The Sum Of (all of) Us

 Up nice and early. Brilliant interview on NPR right now with the author of this book:

 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564989/the-sum-of-us-by-heather-mcghee/

I've figured out by now that the US is racist, but this book shows how huge a footprint racism has in the US and how much it has made life much worse for all of us. At least we have an adult in the White House now and hopefully this blockbuster book gets wide readership.

I woke up at something like 6AM, peed, and went back to bed to try to sleep some more. Crazy dreams. 59 degrees in here when I got out of bed at 10. 

Something interesting happened yesterday. I did 15 deep breaths on the Voldyne, then played the shakuhachi a bit, working on memorizing the "notes" which are actually finger positions, and taught myself Amazing Grace. But noticed something with some surprise: my shoulder hadn't ached since doing the breathing exercises on the Voldyne. 

So after dinner and staging some packages that have to go out like, yesterday, I did another 15 deep breaths on the Voldyne before bed.

I want to start transcribing simple tunes like that into the Japanese "Kinko" notation which is pretty neat. For the purpose of shakuhachi playing, I think it's easier/better than Western notation. I'd wanted to start transcribing things for trumpet but never go around to it. But transcribing for shakuhachi doesn't require manuscript paper or anything special like that.

I sent an email to my youngest sister saying happy new year, happy Chinese new year, and isn't it great the election craziness is over with and we have a new President? She just shot back a Trump-worshiping article from The Epoch Times so she's really gone off the deep end. I'd been trying to open some kind of communication with her, but she seems to treat it as a test of one-upmanship. So I'll send her a picture of a pretty meadow with some cows here, and she'll send me one of cows in Hawaii like those are better somehow. 

She's a Christian, so that's already proof she's not very smart. It's a religion for bullies and idiots. It only makes sense that she'd worship a con man, other than the main Christian con man, that is. So, being in contact with her may not work out. 

I packed stuff (20 packages) and cooked a couple of eggs before heading out. The drop-offs went fine and I came back with some useful packing stuff too. I came back and dropped off the bike trailer and went right back out to H Mart where I did some shopping and got some nice fried fish and a beer. That was very yummy when I got back. 

I spent too much time messing around on Reddit I guess, and finally did my 2nd set of exercises on the Voldyne and got in something like 45 minutes on the shakuhachi. I'm pleasantly surprised that the characters for different finger positions are sticking in my mind and I played the whole page of exercises that had daunted me before. When I was done with that, I cooked up some pork and broccoli and listed 15 items I had cued up on Ebay and most turned out to be worth more than I thought. 

I think I'm going to feel a lot better if I make sure I get shakuhachi practice every day even if it means putting Ebay stuff until later in the evening when I'm dumber. I feel like the work around here is closing in on me and while Ken may be nuts over this stuff  I'm sure not.  And there's always the factor of, what happens if something happens to Ken? Assuming the virus is gone in another year or two and Ken stays healthy, I might find that the shakuhachi, while not as loud as a trumpet, has such a wonderful, haunting sound that it may pull in the bucks the way my trumpet playing started to once I stopped sounding so much like a student and at least like an intermediate player. 

In the same way, before the virus, I thought I might be almost ready to rent a small office I can sleep in and just play trumpet and make out fine, I might be ready in a year or two to make a go of it with the shakuhachi. I think the Voldyne is going to help a ton.