My state's minimum wage is $9 an hour -- going up to $10 in January. My home town is a little pricier, though, being a college town and all, so they are already at $10.
Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in this town is $2,800.
There's an average of 170 working hours in a month. That's...significantly shy. To pay for that single bedroom a household would have to work 280 hours. Or put another way; TWO people sharing that apartment and working full time would be spending over 80% of their income on rent.
That is not 30% of income (the traditional marker of affordability). It's not even close. It's not even in the same discussion.
Okay, maybe the average is too nice. We're talking minimum wage, right? So what's the cheapest place in this town? Harder to get numbers, but looks like anything below $1,000 is going to be one of those golden finds you hear people talk about... but don't plan your budget around being able to find it yourself.
The place I'm at, not terribly close to anything, no parking, extremely small -- these aren't even 1-bedroom, but studios roughly the size of a 1-car parking space -- is currently asking $1,300. That's 76% of that hypothetical full-time job at minimum wage, there.
At least you can cook. Because one has to be ready to reply to the glib answers -- "the rents are a lot cheaper on the other side of the freeway" and "a room is cheaper." The reply being; everything costs money. If you can't cook at home, your total costs go up. If you are far from work and/or good transportation, your costs go up.
Something is off here, is all I'm saying. I don't know who the minimum wage is for, but it isn't for anyone who rents. Not if they want to eat as well.
(I've got rent control, and I am making more than minimum wage. So based on my gross, I'd be theoretically paying 38% of my income for rent. Fortunately I have a second job as live-in manager. But that's hours, too....)
Monday, November 9, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
na no wri mo · bo tro go so · mo flo
For about thirty years, it was never easier (and may never be easier again) to write that first million words. Because it was easy to let go of them. I have old stories in Wordstar and MacWrite, tucked away on broken hard drives, stored on floppy disks and microtape.
Yes: even though the formats are largely proprietary and the physical medium difficult to find readers for, I could probably rescue some of these. But, like the old game files that got a serious mildew attack in the back of the closet, it is also easy to throw them away and not look back.
Before that, one had to depend on the manuscripts getting lost in a move to a new city (but they have a terrible habit of coming back to light again). In the very near future, we can probably look forward to the increasingly corporate IP-friendly internet structure losing the creative output of us mere lowly consumers somewhere in the Cloud.
Yes -- that is this morning's thoughts, as I prepare to donate my Kaypro IIx and my Convergent Technologies Workslate and my pair of Wallstreet Powerbooks to a computer museum (or, more likely, the local salvage yard). The last Frankenmac is gone already (this was the 6100 "pizza box" case with a 7100 mobo crammed into it and a G3 daughtercard on top of that.) Oh, but there's still a G3 box on the floor as I glean the last old files off its hard drive over Ethernet. And a couple of MacBooks (Aluminium and Titanium) I drag out to run sound designs on when I don't want to leave my main production computer at the theater.
Except that hasn't happened in a while. I promised my new job I'd give them a minimum of a full year. And that I had no plans of even doing a couple weekends on a design until the new year.
So that's why the plan is still to toss out as much of the random sound gear, the stuff I kept for emergencies, the stuff I never get around to sorting and testing, the stuff that I already know is broken.
Along with cartooning and drafting supplies, prop-making supplies, old synthesizers (I still have a JV880 and a Roland W30 cluttering up the place)...and any of that first million words I find lying around in physical form that I can bring myself to toss.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
A Farewell to Aux
I haven't mixed in what feels like quite a while.
Well, there was this children's show (adult actors performing for children in a tour of K-12 schools). I can't remember the last time I mixed a band, though -- even a pit band.
The last two months have passed in a bit of a haze, I fear. Get up (far too early), work all day, return home to collapse, eat a little, run only the most necessary errands. Interrupted only fitfully by pretty much random things; a little car repair, a Maker Faire, a prop order to complete. Nothing much to remember, nothing really worth reporting. No big projects, no long-term life goals.
Heck, I still haven't adapted to "the show that never opens." Instead I'm just struggling to get to work every morning and somehow stay fed and get a little sleep and the bare necessities of clean clothes and rent checks and so forth.
