frozen octopus

I am starting to become devout about using lead-ins for the morning writing brainstorm mind-clear I do daily. Things come out slow when I sit down to a keyboard and try to get all the things out of my brain.

But if I use a lead-in to start a phrase and use it over and over, words pour out of my head. They probably let my mind get up to speed before making the jump to the thought. The repetition is soothing as well.

Examples

• "My day looks like I need to..."
• "I don't know but..."
• "Today I need to..."

If the thing I need to do or remember is a cymbal crash, then the lead-in would be the drum fill leading up to it.

Starting off on a new pencil today.

It is a Mono100 3B made by Tombow. It has a softer lead than the F pencil I just finished. There is still a faint bit of hardness to it, though. Like soft with a little grain to it. The B side of the HB Scale is darker, so it is easier to read all the random notes I scribble down.

I think for a lefty like me, 3B is kind of perfect. As you get further into the B scale, you start to see the lead on your hand more. 3B isn't so bad for that.

Listened to a lot of top notch albums last week but these four stood out. I think the common thread between the four is the production. All four just sound really good. The music is great of course. When you listen to one of these albums, you can tell they cared more than just recording the songs.

• Augustus Pablo Original Rockers #reggae
• Yura Yura Teikoku Kudo Desu #indie
• Happy End Kazemachi Roman #rock
• Immersion & SUSS Nanocluster, Vol. 3 #indie

I ran across the idea of using moon phases as triggers to get things done. It has really stuck with me. It's one of those plain as the nose on your face level ideas. When you buy a daily planner or use a digital calendar, there is usually a moon phase in there or easy to add. It is cyclical.

Just for fun, I asked an AI to assist me with organizing my to-do system but align it with the moon. It gave me a lot of ideas to play around with in the future. There was one idea that made me point at the screen and say, "That rules!"

It told me to use the moon phase icons on my projects . That is genius. That is taking an icon and using it at full power. I can tell I love the idea because I had to rush to blog about it.

Here is what it suggested:

🌑 New Moon: Planning, starting new projects
🌓 First Quarter: Action, building momentum
🌕 Full Moon: Completion, evaluation
🌗 Last Quarter: Reflection, clearing

It could be a Kanban . It can be done with a .txt file. It can be done in an app. It can be done with paper. The actual moon could be a trigger for project review.

Oh look...today is the new moon, I should review all projects in planning phase.

I am stoked to start implementing this. Project organization is not my most favorite, so anything to make it easier to do, easier to understand, and kind of fun rules.

: If this is an idea from someone somewhere, let me know so I can credit them here.
: Kanban is pronounced kahn-bah. Full stop.

Found myself at the keyboard, kind of void. I think it is because I like writing about minutiae, but there are a lot of enormous things happening. Me choosing my next pencil compared to global economic upheaval is a proton-level tiny thing.

That proton-level tiny action is what I need to do to start the ball moving at all. Doing the particle-level things gets me to the atom-level things and so on.

I am at the end of the pencil I have been using. It is an F, as in hardness, not failing grade. It is the center point between an H and B pencil, so it is the Goldilocks pencil. Not too hard and not too soft. They seem to last a little longer than a pencil on the B side of the scale.

They have a nice "scritch" level, meaning there is a little friction when you write on the paper. You get a sizzle sound while you write, which I am into.

For the next pencil, I am wavering between a carpenter pencil or a really soft B pencil. The large shape of a carpenter pencil is so satisfying for a drummer, I think. After an F pencil, a 6B would feel like writing with a Sharpie. Still deciding.

A quick review of last week's music and these three clearly stood out in my mind. I don't know how that Swamp Dogg album got in my list but thanks to past me for somehow finding that. Tranzmitors and Fire Engines too. Totally happy those got on my list somehow too.

If I was smart, I would make a note on how I come across music. A good idea but giving future me even more tasks maybe not such a good idea.

- Tranzmitors Busy Singles #punk
- Swamp Dogg Total Destruction To Your Mind #soul
- Fire Engines The Hungry Beat #post-punk

I am a big fan of dill. Dill is pretty rare to non-existent in a Japanese grocery store. If there is any, it is pretty expensive. I always keep my eye out for seeds when we are somewhere that sells plants but they never have it.

