October Thoughts

 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I had a day off from work today and decided to jot down/share some ideas. 

First, ever notice that time is moving way too fast? I spent some time in between jobs and it was like a blur. Now I'm in a new job and every workday just zooms by. I feel like, especially as I get older, that time is increasingly escaping me. Even now, I'm writing this at two in the morning on a weekday day off from work. I usually don't get to stay up this late anymore and its been more difficult to get into the mode for writing asI prefer to do writing late at night. 

There's been a time loop thing ever since covid. Ever since covid time just seems to fly by. I'm struggling to keep up with all my old hobbies and work seems to get even more in the way nowadays with changing shifts from closing nights to opening mornings the next day[s] after. As the Grateful Dead ask in a song, "Where does the time go?" 

Second, I've seen better days, like the song by Smashmouth. "Missed the bus, but I'm in no hurry." It's been harder to stay consistently happy all the time because it seems like everything is turning, "We're turning again," -Zappa. The truth of the matter is that I'm actually doing very well and have most of what I need but there's always that sense that something's missing, or that I'm missing out on stuff.

For example, I like my new job but overall, its somewhat more stressful than what I was doing previously. Also, it's less pay, more responsibility, more stuff and details, and more intimate work setting with co-workers. Not exactly fan favorites of a work environment, especially when you're not running the place yourself as manager. But I'd rather be optimistic about things that aren't going well in this moment. I do realize that I'm doing well, have decent health, and a roof over my head. Sometimes you have to be grateful for what you have even if it could be better. For example, even when I wasn't working for a little while, I wasn't really struggling as much as other people I know, even when those people were employed working at their jobs, they were still doing worse than I was. "Back in the USSR, you don't know how lucky you are, boy." 

Third, I realize that I've kind of been procrastinating and squandering a lot of time. I've been way too involved in online video gaming. However, I've also been reading a lot too. Just before writing this now, I finished reading Leon Battista Alberti On Painting, an amazing historical document written during the Florentine art era. It is an eye-opening read, albeit very intellectual, but difficult to understand because of the historical translation from Latin and Italian into something a modern English reader could understand. Yes, it's readable, but not all of it flows easily into a modern english meaning. Prolix, and way too intellectual in describing art, however, Alberti was almost more of a humanist learner than a painter, and was better at doing architecture. 

Another book I read before that was Herzog by Saul Bellow. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and the Prix International. This was a great book as it describes the downward spiral of a very Jewish intellectual professor as his wife and kids leave him to shack up with his psychiatrist, ouch. Herzog goes somewhat crazy, manic, and at one point puts his father's old loaded gun into his pocket and goes to visit his ex-wife and pick up the kid. He doesn't do anything with it, but he gets caught with it and booked by the cops. The book even ends on a manic note when he's back at his estate in a remote area, and he hires this nanny to clean up his house, and he's just watching her clean. I had a Jewish best friend that reminds me of Herzog. He had everything he could have wanted at one point and it all just went away and he went into a manic episode. Never saw him again after that. This book was very realistic. 

Lastly, I've been trying to stay focused. I've been reading a lot and listening to a lot of jazz music. I do think I need to lay off the video games for a while to make more time for more creative arts, writing, and music. For example, I'm still interested in AI but have yet to make much progress in AI art or video, mostly because I haven't been devoting too much time to it and I feel like AI has been eclipsed by the commercial state of American advertising through media on the internet, TV, smartphones, and in real life. 

We're so programmed to just buy and consume to make up for our lack of happiness, why would anyone think using AI would make them happy? In a way I would say AI has already been eclipsed by consumerism, even the overconsumption of say right-wing and left-wing news that taken a toll on our society. I do think we as a people, as The Culture, need to become more self-aware of things we're buying and the media we are consuming. 

I know that sounds like a intellectual outsider sort of rant but I think there's something to it there. Like for example, when I mentioned earlier that I've been playing too many videogames, I think the first step is being aware that you're spending too much time on that sort of media consumption, and then going forward you can adjust your plans to do other things and not give all your attention to it. In addition, I mentioned that time seems to be speeding away from me, well, in a way, yes it is. I'm getting older and my health is getting worse here and there. I will use that as motivation to do more of what I really want to do, and spend less time overconsuming digital content. These are basic ideas but not always discussed. Watch this space. 

