Categories
ListenKit

It’s Been a Funny Week

This is not actually my desk or office.

The number of days until the end of my time at Hudl are in the low single-digits.

Which means that the number of days until I am officially self-employed and entirely reliant on myself for income are in the low single-digits.

It’s exciting and terrifying to be starting something new.

I’ve tried this before, with mixed results, so I’m not worried about that.

But this time feels a little different … in a positive way.

I’m 100% confident that the problem I’m starting a business to solve is a problem that is big enough for people to pay for.

And I’m confident that I can build the product in a way that will solve it for them.

What’s new this time is that I set a goal and a deadline for myself: 20 paying customers by March 1. I don’t want this to be a side project unless that’s the best outcome for it (but I don’t think it is).

So that’s added pressure, but in a good way. It provides focus.

Something I’ve never had a problem with was understanding that effort = results. If I write code, if I create ads, if I’m talking to leads, I will get results. I don’t mind this at all.

And to hit that goal, I am going to have to make trade-offs between those things.

If I’m talking to leads, I can’t be writing code to get the demo done. If I’m writing code to get the demo done, I can’t be working on planting the seeds for SEO.

This is fun stuff. I know people want this. I think it can be big enough to sustain my lifestyle the way that I want it to. I believe I can get it there with effort.

More on the business and the product soon (days, not weeks). Gotta get back to it. Just needed to get this out of my head, for some reason.

Categories
Uncategorized

How to Have a Bad Day

If I do any of these things, I usually end up having a bad day:

  • Skip my morning run
  • Start my day before reviewing my list of priorities
  • End my day without reviewing progress against those priorities
  • Have a day full of meetings
  • Create nothing (usually related to the day-full-of-meetings thing)
  • Only have work conversations with co-workers during the day
  • Talk to an asshole
  • Let self-doubt creep in (related to the asshole-thing?)
  • Spend the entire day indoors
  • Read literally anything about the current President or upcoming election
  • Open Morning Reader more than 2 or 3 times during the day (usually means I don’t know what to do and am spiraling)
  • Drink the night before

A surefire way to make sure I have a good day is to avoid having a bad day, so today I’m going to have a good day.

Categories
Reading List

Spleet the Animals

I’ve been in an extremely creative mood this week – from drawing to even a little music production. Computers are amazing creative machines and I’m glad we live in the age we do.

Here are a few creative things I enjoyed this week:

Categories
Music Tech

Isolating Vocals From a Mixed Audio Track Using Spleeter

Off the side of my desk, I’ve been working on a fun music project.

It came to a point where it would have been great to have just the vocals for DMX’s “Party Up (Up In Here)” without the instruments and drums underneath.

I have GarageBand, but with literally no experience in GarageBand, I wasn’t sure how (or if) to isolate the vocals from an MP3.

After some Googling, I found out Spleeter. Just give Spleeter an MP3 and it will automatically separate vocals, bass and drums from other instruments.

Exactly what I was looking for!

Here’s how to install and use Spleenter.

Download and install Anaconda

Anaconda is a toolkit used for building and running machine learning projects. You can download Anaconda here.

Clone Spleeter from Github

Open Terminal, enter git clone https://github.com/Deezer/spleeter and hit enter.

Create a new Python 3.7 environment for Spleenter

In Terminal, enter conda create -n spleenter_env python=2.7 and hit enter.

Switch to your Spleenter Anaconda environment

In Terminal, type cd spleenter and press enter.

In Terminal, type conda activate spleenter_env and press enter.

Now, install Spleenter

In Terminal, enter conda install -c conda-forge spleeter and press enter. This will take a couple of minutes.

Test Spleenter out by separating the built-in audio sample

In Terminal, type spleeter separate -i audio_example.mp3 -p spleeter:2stems -o output and press enter.

In Terminal, type open . and press enter. This will open a Finder window. Double-click on the output folder to see your separated file.

That’s it!

Spleenter has done a good job with the tracks I’ve thrown at it today and hopefully it works as well for your projects.

Categories
Reading List

Make Your Day

Bartlesville, Oklahoma

We’re technically in the dog days of summer, but considering I’ve barely left my house for 141 days, I’m just going to call it March 160th.

Here are a few things that I enjoyed this week:

Coffee KIT KAT Changed My Life

Coffee Flavored Kit Kat

There are unforgettable milestones in your life. The moment you meet your wife. Or the birth of a kid.

One of my life milestones happened in 2005.

And I wish I would have known then what I know now: that the last time that I would ever have a coffee-flavored KIT KAT was this one day in 2005.

In 2005, a friend of mine, Shane, offered me a piece of his KIT KAT. Told me it was amazing. I like KIT KAT, but never ventured into specialty KIT KAT flavors. So color me skeptical.

But this was no ordinary KIT KAT.

This was a coffee-flavored KIT KAT.

And he was right. This coffee-flavored KIT KAT was as advertised!

Shane told me that he got it at this specific gas station on the east end of Stillwater. I drove out there, bought a couple coffee-flavored KitKats, and shared with friends.

