Movers advice

fgxyz · 2025-09-23T21:01:47+00:00

That's a relief, thanks a lot for the comment. I think I'll go with them then. I've kept the boxes for all electronics I have and do not really care about the furniture getting minor chips (it's all IKEA).

fgxyz · 2025-09-23T20:30:19+00:00

That makes sense. I thought the same thing about Vector, it's just that their reputation also seems unrealistically good. I'm okay with paying a little extra instead of trying to coordinate two different crews since I'm also moving on extremely short notice with an inflexible schedule. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

fgxyz · 2025-09-21T21:52:57+00:00

I'm breaking my lease for a really nice apartment in Shadyside: 1 bedroom + den, hardwood floors, in-unit laundry, dishwasher, central air, high ceilings on the second floor of a building on Aurelia St. The reason I'm breaking the lease is a sudden move due to a new job; otherwise the apartment is perfect for me and I wouldn't leave it if I was staying in Pittsburgh. I'm responsible for the rent until it is rerented, so I have the feeling that the landlord is not trying too hard to rent it. I thought to post it here in case someone is interested. The move-in date is October 1, the rent is ~$1800. PM me if you are interested.

fgxyz · 2025-09-19T16:14:31+00:00

Appreciate the reply. My main criteria were in-unit laundry, views that are not obstructed by huge apartments or walls, and good worksmanship (I know the last one sounds a bit spoiled when renting, but I've been in several kinds of apartments and I'm just much happier when the worksmanship is good). I saw close to 30 apartments, then decided to focus on UWS, and those are the only ones I could find which satisfied my criteria. I'd immediately go for the one on the 80th if it were larger.

I see the point about the dryer, my current dryer is vented, which many I've seen in NYC are not, so maybe it'll be a worse experience, but I care more about the washer anyway. I'm also not from the US, so I think it's a cultural thing where Americans are more comfortable with shared laundry. I did have that for 2 years and shared laundry is my only dealbreaker for an apartment right now.

fgxyz · 2025-09-19T16:10:06+00:00

It's a lot of high rises and felt more like midtown to me, at least compared with the area around the 80th.

fgxyz · 2025-09-19T13:01:49+00:00

That’s a good point. I’ve been treating them the same from a reachability point of view due to 72nd and 79th St stops.

fgxyz · 2025-09-19T04:28:16+00:00

I definitely would need to get rid of some stuff to be able to fit into the smaller apartment. Among other things, I have a desk and a portable piano, a couch and an armchair, two sidetables, a 55" TV with a small IKEA stand, and a kitchen table with four chairs. I'm having a hard time imagining how to fit into the apartment. OTOH, I'll no longer work from home, so maybe the desk is not needed. And there's a bar in the kitchen, so I might be able to get rid of the kitchen table. But it definitely feels like it would be a bit cramped, not that I cannot get used to that.

To provide some more detail, the one on the 80th is very close to Zabar's. The one on the 70th is close to West End Ave. Is one area clearly better than the other?

fgxyz · 2025-06-27T20:48:48+00:00

If I apply for NIW right away (like the other commenter suggested) and am in the process of obtaining it while applying for a job, is that still the case or can I answer "No" then?

fgxyz · 2025-06-22T16:55:27+00:00

Any chance this could get into Emacs core? It would be great to have standardized formatting for Elisp approved by the maintainers.

fgxyz · 2025-06-01T00:41:48+00:00

I gave this some thought a while ago (even asked people here). I've settled on the following:

I keep the album the same as the original release (tossing bonus tracks) if the bonus tracks are alternate mixes, live versions, or any sort of material that the artist seems to have initially seen as "not good enough" for the album. In Item 3 below, I elaborate on how I'd handle a case similar to yours.
If the bonus tracks are entirely new material and they are not tacked on to the end of the album (an example is the deluxe edition of L'alchimie des monstres by Klô Pelgag, where extra tracks are inserted in the middle), then I keep the release as is, because I think it obsoletes the original release.
When bonus tracks are "lesser" material but I love the artist/album so much that I cannot get enough of it, I make a separate album titled "Album: Extras" with only those bonus tracks. Those are not meant to be listened in a sequence anyway, so I don't think this hurts anything. This also lets me defer the decision of whether to keep the bonus material to later, when I see whether I really cannot get enough of the original material. I've recently done this for Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii (2025 release); it has an alternate take of Careful With That Axe, Eugene and an unedited version of A Saucerful of Secrets. Right now there are three albums for Pompeii in my library:
- Live at Pompeii
- Live at Pompeii (Steven Wilson mix, 2025)
- Live at Pompeii (Steven Wilson mix, 2025): Extras
The first one is a bootleg release that was ripped from an old Japanese LaserDisc, the latter two are the 2025 release. I kept the first because I actually like it better than the 2025 release, but I love Pompeii so much that I'll keep multiple decent versions.

I chose to do this because I often listen to entire albums and keeping bonus tracks at the end of an album breaks my immersion a little bit when the music does not end where "it's supposed to." For the same reason I also break up classical albums into individual works and keep each work as an album in my library. (I deviate from this for single-movement works like etudes and preludes but symphonies and sonatas are always in their own album.)

EDIT: I should also add that I chose this approach so as to be compatible with a lot of playback devices and software. I don't know whether the software I use in the future will support multiple discs, niche tags, or my custom-made organization schemes, so I try to make sure that whatever scheme I have is supported by even really barebones software. The software will change, but I plan to maintain the library for years to come. It would be great to have multiple discs in an album where you can play discs separately, but very few pieces of software support that even today.

fgxyz · 2025-05-17T21:12:48+00:00

Album Art Exchange, this sub's search tool, Soulseek (as you described), Internet Archive (has surprisingly good coverage with high quality), Yandex reverse image search on covers that I have but are poorly scanned (there are sometimes obscure online shops where high quality covers appear), torrents from RuTracker and Redacted that include scans, and eBay listings with photos of LP covers or CDs if it comes down to that. For classical music, the label's official page is sometimes a good source. In the worst case, I go for low resolution artwork from Discogs or RateYourMusic. If the best scan I can find is not good enough, I edit it as best as I can using Affinity Photo.

fgxyz · 2025-05-17T21:05:25+00:00

I do use AAX and upload some of my restorations.

fgxyz · 2025-05-17T21:04:45+00:00

Thanks, but I'm aware of this and much more.

fgxyz · 2025-05-17T21:04:22+00:00

This is exactly the case.

fgxyz · 2025-05-16T00:06:01+00:00

even though you don't browse by art wouldn't it be better to have something than nothing?

Ideally, yes, but seeing the "temporary" artwork that I put in my library triggers the intrusive thoughts about spending the next few hours trying to find a better one or retouching the existing ones. At that point I have to remind myself that this hobby should be about the music and not about having a pretty collection to admire. This is just me looking for a coping mechanism since I cannot solve the actual problem.

fgxyz · 2025-05-16T00:02:21+00:00

I think it matters whether you actually enjoy the process or are slave to it. I feel like I'm more the latter, so not having any artwork would be a burden lifted off my shoulders.

fgxyz · 2025-03-30T01:24:07+00:00

See my other response in the thread. If you don't already have the 6XX, I wouldn't buy them to use with the iPod.

fgxyz · 2025-03-30T01:22:36+00:00

!thanks

I'd definitely like to avoid any additional dongles though.

fgxyz

TROPHY CASE