The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 151

I'm getting to a point where I typically find already I own every game I'd ever want in any given Steam sale... I'm not sure how to feel about this.

Speaking of Steam games, though, Hotline Miami (Cactus' first commercial game) was pretty amazing.  I'd definitely put it in my top 10 for 2012.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgray91 

Thanks to Steam's Halloween sale, I've played Walking Dead the game. Man, wish I got it earlier, it's one solid episodic game.

All of the episodes are awesome!!!!! (Played them on the PS3... waiting for the final chapter!)

So, today is a day off. The institution decided to have a day off since tomorrow is All Saint's Day (wikipedia: In the Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden, it assumes a role of general commemoration of the dead. In the Swedish calendar, the observance takes place on the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November.). I guess you all are wondering how things are going with my new job and so on.

It's going great. I like it there, and I'm getting to know most of them, and they're pretty nice to me. There has been a lot of meetings, but I don't really mind them, because I can use them to get to know the system there, which is one of the most important parts of my job. However, my job is to create a database server and develop a system for it, and administer it. They have been using close to ten thousand different Access databases and custom made software that produces errors and doesn't really work at all. So, they're eager that I develop new software for them, and put up new SQL Server DBMS they could start using. The old Access databases are supposed to stay as-is and parsed into SAS Datasets, and not migrate to the new server, which is more than nice for me (my job went from FUBAR to quite nice in an instant when I understood that). Well, the people are (very) nice, and I've come to discover that I'm seen as a important person over there, and everyone is very respectful of my knowledge and welcoming.

All in all, I like it there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

Well, the people are (very) nice, and I've come to discover that I'm seen as a important person over there, and everyone is very respectful of my knowledge and welcoming.

 

All in all, I like it there.

That is great to hear! 

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Originally Posted by warrenpchi 

 

That is great to hear! 

Thanks, yeah, it does feel pretty great. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgray91 

I have always seen depression lightly, in that I still acknowledge that it's a problem, but nothing severe. ... suicidal thought or anything, ...

Not being severe and suicide doesn't really go well together, imo.

• "I'm hearing things in familiar recordings that I've never heard before" is a common thing to say with new audio equipment. That's the nature of new audio equipment. You can even hear new things by listening to familiar recordings on pretty crappy equipment. This is really going on at the high-end-audio range of things, though; the clarity and space is remarkable.
• To whit, I'm listening to Cornelius' Fantasma in my otherwise empty office this morning. The opening track, "Mic Check", consists of Cornelius faffing around in the studio and the random noises slowly congeal into a catchy tempo. And dammit, I kept whipping my head around as it sounded like people walking into the room behind me and dropping things. Which usually happens on a workday here, but only around 8:30 AM, not 6:45 AM. I've had this album for years and it's never been immersive in this way before.
• And this, to my mind, is the first evidence I've witnessed that IEMs are capable of a real and immersive illusion of acoustic space. I'm not ready to declare it a sibling to the HD800, nevermind any well-set-up Stax headphones, but it could be a cousin.
• These also have enviable bass slam, with a tactility I've only gotten out of headphones like the HE-6 (if you laugh at this remark, you haven't had the HE-6 on an amp that's up to the task yet). Only the RedGiant A03 has come close, and they are thuddy and indistinct by comparison.
• Tangentially, this is the first time that the Meier Porta Corda III has really redeemed itself to me, after nearly a year of ownership. I've referred to it in the past as sounding too thick and undetailed with IEMs other than the TF 10, a journeyman's amp from a designer who's since progressed markedly. But holy cats is this amp doing a great job right now. Its crossfeed circuit is, not coincidentally, probably contributing markedly with the acoustic space illusion mentioned above. If only the volume pot was better; there's a pronounced channel imbalance that evens out ever-so-slightly above my usual comfortable listening levels unless I sweep the knob louder-softer repeatedly to get it into a sweet spot, so I may have to stick with using this amp with an impedance adaptor between it and the iPod.
• Contrawise, the RSA SR-71B is perfectly fine but nothing special with these IEMs, at least in single-ended mode. I won't be able to really put it through its paces in balanced mode for a month or more, so I won't write it off yet, but so far it lacks the magic it has when paired with the Heir 4.A.
• And the Leckerton, as always, does exactly the right thing without calling attention to itself. Seriously, I can't think of anything to say about it right now; its reliability is its greatest virtue.
• But back to the IEMs; structurally these are profoundly different from my 4.As: Deep canal insertion rather than shallow, silicone tips rather than acrylic, acrylic fill halfway up the shell rather than fully hollow. They are markedly larger and heavier than my 4.As. The result is considerably greater isolation, a little less comfort (not really pain, just a sense of stuffiness that's ignorable, but not quite as readily as with other in-ears), and thanks to my remarkably convoluted ear canals, considerably more effort is needed with insertion and removal. If it wasn't for sounding so much more satisfying at very low listening levels (as well as other listening levels), I would probably go back to the 4.A as my regular office headphones, since the Heirs are much easier to pop out when somebody approaches my desk to talk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

Thanks, yeah, it does feel pretty great. 

I love that feeling of pride knowing that our contributions matter... and that we've done our part in something both meaningful and practical for a goal larger than ourselves. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by warrenpchi 

 

I love that feeling of pride knowing that our contributions matter... and that we've done our part in something both meaningful and practical for a goal larger than ourselves. 

I agree. The feeling that something I make is a part of something great is .. good. 

But since it's been years since I last did some work, I did have a little hard time to get up at 5 AM in the morning (I have flexible time, so it doesn't matter if I oversleep, but I like to get there early so I can get home early), but it feels a lot easier now than in the beginning. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardgedee 


Awesome! Glad things are finally turning your way after the rough patch you'd been through.
That's not so awesome. I imagine the long nights and cold weather are contributing to the mood, too.
Everybody is helped out of depression by different things. In general, though, getting more active and socializing more (on a small scale, with a couple friends or a club of people with common interests, like electronics, literature, or the like rather than a roomful of strangers in a bar) seems to do the most good for many people. What you want to do is disrupt the mechanisms that make dark moods feel safe and comforting, but without being so jarring that you can end up justifying the thoughts that led to those dark moods.

Thank you my friend!

That guy does have some good youtube channels, especially if you're interested in computer hardware. I was pretty baffled when I saw him having a beats by dre review, and I almost didn't want to watch it. I did though, and I have to say, I'm even a bigger fan of his.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

I agree. The feeling that something I make is a part of something great is .. good. 

 

But since it's been years since I last did some work, I did have a little hard time to get up at 5 AM in the morning (I have flexible time, so it doesn't matter if I oversleep, but I like to get there early so I can get home early), but it feels a lot easier now than in the beginning.

Yeah a new sleep schedule can always be rough at first.  But it's literally just a matter of time before you find yourself wanting to be there because there are new challenges to solve right?  Got a few Swedish friends... and I don't know whether it's due to the intellectual challenge aspect or creative thinking aspect, but they are all irresistably drawn to tackling problems and finding solutions.  It's like a drug - and the bigger the problem, and more elegant the solution - the happier they are.

JGray, just think of us as your home away from home.  BTW, just starting to get into the TMAC thing now and it's getting a lot more fun for me.