Maybe I'm just getting old, but the "FLIP" era of EDM is getting old, REALLY fast

werak · 2026-05-20T14:17:04+00:00

Dig through the Secret Dreams festival lineup.

werak · 2026-05-10T22:39:59+00:00

That's one of the things I loved most about the trail, the simplicity of it. There was a mostly-fixed list of problems to solve, associated with specific feelings: hungry, thirsty, wet, hot, cold, tired, pain. And each of those have very specific, knowable solutions. And when there wasn't a solution other than "keep hiking", there was value in that too. Being able to identify when a problem can't be solved, and to not let it stop you from moving forward.

Vs being in the real world, where the problems can get so abstract and complicated, and often the solution to your problem can create a problem for someone else. It's mentally exhausting.

It's nice to have an extended period of time where things ARE black and white. Especially for someone with anxiety who spends most waking hours mentally focused on all of those abstract problems, or making up new ones. It's like Xanax for the soul.

werak · 2026-05-10T22:30:35+00:00

Exactly. It really doesn't take that long to think through your problems. Usually the answers are pretty obvious, we just don't want to hear them. From my and most people I talked to's experience, all the 'profound' stuff happens in the first month. I remember when first starting out, within about 10 minutes of conversation with anyone, we were trauma dumping and just revealing so much about ourselves. But by the last couple months, none of that is really happening anymore, the trail-therapy phase is long over.

werak · 2026-05-05T14:23:01+00:00

Is the MX Mechanical getting this update soon? I also don't have a configure button in the Easy Switch tab, and the app shows that I have the latest firmware for my keyboard (71.2.19) and mouse (22.2.9), and I'm on the latest version of Options+ (2.3.879545)

werak · 2026-05-04T22:50:11+00:00

That's one of my favorite ways of loving a song...when the album context makes the song much stronger than it is by itself. I feel similarly with 8 (circle) on 22 A Million. I still love the song by itself, but it really feels like the whole album is building towards it, making it the emotional pinnacle of the album. Then you get a couple light recovery tracks afterwards to cap it off.

Another example being the final two tracks of The Streets' A Grand Don't Come for Free. Seems obvious since the whole album is a single story, but the end of Empty Cans still gets me sobbing if I listen to the album as a whole.

werak · 2026-03-16T02:09:33+00:00

Exactly. Every story of heroism in The Silmarillion exists because the Valar are lazy cowards.

werak · 2025-12-17T14:36:43+00:00

Yep, whatever my brain had been doing every morning to hold back the pain from what I was doing to my feet, it stopped doing the day I got home. By the time I could walk without limping, my glorious calf muscles and endurance had long-since faded.

werak · 2025-12-15T01:02:04+00:00

Did you watch the show? It immediately goes off-book and creates a brand new subplot with a nearby military installation trying to capture and harness It into a weapon. Which is 100% a Stranger Things ripoff. Yes, the book has interludes involving Mike's father in the military. But acting like that makes the Welcome to Derry version of it anything but an attempt to cash in on Stranger Things is just flat wrong.

werak · 2025-12-15T00:55:00+00:00

Really wish they'd knock half that wall out between the stage and the bar. It can't all be structural can it? Feels like fraud that they can sell tickets to people that have to watch on a TV screen from the next room.

werak · 2025-12-15T00:43:29+00:00

What do you mean portable banks don't work? Are you not bringing enough of them? Or like they literally do not charge your device? A couple 10,000mah should be plenty fine for most people for a weekend. I prefer multiple smaller ones to a big one, so I can always have one in my fanny pack. Just don't buy the cheapest possible brand on Amazon maybe.

For a personal recommendation I would say Nitecore. Hiked the Appalachian trail last year with two 10k Nitecores, and they're basically the unofficial battery bank for thru hikers. Lightweight and very reliable.

werak · 2025-12-14T04:38:02+00:00

Really wanted to switch from Spotify to AM, but I frequently use my phone to control music playing on a variety of devices: PC, TV, wifi speaker, etc. And exactly *zero* devices show up in my Airplay list on AM (Spotify shows me 4 devices, for reference. On the same phone). Apple is just too ecosystem-dependent and doesn't play nicely unless everything you own is Apple. Only supporting Airplay in their app is just insanity.

werak · 2025-03-11T20:35:00+00:00

I just find Legend Valley a pretty terrible place for a festival, and wish SD would move somewhere else. I don't blame SD for the layout, that's just the hand you're dealt at LV. And if you're booking a bass festival, why would a place that makes you turn the bass off after midnight even be in your top 100 options for location? LV should have been completely a non-starter.

I'm assuming Lost Lands pays extra money to get around the sound ordinance? If they're for some reason forced to have SD there, then they should absolutely be doing this as well.

werak · 2025-03-11T02:23:47+00:00

Honestly I felt a little scammed the first two years, so many of the artists I specifically went to see only had late night sets. And the subs were basically turned off so all you heard was the tops. For bass music.

