I've been DJing (mostly in clubs, okay almost entirely in clubs when clubs would book me) for about 6 years now and can at least tell you how to get started.
Step One: Equipment
You have two choices depending on budget, either get a cheap mixing software (which I wouldn't recommend getting immediately this comes later) or find the cheapest set of CD-J's (with built in mixer preferably) that you can. Only one feature is good for this set, Autodetect BPM. Once upon a time DJ's had to calculate and memorize the Beats Per Minute of each song in their heads if they wanted to mix the way they do in the clubs today. Today the decks do all the math for you, but more on this later. What's important right now is that you get your hands on the worst piece of equipment you can find. This is what you will be practicing on.
Step Two: Practice
This sounds more rigorous than it is, what you're really doing is fucking around. Find some crappy house techno (I don't care if you like it, you need a 4/4 beat around 120 bpm and don't you dare go any more complicated than that) and pop it in then fiddle with shit until you get an idea as to what the hell is going on. Leave no button unpushed or knob unturned.
Next you're going to attempt to mix two songs together, this is why you wanted something crappy. Use auto-detect to get the two songs at the same pitch and just get used to the timing and practice timing the songs so they blend together as seamlessly as possible. You see, all the best DJ equipment can literally do all this for you. It leaves you with more time to focus on your levels, effects, or even running multiple tracks together on a four deck set up. But the technology isn't perfect, some songs can confuse the software and sometimes it just doesn't work (or is available.) And if you don't acquire this skill you won't be able to compensate. Maybe your audience will never be able to tell the difference but believe me other DJs will and that could hurt you as there's always competition.
Practicing on bad equipment helps you in another important way; learning to deal with equipment failure, which happens and often. When I first went to digital I had a buddy who was still running CD-J's. The club we were booked at told him that he could just use the house set (which he'd used before and liked) so he came planning to do so. The house set was down that night; he couldn't spin.
One night I was asked to patch into another DJs mixer but I had lost the proper cable to hook my decks up, while a friend hunted down the right cable for me I spun off a set of loners that was actually worse than the first decks I spun on. Because I had spent so much time practicing no one noticed that I sandbagged my first set, so I was able to make it up for the second set and packed the floor (I even recorded it.)
So practice with shitty music at first and as you become more comfortable with mixing and beat matching start using the music you like to hear. It's vitally important that a DJ love what they spin. DJs who are passionate about the music they play always spin the best sets. The ones who are bored and just going through the paces are plainly transparent.
Step Three: Mixing Software
This is where it gets better. After spending hours upon hours messing around with your crappy decks move up to a cheap or free mixing software, since now you know the basics you'll be able to pick up the software pretty quickly. Mixxx is free (I've never used it) I would suggest Virtual DJ because its cheap ($50) either way these will give you a better idea as to what a good set of decks can actually do. And here's where you'll want to make your first big decision:
Step Four: To Laptop or Not to Laptop
There's little difference for all but the best DJs and the truth is that most decks like OP is using can be run as controllers. The big difference is that if you already have a decent laptop, then running off your laptop is cheaper. But if you have the cash for a good set of decks (and the cases to protect them) you'll find them more versatile and give a better sound. I run off my laptop because I'm poor and already own a laptop. Though I wouldn't turn down a good univeral Numark decks. Yeah...that's some good deck.
So right about there is where to start. DJing can be as fun and rewarding as you like. Matter of fact, once you learn the basics DJing can be as easy or difficult as you like. If Steve Aoki or Tiesto have taught us anything it's that you don't necessarily have to actually spin to play a big crowd, or to get them dancing. So if you're going to spin, why not have some fun with it? God knows you're not really needed.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Cure for Tinnitus
Place the palms of your hands over your ears with fingers resting gently on the back of your head. Your middle fingers should point toward one another just above the base of your skull. Place your index fingers on top of you middle fingers and snap them (the index fingers) onto the skull making a loud, drumming noise. Repeat 40-50 times. Some people experience immediate relief with this method. Repeat several times a day for as long as necessary to reduce tinnitus.
Friday, September 11, 2015
All About ISIS
The intelligence reports are saying that that there's 1.2 billion Sunni Muslims on earth, much of that population consists of young, poor, impoverished men, the Iraq and Syrian conflicts have caused 2 massive open wounds attracting foreign fighters from all over the world at a staggering pace like flies to rotting meat, the Islamic State has captured 80% of its war capital from winning battles, the group is making $1 million a day, they are run by former professional military generals and officers who know how to conduct warfare, and they have an extremely slick internet propaganda wing in a world fueled by twitter and youtube.
