LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 8
Nick's LIFESTYLE Newsletter
YES!
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Hello again everyone. It's been a few weeks. A relaxed few weeks. I had some "vacation" time from my soul sucking job, which means I only worked about 5 hours that week. It was nice.
- About 150% done with Super Mario Galaxy 2. IT'S A LONG ROAD.
- Winner of the 20XX LIFESTYLE Newsletter Best Writer of Bound Lies and Other Fictional Matters Award, Mindy Meija, has a new book out. It is now available on presale: http://a.co/hf1HekH.
- If I have proof everyone has bought a copy of the above book, I will REMOVE THE BULLET. Until then, it stays.
- It is allergy season, have you had to pill your cat twice a day as well?
- I had a wonderful time doing "Wack-a-doodle coffee day" this weekend going to Fresh Thyme and buying all their flavored coffees. Yep, that is what we do for fun nearing our 40's. We also bought $3 ice cream sandwiches. Which were FUCKING AMAZING, but not the best way to come out of my fasting. We ate them in the parking lot like ballers.
- I have a mailing address in Japan now. If you want to order anything from there, we can consolidate our shipping costs, but let me know in the next week before it is all shipped over here...
THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.
3 THINGS THIS WEEK: (THE MUSIC ISSUE)
ITEM THE FIRST:
I'm in the middle of a five year project of listening to all my music. All 27,534 tracks. I'm getting rid of stuff I don't like any more and trying to trim it down a bit. As part of that I have done something I haven't done in about 20 years and that is listen to my second album (and certified seller of 300 copies!). The album was written and put out in 1995. It is now old enough to make bad decisions and make me a grandfather. I wrote it all using my Dad's Ensoniq SQ-2 and FastTracker 2.04. Listening back to it I hear so many mistakes with loops and volume envelopes and find it pretty terrible over all. There is no genre focus either, so it is just a compilation of terrible songs. Sometimes with bad music you can say "well, there are some ideas there" but not this. I feel like if I was in a 12-step program, I would still be in the phase where I need to personally apologize and make amends for this one. I did get marginally better over the next year.
Two things stand out about this experience though:
1) I'll never forget getting my shipment of CD's and having to go to work afterwards at Media Play. I gave a copy to Greg, who ran the music department, and he immediately put it on repeat for the rest of the night. What a good dude. I was just some weird kid making music and he treated me like an equal (he was a musician too). It was very validating. I think I sold about 30 copies on consignment there, probably from people too scared to approach me at school.
2) Of all the things I have gained or lost due to my stupid brain, the thing I miss the most is the music. From a young age, I always had music in my head and when my dad bought that keyboard, I grabbed the manual, read it and learned how to play it. Once I discovered tracking software, I could finally express what was going on in my head in a way that made mathmatical sense to me. I honestly don't think my dad ever really used that keyboard. I was borrowing it so much that it really just stayed with me from about age 15 to 19. About the time I hit 19 and I knew that things were changing, the music in my head just TURNED OFF. I was literally in the middle of some songs and I sat down in front of the keyboard and nothing. I never experienced that before. I've never been able to write music since. Every five years or so since then I would buy some equipment and try, but nothing ever comes out. HA HA EMPTY HEAD.
ITEM THE SECOND:
The new Janelle Monáe album is amazing. The one minor consolation we get out of a Trump presidency is that artists are stepping up. Dirty Computer is an incredible feminist, afrofuturist, LGBTQ, progressive piece of fuck you. THIS IS THE WORLD I WANT TO LIVE IN. "We gonna start a motherfucking pussy riot, or we gonna have to put them on a pussy diet." Here is a link to listen to it now: Dirty Computer. Click it now and read the rest of the newsletter later. I WILL WAIT FOR YOU.
ITEM THE THIRD:
An update from BEING BETTER. I have turbo charged my Japanese and am making some real progress. I finally found a way of learning that really maps to how I want to learn, so that is good. As part of my above mentioned Japanese address, I ordered a few light novels to push myself more. IT FEELS SO GOOD. I'm finally getting grammar!
Also, your weird Japanese kanji for the day (since I love, love, love this language. I've written about this before): 穴熊. The kanji is for the animal, the badger. The first kanji is for hole or cave and the second is for bear. Thus the badger is a hole bear. ADORABLE.
Also, I have been running more and working on dressing better. Still lots of work to do. HOW IS YOUR QUEST TO BE BETTER GOING?
GRATITUDES:
My friend, Seppy, and I have been playing through all the maps in the great great great board game POWER GRID. THE POWER GRID WORLD TOUR. This initially was going to be a big event with a bunch of people, but some people's overly competitive nature ruined that, so me and Seppy just played it by ourselves with having 2 "robot" players that modified the game. It was a great time losing frequently to Seppy (BUT NEVER THE ROBOTS). More importantly, it was a good excuse to set aside a few hours every other week and play games with a friend.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark "ok to print")
None.
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EYEHOLES THIS WEEK:
COBRA KAI. It is a millions times better than it should be. When I first saw the trailer, I thought this was going to be a "so bad it is good" goof show, but holy shit, by the end I was torn on who to root for. The characters are surprisingly complex and well written. Yes, there is still some cheese, but it is a really good show. Legit. THE LAST SCENE THO. CAN'T WAIT FOR SEASON 2.
I WILL NOT BE YOUR KARATE TEACHER.
I WILL BE YOUR SENSEI.
THAT IS ALL.