Carl Sagan was a passionate astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator that sure inspired me.
I have 3 songs inspired by what he wrote, but this SHORT has clips of just 2 of them.
Just something I wanted to do.
Dragons Of Our Mind:
The Big Bounce:
All my songs I have done this way are my own song structure. Rather than verse/chorus repeating a few times with a musical break 2/3 of the way through, mine are all musical-bit/verse repeating, with some longer musical-bits.
I just don't need to do what everyone else does.
Other Things
Memories brought back after watching the pilot of the X-FILES, 1994.
We were living in Hosoe-cho Shizuoka and I worked at the Roland Hamamatsu R&D Centre. On a Friday night I would stop in and rent a VHS tape for the weekend. We watched I don't remember how many seasons of the X-FILES on VHS tape that way. And other movies of course. It wasn't on local free to air TV that I knew of, even though Star Trek TNG and such were shown on a Wednesday morning at 1:30AM.
Video Rental was great. Have had access to PRIME and NETFLIX the last few years and have always found the shows and movies very limited. More convenient, but way fewer options.
Been watching THE MENTALIST, a 2008 procedural drama television series and they had an episode around NLP. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is widely categorized by psychologists, scientists, and academic bodies as a pseudoscience, an unverified self-help system rather than an evidence-based clinical practice.
The kicker being while I was a project manager/ developer at a financial software company, they had all the senior staff take a course in this scam. The owners thinking hypnotizing those under you to do what they wanted would be great. 😡
After our team delivered the PC product, I was told they wouldn't do that again for another 5 years, so they didn't need technical me anymore. Sales was the only thing that mattered, "everyone knows that" said the CEO.
Shortly after I left, their competitors took their market share with cloud based products. No shock they aren't anywhere near a leader in their market as they once were. A minor player in 2026.
That leads to the related Wellness Grifters. Another con that has spread out of control.
Supplements and life advice sold by manipulating suckers fears and ignorance. Mistaking confidence for knowledge and experience must be a major factors in the downfall of societies through out the ages.
Have come to the conclusion that Talk To Camera VLOG, like T-shirt Airbrush, is not my thing. You don't know that till you try them though.
YouTube being against Faceless YouTube and animation (Kids/Family values) means I have to change direction "more". MUSIC+COMICS animation don't work anymore on YouTube. Music Videos with real video isn't out of the question, but doing the obvious isn't the way I would like to go. Not sure what to try next yet...
So probably more not good videos as I try and get somewhere, or stop trying and do something else like painting...
The bass sound in this is the processed DI recorded into Reaper. Not the in room sound. The Reaper output was added to the sound in the video editor, and sound bass made picked up by mic removed.
The JBass NAM sound:
Other Things
Just saw Robert Henke ( one of the creators of Ableton Live) will stop publishing technical things about his installations and other art. Doesn't want the AI skimmers just stealing it.
He may already be too late for that.
Wasn't the only reason I closed my own website after 20 years, but a consideration. A friends that was putting BTS stuff about a puppet movie he is making has stopped putting any detailed work on Social Media for the same reasons.
So much talk of YouTube changes for creators all over the Internet. The reduced reach of animation due to falsely detected as AI or "for kids" having a direct impact on me. I made my animation in MOHO Pro12.5, not using AI, and not for kids.
I stopped making my Animated Music Videos, my MUSIC+COMICS. Now, my channel hasn't been monetized for 10+ years, and it isn't something I am trying to get back, but would be nice if YouTube showed someone what I make, and me not doing something they "shadow ban" feels important. But even a video that has more than single digit views has only had the first 3 seconds watched much of the time.
Shorts up to 3 minutes is all I plan to keep making though. Anything that isn't a short, just doesn't get seen at all.
Feeling I may have said all I want to say talking to camera though. Having to come up with a talking video regularly just isn't how I want to spend my time. But we will see what happens and how I feel. At my age, I don't have any long term plans about anything. A comic or cartoon is probably more my thing.
Our class of 1976 High School 50 year reunion (a public school on the North Shore) was held in Sydney over the weekend. I didn't attend. I was sent a link to all the photos taken though. Some 47 went, and from the list of names I have, I never spoke to 37 of them during my whole 6 years in High School. None of "my friends" attended.
Feels just like having worked in a big company. You know a few you worked directly with, a smaller group could even be friends, but the majority you don't actually know.
The majority of friends I had, over the 6 years in High School, left to do their final years at one of the many private schools. I think many of the friends I had in Primary School didn't go to the local public High School either. There is this thing in Australia that graduating from a Private School makes the connections for a smooth run to the upper echelons of society. The not what you know, but who you know thing. Like that other great copy worthy country, Colombia. The expense of private school made some of their parents leave it as late as possible. All but one that went to a private school stayed in contact with me after they left.
