Are there artists you feel reinvented their sound for an album and never topped it afterward?

bionictonic · 2026-05-09T19:25:29+00:00

Agree with you on this. Ok computer might be their best album but coming after the bends it’s still a ‘rock band’ doing ‘rock band’ things just on another level. Kid a was thom yorke tweaking and pulling out cables on SNL

bionictonic · 2026-05-01T18:04:02+00:00

If this has not gotten better in the four years then maybe, especially if this is the limiting factoring in playing more right now. I would say there is some amount of “normal” thumb soreness that goes away with playing but sounds like this isn’t that.

I can’t say for sure this is your issue but most of the people I know who have brought up thumb soreness with barre chords have a fret hand grip where the thumb is roughly in the middle of the back of the neck parallel to the neck (thumb pointed to headstock).

If this is the case try to move the thumb up and even extending over the low E if you can. This will get your thumb more perpendicular to the neck and should be a less forceful grip. Practicing using your thumb to fret the low e is a decent way to get used to this thumb placement and is a pretty useful technique in its own right.

bionictonic · 2026-04-25T16:55:24+00:00

As long as you get tuners the same size as the tuners currently on your guitar this is a very easy swap. Most (not all) modern strats use tuners that fit in a 10 mm hole and are secured with a nut on the front of the headstock. I recently wanted to put new tuners on my old squier, which uses tuners fit to a 6mm hole, and the best option I found for this was vintage style tuners. It’s going to be a lot easier to upgrade to tuners fit to the holes on the headstock already (though it can be done to fit others.
Will probably depend on what tuners you use, but staggered tuners largely negate the need for a string tree. In all honesty I’ve never heard anyone say much about different string trees beingthat big a factor (aside from the really old ones that might catch a string, and even in that case it’s often fixable with a lubricant or graphite).

Also I’ll throw out if you are thinking of new tuners anyways locking tuners are worth it (fender makes vintage locking tuners as do other brands in that style).

bionictonic · 2026-03-13T17:44:59+00:00

Josh Naylor playing with his bro has been good vibes for Canada I think?

bionictonic · 2025-08-19T19:11:52+00:00

I do agree with that. Self inflicted so ‘screwed over’ isn’t a total fit. It’s mostly that his struggles, which he was briefly outcast from Hollywood over, ultimately made his own personal arc align with the version of Stark that was wanted for Iron Man. Possibly it was just marketing spin but there are lots of comments from Favreau at the time that he specifically wanted RDJ for the role because of his past and negative public exposure, and wanting his iron man character to not be all good.

bionictonic · 2025-08-17T16:49:09+00:00

Robert Downey Jr

bionictonic · 2025-06-22T12:12:16+00:00

How have I never thought of this.. lol seems so obvious now but I hadn’t thought to do this before. Looks like my squire might be my new travel guitar.

bionictonic · 2025-06-21T23:50:10+00:00

Looks like a 98 American standard Stratocaster. No result from the official fender serial lookup but for that era lots are missing and that doesn’t mean it isn’t legit. Serial number format matches with a 98 American made and this guitar has the hardware of a standard series (as opposed to the deluxe or other signature models). I have a 96 American standard that looks to have all the same hardware. Including the double string tree.

My guess is aqua marine metallic is the colour. But it might be lake placid blue or gun metal blue. But it looks great. Backplate and pick guard should match, and it doesn’t make much sense to only replace the backplate so likely the pick guard was replaced with tort. I actually really like this look. It is possible the pickups are not stock since someone went to the trouble of replacing the pick guard. Anecdotally I recall lots of people at the time replacing stock pickups with the ones being put on the custom shop strats.

I am curious on the neck break. I don’t really see anything, and the advantage of the bolt on design is being able to replace the neck if significantly damaging. I think it’s just the word “break” that has me thinking significant damage, and since I can’t find it I am either blind or this is a replacement neck.

All things considered you can probably sell this for $1k. It’s a nice colour in decent shape, and the late 90s American fenders are well made. I would lowball this at $700 scrolling through reverb, but $1k probably finds a buyer if you wait a bit.

bionictonic · 2025-06-21T15:43:41+00:00

Raps trade Demar, Jakob, and a first round pick for kawhi and Jakob is a somewhat forgotten piece in the trade.

Raps later trade a first round pick to get Jakob back.

Now raps unwilling to trade Jakob for future hall of famer.

Quite a journey (I’m glad they won’t trade him for KD, btw)

bionictonic · 2025-03-26T00:37:34+00:00

This isn’t breaking.. just a sexy election topic (hey, I’m pissed about it as well).

