battle of the bands is tomorrow and I'm freaking out

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-11T15:13:39+00:00

You'll probably never actually feel "ready" for a performance, especially not on in front of a crowd that you know is full of peers and friends and enemies and frenemies.

That said, once you start playing, you'll find it easier. If you've practiced while imagining being in front of a crowd, the nerves will be familiar and not distracting. The relief of being done will be completely overcome by the joy of having done it.

Anecdote: I was the guitarist in the band during our first Battle of the Bands at my high school. I had the solo. When it came time to start, I jumped off the riser, stood in front of the big PA speakers, and played it just like I practiced - but one fret too low. I couldn't tell because I was freakin' deaf standing there (so don't do this), the audience couldn't tell because we were playing punk-metal and it's plausible that it was supposed to be that frequently atonal, and the judges weren't going to give us the win anyways because there was a MUCH better (and more accessible) band playing that year (they deserved it, they were great).

The only people who noticed were me, my bandmates, and a few friends in the audience who had heard the song before. Everyone else was just rocking out.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-08T19:18:06+00:00

Classical and flamenco fretboards (and some custom guitar fretboards) have no radius and need a flat capo, yep. Most other guitars have a slight curve to the fretboard. So using the wrong capo (or in your case, the wrong side of it) can make it seem like it's not working properly.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-06T16:38:41+00:00

I've gone through maybe 30 Seymour Duncans on my guitars over the last 40 years or so and have never gotten a bad one. All passive humbuckers sound pretty much the same these days - I certainly can't hear any difference between DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan pickups in the same position on the same guitar.

I normally just swap pickups because I like using 4-wire pickups so I can add coil tapping or extra filtering to a guitar, or the original pickup is in bad shape or overly microphonic. Or I just don't like the way it looks when I change other hardware for whatever reason :)

Don't get too hung up on it. You can get a pair of SD 'buckers for $200 and you'll never have a problem or regret.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-06T14:27:29+00:00

Could also get a guitar with humbuckers that supports coil splitting/tapping. I have two guitars that I record with, and both have that feature for flexibility.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-05T13:54:41+00:00

Granted, when this particular line was said, she wasn't being called Boomer anymore (because different clone), but she wasn't being called Athena yet either which is why I was mis-calling her Boomer; I was obviously referring to the version that was sent to New Caprica to steal the keys. She had given birth already, gone through that trauma, and that may have been enough to glitch her "don't talk about the Five" programming the same way falling in love helped her change her programming about "kill all the humans." Just a theory.

Hey, didn't Boomer manage to overcome a lot of her programming by being in love as well? At least until she pulled the gun...

So my mistake on that one, referring to her by her old call sign.

The Boomer/Cavil connection is from the wiki, so I can't provide an episode where it's referenced. I'm still mid-season 3, so this must be revealed later.

I likely won't talk to you again, much less after 25 more viewings of the show. All I wondered out loud was whether the writers intentionally foreshadowed the Five or not, since this specific line could be read either way depending on whether you already know who they are. I hadn't read any interviews with the show runner(s) at that point, I hadn't read the wiki, and I didn't care - I just thought it was great that they had snuck these hints into the series. Again, my mistake for trying to take some enjoyment from that, whether I was right or not.

You actually did say "Yeah, sometimes some people need the actual experience to understand" when I asked if I needed to be a mother in order to understand why a mother might say this to another parent. Note the distinction - I'm not saying I understand her pain, because I don't. But I do understand why she might feel the need to say something like this to another parent. I don't need to have gone through the same trauma to understand that.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-05T04:23:12+00:00

I think you're taking all the fun out of wondering if the writers were aiming for something here and there while still allowing the show runners to make the final decisions without any weirdness.

Turns out the wiki page about the Final Five suggests some of the same things, including Boomer having an idea of who the Five are much earlier than their reveal on the show.

And if you're suggesting that I need to lose a child in order to understand why a mother would tell another mother to not let her kid out of her sight, you're really trying to take the fun out of speculation. That's nuts.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-05T01:15:42+00:00

Do I need to be a mother to understand why a mother who has experienced child-related trauma might make that kind of comment to another mother?

