Merry's recent activity

  1. An appreciation thread: Library music

    ~music Ask
    Have you ever wondered where all the background music comes from in commercials, documentaries, training films, or TV shows? It is a genre of music called Library music, but also referred to as...

    Have you ever wondered where all the background music comes from in commercials, documentaries, training films, or TV shows? It is a genre of music called Library music, but also referred to as "production music" or "stock music".

    For example, some American football fans might recognize this tune: Heavy Action by Johnny Pearson

    Or maybe Tomfoolery by David Snell

    I have some standout favorites myself such as Plucking the Strings by David Snell and really the whole Bruton BRN11 Prestige album has great tracks.

    What I love about library music is how direct it is where every track tells you exactly what feeling or mood it’s meant to capture, so finding the right piece for a moment becomes straightforward. It’s music created for utility that is commissioned, catalogued, and sold to fit commercial needs. That makes it oddly fascinating to me. Out of the thousands of albums, some pieces slip into our collective memory while others fade into obscurity or as a one-time background sound. I feel the people making this stuff were clearly talented, but they worked in a strange niche where their art was never meant to be more than an enhancement to a visual effect. Digging into it feels like uncovering a forgotten corner of pop culture.

    If you want to search more example of library music, I think the go-to's are any of the Bruton or KPM libraries, but there are many more out there.

    KPM Playlist
    Bruton Playlist

    11 votes

  4. Comment on Does anyone have a digg invite code I can get ? in ~tech

  5. Comment on Does anyone have a digg invite code I can get ? in ~tech

  6. Comment on So was there no song of the summer this year? in ~music

  7. Comment on Thoughts on wallpaper? in ~life.home_improvement

    Merry
    Link Parent
    Yeah, all the painting that I did was a semi-gloss so while it is easy cleanable when the dog decides to shake after playing in mud, everything looks a bit shiny. I also did not paint the best and...

    Yeah, all the painting that I did was a semi-gloss so while it is easy cleanable when the dog decides to shake after playing in mud, everything looks a bit shiny. I also did not paint the best and you can see every imperfection. I will have to look into the level of difficulty doing accent border. It might be a good option and nice blend, but again I don't really have the eye for getting good looking designs!

    2 votes

  8. Thoughts on wallpaper?

    ~life.home_improvement Ask (advice)
    Since buying my house nearly two years ago, I have been working on various home improvement tasks. One of the first things I did when I moved in was to re-paint the walls in certain rooms because...

    Since buying my house nearly two years ago, I have been working on various home improvement tasks. One of the first things I did when I moved in was to re-paint the walls in certain rooms because of ugly paint jobs from the past or visible damage that required me to fix cracks or other imperfections. The problem is that I don't really have an eye for color matching or designs so every room that I have painted, is just white. I want to make my home feel more cozy during the Michigan winters so I am thinking of getting some high-quality wallpaper to put up as opposed to painting. Especially because I did a complete remodel of my attic living space, replacing wood paneling with drywall, and I am soon approaching the beautification of the space.

    So I am conflicted because it seems like there is many prevailing thoughts in the American design psyche:

    1. Fuck wallpaper - this seems to be due to the difficulty of removing wallpapers from 60s to 80s, where the designs were also not very good and quality bad. I removed wallpaper when I moved into my home, and it really wasn't that bad. I did it all in a day, but I can relate to hating the patterns that former owners put up.

    2. Accent wall only - put wallpaper just on a single wall in a room. Would still need to color match this to paint and kind of seems like the worst of both worlds. However, wallpaper can be expensive if you go the premium route so this could save money.

    My wife is European, and while the attitudes towards wallpaper in various parts of the continent can vary, she is also very pro-wallpaper. She is thinking of doing whole room wallpapering.

    So what are your thoughts, experiences, and opinions? If you have experience in America doing it, what vendors and advice do you have?

