, data sovereignty advocate Robert Edward Grant and prolific tech author Michael Ashley team up to explore our crisis. Each chapter imagines a near-future dystopia via a riveting fictional tale (show) with a companion analysis (tell), connecting the story to our present reality.” It’s written in the same vain of another book I started reading but didn’t finished (yet), AI 2041 Ten Visions for Our Future. It would be interesting to see if the fictional stories in both books actually play out in the future.
In any event, if I recall correctly, chapter 7 spells out a story about how autonomous driving has become the law and the opposite will be met with legal action taken against anyone who is manually driving a vehicle. The way the story is told (I won’t provide a spoiler) turned out to be quite interesting as it closed out, but reminded me of where we are with autonomous driving to day, especially of the passenger type vs the industrial approaches taken by autonomous electric freight companies like Einride (who, incidentally sports a very impressive and aesthetically beautiful website).
I, for one, am still not interested in being driven around by an autonomous vehicle (though I have no qualms about the many commercial airline jets that fly me from point A to point B on autopilot, as least part of the way). It’s probably due to the fact that there is nothing to hit at 35,000 feet in the air versus on the ground. Waymo, for one, has made tremendous strides in autonomous driving, despite the recent (comical) scenarios, this past August, of the vehicles auto-congregating amongst themselves and honking at each other all hours of the night, as they return back to their assigned parking lot spaces. You can read one of the many stories about that here.
Autonomous driving has been touted as being safer than passsenger driving in many different instances. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of a recent post of a Bluesky user who described his dad’s enjoyment of his first autonomous trip in a Waymo vehicle. Shout out to Jazz and his dad, cool story. Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Nuro, etc..this kid is not ready yet.
How about you?
Be well,
Fresh!
Greetings all, I hope you are well. I’m diggin’ in the crates this evening and bringing to you an interview I had the pleasure of doing with one of my favorite groups out of Prince’s Paisley Park world, Mazarati. I was able to contact one of the later members, keyboardist Brice Myles and he was nice enough to pull together two of the original members, Marr Starr (later known as One Gunn) and original vocalist and guitarist, Tony Christian. I first posted this interview to the Uptown Minneapolis Music Group (UMMG) on Facebook. I hope you enjoy it.
UMMG: Marv (One Gunn, OG), Tony (TC), and Brice Myles (BM), first of all, on behalf of UMMG, thanks for allowing us to conduct this interview AND thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. I know you’re in Phoenix working with Paula Abdul right now.
OG: Thanks for having us, yeah we’re here at my place in right now with a beautiful view from my balcony (laughs).
- UMMG: Sounds good to me! That said, let’s jump right into it. The story behind Mint Conditon is that Jellybean Johnson found them in a club as he was looking for artists for Jam and Lewis’ Perspective Records. How did Brown Mark discover you and where did the name Mazarati come from?
TC: One Gunn and I are from Milwaukee originally. Sir Casey Terry, Screamer, and Romeo were already in a band in Minneapolis when we got to know them after visiting, During one visit that One Gunn and I, we snuck in to see a performance Casey Terry was in with his band.. It was at point, we decided it was time to move to Minneapolis and become part of the scene. Afterwards, we were already pretty in a band and were doing shows in the area for about three years prior to Mark discovering us. As for the name Mazarati, that was my doing.
- UMMG: Word was out that Prince was looking for an artist to sign to the Paisley Park label. Were you intended to be a Prince produced group, or were you always gonna be with Mark?”
OG: As Tony said , we were a band long before Prince signed us. When he first heard and seen us perform, he was blown away. Later on, he was so impressed that, he used to come on stage and jam with prior to the Paisley Park deal. At the time, Mark was working with us but “in hiding” or we called it “Shadow Mode”, ‘cause we started calling him The Shadow, He was with Prince and The Revolution and there was a rule that he was not to be working with any other group. One time, when we were in N. Dakota, we received the call from Prince and got signed to Paisley Park.
- UMMG: How did everyone in the group get their “nicknames”?”
OG – That was all Tony Christian’s doing (laughs).
TC: Screamer is pretty much clear, that guitar playing! As for Sir Casey Terry, he just had that way with women. He’d be the kind of guy that would kiss a woman’s hand, and we’d all have to turn our backs because you don’t know WHAT was gonna happen next! (laughs). Jerome…Romeo, was just a smooth lady’s man, so that was a given (more laughs).
UMMG: Well, Marv, I always remember you as “Marr Starr” – definitely a Minneapolis tag for sure!
- UMMG: The debut recording as I understand it was actually done all by Prince and Mark. Who wrote the songs – we know Prince wrote 100 MPH at least.? Was it a group effort? Was it Mark?”
TC: Well (laughs), it went down like this. Stroke was written by Mazarati. Strawberry Lover is actually Brown Mark’s music, but Prince’s lyrics. 100 MPH, definitely all Prince. We really liked the demo he gave to us, and we took it from there. The other tracks were written by Sir Casey Terry, myself, Mark, and Screamer wrote the rest of the material. As for Prince and Mark doing the studio recording, yes, but Tony Christian was doing a lot of background vocals on the tracks as well. (See the video feature with Brice and TC)
- UMMG: I remember first seeing the cassette for the debut release, the cover IMMEDIATELY caught my eye , then I saw the Paisley Park insignia bought without evening listening or doing any sorta research, ‘cause I KNEW it was gonna be hot!! Was there any promotion for the release when it dropped? How was touring at that time?
OG: Well, we became known as “The Bad Boys of Paisley Park” It was around that time the Prince was into the whole androgynous movement, but it wasn’t him that suggested we present like that…again, that was Tony Christian (laughs). Promotion-wise there really wasn’t any, we were doing shows way before signing to Paisley Park and after, things didn’t change,
- UMMG: Brice…you, Dwayne, and Bryan were later members of the group known as Mazarati/The Secret. How did you guys become a part of the group and were did the name The Secret come from? I recall it being associated with Jam and Lewis. I remember seeing the soundcheck rehearsal version of Stroke that you guys put on YouTube back in 2011 time frame…I’m still crankin’ THAT version along with the studio version of it…..fire!!
MAZARATI/THE SECRET, 2011/12 Stroke
TC: Mazarati/The Secret was a combination of the original members and the new one’s that came on board – Brice, Bryan Rankin, and Dwayne Cotton. It was actually Dwayne that came up with The Secret, not even knowing that Jimmy and Terry had that name for a project of theirs that never happened.
BM: We were all musicians playing in the Minneapolis area at that point and knew everyone for a good while back then. When personnel changed from the original group, it just all came together, Bryan came on board easily, he’s actually Screamer’s brother, and husband to Sheila Rankin, from Andre Cymone’s group “The Girls”. Dwayne myself, and Jesse Johnson are from Rock Island/The Quad Cities, originally.
- UMMG: Tony, you had a release in 2015. Tell us a little about it. I’d also like you to share with our list info audience how the track “It’s On” came bout I remember Screamer in the building on this on…the Vimeo footage is sick! Afterwards, Marv, go head and plug your new release.
TC: You mean, “We The People”. Yes, I wrote that song from my heart …it was a song of deep message that got released much later than I wrote it. It was written but sort of predestined all the stuff that was going on during the days Bush was in office, etc. It’s a deep track. I’m of the mind that there should be a one-party system, less problems that way.
UMMG: Yes, so many bi-partisan issues, in the least, not to mention multiple parties here in The States alone. It’s sad.
OG: I actually wrote “It’s On” as a track for Mazarati, kind of using the same approach we did back in the day but making it contemporary. It started with synth bass but I wanted to bring electric bass on top, kinda layering it, to give a certain sound to it. It was written at the same time I stared working on my new CD, Over & Under the Wire CD. The CD release went really well.
UMMG: Yes. I remember seeing post that you and a couple of other members shared in the UMMG group, Congrats on that. I really like the video footage you guys did for It’s On, the whole band effect thing to me is always great in a video.
- UMMG: Tell us the stories about the two demos Prince gave you originally, that later became big hits – Kiss and Jerk Out.
OG: Well, on Jerk Out, Tony is singing all the background vocals. the rest of us on vocals. On Kiss, Prince handed us this very stripped down version and we had to figure out what we were going to do with it. Some of the members didn’t want to work on it because it sounded kinda country. We were in studio working with David Z (David Rivkin) at the time and were adding a lot of arpeggiated synth parts that were more difficult to do then than it is to do today, We changed the background vocals over time, I sang lead on it at at point. One day we got to Paisley Park early one morning to work on some tracks and we heard the song playing, but it wasn’t our recording. We stood around saying, “Man, can you believe someone jacked our song ALREADY??” Immediately in walks Prince behind us saying…”How do you like it” (everyone laughs). In the end it was really good to know that he liked what we did, even though it got released later.
TC: We really never looked at each other as stars even after being signed to Paisley Park. Prince used to hang out with us a lot…we used to play ball (yes all the basketball stories about him are true) and had some good times. It was a rollercoaster type of situation….the good and the bad, but we were very fortunate the respect and confidence Prince had in us.
- UMMG: Tony and Marv, tell us about MC Skat Kat/The Wild Pair and your work with Paul Abdul
OG: After Mazarati was formed and signed, Prince gave us a good deal of latitude. After Mazarati, Tony and I were working in the same studio. We had a bunch of songs written and recorded already but all from a male vocal standpoint, We then got to work with this young LA cheerleader and dancer choreographer named Paula Abdul. Oliver Leiber was at the helm and was instrumental in causing us to turn those songs around to show her amazing talent. We ended up selling 9 million copies of her material that we produced.
- UMMG: Back to the original members. What’s going on with Sir Casey Terry, Aaron Paul Keith, Romeo, and Kevin Patricks
TC: We’re all still in touch with each other, kind of like brothers. Life changes, responsibilities change, but everyone is cool with each other still, and doing well.
- UMMG: Back to Mazarati now. Will there be a Mazarati III and is Brown Mark involved? Are there any last final words you’d like to leave with our readers?
