I spent last weekend up at Chillits, the chill campout in Willits. Good time, and nice to talk to people.

Back to aikido this week: as I try to be more myself, aikido is probably the single best thing I can do. I hope. Maybe.

I found a chorus here in Redwood City I can audition for on Tuesday! We'll see if it's a good fit, with the people, the director, and the rehearsal schedule, but the repertoire looks similar to what I sang with the Chamber Singers at Loomis.

I continue to be fascinated by the Yellowstone supervolcano. Right now I'm reading about the spread of volcanic ash, and its effects. It's silly to be worried about it, of course, since it seems likely to be an extinction-level event, but mass destruction always holds my attention.

I listen to NPR almost constantly these days. Fortunately I have many to choose from: KQED and KALW in the Bay Area alone, and then I grab KCRW from Los Angeles (which somewhat inexplicably also broadcasts in San Francisco), and less often WFCR and WAMC from Massachusetts and New York. I keep a page of everything I like to listen to here. In yet another sign of my being doomed to adulthood, I finally gave money to KQED. I get a neat tote bag, though, and I think a half pound of Peet's coffee. I've been wanting a tote bag, I suppose for groceries or something. I'm making an effort not to be too curmudgeonly about getting older. I'll be curmudgeonly about work and politics instead.

One of the blessings of having KALW in the area, and its desire to differentiate itself from KQED, are two music show, Echoes and Hearts of Space, a few hours of music ranging from ambient to chill, but always mellow. "Chill" music pulls in a variety of genres, so it's a little hard to find examples...on the ambient end are people like Brian Eno, while on the more active end are Biosphere and Morcheeba. The normally-uppertempo group KLF did a prime chill album called Chill Out, which has great music and perfect cover art.