June Five, Minds Alive: Explorations in the Intellect's Dive

Good evening ladies and gents, 

Just wanted to write, about anything here. 

First, what I've been up to lately. I've been working a lot at the retail grocery job but I'm also producing a lot of ai generated art featured on my Instagram, which can be seen here. In addition, I'm reading a lot. Right now I'm reading through George Eliot's Middlemarch. I'm also still practicing instruments, mostly guitar and piano. It's all time consuming. Plus sometimes I go out to the bar after work and chill with people there. In between I try to stay updated on what's happening in the news and whatnot. 

Next, Middlemarch is a very dry book. It's fiction but its so dry its almost like reading Gibbon's History of the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire, which I happen to also be reading, but on my phone when I'm on work breaks, traveling on the bus, or laying down before bed. In those moments I finished Gibbon's volume 1 of the series. Fascinating material. I mentioned the Gibbon book to a customer the other day and he said, 'yeah, but did Gibbon write about how the Romans debased the currency?' I thought it was a minor thing to mention considering all the other stuff they did, but yeah, I sort of felt like the guy said that because he's trying to somehow form and correlate a modern day theory that we're like the Romans because the government has, in its own various methods, sort of debased our American currency. It was an interesting comment for him to focus on, or so I may think. 

However, Middlemarch is much more dry than the Gibbon because fiction isn't supposed to be so dry, it's supposed to be lifelike, literally coming to life off the page, that's what people go to fiction for, its infinite mana, its endless creativity, that drives us to keep turning the pages. What can I say about George Eliot? She writes about well off British people in the country, their marriages, their relationships, their struggles and contradictions with everything including their own personalities and shortcomings. Eliot is so brilliant that she even writes about upcoming technology, factories, and agriculture within the book, which takes place in 1829. In a sense, I think Eliot is almost too brilliant to become a beloved favorite writer or author, rather it is her authority as a voice and her brilliant observations that command respect even if most people will never read the entirety of Middlemarch unless they're a English Graduate student. 

Next, work has been grueling. Working at the grocery store has its ups and downs, and interactions with customers can sometimes be less-than-pleasant, and even with your managers. The late night rush lasts a very long time till midnight sometimes. The customers are impatient and angry and are always willing and ready to start fights beginning with name calling and yelling and sometimes escalating beyond that if they feel so inclined. And boy do they steal. They expect quick service and when they don't get it they sometimes rage. There's a lot of disrespect from customers and managers alike. One common thing I notice is sometimes when customers are in the regular checkout lines they're being rung up, they're ignoring the cashier and they're on their phone yapping. 

In addition, there's the emotional labor within the job. The job is grueling and there's few people that are actually cool with you while you're there. Some of the closest associates and managers I've worked with for years I'm not really cool with them and in fact I think they're shirkers hiding trying to get out of work most of all the time. I usually ignore them and just do what I want. When managers are pretty dumb and not really taking care of business, you find that them doing that allows you to pretty much do what you want, albeit with some caution. 

Remember, most people, including your managers are too dumb and lazy to really pay too much attention, make the most of it. After working in this business for 12 years, you learn that most managers are fake and manipulative so you have to learn how to fake them out in order to do what you want. I had a friend who became a manager and he became another one of those managerial drones that hates his job, maybe his life, maybe himself, but boy does he love being a manager. They ain't reading Middlemarch I'll tell ya that. Another tip for working grueling jobs like this is that if everybody's having a bad day and the work is going to utter shite, and they're all bitching to you, remember you're still having a better day than everybody else so act like it. Act better, be better.

Moving on, the news has been pretty much what I thought it would be. There's really no new news, just more of the same, on a loop, on a 24/7 timescale. I don't care if you're a democrat or a republican, the media and the government has you believing that we're all divided, 'us versus them,' gay versus straight, abortion vs the family, rich versus poor, white versus brown, worker versus ceo, democrat versus republican, this versus that.' I sincerely believe that this is what the government, the media, TV. movies, music, this is what I think they're saying at this impressionable time period in American democracy. 

Just think about the fact that you probably don't even know about BarbenHeimer unless you are a person of a certain kind of persuasion, a certain kind of class, a certain kind of taste. Kind of a random thing to mention but I want to hate on BarbenHeimer because I think it caught the zeitgeist at an important moment in American history what with so much going on with politics. The average American probably saw Barbenheimer but what about the people that didn't? Are they not as American as the rest of them? It's an odd but important question I think for an important reason. Who are the other people? 

