(no subject)
Jun. 19th, 2025 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitch25I never seem to have the drive and energy to put my thoughts down here. I think if I did, it would be a bot that just screamed every few hours. We have one of those on Mastodon, and I share those posts reasonably often.
Lessee... Since November:
Job outsourced to Data Center company who absorbed employees that would be outsourced. Re-badging, they call it. So at least for the time being, I have a job doing my job and getting paid by someone else. After that transition, lots of layoffs happened. And now the hospital is closing clinics. A few to start. We'll see how many more as time goes on. Medicaid funding, of various types, has been the issue, and I can't imagine things drastically improving. Pretty sad for former co-workers. New employer is ok. I am told I will have more opportunities once we get the hospital transitioned over. It's... going to be an experience. Hopeful for them. Not hugely optimistic though.
Related to COVID stuff, Cue Health got caught messing with their reagents in their NAAT COVID tests, and lost their FDA approval. Among other things, this resulted in them declaring bankruptcy and dropping out of the testing business. We were directed by the FDA to destroy any remaining tests we had. That was ouchie. We did find an alternative that turns out had better pricing. Metrix tests by Aptitude. Same accuracy. Good stuff. So that was good.
Relatedly, still masking in public and generally avoiding public when I can. There have been work related flights that then involve a strict protocol afterwards to make sure the family is safe. So far we've been both diligent and lucky. Coming to grips with the public reaction to the pandemic has helped prepare me for the reaction to the general state of things today. Empathy largely took a walk to some other planet and left us to fend for ourselves for a while. Still have a lot of anger and resentment about that.
Relatedly there, I spent some time in NM visiting family. Lost both my parents in the space of two weeks back in February. One in a year plus battle with heart failure and another coming to the end of an 8 year battle with Alzheimer's. Both long separated for decades. Not sure either knew about the other's state. I wasn't close to either, so for me it was a finality to grieving that had been going on for a long time. Visiting family involved a lot of fence-mending. Turns out having a narcissist in the family really creates artificial strain on relationships, and once they are gone and notes compared, a lot of sympathy and empathy comes out to comfort each other. Not at the loss, but at the welcome release from their absence. The prevailing theme of the time was, "At least he won't be able to hurt anybody anymore." Live your life with enough awareness and empathy that this won't be the mantra uttered by your loved ones over your body when you die.
Spring and summer has brought with it another chance to get some tomatoes going in the yard. We don't have a plot to grow with, so I use grow bags. Got lots of seedlings this go around, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of them. Did an experiment where a local gal suggested starting seeds a little later to account for the cooler spring temps and her assertion that the plants would catch up to ones started earlier that then undergo stress from the temps. We shall see! The early ones are tall and blooming and hopefully setting fruit soon. The later ones are doing well. I just hope they have time to catch up and fruit. Need to also get the Basil in. It is usually pretty fast.
Otherwise things are mostly chugging along. Trying to maintain my sanity and health while surviving in the world the way it is. Trying to continue to be kind and caring and helpful when possible. Not without its challenge, but it is really the only way to make it out ahead.
Hope you all are well!
Lessee... Since November:
Job outsourced to Data Center company who absorbed employees that would be outsourced. Re-badging, they call it. So at least for the time being, I have a job doing my job and getting paid by someone else. After that transition, lots of layoffs happened. And now the hospital is closing clinics. A few to start. We'll see how many more as time goes on. Medicaid funding, of various types, has been the issue, and I can't imagine things drastically improving. Pretty sad for former co-workers. New employer is ok. I am told I will have more opportunities once we get the hospital transitioned over. It's... going to be an experience. Hopeful for them. Not hugely optimistic though.
Related to COVID stuff, Cue Health got caught messing with their reagents in their NAAT COVID tests, and lost their FDA approval. Among other things, this resulted in them declaring bankruptcy and dropping out of the testing business. We were directed by the FDA to destroy any remaining tests we had. That was ouchie. We did find an alternative that turns out had better pricing. Metrix tests by Aptitude. Same accuracy. Good stuff. So that was good.
Relatedly, still masking in public and generally avoiding public when I can. There have been work related flights that then involve a strict protocol afterwards to make sure the family is safe. So far we've been both diligent and lucky. Coming to grips with the public reaction to the pandemic has helped prepare me for the reaction to the general state of things today. Empathy largely took a walk to some other planet and left us to fend for ourselves for a while. Still have a lot of anger and resentment about that.
Relatedly there, I spent some time in NM visiting family. Lost both my parents in the space of two weeks back in February. One in a year plus battle with heart failure and another coming to the end of an 8 year battle with Alzheimer's. Both long separated for decades. Not sure either knew about the other's state. I wasn't close to either, so for me it was a finality to grieving that had been going on for a long time. Visiting family involved a lot of fence-mending. Turns out having a narcissist in the family really creates artificial strain on relationships, and once they are gone and notes compared, a lot of sympathy and empathy comes out to comfort each other. Not at the loss, but at the welcome release from their absence. The prevailing theme of the time was, "At least he won't be able to hurt anybody anymore." Live your life with enough awareness and empathy that this won't be the mantra uttered by your loved ones over your body when you die.
Spring and summer has brought with it another chance to get some tomatoes going in the yard. We don't have a plot to grow with, so I use grow bags. Got lots of seedlings this go around, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of them. Did an experiment where a local gal suggested starting seeds a little later to account for the cooler spring temps and her assertion that the plants would catch up to ones started earlier that then undergo stress from the temps. We shall see! The early ones are tall and blooming and hopefully setting fruit soon. The later ones are doing well. I just hope they have time to catch up and fruit. Need to also get the Basil in. It is usually pretty fast.
Otherwise things are mostly chugging along. Trying to maintain my sanity and health while surviving in the world the way it is. Trying to continue to be kind and caring and helpful when possible. Not without its challenge, but it is really the only way to make it out ahead.
Hope you all are well!
Thankful Thursday
Jun. 19th, 2025 11:42 ammdlbearToday I am thankful for...
- My keyboard arriving last Friday without any problems. NO thanks to FedEx, which has failed to deliver m's keyboard to their home in Seattle. Twice.
- Remembering a very little bit of how to sight-read.
- Finally solving my audio input problem. NO thanks to Zoom and Audacity, which fail in entirely orthogonal ways to sanely handle my UA-25.