So I didn't have a constant group of friends all through out school. Had to join a new group, or try too, and make new friends to cope with the tedium of school. I have never been the out going type.
Guess one of the reasons, changing country was something that never worried me. Wasn't that I was "leaving my closes 300 friends".
They will be having re-unions every 5 years now, rather than 10. Twelve of us, that they know of, have already passed away and were remembered at the 50th. Of us 68 year old's now, how many 73 year old's will be around then? How many 78 year old's in 10 years? Significantly fewer I would think.
I did a song, FINAL CHAPTER, around that earlier in the year:
Watched Mickey 17 over the last few days. Some of the acting, from the 2 big names, seemed a bit strange to me, and the story kind of dragged in places with the pacing. I am assuming it was supposed to be cartoony live action, rather than realistic. Interesting though, mostly...
A Musical Cartoonist, but for the longest time also did REALLY technical stuff before retiring in 2019.
Audio and electronic musical instrument design were been very significant in our work at both Fairlight Instruments in Sydney Australia (where the Sampler originated with the Computer Musical Instrument or CMI ) and Roland Corporation in Hamamatsu Japan.
Devices used by the likes of Peter Gabriel, ZZ Top, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Jan Hammer, John Farnham (You're the Voice), Iva Davies (Great Southern Land) and many others.
But also worked in other industries involving Medical Devices, Industrial, Training Systems and Financial Software.
And now so glad to leave all the technical stuff in the past!
After 20 years, we closed artandtechnology.com.au in October 2026 because we could no longer renew the domain registration due to an expired ABN and non-resident status. With bots and AI scrapers accounting for most of its traffic over the past three years, the website had lost its usefulness anyway.
And now for something different:
Drawing was the thing I have always done. Single panel cartoons & caricatures, then did my first multipage comic in 2017, and done a few since:
This is Where The Smoke Comes Out. A Collection of Memories (not an Autobiography). Inspired by the Historical/Autobiographical work SHOWA, by Shigeru Mizuki. My historical and personal memories of art, tech and music in Australia & Japan.
So went to the local Mall and had breakfast at GUSTO yesterday morning.
GUSTO is one of the great value Family Restaurants in Japan. Part of the Skylark Chain. You get unlimited refills from the drink bar with breakfast. The blend coffee comes out of a machine and it isn't great, but the tables, chairs and environment at GUSTO is just nicer for me than Komeda or Starbucks. While there, took DJI ACTION4 video of the sky, street and me writing in the small notebook I now take out with me.
I did this song originally during the months my wife suffered SHINGLES and was in constant pain and I was doing the food preparation and caring. I have no pretenses of rock star-ism. Just a grandfather who is feeling his age more and more.
Much more than I would have expected, Marty Friedman's book has much about him "being a rock star". Not catching public transport and fussing muchly about the right hair and fashion.
My song here is very much the opposite of that stuff.
Did a variation of the NOT A ROCK STAR music video using actual video of me, rather than the animated cartoon me I did in the original video. YouTube has recently been dramatically reducing animation viewability and thought I should redo some of the videos I like most to not get them confused with AI or for kids.
The MOHO pro V12.5 animated titles are a variation on those in the original video, but with the character and background removed and replaced by 100% green. I choma keyed that over the video of me here.
I just took my glasses off during the singing to get a different look. I can't see anything without my glasses.
The video isn't particularly exciting, but goes with the theme of I am no rockstar.😀
The Studio. The ultimate solo creative space for me.
No compromises with anyone else, just the internal battle of how long do I want to spend doing THAT, and is it more worthwhile and fun than THIS.
Doing those creative thing that keeps me a Happy Camper. Personnel philosophy in a minute? I have seen so many 15~35 minute plus vlogs now where people say so much less than I do in 60 seconds here. To me, a minute is probably about as long as I want to talk, but I have edited out all the pauses in this. This, of course, is exactly what YouTube doesn't want for its advertising based video system.
Last weeks 3 things SHORT got 16 views, and 2 likes. Seems an impossibly small number without the algorithm actively working against you. Expected that was the case.
Have since found out about YouTube animation channels being demonetized/blocked/reach reduced due to their new "kids/Family values/AI slop" requirements. Animation is being heavily discouraged, unless it is AI SLOP produced by business interests of the YouTube management, presumably.
It is also really weird how on the YouTube HOME page now it recommends my own videos & playlists to me! 😒
Automated Idiocy.
The take away to me is making an animation and putting it on YouTube means it will not be seen by any one, so don't bother.
Other Things
US Midterms blue wave, is reassuring to see for us in the rest of the world. It isn't over though. The genie has been let out of the bottle as far as abuse of presidential position power is concerned, and that will just attract even worse presidents in the future, no mater their political leaning. The system that created frump hasn't changed, and that needs to happen for any anything to really improve.
Americans don't see that compared to places like Canada and Australia, their Democrats are a right-wing party, just not as far-right as their Republicans. They have no center or left. Except Bernie Sanders, who the rest of the would sees as center, center-left.