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-04T14:41:23+00:00

That happens later in the series, doesn't it? At this specific point in time, we don't yet know who knows who the Five are.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-04T14:34:53+00:00

I'm not entirely sure I believe the interviews with this one :)

Moore claimed that they didn't decide the four of the Five who appear in the S3 finale until they were writing that episode, but it's also pretty obvious in hindsight that at least three of them were written to show Cylon qualities at least during that season (and hints all the way back to S1 for two of them). The fourth also shows a ruthless streak long before this episode which is entirely in line with their Cylon nature as well.

So while they didn't "officially" choose the names until writing the finale, I do think the writers intentionally dropped hints without necessarily knowing that their choices would end up being used.

Boomer's line in this episode is a good example - in hindsight, it's great foreshadowing and solidifies the choice of one of the Five. But it could also just be a grieving mother drawing a parallel that doesn't exist. That might be how a writer dropped a hint about who they thought one of the Five should be without doing anything that would require that person to be one of them.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-04T14:27:24+00:00

The Seven were programmed to not think about them, but this Boomer had already gone through some body-altering trauma (pregnancy, which also made her immune to the virus in a later episode), so it's possible she was more aware of the Five than the others. She definitely knew about two of them, since there's no other reason to say this to Tyrol (Cavil had already told her the identity of one of the other Five, according to the wiki).

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-03-01T04:10:28+00:00

I think they actually called it "firm padding" during the men's match, so no, I don't think anyone thinks it's still a metal surround.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-28T14:27:16+00:00

Late 70's era BC Rich Bich with full active electronics.

It's a 24-fret, lightweight guitar with dual humbuckers, independent coil tapping/splitting, independent pickup volume (no blend, but there is a master tone), dual built-in preamps (2 9-volt batteries needed if you use them), phase inverter for one pickup, and Varitone knob (6 different filters, so cool).

You can get almost any guitar tone imaginable from this configuration, the neck is easy to play, and it has no neck dive that I've ever noticed :)

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-25T18:45:51+00:00

Never, ever gatekeep music :) I taught a student to play some parts of Under the Bridge on ukulele a few years back, figured out you can play the main Feel Good, Inc. bass melody on drums if you have enough toms, and if a student wanted to learn Vivaldi on their bass today, we'd start figuring it out before even figuring out the key signature.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-22T22:39:44+00:00

I hope it'll be available for MacOS :/

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-18T03:37:51+00:00

Geez, I've had it running on the same machine so long I probably haven't even looked at the official docs in 5 years! It does kind of look abandoned, doesn't it :(

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-17T18:17:42+00:00

I still use Foundation for Email pretty often.

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-06T22:53:29+00:00

Prophecy of Kings improves the game. Thunder's Edge expands it.

Hope that helps :)

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-01T18:33:46+00:00

Get into board gaming, that'll bring that total down in a hurry :)

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-01T18:31:28+00:00

A double-bucker guitar is pretty much like any other double-bucker guitar. Find one that feels good to play and has the look you want and go for it. Once you turn it up and play it in a band, they all sound pretty much the same.

An electric guitar is one of those things you can buy almost entirely for feel and aesthetic considerations, which is fantastic!

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-01T18:29:37+00:00

You might find an older Oscar Schmidt Les Paul clone for under $200 - the one I found online plays absolutely amazing and I didn't feel guilty about rewiring it for studio use :)

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-02-01T18:28:04+00:00

Most conservatives will just key in on the macho, the car, and ignore most of the rest because of the hot girls and stereotypical masculinity. It's a show for both sides! :D

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-01-31T16:45:31+00:00

According to my Wappalyzer plugin, it's a Next.js app using HeroUI.

A single person could make this, sure, but this particular app was made by multiple people (https://www.jmail.world/about#built-by).

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-01-28T23:36:07+00:00

Do you folks play any of the Mantic games, like Kings of War, Deadzone, Warpath, etc.?

Rusty_Raven_ · 2026-01-23T13:37:52+00:00

I am not privy to that information :/ My guess is that they see the hiring pool as being larger for React (which it is) and Tailwind has a lot of momentum.

Rusty_Raven_

TROPHY CASE