frozen octopus

I am down to 70 albums on a dynamic list of music I keep giving myself to listen to. Don't know why, but I really like getting to the end of a list. Finishing this list is a sort of self-lesson to not do things like add every album from a record label to it. Keeping a list of interesting labels is a much more sane way to go.

What I really want lately is to be able to request my robot to "Get me an album of vibe or genre" and have it reference the cool list of record labels. It could surface music that is recently released and get that into my ears first. Then, if there is nothing out lately, it can find something older from those labels. It can see all the albums I have listened to since I list them on the site and suggest only ones I haven't heard before.

Basically, I just want to wake up, start listening to something from sources I want to support, and not go down the rabbit hole of staring at record covers. I love the rabbit hole of staring at record covers, but that is a thing for after getting things done.

Looks like the next action is to make a list of record labels.

Sometimes when I open an album from the list by an artist I don't know yet, it won't be out. It is set as a pre-release, and all the tracks are grayed out. Sometimes one or two will be listenable.

The intended effect of a pre-release is supposed to build tension and anticipation. It is supposed to get me excited for that magic day when the album is out. I worry that it is having the opposite effect on me, and maybe others.

Instead of anticipation, I am having more of an exasperation or disgruntled vibe happening. That vibe when you have a friend who always makes you a little late because they take too long getting ready.

I never know if it is just me or are others feeling it too. But I am noticing the pre-releasers are getting sorted into a different category in my mind. It's not fair because it is probably a label doing this to time things like press, distribution, etc.

" is annoying cause I need to do extra work" <--- This is happening.

" is annoying cause I need to do  <--- This is not happening.

As a musician, and someone who also helps out an indie label, it is on my mind every time it happens. The pre-release affect isn't happening with me and I worry about it because I love music and bands.

"Yes! The release is finally here! I can click the button and hear the sounds." <--- This is not happening.

"Fine, I'll put you in the text file with all the others that made me do data-entry just so I will hopefully remember to get around to in three months" <--- This is happening.

Your band is now on "the wait list" which is not fair but you made me put it on the list. Fun to ruminate on this. I bet if you ask me in a couple months, I will have a completely different opinion which is the fun of it all.

I went to the rehearsal studio last night to play some drums to get ready for an important show on Saturday. Playing drums alone is fun but sometimes there is a point where you have no idea what to play.

So I decided to use the time to get better at a kick drum technique I don't use often. There are two basic ways to hit a kick drum.

1. Press Only

Version one is press the kick pedal down for every hit with your toe. Every hit is strong. You end up bouncing the leg a lot. It uses more energy.

2. Press / Slide

The other is where you press down towards the front of the pedal (most far from the actual drum) with the toe. Then you kind of slide forward and place your whole foot on the pedal. It uses less energy after you master the motion. You can also get up to incredible speeds if you need it for your genre.

Which technique to go with?

Both.

I spent the time slowly trying to force myself to use method two last night for while. I got the motion down a little more solid and it started to feel pretty good. It definitely uses less energy and I think it is a little easier to keep the kick drum notes a little more even sounding.

I am still faster with just pushing but probably not for long.

Have the two ways down well and using them where appropriate. I can see myself using the Push/Slide one for long stretches of the same pattern to preserve energy and then with to the other for intense bursts. The Push only method sounds really cool so use that when it is needed.

I see it like a guitar player. You can strum up and down (ex: push/slide) which is more efficient. You can also just do downstrokes (ex: push only) which sounds really cool.

Get good at both and use when the time is right.

If you are following the Album feed from this website, you might have noticed a little chaos lately. I have been running all the old albums through Claude Cowork having it find and update any missing genres and record labels. It is doing it in batches and it is actually getting things in order. That's the good news.

The "bad" news is the updated albums are showing up in the RSS feed which is a little annoying. Sorry about that. It should be back to normal soon I promise. I think it is about 65-75% finished with the process. After that we'll be caught up and there will only be a couple albums in the feed daily like normal.

How's your blog going? Send me a link if you have one.

