Racism & its silent partner, Ableism. What a ghastly couple Hearing society has adopted as its head of state.
Growing up my first love was reading, then music, then technology. I enjoyed singing as a child. Most kids do, I think. Why wouldn't they? It's another way to make noise, and I mean that in a good way.
My Dad taught me the guitar basics. I had formal lessons but the instrument never fully “revealed” itself or clicked to me. I can strum along and figure out the tune when I need to, but it’s really just a way to accompany my voice solo, if I must. Same for keyboards. I took piano lessons, and that’s when some music theory stuck ‑ I still know where each note is without having to look it up. Later on in my 20s I drank some beer with friends and got enough courage to try singing at karaoke and I enjoyed it, I’m not ashamed to admit. That is good speech therapy BTW, hearing your voice on stage monitors.
I’m starting to play music again. I’ve been messing around with my guitar, but I think I want to buy a nice nylon string. I went down to the music store that’s been part of my family history and the staff still know me there. I asked questions, got information, and there was one particular guitar that was speaking to me.
Found out the hard way that you can’t really learn piano without weighted keys, and I never had those. I always like to have keyboards around, however. It helps me when I’m trying to figure out a song, and I ought to play organ more. Much like my Uncle (Father’s brother) - he played an actual organ with foot pedals ‑ I gravitate towards those sounds.
I’ve reached the point where I’m considering formal vocal lessons. I need that to break through this current plateau I’m experiencing – some professional, impartial feedback.
Thinking about the nylon string. Maybe a trade-in is in order? I might even ask about layaway, I don’t know.
If you've ever wanted to learn an instrument, I encourage it. It'll help keep your brain busy, that's for sure.
COVID was difficult for a lot of people. I spent a year stuck in a place I never want to experience again. Around 2022, I was considered an "essential employee"; I reported for my job where we had to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID. I'm hard of hearing and I read lips. A part of my job was configuring slots for new products. They used to allow employees to write the dimensions on pieces of paper as what they wanted - but when COVID hit they essentially said "no more bits of paper, to stop the spread, talk to your co-worker instead." I can't read lips that way.
I did my best to operate under those conditions until it finally broke me. By that I mean, it broke MY mask - my autism one. I didn't realize I even had one at the time, but suddenly there it wasn't. I was taking antianxiety medication to try and deal with the stressors. 30 mg is a high dosage, I suspect. It dulled everything, not just my anxiety - my personality even. Weaned myself off of that stuff - and it feels like I'm emerging from a cocoon or something weeks later.
50 years of being an undiagnosed Autistic does something to a person, I imagine. You know how they say "Treat others the way you wish to be treated"? How you treat others, is exactly how I'll treat YOU. I'm feeling more like 'myself'. This must be what weaponized Autism looks like.
Last night I made the wonderful discovery that Linux handles Bluetooth streaming to HAs, way better than Microsoft ever did.
The setup I have is quite modest by modern standards, which is why I suppose Microsoft decided not to support it with an upgrade to Windows 11 from 10. Just fine by me — 11 is garbage in my opinion. Mint likes it, however. Mint has handled everything I've thrown at it, hardware wise. The hilarious part about all of this - the entire Bluetooth stack is enabled by a USB key. That's it — the motherboard has no built-in support.
When I attempted to stream audio to my hearing aids under Windows 10 a couple of years back, it would sputter, staccato audio. Unlistenable & unusable. I'm here to inform you, early in the A.M. I tried connecting the HAs to the PC again using the Blueman-manager widget provided by the Mint developers. Activated the hardware handshake and the name of the product popped up in the list of available devices. Right click, connect and PAH! It WORKS. I now have access to higher fidelity audio on my PC than I did previously.
Thanks again, Linux.
Ever since I made the switch from pressing plastic buttons to tapping on glass, I had been wishing for a T9 Gboard mode. A developer named...