The reports are saying all of this, that there's no ground forces currently battling them other than the Kurds, who are out matched, out gunned, out equipped and out manned, along with the fact that Turkey is bombing them. The only other force is Shia militants from Iran, who aren't necessarily concerned with defeating ISIS as much as they are with filling in power vacuums left in ISIS wake in Iraq. Every city they capture, the people greet them with open arms, but our media and politicians would tell you its just a blood bath of murdering and slave markets. ISIS knows what they are doing, they know better than to take large urban areas that wouldn't sympathize with them, what little resistance they encounter is immediately crushed to the sound of applause and religious cheering.
One of ISIS senior bomb makers was recently captured and interviewed by western journalists. He said, "What the Islamic State has done in this last year, it cannot be undone, the Caliphate is established and Islam is coming." That statement is true, US leaders and public can't stomach another middle east war for a while so don't count on us, and Europe is just filled to the brim with pacifists who never think war is a solution even when its on their doorstep. That basically leaves Israel and Russia. Israel won't do anything because the UN would be screaming at the top of their lungs humanitarian crisis, and Russia can't do much because every bullet they fire will be supporting Assad, and apparently removing this single man from his power is more important than millions upon millions of displaced worn torn people living in a fucking gaping open wound of a country.
So Russia, one of the nations that might be willing to do what it takes to take out IS is pressured to stay out because they appear to be helping Assad (which is true). This dynamic does nothing but help IS by blocking any Western invasion because they would cross Russia, and it blocks any Russian invasion because of pressure from the west to remove Assad. Great, so all ISIS has to do is keep Assad eating lobster in Damascus and they prevent both Russia and the West from lifting a finger. The only strategy currently in place is this drivel repeated again and again about the 'Gulf states' who are secretly are rooting for ISIS (the same states who won't even take Syrian refugees) and don't even think about any of the Gulf states putting boots on the ground, for every one of their soldiers who enter Syria, 3-4 militants will enter from that same country to help ISIS. There is no 'gulf states solution' those countries are filled with young Muslim men watching IS on liveleak like its HBO prime time. We might feel warm and fuzzy when the Queen of Jordan says gulf states should fight ISIS, but make no mistake that is definitely not what the people of Jordan are saying, along with any of the other nations in the region.
This is what the intelligence reports are saying. It doesn't look good... the bombing campaign is like trying to kill a bunch of wasps with a large truck (good luck). The Islamic State will not be stopped until boots are on the ground, fighting them door to door, street to street, and good luck with that when every town and city they invade greets them with open arms. It would be Iraq 2006 all over again, but much worse. IED's going off on every block, and a much more organized, powerful and driven resistance group fighting you on every street corner. If you do manage to remove ISIS, you will have done so by leaving a generation of men, women and children with pain and suffering 10 fold of that which caused IS in the first place.
Make no fucking mistake about folks, IS is here to stay. This is the perfect example of a wicked problem, and no that's not an excuse for not having a solution for a difficult problem, its what happens when several large geopolitical forces all want to have it their way. Its what happens when a bunch of fucking elitist assholes start playing chess with human lives, nations become meat grinders.
Reminds me of Vietnam to be honest. That entire war started with everyone thinking a month of bombing runs would end the entire conflict. Several years and a few 'advisers' later and America is drenched in one of the most brutal and confusing conflicts it's ever faced half a world away with people at home defiant against it the entire time. The only difference is that Vietnam didn't have a history of religious fanatics sweeping over the entire middle east in a few decades with an ultra zealous religious army. People forget that this is not new for Islam, and history is repeating itself.
The reports are saying all of this, that there's no ground forces currently battling them other than the Kurds, who are out matched, out gunned, out equipped and out manned, along with the fact that Turkey is bombing them. The only other force is Shia militants from Iran, who aren't necessarily concerned with defeating ISIS as much as they are with filling in power vacuums left in ISIS wake in Iraq. Every city they capture, the people greet them with open arms, but our media and politicians would tell you its just a blood bath of murdering and slave markets. ISIS knows what they are doing, they know better than to take large urban areas that wouldn't sympathize with them, what little resistance they encounter is immediately crushed to the sound of applause and religious cheering.
One of ISIS senior bomb makers was recently captured and interviewed by western journalists. He said, "What the Islamic State has done in this last year, it cannot be undone, the Caliphate is established and Islam is coming." That statement is true, US leaders and public can't stomach another middle east war for a while so don't count on us, and Europe is just filled to the brim with pacifists who never think war is a solution even when its on their doorstep. That basically leaves Israel and Russia. Israel won't do anything because the UN would be screaming at the top of their lungs humanitarian crisis, and Russia can't do much because every bullet they fire will be supporting Assad, and apparently removing this single man from his power is more important than millions upon millions of displaced worn torn people living in a fucking gaping open wound of a country.
