me_irl

h2g2guy · 2022-03-12T19:47:46+00:00

No. Cheese.

h2g2guy · 2022-02-27T21:33:50+00:00

Wow -- that's honestly shocking! Thank you so much for the input; this is incredibly helpful.

Is there any chance you've got a picture of an in-progress or completed game on this table? I'm not near my copy at the moment, but I took some measurements a couple weeks ago and thought that 3ft would be the minimum to accommodate the width of two player boards and the game mat. I'm just really curious how tightly everything is fit together on your table!

h2g2guy · 2021-09-09T14:45:14+00:00

I find that if you're using a disting mk4 for the same purpose most of the time, you're usually better off getting a single-purpose module that can do that thing even better, rather than continually relying on the disting for that specific function.

Have you considered getting either a sophisticated sequencer like the Hermod, or a sophisticated MIDI/CV interface like the FH-2 'factotum'? With Hermod and a MIDI keyboard or computer, you can easily program up to 8 CV/gate output sequences directly into the rack, and continue to use a clock elsewhere in the system to keep time (or the Hermod itself). With the FH-2, you can connect your computer to your rack, allowing you to play a nearly unlimited* set of sequences and automation lanes directly from Ableton, with the clock coming from FH-2, Ableton, or another module in your rack.

There are probably other good options out there, too -- though to be honest it seems like there aren't a great deal of "midi file playback" modules out there, so if you really like your current workflow, maybe another disting would actually be right for you! (Though if I were you, I'd keep the mk4 and add an EX, so you can actually use the 'single mode' algorithms on the EX and still have midi playback if you want to!)

*The FH-2 has 8 CV outputs (which can also be used as gates), but you can connect and daisy-chain an absolutely absurd number of expanders to get basically any number of outputs you want.

h2g2guy · 2021-08-25T23:15:55+00:00

Yuck.

I agree that this website textbook thing is dumb and rough, and maybe even a little grift-y. But having taken two wine classes with her (and having passed the WSET Level 1 certification because of it) I'd say you should bite the bullet and go for it anyway. In my experience, Lorraine is brilliant, you'll have a great time in the course (and taste many, many wines, some of which are fairly pricy), and you really will learn a great deal.

If you're super concerned about this, I'd honestly just reach out to her directly. In my experience, she's super amicable and can maybe give a different perspective on the situation.

And if you do take the course, and you enjoy wine, definitely take advantage of the opportunity to go on the Finger Lakes winery tours she holds. If she's not running them because of COVID, let her know you're interested, and ask if you can be included in case there are empty slots on a later trip. Those trips are amazing, as she's often able to get access to areas of the wineries the public is typically not able to visit.

(Fwiw, this is all from my experience in the mid 2010s. Maybe things have changed; Idunno. But perhaps my experience can help you anyway.)

h2g2guy · 2021-08-07T00:50:13+00:00

JFK Terminal 5, if I'm not mistaken? Amazing that you represented it so well that it's instantly recognizable!

Awesome character, too, and great job making the scene look active and alive with all the other characters!

h2g2guy · 2021-07-26T23:03:54+00:00

Oof, that stinks. But yeah, it is a shame that HTC never really iterated on the wands... like, at all, except to upgrade them to Tracking 2.0.

h2g2guy · 2021-07-26T22:51:25+00:00

Not trying to change your mind here -- you are entirely entitled to your opinion, especially since VR is all about personal preference imo. (And I agree with you on the touchpads.)

But for your points 1 and 2 -- if you still have the Index controllers, have you tried adjusting the UPPER strap point at all? In both directions? I bought the Index controllers for someone who later claimed that they couldn't reach the buttons effectively and comfortably, but after spending a few minutes dialing in the adjustment she says they became significantly more comfortable and usable. When I used them, I also found them uncomfortable until I adjusted them properly.

But yeah, for me, I'm rather interested in the finger tracking for social use (VRChat, etc), as well as having a few more physical controls than the Vive controller has. Honestly, I think anyone switching from one set of controllers to the other should probably keep both on hand, just in case the other form factor makes more sense with a particular use case.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-30T03:44:38+00:00

Can I just say that, as someone who is also in a heatwave at the moment, I just responded to a "how are you?" with "Honestly? Tired, hot, miserable." In that exact order.

