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Done This Week
May. 4th, 2025 11:43 amYou’re getting The Ballad of the Earbuds this week. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So I have this issue. At work for the last five years, I have been listening to music and audiobooks by way of a little Walkman mp3 player. I love this thing; it does exactly what it is supposed to. And since I didn’t used to carry my phone with me, because the production floor has terrible reception and searching for signal nuked my battery, it was the only way to have entertainment.
The problem is that it can only be used with wired earbuds, ie with a jack. It couldn’t be paused except by taking the thing out of my pocket, which isn’t allowed on the floor. So I needed to know I was going to be left alone if I wanted to listen to something narrative, rather than music.
Also, I work an extremely active job, so having a long headphone cord trailing down my torso has proven to be an issue. I regularly get it snagged on my cargo pant flaps when stooping down to pick up some piece of equipment, thereby wrenching it out of my ear and sending it clattering to the floor. This is annoying and, arguably, a little dangerous. You don’t want to be reacting in surprise and discomfort while suddenly holding eighty pounds of steel, for example.
Now that I’m working primarily off the production floor, and now that I carry two phones at all times anyway (for my sins), it seemed worthwhile to at least try using my phone as an entertainment venue. I’m still just loading files onto it--I don’t do streaming for much of anything unless it’s unavoidable. But the important thing is that I can use my old, half-dead bluetooth earbuds with it.
Now this has solved my issue of clotheslining myself regularly. But it also introduces earbud-located controls. I can pause. Which means I can at least attempt to listen to audiobooks again. I spent many happy hours this week, wiring plugs into place whilst listening to stories. This is all I really want in my professional life. I probably won’t ever get back to the rate of a novel a day I sometimes hit while working as an operator--I have to talk to people way more these days. It’s nice, though, to feel like I can carve a little more mental space for myself out of the day.
The weather has been swinging wildly between hot and foggy, with occasional burst of rain and thunder. We had a vehicle-induced power outage (jackass hit a pole). And the corn, pumpkins, and sunflowers have all sprouted. So it feels like summer, for good or ill.
Lewisia: 3 new pieces written
Day job: 42.75 hours
Cleaning: had the septic tank cleaned out, scheduled necessary repairs
Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase (this is the BBC radio production, Libro.fm had the first part on sale, the differences between this and the published stories falls somewhere between refreshing and disorienting)
Listening: the third Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros album (my bonus album for the week, it just released and I needed a pick-me-up on Monday, lovely and exactly what I needed), cry about it by houseguest (more Bluesky recs, I don’t have the technical knowledge to properly describe what I hear, but there’s a watery effect on the vocals, combined with very bright, forward percussion and a specific bass[?] sound that is precisely the punk/alt sound of a mix CD given to me by a classmate in 2000 of bands I still don’t know the names of, which is a very specific nostalgia token, “somnambulist” is just fantastic)
Playing: Spirit Swap on Steam, a match-3 game with queer/trans characters and lo-fi background music, really chill and lovely with beautiful art, and it’s still on sale this weekend if that sounds like your jam too
Clock Mouse: 1126 words, a much slower week because I didn’t actually want to write anything :/
Other: donated blood 🧛♂️
So I have this issue. At work for the last five years, I have been listening to music and audiobooks by way of a little Walkman mp3 player. I love this thing; it does exactly what it is supposed to. And since I didn’t used to carry my phone with me, because the production floor has terrible reception and searching for signal nuked my battery, it was the only way to have entertainment.
The problem is that it can only be used with wired earbuds, ie with a jack. It couldn’t be paused except by taking the thing out of my pocket, which isn’t allowed on the floor. So I needed to know I was going to be left alone if I wanted to listen to something narrative, rather than music.
Also, I work an extremely active job, so having a long headphone cord trailing down my torso has proven to be an issue. I regularly get it snagged on my cargo pant flaps when stooping down to pick up some piece of equipment, thereby wrenching it out of my ear and sending it clattering to the floor. This is annoying and, arguably, a little dangerous. You don’t want to be reacting in surprise and discomfort while suddenly holding eighty pounds of steel, for example.
Now that I’m working primarily off the production floor, and now that I carry two phones at all times anyway (for my sins), it seemed worthwhile to at least try using my phone as an entertainment venue. I’m still just loading files onto it--I don’t do streaming for much of anything unless it’s unavoidable. But the important thing is that I can use my old, half-dead bluetooth earbuds with it.
Now this has solved my issue of clotheslining myself regularly. But it also introduces earbud-located controls. I can pause. Which means I can at least attempt to listen to audiobooks again. I spent many happy hours this week, wiring plugs into place whilst listening to stories. This is all I really want in my professional life. I probably won’t ever get back to the rate of a novel a day I sometimes hit while working as an operator--I have to talk to people way more these days. It’s nice, though, to feel like I can carve a little more mental space for myself out of the day.
The weather has been swinging wildly between hot and foggy, with occasional burst of rain and thunder. We had a vehicle-induced power outage (jackass hit a pole). And the corn, pumpkins, and sunflowers have all sprouted. So it feels like summer, for good or ill.
Lewisia: 3 new pieces written
Day job: 42.75 hours
Cleaning: had the septic tank cleaned out, scheduled necessary repairs
Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase (this is the BBC radio production, Libro.fm had the first part on sale, the differences between this and the published stories falls somewhere between refreshing and disorienting)
Listening: the third Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros album (my bonus album for the week, it just released and I needed a pick-me-up on Monday, lovely and exactly what I needed), cry about it by houseguest (more Bluesky recs, I don’t have the technical knowledge to properly describe what I hear, but there’s a watery effect on the vocals, combined with very bright, forward percussion and a specific bass[?] sound that is precisely the punk/alt sound of a mix CD given to me by a classmate in 2000 of bands I still don’t know the names of, which is a very specific nostalgia token, “somnambulist” is just fantastic)
Playing: Spirit Swap on Steam, a match-3 game with queer/trans characters and lo-fi background music, really chill and lovely with beautiful art, and it’s still on sale this weekend if that sounds like your jam too
Clock Mouse: 1126 words, a much slower week because I didn’t actually want to write anything :/
Other: donated blood 🧛♂️
