- Itās like the ants around here have gone crazy. I noticed them swarming in the kitchen one morning, carting off bits of a granola bar whose wrapper had a corner mysteriously torn off. Did they do it with their teeth? One colony cleansing later, I saw them reappear in another cupboard trying to get into a packet of dates. Wondering if there was something seasonal or lunar about this behavior, I asked some friends if theyād noticed anything similar lately and got āYES!ā for an answer.
- I joked that it was as if the ant leaders had announced that they werenāt going to make their food targets for the quarter, so everyone needed to get out there and collect goddammit!
- Stonks. This week was noteworthy just because everyone now knows what a GameStop is, even though we donāt have any. I saw the headlines but didnāt poke into it until it was too late to get rich. Buut I bought a single overpriced share anyway, in solidarity with the people out to make predatory short-sellers suffer. I canāt even begin to guess if this is as big a deal as some make it out to be, or just a blip the system will painlessly absorb. I canāt intuit if itās the beginning of a sea change in money, or just a January news story. My longstanding ignorance of market matters doesnāt help. But it is exciting to watch.
- If it turns out to be a big deal though, many smart people seem to think it will accelerate adoption of decentralized finance platforms. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about getting my feet wet with PoolTogether, which was just buying lottery tickets with play money. This week I actually used Uniswap, and bought into an index fund governed by smart contracts. Soā¦ progress. Maybe next week Iāll quit my job and yield farm for a living.
- It wouldnāt be an update without some Apple-related anecdote. My wife got one of the new iPad Airs for work purposes, and itās nice enough that I actually questioned needing the next iPad Pro. Better screen technology and an A14X would be great, but if they raise the price for miniLED then I might just settle for an Air. My current iPad Pro, the one-off 10.5ā model (2017), is such a weirdo. Itās like they had to cut a bunch of corners on it while waiting for the redesigned third-generation (2018). It doesnāt support spatial audio with AirPods, even though older devices like the iPhone 7 do. Itās got a white spot on the screen that Iāve seen others complain about. And graphically itās so weak that most games seem to run in 480p.
- Before bed each night, we started watching random YouTube videos of food being prepared, with no narration or music. Just street food kitchens and stalls in Korea and Taiwan frying up stuff at scale, with tons of oil. Itās beautiful, horrifying, and sleep inducing all at once.
- As a result, I didnāt use my Netflix account until Sunday, when I started to watch Alice in Borderland, which is a truly not-bad Japanese live action series based on a manga. I recommend giving the first episode a go, just to see an impressive shot of Shibuya that will make you go āwait, what?!ā. Iām up to Episode 3, which unfortunately goes into one of those time-wasting sequences where people scream/shout each otherās names for about three minutes. Thatās still my number one pet peeve about Japanese shows. Nevertheless, I can recommend it on production values alone.
- What a week for music, though. New albums from Rhye and Weezer, and the long-awaited debut albums from Arlo Parks and Celeste.
- Through the serendipity of my personalized Apple Music radio station, I also discovered Instant Karma, an Amnesty International project from back in 2007 to āSave Dafurā. Itās 61(!) John Lennon covers by various artists, including R.E.M., Willie Nelson, The Cure, a-ha, Lenny Kravitz, and The Postal Service. Avril Lavigne even covers Imagine! I havenāt had the time for it all, but Regina Spektorās version of Real Love might be my pick already.
Tag: Apple Music
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Week 5.21
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Week 4.21
- Itās now been a year of living with the pandemic. I remember hearing about it and wondering how serious it could be; not having been around for SARS when it happened here, I had no frame of reference for how daily life could change with hand sanitizing, mask wearing, and all that. I certainly did not entertain that it could be even worse. By March, I think it was much clearer that this would not be over in a matter of months, and here we are.
- I read some opinions that with the new strains emerging and the efficacy of current vaccines in question, it might easily be 2023 before developed countries are really free of it, while poorer countries may never get there. That may turn out to be overly pessimistic, but on the other hand I worry that without definitive information and leadership, people are only too happy to assume itāll be okay instead of making drastic life-changing plans, like getting out of a tourism-dependent career, for instance.
