Getting started with Logic Pro for iPadOS - a hands-on starter’s guide, for beginners. (Updating)

Discovering that Logic Pro for iPadOS (was|is) [going to be] available was big news, amongst a generation of music enthusiasts and audio professionals. 

Conceivably, for those amongst this demographic, work had become stale, given that our musical imaginations had disappointed us, for the sake of the number of physical steps that digital music creation would require of us, during the creative process, itself. Thinking back, and comparatively, perhaps some of the cutting-edge and elite music producers and studios had, for a long time, now, employed touchscreen formats, which allowed for similar types of control over the workflow and user interface formats, along with software and hardware plugins, instruments, and effects, perhaps - all suited to accommodate music creation and capture, and, also, unique, to some degree, perhaps. 

 For me, I happen to recall that I intently set aside the creation of music tracks and songs, at some point, back when I was trying to juggle so many acts, in between work, walking the dog, home life, and various other attempts at juggling lifestyle concerns. 

Nowadays, 

the late model iPad Pros make things easy, and so many pursuits in life, that had been accommodated by ostensibly larger, clunkier, hardware, are much more well-suited and accommodated by this handheld device, control surface, and screen, all in one. 

For one thing, the sheer speed and power of the late model iPad Pros (I have the 2022 11-inch version) are a challenge to beat, in terms of some senses, of “doing things,” so to speak - in particular, music-wise, in graphic design, in an illustrative sense, and for the sense of user experience and interactivity. The possibilities are, by far, much more on the creative enthusiast’s side, with the iPadOS format; for example, I am a classical pianist, since age 5, which is the recommended age at which a child is recommended to begin piano lessons, in general. I ended up attending university and grad school for music and for music composition, as my concentrations, and majors. 

That being said, 

perhaps that sense of belonging, and, of… 🤔 perhaps, longing, as well - for a familiar platform, in music creation, which accommodates the user at the point at which familiarity brings relief, rather than discontent, for the fact of that it feels like little has changed, in some regards, from the desktop / laptop macOS (and prior) versions of Logic Pro - I’d been a Logic user since version 5, I believe, somewhere back, around 2002-2003, or so - that’s how far this particular platform dates back, historically, for me: it was my preferred platform for creating music, for as long as I’d worked with digital music, on a computer.

Landscape view of the workspace layout, in a new project session I had tinkered around in, in the new Logic Pro for iPadOS app. Here, I had learned where the patches, control panels, session features, such as creating new tracks, instrument patch selection, mixer, and various options, for instruments, for example, are located. 

Now, granted,

I’d long ago ditched such things as jailbreaking my device(s), and I’d set out on the comparatively much brighter outlook of purchasing my software from the App Store. To be sure, it’s a golden age, somewhat, of affordable software, on a top-tier platform, and format - it’s been this way, for a very long time, and for performance, over newness and novelty considerations, it’s truly an illustrious time to be an avid App Store browser and searcher, with the degree, versatility, depth, and features of the third party apps - instruments (inter-app audio) and plugins (Audio Units) that have already been developed, going on, for a good run and a show of things - all of these things, considered, for over a handful of years, and then some (I got on to the latest-model iPhone and iPad Pro formats beginning around 2017, or so. That being said, I’d personally accumulated a fair number of handy and nifty plugins, instruments, and apps - for that matter, apps of all sorts.

Getting fairly personal, here - a peek at my first-page Home Screen, on my current 11-inch 2022 iPad Pro. Here, I had tried to include as broad-reaching, yet contextually succinct, in most cases - the nested folders, which describe the apps I placed in to them. In some cases, the context is largely generalized. For example, I included Logic Pro in my “Apple” nested folder.

All of this being the case,

a newcomer / enthusiast, to the iPadOS format might be wondering where, and or how, they could fit themselves in to this vast ecosystem of new opportunities and grand possibilities in music and audio, with Logic Pro, now being offered, for iPad. I’ll be quick, since other sites cover this sort of specification requirements - essentially, at this point, a Logic Pro user would have to be on a late 2020, or later (release) standard iPad, such as the 8th generation standard iPad, which came out, in late 2020, the iPad Air 3, iPad Mini 5, or any more-recent device. The prospects are not so dim - devices dating back to this time, in development and production, hardware-wise, given iPads - this is an iPad thing, to be certain, and I feel that some users might begin obsessing and searching, madly, for some sort of “other” platform hack, or crack, or otherwise, some sort of solution, which would allow for Logic Pro to work on an iPhone, or something - it won’t work out; that’s my advice (at least not to a person’s overall satisfaction with such an arrangement, if it does become possible to do so). 

So, people will need a late 2020 or later model iPad, of (any|some) sort.

What to do? - if a person doesn’t already own an iPad?

A conundrum, and a frustrating situation, of all things, but, trust me, it’s worth it to switch to iPad, if you’re a music and audio enthusiast. First of all, the display (screen) real estate is at it’s best, with the iPad, and it’s Retina display features, at this stage of starting out with iPads, as a standard feature. All things considered, it’s about (or, at least) as much display and screen space as people had become accustomed to, with iPhones, or other mobile devices, and I consider it a must, for doing work in digital formats, for any kind of digital multimedia arts enthusiast. Trust me, it’s a bargain, in many ways. For one thing, people can employ Google Voice, to field their phone calls, on mobile, and be done with paying for cellular service, and, instead, switch to an unlimited data Tablet Plan, such as AT&T offers, for only $20 a month. 

Hmm… the information detailed in that link suggests that this plan is only for business users, but it’s the plan that I’m on. I’m wondering what the particulars are, on this topic. Perhaps you’ll have to fashion your own business premise, out of this iPad procurement issue - not beyond reach, for the otherwise standard user, who’s aspiring to create music. AT&T has some obscure, behind-the-scenes marketing distribution efforts, I’d estimate, directing customers to one or another offer, to suit, and these types of distinctions and exclusivity could be somewhat incremental, and progressive, in a sense - you might have to come back to the AT&T website, over several days, perhaps, and contingent on that you’d worked out your budget for a device and for this plan, yet I find it the most suitable accommodation in Apple iPad financing and data plans - this AT&T package. For one thing, it greatly reduces the cost of monthly payment commitments, making owning an iPad vastly within reach - for example, I’m mostly outfitted with a welfare-benefits budget, yet I still qualified for this program; that being said, I do run this blog, and associated activities, as a business, for example. I imagine that my readers might encounter different offers, from AT&T, yet, as I’d said, previously, try back at it (AT&T’s website, or app), over the course of several days, perhaps, and see if you get a progressively better deal, once you’ve worked out your finances and budget, for allowing for this sort of thing, with leasing-to-own an iPad, if you can’t purchase one outright.

