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Post by stringypoo on Mar 22, 2022 7:45:57 GMT -5
Whatever happened to zerotoleranxe? Was that his last username? I thought he changed to brutalyouth or maybe I'm mixing him up with someone else. Didn't he upload a lot of hardcore albums?
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Post by tao on Mar 24, 2022 15:20:03 GMT -5
Whatever happened to zerotoleranxe? Was that his last username? I thought he changed to brutalyouth or maybe I'm mixing him up with someone else. Didn't he upload a lot of hardcore albums? Yeah, for a while he was like the primary hardcore uploader.
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Post by stringypoo on Mar 24, 2022 19:50:33 GMT -5
Was that his last username? I thought he changed to brutalyouth or maybe I'm mixing him up with someone else. Didn't he upload a lot of hardcore albums? Yeah, for a while he was like the primary hardcore uploader. That's what I thought. I don't know about you, but I feel like much of his activity was getting involved in the downloads section as an uploader, and I stopped downloading albums from sites like this several months ago. I think in general it feels like our forum is slightly less music-centered than it used to be as well, or at least staying less current than before. He was uploading a lot of content, and some of it got very little views and attention, as did much content also uploaded by others in the last year and a half or so. Streaming likely is an explanation for the changing of habits, and I know I'm someone who was impacted in that last year or so as someone who stopped downloading albums. Maybe he just got tired of uploading when we weren't showing as much interest. Granted, many of his uploads were also very popular.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 15, 2022 1:55:56 GMT -5
So I believe this is now the 9th week my school has been online now due to the virus situations largely in Shanghai now but also in Suzhou, which was actually the city whose infections caused our school in Kunshan to go online. I'm so tired of teaching online... You can't get the same results at all, especially from these students.
What may not be known about international schools in China and also in much other parts of the world is that it's generally considered "elite education." Yeah, our school missions are all the same; cultivate world citizens with global mindsets and educate them to be more involved in the communities around them. Yeah, that sounds wonderful. But did you know that one year of 1st grade in said school is equivalent to $20,000 US? Yeah... So what kind of students do you have? Largely spoiled students whose families are so rich that the kids do not need to develop a sense of goal setting. We have literally had parent-teacher conferences in the middle school division this year and last year where parents sat down with us and said, "Look, we do not really care if Lucy isn't performing well in school. We have money, and she will always have money. We just chose this school because we want her in a more friendly and open-minded environment where she won't suffer harshness at school." JUST...OMG SERIOUSLY?!
So now imagine what it must be like teaching 115 of these kinds of students across multiple classes for 9 weeks online now... You're always teaching and talking to a wall, or so it feels, as they never talk or answer back to you when you ask questions. You give them tasks and they're just playing games on a screen next to their computer. You can't punish them anymore with detention or anything because nobody believes we will be back on site for school before the end of June...
While this sounds dreadful, I'm also dreading the fact that if this remains the case, I'll not be able to truly say goodbye to them when I leave at the end of June to change to my new school job in Shanghai. In some way, I guess I shouldn't care. But in truth, I've known a lot of these students for 4 years now and despite how low their abilities may be and how little hope there is for their futures and how little they stayed engaged in my class and everyone else's classes online, I'm really going to miss a lot of them. It's not like they're bad kids or anything...they just aren't adults yet. How the hell are you going to go to online learning and expect kids in their room to not be tempted by video games during the school day? They're just being who they are. It sucks but there isn't much we can do about it. sigh...
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Post by v9733xa on Apr 19, 2022 18:25:57 GMT -5
Booked my trip to Myrtle Beach in June! Free place to stay with Mom and Dad, and get to see my grandparents (91 and 94) which is always great. I'll by flying for the first time in a couple years, wish me luck.
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Post by v9733xa on Apr 29, 2022 17:42:14 GMT -5
Pet people, set your teardrops to "wide open."
