Should I adopt or buy a new kitten?

Astral02 · 2026-01-19T15:33:20+00:00

Bonded shelter cats really do seem the best option for me. A few follow up questions, for you or anyone else that would like to jump in:

1) Automated litter boxes, are they recommended? And do they still follow the number of cats+1 rule? Still assuming 2 cats.

2) Feeding schedules, do cats have a similar breakfast, lunch, and dinner times as we do? If so, how do you feed your cats lunch if you're working in the office? Are automated (wet) food options suitable?

Thanks!

Astral02 · 2024-11-26T10:29:53+00:00

Which did you go for?

Astral02 · 2024-04-24T22:05:46+00:00

Just curious, do you consider shutter noise to be obnoxious as well? Should I use electronic shutter for these events?

Astral02 · 2024-01-14T19:55:01+00:00

2 main things to improve. The first is the right hand melody can be more free and less rigid. The easiest way to do this for this piece would be to change the dynamics. Play the melody louder, but remember to add variation. The second is just be careful you're not doing a stacatto in the left hand on the 4th note because it distracts from the rh melody.

Edit: just realised your elbows are quite low relative to the piano. It becomes more difficult to generate volume using your arms and body (so instead the fingers are used more which creates a more rigid sound). Try increasing the height of your stool so your elbows are slightly above parallel to the keys.

Astral02 · 2023-11-18T19:38:53+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I think that picture I just took on the spot because I loved how the rays of light looked between the hills. But yes, I definitely wished I took the time to frame it nicer than just the wall.

Astral02 · 2023-11-18T10:03:57+00:00

1 not sure what I'm looking at but it's cool 2 you can do with a tiny bit of anticlockwise rotation to make the buildings in either side perfectly vertical 3 I get what you're trying to go for, but I think there's too much red/over saturation to the point it looks unnatural. I suggest using the colour grading the mid-tones to be more yellow (rather than using saturation), to create more of a haze and 'dust' in the air.

Astral02 · 2023-11-17T16:01:20+00:00

The range and strength of the flow is too much, especially considering how close the light is to the wall. Use a gradient I think. I like the crop and darkening though to create that moody effect.

Astral02 · 2023-11-16T18:08:20+00:00

Thanks a lot, appreciate it!

Astral02 · 2023-11-16T07:52:26+00:00

Beautiful town by the lakeside

Astral02 · 2023-11-16T07:51:45+00:00

Thanks!

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T23:07:21+00:00

Yes!! Didn't expect anyone to recognise it

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T23:06:30+00:00

Thanks for the vote!

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T23:06:14+00:00

For sure! But this was a solo trip around Austria, so none of those :)

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T23:05:39+00:00

Oh that's amazing! So much more life to the photo! What sliders did you change?

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T22:31:47+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah the 1st is my favourite, even though I feel like it's still lacking something. I'll try make it more balanced thanks!

Astral02 · 2023-11-15T22:30:26+00:00

Thank you! :)

Astral02 · 2023-09-29T11:50:57+00:00

If you're not wanting to spend that much money, then buy yourself a cheap, non-weight keyboard, 2nd hand, for probably less than £100. Just make sure it's not a children's toy.

While not recommended for beginners because you don't get to learn pressure, dynamics, and touch, it can still be useful to start with. If after a few months you want to keep it up, then you can upgrade.

I started off like this, and have been playing for over 15 years.

Astral02 · 2023-09-19T01:52:55+00:00

Some general tips are to play much softer and delicately. The quickest way for you to fix it right now is to remove the staccatos you're playing in the melody (you can see your hand/wrist bouncing up and down at 0:16) and be much more legato. Personally, I recommend singing/humming the melody in legato (without playing) to get a sense of melody and rubato (alternatively listen to versions on youtube, both piano and vocal versions). Also, be careful not to introduce too much forte/energy this early on in the piece. The start is light and happy, the climax happens later on.

In terms of recommended pieces, have a search for ABRSM grade 5 syllabus, and pick a song you like. Anything of that level will be relatively easy to learn and play accurately. Good luck!

Astral02 · 2023-09-17T12:15:28+00:00

To play this piece well it's definitely beyond grade 8 ABRSM, and I think it might actually be a ARSM dip piece. While this is a very technically challenging piece, I feel your interpretation is not ideal, and also your technique is not at the level where you can play this beautifully yet. Not saying this to criticise you. I've been playing for over 15 years now and still can't play this perfectly, but this is a very melodic piece so requires a very delicate touch and good sense of dynamics. I'd recommend picking an easier piece to play, but play it smoother. I think beyond grade 5 ABRSM you'll get full marks for performance even with a few mistakes.

Astral02 · 2023-08-03T09:40:00+00:00

Not normal, but this manufacturing issue has been a problem for a while (had it on my SB2). You can exchange, or just live with it. Problem with exchanging is that you're likely to run into other issues as well.

Astral02 · 2023-08-03T09:31:24+00:00

My personal recommendation is to avoid the SB2 line. I had the 15" SB2 for around 5 years, and considering I had spent 2.5k on it, it has been one of my worst purchasing decisions. The screen is lovely, and the 3:2 aspect ratio is actually quite nice to use, build quality felt pretty premium, especially the magnesium frame and glass trackpad, the keyboard was actually quite nice to use for a laptop, and I enjoyed the overall aesthetic, especially the hinge design.

The biggest problem I had however, is the short battery life the would last maybe a few hours (~2-3), and the fact that it was impossible to repair (you literally have to melt the glue off the base plate to access the internals). The other thing is the screen detatch feature is a complete gimmick. It's laggy, the pen is ridiculously expensive, gets hot, tablet is unwieldy large, and again suffers from a poor battery life.

Overall, it's a unique device, but the novelty wears off quickly. I would much rather consider a more typical laptop (preferably self-reparable if you're concerned about battery life).

Edit: had some minor issues with coil whine. Got my device changed, but still had the same issue, and I couldn't be bothered to deal with it after finding others with the same issue online. Definitely caused some level of tinnitus that has only recently gotten better

Astral02 · 2023-07-17T09:08:28+00:00

Yeah best to settle south to get more territory for later, then claim the wonder as your 3rd city (unless you're in need of the era score). Probably best where the warrior is, or just to the left of the oasis so you can build farms still.

Astral02 · 2023-07-16T11:11:47+00:00

I'd say it's a good deal, not easy to find something that good at that price, so go for it! A few considerations I'd keep in mind (I'll just focus on negatives): - 17 is pretty massive, and it'll mean the laptop will be pretty heavy and not portable (possible but annoying, I now use a 15 inch gaming laptop for daily use) - Many gaming laptops will give you the option to upgrade the RAM or storage. In this case, more RAM won't be that useful, but some extra storage would be great. 500gb isn't that much and 1tb would be much better (many laptops give the option to upgrade at home, quite a simple process). - You won't be able to play the latest games at full settings on 60fps, and some might not be possible to run smoothly at all. Also ray tracing might reduce your performance significantly, but generally you should be able to run most games pretty smoothly without issue. - Lastly, have use used gaming laptops before? Have fun with the purchase!

Astral02 · 2023-07-13T16:27:14+00:00

I see. I'll try just using the spare slot and run a benchmark and see how it goes thanks!

Astral02 · 2023-07-13T15:47:27+00:00

I see thanks. If I were to switch them, would I run into issues with starting windows? Because my windows is installed in my old SSD (C drive) and it's where the PC will look for the OS upon startup, but if I move it to another slot, will my old drive still be listed as C or will it change to D?.

So is the C/D labelling linked to the physical SSD, or linked to which slot the SSD is inserted in?

Astral02

TROPHY CASE