- I spent more time trying to improve my financial literacy by reading up on things like how to safely draw down on your investments in the unlikely event of retirement, and how it can be more valuable to reduce your monthly expenses than to invest in exactly the right things.
- That prompted me to inspect what Iāve been spending on, and to think about why my monthly expenditure varies so wildly. But when I started to imagine giving up little things (starting with swapping Nespressos for tea bags), it started to feel a little miserly/miserable. If Iām going to be working hard, I want to push hot water through grounds in an aluminum pod goddammit! So the answer I came up with wasā¦ mindfulness. Instead of taking so many things for granted, Iām going to try and consciously enjoy them more.
- Yeah the pods get recycled.
- Bicepās Apricots was on my list of top songs in 2020, and now the full album, Isles, is out. I wouldnāt normally sit through an entire LP of āelectronic musicā but this is a good one. Stream it on Apple Music, and youāll see animated cover art. Paul McCartneyās McCartney III is the only other album Iāve seen with an animated cover, but many of Appleās own playlists now have really expensive-looking animations.
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Listening Remembering 2020
I considered not making one of these playlists this year, but someone said that traditions are most worth protecting when everything else has changed. My instinct with traditions is sometimes just to snap old things off and find something new to do. Maybe a couple of years of therapy will tell me why, but until then, I figured it was pretty low stakes to just make one.
And to my surprise (happens every time), it was an enjoyable exercise and Iām reasonably happy with the result, even though it contains some really basic hits and I probably left out a whole lot of other great stuff.
One thing I noticed as I was pulling in favorites Iād saved throughout the year: there was a tendency towards quiet or mid-tempo songs this time around. Probably a reflection of staying home amidst an apocalypse unfolding in slow motion. In trying to balance that out, I rediscovered a few songs Iād saved but never got back to, like the opening song Donāt Die. As usual, I tried to build in continuity of themes and good transitions, and there are a few intentional jokes in the sequencing of titles.
Edit: Looking back, I discovered many of these songs serendipitously outside of recommendation engines and so on. Apple Music does offer personalized weekly new music picks, but I tend to find new songs by tuning in to the Apple Music 1 live radio station (nĆ©e Beats 1), or checking in on their curated genre playlists. Algorithms, donāt trust them.
Listen on Apple Music | Spotify
- Donāt Die ā NOBRO
- Shook Shook ā Awich
- Cool With Me (feat. M1llionz) ā Dutchavelli
- Inside Out ā Grouplove
- Together ā beabadoobee
- Mood (feat. iann dior) ā 24kGoldn
- fuck, i luv my friends ā renforshort
- you broke me first ā Tate McRae
- PAIN ā King Princess
- Say So (Japanese Version) ā Rainych
- Laugh Now Cry Later (feat. Lil Durk) ā Drake
- I Dunno (feat. Dutchavelli & Stormzy) ā Tion Wayne
- Apricots ā Bicep
- The Hill ā Model Man
- People, Iāve been sad ā Christine and the Queens
- Kids Again ā Sam Smith
- Eugene ā Arlo Parks
- Lover ā G Flip
- Young Americans ā Durand Jones & The Indications
- Lockdown ā Anderson .Paak
- Itās Hard (feat. Email SandĆ©) ā Giggs
- Show Me Love (feat. Miguel) ā Alicia Keys
- snow jam ā Rinne
- Holy (feat. Chance the Rapper) ā Justin Bieber
- death bed (feat. beabadoobee) ā Powfu
- Devil That I Know ā Jacob Banks
- Believe ā Anna of the North
- the 1 ā Taylor Swift
- Youāre Still the One ā Okay Kaya
- Good News ā Mac Miller
Comment section
Donāt Die ā NOBRO
Not only a fun song with a great animated video, but an obvious message to open with? Donāt die!Shook Shook ā Awich
I donāt understand why someone whose husband died from being shot would make a song that appears to glorify gun violence, but itās a banger.(more…)
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Week 47.20
- Last episode, I promised a return to Animal Crossing this week. I did manage to keep my word, but just barely. Upon opening the front door to my house, my character jumped in shock at the sight ofā¦ cockroaches. At least Nintendo made them sorta cute. You have to chase them down and when you step on one, a little ghost cockroach rises up from the ground I shit you not. It’s a little hard getting back in the swing of things on the island, but it was nice and I think I’ll continue.
