New Year, New Me, [Not Really]

Hello Universe, 

How is it going out there in the free world? It's a new year, happy 2024! It's time for all those happy go lucky social media posts where people make their new years resolutions, like to get a better body and become more healthy and sexy and find their dream spouse, and get a lotta money, amiright? I'd like to jot down some thoughts on what's been happening with me, my personal activities, working in retail, and more. 

First, I moved into a new house recently. It was a hard move that was strenuous but now that it's done I can finally relax. At the end of the month I took time off from work just to get settled into the new place and unbox everything. The new house is in a better location to get around on foot or on the bus if needed. I've been waking up earlier, going out to lunches at nearby establishments, going to the library, and more. I'm still working at the grocery store and it's going well. Since the holidays are over, things have slowed down there, for now. Covid still lingers there from time to time, so I've still been wearing my facemask.  

I kept up playing piano and drums. Now, I'm finally making good progress on piano, at least trying to move from beginner to something like intermediate, although it will take a while. My dad decided to keep our late step-mom Maureen's Yamaha grand piano, so I've been playing that piano. Today, I recorded an eight minute grand piano solo, [which you can hear piano solo no. 1] With the piano, I'm trying to focus on playing jazz chords and improvising. I practice everyday, and actually have preferred practicing piano as of late, because my guitars and amp are all backed away and it's easier to just play the grand piano for now. 

Likewise, I've been keeping up with drums. I go to guitar center and just play the drums there. You can hear my most recent drum playing here.

Second, I'm still reading a lot and doing a lot of AI art. You can check out my Instagram page here. The picture featured at the top of this page is an AI art creation. At the end of last year I read a lot of science fiction novels by Iain M. Banks, who died early in his 50s. Terrific writer, but he writes terribly long science fiction space opera, albeit it's amazing writing and great space opera, but the some seven books I read of his were definitely time consuming and not easy reads. Space opera for the literati. Right now all my books are packed away so I just bought for a dollar, a paperbacks editions of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm keeping up with the western canon, now I've read about 300 works. But I feel like I've barely scraped the surface in terms of what can be learned within knowledge, within the realm of imagination, and the curiosity of man himself. 

At the end of last year, I kind of went into deep hibernation bear mode. The bear knows when to sleep but the bobcat knows when its time to hunt. I find getting up earlier and going out more has been better for me, being productive keeps me energetic, and I'm liking the atmosphere of the new house better and more easily able to adapt to this. Sometimes on Mondays I go to this open blues jam at the bar, and I sit in and play guitar. I go out to dinners with family on my days off work. 

Lastly, I've found that life is made up of thoughts, actions, and plans for the future. There's a lot to do. Work is still time consuming, but with a schedule for the day, the week, the month, the next three months, the next six months, the next year, things are much more manageable within a smaller timeline and with hard goals split and separated into smaller and more manageable goals.

I want to get better at piano and be able to play jazz standards on it, keep reading, write more short stories and perhaps a novel [I actually have written a novel, but nobody's seen it], keep blogging about everything, and keep up with my guitar and drums too. Work has been good, the hard work keeps me awake. 

That's it for now, see you later, space cats. 

In sylvan realms where twilight's whispers creep, The bear, a sagacious entity, seeks a somber keep. As autumnal regalia, the leaves cascade, He intuits the impending winter's serenade.

With fur of resplendent aureate hue, He embarks on a quest for a snug haven's view. A sanctuary, where crystalline brooks freeze, In dreams of honeyed combs and berries with ease.

Yet by the babbling stream, where moonbeams wink, The bobcat prowls, a phantom feline in sync. His eyes, aglint with nocturnal savoir-faire, In stealth, he traverses the tapestry of air.

For as the bear in dormant repose lies, The bobcat, vigilant, neath the celestial ties, Stalks in the silent hours of night's embrace, A sovereign of shadows, embodying grace.

In nature's ballet, a harmonious ballet, The bear succumbs to rest, the bobcat to ballet. One cradles dreams of vernal rebirth, The other, a custodian, prowls the moonlit earth. [AI generated]

2022's Grand Exit, Happiness

Hello Readers, 

It's the end of the year. Wow! What a year it has been. Let's go over things I did and worked on this year, changes in the work place that occurred, and some thoughts on happiness and wellbeing. 

