Jason Vincion
Home Now Music
What I'm doing now
Welcome to my Now page. I'm living in Redmond, Washington working as a warehouse coordinator for Black Raven Brewing and doing my best to make progress on all of my projects in my free time.
If you'd like to get in contact with me, feel free to email me at jasonvincion at gmail dot com, or post a message on my website here.
Updated 2024-12-09
One Day Until 45
It's been a few months since I've updated, though it doesn't feel like much has happened.
I've been on a few road trips with my partner to distract ourselves from the loss of our cat Keiko; one to Leavenworth and two to Bellingham. They were pleasant enough, and I lucked into finding a book with a lot of "a-ha" moments at Henderson Books in Bellingham called "Do Nothing and Do Everything" by Qiguang Zhao (1948-2015). It is a book on Taoism that addresses how the Tao relates to daily life, using a lot of wisdom and accented with humor and sketches by the author.
Holy Books has been another great resource for information, as I found a book on Chan/Zen Buddhism called "Empty Cloud: The Teachings of Zen Master Xu Yun" that also had a fair few "a-ha" moments as well. The website for the author's Buddhist sect has some very interesting articles as well.
With all the reading and note-taking I'm doing, it feels like I'm on the road to putting together a book of ideas. I've sifted through my notes multiple times, and I'm sorting everything into an alphabetical glossary. I'm only about 10% of the way through doing that, so I'm going to keep plugging away and see what happens.
As for my birthday tomorrow, it will be a time to plan and consider what I want my 45th year to look like. 44 has been a difficult year with the loss of my father and trying to help my mother cope, the loss of a beloved pet, the loss of belief in identity, the muting of interest in something I loved for years, helping my partner deal with her employment woes and lack of employment woes (which settled out recently), working through an injury (which healed recently), and looking to save for the future. It has been a year of loss and stripping away, but I can either dwell on it and be miserable, or I can accept it and move forward. I chose the latter.
I will likely keep working on the book, I might return to composing music with a piano/keyboard as my instrument, and I will keep reading and copying ideas that resonate. I might even update this site more next year; we shall see.
Updated 2024-09-02
Losing Keiko
I'd planned to update this page every first Monday of the month, but on the first Monday in August at 3:45 am, my partner and I had to put our cat Keiko to sleep.
Her breathing rate had increased the evening before, so we monitored it closely. We thought she was having asthma issues, so we had an emergency inhaler to give to her every four hours. We gave it to her at 9 pm, and her breathing was still fast, but it went back into the normal range. We woke again at 1 am for the next round, and it didn't go back down. Instead, it continued to increase, so we rushed her to the emergency vet nearby.
They did an ultrasound on her and said she had a lot of fluid in her lungs, which was an indicator that she was having congenital heart failure. She also had reverse cardiomyopathy, which she was on medications for as well, and asthma and heart medications have effects that counteract each other.
They said they could give her a drip of furosemide (one of her heart medications) and put her in an oxygen box for a few days, but we'd be in the exact place we were then. We decided to do the humane thing and put her to sleep. We spent about an hour with her before we did, saying our goodbyes and getting a few last snuggles in.
When we had to put her to sleep, she was three days past her 15th birthday. We got her when she was 12 years and 10 months old, so we had her for two years and two months. We often wonder if we could have done better for her if we'd had her from a younger age because whoever had her for the first 12 years gave her no vet care whatsoever. Her foster care during the 10-month interim gave her excellent care, but her health issues came from her lack of previous care.
We went on a rollercoaster ride of vet visits, eye doctor appointments, and medicine schedules, and we gave her the best care we could. In return, she gave us lots of love and affection.
After Keiko's passing, her vet and eye doctor praised my partner and I for giving our little sick kitty the best care possible.
It's been a quiet last month with no pets around the house, with a lot of emptiness and sadness in the wake of her loss. I can't speak for my partner, but I feel like things are starting to settle out. I'm diving back into projects and doing my best to get things done, but I know neither of us are ready for another pet. My partner wonders if she will ever want another one because she put everything she could into caring for Keiko. I understand her sentiment, but I feel like we'll get another little black female cat in time.
In any event, both my partner and I loved Keiko dearly, and we're both grateful to have had the time with her that we did.
Below is a photo of her from about a month before her passing, resting her chin on the bleu cheese cat toy we got for her the previous Christmas.
Getting Things Done
After losing Keiko, I'm diving back into projects. As someone who's part of Derek Sivers' Now Now Now project, I check his Now updates on occasion.
After finishing his most recent book, "Useful Not True," he made a list of projects he wanted to work on and referenced David Allen's book "Getting Things Done."
I've read Derek's notes on the book multiple times and have started reading the book, though a basic summary of how to approach tasks is to list them all out, list all the steps needed to get them done, and then get them done.
For me, listing projects is a herculean effort. I've started on a couple, but there are many more to approach. That is where the overwhelm is coming in, but I'm creating action trees (or outlines) for each project. I'll get there in time.
Updated: 2024-07-01
Stepping Back
As may be obvious, I've reduced my internet presence quite a bit since taking two years of journals offline. After 28 years of participating consistently with the internet (and two years of Prodigy before that), I realize that what I am looking for (whatever that may be) isn't online.
The internet was a lot more fun pre-social media and continues to get less fun. There is so much unnecessary chaos, and it has not progressed agreeably.
So, I'm stepping back and spending less time online and less time participating in it. It's time to empty the cup and see if anything new fills it.
Instead of updating this page every Monday, I plan to update it every first Monday of the month (schedule permitting). Until then.
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