Topic: Blog Thread 4; Live Free or Blog Hard - 'cos we all like blogging (Read 571335 times)

Masterpiece · « **Reply #2350 on:** 14 Oct 2013, 21:44 »

Thumbs up!

edit: why does this always happen on pagebreaks -__-"

Patrick · « **Reply #2351 on:** 14 Oct 2013, 23:29 »

thanks! and as for visiting Camille, I've just come up with the idea of using a Glasgow accent for as long as possible before her friends figure out we're putting them on. ohhhh man this is gonna be fun as fuck

Metope · « **Reply #2352 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 02:05 »

My boyfriend wanted to introduce me to his friends and pretend I didn't know a word of English and that I was 17. I wish I had the guts.

Don't forget to call everyone 'pal' and 'hen', Patrick.

~~Valdís~~ · « **Reply #2353 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 04:18 »

Quote from: Metope on 15 Oct 2013, 02:05

Don't forget to call everyone /../ 'hen', Patrick.

Wow. Gender-neutral language is big there, eh? How nice and progressive!

Metope · « **Reply #2354 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 04:29 »

Haha, I didn't even think about that! from now on I'll just assume everyone in Scotland who calls me 'hen' is very aware. It's pretty funny in the context of 'ye'd like salt'n vingar on yer chips like, hen?' :p

Welu · « **Reply #2355 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 08:17 »

I had just opened my presentation for tomorrow and then my music program began acting dumb so I had the perfect excuse to procrastinate while fixing it but it's an hour later and now I'm just grumpy.

Jace · « **Reply #2356 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 08:56 »

I prefer the gender neutral 'dogg' and 'doggbro'

Yes. Doggbro is gender neutral.

cesium133 · « **Reply #2357 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 11:09 »

My experiment seems to be finally working and producing data, so yay... Only a week wasted fighting with the laser...

jwhouk · « **Reply #2358 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 14:39 »

Those Ancestry.com commercials which tell you about "all I did was put in my grandma's name, and then POOF! I found 100 different other relatives!" are more than true - they can be downright annoying.

Example: doing some research about my paternal grandma's family, I found information about his wife's mom which almost exploded into half the population of Kiel, Wisconsin.

Okay, okay, I kid - but when you add someone who is only tangentially related to you, and just add parents to be complete - BOOM, you suddenly have a whole bunch of hints that start to make your eyes cross.

bainidhe_dub · « **Reply #2359 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 17:04 »

I just found out that somebody on Facebook has lifted all the blog posts and photos from a girl I went to high school with, and is presenting Holly's triplet pregnancy as her own. She has a blog too, with the posts lifted word-for-word, the only thing changed is the first names. The family is aware and asking people to report the page, but she seems to have lots of supporters who believe it's real. (if you want to report it too, the page is here; the real family's blog is here) It's kinda freaking me out that someone would do that.

Patrick · « **Reply #2360 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 17:32 »

Quote from: Metope on 15 Oct 2013, 02:05

My boyfriend wanted to introduce me to his friends and pretend I didn't know a word of English and that I was 17. I wish I had the guts.

Don't forget to call everyone 'pal' and 'hen', Patrick.

Hahaha, my mama's best friend's a Glaswegian lady, I've known her since I was 9 and I've been listening to the Corries and Runrig for about as long. I totally got this

lepetitfromage · « **Reply #2361 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 18:30 »

Bain, either this is way more common than we realize or there is some weird parallel universe shiz going on with you and I right now. A girl I went to high school with has had her instagram photos snatched up and posted on a fake FB page too.

She's an awesome Disney Cosplayer.
Here's the imposter.

The really effed up thing is that a large number of people reported her page and FB won't take it down. Seriously....what is the deal with people??

bainidhe_dub · « **Reply #2362 on:** 15 Oct 2013, 20:41 »

Welp I'm feeling a little bit crazy now because the FB page and the post that referred me to it are GONE. Hopefully that means they got it taken down... I just cannot fathom why a person would go to such trouble?
Your friend's cosplay photos are awesome, I'm sorry she's having to deal with that.

CardinalFang · « **Reply #2363 on:** 16 Oct 2013, 10:27 »

JEN IS A FAKE?!*

Sorry but it's been years since I got to use that.