- Thanks to them, however, for at least allowing the system default as a device. Differently, of course.
- Linux command-line tools, including (but not limited to) Grep, Find,
Ls, Sed, and of course Bash, for always being there when I need to do
some trivial but off-the-wall bit of data-mining. Like listing all Thankful Thursday
posts with fewer than four list items.
$ for f in ../2*/*/*thank*; do echo $(grep "li>" $f | wc -l) $f; done |grep ^[2-3] 3 ../2019/09/12--thankful-thursday.html 3 ../2020/06/05--thankful-friday.html 3 ../2020/06/25--thankful-thursday.html 3 ../2021/04/25--thankful-sunday.html 3 ../2022/02/24--thankful-thursday.html 2 ../2025/01/03--thankful-thursday-addendum.html 2 ../2025/06/12--thankful-thursday.html
NO thanks to 2025!me for continued procrastination., and NO thanks to 2022!me, for letting the MakeStuff/music toolchain languish with no maintenance and inadequate documentation, making it way harder than necessary to put a two-song concert set online. Which might get done this week.
Life, rest, mostly Stardew
Jun. 18th, 2025 09:35 pmsorcyressToday was the day off to fuck around! Like, the single day I have to recover from burnout of the past school year and be ready for the upcoming several weeks of _stuff_. I'm sure that's fine, I'm sure that's how brains work.
Anyways, I spent the first ninety minutes of the day or so wandering around the various Alewife parks/reserves. There's a lot of good nature over there! I saw multiple turtles and a well posed squirrel and a pretty moth and some ducks! Also lots of green, which smelled overpoweringly of flowers and nature and that's weirdly good despite being a sensory nightmare.
Then I went home and played a _lot_ of days of Stardew Valley, ( the next two paragraphs are boring unless you're also into Stardew! )
In the real world, I wrapped up the evening by hanging with Ruthie and The Toddler for a bit. It was a good evening! A dinosaur drove a truck, which is entirely a correct thing for toddler toys to be doing. And the bedtime story was Magic School Bus and the Hurricane, which was great fun.
Tomorrow has many plans. Here are some of them:
*Call Tuesday, work out final plans/timing for the next few days
*Possibly create A Snack for the pride party
*Go to the grocery store
*Write an entire pre-Pinewoods todo list
*Clean the bathrooms
*Photograph free stuff so I can put it on Facebook and maybe even get it out of the house before I go
*Laundry is a Friday plan. So is packing for mine and Tuesday's adventures and maybe if I'm really good packing one (1) bag for Pinewoods.
Huzzah or whatever!
(And maybe after my dance party I can play a few more days of Stardew).
~Sor
MOOP!
Anyways, I spent the first ninety minutes of the day or so wandering around the various Alewife parks/reserves. There's a lot of good nature over there! I saw multiple turtles and a well posed squirrel and a pretty moth and some ducks! Also lots of green, which smelled overpoweringly of flowers and nature and that's weirdly good despite being a sensory nightmare.
Then I went home and played a _lot_ of days of Stardew Valley, ( the next two paragraphs are boring unless you're also into Stardew! )
In the real world, I wrapped up the evening by hanging with Ruthie and The Toddler for a bit. It was a good evening! A dinosaur drove a truck, which is entirely a correct thing for toddler toys to be doing. And the bedtime story was Magic School Bus and the Hurricane, which was great fun.
Tomorrow has many plans. Here are some of them:
*Call Tuesday, work out final plans/timing for the next few days
*Possibly create A Snack for the pride party
*Go to the grocery store
*Write an entire pre-Pinewoods todo list
*Clean the bathrooms
*Photograph free stuff so I can put it on Facebook and maybe even get it out of the house before I go
*Laundry is a Friday plan. So is packing for mine and Tuesday's adventures and maybe if I'm really good packing one (1) bag for Pinewoods.
Huzzah or whatever!
(And maybe after my dance party I can play a few more days of Stardew).
~Sor
MOOP!
time marches on, time standing still
Jun. 18th, 2025 05:24 pmjazzfishI'm ... approaching done with coursework? I just turned in the practicum report and timesheet. Left to do: finish and polish a groupwork report (due tomorrow); record a five-minute presentation that someone else will stitch together with the rest of the group's presentations (gonna try to get that done by end of Monday); final exam for final class (before end of day next Thursday). Oh, and submit my Application For Credential, I should do that tonight or tomorrow.
It feels a bit of a relief, and a bit of "what next?" and a lot of frustration at the state of the world / economy for having gotten worse since April 2023 when I decided to hide out for two years. It feels more like an Accomplishment than I expected it to, but not much like one. But then very little ever feels like an Accomplishment, except in deliberate retrospect.
Counseling last week and this has been a lot of deep diving into my inability/reluctance to be proud of things I've done. This is gonna require some retraining of my brain. I grew up inculcated with a firm belief that the standards were different for me. Doing something 'normal' is not worth mentioning (though failing to do it is deeply shameful), and doing something extraordinary is worth at most "i knew i could do that, i am Living Up To My Potential." The agon of the Gifted Child: you must do Great Things because you are Gifted; but because you are Gifted, anything you do is no more than what's Expected Of You and thus insufficiently Great.
A couple months back, on the death of Val Kilmer, a friend wrote "The most important moral lesson of Real Genius is that failing to live up to your gifted-kid potential is praxis." I appreciate this a great deal.
It feels a bit of a relief, and a bit of "what next?" and a lot of frustration at the state of the world / economy for having gotten worse since April 2023 when I decided to hide out for two years. It feels more like an Accomplishment than I expected it to, but not much like one. But then very little ever feels like an Accomplishment, except in deliberate retrospect.
Counseling last week and this has been a lot of deep diving into my inability/reluctance to be proud of things I've done. This is gonna require some retraining of my brain. I grew up inculcated with a firm belief that the standards were different for me. Doing something 'normal' is not worth mentioning (though failing to do it is deeply shameful), and doing something extraordinary is worth at most "i knew i could do that, i am Living Up To My Potential." The agon of the Gifted Child: you must do Great Things because you are Gifted; but because you are Gifted, anything you do is no more than what's Expected Of You and thus insufficiently Great.
A couple months back, on the death of Val Kilmer, a friend wrote "The most important moral lesson of Real Genius is that failing to live up to your gifted-kid potential is praxis." I appreciate this a great deal.
