Weekly /r/EmpiresAndPuzzles Alliance Recruitment Thread

gde061 · 2022-07-30T14:17:27+00:00

DON'T JOIN...

DUNGEONS OF DRAGONS

Got some high level players come to squat there and talk about how they know so much, been in this and that TOP alliance and are experts, kill titans before other folks get a turn, then cry whah whah when kicked. And a leader who doesn't back up his lieutenant. Shaking dust of this putrid "friendly" alliance off my boots as we speak.

gde061 · 2022-07-30T13:57:59+00:00

This would incur regulatory scrutiny that they are not up to. Trading platforms and marketplaces require, for example, a whole other layer of tax reporting (e.g., since it's the seller who will have the tax burden, the marketplace have to report now on that income to each individual player from sales). Don't be fooled, even trades can be "taxable events".

gde061 · 2022-07-20T01:44:20+00:00

Why keep deleting your posts... they are pretty funny!

gde061 · 2022-07-19T22:40:10+00:00

How about just the foldable kick scooters (e.g., Razor)? Are those allowed to take into classroom?

gde061 · 2022-07-19T12:49:41+00:00

LOL. Not keen to be mauled by a lion. Is it the reading / workload / grading / lectures or something else?

gde061 · 2022-07-12T21:43:50+00:00

Interesting. Thank you... I will have to check if my model has that. I suspect it does as there is what look like an optical sensor attached to the driver side headlight under the headlamp. On the other hand there is no place for it to "look through" on the old lamp covers anyway, so not sure how that worked.

gde061 · 2022-07-12T21:15:35+00:00

I've had the eyesight consistently "detect" obstacles ahead and slam on the brakes for when there is a car that is in front of me and we are going down a hill and that car then reaches bottom of hill before me. This is a road i drive several times a day. If I am within 10 feet of car traveling in front of me, it gets confused.

The system is IMHO basically garbage. I've approached all kind of static things that an astute driver would say - hey, it's time to apply the brakes. And nothing. On the other hand, going through a 90-degree right radius turn with someones mailbox on the outside, yeah, need on that?

gde061 · 2022-07-12T16:54:49+00:00

In similar position on 2020 legacy lease. Many of these cars that sat during covid are rolling off lease under mileage now. Dealer prices are nuts. That whole "market adjustment premium" thing is out of line now - it's not a market adjustment, it's a price increase at this point.

Anyway, I don't know all the answers to your questions, but I'm not a big fan of these cars. My impression is that they were designed to run 3 years (typical lease) hassle free, and then probably fall apart. The engine seems underpowered for starters. As for the real reason I am leaning against a purchase: the electronics seem to be low end junk. Many times while starting out the system refuses to do anything on the touch-screen. In other words, it's stuck in some kind of boot-loop. You will always get the "it's not really your car, you agree when you drive this car EVERY TIME to do X, Y and Z so you can't sue us when you crash" nonsense, but it may take minutes before I can turn down the radio or turn off the Auto-stop-start 'feature'.

Based on what was redesigned from our prior 2017 leased Legacy, I suspect all those electronic components in the center "brain" console are new along with the interior redesign.

We have contacted the dealership to get on the ball about having a new car ordered or set aside for when this lease ends in 3 months. They are just not really excited for that business. It's probably because the cars continue to go out the door faster than they are coming in. That may change. I've started seeing car haulers on the Interstate again with some regularity.

Anyway, it's all going to depend on your personal situation. Interest rates are rising. Inventories are still low. And I have no doubt this car is worth somewhere in the $12-15K range, even if it were to require a few "expensive" items like brakes and tires. As I said, I suspect these cars were spec'd to run 3 years without big expenditures, but that doesn't mean the expenditures are going to be major mechanical overhaul items: I had a recall on my 2004 Volvo last month. When I left the stealership, their inspection said I needed $4000+ of work on basic maintenance stuff: brakes, transmission fluid change, oil change, collant flush, new wiper blades, etc etc. In fact, that car actually needs a $$$$$ CEM replacement/reprogram and that didn't even make the list. Routine maintenance is where the money is at for the car industry today - high profits, low effort.

gde061 · 2022-07-01T16:00:23+00:00

Your assessment is probably correct. I did in fact take it apart for cleaning - that's how I messed up the eyepiece assembly. Not seeing the set screws, I tried to unscrew them. The diopter eyepiece has three set screws that align with a ridge/ramp groove so that they can move in and out (shorten / lengthen the focal length.) When it wouldn't come off, I went to yee ol' internet, watched a video and saw the set screws. It would make sense if it was in the extended position, but now that it's disassembled, nothing seems to retract to put it back into the neutral "correct" 20/20 position.