First, things I did. I worked a lot. I was promoted to full time cashier, got increased pay plus hours, so that's been a big change for me. For years I was only part time which meant I had a lot of discretionary free time to do whatever I wanted. Not so much these days. I work forty+ hours each week. Not only that, but the job has become more demanding in some respects because what with covid not going away, it has been nonstop busy even when the holidays aren't around. 

Second, I worked on a lot of language learning. I've been learning a lot of languages ever since 2020 but I've become fairly proficient in Spanish, but I also know a lot of French, Italian, German, and a little Portuguese. These are the languages of the Hanseatic League, merchant guilds from central and northern Europe, going back to the 1400s. I'm the best at Spanish and French as my mother spoke some French and Creole around the house when I was a boy, and co-workers speak Spanish nonstop all day at work, so those two are fairly easy for me to pickup as I have heard it often. 

My accents became better when I combined learning words from reading in the languages on Kindle, then practicing with audiobooks in those languages. It was a combination of both. I would say its easy to start learning but difficult to keep up your motivation and go beyond basic phrases. At this point, I can understand Spanish well, and the rest decently, although I can probably read all of them better than I can speak them. It's been an engaging endeavor and I look forward to learning more in the future. It's an ongoing enterprise. 

Third, I've learned drums and piano. I started learning drums in August and I've become good. I can play rock and jazz styles primarily. On piano, I focus more on a jazz style, with lots of chromatic chord changes, a la McCoy Tyner. I even learned how to play a bamboo flute. There's always new things with music but sometimes I get in these lulls where I'm not playing live very often and not doing jam sessions at the house, so I stay engaged by learning new instruments. That being said, I've spent too many months at different instruments and will focus this year on guitar. At heart, I'm a guitar player. 

Alongside music and writing, my other creative pursuit has been AI art. You can see my best works here https://www.instagram.com/jazzerrocker779/. I've had a lot of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and more give me a lot of crap for using AI to create art. But the fact of the matter is that real artists are already using it, selling art with it, and making money.

The best AI art generator is called the DALL E 2, which uses openai.com's source code. You can buy from openai.com a low resolution image of your own creation for 8 cents, a better one for 16 cents, and an even better one for 18 cents. For that low cost even I could buy images if I knew I could make a return in my investments by selling them to others. Some artists are doing just that. 

The openai team that created DALL E 2 just released openchatGPT, which is a huge gamechanger in the world of AI. I'll be using it in this blog.  

I've been using a free AI art generator made by two guys who are using the Stable Diffusion AI art generator source code, it's called mage, you can find the art generator at www.mage.space. It's been so satisfying that I nearly quit playing video games to focus on reading books, music, and using mage to create art. My favorite thing about mage is that I don't have to actually have any art skills, I only need ideas. It works by having the user type in any words or numbers and it generates images based off that. Although I can't draw, I know the western canon, art history, and the Italian Art Renaissance period. So I can still can get great results. Take a look on my Instagram. 

Fourth, a lot of things happened this year. In particular a lot changed in the world of retail grocery, my job. 

"The retail grocery industry saw significant changes and disruptions in 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the major developments in the industry include the following:

1. Shift to online grocery shopping: The pandemic led to a significant increase in online grocery shopping as people tried to reduce their exposure to the virus by avoiding physical stores. Many grocery stores and retailers introduced or expanded their online ordering and delivery services to meet this demand.

2. Changes in shopping patterns: The pandemic also led to changes in shopping patterns, with people stockpiling certain items and shifting towards buying more pantry staples and frozen foods. This led to disruptions in supply chains and product availability.

3. Increase in demand for home delivery: The pandemic also led to an increase in demand for home delivery of groceries as people tried to minimize their in-store shopping trips. This led to an increase in the use of delivery services such as Instacart and Shipt, as well as the expansion of home delivery services by grocery chains.

4. Changes in store operations: In response to the pandemic, many grocery stores implemented changes to their store operations, including increased cleaning and sanitation measures, limits on the number of customers allowed in stores at a given time, and the use of face masks and other personal protective equipment by employees.

5. Impact on small and local businesses: The pandemic also had a significant impact on small and local grocery stores, which faced challenges in adapting to the changing market conditions and competing with larger chains that had more resources to invest in online and delivery services. Many small and local stores had to rely on community support to stay in business." [openchatGPT]

Lastly, although I've spent a lot of time logged in at work, I've also spent a lot of time thinking, learning, pontificating on the future. I've learned that I'm still happy despite losing friends, work getting tougher, people being more rude, and pay only barely improving. Of course, it helps to be the child who has his own. And not only that, but sometimes I'm the child who plays the Shakespearean Old Fool. And not only that but I also play the Voltaire Satirist Philosopher at Check Stand 9. All the worlds' stage. Life in its rich tapestry. 

