frozen octopus

I totally had plans to do some Tanabata stuff today. All the news from America is such a bummer lately so I don't really have the fun summer vibes right now.

## Today's Word

- 溶ける = to thaw

Got to say thanks to the tropical storm that just passed by. It totally got rid of the awful air that was lingering here.

All the gun violence news coming from the US is really disheartening. the numbers of deaths from guns is mind blowing. It's the numbers you'd see in a small war.

Had a great rehearsal today. There was one song I couldn't figure out the right beat for. Got that one sorted out. From now until recording, it's all fine tuning now.

## Today's Japanese

- 塩分チャージ = salt content charge

I swear I listened to that Sam Gopal aready this year. It's a good one for people into 1960s pyches for sure. Shocking Blue was a lot heavier than I remembered they were too.

- 最も　= the most

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." ~ Mark Twain

Really dug Th' Faith Healers today. Gotta re-listen.

Getting through "t" artists rather quickly.

Starting to feel like summer. Herbs are growing. Different clothes are making their way out of the closet.

## Today's Words

-  新鮮 = fresh

Took a proper day off today. Just made food, listened to some tech podcasts, and zoned out. Felt good. Holidays are always strange for me. I work for a place in the US but am physically in Japan. When I am off in the US, my friends here are working and vice-versa.

I run into a lot of Japanese websites that use images instead of pure text. It really makes it difficult for people learning the language to look up words in the dictionary or use a translation app.

Listening to a Weirdos album got me wanting a time machine to go back and see some 1970s punk shows. 

Caught myself drifting away from the organization system I have setup. Getting back on track. Drift is inevitable. We always have to be readjusting course to get back on the course. Listening to GTD podcasts for a little bit always seems to get me stoked about keeping on top of things.

Trying to get through some of the Various Artists which is all compilations. Out of all the areas in the music list, there doesn't seem to be a lot of them in Apple Music. Must be a total headache to track down all the artists to get permission to put them on the service. Just a guess. There could be a million reason's for them not being on there.

Japanese Word

I notice that a word will stick out sometimes. I can't tell if a certain word gets said a lot randomly or if my brain is just fixating on words. Gonna try to remember to note them here to see if there is any logic or pattern.

Today's word is...

なるべく = as much as possible, if possible 

Letting a project go is tough but it also feels lighter. I had a blog I really want to do but I really don't have the time for it. So, I packed up the files, put them away, and am enjoying not feeling guilty about having a neglected blog staring me in the face every day.

tech.

I went to 1000s of cats rehearsal and we worked on new songs for the 7". There is limited space so we can only choose about four songs. It's a challenge to select four that make sense together. Lots of micro-decisions to be made.

The one decision I am hung up on is do we record the oldest of the new songs or the newest of the new songs?

We got a lot done at practice today. I have a lot of lyrics to iron out though. Lyric writing is all about iterations for me. I keep tweaking and tweaking. Then, right before I am going to call it done, I scrap everything and write something better really quickly.

Listened to these two albums today.

ハッピーホリデー!