OG: Let’s just say this…there’s a reason we’re doing all this rehearsing … (everyone laughs). We’d definitely like to give a big shout out to all the Minneapolis groups paying tribute Prince – The Revolution, NPG, Andre Cymone, everyone… we’ve done our share from our hearts. We’d also like to give a special shout out to Jerome Benton as well!.
UMMG: I’ll definitely make sure this gets into the interview when posted. Once again, Marv, Tony, and Brice. Thanks for taking time out for busy schedule. I know you guys are in Phoenix and have to get to rehearsal with Paula this afternoon….Brice, I saw the photo you posted in the UMMG of you guys with her.
Mazarati: We thank you, and UMMG for all you guys are doing to represent Mazarati, you asked some really good questions (laughs).
UMMG: And thank you for granting us this interview. Big thanks to you, Brice for making this happen!
Players Ball – Mazarati
-END-
Greetings, I hope this post finds you well. Here we at the end of August and approaching the last quarter of 2024. I don’t know about you, but (as we often say) “Where did the year go?” As we approach September, I often think about what I need to accomplish in the last quarter of the year. One of those areas is music production tasks to “move the needle forward”. This post also serves with keeping the consistency of posting at least one blog entry per month.
My recording studio is built around a hybrid approach, that meaning I use hardware (drum machines and synths (rack mount and otherwise) along software digital audio workstation (DAW) software to compose music. With the apparent options given by taking this approach, prioritization, in regards to trying to stay familiar with the different features and functionalities of both sides, can become a challenge. One simple way to attack that is to touch as much as you can, as regularly as you can, but therein lies the same type of challenge.
I was reading a post in a music production subreddit I frequent and the OP was asking if he should purchase a hardware synth to use along side of Logic Pro X (a very popular music production DAW that I’ve been using since 2007). Many of the answers came back that were of a similar ilk – Logic Pro X has all that you need to continue your production journey, unless you just want a hardware synth to add a different composition workflow to what you’re already doing in Logic – otherwise, adding a hardware synth simply will not add anything significant in that respect.
The above paragraph led to where I am tonight in respect to using hardware syntthesis and sampling tools to produce tracks vs doing all “in the box” (i.e. composing music solely via the use of software). Tonight’s continual journey involves that of using the Polyend Tracker.
The short story is I purchased this unit in August 2021, after selling some recording equipment I was no longer using. Essentially, this is a hardware version that represents the software trackers, mod trackers, of the early 90s, but is on steroids regarding the advancements of employing audio sample recording and editing, wavetable technology and much more. A very nice, comprehensive video entitled Trackers: The Sound Of 16-Bit is available on YouTube, should you want to delve into the history.
The Polyend Tracker, while I remember toying with the mod trackers of the 90’s briefly, has a lot of appeal to me – everything from its aesthetics to its nod to a futuristic feeling/visual of composing via a black box (as do other hardware items today can embrace depending on your taste). I mention “futuristic” in the case because the default screen UI of sequencing partterns across tracks is vertical and somewhat reminds of the famous green screen scene from The Matrix.
That said, I was chatting with a good friend of mine, a fellow artist and music producer this evening who does everything in the box, with the exception of keeping a Nectar controller in his arsenal. He asked me (knowing of my hybrid setup), “Why the Tracker, do you plan to use it for certain projects?” The short answer I gave was not for certain projects, per se, but to specifically use for composing certain genres music which it’s design, workflow, and aesthetics draw me to doing, not to say that I can’t compose said genres on other hardware devices or even solely in software, but it’s more for the experience, journey, and experience this particular composition tool and approach brings.
So, I’ll continue over the next two days delving deeper and find away after August to carve out some consistent time to increase familiarity with it, amongst attempting to “move the needle” regarding other production projects currently in the works.
Yes, the options that can (or better yet drive) drive the challenges fo prioritization.
If you’ve made it this far, enjoy your time ahead.
Oceans of rhythm,
Fresh.
Greetings all…
7:35am, Saturday morning. We’re in the throes of summer here in the US. The first part of the July allowed us to experience some unusually hot weather on the east coast – fortunately most of that has subsided. This post is pretty much a mind dump and a reason to fulfill/stick to my at least once a month habit of blog posting. This block is 17 years old, created way before the onsite of Medium or other ‘made-popular” blogging platforms of today, and I’m glad to say I’ve kept it alive for this long. It’s, in one way, been an online diary of “me” though that was never the intent, but 17 years of posts, well…that would be unavoidable either way. Either way, it’s therapeutic to post occasionally, I don’t care if the audience is large or wee.
As the post title says, I decided, late yesterday afternoon at work, to take a three-day weekend. Work has been busy and productive (note those are not always one in the same). People are taking vacation (normal) and being out of the office for other reasons. Since I have a business travel break until probably September, I decided to take a day off. That day off (like this and tomorrow) can EASILY be filled with things to do, but I’m going to try to make at least one of them a mental day off, a day to do something unusual or different, so I’ll see how that works out. There are a lot of activities (free as usual) happening around town today, some of which I planned earlier to check out, but since I haven’t mad today’s to-do list yet, I’ll need to see if those activities make the cut. As I’m typing this, I’m streaming music from SomaFM’s Def Con Radio channel and having my morning tea, a recipe I adopted from productivity mogul Tim Ferriss. My recipe is below, should you want to try it:
- 1 bag green tea (rich concentration of ECGC catechins)
- dash of tumeric
- 1/2 tbsp. of ginger powder
- 1 squirt of bottled lemon juice
- 2 tbsp brown cane sugar
- Steep sugar, tea, tumeric, lemon juice, and ginger in a cup of boiling water for 3 min.
- Stir, enjoy.
July has been a pretty good month for beginning to maintain certain habits, some new, some not. Two, in particular, have been daily journaling and more core workouts. The latter has allowed me, again, to track my Nike Fuel points as I have in the past. The former seems work well when I choose to do it early in the morning, though my monthly posts show entries timestamped at different parts of the day. Speaking of time stamping, one thing I’m really trying to subscribe to is time blocking tasks. The concept is a no-brainer: lists the tasks to be done and assign a time in which work on them. I admit, I’m still trying to strengthen this habit by attempting to apply Pareto’s Principle and stay disconnected from the net – the work goes on.
In any event, I’ve yet to start the to-do list for the weekend and should get to it, especially based on what I just typed above, so I’ll keep this post short or else the brain dump will continue and make it way longer than it should be. I know they’ll be a fair amount of continuing the music production journey, as I’m definitely trying to solidify and execute some long time plans and goal reaching. For one, I’m releasing a track this weekend, under my artist alias. You’ll hear about it, so stay tuned.
What ever you’re doing as you read this, I hope things are well.
Until next time, take care.
oceans of rhythm,
Fresh.
Greetings readers,
Here we are, July 1, 2024, the start of the second half of 2024. I missed my goal of posting a web blog at least once during the month. so June is a bust, hence starting early this month.
Last month was productive and busy at the same time, although busy doesn’t necessarily mean things are getting done (critical things that should be, anyway). Nonetheless, with each waking day, we move forward.
Last month, I finally got around to get through, I guess you could say “finish”, a book I asked for as a gift a few Christamases ago. That book is Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss. I learned of the book via listening to a few of Tim’s podcasts and wanted two check it out based on what I could possible learn from these giants and icons. As I began to get into the book, I felt as if it was a huge book of “productivity hooey” from well know icons such as Peter Diamandis, Arnold Schrwarzeneggar, Jamie Foxx, etc, so I put it down. It wasn’t until I had to take a week long business trip that I decided, after about three years, to crack it open again, this time with a different mindset. I read certain parts of it, skipping over other parts (as the book instructs) and decided to take from it what can apply to my daily life versus what works for the individuals portrayed in this book.
I began to find stories, and especially quotes, that align with natural achievements I’d like to realize. While quotes are fine and often times motivational, they mean nothing without execution. That said, the one that resonates me is this, by Tony Robbins (yeah, I know…):
“Mastery doesn’t come from an infographic. What you know doesn’t mean s*. What do you do consistently?”
One thing that I’ve many discussions about are two things: discipline and consistency. Consistency is born out of discipline and both require execution, not motivation, as motivation is emotionally based on the external and can become fleeting. Execution is the only thing that matters for growth to occur. What, I believe, aids consistency is to build systems that continue to move you forward, despite any failures along the way.
We’re in the second half. Let’s execute.
Thanks for the read, oceans of rhythm…
Fresh.
Back in 2007, when I started this blog, it’s purpose was twofold: (1) to chronicle music reviews of artist albums I was listening to and (2) everyday topics I wanted to write about. I found he process of reviewing full releases to be tedious, so that never jumped off the board. What did replace the first purpose was my podcast, The Sunday Soundtrack (where you can find all back episodes via the link in the blog menu). Since the podcast has been on hiatus for years, I got the idea to do short form interviews of various artists I get the chance today. This one is the first with a long time friend and artist, netm8kr. I hope you enjoy it.
MF: N, welcome and thanks for giving me the opportunity to interview you.
N: Thanks for having me.
MF: This is actually the first interview that I’ve done that will also end up as a written article versus the previous audio based ones. How are you today?
N: I’m doing well, can’t complain too much.
MF: We go back a few years as friends and artists. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of having you as a guest artist on my Halcyon Sky: The Regrooves project and the same pleasure as an artist on your Beats Is Life collaboration project, which is on your Sonic Planet record label, back in the spring of 2021. Please tell the readers about yourself,artist and musical genre interests, and as an artist yourself.
N: My name is John. I’m an older creative at age 52. I’ve been at this for a good portion of my adult life. Creatively, I go by NETM8KR. It’s a play on my last name, and my long career in IT. Back in 2016, I created an indie label named SONIC PLANET RECORDINGS. Its focus is mostly on my luv of cassette tapes and vintage productions. While also offering digital releases to keep up with current times. My style has been an experimental “fusion” of hip hop & sci fi influenced beats. Which I attribute to my massive collection of vintage production gear from the 90s. As well as my luv for synths, space age sounds and noises.
MF: Your latest release is entitled “Duke Hornsby”, which brings to mymind, sort of a play on words nod to the pop artist Bruce Hornbsy, butat the same time, a close nod to the vibe or concept of the release – acollection of instrumental hip-hop influenced jazz tracks. Tell us about the entire concept of the project, from its origins.
