111 Day 2023, Happy New Year!

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, 

Happy new year! Today is 111 day, it's January 11th, the first month of the year, on the 11th day, 111 day. What a nice number. I hope you have been well. Have you? Is everything alright?

Things are spectacular right now. I'm on day 3 of my vacation week. This is a quiet vacation. I'm not going to travel anywhere or do anything too fancy. I just wanted time off from my busy retail gig. The store has been busy since the pandemic began in 2020. I requested this week long vacation every month since September 2022 and have been denied every month. That is, until now. 

The vacation has been fruitful and relaxing. I have been reading a lot, practicing drums everyday, creating a lot of AI art, and eating out at my favorite restaurants. But contrary to most vacationers I haven't been overeating, rather I feel like I've been eating less, which has been better for the body. Refreshing and rejuvenating.  

First, I spent the first two days reading The Age of Voltaire by the historian Will Durant. It's an analysis of England and France before and around the time of the French revolution. Amazing historical detail. And I've learned a lot more about Voltaire, who although was trained by the Jesuits, was a sore wound in the side of Christianity and he was often persecuted for his views against the Church and the nobles as well as other intellectuals. 

I nearly finished the book but decided to take a break because my dad recommended this new space opera that came out back in 2019. It's called A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. It's a homage to early Ursula K Leguin but it has a vibe very similar to Cecelia Holland's Floating Worlds, a 1970s space opera. It has all those space opera bells and whistles but it's also got a cultural and linguistics thing going for it as well. Some of the naming systems are middle eastern and the cultures within the book are Japanese and Chinese. It's quite good and I'd recommend it to any science fiction fans or anyone who's interested in reading a good space opera, a brand new one rather than the old classics. 

Second, I've also been practicing drums with my new hi-hat cymbal. Tomorrow I've got a jam session with my friend who plays a Selmer alto saxophone. So tomorrow I'll use my makeshift 4-piece drum set, which includes a kibaga practice snare pad, a pearl limited edition snare, a meinL cymbal, and a ziljin hi-hat. I would have a bass drum and a tom, but space is limited here at the moment so I have to play with what I have.

Third, I've been creating a lot of ai art. You can view my work here https://www.instagram.com/jazzerrocker779/. I've created a lot of my AI generated art using www.mage.space, a wonderful tool that recently came out with a payment model because so many people were using it and enjoying it. I've found that with AI I've been able to find out that I have an eye for art, the eye of an artist. 

Furthermore, I had no idea that I had an eye for art until I was recommended to read Vasari's Lives, The Illustrated Lives of the Italian Painters of the Renaissance, I was recommended the book by my friend's wife, Elizabeth. From there I looked at and studied all the Italian Renaissance art I could and then after that my dad saw that I seemed interested in art, so he recommended that I start using mage.space to create AI art. From two older people with more knowledge I was able to find these things out and the rest is history. Now I do AI art often and I have over 5,000 images [gasp!]. 

Lastly, what does life feel like now, and furthermore, going forward? Even though there are cyclones over Los Angeles and 90% of the state is in fear of flooding I feel great. I'm happy now because I'm on vacation and doing all the things I love with unlimited free time but in four days I'm back at work and it will be tough. How does one stay happy? 

"There is no definitive answer to what makes humans happy, as it can vary greatly from person to person. However, some things that are commonly associated with happiness include having strong and supportive relationships, feeling fulfilled by one's work or hobbies, having financial security, having good physical and mental health, and feeling a sense of purpose or meaning in one's life. Additionally, people can also experience pleasure and enjoyment through different types of activities, such as exercising, traveling, or listening to music.

It's important to note that there are also other factors that play into happiness, such as genetics, which can account for up to 50% of the variance in happiness levels among people, and daily activities and practices can also have a positive impact.

Therapy and meditation, positive thinking, and gratitude are also known to be beneficial for one's well-being and may help some people increase their happiness levels." [openchatGPT]

"Beneath cherry blossoms pink and white, I find happiness in simple sights. A gentle breeze, a babbling stream, The rustling leaves, a peaceful gleam.

With every step upon the path, I feel my spirit start to lift. And though the road may have its twists, I know that joy and peace exist.

As petals fall and dance around, I'm filled with beauty that astounds. And in the sunshine and the rain, I find my heart is free again.

