🪶theabbott release log

More minor progress on the puzzle.

Oh, and just started watching this:

We are enjoying it.

Almost forgot to provide the minor progress with the puzzle:

nikkigirl has been struggling some terrible pain in her hands, and first of all - she's stronger than me. Always has been. The #1 reason I know this? Because she's had to deal with me all of these years. Anytime I share my victories, it's only because of her. NOBODY has been as ride or die for me. Ever. unclejimmy in particular, is just as much me, as it is her. None of it is without her.

All of that to say, she's exhausted, went to bed early, and I was thrilled to have some alone time. lol

As I head to my backpack to grab my earbuds, I think to myself, self, let's go random again tonight, wait for a song to speak to me, and we'll use that to drive the evenings chronicle. Well, I didn't have to wait long because the first song was an absolute banger:

Iconic. Absolutely legendary. The amount of pure hours I have dedicated to the wu-tang clan over the years feels incalculable. Actually studied. Murals. Playlists. Mixtapes. Somebody once asked me if I was Muslim based on how much 5 percenter I can parrot. I was there on the ground floor of a collective that changed the world.

Before we get to the point, it should be pointed out that while inpsectah dek's verse on Triumph is widely considered the greatest verse in hip-hop history, I think it might be my 3rd or 4th favorite dek verse. My favorite?

What a hopeful, peaceful, and glorious song. Infinite skills create miracles.

Ok, so the point is, I was in a meeting today with 15 of my peers. All of which have been at [redacted] longer than I. Anywho, I was one of 3 in the meeting who had the opportunity to have a seat at the table. In that moment, I felt the Triumph that was the entirety of my life, and frankly was......Above The Clouds.

Infinite skills create miracles.

Minor progress made on the puzzle:

Border complete.

On to the next day.

I put the music on random again and waited for something to speak to me. Looks like song #10 landed that plane and here we are:

First, DOOM sampling the beatles and not getting hammered in court speaks to just how unknown he was when this dropped. Today? I don't think this song can be made. Anywho, so dope.

What spoke to me was the adlibs to kick off the song, mostly by DOOM. Let's follow the back and forth:

MF Grimm:
You know when you gonna come in?

DOOM:
Nobody will never ever, ever, really, really know
Cuz the more you know, the more you know that you don't know shit
N*****'ll never run out of shit
There's so much shit, so much scripts to do here
N*****'ll never run out of shit

MF Grimm:
Enjoy the rollercoaster ride.

DOOM:
Multifaceted.

Simple framing. Simple world.

I'm switching it up a bit this week and will be chipping away at this puzzle:

Puzzles help center me within the idea that no matter how big the problem is, be it 100 pieces, 500 pieces, or 1000 pieces, the solution always begins with a single piece. I think this 500 piece puzzle found at powers comics in Green Bay is the right medium size puzzle to keep my hands busy while also allowing my mind to wander through a sea of potential solutions.

If memory serves, I paid twice as much as was needed for this puzzle because the proceeds went directly to an animal shelter program they run on the side and I can be a sucker for a kind heart. Maybe that sneaks in some good karma while we do some heavy thinking.

Shouts to derek for getting me in the shop and helping me find it.

Recent content brought to you by the following vibes.

After the first section written today, I spent some time with program design for a bit, did a bit of housework (I needed me time), and had my favorite music on shuffle. Typically, I am a full album, front to back kind of guy. After a while though? I need the choas of random ideas to flood my brain and snap me out of the monotony of it all. Well this random moment aligned with today's theme and here we go......

First song? Live and Let Live by Souls of Mischief. The chorus:

Next item up for bid - The Truth (feat Common & Talib Kweli) by Pharoahe Monch. I absolutely ❤️ this song. First released in 1999, this is a direct hit for me. Full bulls-eye. This song speaks to my soul. A few key lines from each player:

Third is the turd. Ever heard that terrible 2nd grade joke? First is the worst.......second is the best......third is the turd. We will also accept.......third is the nerd. I love terrible 2nd grade jokes.

Anywho, third song on the list is Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel. Okay, so this one won't really fit the theme here so we are going to skip over this one because I couldn't find a good idea here. Or did I?

As "The Truth" was 4told - get it 4, uh, told, fourth song. Eek, moving along.

Point being, the next song is American Terrorist by Lupe Fiasco. Now, here we pause to make note of the absolute disaster that this country is. Think about the words American Terrorist for a moment. How relevant is that today? How long has it been that every day feels like today? America was born on terrorism.

Within the sadness that is the last paragraph, Lupe starts the song with this simple ideal:

How about a play on the number 5 for our fifth song?

