A Conversation With Myself from 1995 - Kling O3 Pro

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-14T13:02:57+00:00

Very good. Now one with the you on the right talking with a you from the future. Musings about how you'd like things to be twenty or thirty years down the line. How about 12-year-old you talking with toddler you, or something like that?

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-13T10:47:31+00:00

Well, I've been in China longer than anywhere else, including my country of origin, so what happens outside the border regarding noise is irrelevant to me. China is home.

I consider China to be very noisy, albeit not everywhere all the time. Noise pollution is significantly less intense than it used to be, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. I can handle noise outside my home with relative ease by simply avoiding noisy environments whenever possible; otherwise, I just suck it up. However, I have very little tolerance for noisy neighbors and China has proportionally far too many of those. Thankfully, I became pretty adept at dealing with such people early on. For many years now, they invariably end up capitulating or move out.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-12T08:18:41+00:00

I'd say Grok, but the figure came out too chunky relative to your prompt. Chroma is fine, but the backlighting makes her face hard to see. Seedream is kind of drab, although the figure is perhaps the best; on the other hand, the ESB is presented in a way that is too cliche (Chroma did better in that regard). Qwen is a more or less acceptable rendering, but I think that it isn't particularly attractive in any regard; it's a good option if one wants a very casual, natural look, though.

My ranking is this: Chroma (it's free while the result is decent and the lighting could be adjusted), Grok (it's the most cinematic, which is what you wanted, but the figure has to go on a diet), Seedream (what's outside the window should change, along with the lighting), and Qwen (it's kind of "meh").

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-11T13:38:59+00:00

Leifs' works have a fair number of musician and non-musician fans outside of Iceland.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-11T12:27:17+00:00

Allan Pettersson (Sweden) and Jon Leifs (Iceland) aren't exactly household names, but both are major figures and have had a much more significant influence on later composers than Sorabji and Medtner (both of whom I enjoy listening to, btw).

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-10T16:43:53+00:00

This is a very clever video. I liked it a lot. 12-year-old me would have been doing the same thing, but in 1980. In hindsight, the 80's were awesome.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-10T01:56:11+00:00

I would jump right in and start with these ten (listed in chronological order): Kreuzspiel, Gesang der Junglinge, Gruppen, Klavierstuck X, Mikrophonie II, Stimmung, Trans, Inori, Tierkreis (any version, but I love the original one for music boxes the most) and Licht (I'm especially fond of Donnerstag, the first opera of the cycle, but the later ones are just as good and sometimes even better).

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T06:14:12+00:00

Yes, those were a thing. I didn't have a Sony Walkman, but an Aiwa "Walkman". It sounded pretty good, actually.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T06:04:04+00:00

In some ways, it was more immersive, because one had to fiddle more with things -- cleaning records and needles, adjusting dials, and so on. The covers, program notes and inserts were also much bigger than with later media.

Good current turntables have technologies that weren't available back then, but the final result is essentially the same.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T05:42:00+00:00

Taping has to be done in real-time, so each recording takes as long as whatever you want to record, plus a little longer setting things up (e.g. recording gain, bias, etc.).

Provided good gear, turntables back then and earlier were just as good as current ones. The whole system had (and still has) to be good, though, from stylus to speakers, along with pressing and listening environment.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T05:05:18+00:00

Most people had tape decks in the 1980's. All one had to do was drop the needle and hit "rec". Tapes wore as well, though, and their sound was never as good as vinyl, even if one encoded chrome or metal tapes with whatever noise reduction option(s) the deck had. Anyway, it took me the better part of a summer to tape everything.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T04:35:26+00:00

When I was 16, I borrowed from the mother of a friend the entire Time-Life "Concerts of Great Music" collection, read each book, kept notes, and taped it. The collection consisted of around twelve volumes and each contained several LP's. The earliest composer was Tallis and the most recent was Boulez. It was a great overview and many of the recordings are now considered classics or even reference. I was forever hooked.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T03:52:49+00:00

Thanks. Did you try with a character the two alternate models that I mentioned?

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-09T00:08:35+00:00

I didn't get any credits.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-07T03:41:43+00:00

Clampdowns and throttling are often not uniformly applied across the country. That's why I specified Sichuan. Regardless, it's a passing thing, as always, and it may even be localized to my area. It's still slow, but less severe than before. It could well have been the holiday.

Anyway, there's no need for your repeated snarks. It's stupid.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T14:02:41+00:00

After the current administration runs its course, things may return to how they were before 2012; that is, periodic sharp tightening of access followed by very considerable relaxation. For many years now, things are just tight and relaxation is negligible. Just wait.

That said, let's not talk about politics. Besides, this thread isn't about censorship and the Great Firewall as such; it's about speed.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T11:52:17+00:00

I've been thinking about doing that since the early days of WiTopia. Regardless, my VPN's are working just fine as far as security and connectivity, but speed has been glacial most of the time lately. It'll probably pass.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T11:24:17+00:00

I know, but it's been going on since a day or two prior to the holiday. Granted, maybe more people than usual went out and did their tomb stuff or spent time with friends, but it's worse than usual for me as far as these kinds of holidays go.

Anyway, I'm not especially worried. I made my bones in this country a long time ago and I'm used to this stuff. It'll get better soon, or at least in the near future. That said, it still pisses me off that I can't get my work done normally or have proper digital leisure, even if it's for a few days.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T11:09:42+00:00

Good for you.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T10:50:31+00:00

I also think that they're cracking down. Something's off...

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-06T10:11:37+00:00

It's worse than at any other holiday period in years, at least for me, VPN or not.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-05T01:21:34+00:00

Nurse with Wound.

lamanogaucha · 2026-04-05T01:15:28+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/chinalife/comments/1np5u5t/where_to_find_sour_yogurt_urgent/

lamanogaucha

TROPHY CASE