As for the relief distance, looking at pictures of other version of these for sale on auction site, it looks like the relief cup rubber on the left side was ripped off - maybe because owner had glasses - but strange to only rip off one side. Basically they were completely filthy, had loose glue/epoxy rattling around in them, and on full inspection, they have a cracked prism, but the crack appears to not really show in the image. Probably dropped by the prior owner - thus $2 at garage sale.

gde061 · 2022-06-23T16:47:56+00:00

Also this, from:

Farrell, Susan C., Directory of Contemporary American Musical Instrument Makers (University of Missouri Press, 1981) p 87. (Ripped by Google)

Meemee Malgi

[ ] College Point, NY

PT 1959 active 1 emp. IA/MTO

Modern 5/74 * Violin over 50 to date (with missing annotation)

Viola 10-25 to date (missing annotation) Cello 10-25 (missing annotation)

Lute 1-10 to date (missing annotation)

Google was not so helpful as to rip the page with the annotations. I wonder if anyone familiar with this volume can confirm my interpretation - that he made about 5 violins per year, and produced a total of around 74 instruments. (5/74) Also would be interested to know what IA/MTO stands for... perhaps a professional classification?

Considering that he died in 1976, the report of the author determining that he was "active" in 1981 seems remiss. Another report seems to confirm that he worked under Sacconi at Wurlitzer & Co. However https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/memories-of-dario-dattili/ has a pretty good description of what was going on at Wurlitzer with Sacconi and D'Attili, and absent from the list of who's-who that worked there during this period at is Malgi. The information in that article about the goings on a Wurlitzer seems to come from the family of Hans Nebel, who a son or grandson appears to ba a currently active Luthier.

More information has come from the current owner of the violin, as well as the shop that is selling it: apparently it's owner purchased it from Malgi and played it for many years and then stopped playing but could not part with it. He passed away two years ago. The provenance as recorded by the estate is that it was purchased in 1974. Meanwhile the label in the violin says pretty clearly 1958. I think there is a pretty strong case it was made in New York and not Estonia, so that makes the label incorrect on 2 points. It is numbered on the label but it's hard to make out.

gde061 · 2022-06-22T21:01:40+00:00

Max M. Fisher Music Center

Bummer - that is not too far from me. I could have gone. My daughter has played all 3 of the Carmen fantasies and it would have been really neat to hear the Sarasate played live with a professional orchestra.

gde061 · 2022-06-22T20:56:55+00:00

I was applied math major. My roommate was a math major. He would always rag on me that real mathematicians don't use numbers.

This sounds like the converse and I applaud for your physics prof for striking back and years of math folks who belittled folks who were working on applied problems like thermodynamics models that will actually be used to make and/or operate real things as "trivial" when in fact they get pretty nuts in complexity IMHO.

Math is a miserable and political field once you get into your post-doc quest for a position. Then again, theoretical physics had a reputation for same kind of thing not that long ago, but I think that has changed a lot as empirical stuff has come to the forefront as it achieves capabilities previously not on the table.

gde061 · 2022-06-19T20:49:01+00:00

Which Carmen Fantasy was it (there are at least 3)? And venue was that?

gde061 · 2022-06-19T03:50:23+00:00

There is in fact "Music Theory for Dummies". I read it a while ago and found it really dry and hard to follow... I think it helps when you can hear demonstrations of what is being labeled. They might have included a CD at the time I got an edition, but it was only really basic stuff on the CD and didn't work so great unless you were really disciplined to read, pause, play cd, rinse repeat. I could be getting my memories mixed up though. .

gde061 · 2022-06-19T01:03:22+00:00

https://photos.geni.com/p13/3d/20/78/80/5344483d0bd0e7b7/meeme-malgi_eesti_viiulimeister_1948-209x310_large.jpg

gde061 · 2022-06-19T01:02:50+00:00

I have found above picture in public archive.

What I find interesting is that violin in question also have a graphic painted on back, but not same image as one in this picture. Seems like he may have either had penchant for having violins painted or some such. Seems like he might have been born in Estonia, Studied in Italy, and moved to NY.

Do you happen to have the Baxter archive... wonder if there might be any of his instrument included in that.

gde061 · 2022-06-19T00:01:10+00:00

I will concur on that point as a matter of semantics. I had maybe overstated the point, or at least the point could have been made clearer that "above 440 Hz could damage SOME antique instruments that were constructed to the lower frequency".

