Now

In my eternal quest to become a gypsy jazz guitar "djenius" (like Django Reinhardt), I am always looking to improve the quality and quantity of my practice. To that end, I created an app tailored to my needs where I record, track, and quantify my practice sessions and progress. This project has taken me many weeks and it's now in what I might call a "functional alpha" stage. Now I'm actively using it for my practice, and soon I'll update whatever functionality needs I find and do a UI overhaul. You can download the APK on this page on my site.

This website is the project that keeps on giving - I'm always finding new things I want from it. Most recently, I migrated the site over from Replit to GitHub Pages, and I learned to edit it with VS Code and Codex rather than using Replit's agent. Even though it's overwhelmingly vibe coded, I'm still learning a ton about development, and sometimes deep down where no one can see, I imagine myself to be a real developer.

My wife and I used to love watching TV together, but for maybe a year now we've really struggled to find anything we feel is worth the effort of even looking at a screen for an hour. One exception to this has been the Fallout series on Amazon (Vidangel-edited!). Now that she's familiar with the world and lore, I thought maybe we'd try firing up Fallout 4, which I have for PS4. We're so far really enjoying exploring the Commonwealth together - it scratches a similar itch that TV once did (excuse to snuggle on couch after a long day) but feels more interactive.

In my last entry I mentioned that I'm trying to teach my kids perfect pitch with the Clear Pitch app, and that I didn't expect to develop it myself. Well, a few weeks ago, I tested it and I can actually hear and remember some of the chroma of many of the notes!! This is a huge and unexpected development. It's still early stages but I am amazed that I am often able to identify these pitches - I once got 15/16 correct in a row. So I've redoubled my efforts and hope to improve my speed and accuracy over time. I also found a (very) recent study that challenges the idea that you can't develop it outside the critical period. Extremely exciting. (Also, my kids are killing it, and even my wife is starting to hear it - and she's barely even been around when we do the app!)

For my Christmas present to my siblings this year, I recorded my various nieces and nephews singing various songs and am producing them into professional(ish) sounding tracks. (Last year I did a whole album of songs sung by own kids.) It's fun to do a little recording and mixing again. Someday I might offer this service as part of a business because I think these are such funny and fun momentos of childhood.

My friend Robert of Lemonbird fame has started a business called Turnt Plugins where he develops and sells plugins, which is starting to gain some traction in the production world. He's open to selling plugins that I make, so that will probably be my next coding project - I have a few ideas for plugins I'd like to try to develop and I'm planning them out in my head right now.

I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this in previous installments, since it amounts to a good chunk of work every week for me - I am right now acting as the secretary for the Bishop (leader) of our ward (congregation). This is a volunteer (voluntold, actually) position and it's got me creating agendas, coordinating interviews, and attending meetings every week. It's the busiest calling I've had to date, and it's been a pretty interesting experience.

About three years ago now I started lifting weights and eating so much more food and protein than I could ever want to and I went from a pretty extreme ectomorph body type to gaining about 25-30 pounds. The whole process has changed my life in some fairly dramatic ways - and the work is not done! I am trying to gain around 5 more stable, quality pounds a year for the next few years, which doesn't sound like much but is pretty difficult for me, especially now that I'm out of my newbie gains. While difficult, it's not complicated: it just means pushing it hard in the gym multiple times a week, slamming a double protein shake every day, and eating a lot more than I want to.

Given that I spent what feels like a third of my life right now trying to keep our kitchen clean with three kids and an enthusiastic cook for a wife, I thought this bore mention.

I'm doing a freelance editing job for a private company that wants to create a book that tells its history from its founding a few decades ago. One of the co-founders wrote out the significant beats of the story and I'm trying to put it all together in the order that makes the most sense, as well as polishing the copy.

We are on baby #3 right now and she both has an absurdly pleasant temperament and is at an outrageously adorable stage. Also, this time around I feel less like I'm trying to keep my head above water and more able to float and enjoy the experience. So I'm soaking it up.