Ah! Glad to hear that. Yeah, starting new meds can be rough for the first while. Especially if you're experiencing side effects (which in my experience at least vastly diminished over time). Good luck, and I hope you're able to start getting some better sleep. That'll make a huge difference once possible.
If you can't sleep and are trying to kill time anyway, why not look into something like mindfulness meditation? It might help you keep some of those anxious thoughts in check to the point where you can actually focus on something to take your mind off of whatever is causing your issues.
I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it helped me a lot when I was at my worst.
Also, you indicate that your anxiety and depression are due to some personal issues (which it sounds like will no longer be an issue in a month). If I'm understanding that correctly, that sucks for the time being but I'm glad to hear it has an expiration date. If those are feelings you deal with chronically, however, and you have the means to do so, I highly suggest trying to find professional help. The right meds can make an absolute world of difference, and talk therapy can help you straighten out how you approach those feelings.
Whatever route you take, I hope this passes for you soon and you start to feel so much better. Those feelings suck, but life can absolutely get better.
I think this might fall under "cruel and unusual punishment" for his cellmate. Imagine having to live in a tiny room with this blowhard.
Imagine how different the world was for people with super niche interests before the internet. Back then, this would have been seen as the weird (or at best eccentric) guy in your town who collects fire alarms and won't stop talking about them. Now he's presumably got a fulfilling social life via his unusual hobby, and an outlet to share his thoughts to a willing audience.
For all its many faults over the last decades, this is the pure internet at its best.
ICQ was my first foray into meeting girls online, back when that was a really weird thing to do.
Post a/s/l to pay respects.
I'm kinda shocked that the Trump campaign would agree to this. These rules seem directly in response to his debate style.
For all Biden's many faults, having to share a stage with him in a civilized manner is almost certain to work against Trump. Especially when his campaign is consistently trying to paint Biden as mentally unwell and out of touch.
I'm glad it's happening, just shocked that it's happening under these conditions. I fully expected the Trump campaign to find a reason to back out leading up to this, and any of those rules would likely be a justification for that that his base would be fine with.
Soon on Forbes or something:
"You'll be flattened to find out what industry millenials are killing next."
I'm sure your question was rhetorical, but for those listening from the back: Decades of intentionally under-funding public education, for a start.
Now I'm no American, but something smells FBIish about that address.
That's a fair point but I suspect this has always been the case. I bet if we could go back to the prehistoric period we'd find someone saying, "Cronk found himself another dick-shaped leaf to add to his collection." I'd almost think with less available to amuse them, people would be finding joy in all sorts of weird hobbies or collections.
That's a very good question as it sure doesn't feel like misinformation has declined much in this timespan. My guess would be that the traffic is finding its way to smaller websites, like those used in astroturfing campaigns, though the article speculates that Facebook's algorithm changes may have lessened the flow of traffic to rightwing sites, and I'd guess that'd include these one-offs. Maybe X is picking up the slack there? They've certainly gotten fully unhinged and pandering to this crowd.
Could YouTube be another possibility? I think the algorithm is going strong there in favor of extremist content. My disabled dad, for example, spends his days jumping between watching shows like Cops, and watching YouTube videos of sovereign-citizen types harrassing cops. That's mixed in with all the other garbage his algorithm throws at him. Over the years he's gone from economically centre-left to fully buying into the Trump bandwagon (and we're not even American).
Whatever the answer, I think people are still getting this info from somewhere and apparently in droves.
We need to revise that for Lemmy.
"Lemmy: Where men are men, and men are women, and women are men, and I think we've got a few women who were born women, and also there's a whole bunch of new genders as well, and no genders at all, and that's all cool with most of us."
It's a mouthful and might not read well on a t-shirt, but we can workshop it.
Which spin represents fedora (sped up)? Must be something comparatively lightweight. Is there a xfce Fedora, or maybe something with a tiling WM?
I'm pressing X to doubt.
Maybe, but judging by the bad attitude I was thinking Caillou in a turtleneck.
Yup! We live in a basement and have this deal with the spiders that they'll be left alone as long as they stay off the furniture. For some reason we basically only see them in the bathroom but the occasional time they've been bad, they get exiled to the laundry room.Usually there are 3-5 out that we can see at any given time. Most are very tiny ones that chill in webs, but a few are hunters that are much more mobile. Those that stick around or do something notable get named after a while. Other than Hex there's been ...
Peeping Tom who lived in a web in front of the toilet and just watched you. Sometimes, usually after someone showered and there was condensation in the room, he'd take a little jaunt around his "porch". He disappeared one day under mysterious circumstances. While hoping for his safe return I took the opportunity to clean around his home and accidentally sucked it up with a hand vacuum.