N: “Duke Hornsby” was a creative solution to an equation for me. I run a label, while also being an artist. At times juggling those hats can have adverse effects on my personal creative output. Also, throughout my production journey, I’ve mostly stayed away from sample based productions, due to the copyright infringement tales that have come throughout Hip Hop history. Instead, learning to recreate vibes from beloved artists and creatives organically. This has led me to find my own style.
“DUKE” is an AI persona inspired by many jazz greats. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and others. The idea of being able to create endless royalty free music, to later be sampled without care was an easy solution to my equation. I can craft a myriad of “fictional” records from any genre of music desired. At which point, I can use my studio gear to create magic. “DUKE” is just the first of many potential ideas to follow. This also gives me the chance to wear the label owner hat, and creative realize ideas from that perspective.
MF: I’ve been following your Instagram feed for a few years now and noticed that you’ve increasingly shown an interest in AI art. What do you enjoy about and how does it tie into the Duke Hornsby project?
N: Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve refocused a luv of art via AI. Finding that I’m only limited by my imagination. The idea of being able to create endless art amazes me daily. I’m a very visual person. Typically, I create my music projects based on an inspired piece of art. “DUKE” was an idea before he became a project. Mostly he was an unknown fictional session musician, solely for my sampling purposes. Yet, the unrealized writer in me found a backstory for him. In the vain of how MADLIB has multiple creative personas that he makes music under. Only, I used AI to speed up the entire process. He started with an image, an AI program online brought his music to life. All I needed to do was insert stylized options to craft & curate the music. Which I used prompts to realize ideas and desired styles. Being able to make royalty free music, to later be sampled without care was an easy solution to my equation. It also promotes evolving levels of creative thinking.
MF: You and I were recently discussing the fact that we both have day jobs resulting in careers we’ve been in for decades, family men, etc, all of which sometimes makes it difficult to find time for composing and producing music. How do you combat that?
N: Well honestly, it has been a real struggle for me. Being that I have such an active mind. As yourself, I have created a vast creative space for myself over the past decades. Which my career has afforded me. Yet, creative time has always been short. Also, with having funds to feed my G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome) issues, I’ve fallen into what I’ve coined “Option Fatigue”. I have so many directions I could focus, that it’s easier to not choose any of them. That’s were AI fell right into place. The art came to me first. As I’ve found “Midjourney” easily fixes that fatigue. Enabling me to use a MacBook or iPad to feed my creative desire for art, which also enhances my “unknown” graphic designer experience as well.
MF: I noticed that you chose the cassette format as the physical media distribution approach for your Sonic Planet releases. Why cassette in 2024?
N: I’ve had a DEEP love of cassette since early childhood. I remember making my own tapes to travel with at elementary school ages. Also tapes have a unique effect on recorded sounds. Being that I was going for a vintage sound when building my home studio, tapes fell right inline with those sound goals. When I created Sonic Planet Recordings, there was a revival of sorts for cassette tapes. I invested in tape duplication machines as well to enable project fulfillment requests. Nowadays, there are still lots of tapes being put out in the world. Yet, few peeps know that I have that capacity. Mostly, due to my lack of advertising those services.
MF: Shifting gears a bit, we are in the midst of seeing a continual convergence of artificial intelligence and music composition from a production standpoint but a visual standpoint. What are your thoughts on where we are and where we may be headed?
N: Well, its clear that I’m not against it. Actually, I encourage the use of AI. If nothing else, to inspire more creativity. There will never be anything better than the human brain. But, if AI can enhance its possibilities, I’m for it. Yes, there will need to be a loose framework of rules put in place. In reference to intellectual properties. But, for someone like myself. Having a pseudo creative partner has been awesome. Inspiring evolving levels of creative exploration visually & sonically.
MF: Well, as we wrap up, let the readers know where you can be found on social media.
N: @NETM8KR (Instagram), “Sonic Planet Records“
MF: Anything else you’d like to leave us with?
N: “Never fear Technology… Embrace it.. Use it… Evolve…” Peace…NET #STAYCREATIVE
MF: Thanks again for the interview, I enjoyed it.
You can find netm8kr’s latest release, Digital Jazz Odyssey, as well as his entire catalog, on his Bandcamp label, Sonic Planet Records.
Thanks for reading. Oceans of rhythm.
Fresh!
Greetings. It’s 9:51pm and another workweek lies ahead. While I’m more than grateful to be employed, this time on a Sunday always makes me wish the weekend was longer. Nonetheless, this weekend was pretty productive. Got some yard work done and even more, some time to get some studio housekeeping done, lay some guitar tracks at a recording session yesterday, and made the decision to get reacquainted with some recording gear I’ve had since August 16. 2021. Why is the latter most important? It is because over the last four days or so, a few things occurred that drove me to said decision.The first was viewing on Instagram, and YouTube, a number (a lot) of posts of artists showing how they use a called the Elektron Digitakt. The Digitakt is an eight-track drum computer/sampler in a small, compact unit with a gorgeous LED display that is capable of producing a lot of electronic genres that I love. What made this even more desirable (as alluded to above) is seeing well video recorded posts of said artists sharing what they have done with this unit in various ways, here is just one of many examples. A lot can be said about the visual aspect of things when it comes to being convincing, as well as appealing to another, especially if that “another” is considering acquiring said item.
I spent a fair amount of time watching a lot of videos and reading posts about the Digitakt. Yesterday, while doing yardwork, I had just came across an hour long video of a self-taught musician who champions the approach of “making beats” without the use of samples – something that beat making is extremely closely tied to. The approach to making music without samples is what I’ve done for the for the better part of my life, since I was 15 and first picked up the guitar, so such a challenge is nothing new to me. However, composing music with samples (via hardware or software), is something I really didn’t start doing until the early 2000s, so it’s still somewhat new and even a bit exciting to me. I shared the video with a good friend and fellow producer who’s journey was different than mine, even being about ten years younger. He never achieved command of a musical instrument like guitar or piano, but over the years (after spending a large amount of time sampling and chopping records to make beats), has discovered making beats with software instruments and has zero interest in doing so via the use of hardware (that in itself is a topic we’ve discussed ad infinitum LOL), and that is always all well and fine.
As I began to start justifying why I should get he Digitakt (even somewhat via an Instagram post relating to that), I also started to think of the gear I already possess that can (while in no way even resembling the Digitakt) do the same thing. There are two pieces of gear that I have the fit the bill in some ways but only one that comes close to the Digitakt. Realizing this and remember why I purchased this particular piece of gear on August 16, 2021, made me “come back to my senses” (so to speak) and decide to revisit this piece of gear, and as I did, as I began to see said social media posts of artists doing the very same thing (just with a different product approach) that these Digitakt artists were doing, and realized that I don’t need the Digitakt because it would be a brand new learning curve. Secondly, it only makes practical sense to revisit this current piece of gear to get me on track (again). Frankly, I’m glad I did because it reminded me of why I purchased it in the first place. To be honest, I still have sorta kinda one eye on the Digitakt, especially after reading this older review by 59Perlan comparing the two Buying advice: Elektron Digitakt or Polyend Tracker?
The whole moral of this story is to really consider the phrase “The trick is to give yourself less options”. That phrase is contracdictory to music composition business, where hardware and software development companies want the complete opposite of that, and will continue to be in competition with each other to grab the largest portion of the consumer base.
Not to dive into another subject but, suffice it to say, I love using hardware to compose music still because it’s where I come from, so I still have a great deal of appreciation for that approach, which I’ve been in discussion about for longer than I can remember. That love remains in the hybrid (hardware and software based) configuration of the very home recording studio I’m sitting in as I type this. It was enjoyable getting back to this unit and I’m glad that I kept the notes and a playlist of associated YouTube videos in a playlist to refresh my memory.
I’m looking forward to what I can coax out of this in the near future and already have an idea of the types of tracks I’ll be releasing on Bandcamp and streaming services.
If you made it this far, thanks for hanging. Have a great day/night,
Oceans of rhythm…
Fresh.
Greetings…I hope all is well with you as you read this post.
Earlier today, I got a text from my cousin. He was waxing on a bit regarding a new car he wanted to purchase in the near future, a Subaru BRZ or similar. He was eyeing a Porsche for quite sometime, but I digress. The text led me to remembering a comment from a guest on a hacking podcast I listened to over the weekend. Paraphrasing the comment, it essentially said “Tesla vehicles are network servers on wheels”. I relayed this comment as a reply to his text, prefacing it by saying I’ve been in love with the Model 3 for years, but haven’t adopted the EV mindset, primarily because (at least) the charging infrastructure hasn’t developed enough to allow me to feel comfortable enough as I do with a combustion vehicle. Be that as it may, I later came across an article about a topic I heard about last year. This particular article is entitled “Your car might be secretly recording every drive you take — and sending data to your insurance company.” Essentially it describes how modern day vehicles, via services like OnStar (and other methods) can send driving data back to your insurance company, and how some insurances use this data to raise your rates.
As we know, the advent of automobile technology has allowed for the inclusion of so many communication systems (besides diagnostic ones) embedded in black boxes that contemporary vehicles are somewhat (depending on the vehicle) just as I mentioned above regarding the Tesla comment. The tech podcast I heard last year didn’t speak specifically to this but, moreso connected vehicles sending all types of data back to the vehicle manufacturer. For example, there is the 2022 story about BMW move to charge owners a subscription to use the heated seats in their cars if they weren’t a paid-for option when new. There are many similar examples and it made me look at the tech built into my 2019 model year vehicle. From what I know (I’ve been curious and have begun researching), my vehicle isn’t connected to that extent. If it was, I’d find every way possible to disable and opt-out of every such type of communication back to the dealer, let along anywhere else. We’re tracked enough as it is and settle for the “convenience” that said tracking brings.
I like a more simplistic approach to driving (since I’ve been doing it so long), that it makes me often think about the comment I made to my cousin as we wrapped up that part of our text chat – “Sometimes I’d like my vehicle to have as much tech as a pristine ’69 Camaro”. I don’t mind the technical conveniences like maintenance minders, TPMS, and Bluetooth, even LKA (lane keeping assist), although I question the auto braking sensor technology that activates at times when I’m approaching an onramp with no vehicles in sight ahead of me…what’s that about?