Spent today more-or-less reviewing. I've learned so many things, I can get lost for hours and hours just trying to brush up and maintain existing skills. And I have so many memories and life experiences I can get lost for a similarly long time just trying to review them. What was that movie I once saw? Where was the place I visited, who were the people I knew.
Last weekend was a memorial for a family friend. I spent a big chunk of it getting re-acquainted with his kids; these were the neighborhood kids when we were growing up, the closest in our circle of friends, the kids from across the street. Who have kids of their own now. Life is what happened to you while you were distracted.
I'm working full-time but it is practically grunt work. The decades I've spent learning theater craft (or learning to mix, or any of my other skills) are largely untouched by this. Theater doesn't pay well, but I'm getting significantly less per hour now; the trade-off being steady work instead of seasonal. So far, the main way that trade-off has worked in my advantage is that only now am I seeing a bunch of positions being offered (sound design, ME position, plus lots of load-in load-out). The dry spell was almost three months, and three months is a long time between paychecks even if the checks are bigger on average.
So I still dunno.
Well, there was this children's show (adult actors performing for children in a tour of K-12 schools). I can't remember the last time I mixed a band, though -- even a pit band.
The last two months have passed in a bit of a haze, I fear. Get up (far too early), work all day, return home to collapse, eat a little, run only the most necessary errands. Interrupted only fitfully by pretty much random things; a little car repair, a Maker Faire, a prop order to complete. Nothing much to remember, nothing really worth reporting. No big projects, no long-term life goals.
Heck, I still haven't adapted to "the show that never opens." Instead I'm just struggling to get to work every morning and somehow stay fed and get a little sleep and the bare necessities of clean clothes and rent checks and so forth.
Spent today more-or-less reviewing. I've learned so many things, I can get lost for hours and hours just trying to brush up and maintain existing skills. And I have so many memories and life experiences I can get lost for a similarly long time just trying to review them. What was that movie I once saw? Where was the place I visited, who were the people I knew.
Last weekend was a memorial for a family friend. I spent a big chunk of it getting re-acquainted with his kids; these were the neighborhood kids when we were growing up, the closest in our circle of friends, the kids from across the street. Who have kids of their own now. Life is what happened to you while you were distracted.
I'm working full-time but it is practically grunt work. The decades I've spent learning theater craft (or learning to mix, or any of my other skills) are largely untouched by this. Theater doesn't pay well, but I'm getting significantly less per hour now; the trade-off being steady work instead of seasonal. So far, the main way that trade-off has worked in my advantage is that only now am I seeing a bunch of positions being offered (sound design, ME position, plus lots of load-in load-out). The dry spell was almost three months, and three months is a long time between paychecks even if the checks are bigger on average.
So I still dunno.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
The Persistence of Memory
So the department I work in does all sorts of odd jobs around the factory. Yesterday was resetting the clocks to account for leaving Daylight Savings time. Most of the clocks can be manually set, and that's no biggie. Several of the wall clocks are, however, fancy digital models that get the time wirelessly.
I'm told that in previous years my boss or others would struggle for up to a week, setting the clocks manually only to have them reset themselves digitally during the night.
The controls on the back are extremely non-informative. There is "Set," which does nothing if you press it briefly. "Wave," which also does nothing unless you hold it in for several seconds, at which point the clock advances to 12:00 and stays there. A "DST" switch and another switch marked "A, E, C, M, P." Well, that one is pretty obvious; that would be the US time zone.
On the company website, the instruction for dealing with Daylight Savings is both simple and opaque. "Hold the clock facing Fort Collins, Colorado, and wait for it to update automatically. It may take several hours."
This...this is not radio as I understand it. We're in California; Fort Collins is significantly below the horizon, and I doubt the Atomic Clock is using LORAN, either. The idea of the clock trying and failing over and over to achieve a tenuous connection long enough to update, an attempt so difficult it may take it several days, is at the very least sort of chilling, and most definitely rather ridiculous.
