great unexpectedness

 

Apple Pie for the Soul

Due to neighbour-related mishaps involving plumbing failure, our home became an unsuspecting casualty. Happy to report that there were no living creatures harmed by said mishap. Inconvenience is certainly the big feature, what with holes on our property as well as large industrial blowers and dehumidifiers filling our home with noise. I have surrendered to this predicament and tried to self-soothe with beverages (i.e., apple cider or coffee) and gustatory treats (i.e., apple pie and assorted croissants). Oh, I had a big work-related thing earlier today and prepped myself with an americano misto w/ oat milk and a warmed seasonal pumpkin cream cheese muffin from an in-building Starbucks. It went well! Cheers ☕️

https://spotify.link/z5CYrEFitDb

concerts [with update notes]

[Update note: This post jumps from one topic to the next like a series of multicolored life saver candies linked together by a very fine thread (music).]

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Today’s Sunday mass was presided by a guest priest who was in town on the way to his post as a military chaplain. The impetus for this blogpost is the priests’s homily…not about his guided reflection of the gospel, but that he talked about Paul McCartney. How at over 80 years old, Paul McCartney is still on tour and fills massive arenas. Talk about aging gracefully and being a living legend. I’ve talked about him and the Beatles a couple of times on this almost 2-decade blog. I was a Beatlemaniac when I was younger, because of a TV channel that played Beatles music videos without commercials the summer before I entered 5th grade. I asked for a guitar that year and bought those song hits magazines with chord charts at the back. I wrote a letter to Paul McCartney when he was knighted in 1997 and asked my parents to mail it to him when we were in Los Angeles for a family reunion. I thought that mailing it from North America will likely reach Sir Paul as opposed to mailing it from Manila. Not sure if it went through, because I didn’t get a response. I rented laser discs of all the Beatles films and the movie ‘Give My Regards to Broadstreet’. It was a phase. Unfortunately, I outgrew my Beatles fixation as it slowly dissipated when I entered high school. But I was still into music and explored a variety of genres including classical—attributable to my piano lessons and annual recitals. I was in an all-girl alternative rock band in high school where I played a loaned electric guitar and sang back up vocals. We covered the Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, 10,000 maniacs… My husband was also in a rock band in his all-boys high school where he played bass. That loaned electric guitar I mentioned earlier? It was his older brother’s (now my brother in-law). We all met at a youth group when we were teenagers. What a segue, eh? And what a time to be a teenager in the eary 90s when it was hip to be in a band.

Interestingly, despite this whole 90s band fixation, I wasn’t a concert-goer. I suppose it was because I wasn’t aware of schedules—that and I didn’t want to ask my parents for money to get tickets. They won’t let me out late at night anyway, so why even attempt to ask? Hehe. 

When I started working, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet colleagues (from two different periods of my career) who were professional musicians. Our day jobs were far from music, but having coworkers who had musical alter egos is a gift. Music is this amazing feature that’s inherently human. The recognition of music and the ability to create it makes us distinct from other fellow large-brained animals. Anyway, I had the pleasure of seeing these former coworkers perform live during the times we were connected to our respective places of employment. Then this new interest in concerts came about. John Mayer in 2019, Tom Misch in 2022, and 5 Seconds of Summer/5SOS this year (because my daughter found out that 5SOS was going to be in town early this year and I thought it would be a good core memory for her to be allowed to attend with yours truly and her father…apparently, other parents had the same idea). 

I should see Paul McCartney perform live. Fingers crossed that he tours here. I’ll likely see John Mayer and Tom Misch again, that’s for sure. I don’t know all the lyrics to their music verbatim, but rest assured I’d be bobbing my head, awkwardly dancing, waving my phone flashlight, jumping up and down, or singing along to some songs. I’d likely buy merch. 

As I write this post while watching Dave Grohl perform Everlong on YouTube (video), I’m amazed by how the algorithms are designed to hook you for the next couple of minutes…or hours after that initial video. Like my Spotify and the smart shuffle feature. Great way to discover music and artists. How about I end this post with Allen Stone’s Consider me (video), that I’m watching after Dave Grohl…it just dawned on me that the girl in the video is the actress who played Cinderella in Once Upon a Time (still binge watching…season 4 now). 

