Viable Paradise: One Year Later

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

As most of you know, almost exactly a year ago I attended the 20th Viable Paradise Workshop (VPXX), and despite my best efforts, I never quite got around to putting my feelings about that week into a coherent blog post. With the new class about to board the ferry and start their week of adventure, I figure now is as good a time as any to put my thoughts on page about that week and the year that has followed.

[Author’s note: my memory is not great, so this is told to the best of my recollection. The details may be a little off, but the big things are true.]

Continue reading “Viable Paradise: One Year Later” →

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Music Monday: Necromancin’ Dancin’

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hey Gang!

It’s the first Music Monday of October, so I thought I’d step into a bit of spooky with “Necromancin’ Dancin’” by Bear Ghost. It’s kind of a weird pop punk super catchy piece that seems to be about taking over the world with an army of the dead in order to have a badass dance contest. It’s a silly amount of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raQGZjp-98A

Happy Halloween (month)!

FGY

Music Monday: Feel the Weight

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hi All,

Another edition of Music Monday.

Today we’re taking a look at “Feel the Weight” by Fitness.

It’s poppy and way catchier than I want to give it credit for. The video is… interesting? I mean, it’s a weird mix of rock show and hanging out in a house? With someone in a lab coat offering bottles like a shady guy in a back alley. Oh, and everyone in the video looks bored. Except when dancing their way up stairs while wielding super bright lights. Maybe it’s a metaphor for depression. Maybe the director hates smiles. I dunno. I’m not going to lie, there’s a lot I like about this song, but I don’t understand most of it.

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think, and if I’m wrong and why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT6qFXslDA0

Thanks,

FGY

Music Monday: Laser Beams

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hi All!

Another Music Monday here!

This week I’m going to be talking about a song that took a while for me to realize how much I liked. “Laser Beams” by Wintersleep (From way back in 2007), is the kind of song that I liked enough to add to my yearly playlist, but something about the intro made me skip it almost every time it queued up, until one day I was too far from a control device, and was more or less forced to listen to it play out.

I say forced. After about forty five seconds I was too intrigued by the way it was building to want to change it even if I could. So I kept listening, and while there was something definitely odd about it, I realized that I loved the song.

It wasn’t until I listened to it a few times that I realized what was odd. There’s no chorus. It’s just a series of verses, building in musical intensity until it culminates in a rather rocking breakdown. The part of my brain that still think it works in TV production wants to use it for a huge dramatic scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbMmVKhkRA

Anyway, I hope you like it, but even if you don’t (or you just think my analysis is way off base) let me know.

Peace!

FGY

Music Monday: No Horses

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hey folks!

Time for another edition of Music Monday!

Now I’m actually going to be covering a song that most of y’all have already talking about if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter. I really loved Garbage back in the day. I lost track of them sometime after they did the World Is Not Enough song, and hadn’t thought much about them for the next decade and some change until they went on the Nerdist to promote the release of Strange Little Birds. I enjoyed a couple of songs off Strange Little Birds but something about it felt off. Different, at the very least. But I listened to the songs enough that algorithms knew to offer me up anything new from them.

That brings us to a few weeks (months?) ago, when a new single titled “No More Horses” popped up on my radar. From first listen I was hooked. The heavy beats, the lyrics, the haunting sound. It was everything and more that I wanted from a Garbage song. I can’t wait until the album comes out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxkE0Nj4Dgw

Let me know what you think!

FGY

Music Monday: Songs For Teenagers

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hey folks!

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a Music Monday post. Part of the problem is that I tend to schedule these a few weeks in advance, and if things get hectic time can pass and then there’s no posts in two months.

So, of course, I’m going to start this off with something lighthearted and fun. Nah, I’m kidding. For whatever reason, melodrama has been appealing to me pretty hardcore for the last little bit, and Spotify has been more than happy to provide.

So let’s take a listen to “Songs For Teenagers” by Fake Problems. Which is a song about being super high. Like, really strung out, and not in a good way. It’s a song about lying to yourself to convince you that you’re okay. It really just kind of speaks to me. Also, the video has mermaids.

Anyway, give it a listen, let me know what you think.

— FGY

A simple MacOS daily word count automator

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hey folks!

****** UPDATE ******

NOW WORKS WITH SCRIVENER !!

Long time no update. Music Monday and Photo Fridays will be returning. I’d mostly just forgotten how far out I scheduled them and kept forgetting to set up more. But that’s not what this post is about, so we’ll get to that later.

At the end of every month I post my accountability update (a monthly view of the word tracker which I got from http://inkhaven.net/2017/01/2017-word-count-tracker-is-here/). This last time, a few folks mentioned wanting to track their daily counts automatically, and since I’ve been getting into AppleScript again for unrelated reasons, I decided to take a stab at it.

Continue reading “A simple MacOS daily word count automator” →