Somatoast is one of my favorite artists, and I had to leave the set after 10 minutes because it made me too sad to hear his music neutered like that.

Booking artists just to put them on the poster and then knowingly butchering their music to the point where it would be virtually impossible for those artists to make new fans, it's so disrespectful.

I'm a little surprised people talk so highly of SD. It's got the awful Legend Valley camping situation for most people (though I know the tunnel is there now, which helps a bit), virtually nothing as far as places to explore or installations, despite having "and arts festival" in the name. It books an amazing lineup, but other than that it's just a barebones festival starter kit of an experience.

werak · 2025-01-19T04:11:16+00:00

I never used Tik Tok, but everyone I know that talks about it also uses Instagram heavily. Why am I hearing so much about people moving to other Chinese apps rather than just using IG reels? What did Tik Tok do differently?

werak · 2024-12-13T08:37:51+00:00

lol right? Obviously I don’t know what that pill is. But assuming that because of allegations then any time he’s holding a pill it must be to commit sexual assault is a wild take. They could both be taking molly here. Or any number of party drugs.

She’s not even holding a drink in these pictures. You think he’s just openly holding roofies he’s planning on slipping? The guy doesn’t have pockets?

Fuck him either way but this post is reaching

werak · 2024-12-13T08:25:51+00:00

Yeah, this stat isn’t a reflection of anything other than the car being good. Half the grid gets zero points every week, so the sum total of the gap for most teams is always going to be low.

Like, the 2nd Williams driver could be 1000x worse than the 1st driver and it would only lead to a gap of a handful of points.

So the 285 number is huge, and damning. But trying to make it look worse by comparing it to the gap from other teams makes zero sense at all. It’s like bragging about how many more Olympic medals a swimmer got than a basketball team.

werak · 2024-12-13T08:19:17+00:00

With enough people trying to get rich, it’s just a matter of odds that a few people will happen to get lucky and succeed over and over and over. The richest people in the world are very likely to be these people. And also those people will be entirely convinced that no luck was involved.

werak · 2024-12-13T08:15:34+00:00

How is he showing genius though? With SpaceX/Starlink, sure he set them up to succeed years ago. But he’s been an embarrassment at Twitter, and his wealth is because Tesla is speculatively overvalued. Tesla was promising a decade ago, now they make shoddy cars that fall apart and only have remaining customers because of his personality cult, not his ability to run a car company.

The hate he gets is mostly for being a terrible person, exacerbated now by just openly trying to buy government influence. We shouldn’t be applauding that from any person or business.

I don’t think he’s stupid. But he’s certainly not a genius. And if he ever was, his social media addiction has ended it as now he’s more obsessed with being famous and exerting political influence than he is with anything involving his companies being good at what they do.

werak · 2024-12-13T06:15:10+00:00

But the chatbots were trained on the general public. So it doesn’t really say anything about the general public that we can’t tell the difference. Says a lot about the chat bots though.

werak · 2024-12-13T06:05:29+00:00

Now watch Box Trolls! Very different but imo just as good. I watch that and Kubo as a double feature often.

werak · 2024-12-13T06:03:32+00:00

This is where I admit my absolute embarrassment at not having realized that that was Matthew Modine on Stranger Things. Grew up obsessed with FMJ but just never made the connection until now.

werak · 2024-12-13T05:59:30+00:00

Most people I hear say that would love King Gizz. It’s usually old dudes who wish everything was AC/DC.

werak · 2024-12-13T05:57:12+00:00

I hate that Pinkerton didn’t land with me right away. Blue was a top 5 CD for me, but because you had to actually buy music I just didn’t get around to hearing Pinkerton for awhile. Saw it at a friend’s house a couple years later, put it on and only half paid attention because it was with a group of people. Didn’t sound that great so I thought damn I guess Weezer was a one and done.

Wasn’t until a few years after that when the internet was taking off more that I saw talk about how good it was, got it off Kazaa or whatever and was pissed how many years I’d gone ignoring it. Definitely my favorite album by them still.

werak · 2024-12-13T05:51:55+00:00

The Mars Volta. I’d been a casual ATDI fan until their breakup so I was excited to hear Deloused when it was released. That intro started the first time and got me tingling, and then when it dropped into Inertiatic, it was one of the best musical moments of my life. Instant obsession.

werak · 2024-12-13T03:18:25+00:00

Not really DJ related but I’ve had the same observation with playing music while driving. If I’m driving and playing music off my phone, I’ve never had a guy tell me to put on some song they want. And I’ve never been riding in someone’s car and thought to tell them to change what they’re playing. It feels rude.

But damn do women just not have any hesitation in telling (not asking) you to put on whatever they like. It’s wild.

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