Lastly, to wrap things up, we're living in a timescale where pretty much the only way to be safe from most harm in the world, is to have money. Either be born rich, get rich, or work your whole life till you accumulate enough of it because the way the world is going now, the world is turning itself into a money empire, money is the only thing that is important. I think, at this current juncture. I have my hippie element at times, because I'm a musician, but most people would agree with me, that money has pretty much taken over as the most important value of a thing in this world. It's bleak, man. 

Here's a story about money. I have a friend who's rooming with an old friend of ours for $1,000/month but he doesn't want to be there, and he wants to get out, but he can't go back to his parents out of fear or shame, and he can't afford to live on his own, and he prefers not have roommates so he's rooming with our old friend and its not going good. These are the real modern day American problems that the media doesn't talk about. My good pal is stuck with this other guy, supposedly a pal, but he's really an asshole and my guy wants out but he's stuck because the American economic system is setup so that you can't really move out of your parents place unless you have a very good salary at a good job with 40 hours plus benefits or more. That's the reality the media doesn't talk about, instead they usually just force-feed the 'us vs them,' slogan repeatedly. Of course, most conservatives would say my friend isn't doing enough to help himself and that he might need two or three jobs, but at that point, even if he did get his own place, that would be putting an even higher price on life, wouldn't it? 

In conclusion, time to wake up. Only caring about yourself will only get you so far, usually in an organization, but in real life, outside the workplace you have to learn to think smarter and harder about how you can improve the world around you, and think for yourself, rather than listening to the media, your parents, your boss, your friends, your acquaintances. You have to learn to think more about how to correctly justify the differences between right and wrong, and the moral grey. I'm telling you right now, most people don't know how to do this, even some people I know in their 40s and 50s, who you would think would have become smarter by now but it's already too late for them. They've been indoctrinated into their systems of belief, usually the wrong system, you can tell because they're still fucking up even if you don't know or hear about it too often. They're fucking up in the shadows, lol. 

ps, covid might make a comeback this summer in LA

Children of the Sun

Yo!

We're finally into summer 2022. California heat really is something this year. I've been living here for ten years and this has to be the worst heat I've ever personally experienced. This heat is unfit for man nor beast. However, that doesn't mean that 105 degree heat is something that is impossible to face or experience. Humans are tough creatures and are made of tougher stuff. And if you're not now, you will either evolve or become a dinosaur in the process. The dinosaur me would've just sat inside my room under AC playing video games all day today.

This brings me to a random question. How does climate change affect the human mind and behavior? Surely there's a correlation between 105 degree heat and people being extremely irritable. Not to mention that climate change will probably completely change the way we think about food, transport, receive, and eat food, what with certain crops/meats probably not going to be available forever in the future due to inevitable food shortages and the war in Ukraine. 

In terms of the physicality of 105 degree heat I did a test run. I decided to go out around 230 pm and stay out till 8 pm. Not outside the whole time but walking here and there to the market, to get coffee, and the library. I'm on foot walking in 105 degree heat. I needed to go to the market to buy lunch, then the coffee shop to eat lunch, drink, coffee, and chill for some hours using Wi-Fi, and then I had to go to the library to pickup some ordered books. The walk to the market itself is like 2 miles there and back again, and the places in between are like a .5 mile, so altogether that's something like 2.5 miles of walking in 105 degree heat. I have to get my head examined. 

What's the result? Well, I surprisingly felt really good. Concentration during the day was good. I did a lot of reading at the coffee shop under their AC. I was well focused and temperament was nice and easy going.

The warmth of the sun provides a free energy like no other. In fact, I think more Americans need to be exposed to sunlight more often because being stuck indoors in quarantine the last 2.5 years has made us cave dwellers who lack vitamin D, which you get free from being in the sun. 

There are cons though of course. My appetite just wasn't that strong. I ate a small salad, some crackers, and a tea and that seemed to hold me for the entire duration of 230-8, but I ate dinner at home around 9 pm. The high heat level just doesn't generate a strong thirst for hunger. Water, drinks, yes, but solid foods, not so much. A result of a high heat diet might include more fruits and veggies and less heavy beef or pork, but more chicken, for example. 

Another con, though, is that some of the more sugary foods and snacks seemed to affect me a lot more, it was a lot stronger. For example, I had a can of Coke from the gas station and for a while the usual mild sugar rush from soda seemed to be a lot less mild and more dramatic. For example, maybe if you want more fruits and vegetables, you have to really cut out the sugars, because they don't balance each other and/or mix well. 