Marina, who was originally named Mario as I rescued her from the sink - the name was changed when I suspected her to be a girl due to her looking like a bigger version of a species we sometimes see. She was my fave as she was always up to something and was very active. We think she was huffing caulking as after we redid it she loved to sit on the new caulk, leading us to childishly say she was "addicted to caulk." We were genuinely concerned about her addiction though as it seemed unhealthy. I once saw her awkwardly chase down a pill millipede. You wouldn't think it possible for something a few mm across to look embarrassed, but I swear she did after she bit it in the ass and it ran off unphased. I think she was too tiny to pierce its exoskeleton. She's recently disappeared and I'm legit sad and hoping she's just off on one of her adventures.
I then recycled the name Mario for one who I had to quickly scoop out of the sink when I was running the water and hadn't noticed because he was so tiny. I was proud of myself as, despite what you may think I'm slightly arachnophobic. (I was very arachnophobic before we started keeping them as free-range pets / housemates.)
Big Bertha, who lived in parts unknown but would often show up in the bathroom at night. She had a habit of temporarily stealing the webs of the resident spiders for a few hours before departing. Usually the other spider would fuck off and watch from a distance, but once I saw her in there just staring down the owner. To my knowledge, she never hurt them though.
It's possible that Hex is actually Big Bertha, as he/she/it (I'm sure I'm misgendering the hell out of them all) has a similar personality.
Can you possibly tell that we cannot currently get pets due to our living situation? We're making do with what the basement provides for companionship.
Rust and Bust.
I mean, Absurdism can (to a degree) take you from depressed to content. It obviously can't help with the actual chemical imbalance sort of depression that drugs can fix, but it sure can help with that good ol' existential dread.
It's been a staple of my mental health for decades, though the drugs certainly help. SSRI's for me, but whatever works for you.
TLDR: Absurdism is good and drugs are good too.
Not gonna lie - if I were single and could get reliable internet in that thing, the trailer in the woods would be all I'd personally need.
That said, I certainly get the point of the meme.
Yes, and she's McLovin' them (at least in front of her supervisor).
Okay, but how about we still go with the subcontractor, but ... Hear me out here ... We call it AI and the subcontractor actually works in India for pennies on the dollar? Pivot to that and you've got my investment.
I'd looove to see this but an international plan to stop climate change is also technically possible but I'm not gonna get my hopes up based on what we've seen in that arena thus far. That latter is also an outright existential threat to our species.
It's also technically possible that anyone can win the lottery but the odds are decidedly stacked against them.
I hate that I'm so goddamn pessimistic about this stuff, but it's hard to see a path to betterment until shit really hits the fan in catastrophic ways. (Moreso than we've seen thus far.) Between the rich holding ridiculous power and the 30-40% of the population they've utterly brainwashed, an optimistic future seems pretty far fetched. Not that we shouldn't try, of course, I'm just venting my frustrations. That said, as an elder millenial, I have a good degree of hope for the younger generations. Overall they seem much more progressive and don't buy into the illusions about our current system that we do.
I spent sooooo much of my teens and early 20s involved in leftist activism and spent the next decade utterly apathetic as we never seemed to accomplish much of anything. Now I'm just trying to get by and help those who I directly have the power to help, such as coworkers and the kids in my life.
Very good point! I imagine meeting someone in person and finding out they have the same unusual hobby would have been quite the thrill. I'm old enough to distinctly remember a world before the ubiquitous internet, but never had a super niche hobby to have given me that sort of experience.
They should name that shop Potpourri.
Yeah. I don't want to say I'm disappointed, because that would suck even more for the guy, but I will say I'm a little underwhelmed.
Also, what's with that insane autoplay video in the article using stock video footage to tell the story? Have we sunk so low?
It's not quite the same, but ... I swear, literally this morning while doing my business one of my bathroom spiders snuck under my slightly raised heel just to chill. If I'd put my foot down that'd be the end of that creature, but by luck I moved my foot instead to find a quarter-sized spider just hanging out where my bare foot had just been.
Side-note: This particular spider is called Hex because it's missing two legs. I believe I found those legs right by the toilet a few weeks before I met my new pooping pal. I've always wondered how it lost them.
Better yet, how do we get this person screened for psychopathy?
What was this from? I know the reference but can't place it. I could obviously search for it but, hey, I'm trying to be social here.
I assume she's using a separate keyboard/mouse, right? Though I'm enjoying the mental picture of someone trying to touch type on a vertical keyboard.
That's the way to do it. I used a broken laptop like that as my daily driver for a few years after losing my desktop and being unable to replace it.
I used to actually know a ton about this stuff but haven't touched a musical instrument or audio device in over 12 years. Sooooo, bear with me.