The next thing to consider is storage.

Here, you could potentially have several choices, depending on where and how you buy in, to the iPad format. Perhaps you already own an iOS device, with some storage used up. On one hand, you’d be fairly hard-put to allow for a fully-featured, free-roaming Logic Pro installation, which, in and of itself, at this point, of the outset of its release, on iPadOS, amounts to about 16 GB of space, if you install all of the content, included in Logic Pro. Recent macOS users of the Logic Pro app would find many of these offerings in the iPadOS version to be very familiar. I chose to download everything, since I have 512 GB storage on my iPad Pro, with plenty of space, at this point. 

The Logic Pro Sound Library dashboard, on iPadOS.

Some of the add-on Sound Packs included, standard, with iPadOS.

A page describing one of the sound packs and instruments included with Logic Pro.

As I’d said, the total installation size, for the complete offerings included with Logic Pro, as well as the app, itself, amounts to about 16 GB. That being the case, if your device only has 64 GB storage, you could, conceivably, already not have enough space, considering other apps, music, photo, document, video, and system data storage content that.s already been filled. On one hand, I wouldn’t much recommend trying to fit Logic Pro in to your iPadOS system, to the exclusion of other stuff you have going on, in your digital iDevice life, since it’s probably also necessary, and it feels good to have options available, as well as an appropriately situated outlook for storage expansion, given legacies of apps, content, and storage committed to our iCloud+ backups, which you’ll also have to figure in monthly fees, to store your backup iPadOS system images, as well as store content, which will be accessible on your iCloud+ subscription plan, which is a good, well-integrated, cloud storage system, in my opinion. 

So, for example, if your current installation is nearing, at, or over - 100 GB, then you’ll definitely be much more comfortable with a 256 GB device, over 64 GB options, that might typically be available. You can find deals on iPads, locally, at any time, on craigslist - one of my old favorites, and a long-time tech-buyers’ and sellers’ haven, for Apple device transactions to go down, locally, and, most commonly, without a hitch. Be sure that the seller is willing to let you demo the device, as far as setting things up, if you go this route. The other well-established platform for local deals would be Facebook Marketplace, which, locally, is very comparable, and, perhaps, even more well-populated, with deals on Apple devices, for local, in-person transactions. Here, you will have various options, and, at times, more options, perhaps, as far as payment, with regards to completing your side of the transaction. I’ve not yet had a poor experience using Facebook Marketplace. There’s also eBay, which is another well-trusted platform for e-commerce transactions to take place; here, with buyer and seller standards, of ratings, and reviews, at the forefront. Amazon is also a suitable marketplace for online transactions, in searching for a new iPadOS device. 

Some things to consider are that, ideally - in my opinion, you’d want to go with a “carrier unlocked” device, which means that it’s been paid for, in full, most likely, by the seller, or, by another previous user, and you can check out any carrier’s plans, as far as getting your device hooked up with data service - iPads can, and do, have their own “phone numbers” provisioned to them, but you can’t make “phone” calls from iPadOS devices, although you can use the phone number for Apple device messaging and FaceTime only - you can’t make calls from your iPad, per se, although you can use Google Voice, for free calling, and it works just as well as a real cellular phone number, in many cases. Only occasionally, a person would run in to a problem with verifying their accounts, from various websites, for example, for needing to use a Google Voice number - it isn’t allowed, in some cases, or, you’d have to contact customer service to notify them of the difficulties in using a VoIP number, such as a Google Voice number.

You’d definitely have to avoid an “iCloud locked” device, since those devices are ones that the current owner of the iPad cannot unlock, themselves, which is questionable. It’s practically junk, in other words. At the time of the transaction, make sure to meet in a comfortable, public or private setting, where it would be reasonable to “go over” your personalization and booting up of your new iPad device, if you’re buying from a local buyer. Make sure that your purchasing platform, or payment medium, has buyer protection, in case something strange happens. 

That being said, remember to try to go with a reasonable amount of storage. If your iOS device backup is already at 100+ GB, or so, you could reasonably, in short order, max out 256 GB, but maxing out 512 GB would be far more off, in the future, perhaps years from this point. Keep in mind some general rules of solid state storage, such as that performance starts to decrease, when the storage drive becomes filled at over 50%. Beyond that, there is about a 10% decrease in performance, with every increase of 10% beyond 50% of storage space filled. Remember, an iPad is a versatile device, and you’d probably explore many different interests, in the App Store - some of which will require a fair amount of storage, themselves, for the app, and for content you create. Set aside a vast amount of data storage for yourself, and don’t worry about it, all that much, for the time being. Just stay intent on expanding, over years, with newer devices. By that time, storage performance and read/write access times will greatly increase, over newer generations of device busses, RAM, VRAM, and storage.

Updating…

Topics in Urban Agriculture and Local Ecology (Sustainability) - Greater Los Angeles, Winter / Spring 2023.

 What an eventful start of a new year (2023), for agriculture, in this urban setting, centered around Downtown Los Angeles.

With so many agricultural-based projects centered around Los Angeles, this year, with much ado, with some long-established projects coming in to maturity. People would probably think, out here, in urban and suburban Southern California, that agriculture is typically as it was - off in some (remote) setting, yet, these days, as is evident, from the new SNAP food stamps vegetables and fruits bonus program (there’s various “programs” in place, for welfare benefits recipients, I’ve learned, over the past couple of months), people are receiving a nudge, from the powers that be, or, from their own self-driven initiative, such as making authentic cuisine, from various culinary disciplines, for example, using fresh fruits and vegetables as ingredients for making dishes from scratch (there’s been a lot of nitrogen, or some sort of refrigerant, being flouted around, as well - I’ll get to that, more, later, in this article). I like Thai, personally 😛. 