What will happiness be like in the future?

"It is difficult to predict what happiness will be like in the future, as it is influenced by many complex and dynamic factors, including societal and cultural changes, technological advances, economic conditions, and personal experiences and circumstances.

Happiness is a subjective and personal experience, and what brings happiness to one person may not necessarily bring happiness to another. Some people find happiness in material possessions, while others find it in relationships, personal achievements, or meaningful experiences.

In the future, it is possible that advances in technology and medicine could lead to improvements in physical and mental health, which may contribute to greater overall happiness and well-being. However, these advancements could also bring about new challenges and concerns that may impact happiness in different ways.

Ultimately, happiness is a complex and multifaceted experience that is influenced by a wide range of factors, and it is difficult to predict how it will evolve in the future."

"Happiness is a state of mind, with joy that we find." [openchatGPT]

image ai generated

Covid in the Workplace

Good evening ladies and gents, a happy dawn to you. 

Here I'd like to talk about what's been going on so far at this point in the pandemic. Okay, so we've been at this pandemic for nearly three years now. A lot has changed at my job, I've had to readjust mightily and heavily and I faired pretty damn well, I might add. 

But let us get to the heart of the matter. There are currently fifteen recorded covid-19 cases at my store, and that's only going back from the first of the year, AND that's not including cases that are probably there right now but haven't been reported. 

The new store director has been commissioned by the company to order everybody to be vaccinated by the 24th of the month with an electronic verification online. This doesn't include booster shots, the only requirement is at least the one shot vaccine of any vaccine from 2021. Things are finally moving, but wait, why wasn't this set in place by the company in year one?

I know for a fact that a lot of my coworkers/management weren't vaccinated, yet I've had to work with them all this time, myself being put at more risk. While I do find it comforting that everyone will at least have to prove they've been vaccinated once, it still bothers the hell out of me that this wasn't a requirement on year one. One step forward, two steps back. It's a lot like getting a gunshot wound and putting a band aid on it. 

With so many call outs from colds/flu and covid-19, the store is being run with much less staff and most departments doing earlier closing hours. Social distancing is nearly impossible in our narrow aisles and small front end. Tons of people come in without wearing masks all the time. The unmasked are a nuisance and get aggressive, sometimes physically aggressive and taunt other customers. Some things never change. 

With all this covid in the workplace, I'm more weary than ever about catching the virus. It's not really myself that I'm worried about because I have good health and am still young, it's more my stepfather. In terms of the climactic moment of this plague, and my own personal plague journal here, I would say we've hit the climax in terms of covid disrupting my place of employment with high numbers of cases, and counting. 

It's like a movie. I almost still can't believe it. Two years and counting. Welcome to the plague years. The best years of my life. 

Aristoi

Wow, what a terrific space opera god adventure story!

The way I described this book to people was this: this is a space opera about gods that become humanized. I mentioned Homer and his humanizing of his Olympians. So there's a long cherished tradition here going back throughout time, the western canon, of pathos, from Plato. What does it mean to be human? A god? What is good and evil? Who gets to justify right and wrong? These are some of the existential philosophical questions this book brings to mind in a general sense, disguised in the form of a 90s space opera. 

In addition to that, the momentum of the book never really stops, not even at the very bitter end. The story itself isn't remarkable, its rather predictable, and we've seen this same science fiction space opera tropes used time and time again within the golden age of science fiction and even the cyberpunk and new wave, it's rather space opera cliché. 

However, it is the way he tells the story that is truly a thrill. The style is simple but downright effective. It was never dull and every moment is a good one. I'm somewhat of a science fiction connoisseur but I missed this one all these years and I know I've missed much more. I would even say it's a required science fiction reading in the genre of space opera. It would be extremely difficult for a new science fiction writer in 2021 to write a space opera this good. It might even be downright impossible unless it was coming from overseas [not the US], maybe China.

New Years Eve, Reflections of a Retail Employee

Goodbye 2021! 

Here we are, the last day of 2021. Covid is still rampaging through the lands. Just this past Thursday there were 20,000 new cases of covid in Cali. Some things never change. But we strive for a better day, and will work towards creating a healthier, better world with all those happy things. Here I'd just like to recap a couple of things about work and life that took place over this year.  