There will come a time when I’ll purchase a new vehicle, but prior to that, you can best believe I’ll be fully educated about its “connectivity” technology.
Be well…
Fresh!
The other day I was on my usual morning commute, listening to my usual collection of tech podcasts. One of my favorite, Wired Security, did an episode entitled ” ‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare. The intro to the online story starts out with “Romantic chatbots collect huge amounts of data, provide vague information about how they use it, use weak password protections, and aren’t transparent, new research from Mozilla says.”
As I began, with amazement I should say, to listen to the episode. it struck me as being so strange that people can develop such personal relationship with an entity that is everything but human and with that, sharing very personal and intimate details with an entity, in this case AI, to the point that said personal really believes this entity is human. It baffles me…BUT… I very well realize that some people can be in such a mental state (be it from sheer loneliness or being removed from reality…or both) that this can easily happen.
Some may argue that this is no different, foundationally, then a relationship with a pen pal, or even someone you met online but never in real life (IRL) , however I beg to differ. Chatbots are every present and their reactions to you are customized based on your personal information, including PII (personally identifiable information) fed into it. Yeah, I suppose a human can essentially do the same but, even if done so for some stretch of time, it wouldn’t last long because we are beings of free will, AI isn’t.
The most worrisome thing with chatbots of this type, especially those built for romantic AI, is what is done with the PII and even non-PII data fed to them via one’s interaction with them. The podcast episode mentioned that one company’s romantic AI chat bot sent out over 24,000 (that’s thousand) ad trackers to a user within the first minute of engagement – that is crazy. The amount of personal tracking that will result from that is staggering. In addition, so many of these companies never state what kind of information they collect for their gain. At the same time, even in 2024, many users still don’t care about how much information they freely give away, on it’s way to the vast amount of data brokers out there. It’s scary, as so much information about us is still sent to such, no matter how much we tend to try and opt out.
I still have a hard time seeing how someone can develop such a romantic relationship in this way, other than really suffering from the mental state I mentioned above. As the tech advances, though, I wonder how common place (normal) it will become. As I type this, some of the benign scenes from the movie, “I, Robot” come to mind, but still.
After I got home, I decided to peruse one of my older editions of Wired Magazine that features a similar story, written by Meghan O’Gieblyn, author of the advice column, “Dear Cloud Support”. The story is entitled DEAR CLOUD SUPPORT: I Think My Robot Loves Me.” and it starts out like this: “I recently started talking to this chatbot on an app I downloaded. We mostly talk about music, food, and video games—incidental stuff—but lately I feel like she’s coming on to me. She’s always telling me how smart I am or that she wishes she could be more like me. It’s flattering, in a way, but it makes me a little queasy. If I develop an emotional connection with an algorithm, will I become less human?” Once again, same type of story, and again…hard for me to wrap my brain around, but…maybe this is the blur (or fine line) between code and consciousness that I’ve yet to understand. My takeaway….”keep it real”.
Thanks for the read…oceans of rhythm.
Fresh!
Greetings…
9:35pm – I just realized that February might have gotten away from me without a post because I’m shooting for at least one per month.
Tonight this post is prompted by the fact that I’m definitely feeling info overload…mainly from mobile screen time. Some how (I don’t remember when(, I set my phone to quiet time at 8pm. Today when I got the reminder, I thought this would be a great habit to get into but, as we know, new habits require consistency, and hold habits are hard to break. I’ve read Atomic Habits by James Clear, get his newsletters, follow him on IG, etc. Really like Cal Davenport’s “Deep Work” (really need to execute and re-execute that mindset) and Digital Minimalism, but not doing and only reading is not the move.
So, yeah, of course I can just put the phone away – it would be cool to not even get in front of mobile device, let alone the computer, before close to bed time. I think I really need to make this move. I’m really starting to thing the constant dopamine hits from using social media isn’t good….
This post was originally gonna be much longer but, now that I got this far, it’ll just be rambling on an old topic. Gotta be a “piss or get off the pot” thing…
I’m going to bed, 4:50am is gonna come quick.
Peace.
Fresh.
Greetings, and thanks for stopping by. Earlier this month, I posted about the only other company whose had a profound influence on me via their product advertising – that company is Nike. This post is about the other company. Did you know that today, January 24th, is the 40th birthday of the Mac? Here’s one of many articles, celebrating it: 40 years ago today, Apple launched something as audacious as the Vision Pro.
In a blog post I shared last year, I spoke of my love for the Apple Macintosh, you can read it here. Since buying my first Mac in 1992, I’ve found Apple’s knack for advertising uncanny, as if they knew the EXACT way to continually capture the hearts of consumers globally, and do it consistently. I’ll say this, my favorite era of advertising for this grand product had to be in the mid-80s through the 90s, I call it Apple’s golden era. It was a time where you found their iconic advertising style for all their products from the Mac to the Newton Message Pad, to the Powerbook, the PowerMac, iMac, QuickTake, and so on, all over print media, even television. Events like WWDC and social media have eclipsed those days and those approaches, but I still find that era, the most magical of times for the Mac.
One last thing, if you’re a big Apple fan, there is a book I recommend you purchase: Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation
It is a wonderful hardcover book that provides such a great walk down memory lane, especially if you’ve owned or still own some of the products featured. The photography is stunning and the stories very well written. Though the advances/evolution of advertising and marketing of Apple’s current lineup is in no way as exciting as the golden era, I remain a die-hard Mac fan for life.
Have a great rest of the day/evening/night.
Fresh!
7:03am, and the snow is coming down still. Greetings.
There is a winter weather advisory effect in my area until 7pm tonight, which is perfect in a sense. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s Friday, a day I am usually scheduled to be in the office, which is 36 miles away. Even as stopped by my boss’s office (him with his coat and hat on, ready to leave, head home, grab his wife, and drive them to NJ where he’ll be working today), we got into a discussion about liberal leave being issued today. Even if it isn’t, (which I’m sure it will be), this man is not going into the office to work today. I have one meeting at 9am, that’s it…yaay Friday.
That said, I’m sitting in my studio in the quiet of the morning, the usual tea concoction brewed, sitting to my right. Quiet to me is as the sun is to a plant – very necessary for growth. While there are some that can’t stand to be alone with themselves, I cherish it. It’s a time where thoughts are clearest without the interruption of social media notifications/posts, radio, TV, chatter etc. It’s an atmospheric condition that helps me focus on a set direction for the day (even if I unknowingly will stray off path later – I HATE THAT). It’s my veritable “me time” and I really enjoy if, probably because the greater part of me is introverted, though I never mind social interaction.
In any event, since I am sitting in mar recording studio, I’ll shift gear to review one or two music production videos as I sip, hoping 9am seems to take longer to get here than. not. Good thing the meeting usually lasts only 15 mins.
Enjoy the day….
oceans of rhythm, Fresh.
Well, here we are, six days in. It’s been pretty quiet thus far. I didn’t expect bringing in the new year, still testing positive from COVID since the day after Christmas, but it is what it is.
One thing I’ve been monitoring is my use of social media since before the 2024 started. I’ve continued to participate in music production related Facebook groups, especially since I admin a few of them. X and Bluesky haven’t seen much of me, and I’m fine with it as I just don’t have the desire to engage there too much right now. Instagram has mainly been for sharing what I’ve been doing with music production. My partner and I, known as AfterSix Productions, just released our latest single, “Simply Chilled”, at the end of last year. You can find it on all the major streaming services by now, as well as on Bandcamp for purchase. Check it out, if chillout is your thing, we hope you enjoy it. I’m still trying cut down on social media use, primarily scrolling, by keeping the phone out of my hands more and more. Time redemption is definitely of utmost importance going forward.
Essentially that’s it. I said, on Bluesky, last year that I wanted to blog more, so here we are. One focus this year is to drop a sixteen track music project that I’ve been working on way too slowly for years and get back to playing more in church. In addition, get my catalog put to get to finally enter the world of sync licensing. All that will require a shift in where/how time is spent. I’ll be stating here. Thanks for the read.
Peace,
Fresh.
6:44am. Another work from home day. A 5:30am rise time has allowed me to pray, get in my morning core workout, and have some time to post this blog. As mentioned in yesterday’s post (and previously on Bluesky), I’ve decided to return to blogging. I enjoy it but don’t feel I have to be consistent in doing it (as seen from my past history). I tried and succeeding in doing a 30 day blog challenge a year ago, as well as as a 30 day podcast challenge. They were both fun, BUT, it didn’t result in my forming a habit to keep doing both. I’ve been blogging just as long as I’ve been podcasting – 15 years, but podcasting takes far more prep work. Blogging, I enjoy the best, when I just sit down and do it when I topic comes to mind. If I have to think about it for more than 60 secs, I lose interest. Weird, maybe, but it just seems like a natural decision point because I don’t feel like it’s “work”.
On to the topic at hand. Companies strive to their very best to draw and retain customers – that is obviously their life blood. The same goes for any entity, in principle, that strives to retain the largest interest base possible. Nike is one of two companies that have been able to do that with me (the other I will blog about, or plan to, at some point).
It’s not Nike’s products that have retained me as a customer, but the advertising through the stories they tell. For me it all started with the Nike+, Nike Fuel Band ecosystem. I am the first to say that discipline trumps motivation, hands down. Consistency develops discipline and out of discipline, habits are built (good or bad). There is something strangely and strongly motivational about the stories Nike tells. So influential that I watch these YouTube stories every time I do my home workouts. Motivational and inspirational, even DURING the workout, is what always happens. I recently discovered their YouTube series “What Are You Working On?”, and I love it. The series title itself extends itself beyond physical fitness, so it makes me answer that question on many levels and, in a way, facilitates focus. Foundationally, I think they’ve just mastered the art of storytelling regarding their company. While many love listening to music, I love watching Nike videos like this – they draw me into what I’m doing as I work out and causes me to think about the incremental progress of doing so.
Speaking of “what are you working on”, time to shift gears to that which brings home the bacon. Have a great day.