All of this will depend entirely where your interests lay in terms of audio production/engineering. One of the core skills would be the ability to pick out different sounds from a soundscape. I suspect you already have a knack for that given how much you seem to think about audio quality. Tied in with that would be an understanding of how digital audio works in terms of bitrate, dynamic range, what clipping sounds (and looks) like, etc. I'm sure there's tons of info on all that online. Analog audio has a whole other set of skills associated with it, but I doubt it's super accessible these days for a beginner. That's outside of cassettes, at least. I'm sure old 4-track cassette recorders are super cheap. As much as I loved analog recording, you're probably better off just going digitally and using processing to get an approximation of the "traditional" analog sound, though, if that's your jsn. Or if you're going for a black metal sound or something else intentionally grungy, go to town on a cassette deck.
From there I'd say the biggest skills would be understanding basic mic technique, the general physics of sound, and how to properly set your levels (basically the ratio of preamp vs amp). Next up would be figuring out basic processing - namely the different types of EQ and compression. Effects play into that too - especially reverb and delay - but EQ and compression (plus proper micing and levels) are generally going to be the foundation of a good mix.
That being said - this all entirely depends on what you're going for. If you don't do anything musical yourself and aren't inclined to record other musicians, you can have tons of fun remixing other people's work. I'm pretty sure there are sites out there where you can download raw audio tracks to mix yourself. Another viable option if you're into electronic forms of music is to get a sequencer and experiment that way.
I got my start when I was maybe 13 or 14 with a cracked copy of Fruity Loops (I think it's called FL Studio now). I used that to write dumb electronic songs despite having no theoretical musical or audio knowledge (besides having previously used the built in Windows sound recording software to layer weird shit I recorded with a crappy mic). That software also came with demo tracks that I experimented with. About a year later I got a bass guitar and started a punk band, and that led to all sorts of weird experimentation with recording mediums. From there I bought a shitty reel to reel tape deck and began recording punk bands out of their jam spaces, eventually went to school for audio engineering, had a bunch of jobs related to the art (while freelancing doing recording work and live sound), and finally burned out and never touched a guitar or mic again.
None of that is necessary or even something I'd recommend. It's a perfectly legitimate hobby if you want to keep it small-scale. You can start it with almost no money, but that's where I'd caution you if you have anything approaching an addictive personality - the gear can get super addictive as you begin a quest for the perfect tone. For a few years there I worked at a musical instrument store and most of my paycheck went right back to my work (the staff discount sure helped though). Likewise, most of what I'd make freelancing would go back to gear as well. That's one of the big reasons I quit cold turkey one day. I still miss it as a hobby, but I know the second I start it back up I'll be right back to dreaming of expensive tube preamps. Your own mileage may vary if you have better self-control.
If you really truly are interested in it as a career don't hold back, but know that it's a looooooong road for very little money and absolutely no guarantees. Like anything fairly creative, only the top percentile make actual good money (or even sustainable money), and even then you usually have to freelance and build your own reputation to get there. That said, there are viable adjacent jobs that use that skillset. I worked in corporate AV for a few years, which involves running sound, lighting, and video for events. It's far from glamorous though, and mostly involves manual labor in setups and teardowns. You're basically a roadie who also runs the gear, but instead of mixing cool rock shows you're mixing a few mics and a PowerPoint presentation for a pharmaceutical convention. The hours can also suuuuuuuck. My longest shift was 20 hours. I got home at 3 AM after that and then had to be back at the shop for 7. You live on free coffee and cookies that the banquet staff give you (you get to be on a first-name basis with every hotel banquet server in your city). It can be weirdly fun as a youngster but I have no idea how the older techs survived. I regularly worked 40 hour weeks when I was part time and 60-80 when full-time. I burned out by like 22.
The music store gig was really fun though. I ran the rentals desk and spent a lot of time teaching my customers how to use the pro audio gear. That's also the most ridiculous place I've ever worked in terms of memorable stories.
You can also run sound in a dive bar, but that's mostly about who you know and involves more networking than you'd expect to work in a dive bar for very little money.
As far as actually being a professional audio engineer or producer who makes a living making records - that's the real tough part. I suppose it's possible to land a staff job in a studio, but that's not really how it worked in my small city. I freelanced with my own gear and home studio for years until I met a (relatively - this is Canada) big-name producer who I'd built rapport with from my job in the music store. He offered to let me work out of his proper studio for a very reasonable rate. Note that this wasn't a job - it was an offer to pay him to use his facility. Still, it was the closest thing I had to a break and for a few glorious months I was (barely) scraping by as a full-time recording engineer. The clientele I had built up over the previous decade were almost exclusively local punk and garage rock bands, meaning none of them had money, and now they had to pay real studio fees on top of my own, so I was charging way too little. I was technically doing it though, but then I finally fully burned out - due in part to some looming personal issues - and that was that.