For starters,

folks who are local might be wondering where they can go, in town, to build upon their own personal (or business… décor, anyone?) localized agricultural interests, otherwise known as gardening, or interior design, landscaping, etc. I happened to choose a garden rarity - it’s considered an endangered species, in fact, as I’d learned, last night, as I perused the Royal Botanical Gardens’ kew.org voluminous database on vanilla, being that I’d found a longtime (and recent) favorite plant of intrigue, for me, which some of my longtime (and other blog) followers, would know, of me. I figured that I could dig some dirt, on my development projects involving vanilla, from the past, and jump on an opportunity to own my own vanilla bean vine(s) - (I got vines, for that matter, not just one). It’s a richly folklorish plant to research and discover, and it still would boggle the intellect, for modern day readers, as well, being that the plant is a favorite, in tissue culture circles, as well as in biotech. People would recall the drama surrounding my makeshift vanilla bean extraction project, which produced a liquid that smelled richly… of something quite unexpected. Perhaps I’ll divulge more, at some other point. 

In any case, for people who would like to outdo their standard garden variety selection of retailers, whether it be online, or in-store, when it comes to selection of plants - try out San Gabriel Nursery, in San Gabriel, CA. One thing, though - it’s much further than people might expect, as far as travel time goes, as getting to that part of town oftentimes means traveling amongst real workday and workweek commuters. This being the case, please only plan on going out there if you’ve got a sizable budget for making the trip work - this means gas, meals, lodging, even, perhaps, and, of course - plants. There’s nothing quite like local retail, and if I happen to have an outsized pop up audience, for this article, I could be doing the various locales, from here to there, from wherever you might be coming from, to arrive at - what amounts to rubbing the locals the wrong way, perhaps, as well as the nursery shop owners, potentially - it’s a well-stocked nursery, with lots of rare and exotic plants, but it’s definitely a small shop type of feel, so please don’t show up there with some kind of religious group, or religious following, sort of thing, about you - I’ve been going there since I was young, and that would really hurt, if this place was improperly targeted. 

Other than that, there’s no place like it in town. I think that there’s kind of a “no homeless people” kind of rule about the locale, and in towns surrounding the place, I have to warn people. I tried it, and man, it was pretty rough. I got a lot of attention, as a homeless person, out there. 

Which reminds me… about the cracks in the ground. 

On one hand, outgoing people (out in public) probably couldn’t possibly be all that regularly outgoing, and deny, that there are definitely tons of cracks in the ground, that are kind of a new thing, some of them. One person had chimed in, on the subject, going back to agriculture, with the oil industry, being one of the predecessors, or “diversions,” perhaps, from standard and organic agriculture, and, now biotech, with plant-based developments and energy resources being a hot topic, of development, and of sustainability. 

Anyways, the saying was something like, “well, all the cracks in the ground, well, that’s actually a great thing,” on the oil and natural gas industry’s side, but the context was an “out here” sort of thing, which is Downtown LA, and, at the moment, nearly everyone is trying to figure out how to get back to monetization of business and industry - the working folks are, at least. 

Or is this some sort of “Democracy,” or Democratic thing, that I don’t quite understand? That might be me, and maybe that’s the case. 

How are you a patron, here?

- some timely voice chimes in, on the subject - “as.” 

Eh. 

Everybody seems to be accusing others of this or that, but I think that so many people are really over it, and people are becoming concerned about - 

Umm, ugh. Never mind. So much drama. Here’s my Vanilla Planifola, Mexican variety, as a Harajuku Doll (I’d suppose… right?)

Rendered by Vector Q app, on iPadOS.

I didn’t even know that Harajuku dolls were amenable to tropical plants, until I did it.  

For people who would like to delve off-local cartography and travails around town, to unfamiliar places, Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Groups are both good places to network and mingle with people who are fairly time- and science-based invested in the vanilla industry. I just feel that showing up, somewhere, locally, beats a whole lot of ad serve and marketing efforts, even on my part, because it offers the consumer the option to browse a rich array of products that are suitable for local climates, here in Southern California, and there’s a whole lot of Asian and Chinese cuisine and nightlife, along the way, if you’re heading east, out from metropolitan Greater Los Angeles areas, off on Valley Blvd., or, if you’re headed down Mission, from the other side of town, you could perhaps check out the Alhambra public library, for example. 

This all being the case, check back on this blog, for some of my indoor and outdoor gardening and interior design: plant-related contexts, for growing tips, and expert insider decorative insights. For example, I thought that the vanilla plant resembled a rubber plant, perhaps, and I had some grand confabulations of perhaps becoming some sort of commodities mogul, as a next step, beyond Vanilla planifola localization, in to Southern California (outdoor, ideally) agriculture, which got me thinking, since the vines I have are nested on a dead log (of some kind of dead wood), that the plants could, perhaps be placed, strategically-minded, in this case, on some other sort of living plant, to the benefit, and eventual unique development (furtherment) of the species that I have, being that I somewhat envision the plant as a dynamic and adaptive grower, albeit under ostensibly tropical conditions. The significant issue, here, is that most people, in Southern California, hot and sunny, though it is, have nearly scant-to-none - experience, that is, living in a truly tropical, or subtropical environment, which these vanilla plants truly thrive in - the humidity hits the traveler, to a tropic region, from a locality such as ours, immediately, and a person would virtually begin sweating, the moment the person exits the airplane.

Helping build the watershed, aided by more well-established and practiced agricultural nations - 

Here and there, rumors float around of miraculous personal developments happening, typically due to intentional decree, and some sort of flash and ecological disaster-scaled whim of being on the side of virtue, whatever that is, in cases such as this. In this instance, a bunch of generally small guys, I’d somewhat have come to believe, had grouped together, as some sort of group establishment, part urban-development team, and part disruptive hoodlums and drug users, from out of the collective sober living home scene - to build a too-skinny-to-stand high-rise, from out of what used to be a standard-sized parking lot in Downtown Los Angeles - on one hand, sure, perhaps it could have been something better, in any case, but, on the other hand, some of the sidewalks in DTLA are kind of skinny, still, and it’s still a bit intimidating to go out and have to maneuver, deftly, and well-informed (sometimes), of that a bunch of people just want to do the drug-use scene and casual streetside death attempts, on a casual, fanciful, favorite, or targeted victim. We’ll see how far this sort of thing goes. The other night, thy were rumored to have taken a woman, from the company of some guy I used to know, who wound up doing psychotic gestures towards me, in my head, once I became schizophrenic, and, later, simply knowingly harassed, in short. A crack-pack kid, as I knew him, as a young person - I thought that it was kind of impressive, at the time. 