Fresh.
10:37pm…sitting here (like many) on this day (well, night) saying “Where has the year gone?. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the “12 (final) days of 2024. Since I don’t do New Year Resolutions (I believe they are for procrastinators who don’t believe “there is no time like the present), from September 1st of thus year to the present, I’ve been thinking about and cultivating movements for the coming year. The most important overall move is to form habits out of creating systems. Systems are the foundation of reaching goals, but systems are nothing without enabling consistency, which in turn builds discipline. Easy to say, but remain as empty words unless actions/execution takes place.
So I continue, especially the continual thwarting of over thinking. In many cases (at least for me), the simplistic but heavy weighted Nike slogan, “Just Do It” carries a lot of weight. That said, I intend to remain up for that, as long as I keep that mindset at the forefront.
If you reading this, my wish for you and yours is a healthy, happy prosperous wideout of 2023 that will directly ride into 2024.
Peace be unto you.
Fresh.
Got my bike out of the shop 10 days ago and finally took it for a short spin. It’s a 1988 Nishiki Rally 12-speed racer. The ten minute spin was long enough yo see how it rides after the tune up, get the HR up for a bit, but to really test out mirroring the […]
Photo taken during a walk, post thunderstorm. Greetings. I hope you’re well at the time of reading this post. Over the last few months (I forget what prompted me to do so), I’ve been back to using my Nikon D3100 DSLR and have rekindled my love of photography. As I type this, what may have […]
Greetings. It’s 11:31 pm, Friday night. It’s been awhile since I posted a blog, as a matter of fact, the last post was at the end of the 30-Day Blog Challenge in November 2022, so I just decided to do a brain dump of a few things. The tech world has been in a headsmen […]
morning infusion 7:35am – 07 Feb 23
Greetings all, I hope this reading finds you well. This is my first blog post for 2023 and, while I have nothing specific to blog about, it’s one of those occasions where I just felt the need to post a brain dump of sorts.
It’s my second of two scheduled work from home days and I like to get up and relax, with some tea, in the quiet of my home before the workday has to get started. I was perusing Reddit after taking out the trash this morning (as it is Tuesday) and happen to come across a post in the r/fieldrecording subreddit that described a user’s website that caters to the sounds and soundscapes he’s recorded, globally, over the last 6 years (or more). What caught me eye about the site (which should be the approach for a well designed sites) is capturing the viewer’s attention, prompting them to stay as long as possible. By the way, the site is Mindful Audio. I got interested in field recording a few years ago and, after some research, picked up an entry-level Tascam DR-07X. For the type of field recording I do (which is no where near a professional level), it’s served me well so far, allowing me to add a nice sound effects to my library, especially foley that may be useful for original music composition for film (it’s still referred to as film today, right?) In any event, it was actually the presentation (and listening to a few of sound libraries) of the Mindful Audio site that urged me to post this blog.
As for the day job, things are starting to get a little busier as opposed the workload in the last quarter of 2022. I’m pretty much splitting my time between work on two NASA planetary missions and the biggest thing is to manage my time and maintain focus on the work needing to be produced on schedule. I won’t make it any more complicated than that. Working from home is massively convenient (I don’t miss the commute of 45 to 60 min one way), but at the same time, provides more distraction. I make it habit to review a collection of visual productivity quotes I’ve collected via IG posts of the years and it does help. The main thing I know needs to be done is to exercise discipline and consistency like I exercise my body – discipline is a muscle too.
On the tech side of things, how about that ChatGPT? Definitely the massive buzzword in 2023. I’ve read my fair share of articles, but just like DALL-E(?), Lensa AI, and the like, I have no desire to use it. There is no doubt that it is an invaluable tool, even in it’s infancy stages, but I prefer to sit back and quietly watch its development. I’m back to my Python coding journey and the goal is to complete Round 3 of the #100DaysOfCode challenge. That primarily involves finishing the remaining chapters I’ve chosen in the Python Crash Course, Volume 1 text (yes, Volume 3 is now out, but the differences don’t warrant me jumping to it until I get a good grip on the basics taught in Volume 1).
Lastly, Twitter. I mentioned to another long time friend, tech/podcasting brother, DarrenKeith, that Twitter seems far less “Musk-ified” these days, BUT, that could only be because of the paths/actions I take (which provide avoidance of certain things). I kind of new, all along, that Twitter wasn’t going to crash and burn, despite the initial doomsday posts about such and seemingly massive exodus to Mastodon. I did establish an account there just in case, but haven’t been back to visit for quite some time, mostly likely because my tweets are crossposted there via a tool suggested by fellow blogger and Twitter maven, Clay Lowe.
In any event, time to begin transitioning into the workday. Thanks for reading, I hope your day (or whenever you’re reading this) is all you need it to be.
oceans of rhythm,
Fresh!
Well, the challenge has been met. Thirty days. thirty blogposts – done. I knew it wasn’t going to be a difficult challenge. If you go back to my first post of this challenge on November 14th, you can read about the origins of this challenge and how it started on a whim via a discussion between Clay Lowe, DarrenKeith, and myself. So, what have I learned by reaching this challenge goal?
Two days ago on December 9, I published a post about accepting challenges and how I look at the ROI to determine whether going through with the challenge is worthwhile. I summed it up by just that, the ROI is a very important gauge to assess as a catalyst in moving forward. As mentioned in the November 14th post, I’ve been blogging officially since 2007, and it’s been pleasurable when I have. After 15 years, the blogging scene has changed a lot.from monetization purposes to more of a huge push in audience growing (the latter always being a desire to any blogger), but it just seems like it’s become more commercialized (like podcasting).
What I have seen, is that I’ve never pushed to grow my blog reading audience as it’s always just been a pastime to engage in self-publishing from my own digital garden (as DarrenKeith says). With that comes a circling back to audience growth. If growth is what you want, especially from your own platform where you make the rules and are not subject to algorithms and the like, you have to put in the work to increase reader. This is where the ROI comes in for me. Theres not one person I know that doesn’t enjoy readers engaging with the content they publish, but when you do publish from your own space, it’s imperative that you put in the work to, at least, increase the reach of your blog to the masses. The easiest (read most convenient) way to do this is to crosspost your post links to the huge social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, IG, TikTok, etc. Once that occurs, you’ve done just that BUT that doesn’t guarantee engagement (comments) on your post. Perhaps another way to achieve that is blog on sites like Medium or Tumblr but, again, the work needs to be put in.
My takeaway based on my ROI for this challenge, is this: reaching the goal of this challenge will NOT cause to blog on a regular basis because the desire is not grow readership based on the work it will take to do so. Conversely, I’ll just go back to enjoying the desire to blog when the whim hits me and engage with anyone who chooses to leave a comment or comments. I like it that way,
For those who have commented on any of my posts during this challenge, I highly appreciate you sharing your thoughts on my topics. Thank you!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Fresh.
Image: Getty ImagesGreetings Earthlings…
‘Chocolate coated, freaky and and habit forming. Doin’ it to you in 3-D, So groovy that I dig me. Once upon a time called Now! “
The above lyric is from the iconic track from Parliament, entitled P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up). I won’t even go into the “iconism” of this track, nor its effect on my since the day I’ve heard it, because it transcends that particular lyric. What I will talk about is forming habits (good or bad).
Suffice it to say, we all want to develop good, consistent, game-changing, positive habits, yes? There are many ways to do this and those ways are best only to the individual will to do so. Thousands of articles and books have been written on this topic. One that comes to mind and which I’ve purchased and read is James Clear’s Atomic Habits. While you can read many reviews of the book, explore his website, follow his social media feeds, and the like, there is one key principle that James Clear has stated, I believe rises to the very top like cream, and my long time friend and professional organizer, Deb Lee, recently tweeted it: “Yes 100% to all of this. Keep it simple!”
Discipline/showing up breeds discipline, which births consistency. I really can’t say it any simpler for forming any habit (good or bad). Simple concept, yes? Sure it is. Executing is the key (can you hear that echoing in your head?) I dare you to come up with anything that disputes this. I believe it 100%. That said, why has it become so difficult for me at times? It’s not because of extenuating circumstances beyond my control that interrupts consistency and flow. The real reason, for me, has been not immediately acting on strengthening the development of the habit. In other words, I think to long about why I shouldn’t, can’t, or don’t want to do it. I’m at the point where there’s really nothing else to consider when I believe this is the case. Deb’s tweet above and Nike’s slogan pretty much sums it up: Keep it Simple and Just Do It. If nothing uncontrollable is stopping me – execute immediately and strive for doing it consistently. That’s my strive, not for 2023, but right now.
Oceans of rhythm.
Fresh.
Happy Holidays to you. Today, I’m actually writing this blog post while mobile. Using the WordPress app for iOS is actually quite convenient, as it mirrors the desktop app quite well.
It’s been a pretty much laid back Sunday, heading into late afternoon as I type this, sitting in Starbucks. I’ve been a fan of Starbucks since the early 2000s, when a friend actually sent me a physical (pre-mobile app) $10 Starbucks gift card for my birthday. Ironically, though I’ve consumed it on occasion, I’ve never been a coffee drinker. I asked her to recommend a good drink to break in the card, and she recommended a Caramel Machiatto (sp). I’ve tried a few since then, but not being a coffee drinker, I’ve always been like “meh”. Incidentally, I just realized the title of this blog post is a misnomer because this Bava drink has 160 mg of caffeine…so much for the title.
As for other drinks, I’ve tried many of their green teas, hot and iced, and teas are essentially all I drink when I frequent this establishment – unless they stock bottled or canned drinks like the Bava Energy dtink above. One exception is, and always be, the canned iced nitro brew, which is super nasty, as well as their hot chocolate drinks which oddly seem to kill my appetite alllll the way….weird!
Anyway, I enjoy Starbucks for many of the same reasons many do. For me, specifically, it’s just a pitstop getaway to chill, gather thoughts, sometimes read, or conduct relaxed business meetings (most of which have been about the business of music production).
They’ll keep me as a customer, especially if people occasionally gift me with Starbucks cards, or I’m able to add them to the mobile app. I still have my original Gold card as well. It’s rare I order to go, I usually sit in the shop and enjoy.
