"Where's The Kratom, Google?"

I have a little bit of anxiety over the fact that I am in right now, and not out playing at the Lilly Pad.

I sent a text to Lilly telling of my intentions to play tonight, starting “around ten.”

The fact that she didn’t respond tells me that she probably came to no resolution of the police problem, today.

I know if it were me, I would dread having to go and deal with the officers. But, if anyone can frame that experience in such a way as to lead them to conclude that they can best protect and serve her and her daughters by ignoring me sitting on her stoop and playing late at night, it would be Lilly.

I really don’t know how she operates at the micro level, whether she plays the property-owning high tax amount payer, or the mother trying to raise perfect daughters in the French Quarter, and needing all the help she can get, to include arranging for the soothing sounds of guitar and harmonica to serve as a lullaby.

Or if she goes the route of informing them that I function as a watchdog on the block, ready to report on the comings and goings of persons in and out of the neighboring residencies, especially the one that is over my alternate shoulder to hers, with which owners she is embroiled in a Hatfield’s and McCoy’s caliber of feud with over the alleyway that separates the two houses, and in front of which, exactly, I sit, taking a symbolic position of neutrality between the two parties (or, having been placed there like a pawn symbolizing Lilly’s sovereignty over the alleyway, depending upon who is interpreting).

I keep Lilly informed about the people who come and go from the Hatfield’s place, especially those who have “Air-bnb” written all over them.
This gives Lilly more fodder to load up against them, more leverage to use in her struggle to acquire the alleyway. Even though the argument that, since they are illegally renting out their house, it follows that they are in the wrong about the alleyway doesn’t hold water, and the evidence of it would be suppressed by the Hatfield’s attorney as being irrelevant to the matter of the alleyway. Lilly might use that angle.

My biggest concern is that the cop will stand behind the philosophy of, if he allows me to sit and play there, then he will have to let “everyone else” do the same.

Lilly will probably argue that the ordinance revolves around protecting and serving her and her ilk, and that if the residents in the immediate area agree to waive their right to that protection against live music, then they should be able to.

In the meantime, I didn’t go out this (Thursday) night.

My cash is running low, but my idea is to play there in the late afternoon tomorrow.

That way, there might be a different state cop on the beat, who might give me a clue as to whether or not the whole force has been put on alert for buskers playing in residential blocks, or if it was just that certain one.

It would certainly be part of his stated duties every night to run off the "performers" further up Bourbon Street (who have to strum the guitar a foot in front of you and yell the lyrics at your face). The other cops who have done that, have all then taken a right turn at St. Ann Street, two blocks before getting to me. Maybe this particular of their route had been penciled in by whomever Lilly originally spoke with.

Perhaps this cop will start to turn their too, after realizing that there is almost never any action past that particular corner, as Lilly’s block tends to police itself, and that there IS usually a crowd of sluggish people blocking the street in front of Lafitt’s Blacksmith Shop Tavern, who have become desensitized enough by the sights and sounds around them that it might take a few flickers of the headlights to or a short toot on the siren to get them to move. Why not turn at the block before, and avoid that every night?

I am still working with the Awaken the Genius “mind technology for the 21st Century” book, and I can almost notice myself becoming more of a genius.

It just is a little appalling to see, from this vantage point just how stupid I have been in the past.
How long should it take me to learn to speak conversational Amharic, anyways, for example?

I have learned the value of rote drilling of certain things into the head; and know that repeating a phrase in Amharic rapid-fire after the example of a guy in a Youtube video for ten minutes can do wonders.
The rub lies in that ten minutes is a hell of a long time to be repeating rapid-fire Amharic phrases. It gets boring and mentally taxing, because concentration is required to get every syllable right.
After less than two minutes, I feel like I have absorbed as much as I could and want to delude myself with "OK, that's good," and then knock off in order to let the lesson “sink in,” or even better; so I can "sleep on it."

But, just like guitar practice, I find you have to break through that wall of resistance and enter into the hypnotic state that the rhythm of the practicing can induce.

But, I believe that blasting away at it, even to the point of becoming tongue tied and slipping into even worse annunciation than when you started is probably the fastest way to learn. Like the weight lifters who go to the point of "failure" when a spotter has to come along and assist just enough to get the bar moving again...
I think, as a general rule, when the first instance of thinking: "I'm tired of this" occurs, then you are about a quarter of the way through a productive session. Do 3 more similar sets...
The preceding is my advice, based upon guitar practice. It remains to be seen if I can likewise learn to speak Amharic. I do have a video where the instructor repeats each sentence about 80 times, taking just the first two words, then the first three, etc. Over and over.

Amharic is what the Ethiopian guys who work at The Unique Grocery Store on Royal Street speak.

As seen above, Amharic is the most popular African language spoken in 8 states.
I just want to be able to make small talk, and add to my Amharic vocabulary, which now consists of the equivalents of "How are you?" and "Thank You."

Another part of the reason is because of the great outpouring of encouragement, praise, and joy they exuded the first time I amazed them by thanking them in Amharic after buying something in the store, they really became abuzz over that. LOL.

Jack of all Trades
The studies of PHP, AJAX, DHTML, Javascript, JQuery, HTML and CSS are progressing at a snail's pace. I am still a way's away from writing a mobile phone application that would be a kratom locator app, and would integrate with Google Maps...

My knee-jerk reaction to seeing the cover of this book when I found one at the Goodwill Store, was "Cool, it's so simple, a monkey can learn it!" but it turns out the monkey is on the "endangered" list and the publisher is pushing an agenda to bring it some public awareness.

...while maybe making a sly foreshadowing of the future of DHTML programming professionals.
Music
Master of None

I'm going to post more of my music soon. I spent so many hours on projects (12-18) that I really got sick of hearing them; and by then they were looping in my head on repeat.
After distancing myself from them, I will be able to return and add the lyrics and instrumental solos, and maybe make songs out of them.
Right now, they could qualify as "electronic" music, I have concluded, after having downloaded a bunch of award winning music in that category and finding that most of it sounds just like me messing around with the Cecilia "ear bending sonics" application.

Jacob came by and visited today, and I later felt better, in general. I guess it had been kind of eating me up a bit wondering if I had offended in some way...