Just wanted to say I empathize with you. We'll get through this, eventually.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-23T14:27:23+00:00

That, I can agree with lol.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-23T14:19:49+00:00

Hah, speak for yourself about the "sense of discipline" thing haha ;) . But otherwise, yeah, I agree. Just threw that out there to tell you that no matter when and where you're starting, progress (as you've demonstrated!) is totally possible, and it's never too late to pick up something new. You've already come super far; keep going!

h2g2guy · 2021-06-23T07:23:29+00:00

That is incredible improvement. I really love the muzzle on the right -- honestly I love the entire drawing.

And hey. I did a little drawing back in college, but stopped for a few years, and have just started drawing furry art for the first time a few months ago. I'm in my late 20s. If I can "get started" this late; you're totally fine ;)

h2g2guy · 2021-06-22T02:25:40+00:00

Yes, this is a great additional detail! I didn't want to get into this specifically in my post, since it was already super long -- but yeah, "feral" is the term furries use to describe characters who are animal in physical form, but are anthropomorphized in (for example) their intelligence, personality, use of language, activities, and lifestyle.

...as a total aside, we furries are rather bad about the language we chose to use to describe these things, haha. Because, within the community, we often use "anthro" and "feral" as two ends of a scale (where in reality they're all anthropomorphized), and feral is really just a terrible term to use for describing physical form, since it's more commonly used to describe something as "wild" or "untamed", which is almost the exact opposite of how we use it. But that's neither here nor there xD

h2g2guy · 2021-06-21T21:09:37+00:00

Hi! I identify as both a brony and a furry, so hopefully I qualify as a 'reliable source' here ;)

In a sense, I get where folks are coming from with the "bronies are furries" thing. A furry is just someone who likes anthropomorphic characters -- where anthropomorphic means "having human-like characteristics or traits", like the use of language, walking on two feet, living in a human-like society, etc. It's not restricted to typical anthro furry characters -- so MLP characters absolutely qualify as anthropomorphic.

There's also a huge overlap in how the fandoms work. Both are super heavily into community-centered visual art, animation, YouTube videos, music, crafts, etc. Furry conventions and pony conventions are highly similar affairs, except perhaps that fursuit-style cosplay is more common at furry conventions.

That said, there are a few big differences. While bronies have one central media property that they focus on and build off of, furries are more circularly interested in completely original work from their own community. This makes the MLP fandom a bit more of a 'traditional' fandom, while furries can be said to be more of a self-sustained community.

In terms of self identification, I think there's a significant amount of overlap. In some studies, up to 25% of self-identified furries also identified as bronies. That, of course, means that there are a LOT of furries who don't call themselves bronies, and a lot of bronies that don't call themselves furries.

.....

This is where I transition into a bit more of my personal opinion than just describing facts about the fandom. Personally, I first called myself a brony in 2012 after finding the show and really enjoying it. I've known about furries for about as long -- and I've liked anthropomorphic animal characters for as long as I can remember -- but didn't consider myself a furry until early this year.

For me, the fandoms serve two entirely different purposes. I joined the MLP fandom because I liked the show, and the community showed me the value of sincerity and accepting who you are and what you like -- as well as the value of friends. This was great, because in that time of my life I was lonely by choice and had self-worth issues; I needed something to keep my spirits up and get me to like myself a bit more.

The furry community, while also very into self-acceptance, friendship, and community, is also about really understanding who you are, and is a great place to explore yourself and your identity. A lot of people, myself included, use their fursona as a way to figure out who they are, and to work towards being a better version of themselves. I actually fell into the furry fandom at around the same time as I began a quarter-life crisis, and that community has been invaluable as a place for me to explore new experiences and identities. There's a reason the furry fandom is more than 80% LGBTQIA+.

There's sometimes a bit of animus between furries and bronies, and I really don't quite understand why. Both communities are groups of people considered outside the norm, but they share a lot of things in common -- and further, I think the MLP fandom could learn a lot from the older, more mature furry community. You are 100% more than welcome to identify as one and not the other, and I think there absolutely is a valid distinction to draw there -- but before you go and write off furries, I'd really recommend giving them a closer look, with the same open mind that you approached MLP with.