So let us all take life in stride, And let our hearts be open wide. For in the end, it's not the end, But the simple joys that make us blend.

With the world and all its wonder, Happiness will always be under our feet, a constant companion, guiding us to a brighter horizon." [openchatGPT]

image ai generated

Christmas 2022

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, 

Merry Christmas! This year has been busy on the job but I've surprisingly been able to make time for a lot of reading, practicing different instruments, as well as writing.

Christmas is that special time of year. Why? 

"Christmas is a holiday that is celebrated by many people around the world, and it holds great significance for many people. Here are a few reasons why Christmas is so important:

1. Christmas is a time of love and generosity: Christmas is a time when people come together to celebrate the love and generosity that exists in the world. It is a time to give gifts to loved ones, to spend time with family and friends, and to show appreciation for the people in our lives.

2. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus: For many people, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is considered by Christians to be the son of God. The birth of Jesus is seen as a miraculous event, and the holiday is a way to remember and honor his life and teachings.

3. Christmas brings people together: Christmas is a time when people from all walks of life come together to celebrate. It is a time when people put aside their differences and focus on the things that bring them joy and happiness.

4. Christmas is a time of tradition: Many people have long-standing traditions that they participate in during the holiday season. These traditions help to create a sense of community and bring people together.

Overall, Christmas is a special time of year that is important for many people around the world. It is a time to celebrate love, generosity, and the birth of Jesus, and it is a time to come together and create lasting memories with loved ones." [openchatGPT]

I've been somehow able to have a great time this year despite working nonstop with no vacation. You see, it all starts with the individual. I'm happy despite working all the time because I have the capacity for happiness. I've created time outside of work to create a persona, the persona of an artist, that is what I've done.

I've started doing a lot of AI art, ever since the AI art generators came out two months ago. I've even started using openchatGPT here in this blog post, practicing drums, piano, guitar, singing, writing blogs here and there, as well as reading a lot, the latest edition being historian Will Durant's Volume 2 of his Story of Civilization Series, The Life of Greece. So I seem to be awash in activity, but the activities give me a sense of who I am, and help with my capacity for happiness.

It seems that the older I get the more I realize you can't escape from pain in this world. But you can learn to be resilient and improve your capacity for happiness to live through it. Work seems more vital than ever, especially in California, where every man seems to have to prove his worth by having to earn more and more money, but I've also realized that work is essential to the intellectual artist outsider life as well.

"Work is important for many reasons. It provides individuals with a sense of purpose and meaning, as well as a sense of accomplishment. Work also allows people to contribute to society and make a positive impact on the world. In addition, work provides people with financial stability and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. Finally, work can also be a source of personal growth and development, as it allows individuals to learn new skills, gain experience, and expand their knowledge and understanding of the world." [openchatGPT]

On Christmas Eve I was joking around with a customer and he liked my sense of mirth on the holiday and he tipped me $100, not too shabby! This year the family and I ate lobster at a wonderful Chinese restaurant. If you need me, I'll be practicing drums and piano or reading more of the Will Durant series.

image ai generated

Holiday Retail 2022

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, 

It's been a while since I wrote one of these. Here I'd like to explain to you what it's been like working the retail gig this holiday season. 

First, the work has been intense and nonstop. I've been working 42-48 hour weeks since November and the work isn't letting up even going into this week and Christmas week. The good news is that the pay is decent but it's tough making it through the slog every shift. I've been working five days per week with only two days off since the summer. 

Second, cold/flu and covid season is here again, and with that brings sicknesses, mostly of a respiratory nature. For the first time since covid began in 2020, I finally got a regular cold. It only lasted a day or two but it was setback from my usual day to day routine. I still went to work as I felt well enough, but I probably initially got sick from work, from customers and/or employees. 

Third, my job has become easier but its still grueling. I've sort of graduated from having to do regular checkout scanning large orders. Rather, my management has decided they want me to run self-checkout for my eight hour shifts, as its mostly machine button pressing menu, and the older cashier employees who aren't used to computers don't want to do it at all. So I sort of lucked out. Because the older employees don't want to do it, I end up doing it, and I get to avoid doing all the heavy lifting $400-$600 holiday orders and bagging a million bags. Not too shabby! 