    19 votes

  9. Comment on What happened to your first car? in ~transport

    Merry
    Link
    I bought my first car off eBay. This was around 2008. It had a salvage title in New Jersey, only 20,000 miles, and cost around $3000. Loved that little car. A nice Ford Focus hatchback that had...

    I bought my first car off eBay. This was around 2008. It had a salvage title in New Jersey, only 20,000 miles, and cost around $3000. Loved that little car. A nice Ford Focus hatchback that had hand cranked windows.

    I had for a bit over a year. It was a bad winter for snow and school had been cancelled for nearly a month by the end of January so the county was resisting delaying any more. We had a two hour delay and on the way to school, a truck was backing out of their driveway, my car hit a long sheet of ice, and I hit the back of the truck. Surprisingly, did not get a ticket. Insurance totalled the car and took it away. I ended up spending several years driving Ford Taurus SHOs from 96-98 years. My dad and grandpa had an unhealthy, obsessive obsession with buying them, welding the cams, and then selling them for a profit. Fun cars, but they devoured gas compared to my old Focus.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Артем Пивоваров х The Вуса х Ірина Білик - YABADABADU (2025) in ~music

    Merry
    Link Parent
    I don't know if it is a full on reference to the Flintstones myself, but the gist I get from this song is it is describing being in a toxic relationship with someone, and battling with wanting to...

    I don't know if it is a full on reference to the Flintstones myself, but the gist I get from this song is it is describing being in a toxic relationship with someone, and battling with wanting to be with them. But I am not an expert in Ukrainian language and the song has a lot of poetry behind it that may have a different meaning than my interpretation. So maybe just using it to make the song more whimsical and catchy?

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Артем Пивоваров х The Вуса х Ірина Білик - YABADABADU (2025) in ~music

    Merry
    Link Parent
    I am going to his concert in Chicago next month! I'm excited to see it and how it goes, but your comment raises the hype meter.

    I am going to his concert in Chicago next month! I'm excited to see it and how it goes, but your comment raises the hype meter.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Donald Trump administration to boost US private equity with new 401(k) order in ~finance

    Merry
    Link
    I don't think we will see this have broad appeal for 401k plan administrators. Each plan’s sponsor and administrators decide whether to add private equity, crypto, or other alternatives to their...

    I don't think we will see this have broad appeal for 401k plan administrators. Each plan’s sponsor and administrators decide whether to add private equity, crypto, or other alternatives to their fund menus. Most will weigh fiduciary liability, operational complexity, participant demand, and cost before offering them.

    I have been bringing up SECURE 2.0 Act with my benefits team every chance I get. Link for more details. But the gist of it is that you are now legally allowed to have company do 401k matching when making student loan payments. But just like with this change, both the business and the plan admins have to opt in for it. My company has yet to do so.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Over twenty-one days of talking with ChatGPT, an otherwise perfectly sane man became convinced he was a superhero in ~tech

    Merry
    (edited )
    Link
    Not surprising, and I anticipate we will see more stories like this in the future. Just pop into /r/MyBoyfriendisAI or /r/ArtificialSentience and you can see some people really going down the...

    Not surprising, and I anticipate we will see more stories like this in the future. Just pop into /r/MyBoyfriendisAI or /r/ArtificialSentience and you can see some people really going down the rabbit hole in weird and bad ways. Now that these vulnerabilities are becoming more visible and pronounced, we are paving the way for bad actors to take advantage of these people to do bad things.

    Edit: Also, something to look over and ponder on how it relates to these attitudes/relationships with AI: Cargo cults. This type of thinking in AI‑delusional forums is similar to the original Melanesian cargo‑cults where elaborate rituals and mimicry replace understanding. Users imitate technical language, “prompt rituals,” and signs of intelligence while being unable to grasp how these LLMs work.

    10 votes

  16. Comment on Fitness tracker (2025 edition) in ~health

    Merry
    (edited )
    Link
    I was commenting in those previous threads as /u/Icarus. I have had: Microsoft Band Garmin Vivoactive HR Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Garmin Venu 2 (current) I'm pretty much locked into the Garmin...

