Right Angle: Backstage (08-23-2022)

Has anyone mentioned why there was no Aug 30 Backstage? Asking for a friend…

Have any of you guys seen the youtube video of Australia’s women’s professional soccer team (rated # 4 in the world) was beaten 7-1 by a team of 15 y.o. boys? Most of the videos were taken off youtube quickly.

Sounds like some bootlicking RAF flag officer is trying to enhance his retirement prospects.
You mean that Dr. Fauscist is more famous than “doctor Biden??? LOL

Ukraine is NOT the first major land war in Europe since 1945. The dissolution of Yugoslavia was.

And that chaos was fought with leftover WWII equipment. In the 90s.

That was not a major land war. It was an anarchic clusterfudge.

More casualties, and the even had “War Crimes” trials.
And NATO intervened in that one…..

The RAF head of recruitment quit over it, if what I heard was correct.

And then Steve found it… never mind.

Scott – I had the same issue once while diving. I was given antibiotic drops and could hear again within a few days.

Bill whatever you are using on this episode sounds worlds better that the hollow sphere/pipe echo chamber you had before.

Bill, take it from a professional sound engineer, you sound fantastic. But I do try to avoid USB mics though. I have a USB sound board, but it has XLR inputs. The USB part is merely to connect to a computer. Scott’s 100% correct, the room is the biggest part of quality sound.
I’d say, if you had time and a steady hand, you could DIY a top quality mic for a fraction of the price. BTW, the AC sound isn’t noticeable on the final product. We can hear Steve when he types though…I’m assuming he has his mic attached, or sitting on his desk.

Bill is right, the mask is merely a virtue signal for the vast majority of people who wear them and has been for quite a while.
It would be fun to hear everyone’s best reasons to wear a mask. Here a few;
1) I didn’t shave
2) It keeps me from picking my nose, the real reason masks work.
3) I look better with a mask
4) No make-up used today (girl’s option)
5) With a mask and a rimmed hat I can commit a crime and not get identified. And I’d get leniency because of my social consciousness.

Coventry was the first thing I thought of when you read that Zelenski quote

I would have bet that this would have been Bill’s topic this week.

SCott, my experience growing up in the burbs of Houston and Conroe being our #1 rival, well, those farm boys would regularly kick our ass.

Being a “farm boy” myself I’ve noticed a strange attitude towards us from city boys. For some reason that I just cannot fathom city kids always assumed they were tougher than us farm kids. They seem to either forget or be unaware of the fact that farm kids, especially boys, get a lot of heavy physical exercise and a lot of top quality food. Those two factors make for a pretty stout physique.

I’m not knocking city boys either. I’ve known some that were pretty damn tough (by which I mean determined, resilient and resourceful, not necessarily mean, cruel or abusive) too.

I just always thought it strange that guys from a more cosmopolitan environment as a rule seemed to think their background made them somehow more capable than we from rural areas.

Having noticed this I’ve used that to prevail in conflicts with them many times. City boys act tough whether they are or not and thereby telegraph their intentions.

For example — One time I accidentally and completely without intent insulted such a person, who was feeling his liquor and thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. He took offense at something that was not intended to offend. We were both wearing jackets which was appropriate for the weather. He made it clear he intended to fight me and started to remove his jacket. When it got down to his elbows I decked him, hard. There’s no reason you need to take your jacket off to fight, as I proved beyond a doubt. That was just part of his “ritual tough guy act” and I used it against him to defend myself. If you tell me you’re going to “kick my ass” I’m going to take you at your word that you mean to try. If you then tie your arms up of your own accord there’s no reason for me not to take advantage of your stupidity and avoid injury to myself.

This is just me relating the result of a lifetime of studying people and trying to understand them, or at least have a good idea of their intentions. Your comment reminded me of an instance where those lessons applied. I still cannot for the life of me understand just why city boys think they’re tougher than country boys. As a rule, that does not apply though of course there are always exceptions.

I’m an ENT. Reading these comments lets me know I’ll always have a job if I want one.
Ron Swanson Alter Ego was funny. If “something got in there”, an antibiotic would be an illogical choice. Zithromax is what doctors use when they are treating upper respiratory infections.
G K Masterson gets recurrent “swimmer’s ear”, usually because of Q-tip use, and needs better ear hygiene before steroids are required.
Sometimes, again often from Q-tips, cerumen (ear wax) gets jammed too deeply in the canal. Your ear, Scott, probably just needs much more aggressive flushing with body temperature water. There are rare instances where a sudden nerve damage hearing loss can occur, but only worry about this if you don’t have ear wax issues.
I tell folks that I love Q-tips. They keep me in BMWs.