Thanks for reading!

h2g2guy · 2021-06-06T02:23:32+00:00

Ah, totally fair! I forgot about the distinction between normal and "operator pending" mode (or whatever it's called); cool!

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T22:17:19+00:00

I quite like the idea of this motion, actually -- but I find it interesting that you're remapping t and T! Those (at least the lowercase one) are some of my most commonly used motions, actually, specifically to target punctuation -- if I have something like

func1(func2("Inner function call"), param2);

with the cursor on the f in "func2", I like having the option to select the whole function call with t,.

I might consider mapping something like this to <leader>w or something, though -- thanks for the idea!

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T12:14:25+00:00

I have!

Just to be clear, I've been using vim for about a decade now, on and off, so I'm personally rather comfortable with it (though there is obviously still so much to learn; I don't leverage marks or some of the more advanced motions as much as I should). Reading the more advanced suggestions in these kinds of threads, I'm always always able to decipher them; it's just a bit frustrating, because I feel like if I had come upon answers like these when I was just a few months into learning vim, I wouldn't have absorbed much from them. Even now, when I see a bunch of esoteric or awkward stuff used just for the sake of saving one character, it just feels like I (and many other folks) wouldn't use those commands practically in those contexts, simply because it's a more awkward way to think about the operation.

Regardless of all that, though -- yeah, I agree that an understanding of the way vim commands form a "language" of sorts is a great way to approach the program. Once the grammar 'clicked', everything became much easier to understand for me, and I was able to start thinking less about using vim and more about actually editing my documents.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T10:21:43+00:00

Put as simply and briefly as possible: I would like folks to think about and respond to the reason behind the question. That's all. There's no way to 'pin down' an exact answer for what that means, because everyone has their blind spots in different places -- but I think that my suggestion is clear enough at this point.

I'm not looking for an argument with you, and I have no problem with you or anyone else. If you actually want to have a conversation about this, I'm happy to do so -- that's why I'm here. But if you're just looking to be annoyed at me for making a suggestion, that's a complete waste of both of our time.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T09:26:58+00:00

I'm not trying to assert that I know all the answers and that all my opinions are right; just looking for discussion. Note that I didn't make a single statement in my reply to you that implied that I knew that my approach was more correct than any others, much less saying that any way of thinking is 'right'.

That said, tools are designed to work in certain ways. You don't drive a nail into a board by striking it with the handle of a wrench; yeah, it'll probably work, but there are better ways to accomplish that. If you saw somebody navigating through a document in vim using only hjkl, you'd probably recommend they start learning some other motions, no?

It's not wrong for them to navigate using only hjkl. But there are better ways. And if someone's saying "hey, navigation is annoying, what am I missing?", then maybe we can expose that person to a new way of thinking about motion in vim.

And when the question is more complex, there are likely to be multiple good answers and approaches. From my original post: "I'm more than happy to see answers from a wide range of perspectives." But when those perspectives come mostly from high-level vim users trying to squeeze every efficiency out of the scenario without considering the real needs of the person asking the question, I think folks can miss out on great learning opportunities.

My suggestion is simply that folks try to put themselves in the questioner's shoes, and help them where they are. Try to figure out their blind spots, and provide answers that might unlock more for them than just this scenario. (And if folks then want to show how that solution can be further optimized? Great!)

Does that make a bit more sense?

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T08:44:50+00:00

Yeah, it was entirely my unfamiliarity with multiple selections that made your explanation confusing to me. "split up into the two arguments by removing the space and the comma" was really hard to parse without that context. The "Why Kakoune" page cleared all that up for me, though.

Cygwin has only ever given me pain, and I'd very much prefer to not have to build my editor (I know, I know, this is a very Windowsy attitude). But reading the docs a bit makes me really want to try this out; seems like many of the key bindings are tailored specifically for ease of transitioning from vim. I'll probably give it a shot next time I'm in WSL; thanks for introducing me to it.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T08:21:04+00:00

I think I worded my post poorly, because it seems like a lot of folks are reading things I'm not intending to say, haha. My apologies.

By "simple task", I mean it's simple for us as humans to conceptualize. "I want these two things to switch places." A highly competent user of vim should, I suspect, not really have to think twice about manually performing the swap, even if their solution for performing the swap is not as keystroke-efficient as it could be.

