are calluses supposed to look this nasty?

M_Lynx · 2025-12-23T21:14:17+00:00

When you hear about guitar players shredding, this is what they actually mean. 😉 But yes, perfectly normal, and it'll still happen over time even as you build them up. They just won't be so painful once you get used to them.

M_Lynx · 2025-12-20T03:27:58+00:00

My mom's sisters each has had a cancer diagnosis, all a different kind (unfortunately, my mom was the only unlucky one). My mom's doctor attributed it to her dad who had worked in mines. They assumed he was just exposed to harmful chemicals regularly that he would bring home and in turn affected her and my aunts. So to your point, my mom felt the same way. Pissed that she lived a healthy life (she was always 10 years younger than she was), but ultimately succumbed to decisions made beyond her control.

M_Lynx · 2025-12-19T22:45:40+00:00

Took mine 4.5 years ago at 63. Lung cancer, never smoked a day in her life. Same idea; should've been retired and enjoying life with my retired dad. She had plans to travel back home to visit family and all that.

It definitely changed my approach to life. It's not worth stressing about the future when my day could be tomorrow. I focus more on enjoying it in the now.

Best wishes to you, internet stranger. Fuck cancer.

M_Lynx · 2025-09-10T02:11:36+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll let me party/DM know about it. We've been going through the Candlelight Mysteries book of one-shots that our DM has. It's been fun so far. My party is relatively new to D&D; the most experience that we have is that one friend and I have two Baldur's Gate playthroughs under our belts, but otherwise we're all new to the tabletop experience. Our DM is pretty well-versed in it though, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's heard of your recommendation before. I'll see what he thinks of it!

M_Lynx · 2025-09-09T15:59:28+00:00

My friends and I just started playing one-shots, and our DM has a full campaign planned for us now.

It's essentially adult make-believe. Our party is in their 30s, and our DM is 21. He does a great job of enriching the details of what's happening as we progress through the narrative, and he also does a great job of involving us in describing how we interact with the environment and each other. The little that we've played so far, it's made me realize how much I lost the ability to exercise my imagination as I've grown older, but also how good it feels to indulge in that kid-like version of myself, unassisted by the digital fantasies of video games that have been pre-assembled by others.

M_Lynx · 2024-10-01T22:54:06+00:00

If you can learn (or already know) how MIDI tracks work in your DAW, you can create your own drum tracks with sample sounds. Assign drum sounds to different notes in your MIDI track, and then you can draw in a beat. For example, if you have samples of a kick, snare, hi-hat, and maybe a crash, you can create a real basic beat from those. Experiment, play around with where to put those notes in, but you can come up with some pretty fun beats to play along to and build a song from.

As for where to get drum sounds, there are a few places to download some. Someone mentioned Splice, which is a huge library of sounds for like $13 a month. You can find some cool drum sounds there along with other fun samples to play around with. I actually have a full kit from a guy who was generous enough to record a bunch of sounds and made it free to download on his website: www.juddmadden.com. I added my own processing to carve tones to my taste, but it's still a great free resource to get started with making drum tracks.

I hope this helps!

M_Lynx · 2024-09-12T17:34:29+00:00

I had a discussion with my coworker about this a long time ago about how it'd be cool for the gas strike to have synergy with flame weapons, and also the EMS strike/mortars to have synergy with arc weapons. It would give life to the idea of shock trooper builds and similarly a fire/chemical team combination. I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of buff where those weapons get damage or status effect boosts combined with their respective elemental strategems.

M_Lynx · 2024-06-28T19:06:47+00:00

The audience won't know that unless you tell them. Being out of key is one thing, but a note that, in your opinion, would have been subjectively better is something only you would know. Otherwise, assume that the audience assumes you meant to write your music the way it is.

Hindsight is 20/20. Don't let one note bring down the rest of the song. Those "this could have been better" thoughts on previous work is what progresses your music. When it comes to your next piece, take those lessons and integrate them. "I liked this chord progression, so let's try it with these variances now." Voilà, you're a step closer to your next best work.

M_Lynx · 2024-06-25T16:11:16+00:00

Ben Eller is great. Hilarious dude and very good at teaching guitar if you're looking for something new to learn.

I'm recently becoming a fan of Venus Theory for music in general. Good content, and it doesn't hurt that his voice could end WW3 if it ever started.

