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Fundamentals, Vol. V by Brothertiger:

I am so stoked to bring you another installment of my instrumentals, Fundamentals, Vol. V. If you’re an avid viewer of my streams, you might recall me telling you that I would be retiring the Fundamentals series and releasing subsequent instrumentals in a new model. Well, I changed my mind. As special as the I-IV series was, I feel that this concept has become quite memorable to listeners. Why change a good thing? In any case, I have no plans on slowing down this part of my musical repertoire. Hope that’s OK with y’all.

I am so excited to have further entries in this series. Brothertiger is one of my absolute favorite musicians and these EP releases have always made me so happy. I just wish he would release his music on cassettes. I would buy everything.

DAY 10: train #mbapr

I miss Neo Gaia Phantasy and the Virtual Desktop Experience so much. Yes, I am nostalgic for COVID-era streaming content, but these weekly streams were so much fun. Equip, R23X, James, and Tech from Death’s Dynamic Shroud have so much chemistry, and the operating systems were so good.

DAY 9: crispy #mbapr

I love BitCam so much. Since its launch, it has been the only camera I really use for taking fun photos. I was looking through all of my old photos I had taken with it (all using the FatBits setting). I will be putting together a gallery, just because they are so funky looking.

The photos I have been taking for the April Micro.blog Photo challenge have used the Standard setting just for more legibility and less squinting required.

Taking photos this way reminds me of the separation between real life and computer life. As much as I love computers and am grateful for them, I am at my healthiest when I maintain an understanding of separation.

DAY 8: prevention #mbapr

On the way to see the beautiful film Robot Dreams this evening, I saw someone sitting at a gas station with a sign on their shirt and another to the side of them that said l8l.info. It was memorable enough to get me to check it out when I arrived home. Amidst a very long explanation of LISP and Emacs, personal elements began appearing like the following:

I am outdoors (since 2024 January 09) and having been sleeping near the intersection at Waiʻalae Ave and 21st Ave, other side of guardrail by the tall metal box.

So, I finally feel less scared of everybody else despite having no place to be anymore, and am trying to let people know I am no one scary either, even after the worldwide germ scare we all went through.

Yes, I am that person walking around with "L8L.info" clipped to the front and back of myself. It has gotten to the point that I know no one (best references have died the last few years) and I am out of ideas of how to get to know people. Everybody drives around in a box (and difficult to see inside), and I have been behind the computer most of my life.

I have about a half-century of life behind me, and I am entering my second half-century. Perhaps an old leftover technologist, along the lines of a computer wizard (research and development) rather than a computer genie (maintenance of problems). Prefer to eliminate problems, even if that means an approach eliminating the computer as a tool for a task.

I seem to have lost all my stories about our culture, so I have no interest in products or services, no interest in ever being an entrepreneur. There seems to be no such thing as a "need" without a story to sell it. I keep thinking of how no one needs me anymore, and I end up wondering for what do I need anything at all.

What does anyone need? We all are just waiting, all eight billion people just passing the time until our individual final moments, passing by with acceptance and patience.

I don’t have much to say now, but I will be following up because I am absolutely fascinated by this individual and their priorities.

DAY 7: well-being #mbapr

In @patrickrhone’s new book For You (paperback/epub), he puts forward the argument that you and I have so much more agency than we are willing to let on. When put in plain English, we are confronted with descriptive statements about our nature. He does not look down upon us and say “you should” and “you ought to.” He merely describes what we are all capable of being as humans coexisting with each other. If we disagree with his assessments of us, we are only allowed the option of responding, “No, I can’t.” The book is full of wisdom packaged in a way that elicits these interactions. Patrick does not prescribe one particular way of approaching life; instead, he invites us to see what choices we can make in the moment life asks us to make one.

One of my favorite passages is from You Can Be Honest:

You can always say what you mean and mean what you say. You can be someone who only makes promises they can keep and keeps every one they make.

You can be the one who people trust because you’ve never given anyone a reason not to. You can be the one who does what they say they’re going to do.

You can be the one who only says what they know, who is clear when not certain, and is even more clear when you don’t know.

I am sharing this to remind myself of how I need to approach my relationships and friendships, especially in my career as a teacher. I need to remember the power my words can have when working with young students. Their memories are unpredictable, and one joke or blurted comment can bring great joy or great suffering. Pausing and choosing my words before I say them in order to provide an honest response has always been proven to me as the right action to take.

There is an ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, a Hawaiian proverb, that states:

I ka ʻolelo no ke ola, i ka ʻolelo no ka make.

This translates to “in speech is life, in speech is death.”

Patrick’s specificity on how to bring about life with our speech is more needed than ever in an age of misinformation, creation without citation, and when the false confidence of appearing to be right carries no shame when proven wrong. When advice is packaged in the way he has written this book, it has great potential for positive internal change and for the ripple effect that has within a community. Mahalo Mr. Rhone for this beautiful collection of wisdom and for continuing to inspire.

DAY 6: windy #mbapr