So Russia, one of the nations that might be willing to do what it takes to take out IS is pressured to stay out because they appear to be helping Assad (which is true). This dynamic does nothing but help IS by blocking any Western invasion because they would cross Russia, and it blocks any Russian invasion because of pressure from the west to remove Assad. Great, so all ISIS has to do is keep Assad eating lobster in Damascus and they prevent both Russia and the West from lifting a finger. The only strategy currently in place is this drivel repeated again and again about the 'Gulf states' who are secretly are rooting for ISIS (the same states who won't even take Syrian refugees) and don't even think about any of the Gulf states putting boots on the ground, for every one of their soldiers who enter Syria, 3-4 militants will enter from that same country to help ISIS. There is no 'gulf states solution' those countries are filled with young Muslim men watching IS on liveleak like its HBO prime time. We might feel warm and fuzzy when the Queen of Jordan says gulf states should fight ISIS, but make no mistake that is definitely not what the people of Jordan are saying, along with any of the other nations in the region.
This is what the intelligence reports are saying. It doesn't look good... the bombing campaign is like trying to kill a bunch of wasps with a large truck (good luck). The Islamic State will not be stopped until boots are on the ground, fighting them door to door, street to street, and good luck with that when every town and city they invade greets them with open arms. It would be Iraq 2006 all over again, but much worse. IED's going off on every block, and a much more organized, powerful and driven resistance group fighting you on every street corner. If you do manage to remove ISIS, you will have done so by leaving a generation of men, women and children with pain and suffering 10 fold of that which caused IS in the first place.
Make no fucking mistake about folks, IS is here to stay. This is the perfect example of a wicked problem, and no that's not an excuse for not having a solution for a difficult problem, its what happens when several large geopolitical forces all want to have it their way. Its what happens when a bunch of fucking elitist assholes start playing chess with human lives, nations become meat grinders.
Reminds me of Vietnam to be honest. That entire war started with everyone thinking a month of bombing runs would end the entire conflict. Several years and a few 'advisers' later and America is drenched in one of the most brutal and confusing conflicts it's ever faced half a world away with people at home defiant against it the entire time. The only difference is that Vietnam didn't have a history of religious fanatics sweeping over the entire middle east in a few decades with an ultra zealous religious army. People forget that this is not new for Islam, and history is repeating itself.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Protecting Windows 7 and 8 From Windows 10
Yes, they're going to keep pushing win10 updates and telemetry. But here's a way to clean your windows machine of upgrade and telemetry updates with what we know today:
[Don't do this if you ever plan to upgrade to 10]
wusa /uninstall /KB:2952664 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:2990214 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3021917 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3022345 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3035583 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3044374 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3068708 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3075249 /norestart /quiet
wusa /uninstall /KB:3080149 /norestart /quiet
You can save that as a .bat file and run it. You may need to run as administrator. Or you can just run each command in the console (drop /quiet to see output).
Go back into the windows update tool, find any of these numbers, then right-click and select "Hide update". You won't see it offered again (unless they change the KB number).
Links to KB pages:
KB cleaning reddit threads that I found:
Work Boots
I'm very ambivalent to these questions. They get asked - a lot!
There's no speaker for the boot industry, that can wrap everything into a consensus for people to immediately digest however.
For very obvious reasons, especially before the mass production we have been able to achieve in the past few decades, there used to be a lot more boot makers. This quantity was required to supply workers pre-massive production, pre-Walmart level. Most of these boots were strictly sold to workers.
RM Williams is a good example, since they were made for the outback people in Australia. In the past decade, they were bought out, and that audience has changed. The worker used to be RM Williams thriving point and inspiration. They thrived to work for this audience, replacing outsoles, elastic, etcetera. Suffice, this is not the case anymore. Production has increased, and the market is very much for fashion now.
There's a couple of big points here:
1) Every one of these companies has had a very real hit from mass production. There used to be a much bigger industry around well-made clothing in the states (wool mills, leather making, etcetera). A majority of these companies have either sold out or gone out of business. I realize this may seem like common sense, but since this was pre and in the beginning of the internet, I believe many of us do not realize the scale in which these companies have changed.
2) The market has changed. As with RM Williams, most of these companies today have gotten more people buying these products from Japan (having a fashion around old Americana) and yuppies from StyleForum, etcetera. They're not going to be in the rolling hills of the Pacific Northwest, nor is their leather going to touch any woods.