Fourth, the type of employees that get hired and stay on the job has diminished immensely. Right now, they want anyone they can because they need cashiers. So they hire them and immediately promote them to cashier. The problem is that none of them stay. There are two other young people my age, two girls, who are very good cashiers but all of the other young people are baggers or other positions that work menial side jobs in other departments. A lot of them are special needs and the regular ones seem to have a lot of behavioral issues. I've had to learn how to talk to these kids in a certain type of way to get them on my side and help me out. Not ideal to getting the job done everyday! 

Fifth, management seems to be good this year at getting the job done. But they have done a horrible job in encouraging mask wearing so oftentimes the youth get sick easily and spread it around so that's concerning. My main problem with the management is that since day one in 2020 they weren't enforcing mask wearing either by customers or employees. That has been a problem since the early days of covid. The actual boss and co-director never wear masks and have had covid already several times. They probably spread it. One of the sales managers has had covid several times as well. I keep my mask on and keep my distance from all of them for my own safety. They all have failed horribly on this one simple task. 

Lastly, the job has become more machine-like. You really get a sense that you're a cog in the machine in there nowadays. The upper management lack empathy, but you also see it at the lower management level as well as from the customers, that that's expected from customers at this point in the game. You have to really dig deep to see empathy and compassion from others there nowadays, but it is still there in small doses here and there. It's not the worst place in the world, but you can sort of see that one day this entire operation, this job will eventually become obsolete if replaced by machines. The self-checkout tells me that everyday. 

All that being said, my personal life is quite magisterial. I learned how to play piano, sing better, and drums. I can speak Spanish pretty well now, as well as a little French, Italian, German, and even Portuguese. I'm still reading the western canon and loving every minute of it. C'est la vie. 

Happy Holidays!

image ai generated 

Live Jazz Muzak! 12/15/22! Saxophone and drums!

 Good evening, 

Here is today's jam session recorded on 12/15/22, featuring Jason Tomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa on drums. Usually I play guitar but I decided to switch it up to add some spice to my life. Songs in order are cminor blues improv, blue monk by t.monk, autumn leaves by jerome kern, and Spanish blues improv. Tomas played a Selmer alto saxophone, I played a limited edition pearl snare, kibaga practice pad, and a meinl cymbal with sticks and brushes. 

Recorded on laptop via Facebook then transferred to YouTube 

image ai generated, Replicant 

Live Jazz Trio! 9/14/2022!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC4eRvDbS88&t=218s&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RhMMStW7-8&t=1715s&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

Live Jazz Trio, recorded live from Facebook on 9/14/2022

Feather Robley on percussion

Jason Tomas on alto saxophone

Orlando Figueroa on 7-string guitar 

Thank You

Live Jazz! 9/9/2022!

Listen to it or be square! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq57g1C2fWA&t=868s

Live guitar jam! 7/7/2022!

Howdy, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-1HPMk3SU&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

This is a livestream from yesterday. I was suppose to jam with my friend Jason Tomas, who plays saxophone, but there was some kind of mix up, so I ended up jamming half the set jazz improv, and the rest more rock and roll. Thanks, enjoy!

Peace and Love

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

Live Performance! Jazz! 5/25/2022!

Hello, everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3NyHISwV8g&t=1097s&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

This is a livestreamed performance from yesterday featuring Jason Tomas on alto saxophone and yours truly, Orlando Figueroa on guitar. We played some improvisations and jazz standards. Take a listen to the music, leave a comment, and make sure to like and subscribe to my channel. 

Thank you!

Live Jazz Performance! 2/24/22!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/503683607883879

Orlando Figueroa, Guitar

Jason Tomas, Alto Saxophone

Recorded on a brand new Fender Squier with better tuners on them, given to me for free from a customer at work, going through my Marshall avt 275 on the clean channel setting. This was recorded yesterday, 2/25/22. Enjoy, thanks for listening. 

zombie apocalypse virus christmas 2021

Happy holidays, 

The holidays are here again in what I would call Covid 2.0. But I specifically was inspired to write this blog this early afternoon to describe what the working conditions have been like working grocery retail during the holidays at this current point in the pandemic. The pandemic has been going on for two years but for a lot of us, especially those of us working in retail, it seems a lot longer, stretching us workers to the point of exhaustion. Some things have gotten better for retail workers but many things have also gone south as well. Let me explain. 