There are two computers on my desk. Computer #01, MacBook Pro, has Tahoe 26 running on it with Claude Cowork that I have been using for four months. Computer #02, Macbook Neo, has the Golden Gate 27 beta running on it so it has the new Siri AI.

Both are fun but they are drastically different. I have a system that I have been slowly building in Cowork living in a folder with markdown files. I need to slowly move this system over to Siri AI. Not knocking Cowork but Siri AI works locally so it is s.｡oO much faster doing a lot of things. There is also a ton of things Siri AI can't do yet.

A "house move" like this is a perfect time to do an audit of what I actually need any more. So I am going through the skills I have set up and my contexts to see what I actually need to get done. What needs automation? What can be an Apple Shortcut? What should I actually be doing that I was having Cowork do?

Just have a deep think and have fun building a plan. Try to get it all feeling like I am holding the rudder of the boat careening down the river as opposed to feeling like the boat.

An example of one area I am struggling with that I want to get sorted in System 2.0 are things like Weekly Reviews. I want to wake up on Friday, start my day, get asked the questions to answer to assess where things are, and have it process where I am at. I need it to happen so that it doesn't feel like a task though. Same with monthly, quarterly and yearly. How to answer the life audit questions that need to be answered on schedule but have it be kinda fun and magical?

The fun of moving.

Lately I updated the Mac Neo I got to the macOS Golden Gate 27.0 beta. It comes with the new Siri app and Siri AI. After installing the beta I got busy with work and life so I didn’t have a chance to try it out.

A couple days ago I gave it a serious look at. I’ve been using Claude Cowork since April so it is interesting to compare the two.

My first impressions is that the new Siri AI’s speed is astonishing next to Claude. It doesn’t need to ping some server so it’s answers are surprisingly fast. So fast that it makes me wonder if it actually did what I asked.

It interacts with apps like Calendar and Reminders so well. If I ask Claude Cowork to give me a daily briefing (what is coming up today and what are my to-dos), it takes a minute or two to process. Siri AI gathers all the things in seconds.

Another is I do a daily GTD review. Siri AI is walking me through the review and putting things where it needs to go. I just did a mindsweep of the upcoming day and it put everything that isn’t already in Reminders or on the Calendar in the right spot.

Not a Minus but a Detour

I have an elaborate set of Claude Cowork manuals and rules that I have been building over months. Skills for all the things I do for work, band, and whatever. They are all in a folder in .md file format. Siri AI can read them but can’t edit or update those files right now.

What it can do though is update, append and edit notes in the Notes app. I imported all the .md files and Siri AI can follow them. It’s also letting me know what it can’t do that Claude Cowork can do. It is suggesting work arounds using the Apple apps which is turning out to be really fun for me.

I love building and playing with Shortcuts. It can run shortcuts. This is powerful. A shortcut runs really fast. They can be scheduled.

Random Thoughts

I notice that there is a “I can’t believe it works” time period with Siri AI. A decade of Siri being stiff and kinda working has built up. This vibe is slowly fading away and I am actually getting excited to use Siri again.

No complaints about the Notes app. We use it for band stuff and I use it occasionally with my partner. Now I have to use it all the time for this robot. My image of the Notes app is it’s the equivalent of a yellow legal pad of paper level app. That is not the case now if it is the source of truth for my robot assistant.

It is a minor drag I can’t get at some of my most used apps with it right now. It is in beta so that will probably change in a month or two. If I could have it use Drafts and 2do, it would be wonderful. It can’t so we just have to find another way to get things done. I can send Drafts to Notes with a button click. 2do syncs with Reminders so we can deal with that as well.

Watching the heartbreaking news about the Kumamoto area after the earthquake the last few days. It has my mind back on our emergency supplies and kit for earthquakes. It is not a bad thing to make sure it is all set up considering the amount of quakes in Japan. Watching the people in Kumamoto deal with things has me thinking about two main areas.

The first is our emergency bag/kit. I would say it is pretty good but could be reorganized and leveled up. We definitely need to get a lot more water and food, I think. The recommendation is enough for a week, which we do not have currently. Also, we need to put some more clothes in it as well.

That could easily be solved with a simple solar panel and battery set up.