Natural material upkeep. This applies to every clothing industry here, particularly for the outdoor's goes. There's been a dramatic shift to synthetic materials. Fleece, synthetic leathers, nylon shell's, goretex, etcetera that we've been spoiled by the tv dinnerness of easy upkeep, through replacing versus repairing, and having garments that takes care of itself. With older clothing, tin clothing needs to be redressed, wool must be stored (is heavier), leather must be cleaned and have oiling. I'm going to put a shameless plug here for hemp too, since it should be alongside leather, wool and quality canvas. However, synthetic's tend to promote themselves as cheap, maintenance free, and lighter weight - so again, market shift. Less sales, and then the people that do make something heavier, like a wool garment, are going to use a thinner wool since the market just wants to look like a sailor with their fleece underliner.
Suffice, i'd say 99% of maker's have compromised somewhere as a result of competing with mass production. Some will use thinner leathers because their audience complains of break-in. Some will switch to cementing soles since no one will pay the extra to resole their boots, much less oil them.
I have been to Danner's factory several times. They use thinner leathers. Mind you, they have USA made and China made Danner's. The USA one's are better, and resoleable. Regardless, the leather is thin, even on their better models like the Ft Lewis, Acadia, etcetera. The goretex isn't very good, and it causes water to get trapped between the leather and the goretex before it breaks down. I'd never consider Danner the best, but the company needs to be restructured for its US outfit and fix some details. Their Stumptown is also showing a shift in selling to yuppies.
Red Wing is also a problem customer. Red Wing gets mentioned - a lot! Unfortunately, most the people that are recommending them are still using their 20 year old pair, from back in the day. Their newer China stuff is trash, and their USA Heritage collection is made to be casual boots. They are -not- made for hard use of any kind.
White's is another one that gets recommended here. They were recently bought by a fashion label, and all the fans say nothing's going to change. I have seen this trend too many times before, and will wait things out before my wallet nears it. As far as i've heard, they plan to increase production, which isn't entirely good.
I'd say as a value brand, Chippewa and Thorogood are good and capable. The leather works and can be resoled, for the most part - particularly the made in USA. Take note that the Vibram white wedge outsole is a comfort outsole and wears down very fast. It's important to segway here, that while the customer -should not- be having to do this level of research to find the best quality boot, at this point in time, you have to. You will find better deals and better quality online. Most stores do not stock quality gear. Order from a place with a good return policy. Read other's sizing information, etcetera. You are shooting yourself in the foot. It sucks, I hate shipping, I hate how retailers stock dog shit, I hate that the industry can't use similar lasts, I hate that we can't all use the metric system, I hate doing the research for boot makers, the whole industry is lined in ever-puking horseshit, but IT IS WHAT IT IS. I take a deep breath and go through with it to get my fair share.
Moving on along the quality value of boot makers, everything I have read about Redback and Rossi have been very good. The leather is thick. Note that Polyeurthane soles need to be used regularly or else the sole deteriorates. Not good for storage. Polyeurthane is light though and durable. So it wouldn't be resolable, but last well into use for these two makers.
At the tip of the iceberg, I recommend Dayton (Canadian/Style), Dehner (Equestrian/Military), Limmer (heavy Outdoors), Nick's (Logging), Wesco (Logging/Motorcycle), Viberg (Canadian/Logging/Style), and William Lennon/Rufflander (British/Work). All of these are very well-made, resoleable, blah, blah, blah, last long time if you take good care (read: maintenance. Oiling X amount of months, rotating, not hot drying, and making sure to leave them out muddy). I will also put in a plug for Arrow Moccasin for making the best moccasins money can buy.
There's other good one's out there. Solovair, for example, albeit they don't offer their own resoling service, many cobblers can resole them. Doc Martens For Life are a value, albeit have a clumsy fit.
Most of what i'm saying won't fit for hard workwear, but in case any other's stumble upon this thread.
Note: I don't have a particular issue to yuppies, and I am generalizing. It's just when a workwear label begins to place a higher value in style, then what's practical takes two steps back.
SOURCE
There's no speaker for the boot industry, that can wrap everything into a consensus for people to immediately digest however.
For very obvious reasons, especially before the mass production we have been able to achieve in the past few decades, there used to be a lot more boot makers. This quantity was required to supply workers pre-massive production, pre-Walmart level. Most of these boots were strictly sold to workers.
RM Williams is a good example, since they were made for the outback people in Australia. In the past decade, they were bought out, and that audience has changed. The worker used to be RM Williams thriving point and inspiration. They thrived to work for this audience, replacing outsoles, elastic, etcetera. Suffice, this is not the case anymore. Production has increased, and the market is very much for fashion now.