So I popped the clocks off the walls, rebooted them, stuck them on a dolly and took them to lunch with me out on the loading dock where they could see the sky. When prodded, they faithfully went into "waiting for signal mode," twitched for a while, and finally gave up. So then I set them manually, flipped the "DST" switch that neither my boss nor my bosses' boss seem to have thought useful to flip, and as of today they haven't chosen to reset themselves.
We gave one clock a better chance; set it up in a loading bay facing the local microwave and cell phone-festooned water tower. And the sun came out while the clock was there. And the clock melted.
Not the whole thing...the face bubbled up so badly it blocked the hands from moving. No ants, either.
I'm told that in previous years my boss or others would struggle for up to a week, setting the clocks manually only to have them reset themselves digitally during the night.
The controls on the back are extremely non-informative. There is "Set," which does nothing if you press it briefly. "Wave," which also does nothing unless you hold it in for several seconds, at which point the clock advances to 12:00 and stays there. A "DST" switch and another switch marked "A, E, C, M, P." Well, that one is pretty obvious; that would be the US time zone.
On the company website, the instruction for dealing with Daylight Savings is both simple and opaque. "Hold the clock facing Fort Collins, Colorado, and wait for it to update automatically. It may take several hours."
This...this is not radio as I understand it. We're in California; Fort Collins is significantly below the horizon, and I doubt the Atomic Clock is using LORAN, either. The idea of the clock trying and failing over and over to achieve a tenuous connection long enough to update, an attempt so difficult it may take it several days, is at the very least sort of chilling, and most definitely rather ridiculous.
So I popped the clocks off the walls, rebooted them, stuck them on a dolly and took them to lunch with me out on the loading dock where they could see the sky. When prodded, they faithfully went into "waiting for signal mode," twitched for a while, and finally gave up. So then I set them manually, flipped the "DST" switch that neither my boss nor my bosses' boss seem to have thought useful to flip, and as of today they haven't chosen to reset themselves.
We gave one clock a better chance; set it up in a loading bay facing the local microwave and cell phone-festooned water tower. And the sun came out while the clock was there. And the clock melted.
Not the whole thing...the face bubbled up so badly it blocked the hands from moving. No ants, either.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
There's trouble at the mill
import troup.members as vikings
def main():
while(eggs == True || bacon == True):
spam
Can you tell which language I'm struggling with now?
Just trying to get the GPIO buttons on my Raspberry Pi assigned to automatically boot the GUI on the PiTFT display for easier stand-alone list.
I found my old Adafruit minty-boost kit, by the way. And it does power the Pi! Dunno about handling the full load of video, though.
def main():
while(eggs == True || bacon == True):
spam
Can you tell which language I'm struggling with now?
Just trying to get the GPIO buttons on my Raspberry Pi assigned to automatically boot the GUI on the PiTFT display for easier stand-alone list.
I found my old Adafruit minty-boost kit, by the way. And it does power the Pi! Dunno about handling the full load of video, though.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Festina Lente
I'm still trying to find the time and energy to throw out much of the small scraps, found objects and saved hardware I've accumulated in my props-building. On my new schedule and budget it makes more sense to purchase materials and hardware on a per-project basis, instead of wasting time sorting through existing stock and trying to make it fit.
Also want to toss the several tubs of random electronics parts and especially the "this might be repairable" stuff.
Today, however, I was monkeying with some drivers (what people outside the audio world call "speakers.") Which are also salvaged scrap, and what's more, I can't seem to stop myself from bringing more home.
Purchased a couple small amplifiers from Adafruit. Used the 2.8W to test which drivers still worked. So was able to toss two (pity I still have five or six tucked under the desk at work!) Left the 20W alone for the moment to see if I could wake up a salvaged TWO HUNDRED TWENTY watt amp which wants 48 volts (presumable at some ridiculous amperage). Turns out an old computer power supply brick pushing a mere 24 volts is sufficient not to trip any brownout detection circuits in the thing, and run one of the salvaged drivers at more than sufficient volume for my personal listening needs.