The second area is power. Watching the reports talk about struggles people are having, I kept thinking, "That could easily be solved with a simple solar panel and battery set up."

It has pushed me to the "going to just buy" level. I love solar panels anyways, so even if we never need it in an emergency, I will still play with it because it is fun/useful.

It could power the a/c in this room and heater, which are both like space heaters/coolers. They both use a lot of power, so I can justify the purchase just for those two units.

Then, if the power should go out, we'd have enough power to keep the fridge cool at least. We have a plug-in IH cooktop we could power for cooking and water boiling. We have a bunch of portable phone batteries with USC-C connectors to charge. LED Christmas lights for nighttime don't use lots of power.

After a quick bit of research, I am thinking about getting an Anker Solix S2000 and a 400W solar panel. The panel could change after some more digging around. 

I got a time stamper from an incredible store called Shimojima that is near where we rehearse. Think of it as the store where you buy the paper supplies you need for your store. So stuff like plain boxes or bags or whatever.

I'm trying not to let this new block printing adventure be an excuse to buy tons of tools. That being said, I did buy three things for archival and tracing purposes.

For archiving I really wanted a date stamper like the ones they use on library cards. They had all sorts of them so I got one with some more black ink for the stamp pad. Very satisfying to go through all the prints and date the backs of them. I already want to start using it for band flyers.

For tracing they had nice packs of carbon paper. I am at the point where I needed some to get more tricky things like letters and numbers on to the block. Carbon paper is a must for that so got that bought.

Black, white, and brown work so well when together.

Bonus purchase was craft paper post cards. My block prints look cool on white business cards but they look amazing on craft paper. Black, white, and brown work so well when together. Also, the craft paper has all there subtle color variations in it. A cool find.

I started in on Moku Hanga (wood block printing) over the weekend. I was missing woodworking, but that is not a feasible pursuit in a small apartment. Carving the blocks puts my brain and hands in the same vibe as when I was woodworking. It also has that wood smell that is wonderful for woodworking.

So far, I am at the "what is this tool for” stage but learning pretty quickly. Our local 100-yen store has woodblocks and water-based ink. It’s nice to practice and mess up with cheap supplies while I get my head around this. Keeping things black and white for now. Maybe someday I will get into the whole multicolor printing, but for now, one color is fine.

My theme, for now, is drum-related. I thought it would be fun to try and convert some drum photos to prints. It's either that or something with words. Like a single word with chunky letters or something. I don’t know...I am still trying to figure out the tools level. ( ^ . ^ ) \m/

(Right when I pasted that kaomoji, I realized I should carve a kaomoji block.) 

I’ve been focusing on one drum pattern a month as a default thing to play when I pick up drumsticks. This month is RLRRLL / LRLLRR (Paradiddle-Diddle). Last month was Seven Stroke Rolls which I lovingly refer to as "Janie Jones" now.

Starting into this month's pattern I wasn't into it at first. This was due to the fact that it doesn't alternate between starting on the left or right hand. It always starts with the same hand you started with. Yes, I know, it is a weird thing to be annoyed by.

I had a revelation with RLRRLL / LRLLRR though. This pattern is amazing as a fill especially when you start it on the "and" of 3. If you start with the left hand, you end up at a spot where you can crash with the left hand and vice versa. It rules.

Also learned that people refer to it as the "Bonham Fill" so that is its new handle.

Another thing that I am thankful I started doing a while ago is resisting temptation and letting myself get to the end of a review. Get a complete overview of the land before starting down the path.

I have a daily and weekly review that I do each morning before starting into work. A review is basically a self-meeting where I discuss things with myself. During the reviews, I would come across a task and start in on it.

“I rule”, I thought as I got a task done as I found it. It felt like I was getting things done.

Then I heard someone talking about how you need to review, resist doing the things, and get to the end of the reviews. So I gave that a shot.

For sure, getting to the end felt frustrating because it didn’t feel like I was doing the work. But with each day I did the complete review of the land completely, actually doing the real work felt easier to do.

My image is I clear off the workbench each day and put the tools where they belong daily. Weekly, I step back and make sure the shop is in order. I am not always looking for the hammer. Projects that I am waiting for the glue to dry on aren’t on the workbench.