*this refers to something that happened years ago in the forum and irc that involved a guy pretending to be a woman named Jen and had used pictures of the real Jen as part of the ruse. IIRC he wasn't being malicious but was just seeking attention. Those old timers who remember will probably correct what I've misremembered.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

ev4n · « **Reply #2364 on:** 16 Oct 2013, 11:07 »

Quote from: jwhouk on 15 Oct 2013, 14:39

Those Ancestry.com commercials which tell you about "all I did was put in my grandma's name, and then POOF! I found 100 different other relatives!" are more than true - they can be downright annoying.

Considering out family history (home children), I'd be super tempted to try this sometime, see if they know about the connections we only recently found.

Carl-E · « **Reply #2365 on:** 16 Oct 2013, 21:59 »

So my older daughter's driving my '01 Saturn home from work last night, and hears a horrible noise. The car coasts to a stop, engine dies, middle of a 4 lane road, and there's a trail and growing pool of some kinda fluid under the car.

I get there just after the police, who are keeping the rare passerby from hitting her (it's very well lit). They call a tow for me - $100 for a mile and a half to my home

- and while we're waiting for the tow truck I walked back along the trail and literally pieced together what happened.

Ever heard of a differential? Not the one from calculus... it's the last stage after the transmission and allows the drive wheels to turn at different speeds when going around a curve.

I found the two small gears and about half of the spindle that held them in place. Along with shards of the transmission case that they blew through in order to escape. She was going about the speed limit (40 mph ~ 70 kph). So they were spinning at a pretty good rate when they just ... let go.

It's been driving fine since I got it, over four years (when I hit the bear, for you old-timers). No noises, shuddering, slipping, nothing. Just sudden catastrophic failure.

I've been working on cars for over 40 years, since I was 10, and have never seen anything like this. Now we're down a car. And I need to see if I can find a transmission at the U-pull-it yard.

Oh, and when my daughter picked me up from the beer store today in the van? It overheated. The radiator fan isn't kicking on. Fortunately, once we got it moving down the road it cooled right back down.

Ain't nobody got no time for that!

jwhouk · « **Reply #2366 on:** 16 Oct 2013, 22:12 »

Dude. Get a Kickstarter together so you can BUY A BRAND NEW CAR.

Not a "used" car. NEW. Brand Freakin' New.

Carl-E · « **Reply #2367 on:** 16 Oct 2013, 22:51 »

No.

Better things to spend that kind of money on.

Jace · « **Reply #2368 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 00:33 »

Trying to buy a house is hard. There's one across the street from me for sale for 40k, which would be very reasonable and within my budget, but there's also a 3-unit home a bit down the way in the "better" part of the neighborhood¹ for 75k, that's a lot more than the other, but I could very easily rent two of the units to friends (my current flatmate already said he'd be willing to move into one) for an incredibly reasonable price that'd take care of the mortgage+some (but is still probably less than or equal to what they pay now), the only problem would be getting the mortgage in the first place. There's also another place in a wonderful location (a bit further from my current neighborhood but still close enough to not matter much, IMO) that is 70-75k.

Part of me really wants the 3-unit one so I can finally live alone, but not have to worry about paying a ~$600 mortgage payment on my own. If I have to I'll have housemates, but I'd really prefer not to have to deal with sharing space with someone else.

¹: I'm getting really tired of people telling me I live in shitty neighborhoods. Seriously really tired, I understand that when I lived in South Buffalo I lived in a kind of sketchy neighborhood. When I moved to a place that people call University Heights, about a 5 minute walk to a university campus I was not in a shitty neighborhood any more. Sure I still lived in Buffalo by the borders, but I was closer to the suburbs than the city. Now I live firmly in the suburbs and people still tell me that I live in a shitty neighborhood. The worst of it comes from my girlfriend, who, while normally nice about things, is crazy dismissive of the fact that I can't afford to live in a place like she does (the upper middle class neighborhood).

Also, Jess started looking for houses that I could buy, I sent her a few in the 40-50k range and she starts looking around on the same site I'm using, she sends back some that cost "a little bit more" and those ones all cost 100k or more! She didn't understand why I was incredulous at the fact that to her, 50-75k was just "a little bit more".

ackblom12 · « **Reply #2369 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 00:47 »

Rochester, New York has that 'shitty neighborhood' reputation with anyone not in the city as well. If you told them you lived in the city they'd get a look on their face like they were considering whether or not you were about to mug them. God forbid you ever invite them to go anywhere in the city.

Fucking suburbanites.