- One of the bottles of bourbon I got last week is already on its last dregs. Has that joke been made before? It’s been about six years since his name came up on this blog, but Jussi came over for a chat and to suffer some untested drink combinations. There were no side effects or complaints, so we’ll have to try harder next time.
- In 2017, I attended my company’s annual training/alignment/social conference, held in Berlin that year, and posted a short video of the experience. It’s now obviously impossible to do these in person, so they attempted a virtual event over two days. It was better than I expected, helped by the fact that Zoom now supports setting up many parallel “breakout rooms”, with a menu that lets people choose which they want to join. Just like a real conference, we were forced to think hard about which talk or workshop to attend, and weigh popular, oversubscribed events against smaller ones with niche topics but more chance of meaningful interaction. But unlike the old days, you can now access recordings of every event and watch them on your own time afterwards.
- Does anyone remember the singer Katie Melua? One of her new songs popped up on a playlist and I struggled to place the name. Then I looked her up, and of course, she came out back when I was in university and would have been everywhere on TV and on the shelves at HMV (I spent a lot of time there). According to Wikipedia, she was the UK’s best-selling female artist in 2004ā2005, and has a comet named after her. Just surprised me that I would completely forget her; I mean, I remember Peter Andre.
- The 2020 Apple Music Awards were also announced, and four out of five recognitions went to hip-hop artists (Taylor Swift won Songwriter of the Year). I gave the Album of the Year a try: Roddy Ricchās āPlease excuse me for being antisocialā, but am unlikely to ever play it again. A lot of contemporary, trappy, woozy American hip-hop just doesnāt do it for me.
- In contrast, Iāve been enjoying UK grime and drill, and discovered Dutchavelliās Dutch from the 5th album on Apple Musicās great radio program, The Dotty Show.
- My App of the Week has been Guitar Girl (iOS) ā Itās an idle clicker where you follow a high schooler who livestreams herself playing the guitar in her free time. You can imagine the rest. Tapping equals likes, and you can add followers who will auto-tap when youāre not around. As her presence grows, a bunch of relationship stories unfold behind the scenes through text messages.
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Week 41.20
- Some weeks donāt feel like very much at all, even if they kept you busy at time. Taking stock on a Sunday and realizing this is a bit like how your brain sorts experiences into Keep/Forget piles while you sleep, I think. Many things happened, few of them really mattered. Forward, onward.
- Iāve now twice experienced cocktail bars that are taking reservations and then telling you youāve got between 90ā120 mins before they turn your table over to the next group. This is definitely new to pandemic times and odd to me. If youāre sitting down at 8pm with some friends, youāre just getting started at 90 mins, and very likely to spend a lot more in the 90 minutes after that.
- I think itās related to the current regulation that says they have to stop serving alcohol at 10:30pm. I thought restaurants had to stop serving in general, so we can all go home and drive the chances of spreading infections down just that little bit more, but no! They can keep on serving you food and dessert into the night; itās just alcohol that has to stop at 10:30pm. Donāt get it. On the other hand, thereās a business opportunity here to just run very nice pop-up mocktail bars that feel like proper nice bars to have a chat, for people who are already well buzzed and ahead by the time 10:30 comes about.
- I just bought Cocktail Party, an iPhone cocktail recipe app that hooked me by having a generous attitude. I was searching for some info and came across their website, which has all the recipes out there in the open. If you want the convenience of an app, and the ability to enter what ingredients you have so they can tell you what drinks you might make next, you drop $4 USD. I did it without a second thought, which I RARELY do. I just really liked their business model and approach.