Of course, at that point I might as well pack along one of my Jolly 5A's; that's already over a kilogram of hardware, and I need a solid box to get the best sound out of it, and it pretty much has to plug into the wall at those numbers. But I'm still toying with the idea of working up a neat looking replica to house it in -- maybe the Portal radio, perhaps the radio from Bioshock or something from the Fallout series.
But first step is to make a box out of some of the scraps of high-density plywood we've got in the scrap bin at work. And see if there's any tuning I can do with the shape (porting is probably out, as the physical size is too small to permit a decent extension. Although some people have done some crazy stuff with external ports...)
Of course, this is all salvage (power supply included). Nothing says it won't suddenly let the magic smoke out a few minutes after I power it up again.
Oh, yeah. And I loaned my sister my "Tomb Raider" necklace. So now I need something else prop-related that I can wear. I was tempted by Daniel Jackson's "Ra" amulet but I'm afraid I find the actual prop rather ugly...
Also want to toss the several tubs of random electronics parts and especially the "this might be repairable" stuff.
Today, however, I was monkeying with some drivers (what people outside the audio world call "speakers.") Which are also salvaged scrap, and what's more, I can't seem to stop myself from bringing more home.
Purchased a couple small amplifiers from Adafruit. Used the 2.8W to test which drivers still worked. So was able to toss two (pity I still have five or six tucked under the desk at work!) Left the 20W alone for the moment to see if I could wake up a salvaged TWO HUNDRED TWENTY watt amp which wants 48 volts (presumable at some ridiculous amperage). Turns out an old computer power supply brick pushing a mere 24 volts is sufficient not to trip any brownout detection circuits in the thing, and run one of the salvaged drivers at more than sufficient volume for my personal listening needs.
Of course, at that point I might as well pack along one of my Jolly 5A's; that's already over a kilogram of hardware, and I need a solid box to get the best sound out of it, and it pretty much has to plug into the wall at those numbers. But I'm still toying with the idea of working up a neat looking replica to house it in -- maybe the Portal radio, perhaps the radio from Bioshock or something from the Fallout series.
But first step is to make a box out of some of the scraps of high-density plywood we've got in the scrap bin at work. And see if there's any tuning I can do with the shape (porting is probably out, as the physical size is too small to permit a decent extension. Although some people have done some crazy stuff with external ports...)
Of course, this is all salvage (power supply included). Nothing says it won't suddenly let the magic smoke out a few minutes after I power it up again.
Oh, yeah. And I loaned my sister my "Tomb Raider" necklace. So now I need something else prop-related that I can wear. I was tempted by Daniel Jackson's "Ra" amulet but I'm afraid I find the actual prop rather ugly...
Friday, October 30, 2015
Open the Pod-Play Door, HAL
More than once I've been disparaging about something I consider too trendy and popular but basically useless. I remember thinking Cliff Bars were a bad-for-you sweet confection sold to fitness wanna-be's with a stupid cartoon of a rock climber on the wrapper. Well, that was before I started climbing, found out the company was started by climbers, and found out it was low-sugar, very solid food -- like good old-fashioned trail mix in a compressed form. Like Dwarvish iron rations only somewhat better tasting. And the cartoon of the climber is technically accurate, too.
I've never had a strong need to surround myself with music while working. In fact, I often prefer silence when I'm trying to concentrate. But then came a spell when I was working near the main assembly floor, and being driven to distraction by the incessant and loud radio station played over the PA -- the auto-tune vocalists (as far as I can tell, there's only two; one male, one female. Otherwise they all sound identical) are tolerable, but the marathon sessions of happy-idiot banter from the hosts is hair-tearing.
So I started to bring in earphones as self defense (oddly enough, a good half of the people on the shop floor seem to have a similar problem with the piped-in music.) I have a couple basic mp3 players I picked up surplus for a buck or two each to use for sound effects in a prop. But I keep all my sound files, imported CDs, and so forth in 44.1 uncompressed; the only mp3's I had lying around I could throw on to the player in the hurried minutes of a work morning were game soundtracks.
