This week in squirrels…

Summary

  • First Stream back!
    • I got my first stream in since the leave.
    • It was a LOT harder than I thought. Mostly, this was because I hadn’t realized how far gone my voice is. My ability to talk for any period of time is limited. I had no idea how much everything impacted my voice.
    • My energy levels aren’t what they used to be as well, so the stream ended up being extremely short.
    • In retrospect, I probably won’t try streaming again till after treatments.
  • Tax time!
    • Normally, I do my taxes much earlier, but things got away. No surprises. Just tax time.
  • Music
    • I have been reorganizing my music gear now that I am back home.
    • My goals have still been experimenting with some more hospital and medical-based music.
  • Bitwig
    • I ended up sticking more with Bitwig. I honestly couldn’t get it working properly on my laptop from my hospital room, but what a handicap that was. Once I was home with the big screens and a mouse, I was able to really experiment and learn more about how it works, and got into it more.
    • I took their big crossgrade discount to get on board. I am a bit iffy about a DAW I have to pay for yearly, considering how little music I actually put out. But it’s a LOT cheaper than Live overall, has so much, and works on Linux.
  • An extra big week in treatments
    • I have the Lumbar Puncture Chemo, or as I like to say, “Chemo directly to the Spine.”
      • Luckily, we know how to manage these, and they gave me some stuff right after treatment so I am not in nearly as much pain or hung over as the first one did me.
    • The normal Koolaide bags
      • This one still leaves me “this is your brain on drugs.”
    • A new extra-intensive messy chemo bag
      • This one kicked my butt up and down the block. I think I was down sleeping for a straight 14 hours after this, and all the additional drugs they gave me to help this one take without side effects.
    • Still, enduring three major treatments in a single week left me completely drained. I had barely any time to recover before the next one began..

Books

  • The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate Vol 2 ⭐️⭐️
    • This starts off really well, but then the manga crashes into the end after a massive unexplained smash cut. Feels like the publication was pulled way ahead of schedule, and the artist decided to just show their planned end.
  • Pink Candy Kiss Vol 4 ⭐⭐⭐
    • I feel like this one is starting to suffer the “too many volumes of these two suffering each otherthe exact same thing.” It was great to break it up with Emi’s mom and their getaway but how close can these two get dancing like this?
  • Hungerstone
    • I am chewing my way thought this. It’s not my kind of story but I wanted to give this reach out of my preferences a go since it is so well rated and spoken of.
    • So far. I am indeed… not into this angsty period piece.

Music

  • “Loud Ambient 2” by The Black Dog
    • Another great release in this new “Loud Ambient” series. I struggle to really call this album Ambient in any way, shape, or form, but the sounds that The Black Dog put out really resonate with me. This album has a lot of Orbital influence, which is what I think draws me to it the most.
  • “Stardust” by Danny Brown
    • This new Danny Brown is still sticking with me, the collabs are amazing, and even some of the weirder parts have me on lock. There are some collabs on this album from artists I really wish had official releases because they are banging.
  • “MAYHEM” by Lady Gaga
    • When I need the energy to get something done, Gaga is here for me.
  • deadmau5
    • It’s been a while since I got into deadmau5, honestly, I stopped following him after his first few albums because house isn’t my thing as much. I heard him come up and decided to try out some of his newer albums. Good relaxing music.
  • Carbon Based Lifeforms
    • This is my new Chemo relaxation music, or when I need something to help lull me off.
  • Tweaker
    • An old weakness of mine. I adore Chris Virennas work. This is music I usually only go to in dark times. But I have some dark times.

Reads and Videos

Quote of the Week

At work, you have two jobs: being good at your job and being pleasant to work with.

You can sometimes get by for a while not doing them both, but it’s hard to survive doing neither.

- Mike McQuaid