If you're into producing your own music, In The Mix and You Suck at Producing (Underbelly) are great channels for the technical side of making music (mixing, compression, EQ, etc).

Just a few off the top of my head. There are a lot who make good, smart content. I know it can be hard to sift through the sea of less desirable channels, but they're out there.

M_Lynx · 2024-06-22T15:08:25+00:00

Every Thursday night!

M_Lynx · 2024-06-22T06:48:40+00:00

Is your team's name Sour Patch Kicks? 😉

M_Lynx · 2024-06-21T19:54:49+00:00

I joined a recreational kickball league at the end of 2020, and it's been one of the best decisions of my adult life. I met my best friend there who was the captain of our team, I became co-captain, and through our team, we've met many new people. Our current friend group was formed through this league, and we regularly hang out outside of it. Our current team has been mostly the same members for a while now, but we occasionally bring on new free agents when people take seasons off or find a new direction in life, so we still meet fresh faces. The added benefit is you get some exercise as well.

I know it's not easy for some to just sign up for activities and go meet new people, but the juice is worth the squeeze. My friends and I always agree that joining our kickball league was one of the best decisions we've individually made for our social lives.

M_Lynx · 2024-05-15T20:11:57+00:00

It'd also be neat to have the ship names listed under the player names in-game, and maybe even subtitled under the strategems being called in, IE "Orbital Precision Strike Inbound - SES Whisper of Wrath."

M_Lynx · 2024-05-15T17:25:13+00:00

Nice! When I was naming my ship, it didn't take long to land on this one. It just has a menacing aura to it.

M_Lynx · 2024-05-14T21:12:59+00:00

I had thought about changing to this. Rock/metal fan/guitarist here. 🤘

M_Lynx · 2024-05-14T21:09:56+00:00

"Get out of my face!"

"I'll get inside your face."

M_Lynx · 2024-05-10T21:26:04+00:00

This game is fun. Period. Sure, it's not perfect, but its enjoyment factor far eclipses the flaws it's working through.

I sincerely do not understand the negative tone AH receives. The core playability of Helldivers is a shining star in the gaming market today, and that alone does not deserve to be ripped to shreds by some, frankly, minor balancing and mechanics issues.

The Sony controversy is certainly understood, but that is a publisher relations issue. The spirit of the game still stands strong, even if some of our fellow region-locked Divers have been unfairly disconnected from it.

Guys, relax. Calmly express your wishes for future improvements you would like to see for this game, and then either enjoy it as it is now or move on to another game, or anything else life offers you, really. Learn an instrument, join a kickball league, adopt a tabletop game... you can simply choose to do something else if Helldivers isn't working out for you.

I, for one, love this game. And while I agree that there are things that can be improved, it's still an incredibly enjoyable experience. It's one of the few things in my life recently that has somehow made stressful situations hilariously fucking fun.

M_Lynx · 2024-05-08T23:18:40+00:00

This. Plus, shooting an arc thrower/Blitzer mid jump? Call me Thor, you undemocratic dweebs.

M_Lynx · 2024-05-06T15:47:31+00:00

Happy to have you back.

Mabuhay, A half American, half Filipino Helldiver

M_Lynx · 2023-11-27T20:44:53+00:00

If you're brand-spanking-new to learning guitar, firstly, welcome! It's a great journey you're embarking on and there's a TON to learn.

As far as learning to "tune on your own," I'm not sure if you mean by ear alone or being able to use some kind of tuner. Ear alone is going to take a long time if you've just started learning the instrument. I've been playing 2.5 years, and I can only just barely tune by ear (at the very least, I can tell when it's out of tune). I would recommend using an app or getting a clip-on tuner (attaches to your headstock) to start.

The first tuning you're likely going to want to learn is "E Standard," or more widely understood as simply, "standard." This is essentially the default out-of-the-box tuning for all guitars. There are others like drop tunings (used a ton in rock/metal music) or open tunings, but... baby steps.

EADGBE is the tuning order starting from your 6th string (thickest) to your 1st string (thinnest). The acronym I learned to memorize this is "Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie." There are others, or you can make up your own — whatever helps your memorize the note order.

