Today is a holiday in Ecuador. Independence day from the Spaniards, rather than the English. Tomorrow we’re going to a friend’s for tea. We met her in Spanish class and it should be entertaining. She’s Iranian. A fearless speaker, mixing English and Spanish in an animated stream that almost makes sense and leads to some bizarre and funny tangents of conversation. Often the teacher had to tell her that a word was English, not Spanish, and I completely understand. I’m trying to shovel Japanese in my head for our October trip, in the midst of Spanish lessons, and I know I’ll be mixing up the two. The brain is a funny thing.

I tried chochos the other day. A type of bean native to Ecuador and Peru, hailed as the next superfood. Better protein and nutrient profiles than soybean. Only drawback is it takes a few days to cook. Luckily they sell it precooked. It’s about the size and texture of a garbanzo bean, might be interesting to try making hummus with it.

Nothing too exciting going on, culturally anyway. I figure about 80% or more of my daily experience would probably be the same, even if we lived in Mongolia. Today, for example, I’m deep into the exploration of neural nets and tinkering with building my own for both experimentation and a couple of projects. I also have a sandbox setup for hackery and am surfing topologies of the network geography down here, mapping activity that invisibly overlays and shimmers atop the pre-digital physical and cultural landscapes. With a casual intent on updating my skills, perhaps towards a consulting gig in cyber-security. I have experimental oscillators and virtual instruments running, riffing a spectrum of novel sounds. I’m not sure what our neighbors think of some of the extraterrestrial vibrations occasionally pulsing through the walls. But I enjoy shaping and sculpting sound waves like blocks of wood or granite exploring what’s beneath. And finally, working on a little light particle project, shepherding the tiny scintillating flocks into simulations of fireflies across a darkened glade. With a dab of cricket song I sampled in Fort Collins out the bedroom window and a geometric sigil glowing in the stars to channel helpful energy from those viewing the piece into increasing the fireflies chances of survival in our light polluted environments.

So anyway, more of a picture maybe of what’s going on :) Be well my friends and family. Here’s a metta meditation I’ve sent to each and all of you at one time or another. And will continue to do so

may you be safe
may you be happy
may you be healthy
may you live with ease