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jeremypmeyers-blog · 3 years ago

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So long, 45.

Note: this is a draft that I wrote in 2018 but didn’t post until 2023. I am now 50, and 2022 was a pretty great year, all things considered! 2018 was a rough year for me. But there was a lot of beauty in it, and I felt like I managed to keep moving forward despite a lot of setbacks. Here are the things that I found to enjoy along the way, or that helped to propel me along.

Culture

Music: Reissue of the Voyager Golden Record, Ozma Records. In a year in which our culture seems to be in retreat, turning inward and nursing resentments, it’s helpful to contemplate a time when we decided to embark on a project to understand our universe better and to capture a representation of all of our humanity to share with it. Voyager 1 is now 13 billion miles away from us, and it has carried this “message in a bottle” outside our solar system. I hope that by the the time it is found, we have regained some of the curiosity and optimism that Voyager’s launch represented. The box set is beautiful to look at, and the Related: The Farthest (a documentary on the Voyager mission and the curation of the Golden Record) and this article about the engineers who have been guiding Voyager’s journey for 40 years.

Music: Phoebe Bridgers, Stranger In the Alps. As it turns out, I listened to a LOT of younger female singers and female-fronted bands this year (Bridgers, Vagabon, Diet Cig, Jay Som, Alyeska, Big Thief, Japanese Breakfast, Allison Crutchfield), at the same time that my streaming history suggests that I sought a lot of solace in familiar dad rock. Even before it became apparent that one of the trends of 2017 was a resurgent feminism, I found that these women just had more compelling things to say than most of their indie rock male counterparts this year. Among those strong female voices, Phoebe Bridgers’s debut album really stood out for me. Her songs are confessional without being maudlin or self-serving, and the album combines folk arrangement with gorgeous production and delivers melodies that I am compelled to sing along with. I linked to the video for “Motion Sickness” because it’s one of the more uptempo numbers on the album, but the track that drew me in was “Funeral.”

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Music: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour. Tom Petty released Full Moon Fever when I was a senior in high school. The summer after I graduated, several of my friends and I drove the 80 miles to go see Tom and the Heartbreakers play at the Summit in Houston, TX. They blew the roof off the joint and provided the soundtrack for most of my college years and a lot of the years after. I drifted away from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers after Into the Great Wide Open disappointed me, but my favorite songs of his never left heavy rotation for me. After Bowie and Prince died in 2016 without my having seen them perform, I vowed not to let any of my other favorites come around on tour again without seeing them play live. The Heartbreakers’ show at the Frank Erwin Center this May was one of the highlights of my year, and when Tom Petty died in October, I was sad but felt fortunate that I’d gotten to see him go out at the top of his game.

Music: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound.

Book: Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang. I didn’t read as much as I should have this year, but this collection of short stories that I discovered after seeing the movie Arrival blew me away.

Other: Diana crosses No Man’s Land in Wonder Woman. The Millennium Falcon joins the fray in The Last Jedi. Loot train! Mike Ehrmantraut silently takes apart a gas cap on Better Call Saul. Steve and Dustin’s unlikely friendship in Stranger Things 2. The Big Sick. “The Watch” podcast. “Pod Save America.”

Fitness

Training with Beckie Lough at Austin Simply Fit. I’ve been working out with Beckie as my personal trainer since late 2015, and I’ve finally gotten through some initial problems with form and old nagging injuries (see below). Beckie has trained me, encouraged me, and gotten me to appreciate weight training as an end unto itself instead of just cross-training to prevent injuries on my runs.

OrangeTheory Fitness. Orange Theory is an hour-long interval training workout class. You wear a heart-rate monitor and are encouraged to adjust your effort to keep your heart rate in various target zones (the orange zone is the target which gives the workout chain its name). It alternates between treadmill and weight room activities. I go 2-3 days a week at 5am

Next Level Physical Therapy. I’ve had less-than-great posture for years, and it has taken its toll. While I’ve always gotten regular exercise, strength training wasn’t part of my routine until recently. When I finally started trying to get stronger, I found that I was really limited by weakness in my shoulder, with tightness, knots, and crunchiness that restricted my movement and precluded making gains. I’ve tried a few different physical therapists going back to 2014, but this is the first one I’ve found that really made a difference.