- I think this may be related to a certain emotional state Iām in after having watched all 10 episodes in the first season of Ted Lasso (Apple TV+). Everything about this show repelled me when I scrolled by it in the catalog: the fact that itās an American comedy sitcom, that it involves football (soccer), the name that says nothing, his mustache, the promise of being a feel-good something. But @hondanhon rated it on Twitter a few days ago, calling it āa hundred thousand dollars of therapy that every person needsā and āa striking show for our timeā. Now after bingeing the whole thing in a night and a morning, I concur. Theyāve succeeded in crafting an uplifting show that doesnāt make you want to gag, around a positive hero who tries harder than anyone possibly could ā but inspiringly so.
- I must mention the release of Gimme Some Truth, a new compilation of John Lennonās āgreatest hitsā on the occasion of his 80th birthday. I spent the weekend playing it any time music was desired, and they simultaneously donāt make them like this anymore and didnāt back then either. The whole affair has been completely remixed and remastered from the original tapes, on all-analog equipment to boot. It sounds impeccable: so much cleaner than the recordings we already had, and some people will have the pleasure of playing Blu-Ray audio discs with Dolby Atmos. I donāt know why Apple Music doesnāt provide surround mixes of select albums that work with the new spatial audio feature of the AirPods Pro. Anyway, read about the album (JohnLennon.com) and give it a listen (Apple Music).
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Week 40.20
- This is the 14th consecutive week of doing this ānewā regular blog update rhythm. I suppose it wouldnāt hurt to keep going, although itās getting harder to think of things worth mentioning since so much of what happens is now a thematic repeat. But Iāve decided to give myself a break. So what if I do the same things? So what if Iām negative? So what if this bores you/me/anyone? At least Iām still here.
- I tend to mention Apple Music a lot in these posts, and this week I noticed that my āNew Music For Youā playlist hasnāt updated in several weeks. Itās supposed to refresh every Friday, based on your listening habits. All the other algorithmic personalized playlists are fine. I guess as long as they find new ways to break things, Iāll mention them. Do I want to get on another hour-long support call to complain about this? Not really. I might spend more time with the music Iāve already discovered instead.
- One of my favorite songs of last year was Charli XCXās White Mercedes, and it popped back in my head this week and stayed for days. I was even motivated to go on YouTube and look for interesting covers ā there was just one: a rough take by Alec Primavera that shows what a strong ballad it is. I kinda want Ryan Adams to come out of exile and cover it.
- While weāre on YouTube, the Auralnauts team is still obsessed with making Star Wars videos, and this new one is pretty clever: it uses footage from the prequels and their spot-on overdubs to realize a story about Anakin and Obi-Wan on a weekend-long clubbing bender. Turning a giant Jedi battle scene into a glowstick rave is just inspired. Weekend at Obiās.
- I watched the US presidential debates like everyone else, and all that noisy talking over each other just gave me anxiety like Uncut Gems. I then went on Twitter and saw other people making the same reference. Did Uncut Gems come out in 2020? Iām lost in time.
- Iāll come back to Apple for a second: itās weird that no Western media seems to have gotten the new iPad Air for a hands-on demo; at least, I canāt find anything on YouTube. But a quick search shows that quite a few Chinese media/bloggers were invited to handle and shoot footage with the new devices, in what looks like an Apple Store. My guess is that the out-of-hand COVID situation in the US is preventing similar events, and they canāt mail the iPads to journalists until the products are ready to come out (lest the A14 chip be officially benchmarked before the iPhone 12 event). China being relatively safe at the moment has given them the First Look video advantage.
