Hi readers,
No big thoughts or ideas this month - I think we all know the long haul when we see it - so let's roll through the newsletter in classic proper admin style.
Fall foliage?
If you stomp along the southbound side of Binney Street in Cambridge, you'll encounter the future. No, not some biotech producing a vaccine - I'm talking about FALL FOLIAGE, one crunchy pile of leaves at a time.
What gives? Perhaps the trees have COVID-19, or maybe even COVID-20? Is an early fall (ha ha!) a counter-intuitive feature of climate change? Given the recent popularity of heat waves, maybe these trees just need a drink; I sure do.
Mask update
I'm not very impressed with the common Corona Mask, so I opted to buy a stack of bandannas instead. Fifteen bandannas, twenty bucks total, the world is Haymarket prices. As an added bonus, I can also rotate them as headbands, so everyone wins.
Side note
Side note - just learned 'bandanna' is spelled with the consecutive n's??? I'm going to think about this.
Mouse update
No, not that kind - I'm talking about the computer (but my apartment is rodent free, thank you for asking). My work from home opener is threatening to become the main act and this made me realize that I haven't used a computer mouse in almost five months (or a printer, or my indoor voice, or a desk, or a desk chair...); if you want to learn keyboard shortcuts, just give me a call.
Keyboard update
No, not that kind - I'm talking about the music, man. Anyway, my spare keys are home following a long loan spell and I'm back to unlocking the songs within.
Well, maybe.
Anyway, in March 2015 I was making good progress on 'Ghosts' by The Head and The Heart, following along on this tutorial (and also this one for the solo). This time I'm starting with a couple of Muse tracks because I think these will translate my 'computer keyboard' skills a little better to the musical variant. 'The 2nd Law: Isolated System' has my right hand in mind (and boasts a very easy tutorial layout) while 'Hysteria' will do the same for the left hand (you'll need to watch at 0.25x speed to catch the movements). My hunch was that moving my fingers on the keyboard wouldn't be an issue after a decade of shunning the computer mouse, but I would need some practice with hitting the right notes; the verdict is so far, so good, with my song selection deserving early credit.
What I'm realizing is that although musical instruments are very easy to play, the feedback process is designed to ruin the confidence of any budding The Edge; there is no worse sound than B-flat during 'Under The Sea'. And yet, by consistently drowning myself in the choppy sound for fifteen minutes a day, I'm seeing significant progress; I'm quickly becoming capable of producing ever-impressive errors. My goal is to become good enough such that I can put the 10,000 hours rule to rest once and for all, perhaps by writing my own Malcolm Gladwell style book about how 'true mastery' is achieved fifteen minutes at a time; reader, make like a piano and stay tuned.
In the next month of... True On Average:
1. Feedback for Dave Chapelle?
2. Another eureka moment!
3. I was right about Trader Joe's.
