I’ve always been into “Asian stuff,” studied martial arts, have more Chinese movies on DVD than an average Blockbuster, whatever. I’ve always known about Buddhism - academically - but for whatever reasons these things happen, I’ve started to actually practice over the last months, and it’s been very good for me. It’s not as though I’ve achieved some kind of enlightnment or reached some sort of “state,” but for as subtle as the process is, it seems to be causing big ripples.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of the work I do to make a living. (That’s comically understated to take it easy on anyone who doesn’t know me who reads this.) I’ve had what most people describe as midlife crises since I was roughly 16. This time, it’s going a little differently, and it’s partly because of the still-novel practices of mindfulness and meditation. (more…)

I’m a reluctant engineer. I studied classical piano, composition, and jazz when I was in school, and I used to chart most of my music by hand even when I had great software available, some kind of latent Luddite tendency that I still have. I’ve always loved keyboards and midi and computers, but only very specific parts of all that. So when I was doing my first home recording, I’d spend 20 hours on the music itself, and give or take zero dollars and more or less 5 minutes on actually recording the music. I figured ‘I’ve done the important, lofty work of actually “creating” the music, and if I ever need to document it better, I’ll just pay someone to mix it or record it or whatever.’ (more…)