Last week: June 4th-10th

Last weekend, the Peaches went to Atlanta for Sam's birthday. We left Saturday morning, toured Ikea and bought some stuff, then went to the hotel. Jessica and Nadia took advantage of the pool while Sam and I checked out the skybridge, which wasn't especially impressive, but we had fun. We ate room service to close out the night, and watched drones in the sky over downtown. I think we settled on the probability that they were part of a helicopter search the police were conducting.
While everyone was still sleeping Sunday morning, I walked to the location of the Baby Driver coffee run scene, recorded some video, and walked the path Baby walked during the scene. I have a new appreciation for everyone it took to coordinate that scene. Very impressive.We went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was definitely better than the Tennessee one, and that's saying a lot because the Tennessee Aquairum is pretty dang good. We caught a dolphin show and a sea lion show, and both were very worth it. Sam took photos of very small stuffed aquatic creatures we bought at Ikea the day before, posed in front of their real-life counterparts. The giant turtle and octopus both proved elusive, but it worked out in the last few minutes. There was a gigantic boom as we got to our car in the parking garage, and we still haven't learned what the heck it was.

On the way home, we made our first-ever trip to Buccee's. I'm hoping it's our last. That place was a bit much.

The rest of the week wasn't especially productive. I played a LOT of Fortnite with the goal of unlocking all the bonus quest skins before the end of the season. I had to give up on that. The new season started on Friday, and it's super fun with the new weapons, locations, and creatures. I ran a spray paint test on the sound paneling in my class room and determined that spray paint is NOT the way to go. Coincidentally, I haven't really been into Pokemon Go since I restarted playing Fortnite. There really is only room for one game at a time in my life, I suppose. 

What I read last week:

Surrender: 40 songs, one story by Bono

I had originally reserved the book with the Nashville Public Library, but the e-book borrow was immediately available, so I did that instead. It starts out a bit rough, but it gets better. The first chapter was over-written, but it was short. The chapter about his mom dying is a lot. He had a whole bunch going on at 14. The details of the bombing that Raised by Wolves references, and the coincidence that kept Bono away from that block where he normally would have been at that time, were pretty wild. Good book so far, and checking out e-books from the library is the best. It's also not so bad to read them through the Kindle Cloud Reader on the detached screen of my Surface Book. 

Podcasts I listened to last week:

Have a Nice Future: Why Fake Drake Is Here To Stay

I'm not sure I fully agree or disagree with any of the conclusions on this episode. It seems like we are in the wild west when it comes to music and artificial intelligence. One thing I definitely hope we get right is making it illegal to use a voice model trained on a real person to have that person create monetizable art, if that person is not a completely public person, and is in fact an artist. The stylistic choices artists make with their voices should be protected in the realm of intellectual property if it's being used to create music. 

I don't think we're going to see AI created music take off in the long term anymore then digital DJing wrecked the idea of DJing. Are there DJs who work digitally who wouldn't be able to otherwise, and get jobs that more traditional DJs would get? Otherwise? Sure. Do they have big careers and get big gigs? Not really.

The Blocks Podcast: Howie Mandel

I learned of this Neal Brennan-hosted podcast due to a Facebook video from the episode with Natasha Lyonne. The clip made me think of my own childhood, and how I try not to worry too much about kids who don't have friends, instead hoping that they learn that it's not easy to know which parts of yourself are integral and which parts can and should be worked on.

You are not guaranteed to be successful in the creative world just because you had weirdness or tragedy in your childhood, but I do feel like it is a common theme among many of my favorite creators.

I'm still progressing through the Howie Mandel episode. I really identified with the discussion on "inner audience" that Howie and Neal discuss, and how Neal says he and Chappelle bonded early over their shared affinity for still thinking a joke is good even when nobody laughs. Howie said that his family will often ask, "Who is this joke for?, implying that nobody will find it funny. Howie's answer is usually, 'Well, it's for me." I like that. 

Televison I watched in the last week:

Craig of the Creek S7 E19: Grandma Smugglers

I thought about MeeMaw, my biological grandmother on my dad's side, quite a bit while watching this. I'll always know I didn't do enough for her, and I know my comeuppance will arrive when it's my turn in her position, and my kids follow the poor example I set. I'm grateful for Jessica and Anissa and what they did for MeeMaw.