I’ve been trying to use linux for pretty much as long as I’ve had a computer. I’d kept running into blocks though: at first I was using my computer mostly for gaming, and that’s still not a strong suite for linux 20 years later. Then my workflows were dependent on tools that only worked on Windows (like Office’s Publisher, or Dreamweaver and Fireworks—hell I still miss the productivity I had with Fireworks). Then I had a laptop half of whose hardware wasn’t supported by any linux distro at that point. Then gradually those issues went away and I’ve been an Ubuntu main for over ten years now. Some linux elitists will look at my desktop and hiss that it’s not just a terminal or a tiled window manager that looks like it’s still 1995.
Arabaki.
I was looking at Reol’s tour dates when I found a surprising entry: the Arabaki Rock Festival, end of April. It was surprising because fests like that are usually in the middle of summer (see Summer Sonic or Rock in Japan) and this one, well, definitely isn’t. At first I wasn’t all that interested, since it’s held near Sendai which is quite a distance from Tokyo to go for a Reol show, but then I looked at the lineup and changed my mind.
Kamikochi I’m back
Last year I was so depleted financially due to the Karakoram expedition that I wasn’t back in Kamikochi until the end of the season. Since I still wasn’t well off enough to afford another attempt at Denali this summer, I can instead hike in Japan every weekend as I please (or as the weather allows). Naturally that means that I was hiking next to the Azusa river at the first chance.
The Global Rescue Experience
For my trip to Pakistan last summer, I’d signed up for the Global Rescue travel insurance in addition to my “normal” membership. I’ve been using this setup for most of my expeditions, since the membership covers helicopter rescue (a very important aspect especially in rural Pakistan) and the travel insurance covers pretty much everything else (though they refused to pay for my camera that was stolen in Argentina). For the Broad Peak + K2 expedition it wasn’t even a cheap endeavor with the travel insurance clocking in at almost $9000. However it included “interrupt for any reason” coverage, meaning it should pay up for pretty much any reason.
Knotfest Japan 2023
Knotfest is back! I’ve been there both times it was organized in Japan (though I only have a blog post from the 2016 event). I had to look through my photo archives to confirm I was there in 2014 too, and I was surprised to “learn” that apparently I’d seen Korn live back then… This year the plan was different.
Hearing Loss Park 2023
I’ve been to Loud Park twice before, in 2012 (got a shirt but no blogpost) and 2016, so I was pretty happy to hear it was coming back after years of covid-forced absence. The lineup caught my eye because of Pantera—I thought they’d never tour again since the Abbott brothers died, so this was a chance I wasn’t willing to let go (even though I’m not that much of a Pantera fan).
Addictions
Observing my own behavior I realize that I tend to get “addicted” to things. For example last year it was League in the early months and interior design after getting back from Pakistan. Of course it’s on top of my generic routine of going to the gym and hiking, climbing and/or snowboarding, but it also means that it takes a huge amount of effort to focus on anything else. Even if I want to code up some of my ideas, I’d end up playing ranked for hours or looking up reversible interior hacks for my tiny flat.
For the past few weeks the ongoing addiction has been playing the bass. I don’t know why it suddenly clicked so hard (since I’ve owned a bass for over a decade now and practiced some riffs on and off) but it did. It’s been since I graduated (and thus stopped playing actively) that I had calluses on my fingers. My sense of rhythm is still trash, but even when I was in the music club it took two years to develop that, so no rush there.
This time though I picked up an audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) so that I can hear and record better. I’ve often seen Youtube musicians joke about “the first time you hear yourself recorded” and damn it’s true. The bad is real. But I guess that’s what makes the progress of learning new stuff so enjoyable.
Just a casual idea
I haven’t read the manga of En-en no Shouboutai, only enjoyed some of the anime, but here’s one idea. In episode 10 there’s a scene of the sun setting… except we know with maps that the camera is located in Tokyo.
Now give it a thought. A sunset from Tokyo with Tanzawa in that direction (a point of view familiar to anyone who’s driven out on the Chuo highway) means that there should be Mt Fuji in front of the sun there. Except there isn’t. Maybe it’s a cloudy day? Doesn’t look so bad really.
So then… If there’s no Mt Fuji, where did it go? In a world of “fire everywhere” I wonder where a volcano could possibly go. Maybe a small little eruption? Marginally cataclysmic?
Discovery weekly
I appreciate Spotify’s regularly changing playlists. I have trouble keeping my daily playlists in any shape (they tend to converge on way too similar music), but I like the Discovery Weekly and the Release Radar a lot.
Norlan