As to all your other comments - alllll of that can be learned through study and experimentation. I went to an overpriced school to learn the fundamentals, but a diploma like that means shit and you can learn it just as well on your own. With stuff like EQ you don't need to be able to instantly pick out a good/bad frequency fully by ear - there are little tricks for zoning in on what you're looking for (crank the gain on the EQ and scan the frequency range until you find the tone you're trying to get rid of, then turn it down. Hint: it's almost always the lower-mids making stuff sound muddy.)
This all being said, if you're interested in this stuff I suggest dipping your toes in as a hobbyist first. If it becomes your obsession maybe consider a career, but only if you'll be content working adjacent jobs rather than recording bands full time. Also, in case I didn't make it quite clear, there's a ton of networking involved. It's easier if you actually play in a band, as I did (you don't have to be good - just out there meeting people). I suppose it'd still be possible otherwise if you spend most of your free time at local shows and really get to know the musicians. Also, by the time I was getting in, home recording was a vibrant industry so wasn't just competing with other engineers for jobs - I was also competing with bands just doing it themselves. I'm sure that's only gotten tougher these days with cheap gear being so accessible.
I hope this doesn't come across as demoralizing. I just want to make sure you know what you're potentially getting yourself into. If you're hating your current industry, though, and this all sounds overwhelming, another approach is to find something tolerable but maybe not what you envisioned, and make the best of it. In creative fields work typically becomes your life as it's a constant grind to make ends meet and something that was once pleasurable inevitably becomes tainted by association. Some people have the emotional fortitude to survive under those conditions but I suspect they're few and far between. I've worked probably a dozen jobs in my life before landing in my current role. Depending on how you count it, I've been here about 11 years and I fully expect this will be the company I work at for the rest of my working life (in part because my family bought the business a few years ago after several of us had worked there for years). The job has nothing to do with anything I went to school for and is in an industry I have no personal interest in. But, the work itself is interesting and sometimes creative,. Most importantly, the people are good, so I'm about as happy as a person can be in a job. Keep yourself open to opportunities like that, if you can find them. Buying the business helped, but even before that I had pretty much accepted that I was a lifer because this was the first grown-up job I felt content in.
True. I literally think of that most days when I see older folks irrationally freak out at the smallest inconvenience. Not that this happens to most old folks, it's just really remarkable when you do witness it. It's really sad that they can't control it, just too bad about the ones who gained power and used it to fuck everyone else over.
^ This person audio-engineers.
No judgement - just from reading your comment I definitely get this vibe. I get it though. Most wireless stuff is either going to be heavily EQed consumer trash or overpriced audiophile stuff with all the latest buzzwords. There just doesn't seem to be much of a market for reference-grade stuff in a wireless format.
Not that I could justify spending a bunch on good headphones though, so I've settled for a low-end pair that sound acceptable for what they are.
Are these guys particularly popular? I know nothing of Irish rap/hiphop but I came across this years ago and loved it. I've always wondered just how big they are over there.
I've legit dreamed of doing something like that. My wife and I could pretty easily do our jobs fully remote, but she'd never go for it as she likes to physically be in the office too much. We've also got a baby on the way in a few weeks, so it'd be even less feasible then. Oh well - I can dream.
Well, while I was also mostly joking with that second comment, respect for calling me out on it. For the record, I do know that people have always been this stupid and that much of the US is ridiculously gerrymandered. If anything I was maybe projecting a bit as I suspect I got COVID a few years back and my short-term memory has been off ever since. It's been a point of concern for me as, I admit, it's made me feel more stupid.
I do think people are getting worse, but in reality I blame misinformation campaigns for that.
The one thing I will (politely) disagree with in your comment is your characterization of pot smokers being hard left or disengaged with politics. I think it's much more universal across the spectrum than you're suggesting. Now that it's legal in Canada it seems like everyone uses it to some degree. That's an exaggeration but I'm continually shocked by some of the people I know coming out of the woodwork as users, and many are not even close to hard left (and are engaged in following news and voting for the party I loathe).
Anyway, respect again for sharing your opinion and I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone with my earlier comment. I'll leave it up for the sake of posterity.
Oh, I know. I was being facetious in my earlier comment. For the record, I'm vastly in favor of legal weed and occasionally partake in it myself.
Well now I'm bummed out to find out that people are trying to patent math.
I'm with you on all of those though.
Super cute, though the music sounded weirdly ominous to me. It sounded less baby otter playing with toys and more baby Cthulhu playing with humans as toys.