Kim and i gave up our community garden plot.  We have too much going on still at home and we weren't taking care of things.  It's the first time we haven't gardened since our very early days together, other than my GBS year.

Dad and Mom came to California to visit me and Paul in December; Mom said that he was very insistent and, well, when a 92-year-old is almost desperate to see his kids, you can guess what might be going through his head.  Turns out that his health started declining soon after his return, where he couldn't keep any food down.  They found a mass in his stomach that was blocking the entrance, and we hope to have the biopsy results... today?  Welp, tomorrow, then.  Again, at 92, it seems immaterial.  He's got a feeding tube installed now, plus a catheter because he's had trouble urinating, too.  They had just pulled the trigger on a house in The Villages and now it seems unlikely that he'll move from Quito, given his health.

My department at work only got 30% of the headcount they requested, so i, sadly, remain an employee of the contracting agency and not Google.  But my contract was renewed for a full year, so it's not all bad.

• Justin Bell, Eternal Journey: more atmospheric soundtrack-quality pieces, this time not attached to any video game.
  
• Madison Cunningham, Ace: this is not your typical singer-songwriter album.  Cunningham started in the praise music genre, and has left that behind and also divorced her husband.  There's some real weight to the lyrics, and the song structures and chord changes are captivating.  Some are making Joni Mitchell comparisons which, eh, kind of a stretch.
• Die Spitz, Something to Consume: i have been sporadically checking out KEXP on YouTube and Instagram over the years; i saw the first 30 seconds of this and was hooked on their gritty, punkish energy, plus the rhythm section is solid.
• Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream: she released it on Halloween and you can feel the spooky, witchy energy.  The lyrics for One of the Greats are so good.
  
• Kaki King, Tutto Passa (EP): amazing breadth for an EP, acoustic guitar to soundscapes to loud electric guitar.
• Kaki King & Tamar Eisenman, SEI: "Kaki King and Tamar Eisenman have co-created SEI, a full-length performance piece where guitar movement takes over the entire stage." The album is very good but the performance looks amazing, wish i'd've seen it.
• Kaki King, Stop Sometime (EP): more acoustic guitar from King. 
• Sarah McLachlan, Better Broken: another solid release, this features her daughters doing backing vocals on a couple of tracks.
  
• Mogwai, The Bad Fire: the Scottish post-rockers are back; saw them live this year and THEY ARE VERY LOUD. (mistakenly put this in 2024)
• Nation of Language, Dance Called Memory: remember synth-based New Wave? These folks do.  Another KEXP find.
  
• Vernon Reid, Hoodoo Telemetry: the master guitarist with another eclectic collection of songs, some featuring members of Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber.
  
• Sphinx Virtuosi, American Mirror: the selections for this album focus more tightly on underrepresented contemporary composers.
  
• Steel Beans, Steel Beans: this guy went viral three years ago and somehow turned that moment into becoming the opening act for Tenacious D, and then Tool.  He'd been doing his own thing for over 15 years (he has over a dozen albums on Bandcamp), but suddenly caught fire.  I bought the EP that contained the viral song, enjoyed it, and waited to see what the next album would be like.  It does not disappoint.
  
• TAKAAT, Is Noise Vol. 1 & 2 (EP): like Garfield Minus Garfield, TAKAAT is Mdou Moctar minus Mdou Moctar.  Two short EPs featuring Tuareg rock originals and covers.
  
• Takénobu, Cosplay Karaoke コスプレカラオケ: another set of cello-centered chamber pop, this time with all lyrics in Japanese.
  
• veg., Defenestration: the instrumental metal grows in complexity in their first (short) album.
  
• zbs.fm, Tell Me Who You Think I Am: chill, downtempo electronica from the kid of a friend of a friend.
  

• BALTHVS, Harvest / Khruangbin, A LA SALA: these are very similar; loungey, funky, chill, mostly instrumental rock, two dudes on guitar and drums, and a gal on bass and vocals.
• Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham, Cunningham Bird: a complete cover of the legendary (and unpublished since its 1973 release) Buckingham Nicks, which put them on Mick Fleetwood's radar, whose band they would then join and the rest is history.  Buckingham and Nicks had made sporadic noises over the years about reissuing it, and it does not seem coincidence that they finally did so a year after this stellar cover, which in many ways improves upon the original.
• Andrew Bird Trio, Sunday Morning Put-On: Bird puts together a trio to cover some of his favorite jazz standards (coincidentally including "Django", which was on Buckingham Nicks and thus on Cunningham Bird).
• Nelson Echandia, Tu Creación: the bassist for the progressive joropo (my label) group Compasses puts out his first solo album.
• Garbage, Lie to Me (EP): three good new songs plus a remix from their worst album Bleed Like Me. Add the album they released this year and it seems that every fourth album of theirs is a stinker.
• David Gilmour, Luck and Strange: definite case of old man voice, but he collaborates with his youngest daughter on a couple of tracks to good effect, and his guitar is still amazing.
• Tony Levin, Bringing It Down to the Bass: the master of the bass guitar shows some range in this solo effort.
• Loreena McKennitt, The Road Back Home: a live album where she plays some of her favorite Celtic classics from her busking days.
• Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice: more socially conscious desert rock, Moctar agitates for his people and culture.
• Christian McBride & Edgar Meyer, But Who's Gonna Play the Melody?: two double bassists trade leads and share compositions.
  
