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How To: Karaoke At Home

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

How To: Karaoke At Home

I friggen love karaoke. While I am happy to do it at a bar in front of people, I much more prefer the Japanese style of renting a room and going crazy with your friends. It is surprisingly easy to emulate a karaoke room at your home and you probably have a majority of the equipment needed. I will outline how to set it up, provide the cheapest options as well as some upgrades, as well as some fun extras.

Truth From Dialog

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Truth From Dialog

This article employs the term “dialog” as the exchange of opinion between two or more people with the goal of discerning reality or truth. Truth and reality are synonymous. As we experience reality, we experience truth. Our perception of truth is filtered through the re-presentation of reality which occurs in our mind. These re-presentations are subjective by nature. Societally constructed frameworks of thought (Habitus) have been imposed upon us and without the deconstruction of these frameworks, it is likely to misinterpret these re-presentations of reality.

How to Stream Global Television With VLC

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

How To Stream Global Television With VLC Media Player

A quick how to article to supplement my previous post How To Remove Ads From Youtube on All Devices. When I offer free media alternatives, particularly to boomers, I am often confronted with the question: “Well how am I going to watch [Insert whatever slop that is shown on television]?” Obviously people are not hosting whatever news channel is on in your house 24/7. As I had no solution for that, the conversation would stop there and I was unable to save the person the $100+ they spend on cable tv PER MONTH. Not to mention all those subscriptions. NOT ANYMORE!

Tips from a DIY Electronics Noob

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Tips from a DIY Electronics Noob

I have been doing DIY electronics (building modular synths) on and off for 3 years and have learned a bunch of small tricks along the way. Because I am completely untrained, have never taken a class or read an electronics book, a lot of these tricks took me a while to learn on my own.

1. From Schematic to Stripboard

Everything I build comes from schematics online. I have no idea how to design a complex analog circuit. There are a few steps you should take as a noob when building a circuit from a schematic.

[SYNTH DIY] Custom Power Cables: Ribbons, Dupont, and XH

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

[SYNTH DIY] Custom Power Cables: Ribbons, Dupont, and XH

After a period of burnout after failing multiple times trying to build the erica synth edu snare drum–in which I just figured out today while trying to build the hihat module from the same set that my issue was that I was not using switched jacks (me not reading the manual properly)–I am back at it! I have built a few modules like Hagiwo’s drum sample module and this TomTom module; and they are mostly in working order. I also built 4 1/8inch to 1/4inch jack converters so I can stop using adapters when sending signal to my mixer.

Why I Switched to VIM

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Why I Switched to (neo)VIM as my Primary IDE

* I am going to use VIM and neovim interchangeably in this article. I use neovim as a daily driver.

I have been cringing pretty hard at the onslaught of “I Switched to Linux” or “10 VIM Tricks for Noobs” videos on YouTube. However, upon reflecting on this knee jerk reaction, I realized that the sudden influx of more people switching to Linux is exactly what I have been evangelizing for for years. Instead of looking down from my Artix ivory tower, I decided to partake in the trend as a celebration of the newcomers to Linux.

Fix PulseAudio and Connman Issues on Artix+OpenRC

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Fix PulseAudio and Connman Issues on Artix OpenRC

For clarity, My current set up is:

Operating System: Artix
Init System: OpenRC
Display Server: XLibre
Desktop Environment: i3wm
Wifi: Connman

PulseAudio Not Starting on Boot

I was running into issues with PulseAudio (sound server) not starting automatically after boot. When you read the documentation for starting audio when an Xserver starts, you will most likely see adding calls to start the audio server in the .xinitc or .xsession files, like this:

How To Actually Learn a Language

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500

How To Actually Learn a Language

After dedicating a large portion of my life to language acquisition, I have become quite opinionated on learning methodology. Fads, phone-apps and novel techniques have come and gone, but most people that I have met who use these methods have not actually acquired a second language. First I will dispel some of these ineffectual methods, then provide the path that I used to actually learn a language.

New Game: Sokobanya

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0500

PLAY IT HERE

You gotta play the new game I coded! It is called sokobanya; it is an attractive sokoban port I wrote for a fun weekend project.