We're Taking the Afternoon Off
Jun. 18th, 2025 06:34 pmbillroperI am off on Thursday for the Juneteenth holiday and will be taking a vacation day on Friday, because four-day weekends are few and far between. I intend to use this time to try to catch up on many things that I need to be doing in the studio.
This does not mean that I am not *sorely* tempted to head down to watch what is now a scheduled straight doubleheader between the Cardinals and the White Sox tomorrow afternoon, tonight's game having been rained out. Two Cardinals games *and* the usually better food on the Southside...
I have things to do. :)
This does not mean that I am not *sorely* tempted to head down to watch what is now a scheduled straight doubleheader between the Cardinals and the White Sox tomorrow afternoon, tonight's game having been rained out. Two Cardinals games *and* the usually better food on the Southside...
I have things to do. :)
Bits and Pieces
Jun. 17th, 2025 09:59 pmbillroperMy annual required training for work is now completed. Yay, me!
I have also fixed all of the bugs that popped up in the scan from the static code analysis tool. Also, yay, me!
And I found the bug in the compile of an older feature branch that was introduced when we mixed the new jar from their project with their fixes for the static code analysis tool with the old branch that doesn't have those fixes yet.
In other news, we decided to make superburger for dinner tonight. I had figured that we would have potato chips with it, but when I was looking for the cranberry pecan chicken salad at Sam's Club to bring back for Gretchen, I found a tub of their loaded potato salad, which includes sour cream, cheddar cheese, and bacon. It is very good.
It is also a three pound tub of this stuff. I foresee a lot of potato salad in the near future.
I have also fixed all of the bugs that popped up in the scan from the static code analysis tool. Also, yay, me!
And I found the bug in the compile of an older feature branch that was introduced when we mixed the new jar from their project with their fixes for the static code analysis tool with the old branch that doesn't have those fixes yet.
In other news, we decided to make superburger for dinner tonight. I had figured that we would have potato chips with it, but when I was looking for the cranberry pecan chicken salad at Sam's Club to bring back for Gretchen, I found a tub of their loaded potato salad, which includes sour cream, cheddar cheese, and bacon. It is very good.
It is also a three pound tub of this stuff. I foresee a lot of potato salad in the near future.
Summer!
Jun. 17th, 2025 09:16 pmsorcyressI did it! I finished cleaning up my room! I was able to play School's Out For Summer at about 6:50pm or so, which is plenty good as these things go. *THUMP* goes the brain. I would like to do absolutely nothing! But things are coming up!
Here's some good things coming up in the near future:
*I'm going to go to Keuka (in the finger lakes in NY) with Tuesday's family! This appears to be the kind of vacation where you just chill out and read books and go for walks and things. I'm excited! I don't really know how to have that kind of vacation, so it'll be a good chance to try things out.
*I'm doing a road trip from Keuka to MD with Cameron (Tuesday's sibling) which sounds like it will be quite a nice time, honestly. I've road-tripped with Tuesday a fair amount, and ker mom a few times, so I'm excited to do it with another member of the family.
*Almost immediately after, I'm road-tripping back up from MD to Boston (and then ESCape) with mom and Wicked Auntie Robin. Mom and I are definitely compatible road trip buddies! I think Robin will be a good third!
(I recently got a kickstarter which is "gay games to play in the car with your girlfriend while she drives you to go camping" so I'm excited to have some road trips to play the gay games!)
*ESCape is going to be amazing, obviously. I'm the official scottish teacher! I get to MC in the evenings and teach two classes! AAAAH! Good aah, but also stressed aah.
*Once I'm back from ESCape I get to actually breathe for a week or so, which is going to be my play video games time. I am _extremely_ looking forward to it.
And then there's some other stuff in the back half of the summer. That's good too!
~Sor
MOOP!
Here's some good things coming up in the near future:
*I'm going to go to Keuka (in the finger lakes in NY) with Tuesday's family! This appears to be the kind of vacation where you just chill out and read books and go for walks and things. I'm excited! I don't really know how to have that kind of vacation, so it'll be a good chance to try things out.
*I'm doing a road trip from Keuka to MD with Cameron (Tuesday's sibling) which sounds like it will be quite a nice time, honestly. I've road-tripped with Tuesday a fair amount, and ker mom a few times, so I'm excited to do it with another member of the family.
*Almost immediately after, I'm road-tripping back up from MD to Boston (and then ESCape) with mom and Wicked Auntie Robin. Mom and I are definitely compatible road trip buddies! I think Robin will be a good third!
(I recently got a kickstarter which is "gay games to play in the car with your girlfriend while she drives you to go camping" so I'm excited to have some road trips to play the gay games!)
*ESCape is going to be amazing, obviously. I'm the official scottish teacher! I get to MC in the evenings and teach two classes! AAAAH! Good aah, but also stressed aah.
*Once I'm back from ESCape I get to actually breathe for a week or so, which is going to be my play video games time. I am _extremely_ looking forward to it.
And then there's some other stuff in the back half of the summer. That's good too!
~Sor
MOOP!
Still Not Enough Sleep
Jun. 17th, 2025 06:06 pmkevin_standleeWe're getting into a part of the year where it's particularly difficult for me to get enough sleep. Even with pieces of insulation in the west-facing windows of the bedroom, it's hard to get it dark. I generally try to get to bed by 8 PM or earlier because I need eight hours of sleep most of the time these days, and it doesn't get dark until considerably later. It makes me wish we were on year-around standard time.
This week on FilkCast
Jun. 17th, 2025 06:45 pmericcoleman posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
filkAlexander James Adams, Renee Alper, Karen Willson, D.J. McGuire, Juliana McCorison, Char Mackay, Anne Passovoy, Sean McGaughey, Ernest Clark, Gary McGath, Drake Oranwood
Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.
filkcast.blogspot.com
Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.
filkcast.blogspot.com
the sandals didn't fit.
Jun. 17th, 2025 04:54 pmredbirdI went downtown to try on the sandals I'd bought and had delivered to the Clarks store. They didn't fit, so I returned them, which basically meant picking them up, bringing them to the counter, and telling the cashier I was returning the soes.
