Hey hey all good party people in the house. Good to the morning. What is the ups? How are the haps? How do you do, fellow young people.

Do you have a parent friend in Boston? Tell them to come to this next week! I have been too lax in my promotion. If each of you could, you know, tell one New-England-based goth parent, we might have a full house of over-sugared, insane kids dancing to Bauhaus. It really is a sight to behold. I love that this exists in the world.

I even spent $20 promoting it on Facebook to Parents in New England who list Goth or New Wave as interests. I am committed.

Can’t have too many projects.

Hey I wrote something in my personal journal yesterday I thought I would share with you. I do this mainly to support the illusion that the personal journal, in which I write each day about fifteen minutes after writing this, routinely contains such gems. And is not, in fact, a litany of to-do lists, and repeated complaints such as: “my feet are cold,” “my neck hurts,” and “I am hungry.”

To whit (this should all be in a blockquote but it’s too long and it will look weird so I will do that single-quote-at-the-beginning-of-a-paragraph thing):

“I am too emotionally level with this Cymbalta sometimes I feel that thing where I worry because I don't feel enough emotion lately and I think about going off of it but also it is really nice to, you know, not care about everything so much. Well that is not true I still care, I just care more... academically. It is kinda hard to describe, actually. I wouldn't say I am floating above things, but I think that's a metaphor I have heard people use about antidepressants and I wouldn't say it is completely incorrect. A bit of detachment. But also... I have been missing my parents a bit more these last few days. Mom especially. I miss what she was when I was a kid. A Nielsen packet came in the mail yesterday asking us to be whatever the modern equivalent of a Nielsen family is. And I remembered when I was a kid when we got to be a nielsen family and it was so exciting to me, and also I was realizing yesterday, my parents were kinda into it? Or let us do it because I was into it? Or something? They explained it to me and taught me about it and... well I didn't do any of that with Jane, I just tossed it in the trash. But it made me wonder what my parents actually thought about it, and of course I have no idea. They seemed into it but maybe they were just indulging me.

“And this morning I was driving Jane to school. And I was a little cranky, not cranky just tired really, and was worried Jane would notice, so I rallied myself to talk to her about the Christmas lights and things. And it got me thinking: thinking of all the times my mother drove me to school and how did I ever notice, could I think of one time, when she was in a bad mood driving me to school?

“I was so self-absorbed as a kid, as all kids are, and it's such an obstacle to knowing your parents and just wish I knew them better. Knew them as adults in their prime. There is a paradox because I knew the old and infirm parents really well, but not the amazing ones who raised me. And that makes me sad and embarrassed. For me, for them, for Jane, for the idea of anyone really knowing one another, kids knowing grown-ups and vice versa.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

We are continuing the playlist cleanout. We have Twenty-six hours left. We have uncovered six albums now that did not, in fact, get a first listen. Albums by Convenience Store, mary in the junkyard, bloodsports, Acopia, and the aforementioned Brandi Carlile, no relation to Belinda. We are on the sixth now, a short album by the Mary Onettes, whom I do not ever recall listening to, but are very good. I should learn more about this band. They’re like shoegaze meets W Hotel in an alternate universe. A little modern synth goth. Album is called SWORN. I may have starred every track.

So yesterday I casually tossed out a comment that I wondered where all the UX experts and discourse went, and a friend wrote something that, in retrospect, seems kinda obvious but I hadn’t thought about:

Most of them found out that Design Thinking was hard to measure and were the first to lose their jobs when McKinsey and Accenture advised. They and others are teaching at Carnegie and UC and Georgia Tech to ride out their careers. They teach things like UI for AI and have titles like "Assistant Professor of The Practice at CMU HCII”

…

Simply put, the MBA’s won and now they own product.

