One shelf and bottles in our pantry are covered in what appeared to be a fine coat of orange dust, but using our 3 year olds microscope toy, my wife discovered it’s actually colonies of these little guys crawling everywhere. She is in the process of bleaching and throwing stuff out, and I’m just curious: what the heck are they?
Found this little guy floating in my daughter’s bath in Cen Tex. Never seen a real or false widow in my 40 years living here. Which is it?
Edit: roughly the size of a dime including legs
Both song and recording were done by me. I am now stuck in the classic analysis paralysis trap of being both creator and editor. My hope is this community can give me constructive mix/mastering feedback with advice on what to change in the context of Logic, as it is also my first time using the program. Thanks in advance!
I am trying to achieve that magical warm/buttery/luscious (insert overtly sexual adjective here) vocal sound with my new Soyuz 017 FET. I originally purchased a Chandler REDD 47 to go with it, as there seemed to be a generally positive consensus on it, but unfortunately the unit arrived DOA and I had to send it back.
Now I find myself right back where I started in analysis paralysis and unable to pull the trigger on the Redd again, namely for the price tag and the question if there is something better suited for much less.
DI would be nice. I would like some color, but maybe more emphasis on clarity. Smooth highs, full lows, and that 3d sound would be preferable. TIA
About 3 weeks ago I needed to make a big purchase, presenting an opportunity to earn an easy SUB with a new card, so I did some research and took out a Palladium. After receiving the digital card but before the physical card was delivered, I tried to make the big ($4.5k) purchase with the digital card.
The transaction was declined, and after a lot of back-and-forth with Bilt customer service (who initially blamed the merchant) I discovered it was declined by Bilt due to the large amount, and that the card was restricted pending review. I have never encountered this problem before, and didn’t think twice about the amount given that the card had a $50K limit.
Enter 2 weeks of Cardless purgatory, during which I received 3 of the same identity verification emails (completed all 3), 6-7 ‘Accept your Paladium card offer before it’s too late!’ emails, the physical card in the mail (dead card), and all kinds of other spam emails from them. Needless to say, customer service over the phone was pointless: reps could not communicate to the review team, they had no means to escalate, supervisors took days to call back or did not call back at all, etc—I got nowhere and the card remained restricted for 2 weeks.
I finally asked a Cardless rep to cancel the card and close my account…..last week, and as of this morning it is still open. Everytime I call, they say they are unable to close the card while it is still under review. The best they can do is send a note to the internal review team, whatever the fuck that is.
So now I am in the process of reporting Bilt to the BBB and CFPB, and regret the day that I ever did business with this horrible, horrible company. Stay far away
Has anyone else had this experienced with Bilt?
About 6 hours ago I took out a Bilt Palladium card and went through all the steps of setting up the digital wallet in order to make an immediate purchase. The item I want to purchase is about $4.5K, my credit limit is $50K.
After attempting to make the purchase twice and the transaction declining twice, I called Bilt’s customer service partner Cardless for support. They said everything was fine on their end and the problem was on the merchant’s end. So I called the merchant and tried to make the purchase over the phone with a person who could override the authorization hold, and once again it declined.
A few minutes later, I got an email from Bilt stating that my card had been restricted due to suspicious activity, and to wait 30 minutes for a verification email in order to lift the restriction. I waited an hour, no email, so I called Cardless back again. The representative told me: A) they can’t lift the restriction over the phone, and B) the transaction was declined because it was too large, and that a transaction of that size will continue to be declined up until my next billing cycle—one month from now. Mind you, none of this was in the fine print of the offer (I actually read it over), and furthermore, the customer service rep could not give me an exact number for a spend limit. WTF is this?
I have been waiting for over an hour now for a call back from that representative’s supervisor (because ofc she could not just transfer me), but I am sure that person will be of little or no help and punt it somewhere else.
I am considering calling the merchant and asking them to break the transaction up into thirds or something, but since the Cardless rep could not tell me or even estimate a limit, I don’t even know if that will work!
Has this happened to anyone else? Can anyone think of another workaround?
Edit: 2 hours later and still no verification email. This company seems sketchy AF.
I am looking to upgrade my mic locker with a nice tube LDC, and have zeroed in on a U47 or U67 clone. The question is, which one ranks “best” in terms of quality, fidelity, and bang-for-buck. My budget is around $3k.