I stopped at the Copley Square farmers market on the way home and bought a loaf of bread, a few cucumbers, and a pint of strawberries. Part of why I did this today rather than tomorrow was so I could stop at the market.
I stopped at the Copley Square farmers market on the way home and bought a loaf of bread, a few cucumbers, and a pint of strawberries. Part of why I did this today rather than tomorrow was so I could stop at the market.
Short Night, Long Day
Jun. 16th, 2025 06:41 pmkevin_standleeNot enough sleep last night, and Kayla had an errand to Reno late this afternoon. (She'll write about it tomorrow.) I hope I get more sleep tonight.
I see that LiveJournal seems to be working again. I'd stopped cross-posting because I was getting nothing but 403 errors.
I see that LiveJournal seems to be working again. I'd stopped cross-posting because I was getting nothing but 403 errors.
BPL Summer Reading
Jun. 16th, 2025 07:53 pmredbirdThis year, they're giving away tote bags when people come in to get the printed bingo card. I got email on Friday saying the bags had arrived, so I went back to the Honan-Allston branch library this afternoon.
The bags are just like last year's, except printed in green instead of blue. I like last year's bag--it's the right size for me, and reasonably sturdy. I went to Lizzy's afterwards, bought pints, and put my insulated bag inside the library bag.
The prize for a bingo on the summer reading card is a sticker. I just printed a copy of the "more reading" bingo card, on which all the squares are for reading different kinds of books, and am filling in squares on both cards. So far, I haven't read anything that works for both bingo cards.
The bags are just like last year's, except printed in green instead of blue. I like last year's bag--it's the right size for me, and reasonably sturdy. I went to Lizzy's afterwards, bought pints, and put my insulated bag inside the library bag.
The prize for a bingo on the summer reading card is a sticker. I just printed a copy of the "more reading" bingo card, on which all the squares are for reading different kinds of books, and am filling in squares on both cards. So far, I haven't read anything that works for both bingo cards.
A Bit of Father's Day Recording
Jun. 15th, 2025 11:13 pmbillroperGretchen's knees were giving her heck today, so I went out to lunch by myself. City Barbecue had dropped a coupon for a free dessert in my account, which convinced me that going there was a fine choice. I had a lovely brisket sandwich that I think had come directly out of the smoker. I had the peach cobbler packed to go and took it home to Gretchen, where we split it, which is a *much* better choice than trying to eat it by myself. :) I also picked up food from Culver's on the way home, which meant that no one had to go out and feed the kids.
I had now arrived at the stage where it was pretty much time to do some recording for the "Crosstime Bus" album or just kick myself in the head. I'm not flexible enough to kick myself in the head, so my choices were limited.
I picked up one of the Universal Audio Sphere modeling mics a while back and have used it on a few things, but I have never used it to mic an acoustic guitar and I wanted to give that a try and see what the results were like. Cleverly, I read the instruction manual before going downstairs. The target song for today was "Love at First Sight", where I had used pitch shifting to move the original vocal and guitar scratch tracks to capo 2 while leaving the drums intact. The scratch tracks had to go, starting with the guitar. I retrieved the lyric sheet from my office, along with my iPad, which I pretty much only use as a Cubase remote. Realizing this, I took the charger along with me. If I'm using the tablet in the basement, it can live in the basement. I also grabbed the guitar and took it to the basement with me. Cool! All set.
Ha! I fire up Cubase and the iPad remote software and verify that they are talking to each other. Ok, let's go to the Apollo unit and turn on the phantom power for the mic. And I need to configure a stereo input to grab channels 1 and 2 so I can route them to the mic modeler and get a stereo guitar track out. Input configured, all good.
I ducked into the recording booth and realized that *nothing* was configured correctly. A dead USB microphone had been wished onto the top of the rolling cart where the iPad was supposed to go. It left. I moved the guitar stand to the opposite side of the room, because I was planning to sit while recording, which meant I needed to pull the cart closer into the space the stand had occupied. And then there was adjusting the microphone. One of these days, I will find a mic boom that doesn't slowly sag under the weight of any microphone of size. And for this application, the mic needs to be turned 90 degrees from the normal position, because I'm using it to capture a stereo image.
While I'm in there, I put on the recording headphones and verify that I can hear playback, having remembered to turn on the headphone amp while passing through the engineering side of the booth. The headphone cord has developed an annoying short, but wiggling the cord gets everything working.
I fire up Cubase and the iPad remote software and verify that they are talking to each other. Ok, let's go to the Apollo unit and turn on the phantom power for the mic. And I need to configure a stereo input to grab channels 1 and 2 so I can route them to the mic modeler and get a stereo guitar track out. Input configured, all good.
Except that there is no signal on the input or the target stereo track. I expect some noise. I twiddle the knobs on the Apollo and nothing happens. Let's go in and play the guitar at it, because maybe I just need some reasonable volume. Nope, no signal. And I realize that the Sphere mic lights up when it is powered. This mic is dark. Grumble.
All of this is more difficult, because I need to be in two places at one time. I have not yet mastered bilocation. I want a noticeable sound source in the recording booth so I can track the signal in the engineering booth.
I have a phone. I pull it out of my pocket, set it to play "Mamma Mia" on a loop, and leave it on my chair. Back to the engineering booth I go. There is still no signal.
Ok, let me pull up the UA Console application that is used for routing things. Unlike the Apollo unit, the Console app believes there is no phantom power to the mic. Power up channel 1, power up channel 2, and -- surprise! -- the mic lights up and I have signal. Make sure the signal is routed from the input to the track and I should be in business. Time to go record!
Back to the recording booth. Close the doors, adjust the position of the sagging mic, check the tuning on the guitar, put on the headphones, press record.
There is no sound in the headphones.
What the heck? There was sound here a minute ago. I check to make sure that the short in the cord is not the culprit and convince myself that it isn't. Stop everything and go back to the engineering booth.
I have a very old silverface Apollo Firewire unit that has a Thunderbolt card installed. Somehow, the mapping that the latest version of the Console software has supplied is shifted by two positions, so that almost all of the hardware is entering in the wrong location. Hardware location Line 1 and Line 2 are mapped correctly, but Line 1 is then mapped again to Line 3, Line 2 to Line 4, and so on. I'm getting sound, because Line 1 and Line 2 have correct mappings, but the software Monitor channels that feed the headphones are not getting any signal.
