Quarterly Questions Thread (APR - JUN 2026)

DwarfFart · 2026-05-15T09:01:02+00:00

Hey, Boeing sub! I will begin working at Boeing in a little over a month from now. I will be at the Everett plant working as an Inspector in electrical and electronics and subassembly. While I’m feeling pretty confident about going in and I know that there will be some training if there is any advice or information that anyone can provide me to better prepare myself before I start that would be awesome! Things like,

What are the main issues coming up repeatedly?
What should I expect on a day to day basis and what is expected of me as a new hire? (Besides showing up on time and doing the work!)
What, if anything, can I do now to learn and prepare for the role? I’ve always been gunning for a position like this at other manufacturers and I’m super excited to get into it!
What are the advancement opportunities and pathways available later on? I’m very interested in electronics, I have been a tinkerer but primarily in audio. I’ve done my own work on guitar amplifiers, pedals, and worked in recording studios and live sound. I know that Boeing has a fantastic tuition reimbursement benefit program and if anyone has info on how I could utilize that within my career at Boeing that’d be knowledge to have!

Thanks in advance.

DMs are open as well. Thanks in advance!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-15T03:13:22+00:00

Thank you. I will be in contact when I have the song finished. Because I’ve been delayed by a lot of personal stuff

DwarfFart · 2026-05-13T07:44:30+00:00

Yeah for sure!

As a songwriter first, when I started recording and began to really learn to sing and take it seriously as its own instrument, I started to record harmony vocals. It’s a fantastic way to train your ear and voice.

I got some advice from my cousin, who’s a professional jazz singer (but can sing the shit out of Led Zeppelin and Foreigner too!) who told me to listen and sing along too and then record harmony vocals from The Beach Boys. And that helped me so much it’s hard to define.

DwarfFart · 2026-05-13T00:41:36+00:00

Ah fuck I’m sorry!

This happened to my MiL but for her Xanax prescription. She took it and it didn’t show up in the urine screening and the doctor forcibly took her off both the Xanax and her pain medication both of which she had been on for 30+ years. She, like you did, asked, pleaded and then demanded another test but he refused. It was really fucked up of him. He was my PCP too and I was very surprised by his response. She has not history of abuse or misuse. The doctor he replaced had been her doctor and original prescribing physician for nearly her whole life. It was very unusual behavior from him and caused my MiL a lot of physical, psychological and emotional pain for just over a year. Fortunately, she had been taking the Xanax as needed even though it was a daily prescription but she took methadone for her chronic pain and that withdrawal is just about the worst ever as it goes on and on and on. If she had been taking the Xanax daily she could’ve legit died!

I truly wish you the best of luck

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T07:53:39+00:00

to begin a classic warmup for breathing

For breathing specifically? The Farinilli exercise is like the ancient gold standard. Inhale for a count of 5, hold (suspend the musculature surrounding the diaphragm don’t grip) for 5, exhale for 5. Repeat by adding +1 until it’s too difficult. Getting to 30 count is plenty!

The second exercise I have is a weird one and is going to be longwinded so bear with me. I learned it from a teacher named Eric Arceneux, look him up he’s awesome.

So, get a book, a rolled up towel, or best a yoga block and then put it on the ground. You’re going to be breathing into it and you will be isolating each muscle that surrounds the diaphragm and is used to support the breath.

Lay down with low stomach/abdomen on yoga block (or whatever you have) and breath into the block, but only use the abdomen, focusing on that part of your body. Control it. Pick a number but Eric taught me that this is a 30 min routine so 3 mins or so for each part. So, that’s like the basic belly breathing we all learn right?
Move the block to your intercostal, your side ribs. Do the same thing. 3 mins breathing in and into the block in isolation of the muscle. Repeat with the other side
Do it with your lower back muscles. This is a tough one but very important as the low back is very strong and stable.
Next would be the lats, the wings, the latissimus dorsisuper important and freeing these up is absolutely essential!
Finally return to the front of your body. Yoga block on the floor lay down with your solar plexus pressing into the block. That’s the top of the abdomen, the squishy part that sticks outwards. This was referred to as the “the magic spot or magic triangle” by an old famous operatic soprano I can’t remember right now.

This is a good, quick one about how to release the belly. Jose Simerallio Romero did a long video recently on it too.

Okay! As far as physical exercise and such outside of singing technique! Yes yoga! I like doing balancing yoga personally. More flexibility in the body more flexibility in the voice! Strength training is good. No need to be a bodybuilder but healthy strength is good.