The owl of Minerva appears at dusk. 

Meet the new Boss, Same as the old Boss

Good evening, how are you? I wanted to do a bit of blogging, some improv, and just see what turns out. It's September 20th, 2025, about a week after the Charlie Kirk incident, which has captivated the media and the internet nonstop ever since. First, I'll start with my thoughts on the matter. 

Charlie Kirk wasn't my cup of tea. I put him in the same vein as Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens, so I see him as right-wing agitator. However, that doesn't mean that I think he should've been gunned down and although I'm kind of a hard leftist progressive [if you know anything about this blog and my life as a worker], I don't think people should be celebrating his death. In fact, I think the fact that people are celebrating his death is a little bit sickening. This is where we are in 2025 September 20th. 

Which brings me to my next point. The fact that the Trump administration flew his body back via Airforce 1, and the Right-Wingers [although its mostly the far right that are sprouting revenge and violence] have made him a martyr in their crusade against the so called woke liberal left. When you see your right-wing friends saying Kirk was a good man, a great man, and that he was peaceful, you know that they're only saying that because that's what they've been told to believe because the man was quite frankly, an asshole of a right-wing persuasion. On the opposite side on the left, you see the celebratory theme of Kirk's death as a sort of meme of pop culture, which they've been told to believe in. 

That being said, it doesn't take a genius of political ideology to tell you that these two different parties are just followers, believing in whatever the 'leader,' is telling them to believe in. Which makes you wonder, is anyone truly thinking for themselves anymore in 2025? We got people hooked in ChatGPT, taking pictures of them in their outfits and asking GPT if it goes hard? The people who do think for themselves are getting drowned out, belittled, and disgraced by the people who are just followers of whatever ideology they've been told to follow. Which begs the question, can anyone truly be an outsider in 2025? Maybe not. 

Moving on from politics, you find today that the Culture has been transformed into a video culture. Meaning that most people are followers following the trends and can't resist it. I remember working at the market and most of the employees there would always be on their phones watching TikTok on the sales floor and even on their break, phone in one hand, and food in the other. For women and girls it's TikTok and videos nonstop, for men it's endless video games and YouTube. If you say you prefer books, you are seen as an outsider by these groups. 

That being said, I don't think that will ever change. What we're witnessing now is the decline and fall of the American experiment, which lasted roughly 300 years. We consume so much stuff and media, its like a fat guy eating 20 hamburgers, it's become disgusting. Nowadays I sometimes find myself getting lost in the male video gaming meme culture and after a few weeks I catch myself and realize that I have to resign from it for a few months to recuperate. The consumption of mass media in this culture has a strong effect on the human mind. 

Now, I'm not saying you have to read books all the time. But perhaps it wouldn't hurt to read a book every now and then? And if you can't stand books, maybe do some kind of learning via the internet instead of endless TikTok or doomscrolling? This current American culture has become some kind of monster [metallica reference], its got to the point where everything and everyone has become fake and useless [now trending.] 

Sometimes you might watch a TikTok or a YouTube video and it seems real and lifelike, but you find out later on that its AI voice generated video with real images, or that everything the person said or did in the video is all fake, not one tiny bit of it is honest or real in any way. This is where we are in 2025. From a young person's standpoint, it's almost frightening because young people are impressionable and a lot of them are going to believe a lot of what's online despite being told a lot of it is all fake. Now, I think the biggest skill for a young person to have is to be skeptical of everything and everyone around them, especially those closest to them. 

I worked at a grocery store in SoCal for a long time. In that time I probably worked with over 300 employees. And I was cool with almost all of them, cool as in I got along with them and we worked well together. But most of those people were fake and were always trying to do the bare minimum amount of work. This includes management and store directors as well. They were all, for the most part, not very good people, fake people, not hard-working people. They weren't evil people, but for the most part they were fake and useless. Most people don't tell it like how it really was and is, but I'm keeping it real and I might get flagged for this but most of them were bad people. Pretty much everyone at the market including managers, codirectors, and store directors were all not good people, very fake, and didn't do much work. I had one manager for 12 years, a Persian guy, who hardly did any work pretty much the entire 12 years, and hid in the back 4 hours a night. These people might be a good laugh to have a beer with, but they were not very good people. 

