This past Sunday I spent some time listening to Mac Miller’s posthumous album, Circles. In it, Mac is raw, self-aware, and full of hope for the future.
I’ve been a fan of his since he was self-releasing mixtapes and it’s been amazing to see his evolution as a person and an artist. I can’t help but feel heartache and sadness as I listen to the art of a person that finally came to terms with who they were, but whose time ended too soon.
Favorite tracks: Blue World, Circles, Hands
Holy shit. If this script turns out to actually be his, why did they scrap it?! As disappointing as it would’ve been for Ben not to return to the light, overall the story sounds incredibly better.
Music is what powers my everyday. If it weren’t for music and coffee, I wouldn’t even be able to type this right now, much less do anything productive. Here’s a list of songs I have on repeat.
Note: There may be a mix of old and new songs. All links are for Apple Music because that’s what I use.
Come Thru by Summer Walker & Usher
So cool to have Usher on a song that samples one of his previous songs. Summer has some great songs on this album and I thought she was honest and raw with her lyrics throughout.
Indica Badu (feat. Wiz Khalifa) by Logic
This song is perfect to get stoned to. It’s got a beat you can help but nod your head to, and some amazing weed references in the verses. In fact, here’s my weed playlist.
Loyal (feat. Drake) by PARTYNEXTDOOR
This is one of those songs I didn’t think much of on first listen, but then really grew on me. “Come and See Me” is another great song by these two.
Te Quiero by Maluma
Talk about a song title being misleading! I’ve recently become a fan of Maluma, and I love the salsa feel of this song.
Money by Moonchild
This song was one of the ones performed by Moonchild for their NPR Tiny Desk Concert. It’s hard for me to resist music with saxophone.
Gidget (feat. Anderson .Paak & T.Nava) by Free Nationals
I can’t handle all the funk of this song. Anderson .Paak is wonderful as usual. If you enjoy this song, take a listen to the rest of the album.
Good Thing by Zedd & Kehlani
The beat is great and I love the empowering lyrics.
Yummy by Justin Bieber
Dare you to try not having the hook of this song stuck in your head. Justin Bieber has gotten so much hate over the years, but he’s so talented. Great song.
Cinderella (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) by Mac Miller
RIP Mac. From what I’ve read, this song is in large part about Ariana Grande. I’m a sucker for a good sex and love song.
My Cherie Amour (feat. Adam Levine) by Joe Pesci
Yup. A song by Joe Pesci and Adam Levine. I didn’t even know that Joe Pesci sings. It’s really good though.
Here’s the complete playlist on Apple Music. What songs are you jammin’ to?
Kelly says I have a bit of a keyboard problem. You see, I have four keyboards in this office, counting the one I’m currently typing on.
But the point of this post isn’t to talk about how I’m going to get this addiction under control, it’s more about showing you the new toy. I bought the Keychron K2, which is my first tenkeyless keyboard. I’ve been clinging to that number pad for some reason, but no longer!
I’ve been using the keyboard for about a day and I’m pretty pleased so far. I bought the version with brown switches, which is also a first for me since blue switches are what I usually pick. The brown switches are nice, but the blue ones are my favorite. If you work close to people, brown switches are much softer and quieter, but I work at home all by myself, so noise isn’t really an issue for me.
They moved the button to control the RGB backlights, which is a welcome change. I own the Keychron K1 and constantly hit that button accidentally.
The only issue I have with this keyboard (after a day of use, so take it with a grain of salt) is the missing ⌥ option key on the right side. While their custom screenshot button is pretty cool, I’d rather have the ⌥ option key, and move the fn key to the top.
You can buy your own starting at $69 USD.
There I was, listening to my New Music Mix from Apple Music, and suddenly a song from Joe Pesci’s new album came on.
Am I the only one that didn’t know Joe Pesci sings? His rendition of “My Cherie Amour” with Adam Levine is great. In fact, the whole album is really good.
Take a listen. Let me know what you think.
The benefits to journaling are vast and largely personal. I enjoy looking back occasionally to see what I was up to a year or a few years ago. Mostly though, I use my journal as a place to talk about my feelings and more importantly, talk through my feelings.
Day One has helped me journal about my life since 2012. While my usage of it has changed over the years, the constant has been its involvement in helping me chronicle my life.
It all starts with a straightforward TextExpander snippet. Day One seems to have support for templates, but I unfortunately haven’t figured out how to create them from the Mac app.
I’ve modified the standup format to ask three questions:
That’s not a ton of information, but this is working for me right now. I find that the biggest barrier to regular journaling is the expectation of detail. Sure, some days you’ll have lots to say. But let’s be honest here, sometimes life is boring and instead of writing nothing, this template lets me highlight the small things in life it’s easy to forget.
Whether the information you want to capture is more or less than mine, I hope you’ll at least give journaling a try. It’s been extremely helpful for me.
Watching movies is one of my favorite pastimes. I watched at least thirty-one films this year, but unfortunately there were some I forgot to log. This is my annual tradition of collecting my favorite Letterboxd film reviews from the past year that are too short to get their own blog post.
Rene Ritchie makes some excellent points in this video, but the takeaways for me, were the following:
I’m watching closely to see how this pans out.
From IGDB:
A galaxy-spanning adventure awaits in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™, a new third-person action-adventure title from Respawn Entertainment. This narratively driven, single-player game puts you in the role of a Jedi Padawan who narrowly escaped the purge of Order 66 following the events of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. On a quest to rebuild the Jedi Order, you must pick up the pieces of your shattered past to complete your training, develop new powerful Force abilities and master the art of the iconic lightsaber – all while staying one step ahead of the Empire and its deadly Inquisitors.
Friday night I finally gave in and bought Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted from a Star Wars game: the opportunity to be a Jedi, fight with a lightsaber, and do some bad-ass shit with the Force. It’s been a fun weekend with this game.
