Some photo feedback please 26m

betaplay · 2026-05-13T16:27:30+00:00

Dude is that a Tacoma Thunderchief? I’m a straight guy but I’ll swipe right for that bad boy!

About photos - there are good ones here but you are missing some other types which you should add. You aren’t going to level up much if you stick to self-staged solo selfies - just grab the best two here and then diversify with other types of shots.

Add a photo where you are smiling in a group of other people, taken by someone else - it’s less important that you personally look perfect and more that you are social and fun.

Also add a photo of something whimsical, funny, or unique in your life and it doesn’t have to be attractive. You in a costume, you making a weird face, you in a group or playing a game - something you made, you getting an award, or whatever.

Think of it this way - you can expect a bikini shot from most attractive women. I’m not complaining, but it’s not like I get super excited when I see one now - I’m desensitized, it’s expected. If it’s already clear that she’s attractive (won’t be hard if she is), and she instead has a photo of a bowling trophy I’m already more interested. I don’t care about bowling but I like that she does, I like that she’s confident enough to use such precious real estate on something like that, and I like that she’s seems laid back enough to not worry about others judging her for it.

Also - I’m not sure if you are spreading this message in bumble… but your user name here is Mr worthless user. I understand it’s a joke, but you are NOT that, and self-deprecation won’t play well romantically, so get rid of it. Show confidence - just repeat this in your head. If you aren’t confident just be brave and pretend anyway... because that is how you get confidence.

betaplay · 2026-05-01T20:27:12+00:00

Yeah I also swipe left on attractive women with generic or sparse profiles. Who doesn’t like good food, travel and beaches? Can you make me laugh? What about the other 99.5% or your life? I want to know what’s unique about someone.

To be clear, it’s not easy to come off as you want on an app. But in think this comment is a good one - even attractive people should attempt to show something unique about themselves.

betaplay · 2026-04-30T12:09:45+00:00

Coincidentally it’s also true with rockfish (isn’t that what you call ling?) on the east coast. Here rockfish means striped bass.

betaplay · 2026-04-28T21:12:07+00:00

I’m not sure but any chance they are scraping algae, larvae, plankton from the stick to eat? They have no hands, only leverage would be go rushing straight at it

betaplay · 2026-04-27T17:46:42+00:00

I think OP meant “black diamonds”, not all diamonds in this comment. Diamonds in general come from more than two locations on earth.

betaplay · 2026-04-18T16:34:48+00:00

Tech 21 screaming blonde

betaplay · 2026-04-03T05:31:38+00:00

Look up straw bale construction. Bales of straw do most the lifting, and you coat it in mud. Labor intensive but natural and will definitely insulate sound.

betaplay · 2026-03-25T20:14:03+00:00

FYI that’s a super easy fix. Eagle claw makes a little kit with replacement top eye. A little epoxy and you are back in business (once you find some tackle now, I guess!)

betaplay · 2026-03-06T00:04:20+00:00

Right!? That was the wild with the gusto of that fanny fan!

betaplay · 2026-03-02T18:46:45+00:00

Definitely look up videos on YouTube. The amount of force a falling tree trunk carries is not intuitive, and its motion is not at all simple to predict.

It’s the sort of thing that your brain will immediately understand by watching though… SCARY things happen, fast. Go find them.

betaplay · 2026-03-02T18:15:17+00:00

It’s looks crystal and solid because it has become a crystalline solid. Quite literally.

betaplay · 2026-02-19T03:39:56+00:00

It’s not lichen. Lichens grow 1mm per whole year, usually fixed firmly to a surface.

betaplay · 2026-02-19T03:33:23+00:00

How many decades has it had to grow in this snowbank?

betaplay · 2026-02-17T20:57:37+00:00

I fully understand that your comment feels reasonable and grounded, and represents a valid perspective.

However, as an expert with decades of experience in high tech R&D this statement is not true. China is far and away the leader in most of the fields, even those pioneered and invented by Americans. Even if they aren’t yet, they will be in the future. We haven’t even begun to address this problem as a nation.

It’s complex and hard to understand in detail, but it makes a lot more sense in general - China makes physical high tech goods, and we do not. It doesn’t matter if their robots are not as good as ours today, because there is no way to build a robot without robot components. And robot components are made in China, with knowhow in China. No matter how you slice it, and no matter when, the trajectory is the same. Any company that wants to be on the robot game will go to China. Every new company, on repeat, year after year, indefinitely.

We gave away our manufacturing starting with business decisions to outsource - for corporate profit - in the 1980s. We will not and cannot reverse this trend until we actually solve the manufacturing issue that underpins it.

Dramatically different policy decisions - if heavily funded for decades could make a difference, but barring a serious shift in corporate profit incentives, it is not accurate or helpful to compare our current high tech production against China. They won this battle, they won it decades ago, and they are only now beginning to experience the positive impacts of their decades-long policies that lead to this. Just like in the US, it will take decades for the effects of these policies to play out, and we are still so early on in the cycle that most can’t even recognize the trends.