So I was stoked that I actually found a pack the other day. Yes I know I can order them online but there is a thrill in the hunt.

Planted them and after three days, they sprouted. Very stoked to have fresh dill soon.

The music that stuck out to me from last week are the Uriah Heep album and the Eric Dolphy album. I think I am in the mood for heavy music from around 1970 right now. Stuff like that and Deep Purple for example. It's probably more of a needing to hear sound that isn't compressed or digital.

For the Eric Dolphy one, I searched all the artists in the title. Found a bunch of albums to check out in the future. Finding ways to find more music is as important as finding music sometimes. Also just a cool record. I keep going back to Eric Dolphy lately.

• Uriah Heep Look At Yourself #rock
• Eric Dolphy At the Five Spot, Vol. 2 [feat. Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis & Ed Blackwell] #jazz

Woke up wondering, "If something can floor you, can something door you?"

Is door a verb like floor is a verb? I don't remembering anyone ever saying "something doored me". 

You could use it for things that block you that you just need the key to open.

Example: The key to the drum fill that was dooring me from getting to the end of the song was practice.

Today, breathing is on my mind. Especially breathing in time to music. An eight-count inhale, holding it for eight counts, exhale eight counts, and holding for eight.

I believe the term for it is "box breathing" which uses a four count. You need to adjust it to what you are playing or listening to.

I use it for remembering to get enough air while drumming. Keeps me from getting tired.

I also use it as a metronome. Keeps my mind on the tempo.

Despite a week of chaos and tension, I did manage to listen to some music. I did notice though that when I get really stressed out, I turn off all sound. These three albums were wonderful though. To be fair to them, I should re-listen to them in the future when I can focus on them more.

• The Dream Syndicate These Times #indie
• Taiheiyousiranuigakudan Taiheiyousiranuigakudan #indie
• Cecil Taylor Conquistador! #jazz

Also getting some areas of the blog a little more ironed out. Slow, steady, and whenever it's fun is the schedule.

I got a Genre page set up with a full list of genres. On my genre tags, genre is in the beginning, so I thought something needs to be there. I doubt anyone would ever try to see if something was at /genre when they saw /genre/jazz. Better safe than 404 though.

Didn't know what to put there, so I quickly grabbed a list of all the genres. It's interesting to see them all together and to notice what I get from the list. 

When I see the list, I keep waffling on whether I regret not getting more specific with the genres. I tag something "jazz" or “punk," but there are so many flavors of them. It would be cool to see this list be wider and deeper.

At the same time, I just want to put on some music and quickly note what I am listening to. Knowing me, properly being a librarian of music and filing each one with proper sub-genres would cause me to miss the first song of each album researching.

Such is the life of a waffle.

Today's writing prompt caught me by surprise. By the end of 200 words I felt like I was doing more of a mental self-check than the usual improvisational word play.

"I am just trying to ___________"

I have been experimenting with giving the morning writing to AI, telling it is an expert on the subconscious, and seeing what it says. It went wild with today's writing so I take it as a signal of a good morning writing prompt.

There is no way I would follow the advice by the way.

Went through the list of last week's music, and I could only recall one. Like a favorite hoodie is how I would describe Yo La Tengo. I need to remember how good they are for when I need some sound to get some things done.

For a brief moment, I wondered if only being able to recall one album is a sign of mental stress or memory loss. Actually what is happening is a lot of people are in town for the cherry tree season. It is throwing my normal routine into chaos.

My brain likes parameters with the morning 200 word free writing. If I have a pattern to follow, then I can burn through the session. If there is a blank page with no rules then it takes forever to get to 200 words. Having a rhythm or template to fill in seems to lighten the writing time a bit.

Morning Writing Pattern

[one word]. [same word plus another]. [the two words plus a full sentence].

ex: Think. Think about. Think about how to make a morning free writing exercise.

Then I took the last word from the sentence and started again.

ex: Exercise. Exercise your. Exercise your fingers and mind before you start in on things.

Sidenote

My guess is these sorts of exercises are tried and true old-school writing exercises. If they are and you know more, send them my way. I've just been taking drum rudiments and converting them to word writing prompts.

There were friends in town and I went on a weekend trip to the mountains. I tend to listen to podcasts on the train which include music podcasts. That reminds me I should write a post on music podcasts I love.