PLAY IT HERE

Homemaker - Your New Favorite Browser Homepage

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I got tired of seeing the boring homepages offered by search engines and browsers so I set out to create a custom homepage for myself. I wanted multiple background options that persisted across browser instances and tabs and customizable links that can be navigated to with keybindings. I am trying to stop using the mouse as much as I can and this makes it easy to reach my most commonly used sites. Not to mention it looks really great!

Lessons From Recording, Mixing and Mastering My First Album

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0500

After three years of work, the first shrinkin-minkin album, “Tyrannizing Harmonics”, has been released. A majority of that time was spent looking for musicians who could play the parts that I wrote and drilling the songs until they were perfect; the last 6 months or so was spent recording, mixing and mastering the album. If you know me, it should come to no surprise that I DIY’d the whole album: recording it in my basement “studio” and mixing and mastering it in house with major help from Mike, the other guitarist in the band (not putting his full name here as I assume he would not want to be linked to my blog which is mainly personal).

How To Remove Ads From Youtube on All Devices

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I am sick of my friends and family trying to show me a video on their phone, computer or TV and forcing me to watch an advertisement on YouTube. I am also annoyed that my band’s album (which is coming out June 13th) has ads on it when listened to on YouTube. I am not even getting any of that revenue, so there is no reason for people to be watching it with ads. G**ogle already makes enough money by stealing all of your personal data, tracking every location you have ever visited (download your GPS metadata via google takeout to see what I mean), and I am sure via other nefarious means as well. The only G**gle product I use is YouTube and an old gmail account that is strictly spam at this point.

Why I Do Not Fear AI's Influence on Art

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Help! “Artists” are at risk! Chatbots are taking our jobs! Let’s form a union.

There seems to be a general fear among “artists” that chatbots (what is currently known as “AI”) will somehow influence their artistic output because technology can generate slop faster than they can. I say “seems to be” because I have only ever heard this sentiment on the internet and I do not believe anything I see on algorithmically influenced websites (which is practically every website nowadays).

My Bash Theme: A Quick Snippet to Avoid Unnecessary Bloat

Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I recently wanted to get away from the default bash theme, so I tried looking around for themes online and it seems like SEO tends to recommend things like OhMyZsh and OhMyBash. I really liked the zork theme that OhMyBash provided, so I broke one of my rules and installed OhMyBash–which the creator claims “comes with a sh*t load of plugins to take advantage of”–despite only wanting one feature.

I ignored the plugins and ignored the unnecessary explitives in the README, and enjoyed the zork theme for a few weeks until I decided I needed to figure out how to make my own theme instead of accepting bloat for aesthetics. I looked at the zork theme source code, pared it down to just what I need, and deleted OhMyBash.

How I Recovered from Atheism

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Atheism is a mind virus that grips our generation. I was infected for more than half of my life.

As a critical thinker, I have spent my whole life grappling with Religion, philosophy and atheism. At age eight the fear that God was not real struck me, causing me to run into my room and quickly begin writing out my thoughts on the existence of God. I wish I still had that sheet of loose leaf but my young mind came to the conclusion that if everything has to be created, there must be a Creator.

New Game: Scoundrel

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0500

tl;dr: Play my terminal port of the rogue-lite card game Scoundrel

My coworker introduced me to this game Balatro and I got pretty addicted to it for a few days. I still play it once daily and have stopped playing pokemmo because of it. Balatro is a deck-building rogue-lite poker game where you soup up your deck of playing cards to defeat increasing levels of blinds. I highly recommend it.

Whenever I really enjoy something, I always want to try to create something like it. Whether it is music, coding or learning a language because I enjoyed an anime when I was a child; I always fall into this trap (blessing) of setting aside the entertainment in favor of something more productive. And I was already scheming a way to make a game like Balatro. Not necessarily a card game, but a rogue-like for sure. (if you look at the games I link to in my links page, the majority of them are rogue like).

[SYNTH DIY] Hagiwo's Chord VCO Stripboard Layout

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500

We have moved into the digital age! Wait, already? While I am going to continue prioritizing analog circuits for the sake of learning, digital is very enticing due to the low part count, lower price point, smaller footprint, and that fact that I am a software developer and can modify the code to suit my needs. I do have a few ideas for my own digital synth designs, but I plan on learning more first.