Woke up today thinking about how I am grateful to past me for implementing a couple of self-rules a while back that I take for granted now. They are glacial in scope, but they really see the difference now, even though I didn't notice changes when I started.

For example, when I put something into any to-do list or calendar app, the first word is a verb. When I first started doing it, I was like, “ I'll know what to do if I see "Drum Rudiment" in my task app.”

The problem with that is when I read "Drum Rudiment”, I have to think about what that means. I equate that split second of decision like leaving the window open and letting flies (distractions) in. When I start chasing the flies, I don't do the task.

If I read "Do a drum rudiment", I do a drum rudiment right away without opening the window of distraction.

Another benefit of verb first is that on apps, they often truncate the task when they display it. So on my Apple Watch, "Do a drum rudiment" sometimes gets shortened to "Do a drum...". It makes your brain crazy because you want to know "Do a drum what!?". I click to see, and now drumming is on my mind. Just having "Drum Rudiment" does have that effect.

Give verbs to the things you need to get done and write instructions for your future self. You'll start to notice things starting to get done.

( ^ . ^ )y

At the ticket gates here, and probably everywhere, you insert a ticket or pay with a card or phone on the right-hand side. That means right-handed people who pay with their watch have to do a clunky reach over to pay with their wrist.

Us left-handers wear watches on the right wrist. That means when I walk through the ticket gate, I get a rare chance to feel ergonomically normal. It is quite wonderful.

By the way, I finally moved my IC (integrated circuit) card to my Apple Watch and it rules. Don't know my I didn't do it earlier. Took it out for a test run while going to rehearsal and it was really fun.

I also think the IC card readers interacted a little quicker with my watch than with the iPhone. Could be me just thinking that but I was a little surprised a few times how quickly it connected.

Other benefits

On the Pasmo phone app, you can only top it up in increments of ¥1000, ¥3000, and ¥5000. The watch app is any amount up to ¥20000. Not a huge deal but also cool to have the option.

On a trip to rehearsal and back, paying with my wrist is four times less I pull out the phone from the pocket. Also not a huge deal until you do the math.

4 x 365 = 1,460 times I won't pull out the phone.

That is just transit. Throw in transactions at stores as well.

Month two of the focus on one drum rudiment plan is here. Last month I moved From Random Linear to to Monthly Pattern. I'd been generating a random linear drum pattern but decided I was practicing often but probably wasn't getting very deep into a pattern.

The focus on the six stroke roll was good. I am definitely a lot faster at that pattern. I never played it at a show but my hands feel noticeably stronger. All those RR LL is a good workout for sure.

June is the Seven Stroke Roll. Let's go!

I like this rudiment already because it sounds like the intro of Janie Jones by The Clash.

( ^ _ − )b

I went to the practice space last night for a couple of hours to practice two things. The first is the drum pattern I am working on, and the second is the art of messing up.

The way I rehearse a drum pattern is to play the drum pattern. The way I rehearse messing up is to not stop playing. You keep your hands moving and your drum your way back to what you want to play. Practicing recovery is a crucial skill. If you can get back on track, it comes off as “wow” instead of “I can’t believe they messed up”.

So I don’t stop and start over at rehearsal. If a stick flies out of my hand, practice grabbing a new stick. If a drum fill is borked, then you practice getting back to the beat.

There are two jazz albums left on my list of albums¹. I am trying to get through this year. This means I need to make a decision in two days because my thing is to play a jazz album first thing in the morning while free writing and drinking coffee.

Scenario one is to find new albums and add them to the list. Pluses are I keep finding new music and the morning ritual keeps going as usual. Minus is the number of albums on the list increases, slowing down getting to the end of it.

Scenario two is to loop back on the albums I have listened to and give them another spin. Since I have a massive list of albums I can go back to, I could re-listen to some. Pluses are I am not adding to the list, which would keep me on track to get to the end of it. I could also do things like flagging (or liking or starring) the great albums so I can find them in the future. Minuses are I don't discover new music.

