Goafer

Had a bit of a vinyl binge over the last week or so.

So we took the plunge and trimmed the hedge. I figured it was better if she fucked off before laying eggs if she was going to. Needn't have worried though, as she's still in and out of there this morning. Judging by that photo though, she's holding a grudge.

Looked into it a bit more and it's definitely a blackbird. Looking into blackbird habits, they take 2 weeks to build a nest and lay eggs fairly quickly afterwards, 2 weeks to hatch and 2 weeks for the young to leave the nest (although can survive after 9 days if disturbed). Blackbirds also tend to build new nests for each brood. The trees should be fine for 7 weeks, so I guess I'll re-evaluate then. Hopefully she's moved on by that point. I've also contacted RSPB for their advice, so will hopefully have a better idea soon.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have a choice. There are phone lines overhead and our trees normally require the tops trimming at least twice over the summer. They grow ludicrously fast during the spring, so even if I cut them back now, they'll still need it again. From the looks of where the bird is going in and out, it's fairly low in the tree. I think if I use clippers instead of our electric trimmer, I can just clip any thin branches at the top without making too much noise. If I do it from the outside of the house, there's also a fence in the way, which should mean they don't really see me.

Just watched a bird going in and out of the trees in our back garden with a load of twigs in its mouth. Looks like we'll have a nest and some chicks soon. Bit annoying, as I'll have to trim the tops of the trees in spring, as they're getting close to the phone lines overhead, but I should be able to do it without disturbing the nest too much.

Seeing as we finally have some decent weather, I figured I'd bring the bike out of retirement and see how much fitness I've lost since last autumn. Turns out it's not as much as I thought. I've definitely put some weight on since then, but the fitness is still there to some extent. Did my shorter route and only stopped at the point where I turn round, and even that was more due to me wanting a break rather than needing it. The bike didn't even need that much maintenance, which was nice. Topped the tyres up, freed and oiled a sticky brake and it was good to go.

They started accepting audio podcasts in February last year according to this announcement: https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/policy-update-audio-only-podcasts-can-now-be-listed-on-imdb/5f4a7c7d8815453dba06d6b9 It is still weird that it's listed as a TV show though. I did at least have to add a tag to signify it as an audio podcast.

It's totally pointless, but this has made my day. I submitted the podcast I'm part of to IMDb and it actually got approved, so I'm now listed as an actor and editor on there. It's so fucking stupid, I love it.

You're just disappointed you won't be able to complain about the battery life.

Touch is a great song. I love how it swings from borderline-terrifying to full on Disney song. The whole Random Access Memories album is great, second only to Discovery IMO. I need to revisit some of the others, as I don't remember liking Homework, Human After All and the Tron soundtrack that much, but it's been so long since I listened to them that I might like them more nowadays. I recently bought Random Access Memories on vinyl, so that's getting played quite a bit at the moment. Even more so after the news of the split. It's weird. Bands come and go and it never really bothers me that much, but Daft Punk feel like they've been there forever and they've pretty much soundtracked the major parts of my life without me realising. It's a real shame to see them go.

There isn't really a general music thread, so figured I'd post this in here: Just went live on their social channels. Seems to me like it means the end of Daft Punk, but some people are saying it could just be a tease for a new look or style. The 1993 - 2021 seems pretty concrete to me though.

Stick swapping is something I sometimes struggle with. As I'm left handed, I'm much better at aiming with my left hand, so need to swap sticks for shooters. I'm generally ok for third person games, as they tend to be more platforming based or action based, but for first person shooters (or third person games that are mainly shooting), it's a must. Having the ability to swap sticks at a console level is great, but the problem comes with games like Cyberpunk that have vehicle sections. Swapping sticks at a console level means I have to steer cars with the right stick, which is fucking awful. Games like Battlefield handle this brilliantly, allowing you to customise your controller layout independently for each scenario (on foot, land vehicles and air vehicles). I think it was the PS3/360 era that was the worst though. Some developers (like Bethesda) straight up refuse to put any stick options in their games. I ended up buying a specially modded controller for the 360 that had the stick inputs resoldered to have them permanently switched. I ended up giving that to someone on here (I forget who) when my third 360 got the RROD. For the PS3 I bought an adapter that had options to swap buttons and sticks on a wired controller and bought a wired 360 pad. Still got that somewhere.

Rotary tool to fix the car, as documented in the bad stuff thread: And as it's payday, it means more records: Particularly happy about the Daft Punk one as Amazon very rarely has it in stock (and it always sells out straight away) and it goes for silly money on eBay.

The only reason I started this car was to jump start the other one. On the plus side, a metal replacement is dirt cheap and as I'll have to remove the rest of the plastic, it finally gives me a decent reason to buy a Dremel.

"Scientifically, it's Bulbasaur"

Inevitable closure. To think they suggested they were massively overhauling it, didn't believe that for a second. The name of this game now is toxic and there's nothing they can do to remedy it. I think they could, especially after seeing things like No Man's Sky going from a laughing stock to what it is now. The core gameplay of Anthem was great fun at times, so definitely a good foundation for an overhaul. Now, whether they will. That's a different story. I personally don't think they will. EA chase easy money, so I think they'll just cut their losses and move on.