Everyone I shared with thought they were great (because my friends have good taste), so I figured I’d buy more to share with others.

I went back to that same gas station later that day to buy the rest of the box. The box was gone. In its place were “normal” KIT KAT. The cashier had no idea what I was talking about. The same cashier that earlier that day had sold me coffee-flavored KIT KAT told me that she’s never seen or sold coffee-flavored KIT KAT before.

I’ve never seen a coffee-flavored KIT KAT since then.

There’s not a lot on the Internet about the origins of coffee-flavored KIT KAT (because who would spend their time writing about candy that disappeared 15 years ago). But, evidently, coffee-flavored KIT KAT were actually created to persuade Japanese consumers to buy instant coffee. (Thanks, Grober!)

Anyways, Japan loves coffee now, so that worked. But despite my best efforts, I still can’t find coffee-flavored KIT KAT.

I frequently pull up Amazon just to see if there’s anything new from Japan. There used to be a listing for coffee-flavored KIT KAT, but it’s gone now. (In fact, one time it let me add my email address to be notified when more came in stock. I entered my email, and Amazon told me that I had already signed up to be notified in the past.)

I’ve bought random coffee-adjacent flavors from Japan on eBay. But they’re all a little off, and a little stale.

I’ve talked to Hershey (manufacturers in the U.S.) and Nestle (manufacturers elsewhere) to see if there’s anywhere I could find them. No luck from either.

So, the search continues. I check Amazon and eBay regularly. I always scan the KIT KAT availability in every checkout line. No luck, yet.

But, one day. They’ll be back. And I will buy all of them, mail some to Shane, share the rest with everyone I can, and maybe establish a new milestone for someone else’s life.

###

[1] Every once in a while, someone will find a few espresso flavored KIT KAT and share with me. These are very, very good. And while I will never, ever turn one down … they’re just not the same. Espresso KIT KAT are made with darker chocolate, which is fine, but I prefer milk chocolate.

[2] Coffee Crisp are also really good. But again, not quite the same. Coffee Crisp are a little too artificial-tasting, in my opinion.

Categories
Reading List

Luigi is Real

Preseason Playoff Hockey in July 2020

It’s been insanely hot here this week. My lawn makes me sad, but my little garden in the back is growing really well. Let me know if you would like more information, and how many hours you have to talk about it.

In the meantime, here are some things I really enjoyed this week.

Categories
Reading List

Release the Kraken

Categories
Design Usability

Overlooking UX is Overlooking Your Customers

UX design is hard, regardless of platform. This is a job that most people don’t truly understand.

A UX designer’s job isn’t to make the experience “pretty” or “nice”, it’s to make the experience usable. To guide the users to take the actions that the business needs them to take in order to solve the user’s problem.

You can spot a great UX designer a mile away.

A great UX designer understands what’s important in the interface. A great UX designer understands the typical workflows and maturity of their existing (and potentially next-up) users. A great UX designer deeply understands the problems that their users want their solution to help solve.

A great UX designer understands their user beyond the app. They know how and when and where to best reach them. They understand what phrases connect with their users and when to use them.

A great UX designer understands what’s possible “under the hood”. They know what the front-end and back-end are capable of. They know what devices their users use and tailor the experience to that.

And all of this while strengthening existing branding and interface consistency.

A great UX designer is an invaluable partner to their product and engineering counterparts.

UX design is not an easy job to understand, and it’s not an easy job to do. But it’s certainly more than most companies give it credit for.

And if you overlook the importance of a great UX designer, you’re overlooking your customers.

Categories
Tech

“Screen Time” Isn’t Always Bad

The world is a tricky place for adults, even when there’s not a pandemic. I get exhausted (physically or mentally) and just need to zone out. While I know it’s not the most productive use of my time, I give myself a pass to stare at Netflix or my Nintendo Switch at night.

So why is it that I feel bad about letting my kid “zone out” in front of the iPad occasionally? Why does it feel weird to tell other parents that he can control an iPad, or use a trackpad? These are valuable skills in a human in 2020.

Or, despite being unbelievably proud of his ability to do so, why do I always feel a little awkward telling my friends that he’s beaten Super Mario Odyssey?

I’d rather my kid watch a show on PBS than a show on Amazon, Netflix or cable. At least I know I won’t need to screen it beforehand, and it’s educational in one way or another.

I’d rather my kid watch a space shuttle launch on Youtube than a cartoon on PBS. This may let us have a conversation about space and rockets and science using real life examples and the ability to go deeper if we want to.

I’d rather my kid play Super Mario Odyssey than watch most videos on Youtube. Nobody would argue that good hand-eye coordination and logic that are valuable tools to strengthen early.

I’d almost always rather my kid play outside with his friends than look at a screen, but in a world where screens are ubiquitous and information is infinite, we shouldn’t be so definite on the idea of screen time always being “bad”.

Everyone, regardless of age, sometimes just need to chill out. Why do we think it’s easier for a kid to be able to understand and interpret everything?

ps: if you like space stuff, listen to the 13 Minutes to the Moon podcast