In conclusion, what's the solution? Well, I think you have to really learn to be skeptical of everyone and everything. As one of my managers said, "This is California, trust no one." As paranoid as that sounded to me he was right. I think today in 2025 you have to even be skeptical of little old ladies asking you questions on the street. Listen to your elders but don't take what they say to heart, because the future of the world is you, not them. The workforce people are all fake and they're probably going to do you in the first moment you say no to them or don't make the quota. Learn to build your own interior world. The world has become more and more fake. Everyone you knew in your past or from previous jobs probably treated you badly behind your back and you didn't realize it because if you're like me, you're a good spirit, even amongst demons. You tend to overlook that sharp eye of evil within your managers and coworkers. Yeah, it's in the eyes. 

As random and improvisatory as this long blog was, everything in it is connected. Brought to you via the government and workforce. Godspeed. Watch this space.  

"I couldn't say where she's comin' from, but I just met a woman named Dinah Mo Hum." 

Aw Snap, Here We Go Again

Hello world, 

Things are moving forward, but things are volatile. It's like a caffeinated squirrel running around a funhouse of mirrors. You really never know what you're going to get. That's where we are right now. I'm mostly speaking in terms of the bigger picture, not just my own individual life. Here I'd like to jot down some notes on what's going on, what I think is the answers to it or possible answers, and just a general outlined update on what I've been up to and what I've been working on. 

First, the turmoil surrounding the larger story arc of the world, Russia vs Ukraine, but right now I'm especially worried about the turning point in the middle east, as we have the Israelis causing chaos there. I believe the Israelis are causing all this damage right now because they are trying to force the US into a large scale war inside the middle east, and, this part is very important, they want to try to force a Trump victory this November because they know Harris won't support Israel's proxies and killings. The best thing we can do is deescalate and not send troops to the middle east. 

In addition, there's more to this of course. I believe the disconnection between Americans has become so great that not only is democracy at risk, I believe that in a way, the citizens have already lost, regardless of whoever wins the election. Walk outside your door on any day and you can see, think, feel, hear, and maybe even smell the differences between everyone and everyone within every facet of life that you may encounter on any other day. And guess what? Almost all of those people see other Americans in this divided categorical way. Why? Because that's how this country has made their impact upon them, especially foreigners but also just average Americans. We need to keep moving forward and learn to see each other as human beings, not as these divided categories. 

Second, the disintegration of community within this country. Look around you everywhere you go. Everyone is all looking at something different; a different smartphone screen, a different political ideology, a different style of music, a different tribe in any and every way. This is almost too good to be true. How can a country be so mindlessly cast apart and separated as people? This is a question one should not answer, as I think there are many variables; infinite mass amounts of information, infinite mass amounts of bad and/or false information, and divide division and conquer tactics used by the boogiemen [like Trump and Maga Republicans] who are counting on their supporters to be a stupid b lazy c never change their opinions even though they know they are bad and/or wrong and harmful to their communities. 

Third, look at your own personal life for more examples of what I'm describing. I work at a grocery store where the division of work is highly routinized. There are clear divisions and separations between the hierarchy of the workplace. For example, on the front end where I work, there are from lowest to top; baggers, combos, cashiers, sales managers, front end managers, co-director, and store director. You find once you become ensconced in this line of work that there is a clear division and hierarchy. The managers at my store never once tried to lift me up and get me promoted for years even though I've stayed a very long time and showed my loyalty to the company through hard work, good work, and some customers may have even said that I've even had good cheer and all that good stuff. 

The problem is that through these divisions not everybody wants to see you succeed. In fact, a lot of people out there want to see you fail and lose everything; your wife, your children, your girlfriends, your job, your stuff, hour apartment, your home, everything. I've found that in particular, sales managers, front end managers, and co-directors especially have more than sometimes used their power to bring me down, take away privileges, write me up for bogus things, and in general try to get me not promoted to keep getting higher in the company. Why do you think that is? The answer lies in the psychological nature of the divided moment we live in. Even my co-director wants to see me fail, even he sees that because he is who he is with a better job and much more money and higher status, that whatever he says go and if I don't like it I would have to leave, and he doesn't see me as a good, hardworking, loyal employee, rather he wants to see me fail, and I would like to see him fail as well. 

