https://notes.volumen.ca/ Updates and notes from Volūmen Fri, 09 Oct 2026 10:12:41 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#calligraphy-on-guitar calligraphy-on-guitar Music from the perspective of calligraphy: perform songs on the guitar as if writing them out in calligraphic style. First, employ triads and their inversions, use rests, maintain the emotional cadence, and play with a relaxed picking hand and a swift fretting hand. Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#pritesh-walia pritesh-walia I stumbled upon Pritesh Walia completely by chance. He is a skilled jazz guitarist with a warm, melodic tone. His story is an interesting one. Growing up in an Indian family, he was far removed from jazz. His parents, an engineer and a professor, played only Indian film music and classical music... Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#cruft cruft It is nice to start anew because computer OSes accumulate cruft. I prefer to do this with my home systems once every 3 to 4 years: erase the hard drive, install the current OS from scratch, restoring only what I need from a Time Machine backup. At the end of the next cycle, the hardware refresh... Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#bridge-and-water bridge-and-water Structure and form is one mode; free flow is another. Learn to inhabit both; sometimes building like a well-built bridge, other times moving like water flowing beneath it. The skill is knowing which mode serves the work. Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:01 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#davinci-resolve-workflow davinci-resolve-workflow I’m using an iPhone, a Blackmagic Camera app, and a Yeti microphone, all combined into a single ProRes file at 24fps with manual audio gain. I’ve tested and confirmed everything is clean in terms of frame rate, sync, and gain. Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#basic-requirements-of-originality basic-requirements-of-originality Murakami hit the nail on its head. There are three requirements for originality: 1) Unique and individual style immediately perceivable on first sight and hearing, 2) That style must update itself and maintain self-reinvention through the passage of time, 3) That style is internalized in... Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#the-pattern the-pattern Work life has stabilized. I do the things I used to do prior to 2018. This seems to be a cycle. One mistake I don’t want to repeat is becoming too focused on work. No grand plan, no strong drive, no passion. Only simple days, a plain work life, the repetition of small things with discipline, the... Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#boxes-we-keep boxes-we-keep Early mornings have a special gift for me. The break of dawn illuminates the invisible in what should be obvious: I can see that daily life is full of maintenance work. While that work is necessary, it often feels more like fixing things than living a simple, healthy, content baseline life. Yet... Tue, 04 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#on-repeat on-repeat I cannot get enough of these tunes recently: Blues in the Night (Dinah Washington), See See Rider (Ernestine Anderson), T’Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-Ness (Dinah Washington), and You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to (Helen Merrill). They’ve been on repeat for more than a month. Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#newspeak newspeak Newspeak is deliberately obscure language designed to confuse or deceive. The term originates from George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984, where it describes a fabricated tongue intentionally engineered to restrict thought and cognitive ability. Orwell’s system worked by altering existing words,... Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#the-wrong-problem the-wrong-problem Most people don’t understand how computers work or know how to harness computing to solve problems, which limits their personal use. Computers are mainly communication tools to them since the advent of social media platforms and mobile computing devices, but generative AI has the power to change... Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#guitar-recording-setup guitar-recording-setup My guitar recording philosophy has evolved toward minimal, purposeful gear: tone comes from the fingers, pick, guitar, and amp, while digital effects complement rather than replace the core sound. Sun, 26 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#honne-and-tatemae honne-and-tatemae Honne and tatemae aren’t simply truth versus lie. They’re both real, but at different levels. Tatemae is socially acceptable, while honne is the unfiltered truth that emerges when you trust someone. Neither is fake. Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#the-unix-philosophy-of-everyday-life the-unix-philosophy-of-everyday-life The Unix philosophy holds that a program should do one thing well, stay simple, and avoid unnecessary complexity. The same logic extends beyond computer programs. It applies just as well to organizing time, schoolwork, or everyday life. The problem is always the same: left unattended, simple... Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#the-tale-of-kaho the-tale-of-kaho Murakami’s latest novel, “The Tale of Kaho,” was released on July 3, 2026, by Shichosha. It’s his 16th novel and marks his first in three years since “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” (Murakami, 2024). “The Tale of Kaho” expands on four interconnected short stories that were first serialized in... Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#guillaume-poncelet guillaume-poncelet We discovered Guillaume Poncelet on YouTube, totally randomly. He is a composer, trumpet and piano player, born in 1978 in Grenoble, France. Music media characterize him as a minimalist neoclassical musician. His music videos blow us away. Simple melodies played softly on upright piano with its... Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#chesterfield-avenue chesterfield-avenue An early morning walk down Chesterfield Avenue, in the chilled air and along the uncrowded sidewalk, helped me find a signal in the everyday noise. Earliest memories from childhood came back to me as I discovered thought and attempted to control thinking at will. A thought, as a stream of... Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#retirement-rehearsal retirement-rehearsal I took a brief walk this morning, on our 4th wedding anniversary, also the first day of my vacation, a period I like to call retirement rehearsal. It was a wonderful walk; the cool air filled me with calmness and a light joy. I moved down Chesterfield Avenue like a cloud gliding across the sky.... Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#no-grand-plan-just-steady-state no-grand-plan-just-steady-state I have thought about and diagnosed the mechanisms of weight gain and found that they are largely conditioned loops and the continuation of eating past satisfaction. I have made a simple and realistic plan that involves pre-portioning and gradual reduction of meal sizes. Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://notes.volumen.ca/index.html#on-compounding on-compounding Compounding effects have implications that are easy to underestimate; for example, a good habit will compound, thereby improving one’s daily life, sustaining itself as an internal cycle. A lateral outcome is the diffusion of compounding, as acquired benefits spread to other aspects of life:... Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000