The main problem we face as retail workers right now is that upper management, lower management, and customers have been giving us a lot of problems with hardly any solutions. For starters, upper management and lower management still have the same high expectations of all the employees as they have always had. The problem? It's just not feasible anymore. 

We can't keep providing the same consistent high performance or level of service because we don't have the personnel to do it or even the time during the shift. We simply don't have enough workers. There you go, if you're reading this management, know that I am right, and that you are wrong, and that your quality of service will never go back to what it once was, say three or more years ago. We simply don't have the staff to provide excellent customer service anymore. There I said it. The truth. 

Second, the customers have become much more unruly, irate, and refuse to wear masks for whatever reasons they want to yell out. Most of them are Trump types, science deniers, vaccine haters, republicans, or just simply think they're too good to wear a mask when they come into our stores. It's become a serious issue because a lot of times management won't confront these people outright. Instead, what we get is a message on the intercom throughout the store, "Please respect the people around you, please wear a mask...please." Most of the time that strategy doesn't pan out. Go figure. 

Hours are good if you're available and have seniority at the company or store that you work at. So in terms of hours and getting paid, we're doing okay, but not great. For a while, in the beginning of the pandemic we were all getting $20 per hour but it only lasted for about five months before pay resumed as normal. Honestly, we're still putting ourselves in harms way in terms of the pandemic, with this new Omicron variant, and our union has been unable to secure more hazard pay. Unfortunately. 

Which puts things in perspective because now we see many new jobs, mostly old jobs that need more workers, and they're paying their new employees $20 per hour plus great benefits. So it goes. 

The great irony about all of this is that my company is a multi million dollar company and my store is a million dollar store. They can afford to pay their employees $20 per hour, have on site security enforcing the mask mandate, to hire more employees so we aren't forced constantly to work with a skeletal crew everyday, and we can afford to give more hours to employees that need them. It isn't all bad, however, some of our customers are great people and have even helped me out in various ways. 

For example, this one customer who owns a guitar store has fixed two of my guitars for free. [hear the guitar here-https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/607302963652309] How about that? 

All this being said, life is what you make it. Although the job has become more stressful during this holiday season, it's still great to know that life is moving forward as normal as possible, even with the pandemic still raging inside and outside of the store every single day. 

the world keeps spinning round and round 

Live Music Performance 11/18/21!

 https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/884509442267455

Good evening, here's another live music from myself, Orlando Figueroa on guitar, and Jason Tomas on alto saxophone. 

I used my birthday guitar from my mother for this particular performance. I've used it before for our sessions, but this second time the tone was dialed in just right. There was a better bass sound, and I was able to get a lot of tonal range on certain chords in good moments using the tone selector switch. The guitar itself is a $160 guitar, as cheap as it gets, its a Rogue Rocketeer, something out of like a Sears catalogue in the 80s, but man, this guitar is actually good. Check out the tone. I use a basic Marshall avt275 amp on a clean setting, no pedals. 

For this particular performance I was focusing on my rhythm chords and really going all out on the solos in terms of off the cuff phrasing, [as I think I was trying to do lol]. Anyways, there was some great moments here, in between a lot of comping. 

Gracias por escuchar 

Live Music Session 11/11/21!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/1062070257878268

This was recorded on November 11, 2021, on my phone. Featuring myself, Orlando Figueroa on guitar and Jason Tomas on alto saxophone. 

We've been practicing together for about a year during the pandemic. We've done a few open mics but mostly we jam and record everything like a jam band. We play standards but also just do jams based on jazz chord changes in a straight ahead context. 

When performing today, I was thinking a lot about filling up the space with lots of strums, and give Jason complete melodic control with his horn. Like a drums/singer sort of combination. 

During a lot of this session I was thinking about playing in terms of a modal sort of style. The straight ahead jazz sound signature. 

I used my Jackson Dinky 6-string with a floyd rose whammy. The tone selector allows a plethora of sound options from thick full bodied tone sound, more typical of a jazz box sound, as well as allowing the other option for more clean bright chord sounds, typical of blues, funk, and rnb. Although I initially bought the guitar to be a heavy rock and roll machine, it's also come to be one of my best guitars for jazz improvisation. 