There's a couple of big points here:
1) Every one of these companies has had a very real hit from mass production. There used to be a much bigger industry around well-made clothing in the states (wool mills, leather making, etcetera). A majority of these companies have either sold out or gone out of business. I realize this may seem like common sense, but since this was pre and in the beginning of the internet, I believe many of us do not realize the scale in which these companies have changed.
2) The market has changed. As with RM Williams, most of these companies today have gotten more people buying these products from Japan (having a fashion around old Americana) and yuppies from StyleForum, etcetera. They're not going to be in the rolling hills of the Pacific Northwest, nor is their leather going to touch any woods.
Natural material upkeep. This applies to every clothing industry here, particularly for the outdoor's goes. There's been a dramatic shift to synthetic materials. Fleece, synthetic leathers, nylon shell's, goretex, etcetera that we've been spoiled by the tv dinnerness of easy upkeep, through replacing versus repairing, and having garments that takes care of itself. With older clothing, tin clothing needs to be redressed, wool must be stored (is heavier), leather must be cleaned and have oiling. I'm going to put a shameless plug here for hemp too, since it should be alongside leather, wool and quality canvas. However, synthetic's tend to promote themselves as cheap, maintenance free, and lighter weight - so again, market shift. Less sales, and then the people that do make something heavier, like a wool garment, are going to use a thinner wool since the market just wants to look like a sailor with their fleece underliner.
Suffice, i'd say 99% of maker's have compromised somewhere as a result of competing with mass production. Some will use thinner leathers because their audience complains of break-in. Some will switch to cementing soles since no one will pay the extra to resole their boots, much less oil them.
I have been to Danner's factory several times. They use thinner leathers. Mind you, they have USA made and China made Danner's. The USA one's are better, and resoleable. Regardless, the leather is thin, even on their better models like the Ft Lewis, Acadia, etcetera. The goretex isn't very good, and it causes water to get trapped between the leather and the goretex before it breaks down. I'd never consider Danner the best, but the company needs to be restructured for its US outfit and fix some details. Their Stumptown is also showing a shift in selling to yuppies.
Red Wing is also a problem customer. Red Wing gets mentioned - a lot! Unfortunately, most the people that are recommending them are still using their 20 year old pair, from back in the day. Their newer China stuff is trash, and their USA Heritage collection is made to be casual boots. They are -not- made for hard use of any kind.
White's is another one that gets recommended here. They were recently bought by a fashion label, and all the fans say nothing's going to change. I have seen this trend too many times before, and will wait things out before my wallet nears it. As far as i've heard, they plan to increase production, which isn't entirely good.
I'd say as a value brand, Chippewa and Thorogood are good and capable. The leather works and can be resoled, for the most part - particularly the made in USA. Take note that the Vibram white wedge outsole is a comfort outsole and wears down very fast. It's important to segway here, that while the customer -should not- be having to do this level of research to find the best quality boot, at this point in time, you have to. You will find better deals and better quality online. Most stores do not stock quality gear. Order from a place with a good return policy. Read other's sizing information, etcetera. You are shooting yourself in the foot. It sucks, I hate shipping, I hate how retailers stock dog shit, I hate that the industry can't use similar lasts, I hate that we can't all use the metric system, I hate doing the research for boot makers, the whole industry is lined in ever-puking horseshit, but IT IS WHAT IT IS. I take a deep breath and go through with it to get my fair share.
Moving on along the quality value of boot makers, everything I have read about Redback and Rossi have been very good. The leather is thick. Note that Polyeurthane soles need to be used regularly or else the sole deteriorates. Not good for storage. Polyeurthane is light though and durable. So it wouldn't be resolable, but last well into use for these two makers.
At the tip of the iceberg, I recommend Dayton (Canadian/Style), Dehner (Equestrian/Military), Limmer (heavy Outdoors), Nick's (Logging), Wesco (Logging/Motorcycle), Viberg (Canadian/Logging/Style), and William Lennon/Rufflander (British/Work). All of these are very well-made, resoleable, blah, blah, blah, last long time if you take good care (read: maintenance. Oiling X amount of months, rotating, not hot drying, and making sure to leave them out muddy). I will also put in a plug for Arrow Moccasin for making the best moccasins money can buy.
There's other good one's out there. Solovair, for example, albeit they don't offer their own resoling service, many cobblers can resole them. Doc Martens For Life are a value, albeit have a clumsy fit.
Most of what i'm saying won't fit for hard workwear, but in case any other's stumble upon this thread.
Note: I don't have a particular issue to yuppies, and I am generalizing. It's just when a workwear label begins to place a higher value in style, then what's practical takes two steps back.