Grognard · « **Reply #2370 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 06:35 »

Quote from: jwhouk on 16 Oct 2013, 22:12

Dude. Get a Kickstarter together so you can BUY A BRAND NEW CAR.

Not a "used" car. NEW. Brand Freakin' New.

wasted money. buy the newest USED car you can afford.
I just bought the wife a 'used' 2013 Grand Caravan.
only 350 miles on it.
difference in price?
37% less than MSRP/original sales price.

jwhouk · « **Reply #2371 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 07:37 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 16 Oct 2013, 22:51

No.

Better things to spend that kind of money on.

Like constant repairs on old cars that break down at just the wrong moment?

BeoPuppy · « **Reply #2372 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 07:39 »

... food, rent, maybe ...

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #2373 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 07:48 »

I purchased an older, used car and the repairs are hardly constant.

pwhodges · « **Reply #2374 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 08:12 »

Not all old cars are unreliable (hard to itemise an example of that, I guess); not all new cars are reliable (I've had the engine fall off its mountings at less than six months); not all repairs are good (I've had a sudden catastrophic brake failure, in traffic while driving home from having the brakes fixed).

nekowafer · « **Reply #2375 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 12:22 »

Quote from: ackblom12 on 17 Oct 2013, 00:47

Rochester, New York has that 'shitty neighborhood' reputation with anyone not in the city as well. If you told them you lived in the city they'd get a look on their face like they were considering whether or not you were about to mug them. God forbid you ever invite them to go anywhere in the city.

Fucking suburbanites.

I get similar responses when I tell people I live in Baltimore. Even if I say I'm in the county - north of Baltimore City - they all say that Baltimore is a horrible place blah blah. It's been said on this forum, even. I'm in a rather affluent neighborhood right now and it's still looked down upon.

Patrick · « **Reply #2376 on:** 17 Oct 2013, 14:49 »

you ever have one of those days where the first hour is great and then the rest just goes COMPLETELY TO SHIT? well that's been my day today.

woke up an hour earlier than my alarm, got ready hella lazily, made it to work right on time. clock in, grab my iPod and my sign, go outside and start waving it around. five fucking minutes later a woman's crossing the street with her dog and some shitfuck moron of a driver whooshes by, clips her dog right in the fucking dome (luckily missing owner lady) and speeds off without a fucking care in the world. lady starts freaking out and a sanitation worker nearby walks over and asks how he can help, and I'm just too stunned to fucking think right, so I go inside and clean something, idfk what I even cleaned

so I go inside and talk to my supervisor, who has a history of being a piece of shit, and I tell her what happened and then asked if I can take 5 and have a cigarette. she gets SUPER attitudinal with me and is like "NO you're only working 2 hours and that doesn't entitle you to a smoke break! I NEED YOU OUT ON THE CORNER WHAT ARE YOU THINKING" and I'm like "Oh really? You wanna talk to me that way? Alright well I'm telling the store manager about your SHIT POOR attitude and how you treat your employees" and go back outside to call the store manager.

I call the store manager, tell her what happened, and instead of being at all sympathetic, she just says "Well a mature employee would have talked to her about it and tried to solve the problem" and I replied by informing her that in past disagreements, I've tried that, and was greeted with either no reply or a grumpy muttering of something in Spanish. I also informed her that this has been a last resort, because I hate going over people's heads to solve problems unless I absolutely have to.

whatever, I called the auto body shop and they're gonna have me come in tomorrow for an interview. fuck that fucking shit, I'm over it. peace the fuck out, Round Table, y'all are gonna close down in a year, I'm calling it right now.

Jimor · « **Reply #2377 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 06:27 »

Holy fucking shit! We just had the 2nd shoot for season 2 of my live music TV show, and the result was WAY beyond my expectations. We changed venues from the first season, getting into on of the top clubs in the city with great sound and lighting, then my crew just absolutely rocked with their execution of the camera work and director's call. I ran the TV side audio, which meant I just had to keep an eye on the levels coming from the house's audio feed plus a supplementary room mic we added for ambiance, so I was fairly free during the shoot to watch what was happening on the video monitors, and WOW. Because video is worth a million words, here's a sample I quickly put online to show off.