First, work has surprisingly become better, much better since the initial wave of the virus. Things are much more streamlined and there have been no employees that have come down with the virus, [to my knowledge]. As a cashier, I'm encased in a box covering me from being too close to customers. It's hard to hear what they say, but it's improved my hearing tenfold, especially hearing all the many different tones and accents throughout LA. 

The store still has its problems: not enough employees to work, customers coming in not wearing masks, no social distancing, not enough raises for employees, not enough help to get all the work done for a typical eight hour shift, disgruntled lower management having disagreements with upper management in the way they deal and manage employees and customers. As one of my line managers says, "it's a shit show." But I would say, "but the show must go on and it ain't over till the fat lady sings." 

I think the last two years of covid has really changed the way we see work in all its vicissitudes. What I'm finding is that a lot of employees and management I work with are very disgruntled about having to work retail. What can you tell these people? The sad part about it is that a lot of these young people I work with have degrees and have finished college and they're still chipping away at retail gigs like retail grocery. The short answer is that it's tough out there. Life is short and then you die. Here's a dull knife. 

Here's the way I see it personally. I don't look at my retail grocery job as something I do for money OR something that I do for fun, although it's definitely those things as well. Rather, I see my job as a reliable go-to safehouse that provides me social interaction, money, and good vibes. Why would anybody care about something as hippy dippy as good vibes, almost with the same tier as money? 

Well, I'm kind of a wild child hippy guitar kid from Wisconsin, so you might not "get it," or maybe there's nothing quite to get, but I think there's a strong lack of capacity for happiness going on super strong in this world, intensified a thousand times by the countless deaths and infections of coronavirus and stagnation in terms of careers and relationships. Believe it or not, being happy might be more important than getting rich, or getting the hottest wife, or 2.5 kids, or even gasp, a great career. Simply put, although we all will continue to strive for more and better, we all have to learn how to deal with less during the plague years. Painful to hear yes, hard to understand, no, difficult to put into real life practical experience, yes. 

What I lack in a real career over there is more experience than most other workers in retail. More experience in dealing with real people with real problems, and more experience in learning how to continue being happy on a daily basis. It ain't special and I'm no guru, but I am the philosopher in aisle 9.

I see my job as more of a social construct I've created through hard work and goodwill. I'm Orlando Furioso and I've created my own knight errantry story on the job. I'm my own character, complete with virtue, personality, and reciprocal goodwill to others I meet there. 

As I look over 2021 I think about the destruction of American institutions, government, the chaos and divide within the system, the civil war-esque aesthetic, the coronavirus killing lots of people still, new infections going on everyday, the lack of goodwill and generosity within this social construct, and you know what I get out of it? I see the world, and other people, much like myself. Nobody is completely happy and in every life in this world, there is a lot of suffering and pain. However, the cure is to keep chipping away and improving your capacity for happiness. Some people get it right away and you can see it on their face. Others are Debbie downers and try to get others to feel the same way or playing the crowd like a fiddle for sympathy. There's this magic forcefield within the universe, it's within yourself, and you can see it in others, "I am the walrus!" 

But what do I know? I'm just a grasshopper, you can tell by the way I walk. 

2020 First Post

2020 is here finally. I took a long break away from writing or blogging and only just now decided to write with only a wee bit amount of time before work. 

The retail gig is going alright but somehow I'm finding myself more and more willing to quit and do something else. It's interesting because my friends in the office job world don't seem to be faring too well either. "You want a real career. You need to go back to college or trade school." This is the kind of advice I get from my superiors and peers. The thing is that most of them are in the same boat as I am...yadda yadda. 

I've been chilling with a lot of friends. The power of friendship as they say in the Yugioh! hit anime. I've also been reading a lot. I just finished reading Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, where he goes into many different concepts, ideas, logic, including metaphysics and the existence and/or nonexistence of God. It took me about three weeks to read. Even longer to grasp the concepts, some of which I'm still digesting through lectures on YouTube and philosophy forums. 

The power of philosophy never ceases to amaze me. Kant's categorical imperative, something as the Catholic, do others as you would unto yourself, really puts intellectual curiosity in the best light. This is that no matter no smart we are, no matter how much we know, we are to use that knowledge to make ourselves and the world better. Make the world a better place, and be a better person. 

I've been getting interested in other countries' philosophers, like the French, but for the moment I've been focusing on German Idealism, which primarily concerns Kant, Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel. 