So far I have had an opportunity to try a Peluso 2247 SE and a WA67 in my studio. The WA67 was nothing to write home about; the Peluso was pretty good, but maybe not $2.5k-good considering there are so many other options on the market.
I have heard good things about the Pearlman TM1. Can anyone share their experience with it? Any other recommendations? TIA
If so, I’m there
Just curious about the prices for work on my 2019 4Runner Limited. I came in needing an oil change, and also wanted to knock out recommended 90k maintenance.
As for the additional work, the shop owner showed me the spark plugs and the cabin filter and they all looked pretty bad. Also, he threw in an ad hoc repair of a slightly dislodged and scuffed rear bumper panel free of charge, and made it look good as new.
In general I really like and trust this mechanic, but this bill came to $1460 with tax, and my last 2 bills from them were almost the identical amount—$1450 and $1390. I have no other reason to be suspicious and almost feel guilty for asking because I like them so much. TIA
Just returned from a terrific 7-day trip to France with my wife and our 2.5-year-old daughter. With connecting flights both ways from the USA, about 24 hours were spent in transit, leaving us 6 full days on the ground: 2.5 in Paris and 3.5 in Annecy.
First, and I say this from the bottom of my heart: fuck CDG. I have never encountered an airport so massive, tortuous, and vague — and at the same time so utterly empty. There were more employees than travelers. It was bizarre. And despite the absence of any crowds whatsoever, we still had to navigate endless corridors of stanchions with our five bags, car seat, and a baby in a stroller. Horizontal movement was only half the battle; we also had to cram into at least six or seven tiny and slow-moving elevators along the way. Up and down, up and down. We must have wandered that labyrinth for over an hour trying to get to the RER B.
Once we finally boarded a train and sat waiting for 15–20 minutes, an announcement came on that the train was broken and out of service. So we lugged everything across the platform to the other train — and after another 15–20 minutes of waiting…that one was announced broken too! No trains to Paris. We had to backtrack 500 meters with a now-exhausted, crying toddler, cramming into erstwhile tiny elevators to catch an Uber. In summary: We landed at 12:30 and got into the Uber at 15:30. Rough start.
Thankfully things got much, much better from there.
We stayed at the Grand Hotel Saint Michel in a small, simple room with a balcony overlooking the street—bustling by day, quiet at night. The staff were wonderfully kind and accommodating — as, honestly, was every service professional we encountered. Our Uber driver from CDG was especially kind with our daughter, who was in full meltdown mode at that point. Shout out to Ahmed.
I chose our location in St. Germain des Prés specifically for its proximity to Luxembourg Park, which became an essential pressure valve throughout the trip. That park is genuinely stunning, and being able to walk over a couple of times a day did wonders for our daughter’s mood and enhanced the trip tremendously. The carousels at Luxembourg were the undisputed highlight for her, along with those at Manège 1913. She also loved the playground inside the park, and I was happy to pay the entry fee in exchange for smaller crowds inside.
In our short time in Paris, my wife and I managed to see the Eiffel Tower, the Panthéon and a lot of the surrounding Latin Quarter, some of the canals, obviously Luxembourg Park, and had a nice stroll through the 7th near Les Invalides — all while our daughter collected carousel rides and playground stamps across the city, as well as her first visit to an aquarium at L’Aquarium de Paris, which was surprisingly solid, and I would say worth the price of admission.
Dining was never really a priority — we planned around landmarks and ate wherever made sense. That said, my two favorite bites were a half loaf of fresh sourdough from Jack Henry boulangerie (possibly the best sourdough I’ve ever had), and the mousse au chocolat with a scoop of glacé vanille at Le Patio. Not sure about the quality on that one, but it sure hit the spot at the time.
We checked out Friday at noon, took an Uber to Gare de Lyon, and boarded a TGV to Annecy — easily the smoothest leg of the whole journey. The TGV is the way to do it. It’s genuinely embarrassing that the US has nothing like it, but I digress….
Annecy is outside the scope of this subreddit, so I’ll leave it there.
Paris is one of the most beautiful and delightful cities I have ever had the pleasure of visiting, and we are already looking forward to returning — next time by train from an airport that is not CDG, because, again—and I cannot stress this enough—fuck CDG.
All parts of the song written completely by me—melody, chord progression, lyrics etc. Uploaded a demo to Suno to cover with 100% audio and was very impressed with the result. Enjoy!