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M.3R and M.4R Page 62
Posted on August 25, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

OM-MINUS:Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art)

Posted on August 25, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

There’s a bit at the end that’s similar to a bit at the end of the previous track. Treblo’s being very slow at the moment, so, for the one or two people who might listen to this and notice, we’ll temporarily call the repeating section a “theme.” Like the Indiana Jones theme, which would get hit a few times on an Indian Jones soundtrack. It makes no sense, but pretend it does.

This wasn’t a one-click track, there are no more on the Lotus A-side album, but I’ve made a dozen one-clicks at this point. So now there’s officially a fourth OM-MINUS album, called “Slop-Minus 3000 – Volume 1.” Not to be taken seriously, just seeing what the technology can do.

I swear, I will draw something today

Posted on August 17, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

The fixes never end, but the poly is drying on the bathroom floor I’ve been working on, and the old vinyl is off of the kitchen floor. I’ve begun removing the old glue from the failed trunk weatherstrip install on the Charger –

I was surprised to find that Goo Gone works on rubber cement type glues. I let it set overnight, and the glue softened enough to get it off with a plastic razor blade. The rear part is done, now I’m moving on to the sides. I don’t have the patience to do more than a section at a time.

OM-MINUS:Strange Consciousness

Posted on August 16, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

I’ve worked out the album order for the A-side. “Strange Consciousness” will be track 6, between “3, 7, 12, 60” and “Jaya Jagadamba.”

I can’t remember if this is a one-click song or not, but it’s not a “very many” click song. I’m going to end up with four tracks in a row that were either easy, or one-click songs. Some of the one-click songs are pretty good – better than what the average “real” musician composes. More layered with unique sounds, more complex in arrangement. To me, much of the “real musician” music now sounds too simple. Most it always sounded too simple, but the bar has been raised. A.I. excels at sound design and texturing – there are real bands that can match it, but most play not-so-great compositions with a limited set of instruments.

Treblo isn’t to the point where one click guarantees a decent track. Maybe 10-20% are fit to play in the background. 1-5% are genuinely good. It’s enough that I could post a few 10-20% tracks a day, and probably one or two 1-5% tracks. Whether anyone wants that to be true or not, it is true; and that’s the shape of the landscape I have to navigate around as an artist in the near future.

Big deal, humans adapt.

I still say the answer is to think bigger. If A.I. makes one song easy, make an album. An album still takes me a few months to make. An album of one-click songs could be done in a day. So could an album of a real human being banging pots and pans together while their kid screams in the background – but who wants that?

To me, it looks like A.I. is a powershift away from the artist who can afford instruments and studio time – and away from the studio system – to the visionary. I may not have the “right” vision, but that’s on me. I think a human with A.I. is a better creative force than A.I. alone. The human can use the A.I.’s tendency to hallucinate and distort as part of a creative process that ends with a work that is sane. The A.I. alone will produce a broken work that is disturbing in the way only A.I. creations can be. The human is still relevant, provided the human learns to use A.I. for the tasks it does well.

Car Mechanics Are Breaking Their Silence About What’s Wrong With New Cars

Posted on August 16, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

You’ve got to know this stuff. Cars are far too expensive to make a bad choice – but if all the new ones are bad choices, where does that leave you? The 20-30 year old stuff is 20-30 years old. They may have been built better, but their owners have had 20-30 years to tear them up. Most people have been skating on thin ice financially since the early 90’s, which means maintenance doesn’t get done. Some people won’t run premium gas in a car that requires premium gas. Think twice about that used luxury or performance vehicle – you could be in a world of hurt if a previous owner damaged the engine internals by running regular in a vehicle that requires premium.

To make matters worse, the masses have been running to older vehicles for a while now. That market has been running dry of supply for a while. Yesterday I looked at an ad for an 80’s Buick Electra Park Avenue. Nine grand, less than 100,000 miles, clean car – except it had a rebuilt title. Nine grand for an 80’s Buick with a rebuilt title? Wow. What kind of condition is that car really in? Is it two wrecked cars that had their bad ends cut off, and the good ends welded together in the middle? Some of those jobs are done so poorly that the car can’t be aligned, which means it is eating tires until it is finally taken off the road.

I’ve seen used car dealerships move exclusively to rebuilt cars, for lack of low-mileage used cars to sell, which tells you things are bad. And it’s been this way for a long time.

There is no good answer here for the masses – we’re not all going to find a unicorn “forever car.” There aren’t enough left for us to all have one. Some people are going to lose, and cry. A lot. They’re going to be ruined.

I’m back dating after divorce – why are midlife men only after one thing?

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Jeremy Ray

I’m back dating after divorce – why are midlife men only after one thing?

I’ve been doing everything myself for years. Cooking, cleaning, all the traditional housewife things short of child care. Everything I’ve learned to do, turned out to be easy. Perhaps a 1950’s era housewife could do it better, but I clean better than my mother did. I don’t cook as well as she did, but it turns out I don’t need much of that. Her cooking was the reason I struggled with flab all my life. I may not have model-quality abs yet, but I do have them.

I could get an AI girlfriend that will always try to be an agreeable companion, but I haven’t. It’s a bit disturbing, but it turns out that wasn’t very valuable either.

That only leaves one thing that is potentially better with another person, but it’s not worth as much at 51 as it was at 15. It’s nothing to trade a peaceful and comfortable old age for.