Done Since 2022-11-06

[mdlbear]

It's been an eventful week, and not all of it was bad, but I'm glad it's over.

Sunday was Kaleidofolk's concert at Or-E-Con -- it went pretty well, considering that it was our first concert as a group, and over Zoom at that. It took me until Wednesday to get the audio processed and posted. Most of the delay was due to changes in the software environment, or rather one specific makefile not adapting to things that changed out from under it. Not really surprising when I/we haven't been doing concerts lately.

A week ago last Friday (the 4th) night there was a massive windstorm and power outage on Whidbey Island; power wasn't restored until sometime Wednesday. I drove up Friday. I'd wanted to go earlier in the week, but I didn't really fancy staying in a place with no heat, no internet, and no way to charge my electric car.

Tuesday there was an incident at j and k's high school -- Ingraham in Seattle -- that left us all somewhat shaken, but otherwise okay. (I've taken the news links and related entries out of the notes, so it's safe to look under the cut.)

The US mid-term elections, also on Tuesday, went better than I was afraid they might, but not as well as I'd hoped. The next two years are going to be frustrating, but probably not disastrous.

... and of course there's Twitter. Looks like most of the refugees are landing in Mastodon. If you're contemplating a switch, you should look at Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse, and maybe Should I join Mastodon? A scientists’ guide to Twitter’s rival. Bring popcorn.

Notes & links:
1106Su Or-E-Con 2  PDT -> PST transition  * litter boxen (E')
  & awake 4:30ish; S=7:13;
    % I'd been sleeping on my stomach, which hurt somewhat
    % found myself trying to work out the notes in a Bm chord.  B D F#  Bm/A ~= Bm7
  @ John Bull on Twitter:
    "Right. As a heavy tweeter/content creator who is now maintaining BOTH a Twitter and
    Mastodon presence, here is a short guide to what I have set up, how to do it and
    lessons I've learned, for others. TLDR: It's been WAY less hassle than I expected
    thanks to tips from followers /1" / Twitter (andrewducker)
  ~ bring in Panther; see if it can record 4 channels off the board. -> damn -- its noisy
    -> for some reason Audacity sees the mixer as _five_ channels -- channel 1 is seen as
       stereo with the right channel empty.  Weird.
    -> fall back on the zoom H2 line in; use Panther as proof-of-concept for next time
  @ Lovelace– The Origin – 2D Goggles (melchar)
    The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
  @ Twitter, cut in half - by Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer
  * E' earlyish to help with setup
  * 1:30ish TUNE
  * 2:30 - 3pm concert slot - Or-E-con2
    filk: Crystal Ball Room  tech: Sound-Check Room
    % went very well, despite my forgetting to readjust the capo after Lock Keeper
    : Panther for the 4-channel USB recording; the fan even behaved itself.
    % thoroughly wiped out from both stress and moving stuff around.
    % as of 5:10 I still haven't checked either the zoom or the audacity recordings...
      -> the zoom H2 copy isn't loud, but it's there and can be amplified... low hum.
         we even got the intro, via the monitor speakers, but it's not really usable.
      -> the direct-from-the-mics track came out very well.  Lots of cross-talk, but clean
  * 15min:  add new shelves
  * done since and s4s posts
  % meloxicam with pm drugs

1107Mo
  * up 6:50ish; S=8:10, BP=110/68, P=61; exercises
  : Power still out on Whidbey; since Friday.  The latest email from PSE claims it will be
    fixed by noon today.  Outage map says that a repair crew is on site, so we'll see.
    -> I'm going to have to clear out the fridge and freezer when I get up there.
  % hip pain, fairly sharp, both sides
  : The roll of gaffer's tape I'd been using seems to have gone walkabout -> N's room
  : The reason I haven't heard from the landscaper is that I never finished the email I
    thought I'd already sent.  (Draft in PJ)  -> never even started it.  :P
  * mail final check to (former organizer)Kara. (check actually _written_ 1105Sa)
  * KF:  work on yesterday's recordings.  Label and slightly clean up the mixed copy.
    -> It's pretty poor -- there's an underlying hum and a few major noise spikes.
       Balance is poor in places.  (The direct audio is much cleaner, but also has noise
       spikes, but in different places.)  Weird.  The balance is terrible on several songs
       -- N is mostly too quiet, and m is too loud on the LotB descants and the percussion
       on Inherit the Earth.  Fixable in the direct version.
    -> MakeStuff/Makefile is pretty broken.

1108Tu  Election day
  & Awake 2:30ish; S=3:21; congested, pain in L. hip;
    : 1am total lunar eclipse totality 2:16 -- I'll probably be asleep; cloudy, anyway,
    % neti pot; re-filled humidifier on CPAP
  * up 5:55; S=5:25; exercises
    : checked 6:20 -- power _still_ out on Whidbey.  Since 11-04 9:43pm
  * 10am Healing Center Memory Keepers grief support group.
  : One of the ear cushions fill off my Bose headphones.  Fortunately I had already
    ordered new ones because they were falling apart.
  @ Incident Nov 8 - Ingraham High School.  j and k safe
    -> kids (and N) got McD's as hazard pay.  There was a Krispy Kreme order but they were
       closed by the time I got there.  Having Heaven's Door rye whiskey instead.
    % now having my usual (is it?  _What_ is it?) post-anxiety attack.
  : 5pm Power still out on Whidbey -- est. completion is 11:59pm yesterday
  : doesn't look like DH has its 1-click installers anymore, except for WP.  Weird.  I
    must have missed a major change.
  % 7:20; I've been out of it / non-functional since I got back from fetching the kids'
    hazard pay meals at around 4:20.  N's been worse.