I remap *all* of the channels on the Console. I *save* the mappings as a preset. I hope this works. In the meantime, I found another set of headphones in the engineering booth, plugged them into the headphone amp, and once I had mapped the Monitor channels correctly in the Console and *then* made sure that everything was mapped correctly in Cubase, I had sound in the headphones again.
Rah.
Unplug the headphones in the engineering booth. Go back to the recording booth, close the doors, fix the sagging mic, check the tuning on the guitar, put on the headphones, and let's hit record. There is sound!
I blow the count in, but there's sound.
After a little while, I have multiple copies of the guitar track, at least one of which is pretty satisfactory, along with two backup tracks to use to fix any glitches.
It would be a good idea to replace the pitch-shifted vocal, which sounds terrible, because it was a scratch vocal and the pitch shifting has done nothing to improve the sound quality. Back to the engineering booth I go to create another stereo track, but I'll use a *different* modeling program here so that I end up with a mono signal that I can plug a number of different types of mic into and see what they sound like. Piece of cake.
Back to the recording booth. Close the doors and now I need to raise the mic so that I can sing standing up and also turn the mic 90 degrees so that it's in the correct orientation *and* convince the whole assemblage not to fall over. This last just requires some minor boom adjustment. Then I put the pop screen back up and now I'm ready to try recording a vocal track.
About a verse in, I realize that I have left the lyric sheet nowhere near where I can read it. Do not underestimate my ability to farble my own lyrics under pressure.
Let's move the music stand so that I can read the lyrics. That's better. I do several takes to give myself choices, but the last one is, I think, pretty good so I can go play with it now. Mucking around with tracks and plugins follows.
I will listen to this more critically at a later date, but it's progress.
A learning experience. That's what we call it.
I packed everything up and went upstairs where I grilled some steaks for Father's Day dinner while Gretchen prepared baked potatoes and sweet corn. Dinner included the kids and was remarkably silly.
And that's a good way to end the day. :)
I had now arrived at the stage where it was pretty much time to do some recording for the "Crosstime Bus" album or just kick myself in the head. I'm not flexible enough to kick myself in the head, so my choices were limited.
I picked up one of the Universal Audio Sphere modeling mics a while back and have used it on a few things, but I have never used it to mic an acoustic guitar and I wanted to give that a try and see what the results were like. Cleverly, I read the instruction manual before going downstairs. The target song for today was "Love at First Sight", where I had used pitch shifting to move the original vocal and guitar scratch tracks to capo 2 while leaving the drums intact. The scratch tracks had to go, starting with the guitar. I retrieved the lyric sheet from my office, along with my iPad, which I pretty much only use as a Cubase remote. Realizing this, I took the charger along with me. If I'm using the tablet in the basement, it can live in the basement. I also grabbed the guitar and took it to the basement with me. Cool! All set.
Ha! I fire up Cubase and the iPad remote software and verify that they are talking to each other. Ok, let's go to the Apollo unit and turn on the phantom power for the mic. And I need to configure a stereo input to grab channels 1 and 2 so I can route them to the mic modeler and get a stereo guitar track out. Input configured, all good.
I ducked into the recording booth and realized that *nothing* was configured correctly. A dead USB microphone had been wished onto the top of the rolling cart where the iPad was supposed to go. It left. I moved the guitar stand to the opposite side of the room, because I was planning to sit while recording, which meant I needed to pull the cart closer into the space the stand had occupied. And then there was adjusting the microphone. One of these days, I will find a mic boom that doesn't slowly sag under the weight of any microphone of size. And for this application, the mic needs to be turned 90 degrees from the normal position, because I'm using it to capture a stereo image.
While I'm in there, I put on the recording headphones and verify that I can hear playback, having remembered to turn on the headphone amp while passing through the engineering side of the booth. The headphone cord has developed an annoying short, but wiggling the cord gets everything working.
I fire up Cubase and the iPad remote software and verify that they are talking to each other. Ok, let's go to the Apollo unit and turn on the phantom power for the mic. And I need to configure a stereo input to grab channels 1 and 2 so I can route them to the mic modeler and get a stereo guitar track out. Input configured, all good.
Except that there is no signal on the input or the target stereo track. I expect some noise. I twiddle the knobs on the Apollo and nothing happens. Let's go in and play the guitar at it, because maybe I just need some reasonable volume. Nope, no signal. And I realize that the Sphere mic lights up when it is powered. This mic is dark. Grumble.
All of this is more difficult, because I need to be in two places at one time. I have not yet mastered bilocation. I want a noticeable sound source in the recording booth so I can track the signal in the engineering booth.
I have a phone. I pull it out of my pocket, set it to play "Mamma Mia" on a loop, and leave it on my chair. Back to the engineering booth I go. There is still no signal.
Ok, let me pull up the UA Console application that is used for routing things. Unlike the Apollo unit, the Console app believes there is no phantom power to the mic. Power up channel 1, power up channel 2, and -- surprise! -- the mic lights up and I have signal. Make sure the signal is routed from the input to the track and I should be in business. Time to go record!
Back to the recording booth. Close the doors, adjust the position of the sagging mic, check the tuning on the guitar, put on the headphones, press record.
There is no sound in the headphones.
What the heck? There was sound here a minute ago. I check to make sure that the short in the cord is not the culprit and convince myself that it isn't. Stop everything and go back to the engineering booth.
I have a very old silverface Apollo Firewire unit that has a Thunderbolt card installed. Somehow, the mapping that the latest version of the Console software has supplied is shifted by two positions, so that almost all of the hardware is entering in the wrong location. Hardware location Line 1 and Line 2 are mapped correctly, but Line 1 is then mapped again to Line 3, Line 2 to Line 4, and so on. I'm getting sound, because Line 1 and Line 2 have correct mappings, but the software Monitor channels that feed the headphones are not getting any signal.
I remap *all* of the channels on the Console. I *save* the mappings as a preset. I hope this works. In the meantime, I found another set of headphones in the engineering booth, plugged them into the headphone amp, and once I had mapped the Monitor channels correctly in the Console and *then* made sure that everything was mapped correctly in Cubase, I had sound in the headphones again.
Rah.
Unplug the headphones in the engineering booth. Go back to the recording booth, close the doors, fix the sagging mic, check the tuning on the guitar, put on the headphones, and let's hit record. There is sound!