Eric Dolphy is becoming one of my favorite jazz artists for sure. I always leave an album thinking about how much I liked it.

The Pleasure Seekers album completely wiped out all other music from my brain. People into garage rock…here you go. Punk before punk. Features a member who went on to be a legendary 1970s rock star.

• The Pleasure Seekers What a Way to Die #rock
• Eric Dolphy Quintet On Prestige #jazz

By chance, the station where the onsen hotel we booked six months ago was the same station a friend of our opened up a French bistro. We went to it and surprised him and met his wife.

He got married and moved to a big city in Japan and was going to set up a small shop there. After a few months, they realized something wasn't right.

Nothing was a challenge. They weren't learning anything new. So they sought out a beautiful onsen town in the mountains and moved there. They remodeled an abandoned clothing store into a wonderful bistro.

While we were there and talking about their shop he said a thing the stuck in my mind the rest of the trip.

Change really isn't a change if you are just moving you and your stuff to a different place.

They said so far all the good memories they have had opening the place is the learning how to do everything. Learning the new is the exciting part. Keep learning.

I pushed play on the first album of the day and then opened the app where I do my free writing. Found a good way to let the mind ramble about:

• Type the name of the album.
• Take the last word of the album title and use it to start a new phrase.
• Keep going until 200 words.

Seemed to add a lot more variety to the kinds of words that popped up. The repeating word thing “…[last word]. [first word]…” created a nice rhythm which was kind to my foggy, morning mind.

More on the writing exercise: 200 Words a Day for 4 Months

Went through the list from last week and was surprised by how much I could hear in my head. I got me wondering if knowing that I am going to look back to see what I can remember is making me try to remember albums more.

That album from Sly & The Family Stone had so many "whoa" moments on it. The Minutemen rule, but it's kind of a sad listen. Replace the name of the president they were singing about with the current one and check it out. The Hippy Boys got me thinking about how there used to be a lot more instrumental music a long time ago. The album by Cecil Taylor is amazing because it is music built on modules. I love when an album makes me want to go to a place, and the Sir Douglas Quintet did that. Grant Green reminded me how much I love when guitarists make a decision and go with it. Be super sharp and treble-y or take off all the treble.

• Sly & The Family Stone There's a Riot Goin' On #Soul
• Minutemen Introducing the Minutemen #Punk
• The Hippy Boys Reggae with the Hippy Boys #Reggae
• Cecil Taylor Unit Structures #Jazz   
• Sir Douglas Quintet The Mono Singles '68-'72 #Rock
• Grant Green Grant's First Stand #Jazz    

Took a second to update my morning writing workflow. Before, I was using a plug-in in Obsidian to see a word cloud of all my free-writing gibberish. I'd love to automate that step, so I found some JavaScript that I could drop into an Apple Shortcut. I'll add the script below.

So now my morning flow is to run the Morning shortcut. The shortcut:

• Creates a random linear drum pattern and puts it in my task list for Today
• Asks me what I did yesterday and appends it to a text file called Story
• Asks me what I learned yesterday and appends it to a text file called Wisdom
• Selects one random Japanese grammar for me to practice and puts it in my task list for Today
• Selects one thing to deep clean from a list and puts it in my task list for Today

Doing this seems to incrementally move the pieces forward.

Here is the Javascript for counting all the words in all the text files in a folder.

function run(input) {
    var app = Application.currentApplication();
    app.includeStandardAdditions = true;

    var folderPath = input; // Get selected folder
    var wordCount = {};

    // Get list of .txt files
    var files = app.doShellScript(`find "${folderPath}" -type f -name "*.txt"`).split("\r");

    files.forEach(function(file) {
        var content = app.doShellScript(`cat "${file}"`).toLowerCase();
        var words = content.match(/\b+\b/g); // Extract words

        if (words) {
            words.forEach(function(word) {
                if (word.length > 3) { // Ignore short words
                    wordCount = (wordCount || 0) + 1;
                }
            });
        }
    });

    // Sort words by frequency
    var sortedWords = Object.entries(wordCount).sort((a, b) => b - a).slice(0, 100);

    // Create output text
    var output = "# Top 100 Words Used:\n\n" + sortedWords.map(([word, count]) => `${count}: ${word}`).join("\n");

    return output; // Send to Drafts
}