[SYNTH DIY] Benjie Jiao's Mini Delay Strip Board Layout (With Added CV Control)

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I souped up Benjie Jiao’s Mini Delay with CV control on the wet & time controls. I forewent adding it to feedback to save space as well as not seeing a practical reason to control feedback that way. I know he has a full delay module with CV here but he did not have a schematic for it published so I just used the mini delay schematic.

If you are going to add CV control, you should have some familiarity with vactrols. I did not and will not go in depth on explaining how they work, but I recommend you watch Quincas’ video on how to make your own here. I always found in interesting the Quincas introduces himself as “A Synth DIY Guy” rather than “The Synth DIY Guy”. I understand where he is coming from because he is not the only one, I just never heard someone use that parlance before.

[SYNTH DIY] Juanito Moore's 808 Kick Stripboard Layout

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500

I recently built Juanito Moore’s 808 Kick drum module. This gave me significantly less issues than the VCO that I made last time! I am pretty sure it worked right away!

The only thing I changed in the design was adding a 470k potentiometer between legs 1 and 3 on the Decay potentiometer in order to lessen the range (I think by about half). Without this I was hitting infinite decay at about 20% turn of the pot.

[SYNTH DIY] Moritz Klein's Shapes VCO Stripboard layout

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500

For the past few years I have been trying to learn electrical engineering well enough to build my own modular synth. To put it lightly, it has been a struggle. Whenever I have put my mind to something in the past (learning multiple foreign languages, instruments, coding) I always picked it up with ease. But EE was always failure after failure. I am committed to becoming proficient this year.

Resources

I recently soldered Moritz Klein’s shapes VCO which is a 1v/oct voltage controlled oscillator with square, sawtooth, and triangle waveforms. This is a great project because Moritz had a full youtube series where he walks you through this circuit, as well as a 50+ page manual (including schematics) on erika synths website! I mirrored the PDF here.

2 New Tools - korabo & chordtone

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Although I have not posted in a while, I have still been busy creating new things. Other than recording shrinkin-minkin’s first album and learning electrical engineering, I have created 2 new tools that I would like to share.

Chordtone

This web app allows you to select multiple chords and map the chord tones on a fretboard. Beneficial for improvising or writing melodies; chordtone assigns each chord a color and making it easy for you to follow along with the chord changes of any song.

n8s a1e l2e

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500

When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.
George Orwell

You have no idea what the title of this blog post means, right? Good. You shouldn’t. it says “Numeronyms are Lame”. I am sure that outside of the tech-sphere, the usage of numeronyms are uncommon (so uncommon that my spell-check thinks it is not a word). A numeronym is an abbreviation of a word which includes numerals.

How To Become More Free Online: A Guide For The Technologically-Impaired

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Despite everyone being glued to a screen, I have found that most people have no idea how a computer works. This is true for both the older and younger generations as they did not have a chance to experience the old-way of using a computer. There were no apps or app-stores. Productivity happened outside the web browser and the challenges that this posed taught those using a computer in the 90s and early 2000s the basics that seem to be lost on others

Fast CGI OpenRC Config

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0500

I needed to get fastcgi running on my artix server with OpenRC and ran into issues with the fastcgi-openrc package from pacman. installing the spawn-fcgi package and creating a custom rc file solved my issue. Sharing that config here in case anyone is at their wit’s end and has exhausted all search-engine links other than this page.