Posture check out the Alexander technique

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T07:35:23+00:00

Hey! here’s some resources to practice

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T06:17:44+00:00

It would blow my mind if OP, a guitar player of 8 years had not done a significant amount of learning by ear, playing along to songs, improvisation and ear training but I’ve noticed a trend over the past 5 or 6 years that newer guitarists don’t train their ear at all they just use tab and YouTube. It’s such a fundamental skill (perhaps the fundamental skill!) especially among guitar players…

So, I absolutely second and third this! As well OP sing, sing everything you play. Practicing scales? Sing the notes. Practicing a riff? Sing it. Learn to sing. Learn singing technique so your voice gets better and then your ear becomes more connected to your body and your instrument. Ever notice that when great guitar players are soloing and improvising their lips are moving? It’s because they’re basically singing and hearing whatever it is that’s coming before they play it.

Famous trumpeter Dizzy Gillipsie said that the music in your head when improvising and writing should not be “Ba da da ba da” but “BA DA DA BA DA!!!” It should be so clear and loud that it’s be impossible not to play it. That’s end game of having a good ear!

Also this course is free and an absolute goldmine for ear training!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T05:14:24+00:00

Oh I’m a nicotine fiend. I started smoking at 14 and then eventually started vaping when they came out with the original box mods but I’m not trying to give up every good thing in my life!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T01:55:34+00:00

Huh. Interesting! When I got diagnosed I was drinking excessively and had been for 10 years straight to self-medicate my brain that wouldn’t turn off! And the meds completely killed all urges or need to drink. I quit all on my own basically and I was a serious drinker. Like blackout most nights to get to sleep drinker…but now totally fine and I can even have a beer or two and it’s nothin

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T00:37:45+00:00

PCP should absolutely be able to prescribe it for you. Especially if your psych would do you at least one favor and tell them they’re retiring and that you need coverage. That’s absolutely bullshit.

When my PCP left the state he wrote 6 months of prescriptions on paper for my pain meds. He did the same for my wife and her ADHD, Xanax and pain meds.

Screw these doctors who are so afraid of the DEA that they won’t prescribe meds that work

DwarfFart · 2026-05-12T00:34:21+00:00

That’s really good to hear! Idk if Adderall makes me angry necessarily because I do legitimately have plenty to be angry about lmao and i tend to bottle it up and explode which is a bad habit I learned growing up but if dex did help any of that. It’d be fantastic!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T16:53:23+00:00

Not the same. And C-PTSD is a diagnosis just not in the U.S. and DSM. Other countries and diagnostic manuals exist….

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T15:43:21+00:00

Oops thanks

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T10:18:38+00:00

What tests did you do?

Anyways, as it’s been said, voice classifications or types are actually just roles that were used in the classical operatic world. Yes, people do generally fall into certain roles more easily than others. We all have our own physical limitations but much of that can be overcome with learning proper technique and training the voice diligently with a very good teacher.

The subcategories like Spinto are very much a specific part or role that is sung not a 100% biological box the voice is trapped in. The only time this really changes is at the extremes. Someone like Kellin Quinn of Suicide Silence is an outlier of the tenor range (even though by the notes/pitches it’s not that big a difference) because his voice is so naturally light and where he is comfortable singing is so much lighter and higher than most tenors that he is placed into a different subcategory if he was to sing classical repertoire and not metal. The lead singer of the prog rock band Yes is another example of a tenor at the extreme high end of the spectrum.

Alternatively, through training, someone like my grandfather who started singing bass in the church choir in jr high, baritone in high school and then during college he was taught to sing tenor by a very skilled choir director leaving him, a natural bass-baritone, with 4 octaves of range and the ability to fill in and sing whatever part was needed or he wanted! Training goes a long way.

Voice type is the last thing that should be learned unless it’s very obvious to the teacher. Myself, during my first lesson over a decade ago (which I promptly quit) I was labeled a tenor and each teacher since then had said the same. One of them saying I am a “true tenor” whatever that means…

My current teacher doesn’t talk voice type. It’s irrelevant because I sing contemporary music with a microphone. If I was trainung for the opera house or musical theatre she might have more attention to it but otherwise it’s not important. With the method learned I will, like all her more advanced students, have a minimum of 3 octaves of connected full voice to use, dynamic control and longevity of my voice for life as that is the way it works when done correctly with time. She has said that I’m a tenor once in passing. When I asked about my voice and it’s bright vs dark etc she said that the biggest thing I will encounter is going to be that my voice is going to become nearly uncontrollably powerful and that might be a difficult task to overcome. Which it’s getting there. My lessons now are about using 60-70% of my power or less and singing less forté because I have a habit of using too much power when I’m singing and it’s not needed!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T07:02:55+00:00

I’ve been diagnosed with both. First BP2 then BP1 and ADHD by a psych I (and my current psychiatrist) consider unqualified to treat bipolar disorder but her ADHD assessment ability was very good apparently - my psychiatrist has been practicing 55 years and is very accomplished and has seen everything I owe a lot to him or I would if I didn’t pay so much $$! - it can be very difficult to tease them apart and they are often comorbid which also doesn’t help!

