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Speed Uno

November 1st, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Random Stuff | #
A funny variation of Uno with custom rules - requires the H2O Uno deck. Notes for myself so I don't forget.
1. If you have the same exact card as what got discarded, you can cut in at any time to play it.
2. If someone cuts in on you, you have to pick up the entire discard pile.
3. If you play a zero, you get to switch hands with someone - you give up your win if it's your last card.
4. If someone plays a plus card, you can play another plus card to avoid the penalty and pass the total to the next person.  If the next person also has a plus card, you can keep forwarding this until the last person doesn't who doesn't have one and has to pick up the total sum of all the plus cards.
5. Plus card with splash (H2O) makes everyone draw and cannot be forwarded/blocked.
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Spotify Release Checklist

October 18th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
These are strategies Waterflame and I have refined over the years for releasing to Spotify (preferably via Distrokid).
- Pre-generating the ISRC. Upload the track privately on Soundcloud first, then edit and check the "Create ISRC' under metadata to have an instant pre-generated ISRC to use on your releases (so you don't need to wait for the first release to finish processing to get the ISRC, in case you need to reupload or have multiple releases or whatever).
- Release Radar. Release on Fridays with global release at 0:00 New York time to ensure it gets on release radar (only updates once a week on Friday, so if you miss it by even a second, you're out of luck).  The fastest distributor is Distrokid, but even they require usually 2 days so you want to have the track uploaded by Wednesday at the latest.
- Release Frequency. Your latest release will generally take the release radar away from the previous, so ideally release once every 2 weeks...[More]
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Beyond Kingdom's Realm

July 5th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Beyond Kingdom's Realm by Jonas B. Ingebretsen (@renderworks)
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Smalltown Dreams by Bosa

May 6th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Smalltown Dreams by Bosa (@JonBabbLiberty)
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Old Computers Bypass HDCP

May 5th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Waterflame has been wondering why I'm able to share clips from copyrighted content (movies, games), which I thought is normal, and I just realized it's because my computer is too old to understand the HDCP protection lol
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Generative AI in a Robot Body

March 1st, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
I recently put together a lookbook for my horror film idea "Artificial Imaginary" w/ one of its themes being that AI currently lacks a "mind" and how bad it could get if it were stuffed into a robot.  And then news just hit they put ChatGPT in a robot. XD

https://pftq.com/blabberbox/?page=Artificial_Imaginary



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Replacing Music on Distrokid without Takedown

February 18th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Here's a nifty trick for replacing music on Distrokid without takedown (or at least no downtime on Spotify):

1. Contact Distrokid support and ask to remove the song ONLY from the Flo store (since no one uses it).  Or don't upload to Flo to begin with and you skip having to contact support.

2. Upload the new version of the song with the same title and ISRC.  Pick only the Flo store.

3. Once the new release is greenlit on Distrokid, click it and scroll down to "Add to Stores." Add to all stores like Spotify.

4. Check Spotify in a day or two to see that the song now has a "Other releases" menu on the bottom right of the page.  

5. Once you see that, it is safe to take down the old version of the song on Distrokid, and the new version will seamlessly take its place.
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Self Image

January 5th, 2024 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
Dreamt I watched this whole thing on TV as a movie...
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A man tries to save an actress/influencer friend from a dystopian psychological ward.  The influencer normally has a very active online presence but recently went missing and silent from social media.  The man finds her at the ward after much detective work, schedules a visit, but she looks different, disfigured, etc but clearly still her.  When the man tries to talk to her, she is confused, doesn't speak, has a blank expression, and does not seem to recognize any of her online profiles/content he shows her on his phone.  It becomes apparent she's either drugged out or mentally incapacitated / disabled.

He breaks her out only for them to both get caught and separated.  He gets held in a separate room and questioned by doctors.  He demands they release her and that he'll expose them, but they seem relatively unphased and largely ignore...[More]
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Godzilla -1.0 Score

December 29th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Godzilla -1.0 Score by Naoki Sato (@naokisato_face)
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Bosa Classics by Bosa

September 27th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Bosa Classics by Bosa (@JonBabbLiberty)
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Spotify Marquee vs Ads

August 29th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Instead of using Marquee to notify followers, you're better off just running ads to your own listeners. Doing that gets you about 10 listeners per dollar, while Marquee costs >$1 just to get 1 listener.


