leah and i started playing the banjo recently. i bought us both banjos, mine a recording king rko-3s and hers a savannah sb-100. but the sb-100 was damaged in transit so we’re returning it. as a replacement we got leah an rko-3s to match mine :). it’s been cute playing banjo. we’ve been watching the 30 days of banjo playlist by eli gilbert on youtube and it’s been a nice introduction. this is the first time i’ve ever tried to learn to play an instrument and it’s just as hard as it seems.
my job search has been going poorly but i have a job for a senior systems engineer position that i am in the final rounds of interviewing for. so i hope i get that job. if i don’t i will be completely despondent lol like that will really ruin my life. so i’ll just get the job. simple
i have been listening to a lot of music lately and noticing that 2023 was one of the worst years for new music in a long time. i don’t like pitchfork for a lot of reasons but i check their reviews section to see what new releases i may have missed, and i check their end of year lists for the same reason. this year i haven’t really missed anything. i listened to all 50 of the top albums of 2023 and i listened to the 50-60% of albums they reviewed that held any interest for me and for the most part they’re just not very good. i won’t go into how dumb the top 50 list from pitchfork is, but let me just say that putting “SOS” by sza at #1 is so fucking dumb i almost couldn’t believe it. SOS is a fine album and sza is a good artist but there’s no way in hell that’s the best album of any year.
i’m working on building a list of albums from the year that i really enjoyed and recommend but there just aren’t that many. a lot of really boring releases, a lot of people stumbling through the same shit they did on previous albums, a lot of effort into minimal quality.
leah and i are going to ohio for christmas in 2 weeks. and we’re planning on moving to ohio next month (jesus fucking christ) but that relies on me getting a new job.
i have been annoyed lately by anti-religious sentiments. in particular, i have been annoyed by the idea that “logic” (whatever that means) could be used to prove or disprove god’s existence. it’s a nonsense belief.
i haven’t been finishing any books lately. i’m in the middle of these books:
discrete mathematics & its applications - rosen
data structures & algorithms in python - goodrich, tammasia & goldwasser
unix and linux system administration handbook - nemeth
introduction to algorithms - cormen
through the arc of the rainforest - yamashita
cities of the plain - mccarthy
eloquent javascript - haverbeke
python testing with pytest - okken
ansible for devops - geerling
the linux programming interface - kerrisk
hopefully i’ll finish something soon. i’m not even close to the 50 books goal i had for the year but if i hustle while reading on the plane i should be able to hit half that.
oh and i read Mindstorms by Seymour Papert, which is basically perfect. papert (a student of Piaget) has a phenomenal grasp on pedagogy and provides ample scientific evidence to back up what all people who love children already know. it’s a great book, easy to read, dense with information, and highly prescient.
here’s a playlist of some songs i like:
Danny Brown - Down Wit It
Kelela - Closure
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - I Just Wanna Be With You
Jamila Woods - Wolfsheep
Ana Frango Elétrico - Let's Go To Before Again
Real Boston Richey - Light Switch
McKinley Dixon - Mezzanine Tippin'
Yussef Dayes - Chasing The Drum
MIKE, Wiki & The Alchemist - Mayors A Cop
Helena Deland - Night Soft As Silk
Sexyy Red - Looking For The Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)
Babyfxce E - Today
Loraine James - I DM U
Actress - Memory Haze ( c 1 )
Teezo Touchdown - I Don't Think U C Me
Cleo Sol - Go Baby
Jaimie Branch - take over the world
Chester Watson - fish don't climb trees
mega: https://mega.nz/folder/3BdTFBCa#iQNlh6z7JahXxF4mbT5f3g
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4bUgvWbrZGIakh5jNHqXUjl2bMyFY9zK