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scissortail's comments
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scissortail  ·  1218 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Voat is shutting down.

And there was much rejoicing.

scissortail  ·  1299 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Donald Trump tweets he and first lady Melania Trump test positive for Covid-19

He's apparently headed to Walter Reed. Echoes of BoJo's brush with the 'rona.

scissortail  ·  1313 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: It Can Happen Here

relevant podcast of [essentially] the same name: https://podtail.nl/podcast/it-could-happen-here/

scissortail  ·  1321 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Music Theory and White Supremacy

    My neighbor? Programmed for Quincy Jones. Professor in music theory at Cal Arts. Here's the book he uses. And the thing is? It's full of a gajillion different music theories that nobody has an anchor into. Wanna hear what that music theory actually sounds like? Guess what. Your class is now hearing Gamelan for the first fuckin' time in their lives.

This is great, and I only wish my degree had required something like it. Unfortunately, the required music theory for most music majors does not, to my knowledge, require learning anything like this--it's regrettably much more in line with what Neely puts out in the video. He doesn't do a perfect job (using Babbitt as an example of the ossification of theory? Really?), but in broad strokes he gets the character of music theory as an academic institution pretty right. I had to take a music survey course, but World Music was an optional elective (to say nothing of classes in the theory and practice of individual styles of world music).

Huun Huur Tu slaps, btw. May Tuvan music never die.

scissortail  ·  1420 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brave builds privacy-focused video chat right into its browser
scissortail  ·  1433 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: May 20, 2020

Man I feel that. My recent ex is the most low-maintenance person in the world 99.99% of the time, but whenever she got extremely emotional it could take hours to resolve. Worth it, for sure, but definitely taxing.

scissortail  ·  1475 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: breadcrazy

Hey there! Great to hear you've got a starter going. I am perhaps the laziest, least scientific baker on the continent, but here are my answers anyway:

1. I use glass, but am unsure if it matters or not. I cap it with a clean cloth, attached with a rubber band.

2. I am a discarder, though I haven't done much reading on the opposing perspective (in fact, hadn't heard of it before reading that post). I always use the discarded starter to help me make other things like pancakes, flatbreads, or quickbreads (adding some to a banana bread is my go-to). As I understanding, leaving the starter at room temperature and only feeding it once a week is not feasible. What I do is keep it in the fridge, then pull it out at room temp when I'm thinking about a loaf. I feed it two to three times before making a levain, and toss it back into the fridge after I replace the flour and water from the levain pull.

3. I deal with a fairly runny starter, and use a roughly 1:1 flour:water ratio (by volume). I'll usually do half wheat, half rye for the flour. It ends up the consistency of a thick milkshake--pourable, but still viscous. If you want a more solid starter, I would probably increase it to 1.5:1, then 2:1 if it's still too thin for you. The 1:1 starter has been cash money for me in a fairly warm climate.

Hope that's helpful. I did end up making a loaf last week by the way, but am waiting to post it with today's loaf, which I am coaching my SO through. It's her first time making bread!

scissortail  ·  1488 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Google Trends Shows Spike in 'Bread' Searches

If you can still get flour easily, make a sourdough starter! With about a week's worth of regular attention you can have a vital yeast culture that makes delicious bread.

scissortail  ·  1513 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Amy Klobuchar will end 2020 presidential campaign and endorse Joe Biden

If you liked Warren's policy positions at all, Bernie is probably your next best bet--some of his proposals go farther than Warren's, but the legislative process will likely scale them back a bit anyhow.

He's also way more likely than Biden to eviscerate Bloomberg on stage imo. Not only does he have a visceral dislike of the billionaire class, but he actually has the ability to string a coherent sentence together consistently (sorry, Joe).

scissortail  ·  1596 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What was the best album of 2019

IGOR is absolutely a contender, Tyler really came out of left field with that one. He totally made that style his own and paired it with some personal, heartwrenching lyrics. Between IGOR and Flower Boy he's really proving himself to be one of the best MCs in the game.

scissortail  ·  1596 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What was the best album of 2019

I might prefer the preceding album, but this one is powerful and harrowing as well--and comes with more refined arrangements. I love her work.

What makes you think they've already won 2020? Trump only won in 2016 because he was running against the very definition of an establishment democrat, and one who was seen as corrupt and unpalatable by many voters. Even then, he only won because of the foibles of the electoral college system. Given the promising turnout from the midterms, a Trump victory (while certainly possible, mind) seems far from a foregone conclusion.

scissortail  ·  1616 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Open Thread: Impeachment Hearings

I listened to much of it, pretty wild stuff. I'll be interested to see who does and does not comply with subpoenas in the coming weeks.

It looks like Giuliani is fucked, to put it mildly.

scissortail  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Everything is amazing, but nothing is ours

    You can always get to your email, and that attachment will always be there. It’s a universally adopted format. Most importantly, your inbox is yours.