I blow the count in, but there's sound.
After a little while, I have multiple copies of the guitar track, at least one of which is pretty satisfactory, along with two backup tracks to use to fix any glitches.
It would be a good idea to replace the pitch-shifted vocal, which sounds terrible, because it was a scratch vocal and the pitch shifting has done nothing to improve the sound quality. Back to the engineering booth I go to create another stereo track, but I'll use a *different* modeling program here so that I end up with a mono signal that I can plug a number of different types of mic into and see what they sound like. Piece of cake.
Back to the recording booth. Close the doors and now I need to raise the mic so that I can sing standing up and also turn the mic 90 degrees so that it's in the correct orientation *and* convince the whole assemblage not to fall over. This last just requires some minor boom adjustment. Then I put the pop screen back up and now I'm ready to try recording a vocal track.
About a verse in, I realize that I have left the lyric sheet nowhere near where I can read it. Do not underestimate my ability to farble my own lyrics under pressure.
Let's move the music stand so that I can read the lyrics. That's better. I do several takes to give myself choices, but the last one is, I think, pretty good so I can go play with it now. Mucking around with tracks and plugins follows.
I will listen to this more critically at a later date, but it's progress.
A learning experience. That's what we call it.
I packed everything up and went upstairs where I grilled some steaks for Father's Day dinner while Gretchen prepared baked potatoes and sweet corn. Dinner included the kids and was remarkably silly.
And that's a good way to end the day. :)
caught up
Jun. 15th, 2025 07:51 pmcalimacB. went to the local No Kings protest on Saturday. I support the cause, but I stayed home and took a nap. I feel I've already had my say on this subject.
Instead, I went up to the City that evening for the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony's Pride celebratory concert. The music sounded interesting. Conducted by Martha Stoddard, known locally for the Oakland Civic Orchestra, it featured a timpani concerto by the Colombian/US composer Juan Sebastian Cardona Ospina, and Sibelius's Third Symphony. Both of them came across as busy and bustling.
Today I happened to be sitting in the living room when B. turned the tv on to continue watching Andor (which I persist in thinking of as "and/or" because I've been trained in Boolean logic). Although it's set in the Star Wars universe, it didn't feel to me like Star Wars at all, because the dialogue isn't stiff and inane like in all the Star Wars movies I've seen. (I haven't seen Rogue One.) But I couldn't follow what was going on, so I let it be.
Instead, I went up to the City that evening for the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony's Pride celebratory concert. The music sounded interesting. Conducted by Martha Stoddard, known locally for the Oakland Civic Orchestra, it featured a timpani concerto by the Colombian/US composer Juan Sebastian Cardona Ospina, and Sibelius's Third Symphony. Both of them came across as busy and bustling.
Today I happened to be sitting in the living room when B. turned the tv on to continue watching Andor (which I persist in thinking of as "and/or" because I've been trained in Boolean logic). Although it's set in the Star Wars universe, it didn't feel to me like Star Wars at all, because the dialogue isn't stiff and inane like in all the Star Wars movies I've seen. (I haven't seen Rogue One.) But I couldn't follow what was going on, so I let it be.
(no subject)
Jun. 15th, 2025 10:42 pmsorcyressI have two days left of school, which is probably good, and then I slam into summer with several weeks of Very Exciting. I'm going to drive to MD and back in the span of about four days. Somewhere in here I need to finish preparing for my ESCape classes. I have to pack?!?! Maybe all my stints on crew mean I'll be able to pack a lot lighter than usual for ESC/Scots (lolno).
Tomorrow I should figure out everything that needs to be done in the school building before I depart for the year. Packing up. Printing things. Recycling many many pieces of paper. Submitting grades and paperwork and the like. (The printing things is sneakily a "prepare for ESCape" thing to do --I want to have some properly formatted dances or What Have You. I seem to recall I did quite a lot of this as a work-in-company with Veronica last summer, I probably won't have the MD time to do that again, but it's worth noting that MD does have printers. And so does MA. It's not the end of the world if I fail to print things, is what I'm saying.)
I've been playing lots of Stardew Valley, which I'm quite into, even if I'm getting a little stuck on some of the plot bits. Not looking anything up is a bit of a drag, but also feels very very good when I do figure things out myself. I am glad to have realized I can go back through the library and reread the books I've found --I was worried those were one shot readings, and I'd forgotten the early ones. Anyways, no spoilers, I'm a bit into my second summer.
Went to service ringing today, for probably my last bells for a month. So that's...a lot. Luckily it did not emotionally overwhelm me, maybe partly because I've had a low-key headache for a few days now. I arrived at Advent in time to help ring down, and then we did a mostly nice extent of Cambridge at Old North. (It was only mostly nice because everybody spontaneously exploded when we got to the plain course, and we limped through and barely made it. Sigh.)
Yesterday was pride and I wrote up a bunch of thoughts and should probably post them somewhere, instead of just manually sending them to various partners who like hearing about my life. I suppose there are others of you who like hearing about my life as well or whatever.
I finally picked back up the Endless Photo Organization Project the other day, and sorted a handful of photos. I forgot to note the number at the beginning, so I have no idea how many things got tagged. It's nice to get back into the swing of the project, and extremely nice to have set the whole thing up on the external harddrive, so switching it from old computer to new was essentially trivial. I wish I could figure out a few more keyoard shortcuts to speed things up a tick, but I'm feeling pretty okay with the mousing that has to be done.
Having finished words, I should do at least one of the dishes and going to sleep. Goodnight!
~Sor
MOOP!
Tomorrow I should figure out everything that needs to be done in the school building before I depart for the year. Packing up. Printing things. Recycling many many pieces of paper. Submitting grades and paperwork and the like. (The printing things is sneakily a "prepare for ESCape" thing to do --I want to have some properly formatted dances or What Have You. I seem to recall I did quite a lot of this as a work-in-company with Veronica last summer, I probably won't have the MD time to do that again, but it's worth noting that MD does have printers. And so does MA. It's not the end of the world if I fail to print things, is what I'm saying.)
I've been playing lots of Stardew Valley, which I'm quite into, even if I'm getting a little stuck on some of the plot bits. Not looking anything up is a bit of a drag, but also feels very very good when I do figure things out myself. I am glad to have realized I can go back through the library and reread the books I've found --I was worried those were one shot readings, and I'd forgotten the early ones. Anyways, no spoilers, I'm a bit into my second summer.