On another note, Christmas was good and my dad got me a really great science fiction novel called Engine Summer by British writer John Crowley. From 1979, the book isn't your typical science fiction fanfare, meaning its a much more serious, artful, delicate sort of reading. Some of it seems quite pretty and childlike but I have to finish it to find out more. Although the book is an average length I'm taking my time with it because it is something that you want to enjoy. The writing has more of a laid back yet still elliptical sort of style. Not elliptical like William Gibson but still elliptical. Some of the concepts remind me of American science fiction but yet this is fundamentally different. 

I have a lot of library books checked out at all times. I have a very strong focus on reading. I only read one book at a time and I usually finish them. After Engine Summer I'll probably get to Kant's Critique of Judgement, his philosophy on art and beauty. Which, ironically, I found that many philosophy YouTubers focused more on Kant's Critique of Pure Judgement than his Critique of Pure Reason, when talking about his general concepts a general introduction to him. I found that interesting, considering that I thought Critique of Pure Reason was the more serious discourse. As you can see I've become very interested in philosophy. In a way, I've gone from a more typical reading background based on science fiction to a more classical aesthetic. I'm very proud of that and hope to learn and understand more. 

The first post in 2020. Glad to have made it to 2020. There's still struggle and contradiction but at least there's great literature to keep me going. More posts incoming. My break on writing is over.

2019 Motivation

Its two weeks into 2019 and like me, you've probably come to the sudden realization that life is tough, and that if you want to keep your new years resolution, and do more, and be better, and accomplish more in life its going to be a mother fucker. Life isn't easy, in fact its hard, and more often than not it sucks. "Life's a bitch and then you die," said the Chairman. This is my riff on Chairman Mao's "life is struggle and contradiction" quote, something my dad told me a few years ago.

I've been having these mini awakenings since 2019 started. 

I have to work out to lose weight. Daily.

I have to stop hanging out with my friends so often. Absence makes the heart fonder.

I have to spend more time by myself, and away from work to smell the roses. Money isn't everything. Money can't buy you love.

I have to work on music more, record more, learn how to use Ableton software to make better drum tracks for my music, and finish learning Sequenza by Berio for classical guitar.

I need to write more and become a better writer. Which I've been working on a lot!

I should learn a new skill, like how I've been doing programming tutorials, just to see if I even like it at first.  

I need to quit and lose any bad habits I have currently.

These are all very difficult things to do. In fact, just for me to realize that if I wanted to achieve my goals, that I had to do all these things, it was pretty damn difficult to accept. There is a cost to everything. Time is an important factor. Energy. Emotion. Drive. Etc. 

So the next time you think about taking time off and away from your 2019 goals remember that life's a bitch and then you die. You might as well make life your bitch and then die on your own terms. 

Go for it. 

New Year's Motivational Speel

Life has been pretty grand. Christmas is over and 2019 is two days away. Its that time of year for that classic social media status: New Year, New Me. Yeah, yeah, we get it, you're gonna push yourself hard, work out, and get everything you ever wanted done, or at least try your best. Its good to be motivated, but its also good to be practical about things. Time is the killing blow for most people. If you don't have enough time you won't get things done. 

I've been trying to stay motivated with my usual activities; reading, writing, and playing guitar. In fact if I had a New Year's resolution its this: to play more guitar, learn more songs, and record more on my own as well as with friends. I also plan on learning more about computers in my free time. I don't think I'll become a computer programmer (even being a bad one is hard), but I'd like to learn as much as I can about programming just for my own personal knowledge and such. I've just finished this 500 page computer book on how hardware and software work, and before that I read Hackers by Steven Levy, and that's kind of what caught my interest. Also, about a year and a half ago I signed up for Codeacademy, a free online programming tutorial app. I think I'll actually give that a second go this year. Its complex stuff but its also interesting enough to look into. 

I also want to work more on recording, my own recordings in particular. Add more music on my YouTube page. Reading is a must as well. And I want to write more short stories and start an actual novel, a short one, maybe like 150 pages, something like that. I have some ideas for it already, it would be a near distant future sci-fi story about everyday type of people and workers, more literary than spaceships and laser guns. Maybe more like speculative fiction than true science fiction.

However, its hard to stay motivated. Sometimes after an eight hour retail shift I don't feel like playing guitar, I just want to listen to music or play games. The reality is that if I don't practice guitar at night after work I probably wouldn't have played guitar at all that day. I've realized that in order to get the results I want in life I have to push myself, I have to be disciplined because nobody will be disciplined for me. My music mentor, Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer, lives in Chicago so when he says to learn Sequenza by Berio, I have to have the motivation on my own to actually work on it, otherwise I'll never learn it. Likewise, if I don't learn how to record better songs, and actually do it, I'll never have new songs to post on my YouTube channel. 

