I don’t recommend it, but it can definitely give you a perspective of the kind of shit people have to put up with

It might be plenty, depending on your emergency. But you never know when you might be asked to care for an ill family member, suffer a health setback yourself, or end up out of work in a soft labor market - which we are currently in. It’s a risk based decision, but as price-to-earnings of potential investments is currently incredibly high (suggesting unrealistically high future return expectations), I would hedge on the side of more savings rather than earlier investment.

Save up an emergency fund. If you can manage to keep six months to a year’s worth of expenses in a savings account, it will give you a huge psychological cushion in rough times. Beyond that, save and invest as early as you can.

Learn how to do basic maintenance on a bicycle, car, motorcycle or whatever else in your life that you depend on. That knowledge and experience will pay dividends the rest of your life.

Mavis Beacon would cry if she were around to see this

I think it’s the tendency of producers in that era, around 2000-2010 was peak Loudness War, and many albums were pushed into clipping. IMO it started getting better through the 2010s as the emphasis on radio charts started to wane and listening habits shifted away from earbuds and portables.

That may be a thing with some releases, but I’m convinced that the original pet sounds and even the MFSL mono release are very inferior to that one HDCD stereo release. Still I’m listening to in 16bit/44kHz form, but to me it sounds way higher fidelity and likely is closer to the source. I can pick out instruments and sounds that I didn’t hear in the other version.

In general though I find modern ‘remasters’ are horrible and compressed and I think it’s lame that services like Spotify usually have only the most recent (and therefore worst) version of a given album.

May the source be with you

What’s interesting is just how different the quality was of some of the stereo releases vs the mono bounces. For an example, the stereo HDCD version of Pet Sounds is a little wack, but even if you joined the two channels to mono it sounds a hundred times better than the shittastic mono release. Got to wonder if they optimized it for AM radio play the way that similarly awful sounding releases in the early 2000s optimized for iPod earbuds.

Had a college roommate who would walk to the shower in socks, shower (for whatever that was worth), and come back wearing the SAME FUCKING SOCKS. “Do I smell or something?” “Yeah you do bro, and yes it is affecting you socially”.

But did he change his habits? Nope.

Light trucks are less regulated so the big manufacturers leaned hard into it.

This is my exact point

They probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the unintended consequences of regulation

Zlib is still accessible at https://singlelogin.re/

Ah-ah-ah! You didn’t say the magic word!

Drivin’ in your Cars and Trucks and Things that Go

I’d challenge anyone to A/B a 16bit 44kHz sampled digitization with the original and tell the difference consistently. This is one of the reasons I love pbthal vinyl rips, his rig is awesome, I could never afford it, and it captures the sound I’m looking for. The 24 bit 192kHz vinyl rips on torrent sites are chasing ratio IMO.

Still a tough bind for someone who isn’t already a homeowner. I’ve put a lot into index funds which have performed really well, but if I sell them now to buy a house and the real estate market shits the bed (which it really should), then I’m in an even worse place. I remember talking to people in 2007 who complained they would “never be able to afford a house”, but three years later their local listings fell by 30-40%.

10 of these will buy you a house in 20230

If I didn’t burn it? If I wrapped it in wax paper and threw it in the garbage? Maybe it cuts through the bag and injures someone handling it. Maybe an animal gets into the trash the and dies after getting cut by it. Turns into super steel? What the fuck are you even saying? It would take a razor blade many months to rust away if left completely exposed, and again I’m trying very specifically to avoid doing that because the blades are dangerous. I’m having trouble fathoming how you could be this dense.

I literally don’t have sharps disposal available to me. The rust will mix with the ash and become dispersed harmlessly into the soil. Look at an iron ore mine and you will see millions of tons of iron oxide, because that’s how iron is usually found in nature.

I’m not suggesting burning all trash, I’m suggesting burning a miniscule amount of steel to avoid the risk it poses to human and animal life. It turns into iron oxide (RUST). The fire pit ring itself will have about 100x as much of it.

Why would I be joking? Razor blades will oxidize into nothing in a fire