Well it's EA, so they'll probably just give up, shut the studio and move on to something more profitable. Shame really, as I still maintain that it was a good game. Not great or groundbreaking, but way better than everyone seemed to make out.

I'm still completely in love with this image. If there was an award for best promotional artwork, this would get my vote hands down.

Yet another cassette player, as the Alba "Tetris" one was a bit disappointing and the Aiwa one I got is probably beyond my skill to repair (it was only £1, so I only bought it to tinker with anyway). This time a proper Walkman, which I'm hoping will be my main one, as it's has all the bells and whistles I want such as Dolby noise reduction and auto reverse. As always, it appears to need a belt, so ordered one of those too. I've already got a selection of belts, but I figured I'd get one that's guaranteed to fit properly, rather than find one that's close enough. Should be a nice Walkman when I'm done.

I've used several PCs and Macs as part of my various jobs and whilst Macs have definitely been better for creative work overall, it's personal preference if they're better enough to justify the price. I'm about 50/50 on whether I'd buy my own Mac when I come to replace my laptop. I do like how well they work with the the Adobe creative suite, but the limits when it comes to gaming and other software etc are a big drawback. That said, PCs do seem to require a bit more research to get a decent one. My general thoughts are if you're purely going for creative work and the price doesn't bother you, get a Mac. If you want a laptop for other use or aren't sure about the price of a mac, get a PC.

More music stuff. And a cassette player that I really wanted as a kid, but never got. Doesn't come up on eBay a lot, so I figured I'd get it whilst I can. Got it for the starting bid too.

I either use a fairly old Dell laptop or the MacBook Pro that I use for work. I generally don't worry too much about colour accuracy, as I'm very unlikely to print any of my photos, so they'll appear different on different monitors anyway. In my old job as a school photography editor, we colour calibrated our monitors fairly regularly. We either used a proper calibration tool or just printed a photo and then adjusted the monitor to match (was a bit more accurate for us, as it matched our specific printers).

I've always been one for rock music, but I'm loving the disco influences that are coming into pop music at the moment. Currently got Kylie Minogue's new song stuck in my head:

I had another cassette show up today and it's the second that has a weird swooshing noise, so I'm now wondering if my cassette player needs some maintenance. The weird thing is, it's not on every cassette; I have 2 with a virtually identical swoosh sound and 2 without. My thinking is that maybe those cassettes have a bit more resistance and are causing the belt to slip. Only other thing I can think of is magnetic interference that has effected one side of the tape reel more than the other. So I took it apart to inspect the belts and see how easy they would be to replace. The belt in the picture only drives the tape counter as far as I can see. The main drive belt is on the back of the mechanism, but it's fairly easy to take the whole mechanism out and get to it. I didn't poke around too much, but I got a decent look at the drive belt and it seems fine. My main issue now is deciding whether to replace these belts (£25 for a set) and give it a good clean, or just spend a bit more and get a tape deck with more features? There's a nice looking one that looks like it's been well cared for on Facebook Marketplace for £30 about an hour away (obviously collect it after lockdown if I went for it).

So we've covered music making, but what do people use for music listening? I decided I wanted a turntable to try and appreciate music a bit more. I figured if I have to fanny around with putting on a record, I'll probsbly make more of an effort to actually listen. Plus I don't really listen to albums any more, so I wanted to make more of an effort to. Decided on an Audio Technica LP120x, as the general consensus is that it's the best place to start and it's mid range enough to not need upgrading any time soon. The turntable has a built in preamp, but no amp or speakers. I went with a set of Majority speakers, as they were within budget and had a built in amp. I didn't have high expectations, but figured they'd do until I could justify an upgrade. Turns out, they're pretty good. I'm no audiophile, so these are perfectly suitable for my needs. They also have Bluetooth and optical input, so I can always use them for my TV and phone if I need to. After watching a few Techmoan videos on vinyl, it got me wanting more options, so I dug out my old cassette players and seeing how well they worked. Both work surprisingly well, but the Saisho has a bit of buzz on the bass and is far too bulky for something I only plan to use the cassette player for. The Sharp is actually surprisingly good, especially when output through the Majority speakers. At that point, I realised that I own a tonne of CDs, but no CD player. Had a look on eBay and managed to find the exact CD player I had as a teenager, basically brand new in box, with all the accessories I had. Cosmetically, it's virtually perfect, but it does have an issue. For the first few minutes if playback, it skips and sounds awful, then it settles down. Fortunately, this can be remedied by turning on the antishock and using it as a buffer to accommodate for it struggling to read a cd. With antishock on, it works completely fine. I also have the obligatory Alexa for the radio and general listening. So yeah, vinyl for albums I really like, cassettes for cheapo bargains, CDs for my old albums and Alexa for everything else. I think if I had more space, I'd consider putting together a proper system, but what I have now works and is good enough for what I need. I may consider a proper cassette deck, as that's currently the weakest part of my setup (no fancy noise reduction here), but I'm in no hurry.