It’s a challenging premise, perhaps, but it’s cheap and slutty to believe the best, out of a situation, in general, when there’s some sort of distaste, inherently assumed, between individuals, whereas cheap and slutty would generally sum up these types of differences in life. Small micro-ecological events, and concentrations, of certain types of behaviors, for example, from a kidnapping, and drugging, of a whore, for example, could, in turn, spur some form of unexpected, and or unprecedented sort of retaliation, such as that we had seen, supposedly - across the nation, and locally, here, in Southern California, and in Los Angeles. I felt like I was disproportionately drawn in to the extreme weather action. 

All things being the case, as such, I’ve been attempting to burgeon the agricultural contexts, within this urban setting, as best I can, while maintaining some personal boundaries, such as keeping to things that interest me, and also by trying to tidy up some of the sloppiness, or, at times, things would be a matter of waiting things out, to discover what the eventual decided purpose and uses would be, per se, for stuff that had popped up, around town, such as a recurrent and persistent urine smell, that had shown up, in Pershing Square. For that matter, due to some of the rains, which featured dropping atmospheric nitrogen, in excessive levels, the subway walls had become hopelessly tainted with calcified urine, and several other stations had  taken on, as well, the characteristic odors of urine, which played out fancifully, in some remote sensing humor development settings, such as “I’ve gotta be of on piss, for a pissed-on!” - a crowd favorite. As it turns out, the sparrows took a fancy to the of on olde (piss), as, they had discovered, the urine was a source of novel pleasure, should the power of it, be released, and they would sometimes hop around, and meddle in the dirt, where the piss was of on olde, and constantly there, embedded in the clay dirt, still, despite the rains.

So, there was some bit of inclusivity, that I could feel, for being the bird-feeding guy, on a regular basis, of some of these other projects, which had been developing, yet I had not much of a clue, about these niche and sub-pop themes, for some of this stuff.

Ugh. (from then, until now):

Catching up with neat-o fancy apps of web | app UI design, with universal or hybrid platform code bas

For first-time web | app (website-derived apps, or even in-page call stack coding “miniatures,” if you will) - somebody (like, myself), who is a “basically” amateur open-book sort of web app developer | aspirational type of approach to coding (except for Linux stuff, which has only limited-scope usefulness and portability, in this consideration of a use case scenario):

• Many people, I imagine, simply draw a blank, as to what to do, in a case like this, since it was all just some imaginable “great” internet-borne experience.
• Consequently, the urge to come up with something ingenious and worthwhile (worth talking about, perhaps) comes to mind.
• The mind comes to consider that somebody else had already come up with this great idea.
• A search on the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store commences / newbies might, alternately, opt to try to break in to / subvert their devices security measures, and pursue some sort of disassembly of their device and or it’s operating system, for the sake of coming upon something “better.”

• Ugh.

• Personally, I stopped doing the self-hacking of the device and the disassembly thing, several years ago, since I was always at odds with coming up with something innovative, or productive. 

   To be certain, 

  most decent development ideas have already been derived and established, of an organic nature, independently - just as an offhand fleeting assertion; the notion could extend to as much as that we are always, it may seem, and from here on out - aside from the expectation of that novelty, as a general premise in development, and in discovery; perhaps, innovation, per se, we now have some recent seminal works on the limitations of novelty, given some development task. For example, in the recent years, leading up to this point in time, we have some of the formative rhetoric and ideological and logistical backdrop established, as to what can be attained and wrought, from out of an intersection between novelty and the influence of creative works, from the study:

  Park, D., Nam, J. & Park, J. Novelty and influence of creative works, and quantifying patterns of advances based on probabilistic references networks. EPJ Data Sci. 9, 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0214-8

  “Also, there are implications for the psychological study of novelty as well. It has been known in optimal theory of novelty that the positive acceptance (also called the “hedonic value”) of novelty follows the so-called Wundt curve that increases initially but decreases after a peak, indicating that too much novelty can be off-putting to humans…”

  which includes references to information derived from yet other works:

  Berlyne, D. E. (1969). Arousal, reward and learning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 159(3), 1059-1070.

  and  Berlyne, D. E. (1970). Novelty, complexity, and hedonic value. Perception & psychophysics, 8(5), 279-286.

  Both, simply for a quick flash of the context’s potential subject areas, which could, or ought to be considered, in this case. 

  Essentially, the topic, in and of itself, supposes that novel ideas are limited, in their usefulness and in their longevity, yet, as we may observe, from the initially-cited article, 

Checking in: What’s happening, and what’s there to look forward to, at iPigeon.institute.

 I’d been a bit absent, lately, 

in recent months. This has been due to personal difficulties, on account of various things:

• Back and neck pain
• Budgeting challenges
• Poor weather
• Perceived, or actual threats, to my personal security
• Persona developments
• Remote sensing acquisitions of my time

The truth is, I’d become a bit apathetic, and worry-worn, due to constant challenges and negativity surrounding me, essentially drawing a dark cloud over previous years, in which I’d had eccentric bursts of creativity and prolific resource of novelty and humor. These days, I find it difficult to drum up the same personal rapport and morale, being that the situations suppose, even more than I’d experienced, previously, since I began suffering from bouts of hearing persecutors voices, and from then until now - largely, now, have a distinctive dark taint of familiarity, amongst the characters whom present themselves to me, as harassers, which envelops my subconscious mood and fears of ever establishing yet another dysfunctional relationship, that I bring myself in to.

To be sure, it’s mostly guys that do this to me. With women, I’m much more optimistic, of that they could be “fixed,” perhaps, if necessary, or set aright, in some manner, if it came to that - it’s just sort of a feeling, more than that anything’s materialized; encounters with females are scarce, and not much of anything, although I have been feeling sparks of inspiration, in romance, in recent days and weeks, I’d suppose, and I guess that I’ve been working myself up to dipping my toes in the water, once again, so to speak. It’s a raw deal, that I run, being that I’m fraught with such a defensive and secluded personality framework spectrum of “possible” me’s, which I could make available, and secure some kind of workable sociability profile, for a lady, being that I’m picky, I’ve got formative standards and boundaries set for myself - I don’t tolerate much of any kind of conflict, or distaste, or aversion, to something that’s “not right,” or worse, in a relationship setting, being that I’m a very high 99th percentile degree of honest, and forthcoming, in life, I “don’t smoke (any drugs),” I’m very much present, in the moment, when it comes to opportunities to judge people, and on top of that, my neurotic spectrum of tendencies is still of that I’m generally shy, not much really capable of coming up with a right way to casually wedge my way in to some young lady’s life, and circumstances, and, furthermore, I’m somewhat expected to not even try to date, while on the job, for various reasons and rationale:

