Cats
I am now a cat dad to two wonderful cats—Star(Pictured) and Pepper. So great having companions around during the day. They are infinite wells of joy. Something that only love comes from. Seeing them do something silly, eat food, purr, and push their water and food bowls around when they’re empty brings joy to my day like nothing else. I adopted them from a friend of a friend. They had been in 4 different locations before; it took a while for them to get acclimated to my place. However, it’s smooth sailing now. I love them dearly. : )
Work
Work has been going pretty well. I had been on a leave of absence from work for a while, but now I’m back. I’ve developed a different perspective on work—I get to go to work. It is a choice I make. Every day. Taking a leave of absence underscored this fact. I made the choice to not go. And it was something doable. My attitude, performance, and my being at this career is something that I have a responsibility of making work for me. I intimately understand this fact now, and that shift in perspective has been helping. Being grateful for work as opposed to dreading it when I wake up has been changing the game for me. Let’s see how I feel when the next deadline comes!
Podcast
Go check out 4 Nerds 1 Podcast! Shout out to all the nerds, friends, and strangers who listen. I now talk to and run into a few people who have head the podcast! It’s something that I routinely take for granted—the fact that I am a podcaster. And have been for a little more than a year now. We’ve been working really hard and we’re gonna bless the world with a video component to the podcast! And damn, do we look good!
The most recent podcast was my keynote and I discuss Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. It’s a relatively popular self-help book that I had always heard about but never read until recently. The book formalizes a set of laws of the universe that, if respected, will lead to manifestation of whatever one desires. Pretty lofty claim, huh? Well, it’s a short read and I recommend it or listening to our podcast on it! Let me know what you think.
Music
Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of Departure! Lots of thoughts on that in my previous blog. Check that out for more thoughts on that. It’s a whole thing that I won’t do again. Maybe ever.
For those who don’t know and for those who remember fondly, I did a 12 week song series, inspired by Russ’ SoundCloud run, starting back in Winter 2017 called D Truth Tuesdays. I wrote, recorded, mix, mastered, and published one song a week for twelve weeks. Two of the songs from Departure were a result of this exercise (Chip Off The Block - week 2, Never Been Perfect - week 12). All of the songs are amazing; however, I have favorites. They’ve never beeing on all the streaming sites until now. 4/27/21, you get to hear them again, remed and remastered by Leto Beats. They sound crispy af. Look for more details and track listings as we lead up to it!
I have been killing it with Bob Hope at the Bob Hop Barefoot Jam every Tuesday night at Ruby’s Elixir. Pretty neat music venue and bar in Downtown St. Pete. I’m also playing keys at LifeChangers Church every Sunday. Let me tell you, my skill on the keys has increased dramatically. I had never played keyboard live in front of any audience before I started playing here. Didn’t think I’d be the guy for it, but I was. My brain (and yours too) has a way of coming up with conversations to keep me in my comfort zone. I’m not skilled enough, the church is far, my walk with God isn’t strong enough—all of these seeming valid reasons not to put myself out there threatened an opportunity for me to walk more boldly in this musical gift I’ve been blessed with. I took the leap and now, I am effectively leading a band in worship and impacting people along the way.
Most Mondays and every Tuesday night, I meet some new musicians. I am looking to put together a live band project. I’m open to just about anything; however, I’d love to put together a funk/jazz fusion outfit. More details will materialize on that soon; however, I’m in a couple talks to join some other projects. Something more concrete will be able to be said next blog. : )
D Truth On Repeat
#friendsofdtruth
Check out MAD Smooth’s Instagram stories
He does this series called Can You Guess? He plays songs that have been sampled by hip hop and R&B artists. You guess the song that was created from the sample. I can’t believe some of these…. check out this tune, can you guess what song was created from it? Get your mind blown
Chris Powers Returns to Northeast
Awesome guitarist who came down from VA (I think) to thug it up in St. Pete. Jammed out with him on some Weezer, Fallout Boy, Rage, Green Day. Never played Sugar We’re Goin’ Down live before I met this guy. Good guy who I wish the best.
Everything Else
Skydiving is absolutely awesome, go if you haven’t already. If you’re too scared, watch this video of me doing it!
Golf is dope, with my irons, I can now hit several (maybe 5) consecutive straight shots. Shout out to Josh at Ruby’s, he tells me of a 9 hole par 3 only course that I can go to. Think that’s the right link. Either that course or a sister course nearby is the 9 hole par 3 version. My iron game might actually be good enough to play, but I want to figure out how to hit with the driver first. Thanks Nevin for getting me off on the right foot! Seeking golf tips!
Anime
Jujutsu Kaisen is really good, watch it
I’ll pick 3 Spring 2021 anime and watch for the pod, let me know if you think any would be good for me
Really upset that The Promised Neverland condensed story in season 2; apparently this makes the anime terrible though it started off so good.
Alost looking (but seldom watching) new anime recommendations (dtruth2008 on MAL)