Is Social Media , like the Internet itself, really dead now? Mostly seems that way to me.
X has had the best ROI the last 3 years or so, but only as I got out and met people at a festival first.
Think Bluesky is pretty much dead to me.
Facebook is only useful for two Facebook groups I am in, and messenger. I only talk with 3~4 people there though. Posting anything with links in it is a complete waste of time now. I feel it is rapidly going the way of MySpace to me. Log in less frequently, then I just stop going back at all.
One FB group is about the 50th High School Re-union that is on this Saturday. I am not going though. I went to the 30th, and none that went to that one were actually friends of mine. I kept in touch with 3 people from High School over the years and none of them went to the re-unions. I shouldn't have either.
It isn't that this Blog gets any more interaction. I have nothing to indicate it isn't just all bots reading it.
I keep coming back to Barry's Economics. The research papers and examples are fascinating.
Much of what gets talked about appeals to me. Humans: You can't believe anything they say, or believe to be true! So many of them think they have found the one true truth...
It is November 2026 already! The older you get, the faster the years just rush by. So very aware of this now, and what time we have left. The last 20 went in a flash! Don't know how much we actually have left at all, but know it will go in a flash too, and don't want to waste any of it, particularly around tedious people and issues I have no agency over.
Wife and I have had the blues since our mid 30s daughter went back to her life in Australia after staying with us for 2 months. I may have it worse than my wife. In the local shopping mall, I just walked past MUJI and LoFt, places spent time with a her in the last weeks, and teared up. She helped me buy trousers at UNIQLO and IZUMYA too.
Memories of her as a small child and ordinary home life come rushing back. Such as in this family restaurant with me, her older brother center, and her right. He brothers live and work in Japan after we retired back in Japan. She wanted to keep the career she built in Australia, so that is where she stayed.
I have tears in my eyes again. Happy tears.
Looking on my Facebook feed and Amazon was advertising this prepainted figure/model of Dick Dastardly's THE MEAN MACHINE from the 1968 TV show Wacky Races. I still have a much worse broken MPC kit of the car and figures that I just haven't been able to throw away.
I really loved Wacky Races in 1968. But I was 9! I would rush home from school and Skeeter's Cartoon Corner showed cartoons and had a segment were viewers could send in an envelope with their name and phone number on the back, one would get picked out of a barrel, and he would ring the kid live on TV and they would try and guess who would win that weeks race, and get a prize.
Australian TV was innocent back then.
We went back to Australia in 2001 when digital TV was starting there. A few years after I bought a TOPFIELD PVR Digital set top box and around that time all the TV stations suddenly had 4 SD channels each.
So many TV programs on at once. I recorded an episode of Wacky Races sometime. It was so unbelievably stupid and was unwatchable! That was a shock. How could it be so badly written?! So much of the animation was being recycled, again and again. You could watch other kids shows and there was something for adults in them as well, like Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet. Not Wacky Races.
Can only put that down to a cultural difference, and what American Saturday Morning Cartoons were for.
Bought a Mac Performa 630 around 1995 to be able to do something with the amazing Mutli Media Tools of the time. I added CREATIVE/ YAMAHA Speakers with a Subwoofer to it.
Meant the kids could play the wonderful Brøderbund Living Book CD-ROMs, and they did use them a lot. All 3 kids at once. Our daughter's visit has triggered a lot of old memories of such happy times.
Also had MYST and IRON HELIX, butI never did anything with them but play the introductions.
Looked wonderful. I discovered getting anywhere with them at all just wasn't my idea of fun. Same thing with HOMEWORLD. Loved the opening, the design, music and look, but could never bother to do the opening tutorial to do anything in the game.
I don't play computer games. Just a big don't care to spend my time that way. Just seemed unproductive. Still does.
Finished Neagley this week. She is a great character in Reacher and does just as well in her own series, set in Chicago.
Made me remember my own interactions with Australian NSW Police. Absolutely nothing positive about them.
After I retired during the months involved with selling our house and downsizing 2019, I went by bus into downtown Sydney around Town Hall station to visit Kinokuniya and the Language Bookshops. After buying a couple of textbooks I set out south along George Street, on the left hand side of the footpath to the World Food court for lunch.
That day school kids were at Town Hall for their 2019 school environmental protests. I was walking on the street furthest from the protests, past a group of some 5 police, with others watching the protest, and one of them, on purpose stepped backward and pushed/bumped me against the wall as I was going past. Just so I knew I was helpless. What a dick.
I had nothing to do with the protests, was not involved in anyway, was carrying a language bookshop bag. Seeing I could read probably enough to piss him off. Just a bully.
That kind of thing, some 3 times, has been my experience with NSW Police. A bunch of bullies, for many, the reason they joined the forces, rather than go into the army or navy. 😡
