Monthly ramble: October 2023

Transcript

Okay, hello everyone, welcome to, welcome to episode one, I guess, of a monthly ramble kind of like little podcast series, I guess. I'm just kind of like, kind of sit here and talk to you about what's happening in my life so far, or like what's happened in the last month. Just a quick side note before we get started, I'm not recording during my usual time.

Normally I record like quite late into the, into the evening, like 10 or 11 PM, which means I don't have to worry about cars driving past or people outside. But if you do hear any like, you know, kind of cars coming past my window, just, I'm sorry. Cause it's like, it's 4 PM currently.

So, so yeah, so welcome. Right, what should we talk about first? Let's talk about the kind of music that I've been listening to recently, because one thing that I really love about using Spotify is that you can find all of these like, like Spotify stat websites where they tell you like, oh, this is what you've been listening to this song you've listened to this many times.

And I just, like, I love looking at this. There's the one where it prints like a receipt and it's like your top 10 tracks. And then there was one where it was like, you've had a three matching phrases towards your favorite artist, like type of year or type of summer.

So it was kind of a long process, like getting this started. You have to go onto the Spotify, like website, not like the, I know sometimes when you search on Spotify, it will take you to like the app, but like on the website, on the internet, you need like the settings website. Yeah.

So if you go to there and then you can, you can ask Spotify to like, send you your entire, like of all time kind of listening history, it takes a couple of weeks for them to like prepare it, but you can download it and then you can upload it to these like stat websites. And it will tell you like, you know, the, for your entire like Spotify account, this is how many times you've listened to this song. So right.

If we look at the, there's today, there's four weeks, there's six months, and there's also a lifetime. That's good to four weeks. What have I been listening to? It's basically like last month.

Let's see what we got. Right. Oh my God.

This is horrendous. Right. Track one, This Godless Endeavor, live by a band called Nevermore.

I've listened to that 34 times this month. Yeah. It's a, it's a live performance of a song that I think is like one of the most technically advanced, like just one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard in my life.

So I've been listening to that a lot recently. The second track is actually a song from the Cult of the Lambs soundtrack. I've been listening to that whilst I'm like cooking.

I'll bring my speaker to the kitchen and then like listen to it. Sometimes as well, if I'm just like out and about, it's so relaxing. The specific one I listened to is called Start a Cult.

It's the one that plays when you're in your, your cult and you're like harvesting food or chopping trees or whatever. It's I love it. It's so peaceful and just so relaxing.

What else have I been listening to? Eyeless by Slipknot, War Pigs by Black Sabbath, Best Friends by Grandson, Tears in the Rain by The Weekend. What else? Into You by Ariana Grande.

Nine times. I think I've listened to this a lot more. Yeah.

24 times in total, but that's just for this month. Is there anything else that's like really kind of jumping out at me? I don't think so.

Yeah. A weird range. Well, kind of a weird range.

I've seen weirder in my listening history. Yeah, I've been kind of rediscovering a lot of the old music that I used to listen to when I was like still in school, I guess. I used to have, I used to have this one playlist when I was like, oh, how old was I? I think I was 15 or 16.

I had this one playlist. It was like, it was only like 10 or 12 songs, but it was the only thing I would listen to. So I've been rediscovering some of those songs as well as songs like from like ages and ages ago.

Yeah. Yeah. I just think this is really cool.

You can see, you know, how much, like it will tell you this number of minutes and this many streams. If we go to lifetime, my most played song is Wicked Games by The Weekend, and it says I've played it 797 times. Oh my God.

And I didn't actually get Spotify until about, well, not like properly, like I used to just kind of have it on my phone, but I never, I used to like download all my music, which isn't, you know, so that that's like not even taking into account all the times I listened to it when it was downloaded. Like that's only on Spotify, which is crazy to me. I've listened to Shameless by The Weekend 840 times.

I've listened to, oh, uh, what's the, what's the third one? Fade to Black by Metallica 549 times. Yeah.

I think in total on my, like on my account, it says I've streamed 301,000 minutes of music. So for 2000 artists, 3000 albums, 5000 different tracks and almost 80,000 streams. So yeah, I think on the app, like on my, on my phone, you can look up a lot more interesting, like detailed statistics, but I can't do that right now.

My phone is, where is my phone? I actually don't know where my phone is. I think it's on my bed.

Probably. That's probably where it is. So yeah.

That's very interesting. I guess. I don't know.

I, I think it's really cool. Uh, I, I am checking this like at least three or four times every week, just be like, oh, has anything changed? Has anything changed? Um, the website I use is called stats.fm.