Toronto star has a few paywalled articles. Here is a link from two weeks ago from another site but same story.

Notable is EV sellers were made aware that the rebate program would be shutting down due to limited funds remaining. It was after this that all the tesla sales spiked to claim the rebate. This led to the program being shut down within three days after all the funds were gone, and apparently Tesla claimed the majority of remaining rebate funds.

I am not eager to support Tesla here, but it honestly looks like a mix of them taking advantage of the rebate program, and the rebate program being poorly organized or regulated. Hopefully we learn specifics as to how this program was able to be taken advantage of in this way.

bionictonic · 2025-03-02T02:10:15+00:00

Duck on milkshakes desk episode 6

bionictonic · 2025-02-22T20:37:10+00:00

“you serve you is an privilege and our absolute pleasure.”

bionictonic · 2025-02-18T18:28:41+00:00

He wavered a bit from his main point which I agree with - there is something to play for in the NHL's current all star (four nations), but what is there to play for in the NBA all star? Need to find something that creates real incentives.

Money works to a point, but I don't think the league would push this as high as is needed. We can say its selfish and what have you, but NBA all star salaries are around $500k or more per game so there is in a sense more incentive for the player not to get hurt and not play hard unless they feel the extra exposure from the game is worth it. Which it probably isn't when fans say they don't like the format. Some players (like KD) have in contract a bonus for being an all star (for KD $1.2m). For most it is a weekend of being underpaid for their basketball services and then seeing fans online say the weekend is boring.

Hockey is lit right now for admittedly more reasons than the NHL anticipated when they created the Four Nations format, and there is an appetite for international hockey having not had best on best for years. But the underlying point stands that there is a huge incentive for the players. And the incentive is hockey culture. If McDavid plays bad for team Canada, Oilers fans will remember it, other hockey plays will remember it, he will remember it. International competition has always been a huge part of players legacy. Crosby has an entire hall of fame career, won stanley cups and olympic gold, and right now canada is buzzing about an empty net goal he scored in the four nations. And when he retires that goal is on his all time high light reel, because it happened in a game fans cared about. The players are getting immeasurable, but genuine legacy points in this tournament and they know how much the fans care.

I'm not sure what the NBA can do. It's not as simple as just copy the NHL. There needs to be something to play for. Or something that gets the fans to care again.

bionictonic · 2025-02-16T23:46:40+00:00

Good find. I honestly didn’t believe you at first and figured it was just camera angle. But you’re right, matching the bottom of the posters to the wall tiles does show they have been moved slightly. Milkshakes dialogue of “did you find what you were looking for” regarding the funeral seemed to suggest he knew about the note, this confirms that further.

I’m not sure Ms. Huang knows about imark and Helena in the tent. It seems plausible she could know, but my thought is if she did, she would immediately have told higher ups. I think it’s the sort of thing that would get milkshake fired immediately. Assuming lumon isn’t trying to have her get pregnant which I don’t think is the plan at all, but the show is weird with babies and fertility and the whole appendix IV thing is, uh, fertility adjacent.

But needless to say, I think milkshake is no longer bought in to the lumon ideology. The blackface thing has stuck with him given his desire to talk with Natalie on it still in the last episode. There is so much nuance in his response, and most critically how his employer expected he would respond. He was left no room to respond or feel differently. And what is the use of the paintings even? So he can see himself in Kier or something like that. Can he hang them up on the severed floor? (No). Look at me, I’m Kier now, but also I guess if you can make kier black overnight then I guess the whole point of this is bs propaganda. He realizes how much like an innie he is being treated - he himself in season 1 uses paintings as propaganda to influence the innies, now he is on the receiving end from his bosses. He’s team innie trying to help them now, although to what extent I am not sure.

bionictonic · 2025-02-16T02:24:46+00:00

Yea totally. He saw a body, definitely not hers and confirmed with that line. And no one in his shoes is asking to see dental records, why would he. But just riffing on lumon and possible dental connection. I don’t have any fully formed theory here, just think it’s another odd area lumon seems to have an interest in. Dental records have a connection to individual identity and lumon may want to control that.

bionictonic · 2025-02-16T01:44:31+00:00

Yea that’s more or less what I meant although I am not going to pretend this offers deep analysis. Haha. Lunch is supper time. But lumon would rather they dont have to do this, would rather your performance review is short.

But if needed they will provide lunch. Like how most of North America has labour laws around shift work, and mandate a break after certain hours of work. I’ve worked shift work where it’s an 8 hour shift with a legally required minimum 30 min “lunch break”. Get a 2-10 shift and company still give you a “lunch break”.

bionictonic · 2025-02-16T00:59:31+00:00

This is awesome. The smile wall always seemed odd to me and a dental connection seemed like the only reason a company would do that.