Its not going to be easy and I suspect some nights I won't play guitar, write, study, or read. But I won't let that stop me from achieving my goals. 2018 was a good year for me but in 2019 I want to get more done. Read more novels, write more short stories, begin a novel, record more music, play and record more guitar, and of course have fun with my friends and family. 

Keep working hard at the things that matter to you and you'll really get what you want out of life, that's what I've learned. 

Life is good! 

Closing thoughts on 2017

Any last thoughts on 2017? Yes, many. 2017 was quite a year for the world. A terrible year for rock and roll which left many musicians dead, of drugs, suicide, and unavoidable old age. California had the worst fires ever and the blazes were only about ten miles away from my house. Donald Trump was elected and has done a terrible job in office. Americans found out that the election was heavily influenced by Russian trolls, called hackers but I prefer to think of them as trolls. Unrest in the Middle East, especially surrounding Israel and Palestine, after Trump made a comment calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel. I started working in a different department at my work. In addition, I started to read a lot more, to increase my knowledge, improve my writing (for the blog), promote the blog on Twitter, play piano, start singing and playing guitar at the same time at the open jam and with my 'band' (a two man band right now), and really focusing on losing weight. Wow, that's a lot! I could probably go on and on, because this year was jam packed with tons of events, information, and there are probably things that happened that I either don't know about or simply forgot.

Its hard to say anything of real intrinsic value happened to me. One could say that reading has really opened up my world, increasing my knowledge and improving my creativity and involvement in writing. And then there's the different position at my job. Now, the latest I get off from work is nine pm whereas before I was working as late as one am pretty much every shift. I don't miss those days but I'm not totally against them either. Life has improved for me in many ways. I think I've become a better, smarter, and more evolved person. Not bad.

On that note I'd like to say that I'm hopeful about the future, mine, America's, and the world. Things may seem grim and bad things happen all the time but we should continue to work together to overcome these obstacles and improve the world in which we live.

Leave the place better than when you first entered.

Winter Wonderland Xmas and New Year irl update

Life has been great. I've been working a ton, gaming a ton, playing guitar a ton, and just living life to the fullest every day. It's pretty great! For the Christmas break from school my younger brother came and visited us. It was great having him. It was a real bros kind of a Christmas with the three brothers all together. My brother goes to the University of Chicago and he's a brilliant young guy. He runs a great blog about African/Caribbean history and its tagged on my blog. I like his posts on jazz. Check it out.

Work has been stressful but it pays the bills. I've been working super late shifts and its always a lot of work. But as they say the show must go on even if I'm tired of it. I've almost reconciled the fact that I'm giving up a social life to work but there have been good things that have come out of work lately. Such as...

The other night I met Steve Vai's son, Fire Vai. Don't call his name out in a movie theater! :D
We talked for a bit and I told him about how his dad was a big influence on my guitar playing. He mentioned that Tosin Abasi comes over to their house all the time. Later that evening he came back and gave my friend and I some signature Vai guitar picks, poster, dvd, and a cd! Talk about cool.

Christmas was also great despite the fact that I worked until 11:30 pm. When I got home I got to eat a great Cornish game hen dinner and open my gifts with my family. I got a nuka cola girl blanket, fallout vault boy (pixelated art-style) snapback, n64 anthology book that covers every game made on the console, Ravi Coltrane's latest record, Attack on Titan movie part 2, Warhammer 40k comic, Halo original soundtrack, Hendrix shirt, Megadeth shirt, Ghost shirt, Steam card, and I still have one more gift coming from a friend or two. Talk about an epic fucking loot experience. I spent a lot of money on friends and family this year and they certainly did the same for me. It's great knowing that people care about me and got me great stuff that I will use for the long term.

In addition, earlier this week I jammed with a guitar playing co-worker of mine and we're going to start a project together. Find a bassist and a singer and have a real band that can start gigging. These guys are younger than I am but they are great musicians. The guitar player is a progressive metal player that plays on a John Petrucci signature 7-string. The drummer just likes to groove but he has great technique and fills. He was keeping up with every rhythm I threw at him. It was an incredible jamming experience. With me there things went into improvisatory jazz territory but I could also bring it to prog and metal moments as well.

