July 7, 2026 | Telluride, Colorado
I can see that managing electricity is going to be a thing here. I turned off Starlink and the inverter at 11pm last night and I’m still down to 52% battery this morning. Partly because it was cloudy yesterday, partly because my music gear now involves so many new items pulling power. I may need more electricity-free days while I’m here. I can still write or edit videos without the inverter on, so that’s my backup plan.
My father requested some more last minute edits on the Fang and Flip interview. I’m going to have to set that aside for a while before touching it again. Time to move on to other things.
I made progress yesterday establishing a baseline for my music work this summer. I decided to forego the separate music computer and consolidate everything onto my big MacBook Pro 16”, which will greatly simplify computer management. I also committed to working in a particular software. Got my music library organized and set up on this machine. Doesn’t sound like much, but it was a lot of work just to get this far. From here my plan is to spend two thirds of my music time getting better at mixing and one third creating new music. I have a vision of being able to do certain things on this gear that I can’t currently do, and my goal is to be in a different place with it in six weeks. Right now when I’m on that gear I feel like I can only execute about 20% of what my mind wants to do. I’ll take it step by step and put in the focused practice time.
I’m also adjusting my daily routine. I’ve been doing writing and computer stuff in the mornings, video in the afternoon, music after that. I’m finding I don’t have the creative energy I want in the evenings lately, so I’m moving music into the afternoon while I’m still fresher. Younger me came alive energetically and creatively when the sun went down. Things have shifted.
This morning I was looking at photos of myself from 6 months ago and a year ago. My physique looks different. When I started this my goal was to lean out, mainly to get rid of the belly fat that had been a low grade annoyance for years. That’s finally and fully resolved, so it’s time for stage two: adding muscle. I want to add about five pounds, which I figure will take until Christmas. I haven’t been doing protein supplements but I’m starting one shake a day. I’m also adding focus to four new exercises: ring dips, ring rows, pull-ups, and raised-leg parallette push-ups. I do everything gently and never overstrain. It’s gotten to where the exercises feel good and my body just wants to do them. A few minutes a day while I’m going about my business. A fun little hobby I can fold into everything else. The main thing that keeps me going is that I feel great. I’m curious to see where this can go. I’ve got wind in my sails now.
I got my little Plaud NotePin up and running again yesterday. I love that thing, but it started malfunctioning a few months ago and I couldn’t resolve it, so I set it aside. Hopeful it behaves this time. It goes on my wrist and I can talk into it whenever I want, recording and giving me AI summaries of my rambling. Important to me because my best ideas tend to come at odd times, and if I don’t capture them they’re usually gone forever.
This feels like a moment where I’ve put a huge amount of work into getting to the starting line. Yes, all the work so far has merely gotten me to this beginning point. Now I have six weeks. Let’s see what we can do here.
More at layng.com.