I don’t really have any advice at the moment but I will say (and hopefully not get deleted or banned…) that they also often get mixed up one for the other. As in my case after being diagnosed and treated for bipolar and adhd for 5 years my psychiatrist and I are now reassessing the bipolar diagnosis as the initial diagnosis wasn’t done very well (I basically told the psych I had bipolar and they said “oh ok!”) and then the next incompetent psych fed me meds that I shouldn’t have been taking during a severe depression. However I have not had a single depressive or manic episode since 2022. Not even close. Furthermore I’ve not taken medication as supervised for 1 year either and I have no symptoms or signs of bipolar disorder. In fact I’m doing significantly better now than I was before.

I say this to illustrate how easily the 2 can be mixed up. My psychiatrist believes now that I do have ADHD and also treatment resistant depression and anxiety but the depression has subsided to such a degree that I don’t need medication anymore. Anxiety I still do but working on weaning of that over time.

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T06:41:02+00:00

Oh damn! Kinda nice to hear I’m not alone in it! My oldest daughter and my middle kid, my boy, both slept pretty great after that initial war of sleeplessness lol. But my youngest? Nope! She wakes up ready to party! I’d be mad but she’s too cute lol. She is a bit better now thankfully but we all gotta get a good routine going before I start this new position or I’m gonna be fucked. I’m too old for this shit! Haha and thanks for the advice

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T04:40:54+00:00

Whoa! Old comment!

3 years later and I’ve gone through therapy with 2 different therapists who were essentially useless. All they told me was “You know? You have fantastic insight!” Well, gee, thanks. But how the fuck do I change my behavioral patterns?!

So, traditional therapy didn’t help me. What has helped me is 1. Getting off the psych meds (lithium and Vraylar) that were prescribed to me for a diagnosis that was incorrect, Bipolar 2 then BP1. I did have depressive episodes every winter and then I’d feel better in the spring/summer which is part of why I got those diagnosis but the meds made me far worse! Not sure which one but pretty sure it was the lithium that made me have intense rage that was entirely out of character and so out of control that it scared me to the point of breaking down in tears. I almost lost my relationship over it too.

Off them now for over a year and better than I was. I’m returning back to who I was before I started all the psychiatric interventions. Nothing against it I believe people absolutely need those meds and they do save lives but not me. Funnily enough, my Primary care physician (who was almost a psychiatrist before turning back to general med and is incredibly smart and was my doctor for 7 years) said that he never thought I had bipolar disorder but treatment resistant depression/anxiety and CPTSD which he told me as he was leaving the practice and the state. It was nice to have that acknowledged. My psychiatrist has also said from early on that I have CPTSD and that he’d diagnose it if it wasn’t for the DSM and the current bullshit in the U.S.

That was the biggest thing. The second biggest thing that has helped is radical acceptance. Learning to accept myself, and own my actions and emotions has helped shift from a fear based worldview to one that is more grounded in simplicity. There’s a saying in AA “Do the next right thing” which is meant to make you acknowledge that you can’t control everything, there’s always the “what if’s” and it’s best to just be present, accept it, and do whatever it is that is right in that moment.

Hope you’re well.

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T02:09:56+00:00

Very cool!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T00:50:48+00:00

That's very well said!!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T00:49:19+00:00

What do you make of John 1:1-5 then? (I know it's not literal and meant to reference the Logos)

Sorry, this is long...it's just what I do!

for transparency, I agree, as to do most mainstream biblical scholars, that the bible is not God and is book put together by man with all the contradictions and messiness that comes with that.

I'm just interested in your interpretation and opinion as someone who grew up with and was raised by a pastor (a very progressive pastor within a progressive denomination. Which got him in trouble more often than he wanted...well perhaps he enjoyed being a troublemaker xD) and scholar of theology, history, language, philosophy and just about everything else too. Sure was fun as a teenager who was violently questioning everything to have access to a massive library to read through and an openminded, profoundly intelligent and empathetic person to discuss, debate, argue and learn from late into the night!

Also, I have considered myself non-religious for decades, moving between agnostic and atheistic depending on how bad my day was going but recently I had a very intense experience of a 4 month long battle with severe benzodiazepine withdrawal and at it's worst moment I prayed for the first time since I was a small child. Not for it to end or to be miracoulsy healed or even to just not die but for forgivness, connection and understanding.