I think we not only established the standard to hit in town here, but I'd happily put this up against any live music shoot I've seen anywhere. The only negative is that because we're using the local access station's equipment, it's in standard definition, but other than that... Head in the clouds here, guys!

pwhodges · « **Reply #2378 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 09:02 »

I bought a CD on Amazon. To save money, instead of buying the expensive out-of-print Philips pressing, I bought a cheap Russian copy. It arrived today from Helsinki in Finland; and I am now the proud owner of two (identical) complimentary copies of a newspaper in Finnish about Vienan Karjala...

Akima · « **Reply #2379 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 14:16 »

Is it bad that I would probably not know anything about Vienan Karjala, or indeed Karjala generally or the Kalevala if I had not come to love the music of Sibelius in High School?

Patrick · « **Reply #2380 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 23:27 »

my new job is awesome, I bust my ass and keep busy without even having to think about it, and I almost never talk to people. and the people at work I eventually do come in contact with are definitely my kind of folks. no bullshit, just get it done right the first time and enjoy your weekend. plus, I've got a lot of hours coming my way now. I'm just kinda annoyed this didn't happen sooner.

also, it turns out that the bike ride back to downtown Livermore from work is a fairly straight shot of 5.4 miles, which is close to the total distance I rode from my house to Round Table and back each day. if I were to go straight home from work now, it'd be 8 miles even. I'm going to challenge myself to do this at the end of every shift (except for my Wednesdays, where I'll have to go straight to the bar to work job #2). Google Maps seems to think it'll take me 45 minutes to go straight home from work, but I beat their time by 1/4 (21 minutes as opposed to 28) on the ride I did today. My goal: 33 from work to home. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2381 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 03:35 »

Glad your new job has worked out, Patrick. I think sometimes you have to do the shitty jobs to really appreciate the good ones!

tragic_pizza · « **Reply #2382 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 12:12 »

I lost my job on Tuesday.

Honestly, it was a matter of time. The owner is incompetent (honestly, not just a dick, but woefully out of his depth); I have been looking for another job for a good month before this happened.

So I am freaking out a little. Seems that I apply for jobs and I am ether shockingly overqualified, embarrassingly under-qualified, or so damn old they won't consider me.

On the plus side, I reinstalled Windows 7, which not only wiped all traces of the former job from the hard drive, it fixed some ongoing issues I had been having. Also, I am writing a book.

BeoPuppy · « **Reply #2383 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 15:23 »

I'm exposing paintings to the public. It's fun and exciting!

Welu · « **Reply #2384 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 15:29 »

I've sort of fallen into making a documentary about a band or possibly just one of the members and may have to drive over 200 miles/320km to film them playing a gig. I've set up mics for bands before, twice, nearly two years ago, in a studio setting not a live setting. This documentary is probably going to be boring too because my tutor is encouraging us to ~~cause~~ find some drama and I don't want to because that's really dickish.

Thrillho · « **Reply #2385 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 15:40 »

You not got a way to to record straight off the desk at the same time?

Welu · « **Reply #2386 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 15:44 »

Maybe? I have no idea about gigs, I rarely go to them, never mind help with the production.

Thrillho · « **Reply #2387 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 15:51 »

It slightly relies on having a nice soundman (HA! Like those exist these days) but there will be an output on the desk that will let you just record everything going into it. You'd still want your mics for the ambient room noise as well.

Welu · « **Reply #2388 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 16:03 »

Thanks for the advice. I'll know more this week and have a couple people with experience to ask questions to, plus I'm working with another person, so I don't think it'll be too bad. I went from wanting to do a documentary about cute pets and to something I have no clue about so it's jarring.

Jimor · « **Reply #2389 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 20:49 »

Welu, I can definitely give advice on shooting live music! A lot of it depends on what equipment you have available of course, and also some details about the venue. Best option as mentioned is a feed from the sound board plus an ambient room mic. If I only had one to choose from (and this is my usual situation), I'd go with ambient over board, because then you're hearing what the audience is hearing.

Board only, particularly in small venues, has the drawback that the mix is tailored to simply add what's needed over the load on-stage audio. So drums and amps only get a small boost, while vocals and acoustic guitars are cranked to max. Here's a really good example of that from a professional production crew that should have known better. The electric guitar is barely noticeable, and the drums don't seem to get into the mix until almost the middle of the song.

My clip above is an example of both, plus the sound engineer giving us a separate mix to avoid the above problem, so the best overall situation, but even with an unbalanced board mix, the room mic will bring enough of the other stuff into it where it feels more natural.

