A few things that have happened

1. Decibel Festival. I went to a show that made me question whether I actually do like electronic music. Then I saw a couple DJs who just blew me away: Nosaj Thing and Daedelus. (and a few I kind of liked: Noah Pred, Mary Anne Hobbs, Gaslamp Killer) Check them out if your musical tastes align with mine.

2. David Byrne and a panel of (older) Seattle bicycle wonks. Byrne talked for like 15 minutes about "here are some cool photos of bicycle things and cities that I've seen" and the Seattlers gave vague sermons to the choir about how we need to have fewer highways and more bike lanes, etc. So I'm maybe biased because I consider "you dance like David Byrne" to be one of the highest compliments I've ever received, but I'd rather have heard him talk about what happened to him on the way to the talk than hear these yuk-yuks. (and I agree with them even! shoot...)
To unify this thought with my current life theme: they weren't compassionate. It was all "bike people vs. car people" and "Hummer (boooooo)" and "bike parking (yayyy)". Look, you drive in cars sometimes too. (to say nothing of planes.) Let he who can transport a bookshelf on his bicycle cast the first stone!

3. I made (well, am making) a small web app. Daniel sent me this article. That is a cool thought! "It doesn't scale" doesn't necessarily have to be the end-all be-all of software quality metrics anymore! Huh. I'd really like to take this idea and run somewhere with it. (although first I should finish my small web app.) I think I will ruminate on this later. I will say that using App Engine + GWT hits that sweet spot (for me) of a project that's like 80% stuff I know and 20% stuff I don't, where I'm still learning something but it's really fun to work on.

4. I am also making small incremental improvements to my life. As of about a week ago, I am assiduously writing down my dreams. As of today, I am drinking tea at work instead of coffee. And I am honestly debating giving up desserts. So here's a thing: my dad has started eating very healthily recently, just cold-turkey on junk food and sugar and stuff, and I figure, if he can do it, why not me? Plus, it'd be a little show of solidarity, a bit of a mindfulness thing (like kosher laws), and it can't hurt.
It's a good feeling. I am trying not to overextend myself (because it sucks to try too many things at once and then they all come crashing down) but it's really nice to be making constant small amounts of progress. See also: daily chanting.