• I’m a bum
• My clothes are oftentimes messy
• Sometimes I sweat a lot
• I have a bunch of baggage - literal, bum and pigeon-feeding bum sorts of carry-along baggage
• My nose leaks and drips, endlessly
• I feel like crap, as far as limber qualities - I carry a lot of bags, as I’d mentioned
• A lot of people (women) could run circles around me, in socialization standards
• I’m there for the pigeons, and I can’t afford to look like a creep
• It’s a better trade-off, to be silent, keep to myself, and persist, in feeding pigeons
• I run a strictly fairly conservative Christian Protestant profile, of not much talk, or socializing
• I just keep to myself
• I have to protect my iPad Pro
• Sometimes, I feel like people are following me
• I have people making appearances in my mind, all the time
• I feel like some people definitely don’t like me, categorically, and sometimes, they show up, in town
• I feel like it would look funny, or scandalous, if I somehow materialized some kind of idealized female counterpart, at my side
• People put my personal private time at issue, and they criticize ostensible things that I do (or not)
• I have to do a sit-in job, while out and about, of performing licensed talk and behavioral therapist, marriage and family therapist, some sort of amalgamated public and mental health capacity type of fill-in, sort of work profile, lumped in
• Maybe these are just the “toilet can years” of this pigeon-feeding gig’s enterprise

The neat-o iPigeon.institute homemade instrument of the day (updating).

As an aspiring mobile device-driven music box designer, from various standpoints of development: nature’s form of the instrument (whistles, clicks, pops, bird sounds, and resonant bodies of materials, such as metal, wood, etc.), digital design of the emulated instrument (physical modeling, synthesized sounds, audio recordings, key mappings, and transpositions), as well as the delivery of the app, in a usable form, of some standard such as MIDI, 

I have, on one hand, a lot of free space to work with, given that any individual component would reasonably simulate some sort of more complex mechanical form and instrument structure, for example, my first novelty device:

The Can Drum Bellows Clicks-Flourisher - runs on tar!

Long-time readers of mine know that I’m big in to tar. What a fortunate discovery, to have happened upon this hand-crafted (post-manufacture and consumer use of this recyclable product - an aluminum can) bellows device - a sequential flourish-clicker, if you will, with features of a miniature steel drum; on one hand, percussive, as the form of the instrument was crafted by my own musician’s take on suitable design, for a makeshift tobacco pipe, whereas - as a pipe, for that matter, the instrument is played with the breath. It goes well, with a popping sound, perhaps, as a flourish moment, in a musical idea, whereas the tar, from smoking the aluminum can pipe, with tobacco; then smeared (the tar) across the numerous holes in the can’s smoking bowl section, whereby the can, suitably designed, mind you, would blow out, with a bellows thrust and force design concept, in mind, with both flutish and percussive effects being achieved, in one simple blow. 

It’s a simple thing to construct, yet it takes a musician’s skill and finesse, along with some entrained tonal fine-motor muscle tuning, which goes in to the crushing of the can - perhaps even a newcomer could construct the panels of the body of the instrument well enough; it’s just that this is particularly a musical instrument consideration. The holes are poked through, slightly, with a safety pin, or needle, perhaps, and the blowing happens through the drinking mouthpiece, otherwise, visually, the “top” of the can. 

Try it for yourself! It’s really a cute instrument to pull off, to wow your friends, compatriots, and passersby, alike. Try it with a squeeze pop!

Hear the individual sounds of the instrument, freshly capped with tar, from tobacco!

The importance of classical music education.

Oftentimes, 

I’m issued an obscure, yet demanding task - to contend against invisible adversaries who speak down towards me, in my mind. Far be it from me to feign the belief of that everyone can understand my plight, and dilemma, yet I feel that there is a strong subset demographic operating amongst us, who secretly, and intently, contribute to this obfuscation of the facts (plus more), as singular, or collective, remote sensing interlopers. 

On one hand, some contingent factors must be kept in mind, at all times - one of them, is the understanding, and expectation of that not “everyone,” per se, would reasonably be included within any off-hand remote sensing event, or experience. In other words, it’s important that observants, subjects (of focus), and or participants in remote sensing occurrences keep the potential for grandiosity to flourish in check. Similarly, I commonly observe that some participants, in remote sensing events, at times, brazenly disregard the genera public, and the potential for their communications and participation to fall upon unintended audiences’ “ears,” or, more rightly, their “minds,” since these are aural experiences, perceptually, yet they can not be recorded, via conventional technology means, at least, at the consumer level, at this point in time (March, 2023). 

Other considerations aside, what a tragedy it is, that many people are wrongfully wrought up, in to cult-like sects of sadistic ritual abusers. It’s an unimaginable travesty. 

Rather than focus on this type of occurrence, as a phenomenon, I’d rather maintain objectivity, and rationality, yet the aforementioned dilemma largely prefaces my current underlying circumstances in life, as I find writing to be a self- and identity-affirming practice, through the process of composition, in and of itself, and I largely only get around to writing, textually, these days, although I do make some small gains, here and there, for upcoming and developing musical projects and works to be derived, later on, from future practice and learning, within a musical context. 

Music is truly one of the fundamental intelligences; to be certain (although, this is a time in which shoddy journalistic and publishing practices dominate former standards in intelligence; therefore, valid information of our youth’s learning and education becomes much more of a challenge to discover, for reference, on the internet). Recent seminal works had documented musical intelligence as one of the 9 primary areas of intelligence, for example. We must not diverge our resources available to us, and cast them to the wind, so to speak, by allowing inferior intelligence streams, whether it be our own search patterns, on the internet, or through our news feeds. Yet, this being the case, it’s somewhat all a fluke, given that musical intelligence is something of various forms of virtue - hand-eye coordination, memory and recall plays a significant role in performing and in thinking about music, fine motor muscle skills are developed, through musical training, and musical practice assumes a disciplined lifestyle and household, to at least some degree, in order for musical learning to take place, and take hold, in the mind. 

