Mostly corporations.

Struggling population: Gets financially stomped by actions of the money class, low/negative savings returns vs. inflation, 418% inflated food prices, 1000% increase on housing, a 30% pay cut, and a 200% increase on basic goods.

The money class: “Why aren’t they giving all their extra money to our banks for us to earn interest revenue in exchange for nothing? Why are they buying food and things for themselves to survive instead of giving it all to us?! What do you mean I only earned $19,000 while golfing yesterday?! I earned $20,005 the day before!! Fucking millennials!!! We handed you guys 3 small checks 4 years ago, what do you mean you need more money to survive?!”

Not who you asked, but I’m pretty new to jazz as a serious listener and my few recent finds, for whatever they’re worth:

Alex Isley and Terrace Martin’s I Left My Heart in Ladera has been on loop for a few days for me. Good album. If you’re into the vocals, I’d recommend Salt Cathedral as well, though their sound has trended more Latin in recent years. It’s still awesome.

Most anything Lee Ritenour is involved in, if you’re into smooth, more traditional easy listening with great guitar.

But the biggest thing I’ve found is Japan has such a cool tradition of Jazz. Alter Ego, fox capture plan, LITE, Still Caravan, POLYPLUS, and Primitive Art Orchestra are a few new adds on my playlist.

Happy listening!

Ah, to be young and -6 years old again

There are about a dozen “proof of concept” models out in the wild, mostly owned by Tesla execs and buddies of Elmo. There’s one cruising around in Austin, apparently.

That is how the optics and motion sensors communicate to the main board. I had a vandal do this to mine.

Ruined, sadly. You’ll need a new unit.

That’s what this was, actually. TyTX - > DFW - > TyTX. Daily. You feel me.

Boss should find a good podcast and learn to meditate. Driving is my zen, especially on long highway stretches. I guess it also depends largely on if there’s a love of driving and what vehicle you’re in.

Thankfully it was just for 1 artist and we were done in about 3 weeks.

I worked on a session in the nearest big metro to my small Texas town of 200,000 - daily commute of 2 hours and 25 minutes to get there in the morning, then 2 hours 25 minutes home (closer to 4 hours to get home on traffic heavy days). Not really unheard of.

Then, a few months ago - took a vacation on the beach island of South Padre, Texas then had to rush to a client in north Texas that next day. 12 hours of driving, all without leaving the state.

UK drivers know nothing of the true road trip life.

I’m still waiting for the opportunity to strike where I can get a Grandmother. Especially in light of the buyout. Get the good stuff while it’s possible to. Cherish it and build a good relationship with a repair shop.

The owners of the debts fear their hegemonic nepotism empire of do-nothings will have to golf 3 times a week instead of 6, and this year’s fleet upgrade may only include avionics, and not in-flight entertainment on all 3 of the Embraers.

There’s a very grassroots Windows 10 ARM hack for the SD1, actually. It’s quirky, and lacks a LOAD of the driver blob that comes in a normal x64 install of Windows on AMD or Intel, but it can make outbound calls and run simple WinonARM apps.

I’ve been considering the GFold5 if my SD2 bites the dust, at least over a Pixel Fold. But I’m making this thing run until it completely dies.

I just worry about those plastic feeling screens, such as on my wife’s GFlex4- I’m always worried I’d scratch the interior with a fingernail and a stylus for editing a spreadsheet is just a no go, from what I understand. Have they improved in that regard?

Pocketable, foldable tablet with split displays, a pen with haptic feedback and rigid glass screens for stylus use without damage. Modern Android and a great camera don’t hurt and those make the SD2 better than the SD1; otherwise they’re fairly similar besides the accessory compatibility and some halo functions like wirelessly charging my Slim Pen with the magnet case.

I travel a ton, edit spreadsheets at clients site visits and trade shows while I have Teams open on the other screen, and use the stylus to mark up PDFs for architects and subcontractors. I enjoy being almost required to multi-task when I have my phone open, and the Duo 2 is the best phone for multitasking, bar-none.

They stuck to their word, technically. 3 years, with monthly patches for security, on a device that sold abysmally. There are rumors they sold (most of) the first run of SD2 in the first 4 months, and didn’t bother to produce any more. I know they’ve been out of the consumer SD2 since July/August of 2022- as of January this year, not even my Fortune 50 Corpo clients can get MSFT to pony up a SD2 replacement under warranty or otherwise. They just write a cheque to your account if you request as much.

Microsoft’s mobile team Icarus flew too close to the poorly advertised sun, in this case. Expensive ass phone to build, expensive ass phone to buy, but damn it’s a great device.

As one of the 17 people on the planet who daily drives the Surface Duo 2, which I traded up from my SD1 for on launch day - I really hope they pull it together for this “maybe/maybe not” SD3 next winter.

This is my all time favorite device I’ve ever owned, and every day I dread the standard wear and tear knowing the few New In Box Surface Duo 2 devices are getting more and more expensive by the day, and there are literally 0 devices in this category besides the SD2.

Sad times.