Category: General

So last night was a whiskey night. I played some guitar and discovered a really good music platform called BandLab, which I’ve been playing around with some today. It’s basically a free DAW in a web browser, complete with drum sequencers, MIDI instruments, audio file support, the works. On top of that it’s got a social network and collaborative tools built into it as well, meaning that people can form bands and work on tracks together, or even fork people’s projects and add their own touch to it. And it’s completely free. I’m not sure what the catch is yet, or how they’re making money.

I experimented playing around with the guitar and piano some more today, trying out some things. Old tracks started coming back to me. I haven’t gone through the trouble of breaking out the microphone yet, my guitar (and my voice) is a wreck, so I’ll need to put new strings on and will probably need to wait till the house is empty before I break things out.

Today I went to the SIL’s house. Missus bribed me to take the girls without her, so I did. We swam and ate, got back before it got too hot. Didn’t feel like doing much after that, so I puttered around, tried to nap, and ordered Mexican for dinner.

My Perp funding for the week was pretty lame, a bit over $500. BTC is trending negative right now, I’m down for the day. The price keeps trying to break $49K but it just can’t break it yet. Everything is so bullish, I’m just wondering whether we’ll see another leg down before we finally smash it. I am ready to go.

We’re starting to transition the girls to their school schedules, putting them to bed at a decent hour. I’ve got to register Younger for kindergarten tomorrow, and do some back to school shopping for both of them.

So I’m considering a music project. I’ve spent so much time listening to music while on vacation that I’ve got a bit of inspiration, and I want to start working on my actual debut album. A review of Phoebe Bridger’s first album noted a joke that an album has their entire life to create their debut album, and I’m thinking about writing all new material for it. Something along the lines of Midlife Crisis, or maybe Dad Bod if I’m feeling cheeky. I was daydreaming titles earlier while I was cutting grass, and thinking up potential lyrics. I have a long history of music and yard work, going back to when I was fourteen and singing Pearl Jam’s Ten week after week after week.

I’m really itching at the bit to grab one of my old song notebooks, one that hasn’t seen a pen to it in almost ten years, and start scratching out thoughts. I think the first words might be something along the lines of I’m too old for this shit. Trying to start a music career in earnest at this age is a bit late, but I really feel like this will be a good outlet. You know, since crypto and working out and learning programming and running a dao aren’t enough for me on top of running a household. Hell, at least I’m retired.

As soon as I get done here I’m going to pop upstairs and see what programs I have at my disposal. The last time I recorded anything I was using Cakewalk to record guitar and vocals, and Rebirth for synths and drum machines. I don’t know if I still have access to pirated copies of them like the old days, or if there are FOSS programs that can do just as good. I did some work with Adobe Audition a few years ago during my podcasting phase, but that subscription lapsed.

I was playing around on the piano last night, the first time I’d really tried to make up something on it since I’ve been playing it for what, two years now? I’m still way better at guitar, but I haven’t played it in so long, or come up with anything new on it in several years since I was working on a political themed song called Americaland, about the Trump admin child separation policies.

I actually started jotting down a few rhymes the other day, a response to the kids’ tantrums called Grumplestiltskin. It’s too kitschy or tongue in cheek to include in this project, I want it to be more serious. And I’m going to need to figure out what genre I’m going to make it. My ouvre is all over the map, and I need to find something to hold everything together. I need to find my sound.

I could try to limit it to guitar, piano, and vocals, just to keep it simple, cause Lord knows I can get lost in synth and effect programming. But I just need to get back in the habit of playing.

It’s time to start.

Oops, I did it again. Forgot to post yesterday. I think my mistake was not posting in the morning, before my date night with Missus. We went out to a place we usually go when we’re at the beach to get prime rib. I spent close to two hundred dollars. Got back to the house and wound up playing spades till bedtime. I also watched The Wandering Earth. It was pretty good.

We wound up leaving a day early on our rental. Trying to leave Saturday morning is a nightmare, all the fellow tourists trying to get out at the same time. We left just in time to start catching a bit of the Friday rush hour here at home, but it wasn’t too bad.

I’ve loaded up a couple Amazon Music playlists with Pitchfork’s Best Albums for the past few years. It used to be a habit of mine to torrent everything I could get my hands on at year’s end and spend several weeks listening to them, but I stopped a few years ago. Amazon’s hit rate was pretty bad, it only had half of the songs and more than half of those are only available to play on Echo devices for some reason, but I’ll take what I can get. Dua Lupia’s album was surprisingly good, and I’ve listened to Phoebe Bridgers Punisher twice today. The main problem with Pitchfork’s list is heavy inclusions of gansta rap, which of course I can’t listen to without headphones with the kids around.

So we’re back. I’m going to spend some time next week trying to figure out how to take advantage of the Star Atlas IEO, but what I really need to do is get back in my habits. I think I’ve finally kicked the funk, so I need to start working out. And I didn’t meditate the entire time I was at the beach, which I think affected my mood.

Tonight though, I’ll let the kids relax and continue enjoying the last day of our vacation. I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store, but next week is the last before Labor Day and back to school. I’ve got to get Younger enrolled and do all our supply shopping. I’m going to get her in Girl Scouts as well.