What a great movie. As somebody who talks to computers for a living, I can assure you: Johnny 5 Is Alive.

We jump back into the music with Game Theory by The Roots. After a detour into Cecilia, who's breaking my heart, we jumped into American Terrorist and the shit show that is today. With Game Theory we get back on message. Hit that last link if you are unfamiliar with the concept in this context.

If I was to simplify how I ended up with a seat at the table into one idea, it would be Game Theory. While I'm not perfect, I've also played my cards right.

Quick batch of lyrics from Black Thought:

I love Knight Rider. Full stop.

I'm bored with the number games so we jump right into Starin' Through My Rear View by 2Pac. This song aligns with what my day has been like. In my most vulnerable moments today, I mapped the where I am today all the way back to my earliest memories. Everything has mattered. I'm where I should be.

2pac can take it away from here:

Last, but certainly not least, we close with the feminine voice found within Every Single Night by Fiona Apple. Take it away m'lady:

I know it's taken us awhile to get here so let's summarize. TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read):

That TL;DR was originally written as a summary paragraph and then I decided to chop it into pieces to fit the previous formatting and lyrics from my favorite song writers. It wasn't written to rhyme, but as Nas would tell you: It Was Written.

This week's lighter content has been brought to you by the following vibes.

Oh, and shouts to floppy disks.

Step aside george, this looks like a job for me. So everybody, just follow me:

Before we hit the vibes, let's take a moment to catch the coinky-dink that I rebooted Take 2; Day 1 on the 21st, and note how we'll hit a string of divine numerology for the next 7 days. Let's celebrate with 22 (2026-01-22) Two's (Take 2; Day 2) by jay-z:

Today's content was brought to you by the following vibes.

With nikkigirl gone for most of the night, it's a good time to throw on the new miles davis album that just dropped. 2 hours and 6 minutes of jazz is exactly what I need right now. I'm not enough of a jazz head to know anything about the album, but I've never let ignorance stop me before, so why would I start now?

I'll link where the album takes me in a playlist below.

Today's content was brought to you by the following vibes.

Today's content was brought to you by the following vibes.

I sent this song to nikkigirl today and let her know this is how I feel when she tells me I'm having a good hair day:

🎙️ lil yachty 🎙️

Yesterday I forgot to add the playlist that inspired the work so I combined it with today (last two albums). The last two days of content was brought to you by the following vibes.

Shout out to the live from the garden chat, they got all of my best work today. To sum it up for them, common is THE Chicago artist for me, above all else.

Today's content was brought to you by the following vibes.

nikkigirl and I walked over to watch eeeeeeeemma perform in this year's school play, Avenue Q.

Much more to come on the musical. Please hold.

Today's content was brought to you by the following vibes.

Sometimes I've got no good ideas for a post when suddenly an old idea of mine meets a current event and I pull that old idea out of obsidian to merge it into that current event (example: yesterday).

Sometimes I've got no good ideas for a post when suddenly the right song triggers the right reflex to merge something that happened to me that day with said song that triggered the reflex (example: today). That song today?

So here's the thing: I can't quit kanye and the sampling on this song is the one reason why. And I'm pretty sure I never will quit him - basically for anything. Pair kid cudi with mr. west? Well then we've got a lifelong love affair, no matter what mental illnesses present. In either the artist in question or myself. lol

Now add in that it's possible I've never been more aligned on any single thing with bonnibel than the kanye albums that we can't shut up about. This kids see ghosts album being one of them. I bet I text her twice a year just to be like, kids see ghosts fucking slaps.

Perhaps you would like to season this take of mine with the fact that even lulu has a deep batch of shared history with me and a few ye albums - not necessarily the same ones as bonnibel either. Truth be told, yeezy was the soundtrack to wide swaths of me growing a dad bod; especially the years that I was a single dad. Hip hop and my kids = peanut butter & jelly.

Hell, even he gets what he's putting me through:

Anywho, I was curious so I went and searched the group chats and found this:

This FRENZ chat is one of my favorite things ever. Another story for another time tho.

Shout out to dr. uncle ryan.

Let's rewind a little bit and revist a brief obsession of mine:

I listened to songs in the key of life a LOT. August was a rough month for me this year because it's when I hit the one year anniversary of quitting my job and I was going through a bit of imposter syndrom and more.

Really though, I wasn't feeling attached to the world anymore. An outsider, a bit lost, and kinda wanting to be anywhere, but here. Enter saturn:

Fast forward to today and we are STILL shooting each other in the streets.

Hey stevie, swing by on your way to Saturn. Fuck this place.