SOURCE
Friday, August 28, 2015
Complete Guide to Sheets
First up! we have thread count! Every bedding company and their mom is riding the "highest thread count" train. But does thread count actually affect the durability of sheets? Yes, but not in the way that you think!
The way that companies are able to squeeze more and more threads per square inch into their sheets is by thinning the threads. The thinner the thread, the more of 'em they can pack into that space. Unfortunately, the thinner the thread, the more likely it is going to break. With infinitesimally small broken threads, you're going to be looking at the most uncomfortable problem with old sheets: pilling. (Yuuuck!) Nothing will make you suspect someone ate crackers in your bed faster than pilly sheets.
So DON'T go for some of the more insanely-high thread-count sheets.
There is one thing you do have to decide before determining which strata of thread count you want (thick-thread/average count, or thin-thread/higher count). Do you like your sheets crisp, stiff-feeling, kinda snappy? Are you the type of person who actually sleeps with a top sheet? tucked in under the mattress with a blanket and a coverlet on top? Or, do you like your sheets to be silky, smooth-feeling and drapey? Do you always wind up with your blankets wrapped around your legs and don't even bother with a top sheet anymore because it just gets all twisted up anyway?
If you're the first type, go for percale sheets, 200-300 thread count. Yup. I know that sounds craaazy! 200 threads/square inch? Ah, but there's a method to this madness. Percale sheets have a high thread-thickness (also called denier), and it's quite difficult to shove more than that in the measurable space. Because of this, they are aaaahmazing workhorse sheets. I have hand-me-down percale sheets my grandmother got when she was a teenager! working at Penney's that look brand-spankin' new. These sheets were in heavy rotation among herself, my grandpa and their 10 kids, but I have zero qualms about using them now.
If you're the latter type of person, I'd recommend a sateen weave (NOT satin weave!) of about 400-800 threads per square inch. Any more than that and the company is either a) lying and counting the number of threads in the twistof the yarn, rather than the single yarn thread, or b) is spinning so small they won't last a season, much less BIFL.
Oh, and jersey sheets? Just don't do that to yourself. Whoever thought of turning a tee shirt into a sheet was an idiot.
I'm cutting this off now, so it doesn't get too long, but I'll reply to this comment to add more food for thought.
Edit, misspelled sateen cuz it's midnight.
Ok, next there's a multitude of fibers to choose from: cotton, combed cotton, egyptian cotton, cotton flannel, cotton/poly, poly/cotton, polyester microfiber, rayon microfiber, microfiber, linen, cotton/linen, linen/cotton, silk (real, from worms), wool. These all have their pluses and minuses, but the real question you have to ask yourself is: what's my sleeping temperature?
Cotton is obviously a popular choice, partially because it's so versatile. It can be crisp, if it's a percale; silky, if it's a sateen; fuzzy, if it's a flannel, but it can't be all of these things at the same time. Crisp cotton is best if you run hot. Since the sheet doesn't mold to your body, it introduces an element of air flow appreciated by many. Sateen is sorta-neutral, sorta-warm. Since it molds around you, it tends to mirror your own body. I don't like sateen because for some reason my thighs are always sweaty while my feet are always freezing. Flannel, since it's fuzzy, is able to trap warm air pockets in the sheets to keep you warm. NOT to be used by the furnace-sleepers out there, and if you share a bed with a furnace-sleeper, don't even try to make flannel work. The downside to all cotton is that once it gets wet, it stays wet. And it feels super yucky when wet
Linen is the coolest of all the materials. And it is a royal bitch to find. Not only do most vendors catagorize all their sheets as "linens," but even when you sort by fiber, a few son-uva-bitches call cotton sheets "linen." (bastards.) Anywho, linen has the amazing ability to draw just a crap-ton of moisture away from your body and never feel damp or yucky. The Company Store has been the only place I've ever purchased linen sheets and I would recommend them. They aren't for sale on amazon (they list there, but you can't buy through amazon). Linen in general is heart-attack expensive.
Wool is more of a flexible fiber. Everyone knows it's great at keeping things warm, but it can also be used in the summer. Since wool locks moisture away in the fiber, it can keep mildly sweaty people from feeling like they showered in bed. It does take a long time to air-dry if it does get wet, can smell a bit like sheep, can be scratchy if you've a wool allergy-- oh, hell... there're reasons why no one other than Irishmen or New Zealanders buys wool sheets--get wool blankets, instead!