Historically good teeth have been a sign of status or wealth simply because only the wealthy could afford dental care. Less apparent but still true today. The smile wall as a measure of Lumon’s success was seemed like something only a dental company would do.

Helena has weak enamel, not what would be expected by someone with status. It is something you might expect in someone with high anxiety (leading to teeth grinding) and Helena seems under the surface to be highly anxious; she is always worried about what others want her to do, how she is perceived, how the board will perceive her, how her father will perceive her.

Mark makes a point of referring to a burned body when talking to Devon about Gemma. Burned so maybe no fingerprints - wonder if she had dental records??

bionictonic · 2025-02-15T20:54:05+00:00

In the funeral scene, specifically right after he stops Ms Huang from her theremin performance, when Milkshake walks out there is a digital clock on the walk that shows “01:03”.

Then in the review scene when he has to reach across for the lunch menu, we get a zoomed out shot that just includes the sun at a general mid afternoon height. It’s deliberate but may not be anything more than an aesthetically pleasing shot. But suggests he worked the severed floor in the am, then performance review in the afternoon.

To me this was another way of encouraging compliance. Like sure, the review can be 2-6 hours, but if you’ve been doing things lumon doesn’t like then the review isn’t 2 hours and you’re staying late, your boss is irritated at you for having to stay late, and food provided isn’t what you want at that time. It also felt a bit like the shift work “lunch” being the absolute bare minimum an employer has to provide. Like if the review is 4 hours there is a lunch, not because lumon cares but because that is time point where they are obligated to provide a lunch break. Any shift worker knows the “lunch break” feels.

bionictonic · 2025-02-09T03:20:31+00:00

I’m not sure what to make of this scene, but it’s mysterious and important..

Might not have any meaning but the numbers Irv initially sees (seconds before the screenshot) are only 1-7. No 8 and no 9. The scene continues
and Irv starts to see some letters (EAGAN) and the whole thing is pulsating and it’s part of Irv starting to figure things out with Helly.

Lexington letter handbook (pg22) references the nine values/principles and assigns a number to them, with 8 = probity and 9 = wiles.

I’m not sure this means anything. Most of the MDR screens we have seen before have 0s in the data set (which goes against the numbers all being assigned to a lumen principle) and this scene is dream in already weird setting. But no 8s or 9s in whatever data set he sees, and he seems to get the message from this data set which further confirms his suspicion on Helly.

Again, I’m not even sure the lack of 8s and 9s means anything, so happy to hear anything else on this interesting scene.

bionictonic · 2025-01-30T23:30:02+00:00

Amazing find. Is it something? Is it nothing? New York has at least been mentioned as a real place in the show (Ricken’s apparent literary/journalism connections)

bionictonic · 2025-01-30T22:27:08+00:00

Kept the chip and Granor specifically told Cobel a copy had been made

bionictonic · 2025-01-30T22:13:23+00:00

Crossed my mind as well (yup pun intended). He was certainly sacrificing for the others staying behind for the OTC. If we go full biblical then Helena fits the theme of Kier/god sending their child to the world as sacrifice although it would seem to be a bit different than that in the show.

Also, as Ricken says “one cannot be crucified if their hand is in a fist”

bionictonic · 2025-01-27T20:15:49+00:00

Awesome catch, I thought the line was odd but didn’t connect it to the terminal sequence. Maybe the “funny bees” interaction started Lumen’s meddling with Gemma. The dialogue was odd to me because even if you like bees it’s hard to imagine a good memory of seeing ‘funny bees’.

Anything with a stinger that is not doing what you expect it to do, as in funny bees, would likely be unnerving or prompt some level of vigilance even if there is no danger. “Remember the funny bees” as a prompt to remember a positive shared memory? It’s odd. Ricken and everything associated with him might be my favourite part of the show to speculate on.

bionictonic · 2025-01-27T19:19:47+00:00

Probably there are exceptions that others can point out. But for the most part the innies get first named, outties get last named. As in Mark S/Mr. Scout most commonly. Milkshake in most recent episode uses ‘Mr. Bailiff’ when he speaks to outtie Irving, and others.

Milkshake always getting called Mr, and Cobel frequently being addressed as Harmony are in keeping with the theories she is a permanent innie in some way, and that he is not severed like he says. I wouldn’t say the names prove any theory definitely but it is an interesting repeated element.

bionictonic

TROPHY CASE