Waterloo Sparkling Water. I try to drink a gallon of water per day, and I find that my enthusiasm for the habit peters out later in the day. Topo Chico is great, but those iconic glass bottles get expensive. Austin local chain

RX Bars. Even as an omnivore/carnivore, I find it a little bit hard to ingest all the protein that the books tell me that I need.

Things

Bombas socks. I’ve been using the same gym socks for nearly 20 years. Not the same brand, mind you-- the same pairs of socks. I kept seeing the ads for Bombas show up on my FB feed, and I decided to try them out. They really are comfortable, thick, snuggly, great for wearing with your feet up on the couch on a cold day without feeling like they’re too thick or too hot on a run. The honeycomb structure that provides support on the mid arch really does make a significant difference, and getting rid of the seam across the toe is great, too. I’ve gotten rid of all of my old socks and replaced them with these and my feet have never been happier. You can feel good about your purchase, too: they donate a pair to homeless shelters for every pair you buy.

Lego brick separator. This thing costs just $2.49, though it’s also included in some of the larger Lego sets. and it is one of the most useful pieces of plastic I’ve ever encountered. It helps separate Lego tiles that are stuck together and hard to get leverage on. My son and I each have one now and it makes short work of de-constructing Lego sets to get ready for the next build. I shudder to think how often I used sharp blades in precarious ways to achieve the same result less effectively in my youth.

Experiences

Wearing a tie to work.

Bonus stuff: Phoebe Bridgers covering Tom Petty’s “It’ll All Work Out”

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jeremypmeyers-blog · 11 years ago

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Top 10 albums of 2014

I composed this draft the first week in January. Not sure why it didn't post.

Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams/1984

Strand of Oaks: Heal

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis: Our Year

Spoon: They Want My Soul

Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

Barr Brothers: Sleeping Operator

The War on Drugs: Lost in the Dream

Old 97's: Most Messed Up

St. Vincent: St. Vincent

The Both: The Both

honorable mentions: D'Angelo: Black Messiah, Wussy: Attica!, Ballet School: The Dew Lasts an Hour

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jeremypmeyers-blog · 11 years ago

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What I discovered/listened to the most in 2014. For whatever reason, Tumblr seems to show just the one song in the image above, but there are 75 songs on the list.

#music #spotify

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jeremypmeyers-blog · 11 years ago

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2014 in review

2014 was a huge improvement for my family and me over 2013. It's really good to be back at our house in Austin. This might be the first time in my life when I've loved what i do for a living and where I get to do it at the same time. With the intention of consolidating the successes of 2014 and building on them in 2015, here is my personal "best of" list for the past year. Not all of these items originated in 2014, but they were new discoveries or re-discoveries for me. If you can use any of these things, great; if not, consider this my way of saying thank you the various people, businesses, and entities who are responsible for them.

Austin local

Barton Springs restoration and the boardwalk extension on the Butler Hike and Bike trail. We were away from Austin for 2 years, and, of course Austin got bigger and more crowded while we were gone, and we lost some local treasures along the way (the bus in front of the Broken Spoke, that gorgeous pecan tree at Uncle Billy's), but the new landscaping at Barton Springs and the boardwalk extension of the hike and bike trail are both fantastic. A sincere appreciation to the City of Austin for doing this right. It's a much more pleasant approach to the springs from the south entrance now; they've managed to make the sidewalks and ramps feel like part of the natural environment. And the boardwalk is great, fulfilling the promise of the Hike and Bike trail. I can now run the entire loop from MoPac to Pleasant Valley without having to run up onto Riverside traffic. We're treating the trail like the jewel of downtown Austin that it is. (Also, the city's bicycle infrastructure has been steadily getting better. I'm excited to be a more frequent bike commuter in 2015 than I was able to be in 2014).

Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. Another new addition while we were away in California. Great food, great beer, tree-shaded outdoor tables and good live music + BYO vinyl nights makes this one of my favorite new places to hang out with my South Austin friends.

Patika and Radio are my favorite new coffeehouses in my neighborhood. I loved Flipnotics for what it was (and hope something good moves into its place), but I'd rather hang out at these two new places. Patika seems more like the place to linger over a glass of wine after you've gotten your work or reading done; Radio seems like a better place to linger over a draft beer.

