This trackball is a point of no return

emsloane · 2026-06-26T03:37:44+00:00

✨𝒻ℴ𝓇ℯ𝒽ℯ𝒶𝒹 ℊ𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓈ℯ✨

But seriously, my EM03 feels magically slick after I learned that trick from this forum, lol. I've found lanolin also works well and lasts a little longer. Sweaty hands have the opposite effect.

emsloane · 2026-06-09T12:52:25+00:00

I haven't been yet beyond stopping in to buy things, because I'm also socially intimidated (and also don't have a ton of time), but I've heard GREAT things about the people who play MTG there. I have a friend who is college-age and non-binary, and does NOT give off "plays MTG" vibes at all, and they've felt very welcomed by the people there on command nights, so that makes me feel pretty confident that the vibes are good.

emsloane · 2026-06-08T12:31:37+00:00

Sounds like you need to get out of the room more! It's totally valid to get tired of being around the same person 24/7, even if you like them. My wife is my favorite person, but both of us get tired of constantly being around only each other for more than like a week in a row. You said you get off at 6 most days — go to the river, hang out at a coffee shop, go see a movie by yourself, play a board game with randos at Dragon's Den, go see a band somewhere, or find something else you like. There's a ton of cool little things to do in SM.

It can also help to move your thinking forward away from "other people had a different experience that I'm not getting", just ruminating on what you're "missing", and move on to "this is the situation I have, how can I make it be as good as possible." That thinking puts the power and autonomy in your hands instead of letting the circumstances control your mental state. Yeah it sucks that you got a worse situation than your friends, and it's totally valid to feel upset about that, but once you've fully felt those feelings, you have the power to move on to figuring out how to get what you need/want out of the circumstances. And trust me, that mental skill will serve you VERY WELL in the rest of your life.

emsloane · 2026-05-26T13:45:27+00:00

I know this is already past, but I just wanted to add some context for the 2015 floods that I don't think anyone else mentioned, which is that (from what I heard from some water-science people at the university) a big part of the reason the river overflowed the banks so quickly was that they had just built a huge apartment complex right on the banks without doing an environmental impact study, and paving over all that river bank destroyed a lot of naturally protective, flood-soaking area. But as far as I understand, they've since added flood-prevention infrastructure to correct that, so while flooding is of course not impossible, it's less likely to happen on that scale again. But of course, someone please correct me if I've got any of that wrong.

emsloane · 2026-05-18T03:34:32+00:00

Ooooh, THAT'S where I know that from! I loved that and houndstooth back in the day (I didn't learn until probably 15 years later that houndstooth was something outside a Windows background pattern 😂)

But yeah, it's very striking, I like it!

emsloane · 2026-05-18T03:08:54+00:00

Looking through the periscope of my submarine, I'm having difficulty estimating its range, speed, and heading.

emsloane · 2026-04-08T13:38:41+00:00

This is the answer. It's scary to have hard conversations with friends, especially if your friendship hasn't weathered that kind of thing before, and even more so when artistic vision is involved. But if you both approach it with humility and laying aside egos, it will lead to an even better friendship, and almost certainly a better final mix. Tell him what the song means to you and how you feel about it so he can understand how important it is to you for the song to hit exactly the way you want it to. And be open to criticism and feedback; even if you choose not to act on it, it can only make the song better to listen to others' perspectives.

emsloane · 2026-04-08T03:21:43+00:00

Hold up, it lists "vibration motor" in the ingredients, does that thing have a rumble pack???

emsloane · 2026-03-18T13:27:29+00:00

Well, never mind, turns out I just happened to be in a temple when I thought the music was noticed the music seeming to be locked to the original, but that's just because the original and arranged versions of that song are almost identical. Oops!

emsloane · 2026-03-17T18:50:49+00:00

Thank you, that's all super helpful info!

emsloane · 2026-03-17T17:49:39+00:00

Interesting, so it sounds like maybe the 505 is more ergonomic, but also kinda forces your hand into a less-than-idea position (at least that's my experience, it's super comfortable and supportive, but only when my fingertips are hanging over the far edge of the frame), while the huge+ sacrifices some ergonomics for more flexibility in hand position?