These are just some random notes on a day walking in the sun. 

The sun's warmth is free energy. 

Been creating content on this site since 2014. Please check out my plague journal, about the covid years, beginning on the day covid began in the United States. You can find the entries here.

Live performance! Jazz! 6/2/2022!

Hey there everyone, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLEgf5UJNNQ

Check out my latest jam session with Jason [a] and yours truly on electric guitar. This session we decided to jam out and see where it would go. Enjoy! 

For those curious I used a Hagstrom Les Paul and a Rogue Rocketeer guitar through a Marshall avt 275.

Happy Summer

Covid Retail Experience, One Year Later

Wie gehts? Guten Abend.

This is compare and contrast post. To start, begin by reading the covid retail experience one year ago when it first began. You can find it here. In addition, please check out my plague journal, which you can find here. That links to all my written documents documenting life during the pandemic, starting as early as the day before the pandemic initially began. I was at a punk rock concert then. Anyways, without further adieu, here's a rundown of the COVID retail experience, one year later. Also, feel free to checkout my virus science fiction short story, which you can find here. The story is inspired by working at a grocery store during a pandemic of all things. 

First, customers AND employees are no longer required to wear masks. This is huge! Most of the staff have wisely chosen to continue wearing their masks, including myself, because safety first and we're around many people each day on the job. About 1/4 of the customers are coming into the store maskless but the majority of customers are indeed wearing their masks. Smart. 

Second, I've been given the main role of morning cashier dude. All my shifts are mornings, same times, same days off, every week. It's  hard gig to get, and a hard gig to hold. The early mornings are something I'll never get used to. With great power comes great responsibility.

Third, most of the staff is vaccinated and the incentive to do so was a payment of $100 by our store director. A shot to be safe from COVID and money from our employer. Not too shabby! 

Fourth, at this current stage of the pandemic there's no messages to the employees from upper management or the store director or from low management to employees. So it seems they're taking the route of the city of LA, that COVID is down, and that it's almost nearly over for the most part so they don't have to say anything. They didn't tell us we could ditch the masks, rather it's just something I've noticed. I've noticed certain managers not wearing their masks, which is bad because it sets a bad example for their employees, that our workspace is safe from COVID still, despite the fact that we're on top of people all day long in small enclosed spaces. Yadda yadda yadda. 

Fifth, the work at the store has become easier and more smooth. My position just involves working with customers, ringing up items, cash handling, that's it. Meaning work is pretty easy although it gets old quick. C'est la vie. 

Finally, it should be noted that at this current stage of the pandemic the work environment has proven safe, with or without the mask. I occasionally take off my mask as I walk through the store and I feel safe. Upper management could've done a better job in regards to making sure the staff got vaccinated, [there are some who refused or still haven't been vaccinated, despite the $100 reward] and in addition they could have been more open with us regarding the rules and timings and days when the masks mandate was uplifted not only in LA but in the store, mask wearing as regards employees, etc. 

The way I found out was that my manager just one day wasn't wearing a mask. Is that the way the leadership is there nowadays? The manager takes off the mask while his employees keep wearing their masks? Questions there for sure. But for another time under a different sort of philosophical gestalt, if you will [isn't that what all of these are]. 

Thanks for reading. Keep calm and read on. 

Gute Nacht

Surviving the Zombie Apocalype Virus pt. 7

Salutations, good people of the internet, and of the ofigueroamusicblog. I haven't written in a long time, and for starters, let me say, that it's good to be back writing blogs again. For those of you that were wondering where or what I have been doing, feel free to check out my plague journal, located here.

Moving on, to the current events. Covid-19 has ravaged the lands. America is described as a failed state by other nations that feel pity for us and periodicals in op-eds state the same. Today, 2,000 people died from the virus in the US.

I'm still on hiatus from work, on a leave of absence. This has been ongoing since April but I think when my time is up in June, I will go back to work, and just pray to God that I don't get COVID. I need the money and the stimulus isn't enough. I wear gloves and a mask as a safety precaution. I think everybody should wear gloves and a mask if they go to the grocery store.

I've been bunkering in my room. I've been playing a lot of video games and reading a lot. Right now I'm focused on finishing Plutarch's Lives, a history/biographies book by an ancient Greek named Plutarch, and the book focuses on the lives, achievements, and virtues of famous Greeks and Romans. It's a heavy-duty book, consisting of 1200 pages, right now I'm almost to page 400! I find that reading ancient history really puts me in a different universe, one where I don't have to worry about the woes of the present predicament. It's a sense of freedom, that's what I enjoy about reading the book in particular.