Much of many people’s discontent and “acting out,” which I find to be prevalent, in my most near-to-me proximity (or, for that matter, as commonplace, in my remote sensing event occurrences, lately) border upon suggestions of modeling of society, itself, now, as an anarchistic domain, to become developed. Are we in our end times, for the sake of a lack of trying to do better? There’s very much a large helping of apathy, amidst discontent, whereas music, whether it be experiencing live or recorded musical pieces, or through practicing and playing music, oneself, both in solitude, and amongst others of a musical inclination. There seems to be so much detrimental, in attitudes about society at large, as a suitable “victim” for one’s own inequities and shortcomings, in life, whereas, I feel that music would fulfill that gap, and need, in life, which we all have, and that being said, it is a blessed offering to ourselves, our wellbeing, and for others. 

How to: Easy homemade spice fragrance and flavor oleoresin collection with Wisesorb Flower Drying Silica Gel Crystals.

 I’ve come across a novel concept, in extending the use case scenario, in my studies and observations regarding chaparral plants of California, in the case of implementing Wisesorb’s Flower Drying Silica Gel Crystals - not only as a desiccant, yet I’ve found that it seems to bind spice | herb oleoresins to the structure of the silica particles.

Wisesorb Flower Drying Silica Gel Crystals, image courtesy of Amazon and Wisesorbent Technologies.

What does this mean, in particular?

Within the world of spices, I imagine that I would update this blog article, in days and weeks to come (I started on this project idea at the end of February, 2023) with exciting developments in detailing a rather simple and relatively labor and machinery-free method of processing fresh plant material in to an accessible pure oleoresin, which can be observed as in the image below:

A closeup of Wisesorb Silica Gel crystals with some fresh spice herb material and bits of oleoresin.

What an exciting thing to observe, for a fragrance and flavor enthusiast, perhaps with the added feature of bearing an artisanal crafting aspiration, in manufacturing ingredient concentrates from scratch. Imaginably, from this point, I could keep loading the silica gel crystals up with fresh spice herb materials until a satisfactory amount of oleoresin had built up in the crystals, at which point, I could perform a simple solvent extraction, of my choosing, of such, dependent, perhaps, upon the plant’s best reputed solvent, determined per species of harvested plant. In this instance, I came across a fresh, minty, mesquite-smelling chaparral plant in my local commonplace whereabouts.

Update: my backpack with this project, started, in it, had been stolen from me, so I can not currently continue this blog article. Hopefully, some day, I’ll be able to come back to it.

iPigeon.institute 2023 classroom and activity ideas.

• Musicianship and Introductory Piano - learning to sing, and rhythmic training. Learning to sight read music.
• Illustration - Ink brush coloring and illustrations. Color theory, rudimentary figure (animals, nature) drawings.
• Track and Field - Running / jogging exercises. Stretching techniques. Physical health routines.
• Nutrition - Demonstrate how to barbecue. How to cook rice and egg. Nutrition lessons - 4 food groups, nutrition theory. Alternative diets (raw). 
• Journaling - Scrapbooking, Typography / handwriting - choosing a font. Bullet Journaling. Page layout and Design.
• Botany - Learning to plant seeds in pots. Plant identification. (Fruit or Flower tree planting?) / community garden. Preserving flowers and leaves (press-method).
• Agriculture lessons - Chicken egg incubator. Animal care - livestock feeding techniques. Genealogy of Poultry and Game Birds.
• Computer Skills - Hand / eye coordination and identification / discernment training. Keyboard navigation on desktop / laptop computer. 
• Sustainability - Compost heap. Community service (leadership) and the ecology. Accessibility - pedestrian safety. Noise and light pollution.

Christmas lights wire art, powered by USB, for example. Available on Amazon. An unexpectedly “way” to dry clothes up, a bit, wow! - USB wired Christmas lights. Who would have thought?

My latest (February) 2023 art release(s) - 🏝️ Tropical effect! (Updating)

 

What a great effect, right? It’s a 2-part composite image, essentially, with an Adobe Photoshop Kaleidoscope effect (I think), with a white background ink brush illustration with glitch effect, as a separate top layer, with luminosity layer effect applied, in Adobe Illustrator, and then I played around with the opacity, a bit, and maybe some work with Vectorization of the top layer, to achieve layer and vector-bits independence, from the underlying kaleidoscope (or Collider, maybe) background layer. 

It’s got the same glitchy effect that we all know and love, from recent years’ popularization, on mobile devices, and in marketing imagery, as well as pop culture uses of the glitch effect, such as in effect-sy music videos. 

Here’s Adobe’s informational and instructional page on the various ways to make the Glitch effect happen. 

I call it “Tropical,” I guess, if I had to name it, and it’s got all the features of glitch (color aberration version) about it, with the color palette blown out, in full glory, and some organic variety, given the collider / kaleidoscope background. Here’s the background image I used, in case you don’t have access to Adobe Photoshop on a Desktop or Laptop computer, and you want to recreate this effect. You will need (I think) Adobe Illustrator, in some form - I made this happen on an iPad Pro (2022 model). 

 

 

Product Review - Maison Margiela “Replica:” Jazz Club - Eau de Toilette.

This time, I tried out an unexpected “newcomer” fragrance. 

I hadn’t heard of Maison Margiela, prior to showing up at Nordstrom, out at the Del Amo Fashion Center, where I’d intended to show up to purchase Jo Malone’s Myrrh and Tonka - Cologne Intense (currently $160-$220 USD), as a departure from men’s fragrances I’d already tried, and loved, such as Dior Homme ($95-$175 USD - 1.7-6.7 oz.) or Viktor and Rolf Spicebomb ($134, 3.04 oz.). Prior to showing up, I’d tried to pore over exactly what I was trying to get at, here and there, in maintaining a fragranced personal profile, for people (not really) - the thought had come up, in my mind, as a suggestion, after all. Sure, Myrrh and Tonka smells great, but was it beyond something I could reasonably mix up, myself, somewhat, if I’d just purchased various component ingredients, myself? On one hand, Tonka bean is a bit of a contentious ingredient, being that it is potentially toxic. After the fact (of my purchase), I got some feedback on things. Supposedly, the toxins had been painstakingly researched and studied, as far as the end product fragrance composition, in question, and they’d duly been removed, from the consumer fragrance product - not all that far-fetched, to suppose. 