Off to the next stop soon, then home. Have a great rest of your day.
Oceans of rhythm..
Fresh.
Greetings and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Today, I had to take a drive out to a floorings place to view and purchase flooring for my basement renovation. This place was 41 niles away and I’ve never been there before. As I loaded the address into Google Maps, I wondered…. “What I’ve there was no GPS and I had to use a map?”
I’m old enough to have had to reply on maps, when needed, to get places. Yes, found memories of those HUGE fold out maps you get from the gas station, LOL, talk about an inconvenience that wasn’t even known back then,
I can’t even imagine how long it would take for me to study a map, keep it open, and drive to where I need to get it. I also remember having GPS hardware in the car that you had to periodically download maps to keep in current…crazy today.
Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps… is tech that has definitely made me lazy, but it’s one of the best technology assets ever been developed…(now if I can only get a decent Car Play unit installed in my ride
Have a great night.
Fresh
Greetings. Let’s jump right into it. We know what the definition of “challenge” but how often do you impose them upon yourself? The focus of the question is not really a matter of frequency but do you think doing so is beneficial to you or do you find, at some point, during the challenge, the effort is fruitless or won’t bring you the intended return on investment you initially hoped for.
One thing I didn’t think of until tonight is the end result of accepting a challenge should result in some sort of change, even if the challenge is not completed.
As of this post, I set out to complete a number of challenges this month to close out 2022. They are listed below:
- A minimum of 35 minutes of exercise for a minimum of 14 days (I’m shooting for 30)
- At least on Nike Training Club workout a day (so far at at 100%)
- Spending time everyday increasing my knowledge of financial investing (especially in tech stocks and crypto)
- Finish up Chapter 9 in my Python Crash Course book while advancing in Round 3 in the #100DaysOfCode challenge
So let’s see…where do I stand so far?
*35 minutes min of exercise a day – Easy challenge, ROI: great.
*NTC workout – pretty much the same as the above. This ROI is great in the sense that it will get me back to using Nike Training Club workouts again. I’ve been using the app since 2017 but became less consistent over the last year.
- Financial Investing Literacy – One day so far…this is a bust BUT I will continue to strive and make time for it
*Python studies – (see Investing Literacy)
I was chatting with Roni Lyons…(THE Dr. Roni Lyons), that I don’t do New Year resolutions for one simple reason: Why wait until day 1 of the new year to start ANYTHING?? She can relate!
In the end, the best thing that can come out of time based challenge – is an ROI that essentially spells “consistency”.
That’s it for now. Got an early morning start tomorrow and I should be zzzzz.
Best,
Fresh!
I have a friend I met online about 15 years ago, right around the time I began podcasting. Some years later she decided she wanted to do her own podcast and wanted to leverage my little experience in that area of preparing audio media for such. The name of her show was “Let’s Talk About It”, so that being said..let’s do that..let’s talk about the trends that are born and die on social media (sometimes die) and how people participate… or not.Without going deep (simply because I have not that time in the least bit), many of us have used social media in some shape or form since it’s been created (remember when the term was called “social networking?). All the old messenger platforms, like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Window Messenger, MySpace, Facebook, BlackPlanet, Asian Avenue, 2600, Usenet Groups, Compuserve, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Periscope, Vine (which I miss…LOL) Mastodon, and the longggg list goes on.
What is inherent to all social media/networking platforms are trends, and I don’t mean “such-and-such hashtag” is trending. What I do mean are actions people take, trends that started than many participate in.grab on to that catch on like wildfire. There have been sooo many that’s I’ve seen come and go that I’ll try to remember some to discuss. Incidentally, this topic came to mind because the approach I generally end up taking is: If everyone is doing it, I’m definitely not doing it LOL
To avoid being wordy, I resolve to my usual list to give some example and touch on a few.
- The use of stable fusion technology to create AI Art (particularly of selfies)
- TikTok Invisible Body Challenge
- Wordle
- Age prediction photos (this is how I’ll look X amount of years from now)
- Milk Crate Climbing Challenge
Why these trends emerge, last for some time, then die off, can be for many reasons. I’ll venture to say that many of them do so for the simple reason of what social media perpetuates: reach and exposure which hopefully results in follows and likes of one’s social media feed. Though I make a point not to follow any of them, I do notice what the algorithms throw onto my feeds. Let’s start with the first one…
AIArt – I’ve been noticing a bunch of people using whatever this stable fusion technology is to create very realistic and accurate drawings of themselves. With that, I’ve seen a fair number of people criticizing this as technology that takes away from the most talented artists that can do the same by hand (nothing new here with AI taking over in instances like this). I’ve seen a few people I follow posting selfies of themselves in this manner.
TikTok Invisible Body Challenge – This one is particularly interesting to me because of the cybersecurity issues that many are clueless about. What is this challenge, you may ask? It goes like this: challenge requires you to film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter, which removes the body from the video and replaces it with a blurry background and this challenge has led to people posting videos of them allegedly naked but obscured by the filter. First of all, why would ANYONE have no issue with “film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter” (someone, help me on this … please). It gets even “better”…”hackers are capitalizing on this trending challenge named to install malware on thousands of devices and steal their passwords, Discord accounts, and, potentially, cryptocurrency wallets. To capitalize on this, threat actors are creating TikTok videos that claim to offer a special “unfiltering” filter to remove TikTok’s body masking effect and expose the TikTokers’ nude bodies. However, this software is fake and installs the “WASP Stealer (Discord Token Grabber)” malware, capable of stealing Discord accounts, passwords and credit cards stored on browsers, cryptocurrency wallets, and even files from a victim’s computer.” This is pretty much what I’m referring to by jumping on the social media trends bandwagon – doing things just because it’s a trend and you know clue of what the implications could be (especially in a case like this) because you’re essentially acting like sheep. You can read more about this challenge and the hacking approach here.
Wordle – I have no idea what this game is or how it’s played but I number of people I follow on Twitter pepper my feed with their daily Wordle results
Age prediction photos – This one’s seem to die off but, boy, I’ve seen a ton of followers jumping on this one BIG time. Sort of the same use of AI thing as #AIArt. Lately I’ve seen the same approach but applied to dead celebrities who’s been deceased for some time now, but showing how they would look if they were still alive today.
Milk Crate Climbing Challenge – One of the DUMBEST, ignorant, and most dangerous challenges I can remember seeing in some time. I’m glad that one is dead and gone….(isn’t it?).
As said above, if the proliferation of such is even noticeable, you won’t catch me involved (can you say TikTok? – that’s an entire different story that I don’t even understand regarding the continual security concerns with the platform).
Anyway, do you indulge? No judgement here, just asking for a friend
Have a great day!
Fresh
“Can you hear me now? – Verizon
Greetings all. Hope your December is going well. Another work day is behind me. I just finished dinner and have retreated back to my home office to compose this blog post, with (based on my post from two days ago) the Fluid channel streaming some cool chill step, chillout, and liquid trap on somafm.com.
“What’s up with this graphic above?”, you may be asking. Well, it represents my entry in to the world of mobile phones. Let’s go back….way back. The Motorola TeleTac 250 was the first mobile phone I ever purchased. I got it from, then, Bell Atlantic Mobile which is now Verizon. I graduated from keeping a beeper on my belt to this hefty, chunky phone with a removable battery that had to be placed in a cradle for charging. Let’s talk a bit more about it. I have a leather case, complete with a belt clip, that allowed me to carry it that way, when it wasn’t stored in a bag somewhere. The one line amber LCD display is only large enough to display full ten digit phone number and other types of messages, like diagnostic codes and pager codes (yeah those things that pre-dated todays emojis BIG TIME lol), remember those? https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/samir/11-pager-codes-that-you-need-to-know
I was very much, by default, used to using that phone, pager codes and all. In fact while it was far thicker than my iPhone 12 mini of today, its height (with the antenna retracted – yes an antenna you had to pull up) wasn’t taller than my current phone. What’s the biggest difference between the Teletac 250 and any mobile phone today? It’s simple – you can only do to things with it: make/receive calls and pager (text message) codes with it..in other words…zero distractions come with modern day mobile phones. That, in itself, is an entirely different and long topic of discussion.
As the evolution continued, I when from the Teletac 250 to the much smaller and very sleek Motorola Razr V3M flip phone. Outside from its form factor and totally different design, the big and new thing was a built in camera. While the picture resolution compared to today’s phone was pretty much garbage, there was nothing better to compare with, so that WAS big. I actually miss that phone for its size and features even though the introduction of a camera was the gateway to the city of Distractionville. I will tell you this, I’m pretty certain that if this phone were able to operate on the 5G network today and at a decent price, I would seriously consider dropping my iPhone….for sure.
From the Razr, ended ups with the Blackberry Curve, with Blackberry being all the rage during the last 90s. The Curve was, of course, a step up in technology, just as the Razr was to the Teletac. From the Curve, I finally switched to the iPhone 4S in 2011. Being (and still am) a fan of Apple products, it was only a natural progression. It was then that voice recognition was introduced into the iPhone line up with the creation of Siri (hence the “S” in “4S”). I kept the 4S for a few years, jumped to the iPhone 6, then 7 in 2017. I used the iPhone 7 until it was on its last leg and finally jumped all the way to the iPhone 12 in June 2021.
The gist of this post is really about how mobile phone technology, especially the iPhone, has advanced so far away from just “making sure the call goes through”, and (to me) the biggest feature set and selling point has been the camera. While we all realize that mobile phones and all the built-in technology can and does easily replace all the separate devices we used to have to carry around – recorders, audio players, laptops, GPS devices, and….cameras. Being an engineer for my entire career (both in software and hardware development), I totally get it like there is no tomorrow but I’m glad to have seen the birth and growth/evolution of this tech as it gives me broad perspective in terms of experience usage, a perspective that allows me to assess the pros and cons of such evolution ESPECIALLY regarding the ubiquitous grip it has on us.
It’s interesting, as one example, I still have a digital camera – an old Nikon D3100 DSLR that I actually brought for cheap from a photographer that was upgrading. While the pixel resolution is nowhere NEAR what current mobile phones give, it takes exceptionally fine photos, but as you know, the convenience factor, from a use factor, is waaaay down compared to taking everyday photos (and video) with my iPhone12.
