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We just got back from a phenomenal percussion recital from University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa faculty member Brad Davis. I love that they have free performances on a weekly basis with some genuinely accomplished musicians. We have everything from traditional performances to contemporary ones. I feel spoiled, though, because we get so much Pacific and Asian music, like our gamelan ensemble, shakuhachi, taiko performances, and more.

Tonight’s recital featured a performance of Deus Ex Metronome by Russell Wharton. It is a piece for snare drum with a mind-bending chiptune odd-time metronome accompaniment. Seriously cool.

If you have a university nearby and you enjoy music, you can find some recitals to go to; I highly recommend it. The music department here on Oʻahu posts events regularly during the school year on their calendar, and I have never been disappointed.

Nobody Wants to Buy The Future: Why Science Fiction Literature is Vanishing:

If people aren’t buying science fiction then it may be because they’ve seen the future and would rather they had not.

I could quote this whole article. I have lost all interest in “serious” science fiction. When I do want science fiction I prefer the fantastical to the “prophetic” almost always now.

I’ve been looking for a small piece of lanai furniture that I can leave outside and not worry about. I found a U.S. Army gurney at Re-use Hawai’i and the cashier said, “oh I never could. I hope nobody died on that.”

I love the honesty.

I love this ugly avatar generator.

I heard an advertisement for Micro.blog on the Conduit podcast. First ad in years that I haven’t skipped through.

How to enjoy your problems:

Put another way: there are some problems that are considered OK to talk about and some that aren’t. There are problems people put on the front page of their memoir, and problems they, well, edit out. But regardless of whether other people get your problems, you have to get them. You have to accept your life, absurd as it may be, and try to find some joy in it. And if you can get past accepting and learn to enjoy your problems? Well, that’s pretty much enlightenment.

This is as good a definition of “enlightenment” as I can find. Once you get through all that bullshit of thinking you need to change yourself in order to be something you thought someone else thought was a better version of you, you’re still there. You might as well enjoy that shit.

After at least a decade in the making, we had a lovely first Skyline ride today. We drove out to Kapolei to ride the light rail both ways. It has been functionally open since June 2023; I just haven’t made it out there yet. My favorite part is the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in the stop announcements.

Psst… you can mute Wordle posts by muting the green square emoji.

Somehow I missed the Visions of Mana announcement. Secret of Mana is my all-time favorite game and I am so excited to play this when it is released.

The best thing I’ve watched this month is The WWE’s Complex Black Wrestler Problem. I haven’t watched wrestling since the late 90s, but through friends and students I am kept generally aware of what happens in that world. It is such a unique storytelling form and F.D knocks it out of the park here.