Then, at the men’s fragrance rack, at Nordstrom, the merchandising display winds up being a different story. I chose to do retail, at a department store, for one thing, for the sake of the fact that they have an on-site testing and auditioning space and capability, as far as product offerings, in fragrance - it’s something that e-commerce solutions, as far as branching out, in to something new, can - at times, be lacking in, resulting in purchases that lead to buyer’s remorse, perhaps, or a lack of diversification, which can wear down on things; concepts such as innovation. On the bottom of the fragrance rack, there were these products, named Replica, as a brand, which I had never heard of, before. I figured - “hmm… Replica? As though they might, somewhat, be fairly high-end aiming, (somewhat) bargain alternatives (at $150 USD, for 3.4 fl. oz.) to the more high-end and more well-established luxury lines, such as Jo Malone - in this case, I’d say that this brand is a bit of a newcomer, at Nordstrom, out here, whereas Creed products, far more expensive, which were placed at the top of the same section, on the same part of the fragrance rack, Jo Malone, right below, and some other brand, next one down, with Replica products seated at the bottom of the rack. My analytical mind had me supposing that perhaps these ones were a viable knock-off sort of thing, or otherwise cheaper alternative product, leading me astray from fulfilling my initial intention, in procuring a new fragrance for myself - so I don’t smell, while I’m out and about, in public, feeding the birds, and such. I do routinely become sweaty, and oh - what a travesty, if I end up smelling bad, as a known pigeon-feeding bum.

This is the product, similarly, as I’d encountered it, as a sample bottle, in-store, at Nordstrom. Maison Margiela’s Replica fragrance line touts itself as a rendition, if you would, upon a notable theme, or experience, per se. I found “Jazz Club” to be a suitable attention-grabbing alternative, given my initial intention to purchase Jo Malone’s Myrrh and Tonka cologne, for a fair sum of money more, on this instance of purchasing a bottle of cologne.

As it turns out, the general field of relevance, contextually - in a sensory sort of consideration, given the two top competitors, here - Myrrh and Tonka versus Jazz Club, I found my choice to wind up being reasonably within a similar olfactory ballpark, with Myrrh and Tonka’s lavender top notes becoming a citrusy and floral theme, with primofiore lemon and neroli, in Jazz Club. In addition, I’d also recently - by turn of fate, been interested in Rum, as a fragrance ingredient - quite expensive, as it turns out, and I feel that it’s a sophisticated ode to myrrh, on one hand, with its complexity and breadth, in a fragrance composition. The unifying features, between either one of them, were the sweet base notes of either one - Tonka bean versus vanilla bean: similar, in an olfactory sense, yet, upon sampling both fragrances in the store, I found Myrrh and Tonka to have a bit, perhaps, too much richness, in the bottom notes, and I felt that I would, at some point, measuring out a use-case scenario, of me being out and about, and sweating, and stuff - of that I’d develop a viciously rich musk about myself - easily offensive, if I ever got lazy, and I’d wind up “not realizing,” so to speak, how I smell, to other people, whereas I found Jazz Club’s features to accommodate the same general aesthetic, while remaining a bit bright, I’d say, as far as the overall effect, of the fragrance, whereas I could layer it with some still-there citrus and woodsy fragrances I have, in small amounts - Eau d’orange verte, by Hermes, and Dior Homme. Together, the trio of the three fragrances is deliciously elegant, like a luxuriantly-enveloped citrus rind, upon close examination, with the middle and base notes becoming more evident, with diffusion, starting at a slight distance, perhaps, with a slighter sniff of the nose. In my fragrance-wearing oeuvre and repertoire, of purchases-past, I’d enjoyed having what I’d say, would amount to a similar citrus-led layering of colognes, such as that the Hermes botanicals line of products would be most suitable - for instance: Eau de Citron Noir had been a recent favorite, with Dior Homme and Spicebomb as my layering choices - quite complex, in that instance. 

After purchasing, I tried on some of my choice, in purchasing, and I found it to have a delightful olfactory sense of that the fragrance imparted a notion of having taken a shower - ostensibly due to an addition of C-12 (I’d sensed - both Lauric Alcohol, as well as Aldehyde C-12; fairly bitter), with Alcohol C-12 (Lauric Alcohol) being the characteristic “just-showered” scent, of all scents, I’d say, and C-12 Aldehyde being a bit controversial for me, since I’m allergic to drinking alcohol, and overall, I found that this fragrance easily affects me with a notable depressive and sedated effect. It was my choice, though, in trying this one out, and perhaps it’s not all that much, to my detriment, overall. I’m trying to do life as representatively (as much as possible) not overly, or obviously, stimulated - it’s simply too cheaply and easily a topic of controversy, and I strive to be an honest role model of sustainability in my enterprise model, so I don’t get thrown out of town - quite literally, that, which could wind up, being the case, for me. I figure - if I take the bottle out, with me, on a walk, and with my ionic mineral carry-along profile, and with my travels equating to some form of milling, further, of the product, the fragrance would, ostensibly, mill out the aldehyde, or I could throw some other stuff in there, since the bottle actually allows for the entire spray top, and “cap” of the bottle, to be removed - allowing for additions, or refills, for example, another ingredient, or entire fragrance, could be put in to this bottle of Jazz Club, thus transforming the presence of this contentious (for me, being allergic to “drinking” alcohol) Aldehyde C-12 ingredient in to something altogether unexpected, and far-removed, sensory-wise, in the fragrance composition, in my experience with aldehyde C-12.

A nice touch, that the bottle’s top is removable, allowing for refills. 

I’ll leave this review, at that, for the time being. Thanks for reading :)

(Abandoned, and cannot update): Analyzing and Comparing the Efficacy of Two Common Learning Methods - Immersion Versus Self-Quizzing.

 Originally published: 09/21/2021

Every now and then, I get quizzed on knowledge base, perceptual acuity , memory tasks of contexts pertaining to occurrences and developments in my life, and of “seemingly” random tidbits of learning, taxonomy, culture, or lore (otherwise), in my remote-sensing environments which happen upon me.

This sort of thing happens on a regular basis. The remote-sensing quorums are attended by various classes and types of individuals, yet commonly, the topic basis is one of a civil complaint against me, and I find myself chronically stressed out, in life, of various sorts of consequences. The pursuit of an ever more leisurely outlook and disposition, in life, is an obvious lure for me, and unfortunately, I find myself deprecating in to former and legacy modes of behaviors, such as seeking novel or imprudent sorts of entertainment online, for example, rather than using my strengths, and building upon gainful and productive aspirations in life. 

 The app I have in mind, in this instance, is a simplistic one, although I would strongly presume that the merits are founded, and sure. 

Why an app? 