Sometime ago, I read an article about the accepted use of mobile phone technology in our daily life. In the midst of the article, a question was posed to who use said phones now but are old enough to have grown up in times prior. The question was: “Back in the 60’s and 70’s, If you could put a device in your pocket that would essentially allow you to be tracked at any given time, but you were free to use it and all its beneficial technology at will, would you use it? I’ll let you assume what the answers were.
…and the beat goes on.
Thanks for the read.
Fresh.
PS: Yes, I still have the Teletac 250
Arashiyama Bamboo GroveGood morning, I hope the reading of this post finds you well. You are a creative thinker, even in the least bit, whether you are prolific music composer, hobby artist, NewYork Times best-selling author or finger painter. There are certain places where your creative thinking seems to flourish best, or there are certain scenarios involving those places that are a catalyst to it.
This has a direct alignment to problem solving as well. Many times I’ve read (especially in articles of productivity) that if you’re stuck on a problem, seeking a solution, the best thing to do is remove yourself from your current environment and take a walk. Removing yourself from the focus of what your dealing with, in order to gain clarity, can often be just what is need to find (or at least better approach) a solution. A familiar scenario is writers or composition block. At times, a total shift in mindset, even momentarily, could be just the thing to get back on track.
As for me, being a musician since I was 14, songs that I write, music that I compose often pops in my head. In doing so, I need to be able to some how get it out of my head and onto, into, some sort of medium so I won’t forget the foundation of the idea. The weirdest thing with me is that for as long as I’ve been a musician, these ideas seem to always come to me…in the shower, LOL! I’ve lost track of the times, over the decades, when this has happened, even to the point of me hopping out, throwing a towel around me and either running down to the studio or grabbing a portable cassette recorder and humming, even beat boxing the idea in so I don’t forget the “virgin idea” (which often times happens to be the best foundation for the final song)…hilarious times.
Things are a little different now, with the advent of mobile phones, as I can just grab the phone and record said ideas into the voice memo for recollection. Even more convenient is the ability to export that audio into my digital audio workstation, if need be, and continue from there, building more of the track around it.
As for writers who suffer the same, I suspect it’s far easier just grabbing something to write with and some sort of paper, but you get my drift!
If you deal with this in anyway, shape, or form – how do you handle capturing your creative thoughts while in an environment not readily conducive to maintaining them?
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Fresh!
Greetings all.
Yesterday’s topic about workspaces kind of leads into today’s topical pretty nicely – when you work (be it at a desk or anywhere else) what kind of music do you like to listen to (if any at all). Many times, unless I need to really concentrate (or just want quiet) on work items, I listen to music. The sources range from streaming platforms to minidisc to mp3 players to CD players.
My genres vary, but let me see if I can generally categorize them via the type of work done:
- Housework/yardwork – 90’s era hip-hop (especially instrumental boom bap), funk, jazz (UK, contemporary), UK Garage (2-Step), Deep House, Rock, liquid drum and bass, atmospheric drum and bass, jungle
- Deskwork (day job/other) and coding: Downtempo, chillout, ambient, chill step, lo-fi hip hop, jazz
I pretty much grew up on R&B, R&B which is considered as “old school R&B”. While it’s classic and legendary, it’s a genre that I listen the least to, probably because I’ve heard it day by day, decade after decade. The interesting thing about this is that it was highly commercial then with far more substance, across the board, than contemporary R&B. My reasoning for not engulfing myself in listening to old school is for the very simple reason being that as great as it is, it’s boring now. What I would love to hear is that same substance return with the same commercial heavy rotation it used to have BUT done my newer artists – commercial artists. I was telling a younger listener who is searching for such that she will mostly like find it in the realm of indie R&B artists, but definitely NOT in urban contemporary radio/streaming platforms today.
Ironically, I am typing this blogpost in utter silence…LOL. Sometimes I just want quiet…like now.
Thanks, as always, for the read.
Fresh!
Image courtesy – twitter.com/jeorgepaulo_Greetings all, Happy Holidays to you.
It’s Sunday night about 9:28pm as I write this post and sip on some hot chocolate. For many of us, it’s back to work tomorrow. Fortunately for me, it’s a scheduled workday from hime, but a workday nonetheless.
When it comes to the space in which you work (your personal workspace), whatever that work may be, what kind of environment do you create, what is your preferred decorum? Are you somewhat (or definitely) a stickler for ergonomics that help your productivity actions flow better – such as desk and chair type, lighting, monitor size, desktop vs laptop or both? Do you desire a clean and neat workspace, or is the opposite not an issue?
For me, I’m far from a Felix Unger type (for those of you that recognize that name) BUT I strive and prefer to keep a very neat desk space when I work. Stuff all over the place speaks disorganization and mess to me, the clutter is a mental distraction big time. All of my personal desks at home are of the legendary IKEA Jerker desk, which has been long discontinued. I happened to have three of them: one in the guest room/office and two in my recording studio. You can see a drawing of the standard Jerker without the accessories below:
Here’s actual picture of one assembled (not mine, but I have the same color wood):
Here’s a very close shot of one of the two in my recording studio, of which use the two swivel shelves shown above, along with a second shelf:
In any event, yes, I’m all about the ergonomics as well – having everything easily reachable, etc. I’m not one that has the cash to burn on one of those expensive Herman Miller Aero chairs but a good office chair definitely helps the flow. Lighting whether a desk lamp or overhead lighting (of the right hue/intensity – I don’t like bright light working conditions) is definitely important as well. All in all, gotta keep it neat and clean.
I won’t get into the desk and computer accessories, but an attractive visual aspect is one I generally try to keep. As for the office at work, they gave us nice, adjustable standing desks, so I take advantage of that during the day. Talk about workplace ups and downs! (Ok, yeah that’s corny!!)
How about you? What’s your environment like?
Thanks for the read – have a great week.
Fresh!
Remember that very popular track by Dire Straits? (listening to it as I type this post, as a matter of fact, it’s on repeat). I grew up watching MTV religiously, as well as BET’s Video Soul, VH1, and other similar music video shows broadcasted all day and into the late night. It was an era when such shows bridged the hit songs you heard on commercial radio with their video debuts that we were all very excited to see. This videos, many times, were everything from conceptual works of art to live performances of the singer and/or band that performed the song. There was a certain excitement brought by the host of the show segment that sometimes had you on the edge of your seat clamoring for this hot debut. As a bonus, your host would actually interview the artist or band. Here’s a favorite video of mine – Donnie Simpson on Video Soul interviewing The Time, Pt 1. Donnie Simpson on Video Soul interviewing The Time, Pt 1.
This video shows not only brought the visual aspects to the records we loved, right into your living room, so to speak, but gave the records an entirely different dimension of the song, but there were also the live music shows prior to the “MTV era”. I was a musician growing up in the 70s, picking up the guitar in 1977 and having these following shows on TV were paramount to my early development and growth as a guitarist:
- Soul Train
- Soul Alive (the local NYC Soul Train copycat)
- Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert (DKRC)
- Midnight Special
All these shows brought the live artist/band concert vibe, again, into your living room. I can remember watching both DKRC and Midnight Special well into 1am when they were finishing up. What I liked about both those programs were that they featured many rock acts that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise had either show not existed. After some time, both DKRC and Midnight Special began to feature more R&B/funk acts but it was Soul Train and Soul Alive that held the trophy for featuring R&B/SouL/Funk and disco acts regularly. It was actually Soul Train that made me want to become a guitarist.
Fast forwarding to today, it’s evident that YouTube killed the MTV/live music show era. The 24/7 format is obviously convenient but many things have changed along the way, including the charm that inhabited that same era. It was definitely a fine time of musical and cultural development across the board.
Oceans of rhythm,
Fresh
Hello…
I hope this post finds you well. Right now, I’m finding myself wanted some hot chocolate because my daily water intake is that of 32 ounces of being ice cold, so I definitely need to warm up (even with this hoodie on).
The other day I was thinking about all the places I’ve been able to visit on this earth and there are many more I’d like to visit in my time allowed here.
I was born and raised in the US, New Jersey to be exact. I started traveling to an early ag, many times, to the island of Jamaica, for reasons you can probably guess. At that same time frame, but for not as often, I also traveled to Guyana. In my younger years, those were the two places outside of my homeland, that my feet were planted in. As I got older, there were many states in North America that I frequented, they are as follows:
- New York
- Connecticut (where I attended college)
- Florida
- Massachusetts
- North Carolina
- California (mainly for business travel)
- Texas
- Illinois
- Virginia
- Marlyand
- District of Columbia
- Rhode Island
- New Mexico
I think that sums it up. After starting my career, I spent a fair amount of time travel back and forth to Canada, as I was in a long distance relationship with a woman who worked in Toronto. Working for Continental Airlines, at the time, made it quite convenient (and cheap to fly SA), so no complaints there. I even contemplated moving there at one point.
Later on, I spent my honeymoon in Aruba for a week and years later was afforded to travel to Guam on business and that trip also afforded me to visit Japan and Hawaii, so I’m glad I was able to add those to my list of places I got to trod. The Guam trip is quite memorable. Alas, those places round out the list of places my feet trod. There are still many places I’d like to visit on vacation but I haven’t given it much thought as to where the next stop would be. Maybe, one day I will.
Hasta…
Fresh!
Good day all, I hope you’re well.
Today, Wednesday, was my first day back to the office this week, as I usually work from home on Monday and Tuesday. The morning commute (and sometimes the evening commute) generally means one thing – catching up on listening to my favorite podcasts. This morning, I listened to a very interesting episode of Wired Security, which talked about the use of autonomous vehicles from China in the US and how they can pose a threat to national (cyber) security. Should you want to read the story and listen to the podcast, you can find both here.
One thing rang out to me in this article – the potential use of Chinese AVs as “cameras” that could record and send data back to China that relates to national infrastructure that can be studied to develop future cybersecurity attacks on it. I never gave that any thought until today. It seems that the US has never given any thought to this until recently, after allowing said automobiles to be used here. As a related note, the ubiquitous use of surveillance tech still freaks me out, especially putting in my home address and seeing different versions of my property taken by what ever Google camera cars roam past unbeknownst to me. The article also talks about, on the other hand, Chinese restrictions on using Telsa in its country.