I listened to a lot of Tomb Raider (1 through Underworld, minus #2 which I haven't gotten around to downloading yet). Also Portal2, Black Mesa, and Mass Effect.
And that was getting old. I figured out how to batch-process in Audacity and flipped some Chopin piano in there as well, plus the entire three-something hours of "How the West Was Won." But this approach had a basic problem; there's no indexing on my bare-bones mp3 player, and if I found out in the middle of a long session of stripping wires that I was cued up for Tomb Raider Legends once again, I'd be faced with trying to hit the "track advance button" 96 times in a row to find whatever folder might be next.
So, right, I'm facing exactly the reason the iPod came along (and the same functionality in smart phones and, today, smart-enough phones). But I can't quite muster the strength to purchase one, along with the not-plastic water bottle and the polo shirt with the alligator on it. And as it happens, I'd just picked up a Raspberry Pi.
So, great! I can learn how to work in the Pi environment and make a geeky, balky, conversation-piece playback machine that is suitable enough for my modest needs.
Except, as work went on and I found myself listening to music even when the shop radio wasn't blasting cocaine-freak morning-person inanities at me, I suddenly realized that the kind of mindless work I was doing could share CPU space with more engaging audio fare.
In a word, podcasts. Brush up (more like, learn the basics of!) a little history while I broke up old pallets and rolled black paint on plywood.
So, yes. Podcasting is not the useless gen-x endeavor I might have characterized it as. Well, maybe a lot of them are, after all. But there's some pretty good free history and science stuff out there.
And at fifteen to thirty minutes a 'cast, the indexing problem I mentioned earlier no longer applies.
I've never had a strong need to surround myself with music while working. In fact, I often prefer silence when I'm trying to concentrate. But then came a spell when I was working near the main assembly floor, and being driven to distraction by the incessant and loud radio station played over the PA -- the auto-tune vocalists (as far as I can tell, there's only two; one male, one female. Otherwise they all sound identical) are tolerable, but the marathon sessions of happy-idiot banter from the hosts is hair-tearing.
So I started to bring in earphones as self defense (oddly enough, a good half of the people on the shop floor seem to have a similar problem with the piped-in music.) I have a couple basic mp3 players I picked up surplus for a buck or two each to use for sound effects in a prop. But I keep all my sound files, imported CDs, and so forth in 44.1 uncompressed; the only mp3's I had lying around I could throw on to the player in the hurried minutes of a work morning were game soundtracks.
I listened to a lot of Tomb Raider (1 through Underworld, minus #2 which I haven't gotten around to downloading yet). Also Portal2, Black Mesa, and Mass Effect.
And that was getting old. I figured out how to batch-process in Audacity and flipped some Chopin piano in there as well, plus the entire three-something hours of "How the West Was Won." But this approach had a basic problem; there's no indexing on my bare-bones mp3 player, and if I found out in the middle of a long session of stripping wires that I was cued up for Tomb Raider Legends once again, I'd be faced with trying to hit the "track advance button" 96 times in a row to find whatever folder might be next.
So, right, I'm facing exactly the reason the iPod came along (and the same functionality in smart phones and, today, smart-enough phones). But I can't quite muster the strength to purchase one, along with the not-plastic water bottle and the polo shirt with the alligator on it. And as it happens, I'd just picked up a Raspberry Pi.
So, great! I can learn how to work in the Pi environment and make a geeky, balky, conversation-piece playback machine that is suitable enough for my modest needs.
Except, as work went on and I found myself listening to music even when the shop radio wasn't blasting cocaine-freak morning-person inanities at me, I suddenly realized that the kind of mindless work I was doing could share CPU space with more engaging audio fare.
In a word, podcasts. Brush up (more like, learn the basics of!) a little history while I broke up old pallets and rolled black paint on plywood.
So, yes. Podcasting is not the useless gen-x endeavor I might have characterized it as. Well, maybe a lot of them are, after all. But there's some pretty good free history and science stuff out there.
And at fifteen to thirty minutes a 'cast, the indexing problem I mentioned earlier no longer applies.
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