Well that is fucking depressing, I had not considered that. I feel bad. And this explains a lot, actually, because I have definitely noticed that over the last decade since the UX heyday, the web has gotten shittier looking and less usable. I suppose these two things are not a coincidence. Man. What a bummer. I’m a bit gobsmacked I had not put this together or read more about it prior to this. It makes me sad. I was lightly mocking those UX people yesterday because I always found them a bit too serious, but I also found them very smart, broadly correct, broadly good people and broadly fighting for the users, as they say in Tron.

Now I am sad about it.

BUT it is my day off so we will try and not dwell of the abundant shittiness of the world. I am going to go to Walmart and pay pool bills and wrap presents and go the recycling center and see a plumber (third time in a week we have had a plumber in the house). I am going to listen to music and try and not sit in front of the computer all day. It is going to be great. GREAT I SAY.

Do we need AI wills? Do I need to write a thing into my will to not Caprica me and resurrect me for AI purposes? I feel like we should be adding this to our wills. I mean, Emma wouldn’t do it and the Jane I know now, extrapolated to adulthood wouldn’t do it, but would, like, her granddaughter, who is casually just using Ancestry.com and linking her dropbox or something? Who knows. Would it even stop anyone? Who knows. Will my lawyer look at me like a lunatic when I ask him? Do I even definitely not want to be digitally resurrected? I mean it looked pretty fun in Caprica, she was, like, hanging out at a virtual goth club. But, then, you know, the Cylons were coming and the whole planet was gonna get destroyed any minute now, which we knew because Caprica was a prequel. Underrated prequel to Battlestar Galactica. More prescient than I gave it credit for at the time. Eric Stoltz was great I miss that guy. he has not had the late career blossoming of his former compatriot Ethan Hawke. Bring back Eric Stoltz.

Well that wasn’t an ADD paragraph at all. No, I think I can hold off on the AI will for a little longer. Maybe we will, you know, develop a comprehensive legal framework of equitible creator compensation for their role in building generative frameworks, and a robust opt-out system. Right? Right? We can totally do that. We did it with Radio! Sort of. No opt-out. Compulsory licensing. Almost as good. I would take compulsory licensing — required, statutorily-set payments even if you can’t opt out from having your music played on the radio. That would be an all right compromise, I guess. But I’d prefer a robust opt-out framework. Oh shit I am ADD-ing again. If that were to come into existence, and we, you know, solved the climate crisis, then yeah, go ahead and digitally resurrect me. The 22nd century could totally use my unique brand of noble pedestrian domesticity and witty political insights.

Here. Jane drew a poopy butt this morning.

I’m really very impressed with it. “Look he has rainbow hair” I said, upon her completing the drawing (there were no words on it yet).

“That is not hair,” she corrected. “It is a shirt. The brown part is a bum.”

She added the words to make it more clear.

I am pleased.

Last night we watched this amazing one-hour Kurzgesagt video that was 200,000 years of human history in one hour and it was amazing and Jane sat in my lap and we put a blanket over us and she sat there watching mesmerized for, oh, 40 minutes or so of it while we snuggled.

Then she got up and started jumping and running around.

But that first 40 minutes? Man. That was heavenly.

Justa mix today, mostly new stuff. This SRSQ song came on on my drive this morning, and it is a gem, I didn’t remember it. Very nice. New Afghan Whigs is great. I am milquetoast on the new Ladytron so far. Jenny on Holiday is the woman from Let’s Eat Grandma and I’m very into her solo synth ystuff so far. There is, as ever, new Mountain Goats god that guy is prolific. I like it more on this second listen. Just discovered this Acopia, it is great. Elias is the singer for Ice Age, I am enjoying his solo stuff but I prefer Ice Age’s bleaker aspects. Hatchie album is great, just great. Flock of Dimes is a new discovery for me — I was avoiding them cuz I thought their name was dumb and just missed them in Saxapahaw, but I am enjoying the album. The end.

Oh wow it’s Friday how exciting. Have a lovely weekend. I will regale you with tales of studio work on Monday. My last weekend of the year getting to work on it. Would have liked to have finished the floor this year but, well, life is life, as Laibach say.