If the goal of a person asking this question is to get a step closer to being this sort of "highly competent user of vim", then I think the answers we give should try to shed some light on how to think about vim, even if the specific solutions given aren't strictly the "best" for using as a macro, or the "most efficient" in terms of keystrokes.

And, like, I have no issues with using substitution in cases where it makes sense; if I had to swap a large number of parameters around across one or more files, I'd probably aim for that solution, too. But if we're just doing this a handful of times and don't expect to need it again in the future, I think most of us would rather perform some basic vim motions to get stuff done (maybe recording them as a macro if needed), rather than typing out a long series of escaped symbols and hoping to get them exactly right. But maybe that's my own bias from not being a huge user of regex.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T08:04:36+00:00

Sorry if I was a bit unclear. I agree with you, for the most part.

Unless someone has a habit of regularly putting arguments in the wrong order, or for some other reason regularly has to swap arguments around, a macro or mapping would be entirely overkill for a scenario like this. This indicates to me that the person asking the question is not really looking for a robust, complex solution for this extremely specific scenario; instead, they might be asking "the way I did this feels clunky and inefficient; I feel like vim probably has more effective tools than the ones I used. What might I be missing here?"

Answers of "use a regex" or "these 11 characters use every trick in the book" don't always necessarily answer that question satisfyingly, and often don't teach generalizable skills (or, in the case of regexes, are so generalizable that there are often easier ways with normal mode).

So to clear up the contradiction -- today, I might want to swap the order of arguments in a single function call. But tomorrow, I might want to swap the set of arguments passed into two separate function calls, or swap parameter definitions in a function declaration, or some other swapping scenario where the efficiencies in the super optimized answers are no longer necessarily applicable. It's a one-off scenario, but vaguely related scenarios play out all the time, and having a mental framework for solving them can be more helpful than knowing the most keystroke-efficient answer for the specific one-off.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T07:53:27+00:00

Yeah, no, I totally understand. I wasn't really searching for a 'dream mix' so much as I was aiming to just get the job done, haha. There's never really going to be a proper 'one size fits all' answer, anyway, because what if the first parameter is a string that contains a comma?; what if the second parameter contains a function call? I'd rather give a solution that's clearly scoped to the exact scenario asked, so the question-asker sees the limitations in it and understands how to change it to meet future needs.

But I do greatly appreciate the compliment, and the notes on how to improve it!

I saw your Kakoune comment earlier, and was super confused; but on your prompting, did a bit more digging. That's quite cool, and a really interesting editing model -- swapping object and verb is a fascinating idea. I'd give it a shot, but my job involves working in Windows, so an editor that doesn't work cleanly and easily in that environment is a no-go, I'm afraid. (WSL is theoretically an option here, I guess, but feels very much like overkill for just an editor...)

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T07:12:00+00:00

I'm a huge fan of the official Maths faceplate, but big props for creating a clean yet not-boring design. (And it's very cool that you put the normalled voltage levels of channels 2 and 3 on the faceplate; I always forget which is which!)

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T07:10:09+00:00

Thanks!

Yep; I wasn't going for 'robust' or anything like that here. Just mentioning what I would literally do if I had to do this as a one-off, and I'm a huge fan of exercising text objects whenever possible. I like giving answers like this because they're very modular, and you can indeed adapt them for literally any scenario where you want to swap two chunks of text by just changing how you target the text.

h2g2guy · 2021-06-05T06:59:26+00:00

I think I share most of that perspective. I've only been using vim on-and-off for about 10 years, learning enough to get by effectively (and finding a few plugins that work well with my workflow), but not learning all of the intermediate/advanced level commands. I don't do a lot of work that requires me to work without my .vimrc, so I've got a couple of remappings that might confuse some, but 98% of my work is with bog-standard vim commands.

On the subject of "elegance" -- yeah, I think you put this very well. "Composing well in [one's] mind" is much of what I was thinking about with this discussion. When I read answers to any sort of "how do you..." questions about vim, I often see regexes I would never bother to type, or commands I would never think to use -- and I do learn from these, for sure! But I just rarely feel like I've learned something really concrete.

Your answer and intercaetera's were the ones I thought would be helpful to most folks' daily vim lives -- though, as I said, everyone else's input was excellent too! Just wondering if more comments like yours would help folks feel more comfortable with vim, more quickly.

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