- Iāve been playing the new mobile game from the Chinese developer miHoYo (their tagline: Tech otakus save the world), previously known for the impressive looking but not-my-cup-of-tea anime action game, Honkai Impact. This new one is an open-world RPG called Genshin Impact, and it liberally borrows all the good bits of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while leaving out all the annoying parts like weapons that break after you use them too much. Itās a breakthrough in free-to-play game design, art direction, and mobile game engineering. Most F2P RPGs are absolutely awful and quite transparent about the fact that theyāre not about fun or gameplay mechanics, just completionist character collecting gacha loops that whales get hooked onto. You can actually play Genshin Impact without thinking much about paying for anything, and there are no ads ā those inclined to pay for rare items and characters can do that, but itās not pushed in your face, nor does it seem necessary (at least several hours in, where I am).
- A late discovery: Okinawan brown sugar, or kokuto. Iām drinking an old fashioned right now that I threw together with vanilla bitters, Gentleman Jack, and a dash of dark syrup made with this complex, earthy, salty sweet stuff. I found a good article on the āArt of Eatingā site, if sugar as a fancy healthy food sounds like your kinda thing.
- After watching S2E6 of Midnight Diner (the original series), I had the sudden urge to make a pot of Japanese cream stew, so thatās what we did for Sundayās dinner. If you could go into a restaurant here and find that, I probably wouldnāt have; itās one of those things you just have to do for yourself.
Genshin Impactās highest quality settings (iPhone 11 Pro Max) -
Week 36.20
August 31 ā September 6, 2020
- At the start of the week, Apple Music 1 (the radio station, nĆ©e Beats 1) wasnāt working for me. I suspected it had something to do with the change in name and perhaps change of URL for the stream. It didnāt matter which device, Apple ID account, or internet connection I used, it was just down for a couple of days! I thought Iād be helpful and report it to Apple support, but that resulted in me spending an hour on live chat and the phone, being passed from the team to team, across several countries. Finally someone in Ireland was able to document the problem in their internal systems and let me go. Itās needlessly difficult. I said I didnāt need anyone calling me back or telling me when it was fixed, I just wanted them to log it. I should have just tweeted at them.
- I had large double cheeseburgers with bacon and luncheon meat and fried onions for two meals this week. I can 100% tell that Iāve put on weight now. Itās on my face. A couple of friends have given up drinking and lost weight after a few months. Itās an effective method, but I donāt know what Iād do with all this misery if I tried it.
- Necrobarista is a very different visual novel on Apple Arcade and Steam. It seems to try very hard to remind you that itās set in Australia, with lots of āmateā usage, to the point where I thought it was made by Polish developers or something, and sounded inauthentic. Turns out it was made in Australia, so what do I know? Anyway what makes it different is that you donāt just click through dialogue quickly and see different character images pop upā¦ each click through actually switches the whole scene and camera angle in a 3D space. A lot of work went into posing the characters and animating these short 1ā3 second bursts. Itās much more cinematic than youād be used to, and it makes you value each moment that much more. Unfortunately, the writing could be quite a bit better.
- This week I watched quite a few videos by John Daub, who does this YouTube channel called Only In Japan (side note, but that linked channel is effectively a reboot after he sold his original channel). Iāve seen his stuff around for years, and he sometimes appears on those awkward, cheesy English language programs that NHK World puts out (donāt get me wrong, I actually like them for what they are, e.g. Peter Barakanās long-running Japanology series, which just feels like a lovely artifact from the 90s even when the episodes are brand new). But I never really got into Daubās style until he started doing livestreams. Back at the office, we used to tune into Twitch streams of people walking around various cities, eating things, checking out shops, and the virtual tourism was nice left in the background of a workday. Daub elevates that basic formula by being knowledgeable; a bit of a historian and tour guide, who also interacts with his community in the live chat. Iām now contemplating becoming a supporter on Patreon just because his walkabout videos feel slightly like being able to go on holiday during this pandemic. I shit you not, the other night I was walking in place in my living room as he went around Toyosu, like a sort of Brian Butterfield version of virtual reality.