Mobile development is an industry that had a significant heyday leading up to the time of the Pandemic, and by all means, it’s an industry that will see growth, to come, as various demographics see a rise and fall in their social and class status underpinnings; I’d suppose that would happen, based on much of the “conjectural” (perceptual?) confessionals and Freudian Slips that I’d been privy to, as we’re all under interrogation by the higher authority, until we become the highest authority, when it comes to a remote sensing tech and lifestyle sort of, uh, lifestyle. 

Within the gold rush timespan, leading up to the era of high-powered mobile device hardware, we saw many shining stars emerge in app development, which fulfilled many of the needed purposes to be seen through in app development in an ever-increasingly more compact, more large if need be; more graphics, higher data throughput and storage capability expectation and demand, on our devices. Activities and pursuits of merit, once confined, largely, to the classroom environment and to libraries, were suitably accommodated and made much more accessible to the layperson of an aspirational creed, who would shrug off the influence of pirating goods (and jailbreaking,, etc.), and go with the program, as far as discovering what was available and being offered through mainstream big tech app stores, offered by Google, Apple, and now Amazon (does Microsoft do an App Store for their mobile devices? I don’t know, off-hand, but I’d assume so). 

The point is,

is that many developers and programmers had staked their worth and product offerings, early on, and they’d established themselves, app-wise, as the go-to solution that people would come to discover, and support, for menial scrum pay - that many App Store offerings were given to people as, with archetypes such as the iTunes Store’s $0.99 offerings of parted-out pieces of what could, would, or had been full albums, previously; many of such apps, themselves, offering a similarly compartmentalized concept of what productivity and development, or “work,” on mobile devices could, and ought be, as it was envisioned and carried out. 

My go-to app, for learning about neural networks, all learning and literature (mostly) aside, came to be Neuronify. Was it free? Did I pay for it? I don’t quite remember, but if it cost anything, it was a couple, or several dollars, or so. It seemed to do the job, as imaginable as it might be, for a dilettante entry in to app-attainment goals, for my arrays, choices, and learning-basis inclusions on to my mobile devices, and for that matter, SSD hard drive space, on an iPad, even more so than on a mobile phone device - it goes a lot further than on a desktop environment (as well as better than phones can offer). I’ve currently (September 2021) got 569 apps, 6020 photos, 346 videos, 168 songs, on my device, which features 256 GB of SSD storage, and I’m only down to about 161 GB remaining. I do anywhere from a 4+ hour to 8-hour screen time daily average, given a week, on my iPad Pro device, particularly now that I’d lost my Google Android Pixel 4a 5G, which is part of a great series of mobile phones, for the cost, by the way. For that matter, the Google Store also features the Neuronify DIY neural networks mapping (doing) app, as well. 

The premise of a neural network is fairly basic, in essence. There aren’t all that many parameters and objects that would be featured in Neuronify, but the significant feature of having development and productivity, on mobile, playing out, at the speed of whatever measure of achievement that could be wrought out of the device and app, through the user’s input, as a moving visual image: interactive, and engaging that it is, playing out on the screen, is part of an attainment, in mobile device development, particularly on the iPad (Pro), which would have formerly only existed in richly-resourced study and research learning and development environments, and tracing even further back, in static image renders, of the calculations involved, and even further than that, in people’s imaginations. At some point, the technology falls back in time, in to philosophical codices, with the basis and need for the science of neurology being a pursuit, study, and investigation of what comprises the mind, itself, and it’s functioning, at the most critical points of investigation and discovery that could be had. What works? What doesn’t? What is the most effective cause and effect cycle and premise? Which types of decisions and behaviors are harmful, or wasteful? These sorts of questions could be proven, to as best the researcher could prove, to the scientific community, whom, in turn, would be capable of producing the same results, in a lab setting, thus validating the discovery. 

Within the app itself, as I’d mentioned earlier, there are only several parameter objects and icon type tools, or actions and feedback mechanisms, in other words, of the interface. The interface, in and of itself, is a node-based class of workflow environment.

The Neuronify app interface, on a 2020 model iPad Pro.

Here, then are the various user interface tools of the app:

Leaky excitatory neuron

Adaptive excitatory neuron

Leaky inhibitory neuron

Adaptive inhibitory neuron

Voltmeter

Spike detector

Firing rate plot

Loudspeaker

DC current source

AC current source

Irregular spike generator

Regular spike generator

Visual input 

Touch activator

Note

My hypotheses:

Premise 1: innovative skills arise out of need, as well as out of rote. 

Some findings and observations, upon that basis:

• Needful skills could only possibly attend to the problem which arises. In this case, I’m choosing productivity as the title of merit. Takin time to discern and decipher, as well as determine that the problem is resolved, and move forth, is hampered by products of neural activity that could rely on lesser or greater electrical pulses, at a more accommodating timing, if the problem at hand were capably handled by a more singular and fluid, unique mind, rather than a mind of more randomness. Electrical efficiency is the requisite object of attainment.
• My preference, for deciphering that engaged and interactive learning, for example, is the superior backdrop to a greater productivity, is that the problems are being resolved in an engaging, real-time environment. Calculations happen quicker through methods gained in using hand-eye coordination types of skill sets - gestural and procedural industriousness, of various other enterprises of life, which pertain to economics, could be translated over in to the argument for an active learning environment basis to a more capable and effective problem-solving style, compared to a “flash card” setting, of completely randomized data sets, this being the cards. 
• The goal of this hypothesis would be to employ certain scientific control environments of my own study, ask individuals for their input, and analyze their statements and claims, as well as their preferences, and discover, within the control environment, whether or not they find similarity, or comparability, in their input received, when calculated against my personal findings. On one hand, it takes a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to discern valid mathematical truths about a visual environment, of an insightful nature, yet - I would assert that we, as intelligent and rational creatures, would pursue and develop upon gainful, rational, formal structures, rather than something more founded upon chance, randomness, (even within a finite series of choices), memory - which would alter the resonant section, even, of the brain, itself - a costly transformation; I would say more so, than if the knowledge were understood by an actively engaged mind, of rote discipline, and familiarity, set about in a workflow and industrious setting and environment. 

I’ll pause here, in writing, because I’ve arrived at my destination, of where I’m going, for this part of the day.

Update: 02/09/2023

Hello, I apologize for the abandoned blog article, here - ha ha… a silly way for me to appear, in front of others in the scientific community, but I had abandoned this blog article, due to ongoing challenges in my personal life, which still persist. Aside from that, the app no longer loads on my device; I believe that the app is no longer available for iPadOS, for that matter.