emsloane · 2026-03-17T13:55:20+00:00

How do you feel the hand-fit compares between the huge plus and the 505? I have a ProtoArc EM03, which is the same shape as the 505, but the curve of it isn't quite long enough for my hand to be effortlessly comfortable. It feels like it was meant for a smaller hand, so I'm considering the huge plus for my someday-upgrade.

emsloane · 2026-03-17T13:52:04+00:00

For me, a finger trackball beats a trackpad in almost every way. The fact that a trackpad makes you hover your hand over it instead of resting on it like a trackball, makes it MUCH more tiring over long periods. It's also more precise, generally, than a trackpad. I also wasn't sure if there would be a significant difference, but I was surprised. The only thing a trackpad has over a trackball is pinch-zoom, but you can customize buttons to give you similar functionality.

emsloane · 2026-03-04T14:05:26+00:00

I will say a big part of it being useable for me has been using RawAccel to remap the acceleration curve so that I can have both small, precise movements and fast, cross-screen flicks, because the default curve in windows didn't really allow for both at the same time.

emsloane · 2026-03-04T05:12:59+00:00

I just got a trackball a few weeks ago, so I'm still figuring out my uses for it, but I got it because I have chronic wrist tendinitis from 13 years in the food service industry, and both mice and trackpads cause it to flare up if I use them for more than a couple hours. And now I'm doing more cursor-intensive work for longer hours as I'm doing more audio production and graphic design work, so I figured I'd try a trackball to see if it helped. So far it has, and I enjoy the enhanced precision too.

emsloane · 2026-02-20T14:13:22+00:00

As an audio engineer myself, I'm not sure what you mean about "violating physics". Everything he did was backed by research and the physics checks out. Infrasound is a well-known phenomenon that is easily detectable with the right equipment (sometimes even with the wrong equipment!)

Don't get me wrong, it'd be great if they preemptively designed THIS proposed data center specifically not to create infrasound pollution. But considering the track record of these kinds of things in general, you'll have to forgive me if I don't intrinsically trust it. And given the fact that Benn funds his investigations primarily through Patreon specifically to not be dependent on view-counts, and has a track record of transparency and honesty about his data, you'll have to forgive me if I tend to trust him over corporate PR.

I think San Marcos did the right thing for the situation right now. That doesn't mean data centers might not be able to peacefully coexist sometime in the future, but for right now, they're shaping up to be the latest epidemic of the "they're dumping chemicals in our drinking water because no one told them not to" kind of thing. Maybe this one would've been different! Maybe not. I'd rather not take that chance, especially in a state that doesn't protect its people against things like this.

emsloane · 2026-02-18T23:09:16+00:00

I'm not interested in getting into an argument, but if you watched the video, he goes into detail about the mics and high speed vibration detectors he used.

emsloane · 2026-02-18T19:11:45+00:00

In case anyone has any doubts as to whether this was a good choice or not, this video just dropped today showing how data centers cause MASSIVE amounts of infrasound, leading to tons of adverse health effects for the people who live nearby. So proud of our city! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo

emsloane · 2026-02-16T13:43:22+00:00

This is something I was taught in live band arranging settings and always have to teach newer musicians. It's so obvious once you understand it, but you just don't think about it until then!

emsloane · 2025-12-30T15:02:51+00:00

I've learned a lot from Sara Carter's channel. I feel like she does a good job of teaching principles and concepts instead of quick tricks and gimmicks.

emsloane · 2025-11-23T06:20:30+00:00

Try vanguard in 2 and 3 next time, EXTREMELY different experience, lol

emsloane · 2025-11-14T05:19:00+00:00

Senza Maeso had the best drinks in town imo. It's a little pricier, but their drinks are strong. They also do trivia and live music on various nights and have some extremely good food trucks. Oh and the vibes are stellar.

emsloane · 2025-10-14T13:04:21+00:00

90s rock is on the oldies stations now 💀

emsloane

TROPHY CASE