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Post by mozine on Apr 30, 2022 0:25:01 GMT -5
I guess it's safe to say I can watch Legends of Tomorrow in full force since it's concluded along with the finished arrowverse series.
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Post by stringypoo on May 3, 2022 0:14:53 GMT -5
I've played a lot of wedding gigs as a violinist, almost all of them in string quartets with various musicians I've met and joined up with over the years in Arkansas and Arizona. Now that I'm living in China, that life is kinda gone for the time being (people here really aren't getting married during Covid days HAHA!), and I was thinking about doing a series of posts on Facebook to remember the most interesting moments playing weddings back in those days, hoping to draw out players who were with me in those gigs for some shared laughs. I can't stop thinking about this one wedding I played in Scottsdale, Arizona. For those who don't know, a string quartet usually plays for 20-30 minutes before the wedding ceremony begins. Then there's the seating of various named relatives, which usually comes at the request of a specific music selection by the arrangers of the wedding. Then the next sequences also often have pre-determined music selections as well. But after the bride and groom have reached the altar, the string quartet gets to relax for a while and just watch and enjoy the funny stuff at the wedding waiting for the "you may now kiss the bride" bit so that we can play the final Wedding March tune as they leave. Perhaps one of the most surprising and funniest moments to me after more than 100 weddings in the States that I had performed at was when I saw for the first time the groom said his vows and couldn't even get through two sentences without getting so emotional that he just choked on all of his words. His voice had popped up to squeaky sounds as he was just bawling up there. Words can't do the scene justice in recreating the feeling. We four musicians were super shocked, and we were trying so hard to hold our laughter. We were all seasoned in this kind of gig, and never saw that before. It's almost always the other way around, when the bride shares her vows. But anyway, the groom had probably a one minute vows segment but it took an embarrassing 4 or 5 minutes until the bride basically laughed a little and made him cut it. HAHAHA! And then she proceeded to stoically recite her vows, and didn't shed one tear. The whole time he was just wiping his face. hahaha! The best thing is that they were heavily mic'd, so that ever emotional mumble from him was very loud. lol I miss playing weddings, if only for the silly things that happened. Of course, making $150 for playing 30 minutes of music isn't bad either.
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Post by v9733xa on May 3, 2022 17:22:28 GMT -5
Do you think your music was more likely to keep a married couple together? Maybe your strings heralded true love. I wonder if the average amount of divorces in those in which you played is a little lower than the national average.
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Post by stringypoo on May 3, 2022 19:13:05 GMT -5
Do you think your music was more likely to keep a married couple together? Maybe your strings heralded true love. I wonder if the average amount of divorces in those in which you played is a little lower than the national average. Hahaha, a fun thought. I don't really think my involvement had any way of factoring into the divorce rate. In some way, I kinda feel like the signs for people who are going to divorce are actually already showing when people are deciding to get married, and they just don't really feel the weight of those things yet due to their excitement to take things to another level. And so in some way, I feel when a couple decide they want to hire a string quartet instead of just playing a track from a CD, I do tend to think maybe there is more there to the relationship and its security because at the very least, they were able to make such an extra-level decision as to elect a string quartet and help choose music for their wedding. It's when couples don't put that effort into their wedding that I would be more prone to expect them to fail at some point down the road. But nah, I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people I played for have divorced already. Especially this one wedding also in Scottsdale in which the bride's wedding vows were almost strictly shit lines like "I vow to cheer for the Broncos with you" and "I vow to be there watching all the games with you." I mean...the guy's a sports fan, that's fine. But her vows were so clearly all steered in that direction, and it felt as if she had no interest in those things. It didn't feel like a joke either, which made it feel sad instead.
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Post by stringypoo on May 29, 2022 20:13:00 GMT -5
Lots of people in Shanghai this weekend were able to finally walk outside of their communities for the first time in several weeks, or perhaps two months or so. It was a huge deal. So much so that of course madness ensues. I remember seeing a group of videos that showed foreigners living in Shanghai flooding the streets the first night and partying in the streets without masks. As I saw the videos, all I could think was "Don't fuck it up!" in my best RuPaul voice. The city officials were afraid to police it and they just let it go. It has been quite a difficult time.