Silk's number one downside is the cost. Now, when I say silk, I mean from real worm, not-vegan silk. Not that rayon-silk shit, or some silk-look/habuti shit or some polyester-satin shit people call silk but doesn't act, feel, look or any other way even remind people of silk once they actually feel and appreciate silk. Silk sheets are what I have in my amazon wish list for when I'm wildly rich I can drop $500 on them just to use them on my anniversary (or have my kids use as my shroud when I die). Silk is the pinnacle of everything humans want next to their skin other than another human. It is tactile manna. I can't actually go on, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.
Now, for man-made fibers. I will admit, I am a snob when it comes to natural vs. man-made fibers; so please do read some bias in this next paragraph (but not too much!) Polyester, rayon (yes, yes, I know rayon is derived from wood pulp), and any microfiber sheet are significantly hotter than any natural fiber would be. So, if you are ALWAYS freezing (a nurse, perhaps? or that lady in the office wearing a cardigan when it's 110*F outside?), you may want to sample a poly or poly-blend sheet. The benefit of these, is that the thread is stronger, thinner, longer than any natural fiber, so if you want insanely silky sheets without fear of pilling, here you go.
For care and keeping, white cotton or linen is the best way to go... all those care tags that say to wash cold, tumble dry low? First of all, that's all bullshit. Companies don't want to be held accountable for dye jobs fading, or fabrics pilling; and the colder the water/air, the less agitation, the longer a shitty fabric will last because it never gets clean in the first place!!!! Clean means that that third-rate mordant the Chinese factory used so the factory manager can skim some personal profit off the top gets washed out and that vibrant color only seen in jungle birds that the merchandiser in New York picked out fades.
There are three things that clean fabric other than a liquid medium: heat, agitation, detergent. Even when you dry clean stuff, it's not really DRY clean. They put the clothes in a special washer with a non-water-based solvent. It still gets wet and it still agitates.
So, what degrades (shitty) fabrics? Heat, yah? has your underwear or socks ever had the elastic/spandex break/unravel on you? Everyone's had that moment with a pair of panties whose elastic top is going and you just keep unwinding and unwinding and unwinding that elastic? Heh. No? Just me? Ok, then.... Point is! heat dries out that elastic and it loses it's suppleness. BTW, OT- NEVER EVER EVER EVER heat-dry your bras in the dryer, ladies!! The elastic in those are too small to be as obvious as a panty elastic and the whole thing will give out and just die on you, and you won't notice a thing--other than your favorite bra just became your worst nightmare.
<shakes self to get back on track> Ok! now, agitation can create pilling on crappier fabrics. If the thread isn't long/thick enough, it unweaves, curls up out of the fabric and is a lint magnet (i.e. a pill). It can also knock out teeeny tiny loose fibers from fabrics that didn't get wound tight enough (lint!) and thin them out. On clothing, agitation can also introduce rough decorative trims (zippers, MissMe jean pocket decals, etc) to fabrics and cause runs/tears. So, some things are legitimately gentle/delicate/hand wash only, but not everything for cripes sake!
Detergent, then, is what everyone has decided to place their trust in cleaning laundry. But what's this? Nothing (and I mean nothing) manufactured after 1995 calls for using chlorine bleach? what?! even white cotton calls for "non-chlorine bleach only"? is this right? No. No, it is not right. They mass-produce their labels and attach them to all the colors. They aren't going to stop in the middle of a run and switch the labels when the color tee shirt goes from heather gray to white. The textile industry is notoriously unregulated and one of the reasons it stays unregulated is that they avoid pissing off their consumers with their shitty products by recommending kid-glove treatment with everything they produce.
Here's the deal with laundry. HOT water is supposed to be 130F. Most people's water heaters have a governor that regulates the temperature at 120F. That means, even if you select "hot" on your washer, you clothes aren't washing in hot water unless your washer has an internal heating mechanism. WARM water is 110F, which after traveling through your pipes and despensing in a tub the ambient temperature of the room is what you're actually washing your clothes in when you set it "hot." COLD water is 90F which is bath-temperature water--not cold at all. When you use your cold setting, it just dumps the water from your home's pipes into the tub, meaning that in my area in the winter, my water is 58F. That isn't even an option in laundry care: near-freezing water.
So, since we've established that most people wash their clothes in too cool temperatures, with too much detergent and too low agitation; what does this all mean?
That, unless you're washing something incredibly precious or special, fussing around with a multitude of laundry settings and separating into various loads (warm-darks, warm-lights, cold-darks, cold-lights, warm-handwash, cold-hand wash, hot-whites) is crazy. If your clothing and linens can't hold up under a proper wash, they were not BIFL.
So, the real rules?
