The Hogbae Holler 11: Rangoon Lagoon

Wake up honey, The Holler is back 🤤

Sep 21, 2024

Good mourning my silly little mourning doves! Today it is a fine day to be alive. Or it could be the opposite. Regardless, I am going to sprinkle you with some game.

What a year it has been! There are many details that I am going to simply gloss over or omit here. But I will give you a gist of something, that’s for sure.

Ted Update

I moved from Vancouver WA to Portland OR in record time. My timeline was messed up due to a critical misunderstanding, so long story short I moved out of my old place and into a new one in 1.5 weeks. I’m now living in N Portland with my longtime friend Katy, whomst I also lived with back in 2014. Life is wild!

We are in a big house and are still putting stuff together but it has been a great change so far. It’s interesting living with another human again after living alone for like 7 years! I think the most noticeable change is that I’m feeling more creative and care about things more. Also Katy loves to cook so we have been having way cooler/more varied stuff than I was used to making when I was just cooking for myself. Also, we have a huge yard and have started a lil garden that will only get cooler and more diverse over time. Also Cleo has handled the transition like a pro and I am proud of her. Fun!

Also, all of my close friends are doing amazing things in their lives and I am so proud of all of them. That feeling is one of the best.

Anyway, here are some other things I’ve been thinking about lately.

My Switch from Spotify to Tidal

I’ve written previously about Spotify being shitty and how I wanted to switch to Tidal (another streaming platform that has a comparable library, but pays artists 3x more and has better audio quality). I canceled Spotify and switched to Tidal in April. Here’s my thoughts so far:

Audio quality
- Tidal is objectively better, and I like that they display the quality of each album so you know whether the source files are good quality
- That said, on a day-to-day basis, since I use a Bluetooth speaker like 80% of the time, I doubt there is a noticeable difference
- That said, I’ve found that Tidal has more versions of albums, like alternate mixes and such, which is fun to explore and compare on good speakers
Discovery (finding new artists)
- Both are not very good for my tastes. But I am pretty particular so idk
- Automatically generated playlists are shitty on both platforms. I was hoping that Tidal was better, but I think they use the same or a very similar algorithm - automatically generated playlists still repeat the same small handful of artists
- User-generated playlists are more bountiful on Spotify. I’ve found a handful of good ones on Tidal, but there are just more on Spotify
App usability
- Spotify is better. Tidal has short but noticeable lag when switching songs/etc, and they don’t really have a primary color, so sometimes finding the button I want to press is harder than it should be
- Sometimes the Tidal app stops playing music when it hits an error which is annoying AF
Overall
- I’m going to stick with Tidal. I feel better using it knowing that they pay artists more (still not enough though), and I like that they care about quality. Spotify’s interface is objectively better, but that’s not enough of a reason for me to switch back
- Also Spotify has been promising “hi-fi” audio since like 2021 but hasn’t delivered. I don’t think they care about music, or anything really

More than you cared to know? Sorry!

Uhh

Big fan of Moo Deng, the viral Thai baby pygmy hippo. I wonder what her interests are? What are her goals? Does she dream?
Working on improving my sleep
Work is fine

Oh this is kinda interesting maybe: I think I’ve hit some sort of threshold where I suddenly feel nostalgia. When I was a kid I really did not like old stuff or care about anything old. Both of my parents loved antiques and I still have a visceral negative reaction to the smell of antique stores.

But that’s kinda different - I find myself having a New Feeling, a longing for some parts of things I experienced growing up. That’s probably the same thing that oldheads have for antiques, but let me finish this thought thread. I’ve been listening to Nu Metal again, and bands I liked when I was a kid, and I like seeing old products that I used to see around. What’s with that??

Not all super my vibe lol but I can’t find an amazing example. But you get the idea

I do not miss many feelings I had while growing up - it’s mostly media and products. It’s also interesting to think of friendships and crushes I had back then, but I don’t like to think about those as much.

I’ve also been more interested in the 60’s and 70’s (before I was alive). Been listening to a lot of old music and such.

Do you feel the same? Or something similar? Comment your feels if u want 🥺👉👈