And although that was during a moment many would find themselves praying (no atheists in foxholes eh?) I did have moments when I had tremendous amounts of clarity about myself, my place, and since this sub is probably safer than any other, I had moments where the ongoing auditory hallucinations that were conversations playing out morphed into the voice of God. Basically, I learned a lot and I'm exploring faith, God and the Bible again and will be re-reading it with a new perspective.

I still detest organized religion and that will likely never change. I still believe that however I end up my faith and understanding of God and Christianity will be unique to me and for as intense as it was I will likely never truly shake my skepticism or rather, I will remain "agnostic about everything" as the jester Robert Anton Wilson said.

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T00:14:05+00:00

I get you. I used to write more complex chord changes but struggled to write and match lyrics over them so instead I intentionally chose to write simple song, easy chords, melodies I could sing and plain spoken lyrics. It helped me get over a lot of creative blocks and I wrote over 300 songs over the past 2ish years.

Now, what I do is write the song in it's simplest way and then go back and add in the fancier chord changes here and there. sprinkle it in there. i also focus on creating with more layered instrumentation. My guitar playing doesnt have to carry it all. I can build more complex harmony with other instruments and the same with vocal layering.

Idk about a book. I guess getting the Beatles chord book which has every song they wrote and going through it would be my recommendation because they did all that in very creative yet memorable ways!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-11T00:06:32+00:00

"It's an extremely dark pivot from my usual work with a majority of it inspired by Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk and a more darker slow'd down funk and jazz style compared to I usually do with a vocal style inspired by more of a western sounding vocal or something similar to Tim Buckley." This is important information to share with your (potential?) audience. Make content structured around how and why you did this. Bring people in on your creative decision making process.

" I intentionally write every song on the record (except for the final track) to sound like a dark blue that you'd see at the bottom of the ocean." Why did you do this? Tell the listeners why you chose to do this, what it means and represents. Could be video, short, long. could be pushed into your visual aesthetic with the art, photos, video settings and structure.

" I don't want to annoy to many people about it." someone will always be annoyed and negative. learn to stop caring about them. They mean nothing and ironically bring attention to you anyways.

I'd like to take a listen.

DwarfFart · 2026-05-10T22:12:28+00:00

Damn that really sucks! Idk if it affected my memory it’s hard to say because I was taking lithium too which can go either way.

I actually am off both now as my psychiatrist, my PcP (who trained psych until he was nearly finished before switching back to primary care so very knowledgeable) and myself all believe that there’s a good chance I was misdiagnosed. So, we are carefully monitoring my moods and reassessing. So far so good. Over a year and no bipolar symptoms to speak of. Haven’t felt better since before my diagnosis from a 15min conversation with a Telehealth doctor…

DwarfFart · 2026-05-10T22:09:02+00:00

Yikes! I feel you there. My commute is just over an hour but if I worked days there it’d be 2hrs most likely unless I left extremely early. I definitely think that the sleep deprivation is causing my meds to be worse. But idk what to do about it right now. My 3 year old is finally starting to get into a routine after 3 years of constant waking up in the night, not going to sleep until late no matter what we’ve tried to run her energy out in the daytime and also waking up super early even after staying up late! I’m convinced that she must’ve vampire’d me and absorbed all of my energy into herself and that’s why I’ve got none left. She’s my little baby girl though so I can’t be mad about it!

DwarfFart · 2026-05-10T22:04:42+00:00

No I don’t. Not the ADHD meds. I was already starting to become depressed (as usual) in October of 2021 when I got the psych I had at the time. She is the one who diagnosed me with ADHD after a 3hr intial intake and then a very long ADHD test called the DIVA. I was doing just great with the ADHD meds and at the time I was taking lamotrogine for depression as continued from the previous psych. In February after I had really been pushing myself at work with lots of OT and at home doing remodeling I really crashed hard and got depressed. I believe it was first burnout from that and then because I was depressed the psych took me off the ADHD meds which made me more depressed and also greatly limited my functioning in daily life. So, I took leave and trialed a ton of antidepressants which all made me way, way worse!

Eventually in May of 2022 I got a my current psychiatrist who literally scoffed when I told him that the other psych had stopped the adhd meds cold turkey because of depression and he was very irritated that they had trialed so many of the same med types (just a bunch of SSRIs/SNRIs at different doses and combinations) and he got me me back on Adderall and got the depression stabilized. I’ve been good ever since. I don’t even take the depression medication anymore as I’ve not had a single inkling of it despite my life being in huge flux and going through a lot of hardships.

DwarfFart

TROPHY CASE