- For reasons I canāt remember, the Gregory Brothersā viral auto-tune internet hit, Dead Giveaway, was stuck in my head for most of the week. As the words became more familiar, I was struck by how absolutely tragic they were. For those who donāt know the main line which was lifted from Charles Ramseyās TV interview, it goes āI knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black manās armsā¦ dead giveaway!ā The way he says it in the original video, and the kind of nodding unsurprised reaction of everyone, just speaks to the awful world of normalized racism people like him/us are living in. Further āresearchā on YouTube led down a rabbit hole of other videos surrounding the horrible Ariel Castro kidnapping caseā¦ which Iāll spare you from.
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Week 34.20
- Iād like to know just how good the pandemic has been for Nespressoās bottom line, because I am using my machine so much more these days and canāt be the only one. In our house, we probably go through a sleeve of 10 pods every two days. On account of running low and a new local promotion that gets you a pair of metal cups (that look like their pods) and a little Monin brand flavored syrup sampler, I ordered, and received the next day, 30 sleeves. Thatās 300 cups of coffee.
- So the included syrups were blackcurrant (maybe more suited to tea?), white peach (not the weirdest iced coffee Iāve had, but uhh), and salted caramel (omg). The latter is the best, because now Iām making Starbucks-ish caramel macchiatos (but better!) at will, at home. But the most exciting application of these isnāt coffees, but cocktails! Salted caramel old fashioneds, trust me, do it. A dash of chocolate bitters along with angostura bitters works too.
- When we did our next Redmart grocery order, I put a full 700ml bottle of the salted caramel syrup in the cart. Would you believe this brand makes something like a hundred different flavors? I tweeted that I lost about an hour of my life browsing through them and reading the product descriptions with a mixture of recognition and relief ā I know what itās like to have to create endless copy variations few will ever see or appreciate, and Iām glad Iām not doing that at the moment.
- A typical Monin one features a few nods to the flavor and a hint of backstory, followed by serving suggestions (Lavender: āInspired by the lavender fields of Southern France, aromatic and pretty in purple for lavishly hued speciality drinks like mocktails, cocktails, and more.ā) But in some of them, itās hilariously clear the copywriter had no idea what the flavor even is (Agave: āMade with premium ingredients, it is especially formulated to dissolve instantly with any hot or cold beverage, for fast convenient use with great taste.ā) And every now and then, you catch them trying to have what little fun they can (Caribbean syrup: āCreate ārumbustiousā coffees, non-alcoholic cocktails and dessert drinks with the nose of rum aged in oak barrels and the sweet rum taste to make any pirate proud!ā)
- Last week I mentioned Apple Music and this week they began killing off the Beats brand, clumsily renaming the Beats 1 radio station āApple Music 1ā. They also launched two new live, DJed stations: Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. The former is supposedly dedicated to Top 40 music from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Iām glad theyāre expanding the live stations. I donāt care for either of the two new ones, but thatās okay. Itās just the missed opportunity with the brand name that gets me. The Beats 1 station minus country music and old hits would be even MORE Beats than before. Which just means Apple isnāt interested in building out any more brand equity for Beats; theyād rather do some Highlander shit and lop its head off to transfer its street cred to Apple Music. Did that work when they killed iTunes? I complained about this to Michael, and we agreed that their product naming is just beige now that itās āApple [Noun]ā for everything in the Cook era.
- I met a couple more of my colleagues in person this week, and Iāll be leaving the house for a justified meeting in the coming week. Iām up for more of the first, because we had a great chat till it was nearly midnight, but am not especially keen for the second to occur regularly just yet. Several friends have shared their companiesā plans to become permanent work-from-anywhere organizations. Provided itās sustainable (thereās work to be done, culture doesnāt erode over time), I can see remote friendliness becoming a major make-or-break factor for recruitment and retention next year.
- This week in games I finished Neo Cab (worth it), started Next Stop Nowhere (promising, but I found a bug and will wait till they update), and purchased Burnout Paradise (now discounted to USD$35 on the Switch) for the second time in my life. The first was maybe 12 years ago for the XBox 360. I didnāt enjoy its open world structure much then, but I drove around for an hour yesterday and it felt good. Oh, and Otherworld Legends is a surprisingly good and free roguelike beat-em-up.
sangsara.net 