In most Chinese cities, people would obey the laws and live out their homestay sentences in peace. But in Shanghai, the people were rebelling constantly the whole time. Watching this as an American living over here, it really feels sometimes like people living in Shanghai forget that they're not Americans. And in some way, although it's less peaceful, I'm almost glad that Shanghai is this way. But I did roll my eyes at a million videos of people resisting and fighting testers on the daily. Complicated feelings. But I guess what I like is that there is still a sense that perhaps there is power within the people somewhere in this country. And to some degree, it works in Shanghai.
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Post by stringypoo on Jun 11, 2022 10:37:47 GMT -5
It’s kinda funny. I love talking about metal. It’s my favorite topic. But over the past few months I’ve been writing way less album reviews for the Metalcrypt than I originally intended. I was averaging about an album review per month over the last four or five months. Part of it was due to how busy the work life became outside of that. But another part I can’t even explain because I don’t understand what laziness came over me. Perhaps I just was working so hard that I treated myself to a shutoff after hours.
This week I wrote five reviews! Felt really great. Wrote on the new albums by Véhémence, Heltekvad, Abysmal Dawn, Vanum, and Wiegedood. All of which albums had not been reviewed by other staff, which makes it even nicer. Now I’m starting to run out of things that haven’t been reviewed on the site yet that I have listened to, so I guess a slowdown will approach. Fun while it lasted.
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Post by stringypoo on Jun 17, 2022 21:35:21 GMT -5
One thing that takes adjustment with moving to China is that bathroom attendants/cleaning staff are almost all female, and you could be in the mall using a urinal with little-to-no wall partition next to each urinal and those attendants will just be right behind or beside you mopping the floor. They don’t care if you’re pissing right next to them, they just keep going. I’m sure they all have seen plenty of bathroom peen. Hahaha
When at school where I teach, it’s a little less comfortable for me because while those cleaning staff make efforts not to be in the bathroom at the same time people are using it, sometimes it’s inevitable that you’ll be the lone person who arrived at your daily or perhaps even bi-daily poop o’clock and they come in to mop or clean the sinks. Had my first uncomfortable moment with that yesterday as it was poop o’clock and as I was as getting ready to exit, there she goes, cleaning the sink. So it’s awkward. Do I just exit the stall anyway? Do I wait for her to finish so there’s no bathroom meeting? I waited a short while but then it felt awkward because I was just wasting time sitting in a stall. So I ended up getting tired of waiting for her to finish, as it took forever. And damnit! She’s the one who always cleans my classroom after lunch too! Now we will always see each other and likely acknowledge that we shared the same breathing air when we were together as I pooped. Trying to have a short-term memory about this... don’t want to think about that every time I see her lol
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Post by stringypoo on Jun 29, 2022 11:27:56 GMT -5
After nearly 4 whole months, I’m finally going back to Shanghai, only this time not for a weekend or only for holiday like I had been doing. I finished working in Kunshan this past week and just mostly finished packing my things to move to Shanghai. But my god, the packing is the worst part. I hate that shit so much.
If hell is a real place, I would think it would be a place where all you do there is move from one apartment to another with short deadlines during which you frantically pack while losing sleep. No matter how many times I move, it always sucks ass and I never get better at it.
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Post by stringypoo on Jun 30, 2022 22:40:55 GMT -5
Made it back to Shanghai. Although the city has had a few months of very hard times, it currently feels largely the way it did before I left the last time 3.5 months ago. Furthermore, on the topic of moving, not only is the process hell, but think about all the movers in the world who lug everyone’s heavy shit around for a job everyday. I helped my mover navigate and carry items especially with respects to holding the elevator. It was awful. And he does this all the time. To have that job, perhaps that’s what hell is like! Haha
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