Before that, I finished a science fiction short story hall of fame collection. That one was very impressive and I learned a lot about the science fiction genre from it. It focused on stories from the 1940s to the 1960s, aka the golden age of science fiction. I can see where a lot of sf ideas came from and noted that none of the new sf movies/shows/short stories/novels are original. "It's all been done before." 

I also read two great science fiction pulp novels from the 1940s and 1960s. The first one was The Day They H Bombed Los Angeles, a wonderful zombie apocalypse wasteland story, probably the first of its kind. The writing was only okay but it was a fun read. Want to know how a zombie apocalypse wasteland is created? An H Bomb. There's a twist. These zombies become sentient, enough to the point where they can shoot guns and call others for help in firefights.

In addition, I read Slan, a novel from 1940, the first mutant novel. It's very pulpy writing, meaning its not very literary at all, however, there's a great twist for an ending that is very endearing. It turns out that the woman the main character, a young mutant man loves, she's also a mutant, her father is the villain of the novel. But that's not all. The villain was known for being a bad guy that hates mutants, and not a mutant, completely human. Well, it turns out that he's the father of the woman our hero loves, AND a mutant, AND our hero doesn't have to kill him because he's allowed him into his shadow government organization where mutants have infiltrated human society. How nice. 

Aside from books, I did start writing a beginning for a zombie apocalypse virus novel but haven't made much progress. It has the same name as my zombie virus short story, entitled Human, Ghoul, Zombie, which you can read here.

Lastly, I've been playing a lot of guitar. I play acoustic guitar on my balcony most afternoons or evenings. As a result, I've become a much better guitar player. Acoustic forces you to work on your chords and timing, leaving the fancy solos in the dust. My jazz improvisation is at its best its ever been and I'm still doing my jazz duo with my friend Jason, who plays the alto saxophone. In my plague journal, you can hear some of our recordings. Check out our latest free form improvisational track The All Wizard.

Tonight I jammed outside on the balcony and my neighbor across the way came out with his acoustic and we did a short jam session. It was a lot of fun. He played chords and I played lead over it. We had one really good number but the rest wasn't so hot. Still, I give Chris props for coming out and bringing out his guitar, him knowing that I practice guitar outside almost every day and have a lot more chops. There was a sensational moment as a result of this; both his family and my neighbor's family next door came out, and we all talked for a bit. The power of music really brings us together!

I plan on going back to work in June. But in the meantime, I'm reading Plutarch and taking the news day by day. If you read the news nowadays or watch the news on TV, it's very scary, and it's very real. Welcome to our nightmare. 

But don't fret. The best thing we can do is keep calm and stay undeterred from our goals, our plans, our lives, our families, our jobs, our hobbies, our fortunes and virtues, or lack thereof. The strongest skill of this time period isn't wealth or even happiness, perhaps not even health, rather it is the ability to stay focused on the things at hand, that truly matter. 

Don't let up.

My decision to quit gaming

So I finally took a big boy leap and decided to quit gaming for good. It was a difficult decision. I tried to quit many times before (like cancelling and re-subbing to WoW a lot, and playing Overwatch every season) but I always ended up crawling back, turning on my computer in the morning, and booting up some games. Now I know I'm quitting for good. 

You see, I realized that for me gaming is just a distraction. A distraction from reality, a fantasy where I can escape. The longer I gamed, the longer I was able to live out the fantasy and not worry about work, politics, my music dream, and intellectual curiosity. Coincidentally the day I realized this the World Health Organization announced that addictive video gaming is actually a mental disorder. That's just sad that American males have become so lame. 

Then there's the things I've been ignoring. There's my weight, I'm still way too pudgy. I need to get out and exercise more and be away from the computer. There's my music dream. I want to be a famous guitar player one day and playing games isn't going to do that for me. There's my education and intellectual curiosity. I have to become a smarter man, worthy of my own aspirations and be able to talk to a room of intelligent people. I don't want to only talk to gamers my whole life, who would rather play games and talk gamer bro-lingo instead of reading a book. 

Now you're probably thinking who's not to say that I can't be a gamer and do all of this stuff? I would simply answer that yes that is possible but not for me. I have to quit cold turkey and move on to a better chapter, verse, sonnet, if you will. 

I do acknowledge that gaming is fun and that its been a fun ride but I'm moving onto greener pastures.  

Now that the illuminated veil has been lifted I feel at peace. I went through the dark portal and finally left Azeroth.