#!/usr/bin/openrc-run

name="fcgiwrap"
description="fcgiwrap cgi daemon"

error_log="/var/log/fcgiwrap.err"
output_log="/var/log/fcgiwrap.log"

supervisor=supervise-daemon
command="spawn-fcgi"
command_args="-n -s /var/run/fcgiwrap.socket -M 766 /usr/sbin/fcgiwrap"
command_user="<user>:<user>"

depend() {
        need net localmount
        after firewall
}

The Arctic Archive: My Server

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0500

              WELCOME TO THE
 ______  ______  ______  ______  __  ______           
/\  __ \/\  == \/\  ___\/\__  _\/\ \/\  ___\          
\ \  __ \ \  __<\ \ \___\/_/\ \/\ \ \ \ \____         
 \ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_____\ \ \_\ \ \_\ \_____\        
  \/_/\/_/\/_/ /_/\/_____/  \/_/  \/_/\/_____/        
 ______  ______  ______  __  __  __  __   ________    
/\  __ \/\  == \/\  ___\/\ \_\ \/\ \/\ \ / /\  ___\   
\ \  __ \ \  __<\ \ \___\ \  __ \ \ \ \ \'/\ \  __\   
 \ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_____\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \__| \ \_____\ 
  \/_/\/_/\/_/ /_/\/_____/\/_/\/_/\/_/\/_/   \/_____/

This page is dedicated to the server that this website is hosted on. It is currently called the “Arctic Archive”. I wanted to play off of the OS name Artix. That is right, I use Artix, so I can say: “I use Arch BTW, but without systemd”. I was using vanilla Arch but since my hard-drive was borked by an unwanted smart-meter installation, I decided to take the opportunity to rid myself from the IBM/RedHat owned systemd.

New Energy Ways - No Thanks, I Manipulate My Own Energy.

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Download Robert Bruce’s New Energy Ways v.2 Here

I am not sure if I would classify the action of controlling your body’s energy an actual sixth sense or simply a bodily function; However, it is clear that, regardless of classification, Robert Bruce has provided a path to re-awakening (what I assume is) a long forgotten physical ability. A physical ability that has been left dormant for most as we toil away towards ever-impending future that never seems to arrive. New Energy Ways is a manual for rekindling our connection to the energy in our bodies – training you to feel and manipulate the energy that already exists in your body.

Smart Meter: Just Say No!

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:40:00 -0500

I received a knock on my door from the JCP&L (Jersey Central Power and Light) man last week. He told me he is just letting me know that he will be replacing my current electrical utility meter with a sMaRt MeTeR. I immediately explained that I was not interested in that. I am not interested in any SMART device in my home. It is bad enough I have a smart-phone. And sure, maybe a smart meter does not emit enough EMF to damage me, but why should I compound the EMF I am exposed to for the sake of a company.

[DATA DUMP] Donald Trump Assassination Attempt 07/13/2024

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Information moves fast and gets memory-holed even faster. I have been trying to download everything that I can. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to the truth of what really happened, I am just archiving what I have seen so far.

Video of Assassination Attempt

Iconic Photos

Shooter

We do not actually know who the shooter is at this point. There is a debate whether it is Maxwell Yearick or Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Leaving Academia – A Practical Guide to Ditching Your Ph. D and Learning to Code

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 03:40:00 -0500

📝 UPDATE (07/09/2024) - The job market is bad and seems to be getting worse. The “AI” hype is totally overblown. You should re-assess whether this is what you really want to do simply because it is so hard to find a job right now. I have 3 people from different background looking for a new job at the moment, I will update this when I get a better understanding of the job market. I do not recommend learning what people refer to as “AI”, it is a meme and a market bubble like VR, Blockchain, BIG DATA, NFTs, etc. With that said, considering learning all this takes a year, you can make the gamble that in a year hiring will go back to normal and you will be ready to go!

Manchu Grammar Overview

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:23:00 -0500

This document is intended to be a brief overview of Manchu grammar. Of course, the example that is provided does not contain all of the components of Manchu grammar, but it does contain what you need to begin reading. Please utilize this text as a quick reference when you are unsure of a noun case or verb form. For an in depth analysis, please view Grammatical Points, starting on page 355 of “Manchu: A Textbook for Reading Documents” by Gertraude Roth Li.

Shards of Depravity

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 03:40:00 -0500

Shards of Depravity was my first attempt at translating short stories. It contains three selections from Dazai Osamu 太宰治 including: “Vow Fulfillment” 満願, “Morning” 朝, and “Cherries” 桜桃. It is probably my most “complete” translation work, despite it being completed during my naive undergraduate years. Regardless, this document will always be held dear to my heart as the catalyst for my love of translation as well as my love of Japanese fiction.