Feeling great after writing this post. :) Thanks for indulging me. Sincerely, Anna from the 6ix who writes code to do applied numbers stuff. Whoah, rolling the dice, aren’t we? [Update note 2: this last paragraph doesn’t have a purposeful connection with the rest of the words above…clearly meant to pique an imaginary audience’s imaginary interest.]

”in the space of your own”

Passing the time at a Starbucks and listening to a Tom Misch playlist (current song is “Follow”, which includes a verse where this post’s title is from). I even attempted to write some random words in a little notebook that I keep in my purse for when I need to jot something down. This current situation is not purposeful. Another one of my attempts to capture an ordinary moment. Well, there is a purpose…to pass the time. I have been toiling and decided to take a much deserved break. 

Also, I wanted to celebrate this boundary that I’ve recently been able to establish. No work-related mental and physical activity outside work hours. Like emails, for example. And I think I’ve successfully established this boundary with others. There is one other boundary that I need to establish with myself: the reduction in reading of references like the nice-to-know material outside work hours. It is easier to establish a boundary when it comes to tangible aspects of our occupations. Enter-leave a building, boot up-shut down a machine, but think-unthink in the brain…challenging, especially in times of fixation about some project.

Car life folks and code copy-pasters

The online algorithms are so random that I recently found myself watching a lot of car/van life and camping videos (again). Around the time when we were all at home trying not to get covid (deliberate non-capitalization to express my repulsion), I started watching folks who go on survival camping trips. It’s a great way to examine and imagine life without materialistic comforts. I recently read a stranger’s post about the declining condition of our planet and how so many aspects are irreversible (like climate change). Really difficult not to think of the ‘what ifs’ and to consider some form of preparation for extreme calamities. It’s self-inflicted stress, in a way. There was a brief time also during the pandemic when I began watching clips of a specific type of ASMR on soap cutting to counteract the ‘the end is nigh’ feelings when thinking of apocalyptic possibilities. The soap cutting videos were bizarre, satisfying, and relaxing enough to lull someone to go to sleep. Not a good way to end a day, eh? It was a very brief fixation. 

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I have a GitHub account that I created years ago so that I could share some programming code for a brown bag session during my grad school training. I recently used it to collaborate and develop some useful statistical programming functions based on textbook formulas. The goal is to streamline certain work-related things. I’m not active on that platform and really just keep it alive so I can pull-edit-push code. There are a substantial amount of code that I use everyday, and there are a few functions that I still need to copy-paste from old projects. I’m a code copy-paster. Hehe. Interestingly, I tried Microsoft’s Bing AI…which is also GPT based. I tried it out of curiosity and there was a professional thing that necessitated me to at least have an idea how it goes. I asked Bing to write me code for a particular task. It was essentially the same as searching on a web browser except that the response isn’t a list of search results, but a synthetic conversational response from a chat bot. Like a written version of what Google or Siri or Alexa would say. That’s my observation. Most of us online consumers see the front-end side of things. When I wear my ‘work hat’, I usually see the data side of things in the back-end whether in flat text or spreadsheet format so it is helpful for me to have an idea how the front-end looks like. That way, I can present my analysis in a format that makes sense to those who only see the front-end. You know what I mean? Anyway, there are many occasions when I feel exhausted at the end of a work day even if I barely moved my skeletal muscles, because this type of effort drains the brain.

