This was supposed to be a great year for reading. I planned on 40 new books and 40 rereads, which is slightly better than last year. But so far I’m at 12 books and we’re already half way through the year. It’s worse though, because I haven’t finished a book since mid-May. I’ve hopped from one to another, constantly picking up something new, and just cannot for the life of me get interested.

I mostly stay out of politics. I’m of the mind that there are effin’ morons on both sides of the political spectrum, and moderate action is the only thing that can truly help all of us. The far extremities of the current political atmosphere only drives further division. Honestly, the lack of empathy on both sides is just sad to see.

But, I’m not here to talk about my political views or yours. If you’re a die-hard Trumper or you wish Kamala had won, I don’t care. I really don’t, so don’t @ me. Instead, I’d like to talk about FUD. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. One thing you can’t deny is that MAGA has riled people up unlike any movement in recent memory. The news, commentators, and TikTok-ers are alight with the most dire of predictions. And that’s not just those on the left. The right does it too. Nobody is safe, the world is ending if the ‘others’ get power, and so on. First, y’all need to go outside a bit more. Things have a tendency to be less scary after you’ve touched grass or walked your dog. Second, y’all just be exhausting for the rest of us to watch.

I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to music. I currently have subscriptions to (though admittedly a couple of them are free trials): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Plex, Deezer, and I’m sure there is probably one or two I’m forgetting.

I’m going through what amounts to a crisis. I don’t know what I want to do about music and where I get it from. I have used Deezer for the last two years, but their Android app has annoying bugs that make me not want to use it. I really don’t like Spotify as a company. I technically have had YouTube Music for years because I pay for no ads on YouTube, but I hate that service with a passion. Amazon’s app is spotty when it comes to their collection, though they do have Garth Brooks. Tidal has the same issue, but without Garth. And Apple Music works great on mobile, but the desktop experience isn’t great (yes, I know about Cider V2).

I relate so much to this post by Musings of a Tangled Mind.

every single night, without fail, I set 27 alarms on my phone for the next morning — each one five minutes apart — convinced that this time I’ll wake up on the first one. I never do. I don’t even wake up on the last one. Snooze is my friend. You know, that friend who’s a bad influence and keeps you out all weekend where you maybe possibly might need bail money.

I am not as confident driving as I once was. I work from home, so I don’t go out as much as I used to. I’ve talked about this a little either in a post here or on the podcast, but I just don’t feel like I’m as good a driver as I once was. One of the things that I’ve really noticed over the last few years is that I have a serious fear of running a red light. Now this is a fear that I think everyone should have. Running a red could lead to your death or the death of someone else. So, being fearful of it is reasonable and rational.

For the longest time, I wanted speakers for my desk setup. I used to have this crappy set of Logitech computer speakers, but they burnt out long ago. For years after that happened, I used a good quality set of headphones at my desktop computer. I don’t mind this, really. It gets the job done and I don’t have to worry about volume at 3 AM. Not going to wake everyone up if System of a Down comes on full blast.

So, I’ve been doing this blogging thing for a few months now, and now that I have the transition to Hugo done and the theme sorted out, and comments (see below!) sorted out, it’s time to make the process of blogging easier. The first task is to make it easier to actually create a markdown file with all the Hugo stuff pre-populated. I spent a little time in bash and this is what I came out with:

I’m not a self-reflective type person. I never really have been. I have aspired to be so at times during my life – usually during times where I’m dissatisfied with the direction things are going. But it’s never really been something I’m good at or good at following through with. I have a tendency to say I’m going to do something instead of, ya know, actually doing it. There’s a reason I proclaim to be the laziest person on the planet.

In my never ending quest to track all things, I’ve been looking into ways of gathering even more data about my day, my habits, and my workflow. I’ve been keeping a to do list for years (using Todoist), but it doesn’t do so much with stats. And really, there are days where I mark things off without actually doing them. Horrid habit, that, to be sure. But it does happen. So even if Todoist kept the type of stats I’m looking for, they wouldn’t be that accurate. And it’s an entire separate application - one that relies on the service of a third-party as well. Not ideal, to say the least.