Gracias por escuchar! 

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

Jazz jam session 11/4/21!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/474208377194713

Here's footage from my jam session today. Featuring Jason Thomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa on guitar. 

Jason and I have been jamming for about a year now. At the moment we've been playing on my balcony and attracting all the neighborhood with our duo instrumental straight ahead jazz sessions. We play once a week for an hour but its been consistent enough for us to develop together musically. 

My jazz guitar style has improved a lot, and I've learned a lot about chord voicings, taking solos, and how to tell a story with a solo. 

In addition, another aspect of the music that I've been adding is the nature of the feelings of the moment. The time of day is a factor, my mood or attitude is a factor, Jason and his feelings are another, these sorts of variables that have been added to the music is something I've learned from other kinds of improvisational music, like world music, especially Indian ragas. 

At this point in the pandemic things have become much more strict. At Starbucks today, I had to show my vaccination card to sit down and dine in. I've decided to quit playing video games and spend my time focused on guitar, reading, and writing. 

Gracias por eschuchar. Bonne Nuit.

I don't know about you, But I'm feeling 22

Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the internet, 

It's been another birthday. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two. That's what I said when I lost in black jack. I'm actually about a decade older than that but isn't age really just spirit, daesein? Yes, I'm feeling another year older, and yes it's harder to wake up early in the morning, and yes it's more tiring being on my feet at work all day, and yes I've got lots of laundry to do, and yes all my relationships are like a chess game, etc. But in the end I still feel like a young grasshopper, a mere sapling awash in the pools of the universe, awaiting the wheel of fate. 

I spent my birthday weekend in Las Vegas with friends. The trip itself wasn't remarkable but I had a lot of fun playing black jack, baccarat, and roulette with friends, learning it on the fly, as well as some slots as the casino. My favorite meal was a Monte Cristo sandwich. The bread had the texture of fried chicken. I would take a bite and then drink some coffee to go with it. 

There were three metaphysical moments I experienced over that birthday weekend in Vegas. 

1) On the drive there, when we left California and entered into Nevada, there were these dust storms and doom-inspired mountains. A sign on the highway read Shoshone. When we passed that landscape and that sign, I had some kind of meta moment in time. Something about the land or something. 

2) On the drive back there was a car accident on the road leaving Nevada and going to California. This is probably a big drinking/smoking in the car road. Anyway, so this car gets into an accident and the car is completely totaled, especially the front end and the car seat was crumpled/crushed into itself, meaning this person was killed instantly on impact. It really is the city of sin, for I saw Death himself, staring back at me from the abyss. 

3) On the last day the guys wanted to go to a antique shop to look around. I stayed in the car with the window down and did a lot of reading and got some rest. I was in that state between wakefulness and intense sleep, meanwhile the weather outside was going from sort of hot to more mild coolness and breeze in the mid afternoon hours. It was the most relaxing part of the trip. 

As if that wasn't enough, as soon as I got back, on the next day's morning, I had an 830am-5pm shift, right back into the saddle again, ad infinitum. 

But you know, I'm feeling good. I said a prayer for the deceased in the car accident, did some meditating in the car, and turned on Handel's Water Music to vibe out to something flowery. And you know what? Life is good. I'm older but I still feel young. Covid is still raging but I'm healthy. My house is in order: I'm reading books, I'm playing guitar, I have a for work life and a for fun lifestyle that most people would be jealous to have or can't have because they're busy doing other things like trying to make ends meet. Most people are stuck in obligations at work or have kids, or both, and meanwhile, I'm out here trying to figure out how I'm going to get Korean spicy spare rib soup for dinner or how I'm going to manage to find time to finish the Ring Cycle. 

The world from say 2004-2021 went through a drastic cataclysmic change. I cannot see the world in the same way as it was say in 2004. Covid has created a new system in which we have to learn to find a new way to life. That's really all we can do. 

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two.

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! 

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

Live performance 2/10

Live performance recorded today, 2/10/21. Featuring on alto saxophone Jason Thomas and myself, Orlando Figueroa on electric guitar. We perform some standards, blues, and improv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_W3HRc0CI&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007