Transcendant

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
 

Hi. I've been writing music a long time, got into ambient and chillout the last couple of years.

I'm horrible at self-promo :) but discovered this community and thought it was worth sharing. 25 songs, trippy visuals. Very interested what people think of them and which ones you did / didn't enjoy, if you end up checking them out.

[–] Transcendant 2 points 2 days ago

For years I was adamant that I didn't like ambient, I think because I'd only been exposed to very boring drone stuff. Then I discovered Solar Fields / Carbon Based Lifeforms and it changed my musical world.

I'm quite horrible at self-promo so sadly it's just gathering digital dust, but after 20+ years of writing dance music for myself and others, I decided to get heavily into writing ambient / chill. Made a load of trippy animation videos and setup a youtube... if you love Solar Fields, without meaning to sound bigheaded I think you'd enjoy them.

Ambient / Chill by Ain

[–] Transcendant 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I love anything by Solar Fields for tasks requiring concentrating, it's especially good for reading scifi.

Whenever he releases a new album though I have to listen to it a few times, before I can have it on in the background... It's very beautiful and intricate.

[–] Transcendant 9 points 5 days ago

Yep has to have no lyrics or I get pulled into the song!

[–] Transcendant 2 points 6 days ago

Hey look! Smoky's over here takin' A shit!

... Well, I ain't gonna tell nobody else

[–] Transcendant 39 points 1 week ago

Steam doesn't kick me out of my single player games when my internet connection drops for a split second. I quite like that

[–] Transcendant 13 points 1 month ago (5 children)

"Don't say things about someone behind their back, if you wouldn't be prepared to say it to their face"

[–] Transcendant 49 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's fairly simple... Gender-affirming care is ok if THEY do it.

[–] Transcendant 18 points 1 month ago

I learned not to say things about people behind their back, that you'd not be prepared to say to their face, aged 14.

Cost me a black eye & split lip, also some pride. Valuable lesson though that stuck with me to this day over 2 decades later.

Knoble, sorry for calling you Knobless.

[–] Transcendant 18 points 2 months ago

My dad is a pensioner now, and got put in a lovely bungalow by local housing association. It came with with a lovely garden, and he was really excited by the prospect of a cherry tree.

Well, the cherries are ready, and the birds ate the lot!

[–] Transcendant 3 points 2 months ago

And if you ever get close to him? ...... he'll betray you, too.

[–] Transcendant 10 points 3 months ago (4 children)

This is like the video for 'Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy', only far more horrifying.

[–] Transcendant 1 points 3 months ago

I'm so, so sorry to hear this.

I feel really lucky that I get some government support because I have autism / bipolar. It's not much, but the specific benefit I receive also allows me to do some work... and I'm also very lucky to be self employed in a field I enjoy (writing music). So I'm certainly not rich or even that comfortable, but it does allow me to morph my days and nights to suit my unnatural rhythms.

One thing I find about lack of sleep... it makes me really emotional, grumpy, increases likelihood of a depressive state. For me, it's SO important to almost literally inject happiness. If we have a condition that takes away our happiness, it's really crucial to create happiness in any way possible. Binge funny TV shows, go for a walk, watch some standup comedy, call a friend (not at 2am unless they're also a night owl haha), make some art (doesn't matter if you're good at it), try learning a new skill, play a game, join a volunteering group. Those are my go-to activities, probably different for you.

Also, and I know it'll sound trite, but I got into a couple of things during lockdown that made a big difference to my overall happiness; Buddhist and Stoic philosophy. I'm not a Buddhist, probably never will be. I definitely have a long way to go in applying Stoic principles. But they have really improved my life. Meditation is very hard at first but incredibly beneficial. If I could recommend a couple of books (one is an audiobook and for me was more transformative than Buddhist principles)... if you've never used Audible, you can sign up for a month trial and keep the audiobook you select, no charge if you cancel within 28 days.

  1. Derren Brown - Happy (not sure if you're familiar with this guy, he's a legit mind wizard, almost terrifyingly intelligent and has a long career as a 'mentalist' aka psychological magic)
  2. Thich Nhat Thanh - The Heart Of The Buddha's Teachings
 

Hey all.

Finally in my 40s I'm fortunate enough (with a lot of family help & a mortgage) to be buying a home. It's end-of-terrace; just spoke to the surveyor today after he's done most of the inspection and he's found a lot of structural problems.

Feeling a bit defeated, it's taken so long to get to this stage of having an offer accepted, and being close to exchanging contracts. It's an old house so while I wasn't expecting it to be fault-free, I'm quite disappointed and I guess looking for some advice / reassurance.

