Listening to one of my music playlists on random, I was reminded of the existence of a beautiful piece of music performed by the supremely talented Norwegian soprano Sissel.

I accidentally left a Pluto TV stream running overnight (the Judge Judy channel, don't judge me). I don't know what my data cap is with Comcast Xfinity, but I'm probably at risk of hitting it this month. So now seems like a good time to try an experiment. For the remainder of November, I am not going to stream any video or audio for personal use.

It's been at least a couple decades since my clarinet was last taken in for maintenance and repairs, so this was long overdue.

Yesterday evening I started practicing some scales on my clarinet and something felt off. I discovered that one of the key mounts was loose and negatively affecting the function of several keys. I could try to repair it myself, but I'm no expert and wouldn't want to make the problem worse or break something else inadvertently. Also, it's been a very long time since I had my clarinet serviced by a proper repair technician who checks all the corks, pads, screws, etc. to make sure everything is in tip-top shape. It's probably best for me to take it in for repairs and maintenance before I start seriously playing it again.

Tonight I played my clarinet for the first time in a couple years. I was ashamed that I had to get the vacuum out and clean off the layer of dust that was caked to the outside of the case, having sat in my closet untouched for so long.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Fall 2022 concert of the Cache Symphony Orchestra. It's a community orchestra made up of mostly volunteers, including my wife who plays the violin.

The program was an ambitious one. It made them stretch. And it paid off. The performance was excellent.

A couple weeks ago I was perusing the #christian tag on Bandcamp and the first result that came up was an album called Future Foreverby Jonathan Ogden. I'd never heard of him or this album, but I gave the track One Day a listen and was hooked.

Like many of us in the year 2022, I spend most of my weekdays on a computer. It's how I work to support my family.

But then what do I do in my spare time? Most of the time, I get on my computer. I watch TV shows or Movies, play video games (Minecraft these days), listen to music, catch up on social media, write blogs, etc. I do read books, spend time with my family, and other non-digital things, but my current ratio of connected to disconnected free time is extremely skewed towards connected.

For several years I've been paying for a Family plan with Apple Music for me, my wife, and my son.

I've been willing to pay the $14.99 per month ($16.04 including tax) for this family plan because of the convenience in being able to listen to their vast music library ad-free, on-demand, on a variety of devices.

Last week I received an email from Apple informing me that, starting in November, they are raising the price of this plan from $14.99 to $16.99 per month.

I've been a fan of the band Dirty Loops for years. I was looking for YouTube videos featuring their bassist, Henrik Linder (who is an absolute BEAST), and stumbled across a video that had been buried by the YouTube algorithm, but deserves to be seen and heard!