Lastly, what does this mean? This means that the world that's described by the people you know or watch on TV or see on a smartphone or webpage screen is just one part of it; their world, but what is your truth, your story? No matter what ideological background that you originate from, most smart and good people want to bring more good to this world and keep working very hard to keep it good. But not everybody wants that. Like me, you might have a boss that wants to see you fail. I can respond by making his life hell in any way I can, but therein does not lie the true answer. The answer lies in fighting the good fight, fighting for what you believe in, and fighting to the very end. Those people out there, like the hateful boss, they want to see you fail, they want to see you give in to despair and become like many others or even themselves, who have given up with their lives in despair. Your life might not be great or even good right now but nothing lasts forever, even happiness. You might have to surprise yourself by how much fight you have in you, that you're actually made of much tougher stuff, and if given the chance, you would trounce any and all of your enemies in one attack like a ferocious lion. 

Take on thy sword of the spirit and fight on. Metaphorically speaking of course. Give them hell or worse. Replace their system with your own system, be more than a leader, be a creative leader.

Live Jazz! Guitar and Saxophone! 10/6/2022!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Km9rjsh8w&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

Featuring Jason Tomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa on guitar

Improv most of the set, and Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Virus pt. 10

It's 2021/11/9 evening. Covid is still running strong after nearly a year and a half of divisive health guidelines from doctors and politicians, and misinformed idiot citizens who don't want to be vaccinated. Our government is run by two parties, one of which denies climate change and has rallied the Trump demagogue to vote Republican, no mask, no vaccines. Jobs are hard to come by, good pay and benefits have gone up in an era where its a struggle to get people back on track on a working career in their respective fields. Climate change and global warning is a hot boiling point issue but the worlds powers can't seem to get it together. A billionaire nerd plays with the idea of ending world hunger. 

Is this what I thought being an adult would be like when I grew up? Is this some sort dystopian fiction novel? No, but indeed there are some similarities. Here I want to get into more of the nitty gritty on life during the pandemic, working in a grocery store, and how I've been dealing with the pandemic on those terms. 

Life during the pandemic has been an easy transition for me. I wake up early in the morning, I go to work, I come home, I have recreation time for reading, guitar, and friends, and I rinse and repeat. It's quite the good life, as I pretty much get to do whatever I want, provided I make sure to get to work on time in the mornings. Evenings are always free to do whatever. 

Work has been more intense than home life. Working on the job has its stress but the added traffic of extra customers since the pandemic has given most of the staff more than they can handle. We have limited employees at any one given time and on top of that, there's high turnover, and it's been difficult to get new hires to stay and/or keep hiring more new employees. It really is a conundrum getting people, anyone, to work these grocery store retail jobs these days. The peoples who usually stay are young people who live with their parents, young people who go to college, and middle aged people who have been in retail their whole lives. In short, we don't have enough help and can't keep the help we do get.  

My personal role at the store has become more streamlined and my job itself has become a lot easier. So in that sense I can't really complain too much.

How have I been dealing with the pandemic? I read a lot of books, I listen to a lot of music, I play a lot of guitar, writing more blogs now and then, and I text and hangout with friends occasionally. To be honest, it's an amazing life and I'm really lucky I get to do these great things I love to do. My job surprisingly gives me a lot of freedom in my recreation hours to truly become inspired, come alive, and be myself. That won't happen in the world or retail. You have to make the time to build and develop an interior life outside of the working hours on the job.

Weather it's through my guitar playing, reading, or writing, I can truly say that I'm never really bored. There's always something new to learn, something new to explore, new avenues to travel along. This gift of curiosity has led me to learn jazz guitar, listen to the classical music canon, and read the western canon.  

In a time when people are really struggling I'm thriving, for now, praise be to God. When I look back at this time in the future, I can say that I had a great life during covid. Amen! 

Also check out my covid plague journal! http://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Autumn Leaves [in the key of A major]

 

So this is what you call sushi?

Autumn is upon us! This is one of my favorite times of years because it represents the changing of the seasons, the Four Seasons, like the famous Vivaldi piece. This is a good time of year. It always reminds me of childhood and growing up in the Midwest. Memorial Day and this tie dye shirt I always wore. It represents to me schooling, learning, coldness, newer and more crisp air around me. It's also my birthday at the end of the month. 

At this point in the pandemic if you haven't become used to quarantine and haven't found a new way to live within this new paradigm, then you're very far behind. It's a time of healing, renewal, learning, growth, spiritually, mentally, physically, all of it, it's kind of a big deal! Get with the program if you haven't heard that the bird is the word.  