Went to service ringing today, for probably my last bells for a month. So that's...a lot. Luckily it did not emotionally overwhelm me, maybe partly because I've had a low-key headache for a few days now. I arrived at Advent in time to help ring down, and then we did a mostly nice extent of Cambridge at Old North. (It was only mostly nice because everybody spontaneously exploded when we got to the plain course, and we limped through and barely made it. Sigh.)
Yesterday was pride and I wrote up a bunch of thoughts and should probably post them somewhere, instead of just manually sending them to various partners who like hearing about my life. I suppose there are others of you who like hearing about my life as well or whatever.
I finally picked back up the Endless Photo Organization Project the other day, and sorted a handful of photos. I forgot to note the number at the beginning, so I have no idea how many things got tagged. It's nice to get back into the swing of the project, and extremely nice to have set the whole thing up on the external harddrive, so switching it from old computer to new was essentially trivial. I wish I could figure out a few more keyoard shortcuts to speed things up a tick, but I'm feeling pretty okay with the mousing that has to be done.
Having finished words, I should do at least one of the dishes and going to sleep. Goodnight!
~Sor
MOOP!
CRUD Challenge: Freaks (1932)
Jun. 15th, 2025 02:02 pmskjamFreaks (1932) dir. Tod Browning
Madame Tetrallini (Rose Dione) is, by 1930s standards, a good circus owner. She likes to think of the circus employees as a family, and is especially considers her employees with disabilities or deformities as her "children." Most other people, including themselves, call them "freaks." Thanks to her skill as a manager and genuine kindness, the Tetrallini Circus has accumulated a varied cast of top-notch performers, some of whom perform in the main circus, while others are in the side show. Because most of them have faced abuse and discrimination in the outside world, the freaks tend to stick together, "offend one and you offend them all." And the normal-bodied circus workers largely treat them with friendliness, or at least professional courtesy.
But all is not well in this traveling show. Strongman Hercules (Henry Victor) just had his girlfriend seal trainer Venus (Leila Hyams) break up with him (deleted dialogue had him asking her to do "private performances" for wealthy men.) So he's on the prowl for a new honeypot. Meanwhile, stunningly beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) is still doing quite well in her act, but is beginning to feel the aging process coming on, and is looking for a husband before that aging becomes visible in her act or appearance. Cleopatra and Hercules are certainly attracted to each other, but she has her reasons for not making it official just yet.
Little person (called a "midget" in-story) Hans (Harry Earles) has become infatuated with Cleopatra, to the disgust of his longtime sweetheart Frieda (Daisy Earles), a fellow little person. Cleopatra isn't interested in him "that way", but flirts outrageously with him because he keeps giving her presents of money and jewelry. Everyone else can tell she's just stringing him along, but Hans won't listen. Things take a turn for the worse when Cleopatra learns that Hans can afford his expensive presents because he's actually the scion of a wealthy family and recently inherited a fortune. She and Hercules sure could use that money!
This infamous horror movie was created after the Hays Code had come in but before it was fully enforced. So it has a fair amount of material that wouldn't be allowed in another year, but it was still so shocking that test audiences were freaking out and the studio decided drastic cuts were needed. Thus the version we have today is missing about thirty minutes of the run time (the footage is lost barring a miracle) and has a different beginning and end to cushion some of the impact.
The plot is actually pretty tame by modern standards, and most of the runtime is light drama about the everyday lives and relationships of the circus folk. The bearded woman and the human skeleton have a baby. Venus starts a new slow burn romance with clown Phroso (Wallace Ford). Daisy and Violet Hilton (playing basically themselves, as they did in Chained for Life which I reviewed earlier) are engaged to different men, but as conjoined twins, it's going to be tight quarters.
And it's notable for the time that an absolute minimum of special makeup or camera tricks were used. Most of the "freaks" are actual performers who appear basically as they did in real life. The movie treats them as just folks.
The horror kicks into gear at the wedding feast. Cleopatra and Hercules have had way too much to drink and when the sideshow performers show their friendship by chanting "One of us!" the bride shows her disgust at their very existence. She makes a condescending exception for her husband Hans, but the others are chased off by Hercules. Cleopatra moves immediately to the next phase of her plan, slowly poisoning Hans so that she can inherit his money.
"Offend one, and you offend us all." Hans' comrades start observing Cleopatra and Hercules very closely, watching for their chance. And the "normal" circus folk aren't happy either. Hercules' show partner Roscoe (Roscoe Ates), who'd joined him in "good-natured ribbing" of Josephine Joseph the half-man half-woman at the beginning of the movie, now publicly snubs the strongman for his outright cruelty. Venus is so convinced something shady is going on with Hans' illness that she threatens to break the carnie code and squeal to the police.
The climax comes as the circus wagons head towards their next engagement in a heavy rainstorm. Hercules jumps out of his wagon to force his way into Venus' wagon to silence her, while Cleopatra prepares a final lethal dose for Hans. The freaks are ready though, and they crawl menacingly through the mud towards the betrayers....
At what should be the end, we see what has become of Cleopatra, an indelible image.
Even chopped up as it is, this is an interesting movie that simply could not be made today not because of "political correctness" or "woke" but because the world has changed so much. Younger teens and children should watch it with a trusted adult who's familiar with the subjects they'll be asking about.
Recommended to people interested in the history of horror and circus fans.
Madame Tetrallini (Rose Dione) is, by 1930s standards, a good circus owner. She likes to think of the circus employees as a family, and is especially considers her employees with disabilities or deformities as her "children." Most other people, including themselves, call them "freaks." Thanks to her skill as a manager and genuine kindness, the Tetrallini Circus has accumulated a varied cast of top-notch performers, some of whom perform in the main circus, while others are in the side show. Because most of them have faced abuse and discrimination in the outside world, the freaks tend to stick together, "offend one and you offend them all." And the normal-bodied circus workers largely treat them with friendliness, or at least professional courtesy.
But all is not well in this traveling show. Strongman Hercules (Henry Victor) just had his girlfriend seal trainer Venus (Leila Hyams) break up with him (deleted dialogue had him asking her to do "private performances" for wealthy men.) So he's on the prowl for a new honeypot. Meanwhile, stunningly beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) is still doing quite well in her act, but is beginning to feel the aging process coming on, and is looking for a husband before that aging becomes visible in her act or appearance. Cleopatra and Hercules are certainly attracted to each other, but she has her reasons for not making it official just yet.
