Life of Bryan

To be perfectly honest, I thought Sidecar for iPad was sort of gimmicky when it was first announced. But I actually use it all the time when I’m out and about. I often write long (too long!) reports where I need to reference other materials and Sidecar is perfect for this sort of thing. I love it.

Occasionally I erroneously think that I’m not that out of touch with music. Then I randomly come across some musician I’ve never heard of on Instagram with millions of followers, or their YouTube music video with a billion views, and I never feel older than in those moments.

Next week marks the 20th anniversary of my father’s death. This is a weird one for me in so many ways, but what’s been coming up for me lately is that I’m about the same age he was when he killed himself in a drunk driving accident. This life has required far too much forgiveness.

Anxiety as a parent and raising good humans

As a parent with anxiety, I can already tell that raising two young children to have confidence in themselves, and to approach new and uneasy social situations with bravery, is going to be difficult for me.

I had a difficult childhood, complete with a fatherless upbringing and abuse, which affected me in various ways, including low self-esteem. I didn’t participate in many extra curricular activities due to my anxiety. I struggled in school for that reason, too, both socially and academically.

Now I have to work up the courage myself to encourage my kids to participate in healthy activities when it doesn’t come natural to me. The thought of even being on the sidelines of sporting or music events gives me the a lot of stress. What a strange thing to follow you through life. I guess this an example of generational trauma, in the mildest sense.

I started reading a book in Italian last night called Short Stories for Beginners. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could understand. I guess I am picking up the language, however glacial the pace feels.

I learned something over the weekend. After a lot of research and forum browsing, I learned that my cheap Art & Lutherie Folk Cedar guitar is basically a copy of the storied Gibson LG-2. I measured out the dimensions and they are the same. That explains the woody mid-tone sound I love.

Today I played some higher end small body guitars trying to see what might sound similar to my Art & Lutherie $200 guitar, but honestly I was not impressed.

I came across a brand recently called Iris out of Vermont that I’d really like to get my hands on, but I haven’t found any locally.

It’s fun watching Zoomers misattrubute things to millennials.

Just saw a meme complaining that people over 37 can stop putting two spaces between sentences because that’s from “typewriter days.”

Dude, I’m 42 and we had a Commodore when I was like 8 and I was 12 when AOL came out.

Mood. But they’re playing “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton. And just like Phoebe Bridgers said, I hate this song, but it is sad that his son died.

Listening to: Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers

That whole 7-year itch thing is very accurate for me. I start to get really bored with wherever I am on about that timeline.

Walking back from a coffee shop in Nob Hill this afternoon, I saw this beautiful home and decided to look it up on Zillow. The property taxes are just over $19,000 per year, which means $1600/mo in property taxes alone.