2024 Life Logs, Day 75: At the Computer All Day
Date: Friday, March 15, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with a Little Rain; High Temp 54, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
I was on my computer all day and on the phone most of the evening. The phone call was with my friend Lynne in New Zealand. It has been a month since we last talked, so we had to catch up on what is happening in our worlds. After the phone call, Lynne sent me a whole list of books that I might want to read. I always love getting Lynne’s reading suggestions. She will be flying home to the US for the summer, landing in California and traveling on the west coast for almost a month to visit with friends. Then she will fly home to Michigan. Hopefully by the time she comes here to visit, I will be finished with my knee replacement physical therapy so we can walk while she is here.
The computer work today was mostly writing the presidents’ letter for the Encore newsletter. That is always due on the 15th of the month, and I usually start early. Unfortunately, I put this one off until the last minute. It required getting information from other people, so there was a lot of emailing back and forth. I interspersed trips to the grocery store and spending time in the kitchen making chili and desserts for a Mingle & Mix I am attending tomorrow night. Then, of course, I spent time outside with Shadow. So not the entire day was spent sitting at the computer.
Since I was on the computer all day, checking email often, I saw aa notice from Instagram that Justin had made a posting. It has been so long since I signed into Instagram that I couldn’t remember my password. So, I checked Facebook and saw that Justin was in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest Conference.
I knew he was going but forgot that it was this week. SXSW brings speakers together to talk about the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture. Yesterday Justin gave a talk about Silvermouse (Justin and Jo’s music brand), the Monroe Institute (Justin’s employer), and the use of brainwave entrainment in live music.
Justin is the musician and Jo is the beatmaker for Silvermouse. I read a posting on Facebook that Jo had written saying, “There isn’t an established genre descriptor for what we do. #Livetronica and #Jamtronica are as close as it gets … Psychoactive Livetronica is what we call our sound.” Justin started playing violin at age 3, went on to the guitar, the mandolin, the ukulele, and even adds flute and recorder. But his first love, the violin, remains favorite. Taking again from Jo’s post, “The rich textures and melodic structures that his live instrumentation brings are magic. The combination of live electronics, live multi instrumentals, and live brainwave entrainment frequencies is a sacred trinity of sorts. We are devotees, at least!” I am just so proud that Justin has pursued his passion for music throughout the years and that now he and Jo can play together.