However, most of the time, I'm just shooting a gig with my camcorder with a directional mic mounted to the top that's pointed at the stage/PA from about a third or halfway back in the room. Onboard camera mics are nearly useless because they're typically omnidirectional so get far too much ambient noise like talking or bar clatter, and massive amounts of room reverb that makes everything muddy.

To me, the raw sound from my own setup is still inadequate, but I do a couple of things in post processing that helps. First, I add a bit of compression to the audio, currently a 2.5:1 ratio just to "tighten up" the overall sound. Then I add 2 parametric EQ notches. The first at around 300 Hz and -4dB to lessen the impact of room resonance, and then a second at around 3000 Hz and +3dB that enhances the vocal range and gives a little shine and punch to things like acoustic guitars and cymbals. Here's an example from the same club using those techniques.

If you want to go into all of this in more detail, feel free to PM me, or we can make a thread in MAKE or MUSIC so that other people can add their ideas and we'll have a nice guide for anybody else interested in shooting live music.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2390 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 00:40 »

Iiiiiiiiiiiiit's half marathon day! My road is eerily empty but I'm a bit concerned by the fact that the first runners set off in just over an hour (the elite wheelchairs followed by the elite men and women, I'm in the slow group leaving more than an hour after that) and there aren't any barriers or marshals or basically anything. And this road is part of the route! It's about mile 6 though, or maybe 7, so perhaps they're not here yet?

pwhodges · « **Reply #2391 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 02:06 »

I now have a second great-grandson - Reuben.

Metope · « **Reply #2392 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 04:00 »

Aww, congrats! That's great! And good luck May!

Aimless · « **Reply #2393 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 04:53 »

When I was a little boy, I really wanted to be a pilot. As dreams go, it wasn't a lasting or particularly important one, but, every once in a while, it comes back to haunt me and I think, "Man it'd be nice to be able to fly." I'm near-sighted, have astigmatism, am afraid of heights and of going too fast, and I have recently become reacquainted with the motion-sickness that used to plague me as a child.

Yesterday a colleague and his gf took me and the missus up in a tiny plane for a short flight over the coastline and it was SO NICE. You could really feel everything, really feel like you were high up in the sky surrounded by nothing but a great deal of space, feel the effect of the wind etc. We stayed somewhere around 2000ft, and maybe around 115mph on average. I got a little woozy towards the end but other than that it was very lovely

there wasn't too much turbulence, and what little there was was manageable. No advanced maneuvers thankfully

We got to help get the plane in order and then put it away, learned a few very basic things about taking off and landing and aircraft maintenance, and the missus got to steer the plane for a little while.

I feel like we don't try out new things nearly as often as we'd really like. Think it might be time to go through the many vouchers we've gotten over the past year for various fun "experiences"

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #2394 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 09:12 »

Look into taking flight lessons Aimless. Seriously. As an airman I'd be happy to welcome you to the club.

Word of warning though, once you get your wings, there's no going back!

Metope · « **Reply #2395 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 10:07 »

Speaking of planes, the airline I usually fly between Norway and Scotland are having a 'super sale', so I was kicking myself for getting tickets for January already, but then I went and looked and apparently the 'super sale' tickets are more expensive than the ones I got. Yeaahhh saving money!

Thrillho · « **Reply #2396 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 10:19 »

nsigbsaoigbsaiogbsaiogbsiabg

Arranged weeks ago to go to a gig with (long distance) girlfriend on the 15th of next month. Today is her birthday and her family surprises her with the fact that they're now going on holiday that weekend.

This is EXACTLY FUCKING WHY she doesn't like surprises. You'd think her family would know that by now. FUCK

Jace · « **Reply #2397 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 12:54 »

Surprises are great when you're a kid but infinitely shitty once you have responsibilities and plan ahead for shit

Thrillho · « **Reply #2398 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 12:59 »

Exactly.

While I'm ranting about planning and responsibilities, my brother-in-law refuses to plan for Christmas until it is already December. For someone like me who needs to arrange shit like time off work in advance, this is incessantly fucking annoying. I got places to be and things to do.

cesium133 · « **Reply #2399 on:** 20 Oct 2013, 13:02 »

I couldn't imagine waiting until December to start planning... I fly home for Christmas, and plane tickets get more expensive when you get that close to Christmas.

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Author Topic: Blog Thread 4; Live Free or Blog Hard - 'cos we all like blogging (Read 571335 times)

ackblom12