1,063 karma · joined August 30, 2011
I accidentally found YouTube Music yatch rock playlists and have discovered so many artists, new and old. Like Abandoned Luncheonette by Hall & Oates and anything by Poolside. And so many more...
They're all pretty loosely connected in this genre, it's all easy listening I guess.
So been resorting to a few different ways to find new music.
When I use to live in Boston, I would check the gig calendars of the places I loved going to. They tended to be smaller venues where more unknown artists played. I remember once seeing Imagine Dragons as a support at the Brighton Music Hall. Boston is full of wonderful small gig venues.
Now, when I visit different cities and places, I'll follow the venues on FB so I can easily see the gig calendars. I pretty much use FB as a bookmarker for venues and bands now.
Also, I recommend a cool site called Indishuffle, it's curated by a bunch of humans around the world (I believe).
I personally love these scooters. I'm living in Australia now where we don't have them. But last month I took a 3 week road trip from LAX to DC and back so I could hit cities I hadn't been to before. And in many of these cities, I used a Bird to get around. These scooters opened up so much more of these cities for me than I could have seen if I just walked every where.
I think they provide real value to a city, for tourists to get around, and for citizens for the last mile and to complement other forms of transport. We just need for these scooter companies to be less like Uber and actually work with the cities to come up with reasonable regulations (in particular insisting on all riders wearing helmets)
I moved to the US back in the 2000's and it took me years, I finally was lucky enough to find a contact at a university to sponsor a H1B. That now seems virtually impossible to get unless you work for one of those giant Indian IT companies.
Also, you might be increasingly frustrated with the state of the EU, but it ain't all roses in the US. I for one, value highly the social safety nets other countries provide. Without being incendiary, things like getting healthcare in the US isn't so straightforward.
We get that the US is still streaks ahead when it comes to innovation and capitalism. But there's so many other considerations important to gauging one's quality of life.
In the end, is living in the EU really a hot mess? What about a different part of the EU?
On at least one weekend day, I get up early and hit the skatepark for a skate before all the kids and better skaters get there.
On the 3 weekdays I work in an office, I bike in (5kms)...
The one thing I've come to rely on, aside from the physical benefits is that all the early mornings give me a running start to tackle the day ahead, whether it's work or the kids routine...
https://www.domain.com.au/money-markets/majority-of-firsthom...
I've been pretty consumed by skate nostalgia and can't get enough of stuff like this!
https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2018/china-recycling/stor...
What we really need to do is stop and think about the consequence and byproduct of our consumption. We can start with packaging, especially single use packaging. It's difficult to go the supermarket and buy produce that doesn't come pre-wrapped. Not to mention the issue of our online shopping purchases coming in multiple packages.
Although, there does appear to be change coming. Just recently, our biggest supermarkets just announced that they will cease providing single use plastic bags:
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/woolworths-plastic-bag-ban-start...
Before, I used to live in DC and was obsessed with golf. I'd go down to a nearby public golf course at first light. Often I'd join a foursome of total strangers, I've met all sorts, lawyers, a local news presenter and even someone relatively high up at NASA.
I realized that the theme for me was to simply pursue what you love, commit some time to it. This leads naturally to meeting people with a common interest.
Although would love to find a better source for sports. SI keep screwing with their website and has a lot of opinion noise...
I'd be so worried about being burnt out from juggling not only the kids' daily lives, but their schooling and then on top of that your job. Where are you going to find time for looking after yourself? Exercising, down-time for both your physical, mental and emotional health.
All I can think of this is the image of that dude holding the whole world on his shoulder...
I don't have any real suggestions as far as maximizing your income earning potential. Maybe pick up project based work or clients?
I'm not a single dad, but I have 2 young kids and a wife that travels a great deal for work. And when she's away, I get a much greater perspective on what an amazing job single parents do. I find myself sometimes burnt out juggling that many things on my own. And also catch myself cutting corners to make things work.
I really wish you and your fam the best of luck.
I'm personally rooting for Netflix. I'm really enjoying the content. I thought Bright was a pretty entertaining throw-away action flick. And I love Stranger Things as well as Ozarks. Hell, I even watched the first ep of Queer Eye the other night... I love being able to watch at my convenience, and not be bombarded with ads. I also love that they're not subjected to the same restrictions as the big US networks in terms of their content, just like HBO isn't.
I'm excited that they're investing so much in their content pipeline.
https://cloud.google.com/free/
That way, you can just build or use whatever back-end services you need.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Meditation-Pathway-Personal-Free...
I wake early to meditate for 20 minutes before I do anything else. The book describes the technique where you concentrate on a mantra, in this case 'I AM'. If your mind start on thoughts, you gently come back to the mantra but never fighting the thoughts.
The book is pretty short and is a good read for someone taking up meditation (I've never done it before and I found it to be a good primer).
Together with this meditation in the morning, I exercise immediately after. Been doing it for a few months now and I have found that my days get off to a really positive start. I have more energy and less likely to be easily agitated.