• My Brightest Diamond, Fight the Real Terror: the title (and title track) are an homage to Sinéad O'Connor.  More of a solo affair, the instrumentation is a bit sparse, but the songs are good.
• St. Vincent, All Born Screaming: a return to form after the self-indulgent Daddy's Home, although it is probably her second-worst album.  She also made an extremely ill-advised companion album with the lyrics translated to Spanish that is best avoided.
• Tragic Lovers, VALENTINE (EP): post-punk from Portland, their compositions are really starting to gel.
• veg., DETONATION (EP): San José's own instrumental metal band.  The songs show more dynamics and breadth from their debut EP.

Hmm, looks like i missed a couple of years.

Andrew Bird, Outside Problems: the companion album to 2022's Inside Problems.  Instrumental improvisation, collected and curated.

Depeche Mode, Memento Mori: the twist here is band member Andrew Fletcher dying before its release.

Peter Gabriel, i/o: he couln't decide on the final mix so he released two versions, his first album since 2002.

Garbage, Witness to Your Love (EP): four tracks, including the title track which was first released in 2008 on a fundraising compilaton, and a Siouxsie and the Banshees cover.

Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer feat. Rakesh Chaurasia, As We Speak: Banjo, tabla, double bass, and bansuri. More genre-busting stuff from Fleck and Meyer.

Rodrigo y Gabriela, In Between Thoughts... A New World: the arrangements continue to become more elaborate as they grow in their craft. 

Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper, Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper: Gripper is known for playing kora tunes on guitar.  Here he pairs with a kora player and the result is magic. We somewhat randomly saw them live and it was so good.

Sphinx Virtuosi, Songs for Our Times: The Sphinx Organization is a group that supports underrepresented classical musicians and composers, and their Virtuosi is their top echelon.

Takénobu, Sushi Tapes Vol. 1, 2, 3: a collection of his YouTube cello improvisations.

3rd Secret, The 2nd 3rd Secret: Krist Novoselic's band added Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron halfway through the previous album. This one's better and more even, mellow rock with female vocalists.

Katie Wighton, The End: a quick pop album from one of the members of All Our Exes Live in Texas.

Given that the house renovation left us cash-poor, Kim looked into options for stretching our money and found out that a local food pantry will give weekly food items to anyone over 60, no questions asked. Some weeks are better than others; a month or two ago, we got some frozen 7-11 breakfast sandwiches, which we were not brave enough to try, and another time we got a sealed bag of Beyond sausage bits that, upon later inspection, was over a month past its expiration date.  Today's haul was three pounds of pinto beans (we're in the Rancho Gordo Bean Club and already have more amazing beans than we can handle), one pound of white rice, and six pounds of brown rice (plus a half-gallon of cow milk, some fruit, and some bread).

Unpacking proceeds apace. We'd like to host Thanksgiving so we probably need to hustle over the next three weeks.

Moving might have been a mistake.

I am businessman Donald Trump
I smell like i just took a dump
I am now your president

NATO power will soon go away
I will be Putin one day
I will command all of you
We'll host Andrew Tate in school 
We'll host Andrew Tate in school

Mar-a-Lago über alles
Mar-a-Lago über alles
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago

Podcasters will control you
One-hundred percent supplements
You will buy all of their crap
And always wear the MAGA cap

Captured media won't report
On those suckers we deport
And they won't come back, we say
Immigrants, oh you will pay
Immigrants, oh you will pay

Mar-a-Lago über alles
Mar-a-Lago über alles
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago

Now it is 2025
Masked goons rent vans to drive
It's the neck gaiter secret police
They have come to ruin the peace

Come quietly to the car
You'll look nice behind our bars
Don't resist our display of power
This should only take an hour

Bam! Throwing tear gas at the mob
We're just here to do our job
We'll deport you little chumps
When you mess with President Trump
When you mess with President Trump

Mar-a-Lago über alles
Mar-a-Lago über alles
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago
Über alles, Mar-a-Lago

We drove to Portland last week to say goodbye this weekend to a longtime friend from the days of Usenet, who also happened to be the boss who held my job while I recovered from GBS. He's had ALS for about fifteen months now and he can barely move. Watching his wife tend to his respiratory needs (he is no longer able to clear fluid from his lungs) was heartbreaking and also brought back memories when Kim had to do something very similar while I was paralyzed.  But we were both glad to be there, tell him we loved him, and also to give his wife as much support as we could.

STOP DOING TYPING INDICATORS

• YEARS OF ONLINE CHAT yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for "x is typing..."

• Wanted to see what your partner was typing in real time? We had a tool for that, it was called "talk(1)"

• "Please cause me anxiety by giving me the illusion that someone is taking their time composing a thoughtful reply" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged

"Hello please give me blinking, bouncing ellipses"
They have played us for absolute fools

turns out papadum really does puff up nice and crisp with a little oil after fifty seconds in the microwave