In terms of gaming I've been playing a lotta stuff with friends. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm mostly but since I got Warhammer Vermintide from a friend on Christmas I've been putting in time on that. It's a great game and I'm glad I finally have it because I've been wanting it for a while.

Lastly, its been a real winter wonderland in California this year. Its been the coldest year since I've lived here. Nights get pretty cold in my room but thankfully I have a extra blanket and a small heater.

Things have been good but life also has to be well balanced in order to live a meaningful life. As we go into this next year I will focus harder on living a meaningful life. That is all I can ask for.

That's it for now. See ya next year!

Overwatch plans for 2017

Jeff Kaplan put out a new video talking about Overwatch and plans for the future.

He began talking about how they haven't changed Sombra yet because they think she has a high skill cap and they don't want another overpowered character like the launch of Ana. They introduced Eichenwalde, Arcade Mode, Seasonal Events, and all the other content. It's been a blast.

Looking forward to the new year there's a lot of stuff for the players to be excited about.

Oasis is the new map that's already on the ptr. They're going to release it early 2017, maybe even by the new year.

More Seasonal Events are coming. Some that we'll see coming and some that we won't see coming.

They're working on customization for a communication wheel (ultimate, hello, voice lines, etc). They're going to put like 4 emotes and voice lines and stuff. There's also going to be custom bindings to trigger these. For sprays they're going to add a spray wheel-up to four sprays. By adding this customization it will make a lot of the voice lines, sprays, and emotes more exciting and rewarding.

Minor upgrades include joining team chat right away instead of clicking on it every game.

They're working on a lot of new content all the time but they also scrap a lot of ideas as well. Genji is an example of this because he wasn't working out in the beginning of the creation process. They have a hero that has been worked through the art prototype already. Possibly Doomfist voiced by Terry Crews?

They're working on other maps other than Oasis. These will be shown next year. Some won't see the light of day.

They're always looking for new things to try out for Arcade Mode.

Improvements for esports will be coming for sure-particularly for spectator viewing. Professional broadcasters and observers have been helping them with this.

The last thing which they mentioned at BlizzCon is that they want to give us a way for us to find custom games. They're creating a server browser so people can see a big list of custom games and players can create them and make them public for people to join. This is the top requested feature and its very common in first person shooters. They're going to have a solid version 1.0 running in early 2017 and they're going to expand upon it later.

The developer updates will keep coming and we'll learn more as time passes.

Oh yeah, Tracer was revealed as being gay in the latest Overwatch comic. Cheers love, the gays are here!

Happy New Year

     Just wanted to do a short post to welcome in the New Year. I worked until midnight so I didn't get to countdown the New Year or go partying with my friends. But it was still good. It was a quiet and reserved New Year for me. Lucky me that I'm off today so I'm planning on resting and taking it easy. I ordered some new work pants that I desperately needed and thankfully they came through Amazon Prime tonight. Everything is going well. 2015 was a great year for me. You could even say that it was one of my best years since High School. Moving to California changed my life but it was rough at first. Now I've got a lot of friends, a job that I've been at for 2 and a half years, and a loving family here and back in my home state. Stay positive in 2016. If I've learned anything over these past few years it is to always stay positive. Eventually you get to the point where you're like a Zen master, even though I don't practice Buddhism or Transcendental Meditation. It's just a state of mind really. I guess what I'm trying to say is that life has been good. There's some things on my mind for the New Year that I've been thinking about. Like should I get back into playing music on a consistent basis and stuff. Music was originally my main goal in life but I've kind of pushed it into the corner of my living room (literally) and focused more on gaming, computers, blogging, and media stuff instead. I've realized that I'll probably never make it as a musician without getting proper training. There's no way I can teach myself and become as good as people like Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck. Another turning point in me quitting practicing was that my guitar teacher had to stop teaching me due to job obligations. Even a great musician has to work a 9-5. Kind of sad that he has to do that but he has to make a living to survive. I guess the conclusion that I'm getting it is that I have to find other things to do and get into. Like maybe get involved in gaming stuff like writing for a gaming blog or magazine, game tester, and other stuff like that. If push comes to shove maybe I'll take up some kind of computer training at the local community college. I've always been interested in computers and I think I can handle programming at a basic level. My brother has already showed some success in learning computers by passing the first A+ Certification Test so maybe I should take inspiration from him and follow in his footsteps. But these are all just ideas. Sometimes the best action is inaction. It's been a great 2015 and I hope you all have a happy 2016!