I've become entranced in my own activity. Although I have friends and hang out with them, it is really only within myself that I feel the Muse at its strongest and best. The muse is simply what keeps you going in your life. What do you really enjoy? Do that thing a lot. And find other things like it. And so on until you find what you find fulfilling in life. It could take 10,000 hours, it could take forever, or it might never happen if you don't search for your own meaning. 

I've been playing a lot of jazz guitar and have found some improvement in the jazz playing genre. A steep learning curve was simply just playing different chord voicings over the same chords as substitutions. Nothing fancy but it keeps the beat going and sounds super straight ahead. In a guitar/saxophone only duo it works really well and keeps us grounded within the saxophone solos. 

I've been reading a lot as well. My goal for this year on Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/56122996-og-space] was to read 50 books, but a las, it's getting nearer and nearer the end of the year and right now I'm only at 34 books. We'll see what happens. I recently finished reading Ulysses by James Joyce and right now I'm reading Plato Dialogues selections, an old copy from an old man, a customer I met at work. He gave me his copy of this Plato book [as well as my copy of Ulysses, which I specifically asked him for], it's from 1927, the Modern Student's Library, Philosophy Series. I've been getting a lot out of the book and I've been spending time ruminating on the various ideas within the dialogues. Sitting beneath the warmth of the fire.  

I've also been eating very well but also making sure to eat and live in a healthy way. Food has been one of the best things in the world to me [lol] and I've been very lucky to live in California where the cuisine is literally everything and anything I want, reasonably within affordable price ranges. 

Another great place for food was Chicago, I used to love Chicago hot dogs, polish sausages, hot Italian beef sandwiches, and pizza Chicago style with real bulk sausage instead of diced sausage. It makes a big difference folks. 

Last night I had a superb meal at our favorite Korean restaurant, I had the ginseng chicken in hot broth. You add salt to the broth for flavor or you can eat it as is, which is pretty bland, but very delicious. Not only that but a customer gave me a Persian dish the other day at work and I ate it for my lunch. It was small pastries with meat inside them, they reminded me of pate, which my great Aunt used to make when I was a youngster. The stories within food is incredible and it'll keep you inspired till the end of time. 

Keep hitting those high notes! 

Summer's [almost] gone

Summer's [almost] gone. We are in the midst of autumn. My favorite season of the four seasons, Vivaldi style. Obviously, I enjoy Fall because of my father and my own birthday, which just past on September 25th. But there are other reasons why I love Fall. 

Fall is the season of change. New beginnings. The same old humdrum routine feels different somehow even though I've already been here before, maybe even a thousand times, metaphorically speaking, of course. I'm working in a similar job that I've always worked at during Fall. The same old things remind me of old memories and experiences even though everything is slightly different. Variations on deja vu, if you will. 

I remember lots of things from Wisconsin and my last visit to Chicago two years ago. The leaves in the midwestern streets, thousands of them, littered all over, sometimes burnt in firepits, but most of the time just swept into the streets, for cars to pass them by, and shuffled into the air. The variations of colours on the leaves vary from bright, dark oranges, to reds, to browns, to dirty black. The crisp cold California air that comes in October and November. Skateboarding home from school in 70-degree temperatures to the Wisco house. 

The more I remember the more I think and ruminate on all of it. It's a work of beauty, majesterial. I'm older, different, but still slightly the same, the song remains the same. 

In terms of business its the beginning of the holiday season, which means sales, sales, sales. I've learned to control my spending habits and not waste money frivolously so I'm already much more prepared for the holidays than I was any other year of my life. The big difference here is that I'm not a consumer anymore. I just buy clothes and food. I don't need any more guitars or video games. I don't need much of anything. There comes a time when a man realizes that he should only buy what he needs. A 21st-century schizoid man has what he doesn't need.

Work reminds me of other past work experiences. Different people remind me of other people I've worked with. The young girls always remind me of other girls. The guys too. California retail is a blessing because I used to have a much harder time getting to and working at places in Wisconsin. But there's definitely an air of "I've been here a thousand times before," every time that I clock into work, every time I talk to a co-worker, every time I talk to a customer, the feeling that never goes away, during the Fall.

Perhaps this is just the worldhood of the world. Either way, summer's gone. C'est la vie.