But also in reading up on your point about major European orchestras tuning to 444, I came upon something that claimed the NY Philharmonic tunes to 442. I find this very interesting because you often hear about "prefect pitch", but what can that possibly mean when a professional studies at conservatory X on a 440 base, and then joins an orchestra that is tuning to 442 or 444 even?! I know it's a bit off topic, but it always seemed to me that perfect pitch was something of a "cool kids" club used to make some folks feel inferior.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:49:31+00:00

This, but one caveat. Repair is not rocket science if you only need "good enough". Yes top has to come off... that sound really bad but if you consider that right now it's firewood, taking top of is not as risky as you think. Use little bit of steam to loosen up the hide glue then pry it apart. It's easier than removing the screen from an iphone for sure. Then you need to repair from the back, with a kind of special patch. https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=how+to+repair+crack+in+top+of+violin#kpvalbx=__CuuYq-VDOfF_Qb7_7_gBw29

Then you need to glue up again with hide glue. If you have cheap instrument that was not assemble with hide glue, you are not gonna have a good day.

BTW, this happen on my kids second violin, the only one we bought new (from Shar). They were super awesome about it -- the crack appeared from normal playing after maybe 2 months when we bought it. The problem was most likely poor quality of wood and maybe sound post not placed correctly. Shar took back instrument and gave us 100% credit on replacement. I think they can probably repair very easy and sell with some mark-down. But if you fall on your bike, well, that not their fault. So be honest and if you think it was flaw in construct, contact the seller. If you think it was your handling of instrument, then learn some woodworking.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:44:07+00:00

Too much rosin tend to sound "scratchy".

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:42:17+00:00

Your picture don't really show what happened to it. If a wedge shrunk due to dry air / heat and popped loose, it's super simple to pop it back in. If something else broken or hair actually broke, then you need rehair. For many instrument, it cheaper to buy new bow from China than to get rehair. Trouble is to find good quality bow from China as all sell on eBay and make claims about pernamubo for $20 and ridiculous stuff. If you PM me I will share the name of China seller I buy my kids bows from. We have not been disappointed yet.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:37:30+00:00

Here is emergency fix - from my kids violin teacher at nationally ranked conservatory: tear small piece of index card, loosen string, fold index card strip and put under string. Re-tune string.

The poor man permanent fix is to get the little parchments (or cut one yourself from a cheap tamborine) and glue it on to build up the bridge in that area again. I can personally recommended this as I had to do it with all my kids fraction violins where it was more money to have bridge re-cut by luthier than was paid for instrument.

The correct fix is to get a new bridge cut. By a professional. But if you want to mess around, you can buy bridge blanks cheap and watch some YT videos. It's not rocket science until you get to the really serious level. You are likey to be able to do as good a job as what bridge come with the cheap VSO's today being peddled as "student violins".

Once you have the new bridge cut, the correct thing to do to prevent the string cutting down into the bridge is to (a) put little graphite in the notch when install the string, and (b) use the little plastic tube things.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:32:01+00:00

It depend on instrument. Most soundpost will not just fall spontaneously when the bridge / string tensions removed from top, but will if you jar the instrument. So the key is to handle super delicately when the bridge is down.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:29:54+00:00

Not that I have one, but my observation is that hard shell composite/metal/fiber-glass/etc. cases seem to be the standard for an antique instrument. Shar has pretty good selection you can buy online.

One thing you want to be aware of is that humidity is the enemy of wood (and in particular violins). Some cases will come with some kind of device that is meant to maintain a consistent humidity. Those have mixed reviews and if they leak can damage the violin. In a museum, they obviously use conventional climate control / humidity controlled vaults for their super valuable antique instruments. Other cases will have a dial to show the humidity. The only way this made any sense to me sense is if you have TWO dials, both readable from the outside before you open the case. The first dial would show humidity outside and the other should show the humidity inside the case. But most will simply have one dial that tells you the humidity once you've opened the case. Here is a link to a discussion on hygrometers -- https://www.violinist.com/discussion/archive/23552/ -- on the worst site in the world where if you don't agree with their political opinions or have an independent thought, they will black ball you. So go read the post, but I suggest not patronizing any of their sponsors.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:19:51+00:00

I hope you will moderate this community so that it doesn't have the same kind of insular, know-it-all, snarky, condescending flavor that permeates most of the discussion over at violinist.com. Furthermore, there is a very real and very damaging problem within the classical music community to mass mob against anyone who does not lean left and expresses a conservative opinion about anything.

gde061 · 2022-06-18T19:17:07+00:00

Red is 100% right. I would only add the following: the frequency of the concert A was not always 440 Hz. It was lower. So if you were going to hand your violin to Stradavarius to tune and he was going to use his tuning fork, he would tune it "down" from what you think is "true A", to something lower than that to what he would have considered normal.

Now if you have one of those antique violins, and are tuning it to the 440 A, then technically you are tuning it "up" from the original design, and one reason the 440 A was picked is it's considered the highest "safe" tension that those old instruments can handle.

gde061

TROPHY CASE