But tonight, I’ll probably be drinking beer, listening to music and playing video games.

Yes, I missed a goddamn post last night, breaking a streak that has lasted for months. I started drinking early in the afternoon and just plain forgot to do it. Wound up watching Contact and playing spades until late in the night with the FIL, his wife, and Missus’s nephew. What a waste.

Today has been pretty chill. I got my Star Atlas posters all settled up for the snapshot, and they released their teaser trailer.

Unfortunately, due to a bug with the DaoHaus UI, our funding proposal got rounded up when we hit the MAX button, so the proposal itself failed. Now I have to way another nine days to get the funds disbursed, which I believe will be too late for the IEO. So that sucked.

We didn’t hit up the beach until mid-afternoon. Watched The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Stupid, but funny. Now everyone’s on their screens, I’m cooking a pizza. Everyone is going to bed early tonight.

A much more subdued day it has been. I might have overdone it a bit last night, but I slept in a bit.

I’ve been using my new BlockFi credit card while we’ve been on vacation. I’ve used it several times the last few days, but yesterday I handed it to a clerk and they noticed the Bitcoin symbol on it. They said it was the first one they’d seen. We would have had a longer conversation but we were coming back from dinner with the girls, so I didn’t have time to talk. I planning on going back there to have a longer conversation with them.

Spent some more time at the beach. Busted my ass on a skimboard this morning, literally fell on my butt and hurt my back, but it’s more a dull ache and no longer sending stabbing pains when I shift around. We took the kids out out shopping for candy and let them sit around watching TV all day. Elder missed both of her Galileo meetings. We managed to get back out for some beach time this afternoon during low tide and did some boogie boarding. I’m thinking about renting a surfboard. In some fifteen years of beach weeks with Missus’s family, this is probably the best weather we’ve seen.

Perp funding is absolutely garbage. Bitcoin hit $50k and dumped, and I’ve made less than a hundred dollars the past two days. It might have something to do with Binance announcing KYC, but it could just be that everyone’s bullish AF and expects things to pump from here. Hopefully we’ll see more consolidation and I can actually make some money.

I’m sitting on the back deck, under the stars, well, at least a star. The weather is beautiful, despite a bit of rain earlier in the afternoon. The fam did some swimming this morning, we spent the hottest part of the day inside, and I took the girls out to eat for hibachi for dinner. Life is good.

I’m waiting for the moon to rise. Last night we had a beautiful full moon, and I’m hoping to get a glimpse of it again as it rises over the Atlantic.

I cycled my Perps today. This week’s gain was about eleven hundred dollars, almost evenly split between ETH and BTC. I was feeling FOMO since we had a bit of a dip, and 4x’d the proceed. Rates are still pretty flat right now, but we’re back at $49.5k, so who am I to complain?

I had a long conversation with Sasuke from YGG about investing in some Axie scholars. It’s only $2400 but I’ve got a bit of anxiety about it because my liquid cash is thin, but it seems like a no brainer opportunity. 300-400%. He said he’s making several thousand dollars a day; he must have close to half a million invested among several hundred scholars. I’ve been trying to get the Filipino members of the clan interested, but still no takers.

Nonetheless, there’s still a lot of opportunities for me once the girls go back to school and I decided that I want to do something. For now, I don’t.

Well we just arrived at our vacation rental an hour ago. The fam is upstairs, Missus’s clan is upstairs playing Spades, the girls are hanging out on their screens. I had to deal with a bunch of drama to get the house ready to go, but we’re here, and I’m ready to relax?

I had to pack three hardware wallets, including my Lattice, because of the Star Atlas drops going on next week. I’m likely going to be making a lot of moves on Wednesday, and be tied up with a lot of stuff while we figure out what to do.

BTC came very close to 50k today. Funding for my Perpetuals is basically flat, I’ve crossed a grand but no where near what I thought it would be earlier this week. Tomorrow morning I’ll pull proceeds and lever up. This rocket is ready to go. The next three months will be interesting.

Getting the kids ready to go today was such a pain. Missus was still at the AFL-CIO convention and didn’t get back until three. She had set out chores with one and five dollar bills taped to a piece of paper. Younger helped me a good deal but Elder was just dramarama. It’s my fault for letting her stay up too late last night. What a mess. I stayed up too late myself, but got a power nap in after Missus came home and we wound up getting here to the house just after eight.

It’s a lot nicer than our rental last year, this one doesn’t seem like it’s about to fall into the ocean. It’s right on the ocean, a few houses down from a fishing pier. The full moon was rising over the ocean when we got here — we also saw a beautiful rainbow on the way here — and we’re right across the street from a froyo spot. It should be a lovely week.

Today has been quite the mixed bag.

On the one hand, I felt good enough this morning to go for a run, the first one since I got sick over two weeks ago. It did not go well. I went on my usual route, but well before the halfway mark I began having doubts that I could pick up where I left out. I cut things a bit short and had to walk for a bit, but managed to pick things up again near then end. Distance wise, a bit under three miles.