Last Day of 2015

     Today is the last day of 2015. It's been a very good successful year for me. I've made a lot of new friends and I've been doing good at my job, working there almost three years now. Everything's been great! The best part is all the new people I've met. I have some plans for the next year, pretty much like everyone else.
     The first thing and pretty much everybody probably feels this way too is that I want to lose weight. I've already started stopping eating fast food on my lunch breaks at work and focusing on eating salads and fruits instead. My next thing that I might be doing to help achieve this goal is to stop drinking soda. I drink a lot of soda so I know that will make a difference. I have a very non-active lifestyle so losing weight is going to be hard but I have to do it. I also want to look better for the ladies. That would help a lot if I ever wanted to ask out a cute girl.
     Next, I want to get better at Smash 4. I'm going to consider doing less PC gaming in order to work on my Smash game. My plan is to get good enough to start beating people at the local tournament I go to. I might even consider going to other tournaments if I get good enough. It depends on how much time I'm willing to put into the game. I was also thinking about posting my replays on YouTube and editing the videos and doing my own commentary. I think that would be a super fun hobby to have.
     In addition, I want to think about maybe going back to college. I'm thinking that the only real way for me to advance in life in terms of work is to go back to school and get a degree of some kind. I don't think I want to get a music degree because I don't think that will do anything for me. I'm thinking about something involving business, marketing, writing, or computers. If I really can't think of anything I think I would make a fine teacher, perhaps an English teacher maybe. I would probably go to a local community college because I definitely can't afford to go back to a major University.
     Also, if I don't go to school I want to start thinking about maybe getting a 2nd job or looking for work in things I'm interested in-mainly a job in the gaming industry. This seems like it would be an impossible task because everybody and their grandma wants to work in the gaming industry but I do think it is possible. "With the power of soul, anything is possible" (Jimi Hendrix). So yeah I really want to get on that maybe get in with doing some writing for a gaming blog or magazine, PR or marketing, or possibly even game tester jobs, that kind of stuff. I've kind of already put off the idea of trying to be a video game creator because I think it involves too much computer programming knowledge, which I don't know too much about. But I am a good writer and I can talk about games really well to people that may not even know anything about games.
     Tonight I'm working until midnight at work which is weird because usually I work until 1 am every night. Here's to a great finale to 2015, and an even better 2016! Enjoy your lives people, and remember to live life to the fullest!

What I'm looking forward to in 2015 and plans for the future.

The highlight of 2014 for me was seeing Brad Meldau Trio and the Bad Plus at CSUN in early December. I don't think it could get better in terms of seeing a jazz group live in performance. In addition I met some new musician friends through the internet. One guy is a guitar player like me but who is more interested in music theory than myself. When I take solos I don't really like to think too much about music theory and chord scales and what not. This guy is the opposite of that. But he loves all the same jazz music that I like, which is pretty rare in young people these days unless your studying music at Uni.  

     In addition, I met this old timer jazz musician who plays clarinet and bass clarinet but also plays about 30 other instruments. He's an old dixie-land jazz type of musician who cites people like Sidney Bechet and Benny Goodman as influences. We've been playing together off and on for a while now and its going pretty well. He's a great musician but we still need to play more together to jell better. Also, we need to find a bass player because right now its just us two playing jazz standards like Ain't Misbehavin', Georgia, those kinds of tunes. He's told he actually saw Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane together on the same bill! But he's not a fan of modern jazz, and by modern jazz I mean bebop from the 40s and 50s like Bird, Diz, Miles, and Trane. He's a great musician and I hope we can play more and meet with more musicians to start gigging this year. He inspires me to practice the guitar more.
     In 2015 I'm looking forward to a couple of concerts. Mainly Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern and Eric Johnson, and Bill Frisell. I'm going to try to go to every one of those shows. Here's a bit of examples from each of those musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcPbmPM7epY Holdsworth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNpE8VSG-TY Mike Stern and Eric Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrM-WmB2kdI Bill Frisell
      I'm mainly a jazz listener and trying to get more into playing jazz guitar but I'm still interested in rock music, even some metal. So I'm planning on practicing more guitar and getting better, especially with metal shred techniques like sweeping and string skipping, and of course jazz chord voicings, and improvising over chord changes of standards. I'm even thinking about teaching myself classical guitar because that's more of a solo instrument.
     Also, I plan on reading more science fiction novels and doing a lot of gaming. I might even start streaming on twitch again. I used to stream starcraft 2 all the time even though I wasn't the greatest player on the American servers. Who knows I might even go on a diet in 2015.