    I was commenting in those previous threads as /u/Icarus.

    I have had:

    • Microsoft Band
    • Garmin Vivoactive HR
    • Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music
    • Garmin Venu 2 (current)

    I'm pretty much locked into the Garmin ecosystem and have been for years at this point. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I hate Garmin's integration ecosystem as I recall in the past I have had others apps/services not be able to sync/connect with it. All of my previous devices died with something going wrong with the screens, likely after swimming. Battery life on Garmin devices is pretty good, especially if you don't use GPS functionality often.

    But to be honest, I don't really see much change in the fitness device landscape in the past 6 years. Things seem to have stagnated quite a bit and unless you are an athlete, you won't get the return for the higher priced devices. I can't even say it is worth it for an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch unless the battery on those devices have gotten significantly better. The core functionality tracking (steps, heart rate, GPS distance) is fundamentally the same accuracy class as my Vivoactive HR from 2016.

    (0) I find when I get one of these devices, it kicks off a period of my life of doing fitness. So in that sense, yeah it is worth it.

    (1) Yes, but I would probably find a used/refurbished one.

    (2) No idea what's on the market now. But probably something in the ~$200 range or less.

    (3) Integration support is the most valuable aspect of investing early into an ecosystem. The most stuff you can connect to and from your device, the better.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on What broke your heart? in ~life

    Merry
    Link
    About 10 years ago, I got what I considered at the time to be a very swanky internship for a very large company on the opposite side of the country. I landed it by "hustling", aka contacting...

    About 10 years ago, I got what I considered at the time to be a very swanky internship for a very large company on the opposite side of the country. I landed it by "hustling", aka contacting people on LinkedIn, asking for informational interviews, and working my way into conversations with executives at companies I knew would be offering internships. I’ve never been the smartest or most talented person in school. In fact,I was doing the bare minimum in graduate school to get my diploma but I still managed to beat out Ivy League candidates. I felt proud and “savvy.”

    Part of the deal was free summer housing downtown in a major West Coast city. I packed my gaming computer, fancy electronics, and other fun things into my car, drove across the country, moved in, started work, and was having a great time.

    One of the perks of the housing was free maid service. I was never there when they cleaned, but one day I was. The people who came in were a mother and her teenage daughter. The daughter helped her mom with the cleaning and translated from English to Spanish.

    That was my first clear awareness of undocumented immigrants doing under-the-table work to survive. It broke my heart. I was a nobody who had gotten more free passes for ineptitude and laziness than I deserved, enjoying a job and free housing, while indirectly benefiting from a system that exploited people working far harder than I ever had.

    It was a sharp, unshakable lesson in privilege. I had every advantage handed to me. Luck, timing, connections, and the benefit of the doubt have always been stacked in my favor, and still to this day. They had none of that, yet still showed up to do exhausting, invisible labor for people like me. I hope they were paid well and found stability. Seeing the state of things now, I doubt it. Our country rarely rewards their effort, and too often devalues their humanity. Knowing that my comfort existed alongside their struggle is something I still carry, and it still breaks my heart. And I really wish that instead of hate filling our hearts, it could be replaced with shame AND compassion, so that we have both awareness of what we can do better for each other and the room to do it.

    9 votes

  19. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Hardcore - Live at 20:00 UTC today in ~games

    Merry
    Link Parent
    I gave meat and they gave me steel :(

    I gave meat and they gave me steel :(

    8 votes

  20. Comment on You can't outrun a bad diet in ~food

    Merry
    Link Parent
    Do you use the paid version or is the free version enough? I subscribed to LoseIt years ago but fell out of shape. Looking for a new app that hits the reward loop hard and reinforces healthy behavior.

    Do you use the paid version or is the free version enough? I subscribed to LoseIt years ago but fell out of shape. Looking for a new app that hits the reward loop hard and reinforces healthy behavior.

    1 vote