So that's the website that I use for like this thing that I've just been talking about. Uh, but there is another one called last.fm. Uh, if you make an account there and then you link, I think this one is a lot more compatible with other like streaming platforms.

There's tidal, there's Apple music, there's YouTube music. Um, so if you don't use Spotify, it's still really good. I think on here, can I go to my profile and then what does it say that I've been listening to a top artists last 30 days, the weekend slipknot, Metallica, nevermore.

Death. Yeah. That sounds about right.

Uh, what about albums? Top albums, trilogy, Dawn FM, ride the lightning live at SoFi stadium and best friends by grandson. Okay.

Uh, so yeah, this is another website that I use to just kind of like look at my, uh, my Spotify stats. Um, but the, uh, the really, really cool thing about last.fm is that there's not, there's another website called, right? This has a weird name.

It's called never ending chart, rendering.org. It's all one word, obviously. Um, so if you go to this website and you can click the button that says import last.fm, so type in your username and then select your period.

So like seven days past month, past three months, I always just go all time. And then if you click import, it will arrange like the album covers of your favorite songs, like in order of a most streamed, uh, and you can mess around with this. You can have like a collage top 40 top a hundred.

I have it set to collage and it's just 12 rows and 12 columns. That way I can see what's that 144 albums. So this is just my top 144 albums and then you can download this and then, you know, you can print it off or, or just post it on social media so that your friends can see what you're listening to.

Um, but yeah, I'm checking this one as well, like a couple of times every week just to see like, Oh, this album isn't like number four anymore. Now it's number five and what's replaced it. Oh no.

Um, so yeah, it's the same thing as, uh, I think I previously mentioned, I mean for this one, if I import all time, so this is my all time history since I got last.fm, it says trilogies first, cigarettes after sex is second. And then the cigarettes after sex EP is third. Uh, then it's life at the sofa, ride the lightning, Dawn FM, Clayman by a band called In Flames and Justice for All, Kissland, more cigarettes after sex, more cigarettes after sex, Nevermore.

Yeah. Just like all the albums from all my favorite artists and bands. Uh, but yeah, this is really cool to just kind of look at because you can see the ones at the bottom as well.

Like there's, uh, what's that called? Is that fearless by Taylor Swift all the way at the bottom as well as like, uh, what else is at the bottom? These are, these are ones that I've listened to, but like not that much.

Um, oh, the Spiderverse soundtrack is there. There is a Post Malone album. There's a Bruno Mars album.

There's a System of a Down album. There is all kinds of stuff down here. There's a Chase Atlantic album.

Oh my God. There's a Lana Del Rey album. Um, yeah, I think this is just, you know, looking at like the music that you really, really love.

It's always just really fun, especially in these ways when it tells you how obsessed with different artists you actually are. Um, yeah. So that's like the music that I've been listening to, I guess this last month.

Um, what else has happened this month? I started on Ocleo as some of you are aware. I was finally able to start because I upgraded my microphone for, I think the first 99 audios on YouTube.

I was actually using a, just one of those like really cheap, um, when you buy a pair of earphones and it has that mic on it, uh, that's what I was using. Uh, it was very, very, you know, budget, but it got the job done. And I think the fact that I was like doing, I, the fact that I had done a hundred was like, okay, this, you know, I should probably buy a new microphone.

Um, so I bought a, it's a black blue Yeti microphone, uh, and I tried to use it and I was having a lot of troubles. It kept spiking up randomly and it was just really difficult to use. So I did some research, I found out you have to do, you have to download this, like, what's it called?

Logitech G hub plugin. And then it like, this has the thing that, you know, you need to set up a microphone. It has like a, uh, there's a voice EQ as a high pass signal filter thingy.

Uh, I had to like learn what all of this does. And then I had to find some settings that work for me and, you know, mess around with the knobs on the actual microphone as well. So, um, I think I got it to work.

That's why I wanted to take a break. Cause I was like, okay, I need to learn how to make this. I also need to do this, this, this, and this for the channel.

And I was like, okay, I'm just gonna take a break. I got to a hundred. That's okay.

Um, so yeah, so I've learned how to use this, which also means I was able to record like NSFW things because I had tried before I got this microphone using like the, just the pair of earphones. And I was like, I was so bad at it. Not only is it really bad for sound effects, I was just like not holding it correctly.

And I was like breathing into the microphone and it was, it was awful. I also like had to do some research on the kind of things that like male VAs would, would do in their audios. Like I had to kind of look at some scripts and, you know, see how they kind of plan out.