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On the topic of algorithms…I’m not amused with the amount of noise and junk that is being peddled to me. I have been actively clicking on the options that will allow me to train my news source apps (hopefully) so that useless information disappears. I’ve mentioned before that the currency of today includes attention. If content is unnecessary and suspiciously packaged so that a consumer (like me) will tend to give it attention or engagement—ayayay, no thanks. My time and attention are so valuable that I have to be very careful. I urge you to protect your time and attention too. It’s a messy and nasty cyber world out there. Let’s prioritize our immediate physical reality. Unfortunately, there are groups and institutions that thrive on negativity, chaos, and by making people feel miserable or inadequate (e.g., so that a person ends up purchasing some obscure overpriced knick-knack). Like Rumplestiltskin in the earlier seasons of Once Upon a Time (which we are binge watching), who finds opportunities when people are in desperate predicaments. Also related to monstrous evil, we just finished the latest season of Good Omens, which isn’t part of the Neil Gaiman book, but is an entertaining and twisted way to think about Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, morality and immortality. Brilliant shows worth the attention—my attention, surely.

benefits of “less adorned inclinations”

 This post is to urge you to watch this YouTube video entitled “The Power of Simplicity” by the channel The School of Life: https://youtu.be/4gb0YXoJfGo?si=r2x8pdvw7Od1kBvb

I don’t know how I ended up searching for videos on “simplicity”, but I’m glad I was led to it. I don’t know why and I’m grateful. Like humility, simplicity is an elusive virtue. It should not be mistaken for minimalism, which is some sort of trend among the privileged. 

Simplicity, not only in the physical but also in terms of thinking. A reduction in pretense. As the video mentioned, we tend to be the opposite of what is simple …”we spend the major part of our lives trying unsuccessfully to be somebody else…we probably have to go through a host of complications, by the time we learn to appreciate the art of being direct, easy to follow…exceptionally dull.”

To be humble and simple…that’s hard.

Express delivery and shelf-stable food

I am writing this while convalescing. We were among those traditional types who preferred some physical effort when it comes to accessing food compared to delivery. But this unusual era of accelerated spread of communicable conditions requires a level of extra caution that protects oneself and the community. What if you are depleted of essentials like bread or some other staple food, so that you are now tapping into your back-up stores of canned food in case of a natural disaster? (Side note: I grew up in a tropical country where unexpected extreme weather events can happen and that’s why I am used to always having some form of canned meat or shelf-stable food ready for when disaster strikes.)

During the height of the pandemic, my family explored the use of a local contactless food delivery app after I received a gift card. We would enjoy it once in a while—I particularly like the fact that you can have some form of cash back that you can use for a later purchase. The service recently included groceries. And I am writing this now out of gratitude for this convenience after having some essentials delivered. I have also learned that many of the couriers are new immigrants or international students, and this is a way to support fellow settlers. I would often see couriers on the road on their bikes or e-bikes—some have vehicles. I’m not sure whether what they earn is sufficient, but I think it’s a good form of work especially if you’re a student living near downtown and have a bicycle. You do need to have a smartphone that can help you navigate, which is probably the pricier investment. I wonder how couriers navigate harsh winters…probably those who use vehicles for deliveries work more during that season.

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On the topic of comfort shelf-stable food: tuna, corned beef, SPAM, noodles, or canned vegetables. Cannot go wrong with that. There are many hacks online that help people prepare canned food in various enjoyable ways. Like what I mentioned above, there have been many occasions in my home country where people have experienced loss due to natural calamities and food drives usually involve the collection of canned food or any shelf-stable food that can endure shipment and require minimal preparation to be consumed. I often feel sorry for those who scoff at cheap canned food or instant food who argue that these are not healthy and contain lots of preservatives and sodium. The reason why I feel sorry for these people is that they will be the weakest in survival situations. Any food is healthy when there is scarcity. I am among the many lucky folks who can enjoy cheap shelf-stable food and have the fortunate capability of eating whole foods (or enjoy a buffet). Not everyone has that luxury. That’s why I appreciate people online who promote smart ways to feed oneself and one’s family through affordable means. The truth is, not everyone can afford to be in the latest nutritional trend. Unless it’s a gut disease or some form of extreme food allergy, many of us need to be aware that food (and water) insecurity is a big issue for humanity and that we cannot proselytize a particular way of eating as the uniform standard. Heck, even the use of so much gas or electricity to prepare one dish can be considered excessive. The fact that there are skin-and-bones malnourished people in one part of the world, while there are diet obsessed or anti-this-or-that-food proponents in another part of the same world is a testament to the extreme discrepancy/disparity in realities amongst members of our species.