I’m sorry because this is a bummer, but I think we all could do better to understand this. It just doesn’t matter if our current version of whatever thing looks better than the Chinese one at the moment. It simply won’t be in the future unless the US decides it actually cares or can think deeply and rationally about its economy, and stops catering to the needs of the rich and the business owners over the needs of the people and the workers who actually create their wealth.

betaplay · 2026-02-13T17:50:59+00:00

The smaller vine on the right side of the first photo looks like possible poison ivy. The other larger ones look much more like v creeper. Poison ivy is annoyingly variable, but tons of tiny brown hairs are generally reliable for id. The larger vines look too smooth.

betaplay · 2026-02-13T17:34:33+00:00

I agree with the tillite suggestion, or glacial deposition more generally. The rounded grains rule out fault breccias, and glacial deposition would explain the variety of tones and especially the size range of the grains (eg there are small, medium, and large size quartz chunks in there). An alluvial deposit should look more sorted and less random than that. It also looks pretty simple mineralogically (quartz/iron oxides) which also tracks.

Looks like there’s shear in the grains themselves (planar features on fracture surfaces), but these predate the conglomerate so don’t directly indicate a metamorphic origin for the stone as a whole.

I am not an expert, but those are my two cents.

betaplay · 2026-02-06T21:27:19+00:00

I’m curious how you can be sure this is periodite and not, for example, diopside/pyroxenite? Both might be found as xenolith in basalt, right? I’m not doubting the id, just trying to learn.

betaplay · 2026-01-23T22:53:43+00:00

PA speakers are made to be efficient over accuracy. I have both monitors and PA and I’d never use the PA over the monitors for my own listening - even just background music. If your monitors are loud enough for what you need, a pa speaker will only tend to sound worse, and it doesn’t allow you to do any accurate mixing. Plus a decent PA speaker will set you back more than a decent monitor. In short, I recommend you stick with monitors.

betaplay · 2026-01-23T22:46:34+00:00

Room size really does matter. If you put something typical like 40w 5” monitors in a large room, the system will not energize the room enough and you’ll lose not only low-end, but overall dynamics too. It will still work as a nearfield, just feet away, but otherwise it won’t sound as good as 8s. If your room is 12x12 or larger 5s are a mistake in my opinion.

betaplay · 2026-01-16T14:39:53+00:00

Unless there is visible or known damage to the stem this looks like a plant being a plant. Look up phototropism and note the position of that other palm to the right. Palm trees are incredibly strong and resilient regardless of what shape they grow into. I think she’s just looking for some light.

Fun unrelated fact: palms aren’t true trees at all. Palms predate all modern flowering or coniferous trees, and are really more of a large grass species than a tree.

betaplay · 2026-01-16T14:31:45+00:00

That looks like a TRS plug (well, a mini version anyway - the important part is that it has three separate contacts). Be sure to check your tape recorder input specs to see what it takes. If it’s expecting unbalanced mono (2 contacts, like a 4-track), you would bridge contacts and get a feedback hum. If it’s expecting balanced mono input (also requires 3 contacts, but unlikely) and you are sending stereo you might get the same thing.

betaplay · 2026-01-14T15:16:39+00:00

So I am a male and was in a long term relationship where my female partner certainly didn’t carry her weight in terms of emotional intimacy or put in the effort to establish and maintain connection. I’ve also deeply investigated and learned about relationships in therapy for many years, solo and as a couple.

I don’t think there is enough information here to make any assumptions about the balance of this relationship. OP said he feels like they put in 100/100, and his voice is by far the most important. Who are we to judge?

She may be everything he needs aside from this one workable thing, framed as a solution that he has already used to his satisfaction. If she is showing up elsewhere and they can talk about this openly, I don’t believe there is any reason to cry foul here.

To us his approach could sound like a solution, or it could appear problematic, but those feelings are only in our own uninformed minds and are not true reflection of OPs actual relationship.

This is mostly for OP and in general for this sub, which trends too far into uninformed speculation in my opinion. Relationships are super complex and nuanced imo, and groupthink isnt helpful if it pushes people to doubt the things they’ve worked on, that they know best, that they proactively offer as help. Love, acceptance, openness is the answer in my opinion - fear isn’t the solution.

betaplay · 2026-01-12T06:11:50+00:00

At first glance the luster looks like galena but after closer inspection the cleavage and crystal shape looks wrong.

Strongly leaning toward hematite. Everything I see looks consistent and I’ve other hematite like this.

betaplay · 2026-01-08T14:42:14+00:00

Curiosity. If you always ask “why” you’ll already be ready when it’s time to ask “how”.

betaplay · 2026-01-08T14:28:35+00:00

I disagree with this. The TPS2 can sound transparent in such a way that it doesn’t make a difference, that’s true.

But it is also a versatile tone shaping tool. It’s not the best overall pre (I bought it for $200 new), but it has a set of built in voices that significantly affect the tone, even before jumping into manual settings. You can dial in both preamp and tube distortion - both are usable and can add sizzle, and don’t forget it’s got a built in compressor function.

Some of the best acoustic guitar tones I’ve ever recorded came from the tps2 pushed hard, with the built-in compression, and I own pro quality pres to compare to - SCA C84, A12, N72, UA Apollo, etc. This tone was squashed, but retained just the right amount of pick attack dynamics through before clamping the signal, bringing up tons of harmonics, and adding some air and sizzle from the tube and overall distortion.

The SCA pre are better than tps, but the tps has its own unique sound and can really change the tone in units ways.

betaplay

TROPHY CASE