The Chase of Happiness

Somewhere, we pick up the notion that happiness is attainable and where we want to go. I think there are many people who say that you're probably not going to be happy all the time, but they would encourage a child to try to chase it anyway.

I feel that happiness is less important to me as I get older. I don't think that this makes me a cynical person. I've found that having peace, and also pride, make me feel like I've chased the correct goals in my life.

I feel dread and pain sometimes when I go about my programming and studying tasks. I don't feel like what I would name happy. I don't think it matters to me anymore. I have a salve for just this occasion, and it is the two things I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

We Need to Talk about Red Velvet

Red Velvet's music makes me feel like they are in touch with my dreams and subconcious. It is similar to the feeling I used to get when watching South Park.

South Park, particularly in its glory days, used to feature dialogue that sounded perfectly stereotypical of one fool or another. I would watch the show and feel like Matt and Trey were cheating by examining my dreams and pulling their script from my dream world. When a character on the show had a critical fault, it felt new to hear him or her speak and yet it felt perfect because it made me feel like I was dreaming while awake. I refer to my dreams here as though they inform my predictions of how people really are.

When I hear Red Velvet, I don't feel like they're just recycling the same two themes that circulate most kpop songs (have confidence and get a boyfriend). Rather, I feel like they're stretching their necks into the cosmos, finding whispers of calm, serious, rigid fearlessness, and handing this loot over to me in the form of their songs.

Here are some Twice songs off the top of my head:

1. I Got You
2. Chillax
3. Go Hard
4. Dance the Night Away
5. Knock Knock

These songs fit the expected mold of kpop. They are about being nice, having confidence, even being a little cocky. Here are some Red Velvet songs:

1. Umpah Umpah
2. Parade
3. Psycho
4. Nightmare
5. Will I Ever See You Again

There is no comparison. Red Velvet is interested in the other-worldly, the edges of what we know. They don't just recycle the cliche themes.

Much of the allure of Red Velvet lies in the simple catchiness of their music. I used to like EDM music and sure, Red Velvet scores points with me just because their sound is euphoric. But when they're excited about fare that would seem mundane to someone who didn't know they were making music with it, it elevates them to the highest level of entertainment.

By my judgment, Red Velvet is 10x as good as Taylor Swift. 3x better than Lady Gaga. 2x better than Twice. And I say that as someone who eagerly clicked the Twice I Got You making-of video as soon as it came out.

Termius Port Forwarding Gotcha

When you setup a tunnel on your iPad Pro to forward port 8080 on a remote host to 3000 on your local host, make sure you give the IP address 127.0.0.1 and not the "localhost" hostname. Or you're gonna have a bad time.