Scenario three is to start the day with other genres for a while. Pluses are I start the day with a different vibe and I keep on ploughing through the list. It pushes me to get through classical and soundtrack albums. Minus is lyrics. I chose jazz albums first thing in the morning because there are no words, so they don't enter my free writing.

If I had to choose between these three scenarios, I am leaning towards number two. Number three is in close second right now. What would you do?

1: There are 263 albums left on the list as of 2026-05-19 7:27 a.m.

Lately I've been noticing I have a lot more energy and creativity lately. It's all due to the robot assistant I am building in the AI workshop I have been attending. What it is revealing about myself to me is how much time I was spending maintaining my to-do list and calendar.

For example, I rely heavily on tags in the to-do app. I also need each task to start with a verb. The robot is going through the app and tagging things using my tags I set up. It also rewrites tasks to start with a verb if it doesn't already. It is quite awesome actually. Minutes saved every day.

There is more of course, but you get the point. I had no idea how much time I was "working" in there. I can feel the energy difference as I get more and more of my shortcuts and process into skills it can run.

Another thing I love lately with the robot is that a lot of someday/maybe tasks I had are getting done. As those are getting checked off one by one, a lot of mental weight, I didn't know I had, is getting lifted. Daily some "ugh" work is getting done. It feels incredible.

Someday I'll get around to renaming 20 years of band flyer images that went from "if I do three a day, I'll get done by autumn" to done in an hour.

A third thing I love is how good it is surfacing redundancy and file tidying. It scans folders and folders of .txt files and lets me know if there is any duplicate info, asks me what to do with it, and then gets it all sorted. Not hard for me to do, but that is perfect work for a robot assistant.

When I go reference something in my notes now, there is the info formatted neatly in markdown language. I go in, get info, and get back to the task. No sidetracks because I have to tidy the file first. Again, more energy and less hand strain.

I am having fun, and things are getting done. I have more time and mental energy to do things like make music. What is different than before? Why couldn't I make music before the class? I could, but while I was drumming, it would remind me I have 20 years of flyers to rename. Now I don't.

A few days into focusing on Six Stroke Rolls (RLLRRL). It's going pretty well actually. I haven't done it at a show yet but it'll get there.

One thing I've noticed is that if I play the chunks from the back of the pattern and work to the beginning, it is a little easier than from the beginning. Who knows why? It could just be me.

• RL
• RRL
• LRRL
• LLRRL
• RLLRRL

Doing a little reorganization for my daily drum task, which was practicing a randomly generated drum pattern for five minutes. I have been noticing that I am slightly practicing them a little less lately, which means it is time to put new tires on the drum practice system.

So I am going to do a little self-A/B test to see if it affects my playing or not. I am switching to one pattern a month for a while. I am very curious to see if unconsciously practicing this pattern only gets it so deep into muscle memory that it comes out while playing a show. Have it be the default pattern to tap when pushing a shopping cart, riding the train, waiting for files to upload.

The Pattern

• RLLRRL

For May, I am going to work on a Six Stroke Roll. It is actually a legendary pattern for doing drum fills. They sound amazing when you loop a couple of them. They sound even better when you move them around the drum kit.

• RLLRRL RLLRRL

Splitting this one in half, looping one of the halves, and then playing the fill pattern is a cool option too. It gets your hands a little time to get ready to do the fill pattern.

Expanding on the Pattern

• RLL RLL RLLRRL
• RRL RRL RLLRRL
• RRL RLL RLLRRL

I rely on an Apple Shortcut to get the current album I am listening to into a .csv that I use to import into this blog. It's been working like a charm so I thought I'd share it here for anyone that needs this. You'll have a log of all the stuff you are listening to in a file you can open up in Numbers or whatever.

Steps

First, add a "Run AppleScript" action and add this AppleScript to it.

on run {input, parameters}

set formattedDate to do shell script "date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'"       

tell application "Music"

set trackArtist to artist of current track

set trackAlbum to album of current track

return formattedDate & "|" & trackArtist & " |" & trackAlbum

end tell

return input end run

Add an "Append to Text File" action that gets the results of the AppleScript. It up to you to figure out where the file lives.