Category: Personal Reflections

Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection

Streaming Music On YouTube

Carl Setzer

I’ve been exploring music on YouTube for years. I’ve found the YouTube Music feature pretty lackluster, but that’s probably mostly due to my eclectic musical tastes and interests.

Lately, I’ve been obsessing about a couple musical things. First, the Hang Drum. Imagine a steel drum that’s much more portable. I find them rather ethereal and lovely. I particularly like the video below. The music is delightful, and the imagery stunning. My favorite combo on the platform. Here’s a playlist I’ve started, and will add to as I go forward.

 

Another recent musical obsession: these long playing live streams. I’ve been bopping in and out of the one below for months…maybe years.

 

Design Matters Podcast Featuring Derren Brown

Carl Setzer

I love to listen to podcasts. As I try to go for a walk every evening, that’s one of my favorite times to listen. One of my favorites podcasts is Debbie Millman’s Design Matters. This week’s edition features mentalist, hypnotist, and what I’m going to label “anthropological psychologist” Derren Brown.

I was unfamiliar with his work until this evening. And when, during the introduction, they described his performance work, I disconnected some. Which really helped me actually listen. Most often, I’m feeling compelled to capture every detail. But mental magic/hypnosis? Yeah…and I was pulled in.

Listening to his description of what’s happening in the minds of the audience spoke to my old fascination with psychology. And then I was able to see the connection to all the things I love. Communications is psychology. The mind is the key component for this inter-human facilitation of information transfer. Even my haiku reflect that. I love the challenge of communicating an idea with a few words as possible. The stripping down to the essential.

Also, I appreciated the notions of suggestibility and how it plays out in multiple human contexts. And reminders of how malleable memory is.

So, with all that, I highly recommend you take an hour and listen. It was very enlightening.

 

Quote of the Day: October 4, 2019

Carl Setzer
Avoiding criticism
Avoiding criticism quote by Aristotle

Someone, somewhere, won’t like you no matter what you do. If you’re the nicest person ever, someone will despise you for being nice.

Therefore, be true to yourself.

A Happy Birthday Haiku

Carl Setzer
A Happy Birthday Haiku
A Happy Birthday to Me Haiku!

As I expect most of you know, I have a thing for writing haiku. I actually have a whole blog dedicated to them. They’re fun and packed with meaning in such a small package.

Since today’s my birthday, it seemed like a fun subject.

Anyway, enjoy! And enjoy the day. Seattle’s looking to have quite a lovely one.

My Own Save The Wave Playlist

Carl Setzer

Inspired by C89‘s DJ Trent Von and his Save The Wave show, I crafted my own playlist in Spotify. Give it a listen and let me know what you think. What’s left out? What shouldn’t be on this one?

 

If you’re a fan of Trent, here are a few places to connect with him online:

And here are some sites to learn more about his style, background, and, well, listen to his playlists.

Watch “Watch This Before You Make Another Decision” on YouTube

Carl Setzer

Ah, good ol’ Gary V! I deeply appreciate his raw “get the fuck off your ass and get to work” videos. See, I dive deep into over-thinking. Churnimg through “what-ifs” is reflexive. And second guessing my choices? I’m a master at that, too. And it drives me nuts. I KNOW it’s a waste. I KNOW you can’t know how any choice would play out differently. Yet my brain churns through this nonsense. These videos are a good reminder to be vigilant against that and stop that waste of energy, that degradation of confidence. Forward! Move forward. Move, and forward. Don’t look back.

Do you remember?

Carl Setzer

So, do you remember?

Watch “Earth, Wind & Fire – September (Official Music Video)” on YouTube

Some thoughts on sound

Carl Setzer

The past few days have brought a few opportunities to edit some sound files. I’ve used Audacity in the past, but it hit me that Adobe’s Audition is part of my Creative Suite subscription. I found it slick and fast. Now I was only trimming the files and boosting the audio. It felt much easier to me. That might be due to my decades of experience in Abode products. This, their UX is somewhat natural.

Next. I want to spend some time exploring balancing sound, cutting out noise and such. It should be fun.

What’s your favorite tool? I lean towards Audacity mainly, if for no other reason, free!

A Blogger Blogging On Blogging

Carl Setzer

I easily get caught up trying to make things perfect. I know far too many folks with the same proclivity. I also know that writing is what I need to focus on. Get more posts out, I should create a podcast and vlog…and that conflicts with “perfection”. It gets in the way of my goals.

As a blogger, I need to blog (insert “duh” here). Losing focus on creation keeps me from this. I hate that. So, I am working on simply posting. Posting as often as I can, as best I can. Letting go of it needing to be perfect.

The same goes for design work. Get something done. Finished is better than perfect.

Lately, I found myself struggling with “focus”. Related, somewhat, to perfect, I guess. There’s a notion within blogging that you want your blog to have as narrow a focus as possible. And there’s validity to that. It makes the life of a reader much easier. But a blog is not a book. It’s not a magazine…blah, blah. There’s a personal element to a blog. I have a wide array of interests. It’s perfectly wonderful to explore them  all in one place, too.

A blog should be a unique expression, each one one-of-a-kind. They should reflect the writer’s personality. I also believe they should be informal.

What do you like about blogging? What do your favorite bloggers do? And do you discern a particular style of writing to label “blogging”?

Some thoughts a week in on the new job

Carl Setzer

Well, one heck of a week, and weekend. First week at the new job. My new team is awesome! One of my challenges is to stop working and head home. Good problem. Now, this coming week has some significant demands, so I expect I’ll be more effective at leaving on time.

While I was working at Eagle Country Construction, I opted to let my license lapse. Now I’m going to renew it. Fortunately, my license wasn’t that far expired. I just need to take a bunch of classes and pay renewal fees, plus and “late” fee. I will have that done in a few weeks. After that, I can provide you and counsel.

Not sure all I will do with the license, but I am confident that real estate will be the main part of the next few years at least. What’s fun is the wide array of opportunities that entails. Besides your traditional buyer/ sellers agent, there’s commercial real estate (I definitely want to understand that better), portfolio analysis property management, portfolio management. Plus my experience in construction and permitting adds a lot of options, too.

I’m excited about the next stage in my career. There’s so much potential.

Please give me a like and follow. It helps things out a great deal. Plus, it’ll be easier to stay in touch.