1109We  * litter boxen
  & awake 3:15; S=4:32;
    % bad dreams, predictably.  Politics.
  : power _still_ out.  "Under investigation" updated 3:35am!  ETA _not_ updated.
  @ US hospitals are so overloaded that one ER called 911 on itself | Ars Technica
  * up 5ish? 7ish?; W=195.2;
    % didn't actually get out of bed until after 8.  Curled up and cuddled the cats.
  : 9am power _still_ out.  "Under investigation" updated 8:50am  ETA _still_ 11-07t23:59
  : 2:30 map says "repair crew onsite".  Maybe?
  * 15min: dishes
  * working on concert multitrack recording.  Plink's track is not well-isolated.  It
    might even be track 2, which is _extremely_ quiet.  Which raises the question of what
    the heck is track 5?  Mix?  Anyway, boosting track 2 and deleting 5 works.
  * _Finally_ get concert page up and working.  Most of the automation that used to do
    that is broken, and some new scripting will be needed for intros in the future (for
    now it's cut-and-paste).  But working.  And posted about.
  * laundry
  * load drugs
  * 15min:  rearranged wire shelves
  * 11:30 checked outage map -- apparently power was restored sometime in the last 9 hours

1110Th
  & awake 3:30ish; sitting up, no mask
  * up 6:30; S=6ish (officially 4);
  & update sticky post to include s4s
  * create whole-concert file
  * 15min:  install shelf liners on the new kitchen shelves.  Take the roll of 12" to Lair
  @ HSX: licensing cover songs for streaming:
    How To Legally Release Cover Songs (9 Integral Tips) — Sync Songwriter
    " Thankfully most major digital aggregators such as CD Baby and DistroKid make this
      really easy.  They offer services that for a fee will distribute your song to all
      major streaming platforms, notify the composer/publisher of its release, pay the
      necessary licensing fee and take care of all the other legal red tape involved with
      releasing a cover song on a streaming platform. "
    Digital Music Distribution | Soundrop
    Clear Cover Songs: Easysong Cover Song Licensing: TuneCore
    What to Know About Livestreaming Copyrighted Music
    3 Best Places to Buy Rights to a Song Online
  * fix song urls in concert/index.html
  * need to fix header breadcrumbs in kf/Songs.  Probably means fixing the template
  % how the ???? is it Thursday already?  Didn't we give a concert yesterday?  Oh.  Right.
  * 15min:  re-install wire shelves in Lair.  (puts the wide ones together on the left)

1111Fr  Veterans' Day  * litter boxenack
  * up 6:25ish; S=6:51; exercises
  * charge buzzer, flashlight
  @ elf | I'm enjoying the Twitter drama
  @ Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks
    “Things will be broken. Things will be broken more often. Things will be broken for
    longer periods of time. Things will be broken in more severe ways [...] Everything
    will compound until, eventually, it’s not usable.”
  @ I made it big on Twitter. Now I don’t think I can stay. | MIT Technology Review
  @ Should I join Mastodon? A scientists’ guide to Twitter’s rival
  @ Does Twitter Have Any Employees Left Who Remember That The Company Is Under A Strict
    Consent Decree With The FTC? | Techdirt  no, they all resigned or were fired
  @ Inside the Twitter meltdown
  * go to Whidbey in the morning
    -> lots of debris, mostly broken off evergreen branches
    -> mailbox full but not overflowing.
    -> nothing fell on the house
    -> emptied the freezer.  The fridge will take a little sorting through.
    -> nova didn't reboot; that's not unusual.  There's a fire alarm complaining about its
       battery; I'll have to bring in the stepladder for that.  -> done
  @ Amazon scrutinises lossmaking units in search of savings | Financial Times
    including Alexa
  * SL:  Tums, iceberg, meat (or  -> fish), 
  % fell asleep in the bedroom recliner.  Tried to go back to sleep ~12, but failed

1112Sa
  & awake 1am; ; 3:10 go back to bed
    % not clear whether what kept me up was worry about contacting the people I haven't,
      or the coyotes.  It was definitely the coyotes that got me out of bed to shut the
      bathroom window.  Eerie.
  * up 8ish; W=195.0, S=5:13; exercises, shower
  @ Pie Menus: A 30 Year Retrospective | by Don Hopkins | Medium blast from the past!
  @ Twitter Users Create Havoc by Impersonating Brands - The New York Times
  @ Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter - The New York Times
  * HSX: FB msg to [...] re: recording studio in SEA
    -> pointed at London Bridge Studio
       which looks way too high-end for us.
    -> Lessons – Blash Studios including
       audio production lessons.
  @ Microphone Database | Audio Recording News | RecordingHacks
    " RecordingHacks is an online magazine about recording gear and techniques and the
      world’s best microphone database and search engine. "
  * guitar: Lock Keeper, Wheelin'