Why I Left My Ph.D. Program at The University of Chicago

Sat, 23 Feb 2019 03:40:00 -0500

📝 INFO I have waited around 6 years to post this publicly. I have read it over and over again and I just do not see why I should not be able to post it at this point. I have obfuscated real names. Every time I read this I relive the trauma of losing over 10 years of work in academia. But every time I reflect, I realize how happy I am that all of this happened. If I was still in academia, I would be living in Chicago making ~30k a year or something. Now I have a job that offers me the freedom to do whatever I want. Is it a bastion for free speech? no. But it does not matter because my opinions do not matter as a software developer, only my code does. In academia, my opinions would be reflected in my paper and I would never lie about what I think in order to get something published.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Donate

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leave a Tip:

If you have enjoyed any of the music I have written, software I developed, games I have created, or just got a chuckle from a blog post; Feel free to donate below. Everything digital I create is free. I love to share my art with no strings attached, and I write Free and Open Source Software.

All donations will either go to music equipment, my band, my server, or other things that will help boost my output.

Thoughts & Hallucinations

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

◌͗ Thoughts & Hallucinations ◌͗

Thought experiments. My beliefs are irrelevant and should not be considered here. These are ideas that I have either synthesized or regurgitated from other sources.

The (scientific) Enlightenment is a false englightening. It is a light that was meant to drown out the spiritual light that we all experience and have access to. It is a Luciferian advancement. The fruits of the (scientific) Enlightenment are materialism, scientism, atheism. I do not want to throw the baby out with the bath-water here, technology is useful, but I believe it has caused us to sever our connection to the divine. Our focus on the non-real (phone-screen, AI, video-games) has led us astray from Reality (God).

domdit.com

How To: Karaoke At Home

How To: Karaoke At Home

Truth From Dialog

Truth From Dialog

How to Stream Global Television With VLC

How To Stream Global Television With VLC Media Player

Tips from a DIY Electronics Noob

Tips from a DIY Electronics Noob

1. From Schematic to Stripboard

[SYNTH DIY] Custom Power Cables: Ribbons, Dupont, and XH

[SYNTH DIY] Custom Power Cables: Ribbons, Dupont, and XH

Why I Switched to VIM

Why I Switched to (neo)VIM as my Primary IDE

Fix PulseAudio and Connman Issues on Artix+OpenRC

Fix PulseAudio and Connman Issues on Artix OpenRC

PulseAudio Not Starting on Boot

How To Actually Learn a Language

How To Actually Learn a Language

New Game: Sokobanya

PLAY IT HERE

PLAY IT HERE

Homemaker - Your New Favorite Browser Homepage

Lessons From Recording, Mixing and Mastering My First Album

How To Remove Ads From Youtube on All Devices

Why I Do Not Fear AI's Influence on Art

My Bash Theme: A Quick Snippet to Avoid Unnecessary Bloat

How I Recovered from Atheism

New Game: Scoundrel

[SYNTH DIY] Hagiwo's Chord VCO Stripboard Layout

[SYNTH DIY] Benjie Jiao's Mini Delay Strip Board Layout (With Added CV Control)

[SYNTH DIY] Juanito Moore's 808 Kick Stripboard Layout

[SYNTH DIY] Moritz Klein's Shapes VCO Stripboard layout

Resources

2 New Tools - korabo & chordtone

Chordtone

n8s a1e l2e

How To Become More Free Online: A Guide For The Technologically-Impaired

Fast CGI OpenRC Config

The Arctic Archive: My Server

New Energy Ways - No Thanks, I Manipulate My Own Energy.

Smart Meter: Just Say No!

[DATA DUMP] Donald Trump Assassination Attempt 07/13/2024

Video of Assassination Attempt

Iconic Photos

Shooter

Leaving Academia – A Practical Guide to Ditching Your Ph. D and Learning to Code

Manchu Grammar Overview

Shards of Depravity

Why I Left My Ph.D. Program at The University of Chicago

Donate

Leave a Tip:

Links

Thoughts & Hallucinations

◌͗ Thoughts & Hallucinations ◌͗