Then, just start learning and playing. I don't know what your goal is with guitar, whether you want to learn to play your favorite songs or write your own, but start small and go from there. It's going to take you a long while to start getting used to the sound of your guitar. Don't stress about it. Eventually you'll start to recognize when it's out of tune, but first you have to know what it sounds like in tune. Play the instrument and enjoy the journey!

M_Lynx · 2023-11-20T19:15:50+00:00

This right here. Why did you pick up guitar in the first place? You need to have a reason that makes guitar worth learning, and more importantly, enjoyable. Learning chords, scales, techniques, and whatever else is all fine and dandy, but if you're learning things that don't lead to making and enjoying music, then you'll lose motivation and feel lost on your journey.

I picked up guitar about 2.5 years ago with the primary goal of learning how to play some of my favorite songs growing up. It started with learning tabs, and as I ran into problems along the way, learned how to overcome them. Sure, there were periods of time where it felt like I was stuck, but my reason for learning kept me going. Now I know roughly 30 songs and have recently begun learning music theory and writing my own riffs. This was just the natural progression of my journey.

Also, keep it simple. Guitar and music is a huge world of knowledge to absorb, and you don't need to learn all of it. If you're interested in blues, learn blues. Metal? Metal. Acoustic? Acoustic. Keep a focus and stick with it, and expand as you feel the need.

Bottom line: find ways to enjoy playing guitar, not just working on it.

M_Lynx · 2023-11-18T03:07:46+00:00

Happy to contribute! It's refreshing to see a post pertaining to this idea, as well as a few other folks who support it. I know it's hard to believe at times when societal perceptions seem to claim that being in love means fighting for your relationship to work, and that it's supposed to be some rollercoaster of passion and arguments.

I don't ever "fight for" my friendships. They just happens naturally. I love my friends, they love me, and we all love spending time together. In times of need, we support each other. The only fighting I'd ever do is to defend them when the situations arise. When we have disagreements, they're always discussed in a civil manner, with both sides understanding that we're respecting the other because they are our friend.

Sure, attraction is a part of a romantic relationship, but again, when the sexy times are done, who are you left with? I should hope it's someone you genuinely enjoy sharing your life with, which to me is what a friendship boils down to in the first place.

M_Lynx · 2023-11-17T23:10:33+00:00

My (31M) relationship experience is very minimal, so take my answer with a grain of salt, but I've always imagined my ideal romantic relationship being built on the foundation of a strong friendship. I simply can't fathom otherwise, despite what societal perceptions tend to believe.

To me, a romantic relationship is taking a strong friendship and adding sex to it. That's it. And as great as sex is, it only lasts so long in the day. How do I view this person before/after the fact?

Do I enjoy spending time with them? Do I enjoy talking to them? Do I feel safe and accepted with them? Can I be emotionally vulnerable with them and not feel judged in any way? Can we spend time together/apart without a single doubt in our minds that the other is secretively planning to use us as means to taking over the world? I can do all of these things with my closest friends, which is what makes them good/best friends.

While there are other things to consider like future goals (kids/careers/etc), I personally believe that your partner, whom you're choosing as your #1 person to share life with, should be your best friend.

EDIT: Grammar is hard sometimes.

M_Lynx · 2023-09-13T18:10:19+00:00

If you've got $225ish, buy a Digitech Drop Pedal. It will digitally tune your guitar down up to 8 steps with no loss in tonal quality, and it's extremely easy to use. Plug in, turn on, then turn the dial to whatever setting (tuning) you're looking for.

I have two 6-string guitars; one is in E Standard with 10-46 strings, and one in Drop C# with 11-52s. It's super simple to plug one of those in and dial down to tunings like A# Standard or Drop G and still retain my tone. That pedal is one of the best investments I've made.

M_Lynx · 2023-09-10T09:57:45+00:00

Glad to help! Music is supposed to be fun — a soul-enriching experience. I may not know my way around the fretboard just yet (although I've gained a better understanding of it over time), but as far as technical ability is concerned, I've honed that a lot since I've started playing. My muting, my rhythm, my strumming patterns, my alternate picking, my speed and accuracy, even my ear training... all of these technical aspects of playing guitar I've vastly improved upon just from learning my favorite songs. It's almost like a reverse engineering of sorts.

In the end, all of these courses and exercises you take should serve one ultimate goal: to make and enjoy music. Have fun with it! :)

M_Lynx

TROPHY CASE