Little person (called a "midget" in-story) Hans (Harry Earles) has become infatuated with Cleopatra, to the disgust of his longtime sweetheart Frieda (Daisy Earles), a fellow little person. Cleopatra isn't interested in him "that way", but flirts outrageously with him because he keeps giving her presents of money and jewelry. Everyone else can tell she's just stringing him along, but Hans won't listen. Things take a turn for the worse when Cleopatra learns that Hans can afford his expensive presents because he's actually the scion of a wealthy family and recently inherited a fortune. She and Hercules sure could use that money!
This infamous horror movie was created after the Hays Code had come in but before it was fully enforced. So it has a fair amount of material that wouldn't be allowed in another year, but it was still so shocking that test audiences were freaking out and the studio decided drastic cuts were needed. Thus the version we have today is missing about thirty minutes of the run time (the footage is lost barring a miracle) and has a different beginning and end to cushion some of the impact.
The plot is actually pretty tame by modern standards, and most of the runtime is light drama about the everyday lives and relationships of the circus folk. The bearded woman and the human skeleton have a baby. Venus starts a new slow burn romance with clown Phroso (Wallace Ford). Daisy and Violet Hilton (playing basically themselves, as they did in Chained for Life which I reviewed earlier) are engaged to different men, but as conjoined twins, it's going to be tight quarters.
And it's notable for the time that an absolute minimum of special makeup or camera tricks were used. Most of the "freaks" are actual performers who appear basically as they did in real life. The movie treats them as just folks.
The horror kicks into gear at the wedding feast. Cleopatra and Hercules have had way too much to drink and when the sideshow performers show their friendship by chanting "One of us!" the bride shows her disgust at their very existence. She makes a condescending exception for her husband Hans, but the others are chased off by Hercules. Cleopatra moves immediately to the next phase of her plan, slowly poisoning Hans so that she can inherit his money.
"Offend one, and you offend us all." Hans' comrades start observing Cleopatra and Hercules very closely, watching for their chance. And the "normal" circus folk aren't happy either. Hercules' show partner Roscoe (Roscoe Ates), who'd joined him in "good-natured ribbing" of Josephine Joseph the half-man half-woman at the beginning of the movie, now publicly snubs the strongman for his outright cruelty. Venus is so convinced something shady is going on with Hans' illness that she threatens to break the carnie code and squeal to the police.
The climax comes as the circus wagons head towards their next engagement in a heavy rainstorm. Hercules jumps out of his wagon to force his way into Venus' wagon to silence her, while Cleopatra prepares a final lethal dose for Hans. The freaks are ready though, and they crawl menacingly through the mud towards the betrayers....
At what should be the end, we see what has become of Cleopatra, an indelible image.
Even chopped up as it is, this is an interesting movie that simply could not be made today not because of "political correctness" or "woke" but because the world has changed so much. Younger teens and children should watch it with a trusted adult who's familiar with the subjects they'll be asking about.
Recommended to people interested in the history of horror and circus fans.
Swamp Cooler Repairs
Jun. 15th, 2025 02:51 pmkevin_standleeAs I mentioned a couple of days ago, the pump on the swamp cooler stopped pumping water into the pads that make it work. Due to our hard water, replacing the pump every year or three is something we've become accustomed to doing. Yesterday afternoon, Lisa undertook the repairs.
( Pump Doesn't Pump )
Lisa opened up the swamp cooler and replaced the old pump with the new one. While the impeller now worked, no water went though the system. Further investigation led her to remove the top of the cooler so she could get at the screw that held a T-shaped distribution pipe. The pump sends the water up to the T-shaped pipe, which sends the water to the pads on the back and sides of the cooler. When she removed the pipe, she found that it was completely clogged. Fortunately, the build-up hadn't hardened, and she was able to get it out by forcing water the "wrong way," blowing air into the pipe, and poking at the clock with a probe.
There was also a lot of crud in the bottom of the cooler. Lisa and I carried the cooler outside and she washed all of the crud out. While we were doing this, we kept hearing a periodic thumping noise coming from the minivan, which was a few meters away. Investigating, we discovered that one of the power door lock switches was stuck in the "unlock" position, meaning that it would periodically try to unlock the doors. Poking at the switch got it unstuck, and I'm glad of that, because not only was it unlocking the doors, but it would have eventually run down the battery.
We carried the cooler back inside, Lisa reassembled everything, I brought in buckets of water to refill the tank, and she turned it on: Success! The cooler started pumping water as it should, and soon thereafter, we started getting cool air wafting through the living room.
I thanked Lisa for doing this. She's much more handy with these sorts of home repairs than I am. I can carry things, buy parts, and so forth, but knowing what to do is more up her alley.
( Pump Doesn't Pump )
Lisa opened up the swamp cooler and replaced the old pump with the new one. While the impeller now worked, no water went though the system. Further investigation led her to remove the top of the cooler so she could get at the screw that held a T-shaped distribution pipe. The pump sends the water up to the T-shaped pipe, which sends the water to the pads on the back and sides of the cooler. When she removed the pipe, she found that it was completely clogged. Fortunately, the build-up hadn't hardened, and she was able to get it out by forcing water the "wrong way," blowing air into the pipe, and poking at the clock with a probe.
There was also a lot of crud in the bottom of the cooler. Lisa and I carried the cooler outside and she washed all of the crud out. While we were doing this, we kept hearing a periodic thumping noise coming from the minivan, which was a few meters away. Investigating, we discovered that one of the power door lock switches was stuck in the "unlock" position, meaning that it would periodically try to unlock the doors. Poking at the switch got it unstuck, and I'm glad of that, because not only was it unlocking the doors, but it would have eventually run down the battery.
We carried the cooler back inside, Lisa reassembled everything, I brought in buckets of water to refill the tank, and she turned it on: Success! The cooler started pumping water as it should, and soon thereafter, we started getting cool air wafting through the living room.
I thanked Lisa for doing this. She's much more handy with these sorts of home repairs than I am. I can carry things, buy parts, and so forth, but knowing what to do is more up her alley.
