Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Len @lendot.bsky.social · 3h

I just want you to know one of my life goals is still to move to Amsterdam, get a morning shift job at their airport, and sneak into the room with the PA mic and scream "WAKE UP SCHIPHOL!" into it.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 3h

Me: why is this ride cymbal still really loud? I undid all my changes on the drum sub and brought the volume back down to normal
Me: ...
Me: And why does it sound like the ride is coming from outside?
Me: ...
Me: I think the ride cymbal I'm hearing is...a bus? IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF RIDE

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 4h

Watched a reaction video to Never Tear Us Apart and it got me thinking about the fondness I have for '87-88 music. There are many other years where I think of all these great songs, but that span had so many great *albums* full of bangers. Appetite. Joshua Tree. Kick. Hysteria.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 5h

Gremtrak

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 5h

Wtf? He's harassing the fuck out of Cal again. He was being Sasha gourd boy, and now this. Last time he didn't resume his crimes ramp-up until a couple more days in.

Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

Huh. Gremlin did another crime. This is so unlike him when S is out.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

Huh. Gremlin did another crime. This is so unlike him when S is out.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

That's because it's a 17 trillion star hotel.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

Be sure and visit Moon South Wales while you're there.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

Chart update

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 6h

...allegedly.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 8h

Like, there are so many pieces like that build an aggregate musical experience. And it's the aggregate musical experience that matters. This is only there in service of the whole. People will still *experience* this even if they don't notice it. But. I dunno. It's a neat little thing, ok?

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 8h

It's weird working on a music idea, obsessing over the timing of how these pairs of notes end relative to each other at the ends of phrases, being all "yeah! this is exactly the feeling I was going for! This elevates everything in this part!" and then realizing, no one but me is ever gonna notice.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

Now I know certain people who would be itching to do a nauseatingly bad-faith reading of "could I be wrong about this." If you don't understand the difference between asking yourself that and actually being wrong about that thing, find a Jesuit and talk to them. Keep that shit the fuck away from me.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

But the reality that increasingly horrifies me is, I see liberals everywhere who don't do those things. Like, ever. You're always right and you already know everything there is to know about {person,people,situation,problem,solution,...}.

I left conservatism to get away from people like you.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

I've been over here for years, rest assured I ain't going anywhere now. But the key point is, I wouldn't have ended up where I did without constantly asking myself if I might be wrong about XYZ or if I don't have enough of XYZ in frame. I always assumed that's just how people do being liberal.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

Those questions are what started it all. Asking myself them the first time was really fucking painful and horrifying. But it got easier with time. But asking myself those questions and seeing where they led me took me further and further away from conservatism and closer and closer to liberalism.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

I mean, I say I left conservatism or whatever because it's close-enough shorthand, but what really happened before any of that is I started asking 2 questions of stuff: "Could I be wrong about this?" and "Could this {person,people,situation,problem,solution,...}" be more complex than I realize?

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

I didn't just wake up one day and go "whoa. I found a critical flaw in conservatism. Better switch sides right away!" It was, all told, about a 20-year arc. And the key detail is this: getting away from conservatism and heading towards liberalism to me was just a side effect of something broader.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 10h

I've been thinking about sharing this for a while. It's a key detail behind how I started conservative and ended liberal that I don't really talk about. For the longest time I didn't even think it worth mentioning, but the longer I spend around liberals the more I realize how not-universal it is.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 11h

It's so annoying I can't make super basic tweaks like this on the fly. I'll just have to slow the click down until I can play it consciously then work my way up the muscle memory ladder.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 11h

But working on that forces me to consciously control my fingers, and like I've said before, the minute I do that i engage the too-slow parts of my brain and the entirety of my playing turns to shit. And because I'm consciously playing that part, I start consciously playing the next part and...

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 11h

My guitar playing is sounding soooo good and I'm ready to record, just doing a little bit of tidying on a few odds and ends, like the fact that I'm being sloppy about muting an open note on this repeated part. My finger is already right there, I just need to lower it a hair to touch the string.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 11h

Huh. I guess you aren't around for any of my "15 weirdest things in the French catacombs" video watching.

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Len @lendot.bsky.social · 12h

They make stair-climbing robots now. And a lot of the standard ones (including ours) understand ramps and can work with stairs that have plywood or something going up one side.

We have a ranch house though, so I fortunately haven't had to worry about that.

Len @lendot.bsky.social · 12h

Meet Floorence. She brings much entertainment to this house.

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