Not got the report in text yet but he mentioned potential subsidence; rising damp; cracked walls; problem with the chimney stack; window frames; and others. Said it's all stuff that can be fixed, but potentially expensive. My plan is to wait for the text report next week, then contact the estate agent and attempt to negotiate a price reduction in line with the cost of the repairs, which imo will run into at least £15k. Considering it's on the market for £85k, and the owner wouldn't even put the electric on for viewing because she didn't want to pay £1 a day standing charge, I'm anticipating some pushback.

But, should I even bother? Is this 'sunk cost fallacy' at play? I certainly feel like if they're not prepared to negotiate re repairs then I have to walk away as I could buy a well-maintained property round here for the total cost of around £100k!

Any advice much appreciated.

64
A Rom With A View (lemmy.world)
 
 

Making this post because for some reason this show has flown completely under the radar for many. I had no idea it existed until it was mentioned on a comedian podcast I listen to (Bud Pod).

Of course, the BBC have kindly deleted it from their catalogue. Not sure of the rules here re pirated content so won't post any links, but I found it on both Internet Archive and torrent (torrent is much better quality). It also features a young Benedict Wong, his character is so different from how we know him today!

Well worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of Sean Lock.

6
Aphantasia and sleep (self.aphantasia)
submitted 1 year ago by Transcendant to c/aphantasia
 

Hi all. I'm interested to know how many of us have a serious sleep issue. So far I haven't found much of a unifying thread between aphantasics, other than that we're very familiar with what the back of our eyelids look like! But one common thing I have heard over the years is a sleep issue.

I have chronic insomnia. Interested to hear back from others.

 

10 years ago, I'd have put my ability to visualise at 0 out of 10. Practice and occasional halucinogen use has got me to 2 out of 10. It causes no end of problems in day to day life, so I'm interested to hear if anyone has tips or just experiences to share so it doesn't feel such a lonely frustrating issue.

edit informative comment from @[email protected] about image streaming, I did a bit of digging on the broken links, the Dr isn't giving the info away for free anymore without buying their (expensive) book, but I found some further info on additional techniques here, pages 2/3: https://nlpcourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Image-Streaming-Mode-of-Thinking.pdf

 

A rare moment where I regret having disabled all the NVIDIA stuff that lets me screen record. Space storms! Wtf? Since when do we get storms in space?

The planet it was happening around was type 'shrouded in ash'. Was this a glitch, or a feature? As soon as I got to the system, I thought I was in a space battle at first with all the booms and flashes. There was a weird sort of smoke around the planet, blue lightning sparking all around it.

3
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Transcendant to c/[email protected]
 

Obv I don't want to get too deep into privatisation weeds as we don't want to get into the dreaded (whispers) politics in this comm. But I'm interested to know if other people are noticing the postal service deteriorating.

Mail for other houses (my door number is clearly marked)... delivery timelines missed... then the icing on the cake, had a delivery that was supposed to come up to Newcastle delivered while I'm not at home, they left it in a 'safe place' despite one not being designated.

Want to hear what the 'safe place' was? Out on the street, jammed behind a random neighbours wheelie bin! So yeah that's £110 of new clothes gone to some lucky local who swiped it. Boooo, Royal Mail, booooo!

To counteract the whinge, I just made a banging pizza almost from scratch. Success!

 

EDIT in the end, I settled on an Audient iD24, managed to get one from Juno for around £250

As per title... and to clarify, I don't just mean a headphone port, I mean an internal bus separate from the main outs, that can be seleCubase. This info doesn't seem to be present on the manufacturer's blurb; I've just been stung buying a Presonus 24c which it turns out only has 'Main Out L / R'.

Presonus support solution is to use their DAW, I am already fluent in Cubase / Ableton and have no desire to learn a third (StudioOne)! My main interface at home is a UAD Apollo which has main outs, virtual busses, and a headphone bus. I wanted to get a different interface for live stuff & travelling.

Obviously UAD is a higher tier than the £150 24c so perhaps I was expecting too much from it. I need an interface with headphone bus as I use that to run Slate VSX (headphone software).

 

So for those unfamiliar with the acronym, fear of missing out. I definitely used alcohol as a crutch for socialisation (autism, and when I drink, I don't feel so autistic). I have been out to a pub / karoake night and successfully not drunk alcohol, twice so far.

When I think about the future and the idea of 'never drinking alcohol again' it makes me feel a little sad. I imagine all the fun nights out I used to have, that I won't have anymore... I imagine sitting around sighing, twiddling my thumbs while everyone has raucous fun.

I don't feel like these are unreasonable worries, so hoping for some insights to puncture them. My main weapon to fight back is to imagine how I feel the morning after (nauseous, pounding head, sweating) and how that day is wasted; then to remind myself that drinking kicks me into a manic phase, with inevitable week+ of depression to follow.

I used to know a guy called Brian, friend of the family... he was always the life and soul of every party despite being teetotal. Always admired him, maybe that should be my mantra... "WWBD?"

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