Jumped into the Puget Sound on new years day, again, and enjoyed it (alarmingly), again. Crossed off a bucket list item when Aidan Hughes of BRUTE! created one of his signature pieces for Punch Drunk. Reunited with tour buddies from 20 years ago. Wandered through Los Angeles at night. Wandered through Chicago during the day. Finally contracted Covid-19, and spent five miserable days on Paxlovid marinating in the taste of chewed up dandelions and paint thinner. Was in the right place at the right time to witness the new Ghostbusters movie being filmed in NYC. Unlocked a veritable horn of plenty of high-fiber high-protein pasta & grain alternatives. Cooked a lot. Doubled-down on psyllium husk & creatine. Lost 20lbs.
Rediscovered the friendly skies after two years of totally terrestrial travel during the pandemic. Thank you Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit for your hospitality. Spent increasing time under a kettlebell or barbell, with 210 days spent exercising in some capacity. Added a heat pump to our gas furnace system for some dual-fuel goodness and air conditioning. Successfully planted, tended, and consumed a tiny crop of tomatoes, despite being planted too early and suffering an unseasonal hailstorm. Got engaged. Cooked a ton of recipes from TikTok. Said goodbye to three incredible humans who died way too early. Rest in production Mort, Meena, and Nikki 💔💔💔. Cracked the code of delicious hand-ground Aeropress (h/t Cory Doctorow). Bought a cargo van. Got a Spanish coach. Became acquainted with a raft of slightly dubious but ultimately promising supplements including glycine, betaine anhydrous, nicotinamide riboside, quercetin phytosome, trans-resveratrol, GABA, L-theanine, apigenin, tongkat ali, and CoQ10. Still didn’t get COVID.
Bought a house. Ushered our sweet, old, tired kitty Izzy across the rainbow bridge to join her sister 💔. Found and fell in love with Kona. Survived the record-breaking, face-melting heat dome event. Discovered with chagrin the crucial role attics play in home heat dissipation. Met a litter of newborn kittens and adopted twin orange sisters Ginger and Lily. Got vaccinated. Got boosted. Still didn’t get COVID. Produced a hell of a lot of virtual events. Had a crossbow bolt fired into the side of our old house by an unknown archer. Left town for the first time in 18 months, since the pandemic began. Made a lot of blackberry chia jam and cold brew. Played too much Wordle and too little chess online. During the cusp of the Omicron surge, wedded my close friend Ray to his now-wife Zhongdi. Endured more anomalous weather, this time sub-zero. Perks of having a garage: powerlifting without a gym. Directed the New Year’s Eve show at Climate Pledge Arena.
Took the polar plunge. Worked back up to respectable powerlifting numbers, until the gyms closed. Lost a bunch of weight by tirelessly scrutinizing my caloric intake, then put it back on while sedentary and re-learning to type/eat/open jars after flying over the handlebars of an e-bike and breaking my left hand, three fingers, skinning my right flank, and getting knocked out cold with a concussion (take my advice: don't ride a bike with fenders). Became keenly aware of how slippery metal bridges get on misty days after getting sandwiched in a three-car pileup. Built a live streaming studio at Punch Drunk. Produced & directed a ton of non-profit live streams. Directed a music performance video for Brandi Carlile for the United Nation's 75th Anniversary. Learned how to make delicious cold brew coffee. Got better at chess. Lost our bunny-soft Balinese kitty princess, Gracey, to kidney disease. Didn't get COVID.
Wrote and published a short story called "Meet Alenn" on Medium, which to my surprise was featured in their fiction category the day after. Left arm now ¾ filled with tattoos. Learned the hard way the incredible importance of anti-bacterial soap as part of tattoo aftercare. Punch Drunk received a shout-out via press release from Blackmagic Design for a broadcast project we did with Oprah and Holland America Line. Ventured through Wyoming and Yellowstone. Paid homage to the Magic Castle in North Hollywood, a key setting in Clive Barker's 1995 masterpiece Lord of Illusions. Opted for train instead of plane on a trip from SF → SEA and indulged myself for 25 hours in a "roomette sleeper." Debuted "Brian & Jacob Review" with a taste testing of the horrific and probably poisonous "clear coffee."
Created broadcast countdown clock application StreamTimer.com. Beheld Valley of Fire, Nevada. Made a pilgrimage to Baltimore and confirmed: no lake, no trout. A multi-camera project engineered by Punch Drunk made it into Wired Magazine. Devoured paratha tacos at Goa in Santa Barbara. Lots of plane travel; the birds-eye view of Mount Rainier never fails to disappoint. Dove into authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Spent lots of time with the loudest Balinese cats west of the Mississippi. Learned to make pasta.