Sawyer and Co. has a lot of charm, a friendly vibe, and an outdoor lounge area with lush artificial turf. That shouldn't work, but it does. They also serve eggs with étouffée. Yum.

Hoppin' House lets you jump in a bouncy house with your 4-year-old and is a great way to burn off some of said 4-year-old's boundless energy so that he might eventually go to bed.

Pop culture

I assume that you already know about Serial, and I love me some Sarah Koenig, but my favorite podcast discoveries of 2014 are Hardcore History and Hollywood Prospectus.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is one guy, narrating interesting details and perspectives about historical events. This is a weird podcast in that we only get a new episode once every few months, and each one is usually several hours in length. Many of them are multi-part series (right now, we're on part 5 of an extended history of World War I), but they're well crafted, and he has a natural talent as a storyteller. I've learned more about World War I in the past 6 months than I ever did in school.

Hollywood Prospectus is an (almost) weekly conversation between Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald, writers for grantland.com. The two have been friends since long before they both landed pop culture writing gigs at grantland. Their friendship and ability to entertain both one another and the listener is a centerpiece of the show. Each is a great writer about pop culture on his own (see, for instance, Greenwald's "Where Has The Love Gone?" or Ryan's "The Sea Is Dope"), but they bring out the best in each other. I've laughed out loud on my commute as they've speculated about Cersei's monthly wine bill on Game of Thrones, or listened to them de-construct the new Star Wars trailer ("The Falcon is the Falcon.") They don't just talk about TV and movies, though; they've had extended discussions about the new records from Spoon, Ryan Adams, and the War on Drugs.

You're the Worst is my favorite television show of the year. To be clear, it's very R-rated, NSFW, foul-mouthed and dirty. It is not ok to watch with kids or grandparents around. But I really like the protagonists (?) in spite of myself, and love the funhouse mirror twist on the romantic comedy.

I felt like 2014 was a really good year for music, but I'll cover that in a separate post.

Also, check out Gotham Central (The Wire if it were set in Gotham City?), Our Secret Life in the Movies, Black Mirror on Netflix. The Interestings was my favorite novel from last year, but I've got a couple on deck this year that I'm excited about.

Life/work balance

Lift.do/Lift app has been helpful for me in establishing habits and routines. I've managed to get myself to get in the habit of drinking a gallon of water per day, preparing for the next day the night before, staying at inbox zero (presently on a 42-day streak!), and setting my three most important tasks for the day. I'm presently on a 37-day streak for getting a daily run in, too. (They appear to be in the process of re-branding themselves as coach.me, but I hope that they keep the free options that allow you to remind yourself and share progress/observations/encouragements with friends and others with aligned goals).

thewirecutter.com is a great website that does product reviews really well. I've found their reviews concise yet thorough, and I've been quite happy with everything I've bought based upon the site's recommendations. They'll tell you not just what works best, but whether they think a price premium is worth it or not. They don't default to the "most expensive is best," but the writers seem to have a similar appetite to mine in terms of being willing to pay for quality.

I've been using a standing desk for a year now, and I love it. On a related note, I finally realized that I spend more waking hours at my desk than anywhere else, and it's worth spending a few of my own $$ to make it better for me, even if it's not something that I feel justified in making my employer pay for. My desk now hasframed artwork on the walls, proper task lighting, some succulents, a healthy snack dispenser, and plenty of books. Oh, and dual monitors, but I got the company to pay for that.

Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass. Very few of you who are reading this will have cause to visit this site or purchase anything from them, but these are a couple of guys who do scientific glassblowing out of their shop in West Berkeley, CA. I had need for some specialized equipment and they got me some gorgeous glassware for a lot cheaper than other sources with just a few weeks' lead-time. Check out some of the pictures; it's not only quality stuff necessary for doing good electrochemistry, but it's gorgeous to look at. I use the custom vessel I received from them and I feel connected to the tradition of electrochemistry going back to Michael Faraday. It makes me want to be a better experimentalist.

I've already waxed poetic about the data analysis software that is Igor Pro, but it really is the best, y'all. Can't wait for version 7!

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