finally. #RhythmX

Scientists just discovered 5.6 million bees under a New York State cemetery This whopping bee aggregation is one of the largest and oldest ever recorded, according to a new study

Scientists just discovered 5.6 million bees under a New York cemetery www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

my quality of life has improved a great deal since installing ad-free YouTube skin apps on my phone and TV

argh! This is still in draft form (which contains a copy of my March newsletter). that's annoying that it pushed to my website and to bluesky already. Thanks Zapier :p

A Midway Check-in - Mendel's Newsletter #6 (Apr 26) Mantra, Missing Piece, Necessary Noise, WGI

A Midway Check-in - Mendel's Newsletter #6 (Apr 26)

Mantra, Missing Piece, Necessary Noise,...

it's a daily struggle to not watch taskmaster outtakes for series I haven't watched yet

in a recent ep of 'the devil's plan', one of the games was "Sniper Hold 'Em" where after betting is done, each player can "snipe" disqualify a specific hand type/rank from winning (e.g. pair of 10s, 2p with 9s as highest, FH w three 1s).

fascinating variant. makes pocket pairs so valuable

Music Review: Portland Percussion Group – ‘Patterns & Form’ - Blogcritics Percussion music can sound dry and detached. Most of the music on Patterns & Form, out now from

whoo my percussion quartet (on the Portland Percussion Group's album "Patterns and Form") got a nice review! Incredibly grateful

blogcritics.org/music-review...

ALSO:

Louisiana-based composers! Batture Contemporary 2026 Call For Scores is now live! First two entries free! Go submit!

versipel.org/2026-call-fo...

today was one of those crazy days where I actually successfully juggled about six things in the air.

Tonight's post-concert falafel burger will taste particularly good

a crowd of people marching on the street. some are holding protest signs with 'no kings' sentiments

great day for a No Kings protest march in NOLA

lol at the unanimous senate vote to fund all non-ICE and border patrol portions of DHS after Delta said they would no longer treat legislatures as special angels. turns out nothing brings the two parties together like the fear of having to experience life as a pleb

also: the Denver airport is really really nice

had a great few days with Mantra Percussion during their residency at CU Boulder. neck home now to head up my own residency featuring Missing Piece. yay new music!

MSY 3/23:

7a arrived. was redirected to parking garage elevators from entrance. line not long enough to reach outside. ICE present, well away from TSA ops, mostly directing pedestrian traffic & looking either bored or bewildered

got to the front of TSA gen boarding by 7:50, make it thru smoothly

haha what

Trombone emoji designed by Maryland students will soon land on iPhones The trombone emoji was submitted for approval by a group of students from the Science and Mathematics Academy at Aberdeen High School in 2019.

Trombone emoji designed by Maryland students will soon land on iPhones everywhere

Work is getting in the way of me doing the very important business of beating Ascension 1 with the Silent in Slay the Spire 2

that's so wild to me. fascinating

*fax* number?? who uses fax machines in 2026?

one of my nephews who is v knowledgable/passionate about tech standards recently told me about some of the annoying changes made in base chromium (non opt-out AI, code that makes adblocking an impossible task, etc).

So I'm making a test-drive switch to @waterfox.net. We'll see how it goes

Squarepusher - 'Dark Steering' taken from 'Ufabulum' YouTube video by Squarepusher

holy shit this came out THIRTEEN YEARS AGO

(blinking lights warning)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvLA...

Giving Up Is Underrated | Semi-Ramblomatic YouTube video by Second Wind

@yahtzeecroshaw.bsky.social 's new video is great life advice outside of video games or the NYT puzzle apps that he directly references; strongly recommend

This morning, I woke up at 6 (about 1.5h earlier than normal) and was wide awake, so I got up. And holy hell it's been a productive morning.

Which is great and all, but I usually choose not to be a morning person, and I'm perfectly fine to only activate that when necessary or in the right mood

An open letter to Grammarly and other plagiarists, thieves and slop merchants To everyone at Grammarly, I am writing a book right now, a really challenging endeavor that no doubt someone in Silicon Valley will think it’s fine to steal the day it’s published. I’ve been a profes...

I finally lost my shit about so-called AIs, LLMs, enshittification & everything fucking evil that @officialgrammarly.bsky.social is doing. I'm fucking furious, and not just about what 1 company has done. An open letter to Grammarly & the rest of the LLM hype machine www.moryan.com/an-open-lett...

new album out soon! 🥳🥳

a black cat. her head is being scratched by a hand. there's a laptop in the background

cat in lap break

Composers and composition students: applications are open for American Wild Ensemble’s annual Composition Symposium at UMKC Conservatory, June 21-25. Composition faculty include Chen Yi and Paul Rudy.
Apply here: conservatory.umkc.edu/.../composit...

i just discovered Invidious, and it's glorious.

invidious.io

a map of New Orleans. a big red blob is covering a very large area

it's our monthly boil water advisory! (TM)

this one is a doozy