Well, by something I meant bacteria, not eel or salamander. (Do they have those in TX, we had a bunch in NY). Hence, go see a doctor. It’s been a week for goodness sakes.
And no, I never use a q-tip. Thing says on the box “don’t insert into ear canal” I saw someone at work using a paper clip the other day. How many car payments would that get you?
My favorite was when my daughter was on a competitive dance team. One of the mom’s was using a bobby pin. I thought, if I wanted to perforate your ear drum with something close at hand, that might be the optimal choice.
The fact that these people do this in a fairly public setting is also quite disturbing.

Um, I never use Q-tips. I mostly get ear infections a lot from swimming. I don’t get them so much as I used to because now that I’m an adult, I’m a lot better about drying out my ears with alcohol right after I get out of the pool but I can still get them from just taking a shower and washing my hair if I’m not quick enough to dry my ears out with alcohol.

I’m just one of those people who, once they got swimmer’s ear for the first time as a kid, became much more likely to get it again.

— G.K.

Normal ear canals need a healthy coating of normal earwax. If you are one of those with poor earwax production, pretty rare, actually, that stinks for you. Q-tip users, when “cleaning” a normal ear canal, actually strip off the protective coating (earwax is bacteriostatic), causing the ear canals to itch and weep. Then a normal person “cleans” the itching and weeping canal, exacerbating the issue. A Catch-22.
You technically have an external ear infection, not inner, BTW. Fluid behind the ear drums is a middle ear infection.

I had some medical training a long time ago but I’m not a doctor. Part of that training was auditory canal lavage.

I learned decades ago to while in the shower reach over my head with the opposite arm, grab the top of my ear and pull the auditory canal straight, then flush it by allowing the shower stream to go directly into the canal. It’s part of the routine of every shower I take. That gets rid of excess cerumen and leaves a light coating in the ear canal. (I don’t have trouble with ‘water in my ears’, the shape of my auditory canals allows drainage just fine.)

I learned this from a Navy ENT doctor that was part of my medical training.

I’ve only ever had one ear infection in my life and that was from a common cold that somehow worked its way into the eustachian tubes. That resulted in a secondary bacterial infection behind the ear drums and required antibiotics. It wasn’t something I see any way that I could have avoided.

I’m afraid I’m not much use for making ENT specialist’s car payments. I’ve only ever that once been to a doctor for ear trouble that wasn’t related to unavoidable high dB damage. If you had to buy a car with what you could make from people like me you’d be driving a used Chevy.

On the matter of audio devices like microphones — The signal processing is as important as the input or output device. Poor signal processing will make even the best mic sound terrible. A bad mic will sound terrible no matter how good the signal processing is. This is the input and creation side of audio.

The same goes for speakers, the output and reproduction side of audio. Great processing cannot make lousy speakers sound good and even the best speakers will sound sub-par if the signal reaching them isn’t up to what it should be.

Hey Steve? Any anyone else who doesn’t know this …

Self tapping screws are not meant to replace drill bits. The hardened cutting edge on a drill bit is far superior to the drill bit shaped shank on a self tapping screw. Use a punch to mark the spot you need the hole to be, then drill a pilot hole with a regular drill bit. Use the next size down drill bit from the size of the screw if it’s available. If you’re not sure err on the side of using a smaller bit than you think you’ll need so that the threads will get plenty of bite. In any event, drill a pilot hole first. When drilling the pilot hole use a good, sharp, suitable drill bit so that you don’t have to apply a lot of pressure to the bit. The bit should cut, not chew, and it should cut with comparatively little force applied depending on the material being drilled.

Scott’s hearing … You’ve done what there is to do. Generally an obstruction caused by protective secretions (ear wax) will not affect both ears the same way. You really have to work at it to get that to happen. You need to see a Doctor. Take it from a guy who’s half deaf from unprotected gunfire and explosions, you don’t want to mess around with your hearing any more than you have done so far.

look into presonus mic and interface, works geat

Presonus makes great stuff.

Ear. Go to a rapid care clinic and request a clean-out. You’ll be amazed at how forceful/effective–yet painless–their method is.

Thanks, Sal. That’s my next step.

Scott hope your hearing clears up even if it does still see a doctor. Looking forward to the segments coming.

Scott, you’ve got an inner ear infection. You probably need to go to a doctor and get a shot of decadron (sp?) and then they’ll have some medicated drops to put in there before the canal swells back up.

I get those frequently.

— G.K.

Yes, me too. The fact that external remedies didn’t work means something got inside at the lake. Time for urgent care. Z-pak always works for me (zythromiacin (?)) I believe.

Yeah, the fact that external stuff isn’t working means that the ear canal has probably swollen shut which is why you need that shot to force it to open up so they can put something down there to start clearing up the infection.

It happens to me just about every time I get an ear infection. And, once you’ve gotten swimmer’s ear once, you’re more likely to get it from even just normal emersion in water (like washing your hair which is how I got the last three cases I’ve had). Take rubbing alcohol with you whenever you go to the pool or lake and put it in your ears as soon as you get out of the water or if you ever feel like water got down into your ears.

— G.K.

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