And I had to learn how to make like convincing sound effects. Um, so yeah, it was a long journey, but I am still. I'm still so amazed at like just how much support I've received with it.

Like, you know, no one I've even on YouTube, I have not received like any hate comments or anything yet. Um, which that could just be luck, you know, maybe just, it hasn't happened yet, but everyone's been so nice and I've received so many comments from everyone and I'm just like, okay, it looks like people do enjoy this. Um, so yeah, so I'm glad I got my microphone sorted out and recording and SFW stuff is a lot of fun because I'll be, well, I mean, making the content is a lot of fun.

Recording it is also a lot of fun because, I mean, it just, it's just, I really enjoy it. Um, but like writing the scripts and you're like typing, you know, what's, what's happening. Like just before I started recording this, I was typing a script where it's about like, um, uh, it's, it's another like professor student fantasy of mine.

Uh, and I was typing it and then I'm just like, like start giggling cause I'm typing, you know, a really sexy scene and I'm just like, yes, this is, this is so much fun. I love it. Um, so yeah.

So, uh, I'm very glad that I got this microphone. I did hear mixed reviews. I mean, I know it's good for like actual ASMR.

Like I don't know if you can hear this, but if I like rub my fingers together, I know it's really good for that. But I think for like the role play, just talking into it, it's a little more difficult. So yeah, so that's what's, that's what has, that's, what's been going on with, uh, Ocleo.

Uh, it's definitely been very, very enjoyable. Um, what else has been happening? Well, I mean, I'm recording this on the last day of October, which means it's Halloween.

Like tonight. Um, I think in a couple of hours I'm going to be getting ready to go to a Halloween party with my friends and, um, I think I will post a picture on Twitter, but my costume is the same costume that I had last year. And that's purely because I spent so much money on this costume.

I cannot only wear it once. I need to get multiple years of Halloween out of it. Uh, so I bought like a black shirt, a black pair of like really nice dress trousers, uh, some black like dress shoes.

Um, I might ask my friend for his black tie. Uh, I also bought some really, really big, like tinted sunglasses and I bought a red jacket and I'm going to go as the weekend from like his, uh, after hours era with the red jacket and the sunglasses and the fake blood on the, uh, on my face. Um, it was, uh, I really love it.

The costume. I mean, I think if I find another red jacket that's nicer than the one I currently have, I will replace it, but I feel so powerful when I put that costume on. I wore it once last year for Halloween, uh, and then I went out to a party with my friends, but I also wore it when I went to go see the weekend live, uh, a couple of months ago.

So I put the red jacket on and I was in the stadium. It was, it was so much fun. I yeah, I'm so glad I like have the ability to, to dress up as him, especially from that era.

Cause yeah. So, uh, I've got that, that to look forward to, um, I don't know about next Halloween. I think next Halloween I might try and think of something different, but I don't know.

I think I might, hmm. For next year, I have no idea because I think the one idea I've had so far is to go on Amazon and buy a, like a, like an orange jumpsuit and then also buy a mask that, um, uh, I would go as the Slipknot member, Joey Jordison. He was the drummer.

Uh, I think he has a really cool mask. So I would like wear the jumpsuit, put the mask on and then take my drumsticks from my drawer and just carry them around pretending I'm Joey Jordison for Halloween. Uh, that's my current idea.

I don't know if like another one will come to my, you know, come to my attention. Uh, but I do have a year, so we'll see. Um, but yeah, I'm very excited for this party.

I get to wear my, my really nice Halloween costume. My friends have really, really good Halloween costumes as well. Um, so I'm very excited for this party.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Uh, so yeah, so, uh, anything else to do with Halloween? I don't think so.

I never really like celebrated Halloween when I was a kid. So it's, it's a lot of fun, like being able to, uh, to dress up and go out with your friends. Um, yeah, I don't think there's anything else.

Hmm. Okay. What else has been happening this month? Um, I guess it's a little bit of a insight into like my actual, you know, IRL life.

But, um, I started my next year of university in September. Uh, I'm 90% sure most people can figure out what I study. Uh, I am currently a chemistry student, uh, and I started my, my new year in, in, uh, in September and it's been definitely a step up.

I am in the labs like twice a week. Uh, and I remember distinctly, like in, when was it in like early October? Um, I was in the lab and I had to go and get this chemical.

So that we were using for our experiment. And I go to one of the lab techs and I'm like, excuse me, I need, I need some iodomethane. Wait, no, was it? I think it was iodomethane.

He was like, yeah, sure. It's if you go to this cabinet, uh, but be careful.