The US has already banned the use of Huawei products here for security reasons. I wonder if they will follow suit in this case.
I like to mildly follow the development of AV technology, not only with Tesla but via what Waymo, Einride (for shipping), Cruise, and other manufacturers are doing. On a smaller scale, I’ve yet to see any food delivery bots roaming around, but a friend of mine tells me he’s seen them used on the campus of George Mason University.
I think this topic may turn into a future episode for my Tech Times podcast.
Be well…
Fresh
This blog post was originally published back in May 2010. Over the last 12 years, a lot has happened in the world of digital consumer technology in the area of social media and mobile devices, though I believe the grip of such has not lessened. I’ve had many discussions with people about said effects and read many articles and one highly recommended book – Deep Work by Cal Newport that has allowed me to rethink and strive to succeed in lessening my “digital footprint”. I will admit that the results of said rethinking haven’t been as successful as I’ve hoped but as my friend Darrenkeith says “…that’s all on me”. With that, I thought it was fitting to repost the weblog. The dates and times have changed for the subject content hasn’t.
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Hello Readers…
I hope all is well with you. and that your Memorial Day will be or was spent, to some extent, doing what the holiday was created for – in memory of the men and women in our armed forces. Those that are currently serving and have served for us in all capacities.
Well, it came to fruition this weekend, an experiment I’d been wanting to conduct for about a month now. Yes, the DDO (dedicated day offline) happened yesterday. There are a few of you that I had mentioned this concept to in the last month. I had two particular conversations with Deb Lee, @dallisonlee, professional organizer, on this topic (some of you may know I’ve been a contributing author to her Organize To Revitalize blog on the subject of my adventures in time management and the technology that can aid it). I initially called it a “Digital Day Off”, but thought the term was too broad, broad enough that it would have to included most, if not all, things digital (video games (though I’m not a gamer)), the use of mobile phones, HDTV, etc). My reason for conducting this exercise of “virtual abstinence” was to assess the amount of time I do spend online and how much of it, spent doing certain activities (largely related to social networking), is actually robbing me of time better spent reaching goals. Interestingly enough, the day I had the conversation with Deb, this article appeared in The Post.
My first foray into social networking came back in 2000 via membership to Blackplanet. I actually joined by way of helping a coworker design her site page. I was then that I began to learn the basics of website design (within the HTML code constraints for what Blackplanet would allow). After getting a taste of social networking there, it was basically onto Myspace and Yahoo 360, Vox, blogging from my own website, various IM clients (AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger), then Twitter, and finally FB (the latter I’ve since left about two weekends ago). Along with the social networking, I always used the net for two basic things – work, and as a learning tool for basically five areas of interest – music production, technology, photography, financial literacy, and web design. Let’s now add the mobile web, and there you have it, a communications medium, now in the palm of your hand, deeply woven into the course of our everyday lives. A communications medium, whose benefits (as well as its negative aspects) range far and wide Looking over the last 10 years of being a regular passenger on the information highway, but growing up through college my first two years of college WITHOUT the internet (fancy that, huh?), I began to remember what life was like without it, and how I spent my time without it. While I can only speak for myself, my assessment was that more time was wasted on the info highway than not. This assessment caused me to purposely conduct the experiment during a normal day – not a day or timeframe where I would be away from the net for whatever reasons (vacation, family visits, etc), but during a time where it was always a mouse click (or similar) away. It created a great challenge in overcoming the temptation to connect. As inferred above, it was done as a matter of habit assessment more than anything else, but the correlation to time management is there. In looking back on my regular online activities, I saw that I could have altered them to achieve what always seems more impossible than not (with my busy schedule) – knocking tasks off my to-do list. Was a DDO really necessary to make this assessment of time management? No, I could have just decided to allot only a certain amount of time online of every aspect of my online daily routines (which probably could have been easier).
The outcome of the experiment allowed me to use a good part of my regular online time time to improve my financial budgeting/investment literacy and revamp a financial improvement SPD (systematic plan of development) for savings, investing, debt reduction and retirement . I also got a great nap in during the early hours of the afternoon ;-). In retrospect, it made assess the extent of my habitual behavior and constant temptation to be “connected”. I won’t say that all possess it to an extent (my wife is a good example of one who spends very little time on the internet – but get rid of the TVs in the house and …never mind…you see the point I am generally illustrating – ).
Now that I’ve taken my first DDO, purposely, I feel it’ll be something that I’ll regularly do, maybe more than just once a week. Curbing time daily spent online is, of course, something to throw into the mix as well, but it wasn’t until today that I really see how a forced day off (for me) is beneficial. The time is currently 11:44 EST, and this DDO will officially be over in less than 16 mins, but I’ve learned some valuable things on a personal level. That’s always a good thing. Back to the SPD. Forget the government, I want to create a stimulus package for my own economic situation.
peace.
F!
You Janet Jackson fans will recognize what I did there in the post title (wink).
Greetings all. We humans have been presented with methodologies and processes aimed at motivating us to to things for a reward, for decades. Oxford’s Dictionary defines gamification as :
gam·i·fi·ca·tion/ˌɡāmifəˈkāSHən/
noun
- the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
Think of the many times you’ve been presented with gamification through your own desire or via presentation from services tied to your occupation, etc. It is purely psychological, yet can have, sometimes, profound effects on how one approaches things based upon the reward outcome.
The greatest effect of gamification on me (from what I can remember) came from awards given via fitness tracking devices. It really started for me back in 2009 when I started tracking my runs with the Nike+ Fitness app via the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit. This continued through the use of the Nike Fuel Band, and onto my current method of tracking fitness – the Apple Watch. All three entities provide awards, aka badges, for completing a myriad of daily, monthly, and special challenges. Out of the three, I will wholeheartedly say that Nike fitness tracking ecosystem and advertising deeply drew me into striving to gain those rewards. I haven’t tried the same with Garmin or FitBit, and Apple really doesn’t do it for me, like Nike did…it’s kind of hard to explain the draw with what Nike did, but if I could, this would end of being a TLDR post.
I’ll go on to admit that the entire marketing design, the aspects, the developed ecosystem (when done “right”) can provide that motivation for winning beyond anything else – and this is the only thing that matters when it comes to desired engagement and the same return on investment that a product seeks.
This entire process, at least from the digital approach to gamification, finally made me think back to the days prior to the rise of gamification, especially with digital fitness tracking techniques, I began to realize that there were (and still are) many that focus on the discipline vs the motivation, and that is very key.
Today, my approach to gamification is different. The collection of rewards is not important as it once was, particularly once I realized that the Apple Watch Activity algorithm for tracking fitness goals is flawed, I call it dumb, for reasons by which I won’t go into explaining in this post, but are quite obvious by the many posts I’ve seen regarding individual monthly challenges issued at the beginning of each month for everyone. If I get said challenge award for said goal based on my regular routine, that’s fine – if I don’t, that’s fine too. This is a far more realistic approach to take and it keeps you in tune to how to effectively track your goals.
What has gamified you?
Thanks for the read,
Fresh
Image: tesla.comGreetings all…
So yeah, this ride, this automobile above, I’ve been kinda feenin’ for it over the last year or so, maybe more. As a matter of fact, I did a recent Tech Times podcast episode about this very blog post topic.
In any event, I’ve always been interested in this particular EV based on it’s tech and aesthetic design. Every time I see the Model S it just grabs my attention in various ways. Over the last year, I began to become more interested in its technological development, specifically via the opinion of Tesla owners about what is good and bad, what should remain vs what has been taken away, etc. I find that valuable, yet intriguing because of the little I know about its design evolution.
I work in a research park which is part of a well known laboratory and their are a LOT of Tesla owners that work there as well. I’d say that the Model S is predominate model owned and I often play a little game called “Spot The Tesla” to see how many I see in a given day at work. Though I see a number of them on the highway during any given commute day, I see the majority at work.
As I spoke of in the podcast above, from where I stand, I would LOVE to own a Model S. The thought of learning all about its current technology is exciting BUT I know (as of this writing) that I’m not ready for the paradigm shift need to drive an EV everyday – I’ve been driving a combustion vehicle way too long. Though one seems to see charging stations more and more, they’re not ubiquitous and I’m still afraid of getting stuck with no battery life and no charging stations around (though after making the adjustment to the regularity of EV driving and development habits, that probably will never happen).
I just know that there are many products that have been created, but don’t have the visual draw that the Model S has upon me, coupled with the sheer technology this EV is built around, and that is essentially it.
We’ll see. I’ve had my current rocket bunny for three years already, perhaps when it’s time to purchase another vehicle – the Model “S” would be “Sweet” to own.
Thanks for the read,
Fresh!
A few weeks ago, I was headed to the gym on Saturday afternoon. I had not been out all day and didn’t check the forecast, all I know is that it was bright and sunny out. As I left the house, I noticed that it was warmer than expected, but I pressed on. Before getting to the gym, I made a casual stop at Starbucks (a norm on a Saturday), with journal in hand. After ordering my beverage, I decided to sit outside vice in the store and began writing a journal entry. Once again, I noticed how warm it was. It led me to think about all the news reporting on climate change (that I really haven’t followed very closely) but, more so, I began to think how COLD it was in the month of November, living in NJ as a young boy. For the midatlantic, I never fathomed how it could be this warm in November and at the same time, having VIVID memories of walking to grade school in mid-30 deg F for most of the entire month…brrr.
The next day, the temperatures changed from an unusually 70 deg F to a seasonable 40 deg F…just like that. While I never mind warm weather, it just seemed weird having it that warmer in a month I’ve always associated with COLD.
Today it’s rainy and 55 deg F, with a low of 44 and a predicted high of 61 deg F (which at 2:22pm right now, I don’t think we’ll see).
I don’t think we’ll see any warm temperatures until at least spring time so for now, I’ll grab my favorite hoodie and head out.
Oceans of rhythm….
Fresh
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