I was a bit concerned about leaving the girls alone while I went for my run. I knew they were worn out from the day before and staying up a bit late, I needn’t have worried. I was back and almost finished with my cooldown and meditation before Younger finally came plodding around downstairs. She put herself to bed and slept there the whole night. I just had to tell her to wait in her bed for me while I read. I told her if she woke up and saw my light out, she was welcome to join me, but she was worn out.

The main blot on the day was the tantrum that she threw later in the day. I promised her ice cream as a reward for staying in bed, and she felt slighted that Elder was going to get some as well. I swear, these kids… We went to the library and Elder was a bit rude to her and it set her on a downhill trajectory that ruined the entire trip. Next stop was the fabric store. Elder was planning on buying some fabric to make an outfit for her sister, but Younger changed her mind and wanted to buy a doll instead. We had an argument as she was a dollar short and I told her she’d need to earn it. That set her off even more. We went by the bookstore to get the crypto-edition of Fortune magazine — for the third time, no less, and empty handed again — then I took them to Cold Stone for her treat. We had decided to get the birthday cake specialty mix, and after the woman had started making it, Younger said she had change her mind. It was too late, I told her, and that started a fit that continued all the way home and almost an hour after we were home. It was a complete disaster.

Things eventually wound down, we had our ice cream, and even had another treat after dinner and cleanup. We watched What If? and Hilda. Now the girls are upstairs winding down as I type this.

I did do some work this afternoon. Things are moving really fast with Star Atlas, and we’ve got some work to do with SAIADao.

The @staratlas posters that we purchased on behalf of @interstellaral3's SAIADao for $16k two a month ago have a current resale price of over $126,000.

— BCM – The Blockchain Man (@dahifi) August 20, 2021

I wrote up some thoughts earlier today for the community. We’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s going to interfere with my vacation next week, but that’s how it goes, innit?

The other big news today of course it the big BTC pump. It was expected, and I feel a bit shitty for not leveraging up a bit more than I was. But I did sell some RUNE that was on Binance and moved it to my cold wallet. Perp funding has been flat since I woke up this morning, so it seems that the market was expecting a move. My ETH position is still paying out, but BTC has barely moved, so I’m probably not breaking last week’s record. Still, it should be a respectable haul, and I can’t really complain if I’ve got a 1.5x BTC position on the way up to new ATHs. I’m just waiting for ETH to do it’s thing.

Today would have been a much better day if I hadn’t ruined it by staying up till twelve-thirty last night watching Disenchantment, but it was still a good day. Missus had to get up early to go into the office, and the girls got up early to do their chores, so I was actually the last one out of bed — with a bit of a hangover — well before eight. While I was meditating on the back deck I realized that I really needed to do some yard work, so I made the girls come outside to suffer in solidarity with me while I sweat my ass off mowing and edging the yard. Two showers before noon for me.

I had to take Missus for a drive this afternoon to a conference. I didn’t want to be left without a car, so I figured it was worth the thirty minute drive to take her to the hotel. They had an outdoor pool, so we figured the girls would enjoy a bit of time to relax. Afterward, we went out for dinner and ran up the room tab on her per diem.

Younger has been very sensitive about being without her mother, and is having her usual issue going to bed on her own. Right now she’s drawing pictures in the dining room adjacent to the couch where I write these entries. Neither child wants to go to bed right now, which I assume is the natural result of them taking naps on the ride back. Younger is so high-maintenance at bedtime. I’m sorry that I seem to be the only one pushing her to go to bed without an adult laying next to her, but she’s five and I want my bed back. Missus seems to have given up on even trying, and it’s so tiring. I slept in the little bed last night as Missus fell asleep before either of the girls and Younger just crawled in there later. I wasn’t trying to deal with it.

Getting the yard work done was about the only productive thing I accomplished today. Of course keeping these children alive for another day is a feat in itself.

I would say that today was a typical day in the household today, but it wasn’t. None of the kids had any meltdowns nor did I lose my temper. Small miracles, I guess. In fact, the girls actually did all their chores rather early today, and were in decent moods for most of it. I’m not sure what I did differently that I could do to make sure that it happens again tomorrow.

Maybe it was the drugs.

I took a dose of Nyquil last night before bed. My cough was just too much, and I figured it would squelch it long enough for me to get me through the night. Although I really hate taking it because of the way I feel the day after. And today was no different. I didn’t wake up with a cough or any symptoms of my two-week ailment, but my head was clouded and it took me a long time to wake up. But it does the trick. I’m feeling quite well right now, although I’m not sure I can manage a workout tomorrow since I pulled a muscle on my

Star Atlas released their tokenomics paper today, so I spent some time looking at that as an alternative to doing real work this morning. There was some discussion about this IEO, it seems like complete garbage to me but we’ll try to game it as best we can. I’m not sure we’re going to spend much time on it, but I’ll have $50k to work on it. Also, I finally secured the last poster that I need for my set, although there are some issues that I need to figure out before the loot drop a week from now.

Funding has been a bit sporadic today, I’m still trending better than last week, but it seems like it’s been in spurts. I might just be checking it too often.

I filled out Younger’s paperwork for her to start kindergarten. Less than three weeks and I’ll be all alone here in this house. It’s going to be crazy.