September Sweater Weather

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, hello world. How are you? 

It's good to be writing on a good day off work today on a Saturday. Here, I'll jot down some notes on what I've been up to, plans, and things I'm looking forward to. 

First off, work has been good, steady, and doable. It's been about a year in now at this new job and its going well. I'm been reading a lot in between my shifts, jamming guitar with a heavy metal drummer, going for walks, eating well, and playing video games. I've got a lot to be thankful for, and I thank God for the life I'm living. 

The last book I read was a long slowburn of a read, Felix Gilbert's From 1890 to the Present, A European History, pretty amazing that a history book could span from 1890 to the present, but wow, that book really gives you a long overhaul and view of Europe from the years right before the First and Second World Wars, and the information is invaluable especially as an American for me, because, most of the information in that book is not taught in American grade school or high school, and only partially covered in college history courses, but not all, as not all college courses even will cover Europe, particularly Europe in all this much dense overdetailed information. A major criticism of the book online was that readers felt that Felix Gilbert didn't discredit and shame the Nazi's enough, and that he didn't explain with more inherent detail, why the German people were so willing to just commit Nazi atrocities and crimes against Jews, simply because they were told to do it, and they were readily and willing to do it, but it isn't really explained why with more full details. Well, why, then? Only the shadow knows. 

Moving on, now I'm reading a book about the history of France, a book entitled Revolutionary France 1770-1880, and this book is a lot more drier and more dense and facts based, despite being about a very revolutionary era of French government. Also, I'm reading Bram Stoker's 1897 modern novel Dracula, inspired by this current weather change and spooky Witching Season that we're currently thriving in, especially with this cold weather change. The change in temperature from 100 degree overheating at work to this 84-86 degree days, it's quite amazing. 

In addition, I've still been looking around at other jobs and seeing what's out there in my area, and it's not looking good. If you're not at a job currently it is very difficult to get in with a job anywhere. I had a job offer recently to a job closer to where I'm at, but circumstances being what they are, I'm not inclined to leave what I'm doing and try to start something new, given that there is a lot of uncertainty right now in the job market and the economy. I've been doing well, but I'm on a strong budget and I'm following my budget religiously, so its hard to want to try to dip out of a job that is going well, and try to do something different, even if it may be better in the long run. I'm saying, that jobwise, things are full of so much uncertainty, that even looking into working somewhere else might not be a good idea unless there is some massive benefit to working there. Like for example, in my case, this job offer I got is closer to my place, which is a massive benefit, but, even that being the case, I still have to stop and think about it for a long time, because everything is so much up in the air nowadays. 

Lastly, I can't end the rant without mentioning AI. LA and NY public schools decided to ban AI in the classrooms. This is good. Also recently, social media companies agreed to pay a massive fine and admitted that they have been treating kids wrong with allowing them too much social media use. These are good sociological things happening in the realverse. I do like AI and I do think more and more AI will take over and more and more we'll just be controlling the information it provides and goes with, like we'll be the AI's boss, and use the AI, but all important real decisions will be done by real people, and I notice that's the way its been going, even myself personally, using AI in the workplace. 

I use a lot of AI personally at work to look up products/donations and check what they're worth. I almost never go with what the AI prices the items, rather I think about it, check all the parameters, quality, condition, item type, etc, and then I make the ultimate decision over how much the item gets priced. But you can kind of see how even using it at this low level retail level, it gives you a lot of leverage over the amount of productivity in the work you do while using the AI. Obviously, I can do my job without using AI, all I'm doing is pricing donated items and reselling it, but using the AI allows me to have more control in my productivity, if I can figure out what an item's worth faster without thinking as much or as hard personally, then I have a tool which allows me to work a lot faster than I was able to before, last year, since before I started using AI at work. 

That's a lot to unpack there. But yeah, so it basically comes down to the fact that the low level retail personnel, the low level office worker, these are the basic employees running a business, working at a business, and they're using AI in a way that benefits their job workflow, and I do think this is the future of work using technology in America. In a way its an exciting time to live, breathe, and do work in America. On the other hand, you do tend to see a dehumanization of the worker in the workplace. If AI gets better at a much faster more exponential rate that it has been going in, this could spell disaster for more detailed tech work employees, workers, and bosses, because it could mean that lesser skilled and less tech skilled workers could outpace them, develop more, and become better much more skilled workers, armed only with AI, the willingness to learn new more advanced technology, and a curious mind. 