If I'm being a grumpy bastard, for most folks (including me) the inbox belongs to Google. If you want something digital to be fully yours in this day and age, then you need to bite down on your mouthpiece and ditch convenience--and that takes more time than most folks can (or are willing to) put in.

scissortail  ·  1644 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 9th 2019

I think extremely late bootleg pubski is the only place to post this dumb shit.

But folks, I'm drunk and in love, and there's truly, truly nothing like it.

Best of all, she's told me that she loves me. Circumstances might mean that we don't end up together for the long haul, but that's okay.

We've had such an incredible time together, and I am so, so lucky to have someone so incredible want to be so close to me. Hopefully we make more memories together, but everything thusfar has been a beautiful gift.

I appreciate anyone who reads this putting up with the shameless sentimentality. We'll be back to your regularly scheduled quiet scissortail in the morning.

scissortail  ·  1645 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What's a good HORROR movie?

I am not much of a horror aficionado, but Hereditary was almost a perfect movie for me. The acting performances were stellar, the pacing and management of tension were masterful, and Colin Stetson put out one of my favorite movie soundtracks, period.

scissortail  ·  1645 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Harrowing Eyewitness Account of Xinjiang "Reeducation" Camp [NSFL]

Odd. Looks like they've fixed it now.

scissortail  ·  1653 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 352st Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately"

scissortail  ·  1655 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Death of a Kinkster

Fascinating and disturbing.

scissortail  ·  1660 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Trump abandons the Kurds

So long to one of the most vital experiments in societal organization that the world has seen. I hope the DFNS can somehow survive this, but I'm not exactly optimistic about their chances.

It's likely coincidental, but today is also Putin's birthday.

scissortail  ·  1704 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, what's your favorite cover version of a song?

Now, PMJ is truly a mixed bag, and I think they've trended towards a bit of bland sameness over time. That said, they have done the best cover of all time:

They completely transform the attitude and vibe of the song while doing it justice musically.

scissortail  ·  1722 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hi, Hubski! What's weird about your morning routine?

Mine is fairly normal, but if I'm in a hurry I'll bring my apple to the car with me and eat the whole thing, core and all.

scissortail  ·  1743 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 339th Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Stupid ol Pete Townshend has been stuck in my head over the last few days.

scissortail  ·  1759 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 26, 2019

I've been slowly getting out of a very similar situation from the things you describe. The big thing that has helped me is to prioritize building a platform of good habits, upon which you can build skills and projects. For me personally, this is being accomplished by strictly partitioning things in my life.

My big time-sink has historically been the internet, so I started by eliminating most social media and by not carrying a proper smartphone. I get (and make) lots of jokes about my ancient blackberry, but after a couple days I really felt like my brain could breathe again. I try to keep screen time at my desktop to 1.5 hours on workdays--timed shutdown programs help a lot with this.

To-do lists have also made a huge impact on my productivity--I try to make one at lunch every workday, and though I rarely hit everything on the list it helps me answer "uhh what am I doing again" with "throwing a few stitches in your project jeans" instead of "...reddit".

Making priorities of things like journaling, artistic expression, and especially meditation has also been extremely helpful. I took time off of my regularly scheduled hobbies (6 months!) just to work on un-fucking my brain. It took serious mental effort for me to make meaningful progress on this, and it's a battle I've fought for my entire adult life. If a goomba like me can start getting on the right path, though, then so can you. Work hard to make yourself better, but most importantly, be willing to forgive yourself when you fall off the wagon. Dust yourself off and keep going, you can do it.

scissortail  ·  1784 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 333rd Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

This is downright luxurious music. That introduction is magic.

scissortail  ·  1784 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Apple introduces ‘Sign in with Apple’ to help protect your privacy

Friendly reminder that several of Apple's technologies (notably Siri and the alluded-to facial recognition) are detrimental to user privacy. Apple may be the lesser of evils here, but if folks are concerned about their privacy I'd encourage them to move to services that don't mine their data.

scissortail  ·  1784 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 5, 2019

I feel this in my bones. As my interests get more niche, I feel like I'm slightly (and quite unintentionally) pulling away from some of my friends. I bonded with the people I'm closest with partly through our shared interests (then music, anime, video games, tabletop games). Now that I don't watch shows or play games much at all without them, I feel like I have less to talk about with them. They will always be irreplaceable, but the slight distance is saddening.

I am making new friends with my newer interests, but as you allude to, the process is difficult and takes a lot of time. I wish you the best of luck.

scissortail  ·  1786 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: May 29, 2019

Thank you lil. I may write up a post of my reflections, and will definitely ping you if I do :)

scissortail  ·  1787 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: May 29, 2019

Back once again after a long hiatus, missed being here. Glad to see this site is still chugging along.

Just got back from my Mamaw's funeral service. It went well, but the whole thing has me in a minor existential funk. I've got a lot of writing, journaling, and organizing to do.