If it's a natural fiber and you DON'T care if it shrinks: Hot water. Sheets would go in this category--sheets should never shrink smaller than the size bed they're meant to go on... if they do, they're not a BIFL sheet. I also put duvet covers, pillowcases, towels, kitchen rags, dust rags, mop cloths, tableclothes, napkins, washclothes, socks, my husband's undershirts, practical/kid's underwear (cloth diapers in a seperate wash)... When I wash blankets/pillow protectors (monthly) and coverlets/comforters/pillows (quarterly) and down comforters/pillows (semi-annually), I also wash them on hot. Basically anything that I would need to be SURE came out clean and as close to sanitized as possible without boiling (I actually had my husband install a tankless water heater just so I can dial up the heat of my water for my laundry). I also try to make sure that all these things are white so I can bleach them as well. BLEACH is only effective in whitening/lightening when the clothes SOAK in the water. Accidentally splashing your tee shirt with pure bleach while doing the laundry is different, though, since it's not diluted it's going to bleach your tee. Sorry. Wear an apron or a white tee shirt (or do the laundry naked!) next time.
Warm water for everything else, sorted into lights/darks.
Cold water only for delicates, and I hand wash them.
Everything gets line-dried outside as long as the temperature is +35F, and if <35F, dried delicate, low-heat (or air dried, if I hand-washed). I'll actually pull them out still damp at the edges and iron the ironable ones and hang everything else on hangers for an hour on an H-rack until dry enough to get put away without smelling musty when it gets pulled out.
SOURCE
Monday, August 24, 2015
Roots of American Socialism and Why It's Been Maligned
I think what stuns me most often is how many people are totally ignorant of the socialist roots our country actually has. Capitalism nearly destroyed the world's economy post-WWI, and the Great Depression was a direct result of corporate and individual greed. In its wake, socialism was deemed a viable alternative, and it was through the 1930s and into the 1940s that many socialist programs were put into place in order to help American people from starving. Unfortunately, though, as war time waned, in order to keep factories producing high-grade steel, many unions' power was slashed, making it harder and harder for American workers to fight for what they needed. Prior to that point, unions were immensely useful in allowing American workers to reduce their hours and get better pay. Truman slashed their powers to break a union-led stalemate that was preventing American companies from supplying materials overseas and generating massive profits.
After WWII, American steel manufacturers were radically refitted from war-time use to supplying steel to Europe, and America basically rebuilt European infrastructure at an immense profit. Because unions were basically stripped of their powers, companies started making a huge amount of profit and a new rhetoric was adopted to keep that status quo the norm. Socialism, at that point, began to threaten the amount of power manufacturers and growing companies had over the workforce.
Conveniently, Soviet Russia quickly became America's greatest enemy after WWII, and so began a cultural war between the two world powers. America ramped up its patriotic rhetoric during the late 1940s and 1950s to indoctrinate Americans into believing that capitalism was the superior way of life, and so Americans, many of whom were enjoying an age of prosperity, bought into it wholesale. Schools began to educate students in the way of Christian moral values to fight against the godless Soviets, patriotism came at an all-time high, and the American people signed over their ability to organize and control their wages in order to avoid modern-day witch hunts instigated by a paranoid government egged on by powerful businesses.
That's not to say that there aren't obvious issues I haven't oversimplified, or that there weren't moments of socialist programs that grew out of a country steeped in capitalism (Eisenhower's highway system, for example, made our modern way of life possible). In the story of history, it's actually been the socialists who have been on the side of the people. It's those hunting socialists like the witches of old that have been the villainsaw.
After WWII, American steel manufacturers were radically refitted from war-time use to supplying steel to Europe, and America basically rebuilt European infrastructure at an immense profit. Because unions were basically stripped of their powers, companies started making a huge amount of profit and a new rhetoric was adopted to keep that status quo the norm. Socialism, at that point, began to threaten the amount of power manufacturers and growing companies had over the workforce.
Conveniently, Soviet Russia quickly became America's greatest enemy after WWII, and so began a cultural war between the two world powers. America ramped up its patriotic rhetoric during the late 1940s and 1950s to indoctrinate Americans into believing that capitalism was the superior way of life, and so Americans, many of whom were enjoying an age of prosperity, bought into it wholesale. Schools began to educate students in the way of Christian moral values to fight against the godless Soviets, patriotism came at an all-time high, and the American people signed over their ability to organize and control their wages in order to avoid modern-day witch hunts instigated by a paranoid government egged on by powerful businesses.
That's not to say that there aren't obvious issues I haven't oversimplified, or that there weren't moments of socialist programs that grew out of a country steeped in capitalism (Eisenhower's highway system, for example, made our modern way of life possible). In the story of history, it's actually been the socialists who have been on the side of the people. It's those hunting socialists like the witches of old that have been the villainsaw.
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