Note: Keep in mind that without the temperature changing to like 86 degrees here, I wouldn't even want to talk about AI, using it in the workplace, and the future of it in the workplace via newer smarter employees. If the temperatures kept hitting 100 degrees I would've been stuck kept to talking about barely surviving working with poor AC, and incoming blackouts, like what they had in Gary Indiana, which went underreported in most areas. Remember, this is still post-covid, and that means incoming cold, flu, and post-covid amongst young people. Get ready for Halloween.

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.

Ay! Imma let you finish but this had to be one of the greatest vacations of all time.

     What a great vacation this has been! The food, the ocean beach walks, the conversations, the jazz music, the anime, the movies, the smash 4, the mario kart, the family, the friends, etc. As I like to say,"It's all good." Tonight's the last night that we're staying here. Here being this super nice big house on the ocean in Cayucos, California. This is the good life. This is the sort of town where people don't really live here. Rather, homes are used for people to rent by vacationers. The town is mostly upper class, white, and people are hardly ever seen unless they're walking their dogs on the beach. We saw other black people, Hispanics, and Asians too but that was in the bustling busy daytime of the town. It would be great to live in a place like this one day when I'm retired. The city life is great but nothing beats the ocean front. Seeing it everyday, waking up to the sound of it, and that majestic ocean breeze that makes even the hottest days bearable. Maybe one day I can afford to live in a place like this. Goals, as they say. 

     This has been one of the best vacations I've had with my family ever. The best part of it was just relaxing, hanging out, and talking with my brothers. They're really cool people and I've become close with them, especially as I've gotten older. One of my brothers is a black studies scholarly intellectual with an interest in Caribbean/African diaspora. Check out his blog here http://ryfigueroa.blogspot.com/, he's been going strong with his blog for a few years and it's gotten a lot of traffic. He's a very cool guy and the thing we have in common is that we're both jazz fans. He's more of a straight ahead guy at heart but I can forgive him for not liking the extreme avante-garde free jazz sounds of modern New York and Chicago. My other brother is more like me in that he's a gamer and he's super chill. The trip has been great with them.

     Every morning we went on walks on the beach. Each day we walked farther than the last so I was getting in more exercise day by day and building up more stamina. This is something that I want to take back with me back home. I'm going to start going for walks to get in more exercise. It really gets the blood going and your day going. Other things that I'm going to take with me from this trip is that I want to go to the beach more with my friends. I'm gonna recommend going out to Santa Monica and Malibu, places like that to get away and relax this summer. Hikes in the hills would be good too. Also, I'm going to focus back on music and the guitar, learning as many jazz standards as I can as well as just overall practice in improvisation and jazz. 

     Lastly, I want to improve my diet tenfold. I'm going to stop eating ramen and hotdogs everyday and have more variety in my diet. For starters, I'm going to buy fruit like apples and bananas, pre-made salads, cereal/milk, granola bars, and cold cuts for sandwiches. Sounds like a much better diet just thinking about it. 

     I ate so good on this trip that it's unfathomable. There's no universe I can imagine where I would be making enough money to be eating as good as I ate on this trip. Notable mentions was this seafood place called Dorn's where I got this great combination plate that came with scallops, shrimp, fish, squid, and calamari. I pulled my weight on the vacation by paying for everyone's lunch at Anderson's Split Pea Soup restaurant back at this town called Buellton. In addition, we ate at this cool Mexican fusion place called Taco Temple. It's not traditional at all but the portions are humongous. The food is great to boot. I ended up getting the carnitas nachos. My brother got a wet burrito and it looked like a pig swimming in sauce. 

     Another thing that I thought about on this trip was my working status and how I should go about trying to get promoted or get a raise. Getting a second job isn't out of the question either. I've got a lot on my plate (I can't stop thinking about food!) literally and figuratively to think about. It's all good. 

     Lastly, another notable mention about the vacation was that I saw this waifu anime mini surfboard at this gift shop of this chick sucking a popsicle ;-). I was thinking about buying it but the next day I went to the shop they'd already closed. That would've been an amazing souvenir considering that I'm an anime connoisseur and waifu fan. But waifu's aside, this trip has been amazing. I look forward to taking what I learned from this trip and bringing it back with me home. Ah, life is good.