Random Thoughts

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Was in Dublin yesterday for the final, fk me the City centre looks so run down down and filthy in places, I thinks its getting worse. It's so grim when you leave Busaras and head for Talbot street, crappy little shops, awful smells, O'Connell street not much better, I don't know why foreign visitors bother with it.

That area has been like that for decades. I was right there twice on Saturday myself, thinking how little it had all changed except for the Luas. Could definitely do with some rejuvenation, especially Busaras.

[Trev]

It's really gone downhill the last few years, decent spots like The Screen cinema, The Living Room/Fibbers beer garden, Tivoli...all gone to make room for more poxy hotels. Even Temple Bar, ripoff as it is, at least had a certain charm to the place with the smaller independent shops but they've all pretty much disappeared now too

[astfgyl]

More of a question than a thought but does anyone here use Spotify? I got the premium free from somebody and I'm just wondering why it all sounds so horribly compressed even at low volumes? Is there anything I can do about that?

[Ducky]

Are you streaming via cellular data? There's a "data saver" option that streams over cellular at piss-poor bitrates.

Also turn off volume normalisation.

Edit - sure I haven't been in that setting in a while. There's a suite of options under Settings > Media Quality. You can change the quality for cellular, and WiFi streaming, downloads, video playback.

[astfgyl]

Are you streaming via cellular data? There's a "data saver" option that streams over cellular at piss-poor bitrates.

Also turn off volume normalisation.

Edit - sure I haven't been in that setting in a while. There's a suite of options under Settings > Media Quality. You can change the quality for cellular, and WiFi streaming, downloads, video playback.

Nice one Ducky cheers for that. I've never really used Spotify at all so I thought I was stuck with it like that. Was streaming on mobile data as well

Edit: sound out lad, I can actually listen to things on it now and they're not squashed to within an inch of their life. Happy days!

[Ducky]

Are you streaming via cellular data? There's a "data saver" option that streams over cellular at piss-poor bitrates.

Also turn off volume normalisation.

Edit - sure I haven't been in that setting in a while. There's a suite of options under Settings > Media Quality. You can change the quality for cellular, and WiFi streaming, downloads, video playback.

Nice one Ducky cheers for that. I've never really used Spotify at all so I thought I was stuck with it like that. Was streaming on mobile data as well

Edit: sound out lad, I can actually listen to things on it now and they're not squashed to within an inch of their life. Happy days!

Hup yeah, I think Spotify is a great platform. You'll see the uber audio dorks bemoaning that they "only" use 320kb/s Ogg Vorbis files and I'm like "fuck off lads, are ye into the music or the total minutiae of the sound that the vast majority of people don't notice?".

(as someone that grew up recording off Atlantic 252 longwave radio. Plus, most people don't have a sufficient set up to truly hear the difference anyways).

[The Heretic]

Electric scooters - are they just not death devices waiting to pounce, especially in built up areas? No fuckin way would I use one where there's heavy taffic, I wouldn't even fancy using a regular bicycle in heavy traffic, but there you see them weaving in and out with no helmets on, fuck that

[John Kimble]

If i was living and working in the city center, I could see the attraction of an electric scooter but yeah, they're an accident waiting to happen. Came off one on hols a few years ago, wasn't going at any great speed or anything, just clipped a kerb but absolutely wrecked my ankle. They're a great bit of kit if you're a scrote/drug dealer though.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Herself got reefed out of it by one a few years ago, her on her bike, young lad, 20s, bombing the wrong way up a cycling lane on his scooter, collision at a corner. A lens popped the frame on her sunglasses during the fall, sliced her forehead open just above the eyebrow. Lucky. Six stitches and an amazing Frankenstein's Bride style photo out of it.

Related pet peeve: cyclists and scooterists, etc., using one-way cycle lanes as though they were expansive dual carriageways with plenty of room for the world and his wife to bomb past each other on.

[Pentagrimes]

The bigger issue for me isn't the scooters, it's the little fuckers on them.

[Ducky]

Friend of mine was walking along with her two kiddos a few years back. One was five, the other was a bit under two.

Dipshit rounds the corner on a scooter, clatters the five year old. The child required stitches for a deep gash above her eye. Has a permanent scar. Is understandably nervous when scooters are around.

That was obviously shit, but if the gowl made contact a bit lower, whatever force left that permanent scar would have done serious damage to her eye. Or, if the kids were on opposite sides he would have completely flattened the 18 month old.

Cops' response? "Sure there's nothing we can do about it". Of course there's not...

[Bürggermeister]

It's in the grey area where the law hasn't caught up with the real world, alongside vapes. How can kids readily access ingestible material with fuck all regulation or quality control?

[ldj]

Just found out Charlie Brooker (writer, creator of Black Mirror etc) was a co-founder of CEX stores.

[astfgyl]

I was talking to a lad yesterday and he was telling me that he was out for a few pints the other night and came home with the usual post pints ravenous hunger....


.... And ate an apple

I've never heard of anyone doing that before ever

[Eoin McLove]

I think you might have misspelt Quadruple Triple Mighty Mac and Taco Fries.