Note the end goal is not to drive thousands of listeners through ads but to get the ball rolling so that Spotify's own recommendation algos start driving the rest of the views.
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Parasite Eve Yearning Remix by t.Komine

August 29th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
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Mercury Use in Vaccines

August 28th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
For those who don't have time to hear the full interview of @RobertKennedyJr w/ @joerogan:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk?si=XMvIWTeCQfKNNU1WmVLgMg&nd=1

I've never actually heard RFK's actual reasoning about before, so it was interesting that it's more about mercury. Apparently the industry uses a misleading 2002 study by Pichichero that shows the ethyl-mercury passes out of the bloodstream within a week, which sounds like that means it leaves the body, but a later NIH study by Burbacker on monkeys showed the ethyl-mercury only leaves the blood quickly because it accumulates in the brain (the ethyl aspect makes it cross the blood-brain barrier more easily).

The mercury is necessary because it triggers the immune response from the body towards the dead virus, so it's unavoidable but the notion it doesn't actually leave the body an interesting concern that I've never heard before.  The mercury aspect seems to something that doesn't get mentioned much (or just handwaved away with the same claim that it leaves the bloodstream, without acknowledging the part about it accumulating elsewhere), so it's something I'd be interested to see more research or information on....[More]
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And Then I Realize

July 21st, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
Sometimes it feels like I spend all day just to get somewhere.  I can't help but wonder - where are all the people on this train? And then I realize-

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Dreamt of finding this note left on a train, but woke up before I finished reading it. :O
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Center of Mass and Gravity After Quantum Entanglement

July 2nd, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Ideas | #
This is more of an open question we're curious about and not something we're claiming should work or is accurate, so apologies in advance if we butcher any terminology or concepts.  Credits to Waterflame for posing the initial question that gave way to the rest of the idea - if quantum entanglement is actually the result of a hidden variable (4th spatial dimension), we wonder if a shift in center of mass/gravity might be a way to test it.

The implication is that if the center of gravity or mass shifts, then there may be something physical connecting the two particles but through space we are not aware of (ie 4th spatial dimension).  A 2D analogy would be to have two seemingly separate dots on a sheet of paper moving in synchronization, but zooming out in 3D, you would see the dots are connected by a compass or other tool.  What we are asking then is whether we can detect the existence of that connection from the point of the view of the 2D paper by measuring the...[More]
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Undo New Folder Permanently Deletes Files

June 24th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
I created a new folder to paste files from an external drive, but accidentally hit Ctrl+Z in explorer view instead of a doc I was editing.  Apparently this permanently deletes all the files that got pasted into the new folder? They are not in recycle bin, and redoing the folder creation does not bring them back.  Not even file recovery software finds the files.  This Microsoft support thread on the issue just hand-waves it as unanticipated use of undo: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/if-you-undo-the-creation-of-a-folder-what-happens/9e7c088f-729e-4925-9c5f-fdf5496b6fc4
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Acceptance by Wisp X

June 18th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Acceptance by @WispX
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Thump

February 26th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
A black screen, soft nature ambience, and a sudden ominous thump against the wall.

Unfade to a person waking up pinned against the ceiling of a house.   The camera is close up and upside down initially before rotating to instill a sense of disorientation.  Heavy panicked breathing.  Throbbing low ambience.  White light from the cloudiness outside.

The person struggles to stand or move.  They call out for help, but there's no one around.  Cut to a distant shot looking up to the person from the ground.  Nothing else is upside down, and things fall to the ground from the person.  The person fidgets with a cell phone only to drop it.

The person...[More]
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Still Here by DM Dokuro

January 24th, 2023 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Still Here by DM Dokuro
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Invisible Body Snatchers

December 17th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
Another dream that played out like a movie...

We start at a conference where everyone wears UV filtering glasses because the world's been infested with giant invisible insects that either eat you or bite into the back of your head to control you.  There are also smaller hand-sized ones more everywhere, but only the big ones kill and mind-control. People are actively gathering again, such as at this conference conference, because the buildings are flooded with UV light which, in conjunction with the glasses, lets you see the creatures on the walls and ceilings.  

Security is constantly killing any of the larger creatures that get close enough to the floor or crowds, keeping the creatures at bay at the upper edges of the walls.  However, people seem to not make an effort to avoid the creatures themselves, grouping up near the walls when there's a creature right above them and occasionally getting swiped.  One of the organizers we're talking to lament this,...[More]
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